STF background

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan, Karnataka (RMSA), Department of State Educational Research and Training, Karnataka (DSERT), worked to create a 'Teachers Communities of Learning' through the Subject Teacher Forums, Karnataka in Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences across 34 districts of Karnataka. The program was based on the extensive and intensive use of public digital resources to build and support teachers networks as well as to to create a resource rich learning environment these subjects. IT for Change, an NGO, is working as the resource institution for this programme, in partnership with RMSA and DSERT. Click here for a report on the STF programme

The STF and the Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER) programmes aim to pioneer a new model of teacher education, one that is aligned to the vision of the National Curricular Framework for Teacher Education (NCF TE), 2009. See a presentation on STF-KOER as a new TE model

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

The program attempts to develop Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework in teachers. The components of this framework are

Technology Knowledge (TK)
Content Knowledge (CK)
Pedagogical Knowledge (PK)
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
Technological Content Knowledge (TCK)
Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK)
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK)

The program's larger focus is on TK, TCK, TPK and TPCK, as a part of this PCK gets covered. The program processes include the following, for this purpose:

acquainting teachers with the abilities to use different software applications (TK)
providing teachers access to different sources of content for their subject, creating possibilities of enriching subject knowledge, helping teachers to learn different approaches to teaching (TCK)
helping teachers learn new teaching methods involving digital technologies, such as showing a video and asking questions, explaining a concept with a simulation etc (TPK)
Integrating digital educational resources for the subject with digital methods of teaching, such as a social science teacher showing a film on garbage disposal in cities to teach them about environmental issues arising from urbanisation. Another example could be a Mathematics teacher showing a simulation using Geogebra to verify a theorem.

Comments on the Subject Teacher Forum programme

The JRM team also observed an impressive in-service training program in Karnataka which incorporates ICT in the training (in some government schools teacher support is provided through an open operating system called Subject Teacher Forum under which 5000 teachers across 34 districts have learnt to use digital tools and resources for their subject teaching). - 3rd RMSA JRM, MHRD. January 2014.

STF groups and presentations

Access the STF Mailing groups here
How to become a member of STF mailing lists
Reports and presentations on STF are available here

Video on STF

A Video on the 'Subject Teachers Forum', discusses the approach to integrating ICTs into teacher education, focusing on building 'Teachers Communities of Learning' to create digital learning resources and network with one another for sharing and learning. It is based on interviews with two directors of education in Karnataka government - Sri MN Baig and Sri Rama Rao, Prof Padma Sarangapani, Gurumurthy Kasinathan (Director of IT for Change, the NGO partnering with RMSA and DSERT as a resource institution for the programme) and two government high school teachers who are state resource persons for the Subject Teacher Forum program.

6 minute film- 20 minute film-