a study on the influence of the pedagogic analysis of lessons in the b.ed. course of west bengal on the attitude of secondary school teachers towards inclusive education

Research Article
Piku Chowdhury
DOI: 
xxx-xxxx-xxx
Subject: 
science
KeyWords: 
inclusive education, teacher education, attitude, pedagogical analysis, practice
Abstract: 

Inclusive education has increasingly become a focus of debate in discussions about the development of educational policy and practice around the world (Farrell and Ains cow, 2002; Lindsay, 2007). Scholars like Pijl et al., (1997) have described inclusive education as a ‘global agenda’. Inclusive education, therefore, is now seen as central to human rights and equal opportunities and a priority policy objective of liberal democracies including India where Right to Education is constitutional zed. The teachers exposed to the traditional B.Ed. curriculum and the practicum in West Bengal reveals a colossal knowledge gap. They are often apprehensive about such inclusive classes and of the RTE Act 2009 and reportedly lack confidence in handling children with special needs. The B.Ed. course in the prevalent form in West Bengal offers only a theoretical paper on special and inclusive education, which is believed to be sufficient to train teachers for effective inclusive practices in real life inclusive classes. Pedagogical analysis of lessons is taught to trainee teachers in most universities like University of Calcutta, West Bengal State University, GourBanga University, and while in some others like North Bengal University this is not done by the trainee teachers. This is supposedly a master plan or blueprint of the whole lesson that enables the teachers to plan the transaction of the entire lesson in a thoughtful manner. How far this practice incorporates strategies of addressing diversity in class in form of challenged students is not clear at all. With major changes advocated by NCTE for quality teacher education in the nation, West Bengal too would undergo curricular reforms, but to what extent and in what form the pedagogical analysis of lessons for teaching diverse and differently abled learners would be addressed for developing teachers for inclusive settings remains a grey area till date. This paper remains a humble attempt at exploring the influence of the prevalent practice of pedagogical analysis in most B.Ed. Courses on the teachers of West Bengal in developing a favorable attitude to inclusive education. The study has been conducted on 400 secondary school teachers, both trained and untrained, of West Bengal. The findings of the study reveal significant factors like personal experience with children with special needs as crucial that must be taken cognizance of for developing teachers with a favorable attitude towards education of the children with special needs in regular classrooms. The study points out the importance of such factors that may develop teachers through a revised form of the Pedagogical analysis of lessons that allows trainees an exposure to children with special needs and frame strategies for addressing diversity in the class.