TIIE - Program Report

2. Introduction – APD

Universal quality education is still a far cry in most schools in India. This has been corroborated b the The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) which suggest that quality of education is unsatisfactory in most schools. One cause for that is teachers mostly using only the textbook as their teaching resource, and adopting a one-size-fits-all pedagogy. Differentiated Instruction - combining multi-level and diverse resources along with diverse and learner-centric pedagogies are necessary in facilitating education of students at different levels of engagement and understanding. Exposing teachers to technology for accessing resources and approaches, and facilitating their contextualized use would is essential for differentiated instruction.

When it comes to “Inclusive Education” (IE), there is a general lack of awareness and understanding among teachers, parents and education support system. Oftentimes, it is limited to including Children With Special Needs (CWSN) only. Children with learning disabilities and difficulties are being excluded in the classrooms, largely because Teachers are unable to understand and address their challenges. Inclusive education is not to be just seen as removing exclusions, it has to be seen as a larger understanding of the nature of learning itself and that children have diversity. Various kinds challenges exist and every child will be having some challenge or other and every child has some set of abilities. Inclusive education is really the perspective that we need to be able to focus on the strengths of all the children who are in the classroom where all of them can develop to the best of the abilities rather than restrict the development possibilities to a narrow set in which some children become capable and some become disabled.

While there is a lot available on ‘Inclusive Education’ (including policies, processes) on ‘paper’, there is a serious gap in actualizing what is on paper and a lot needs to be done on that front. The teachers and the academic support personnel have practical challenges which need to be addressed so that they are enabled and empowered to practice inclusive pedagogies in the classroom.

With the support of Cognizant Foundation (CF), IT for Change (ITfC) implemented the Pilot Project on “Technology Integration for Inclusive Education” in government aided higher primary and high schools in Bengaluru South-3 Block. This is part of the CF’s flagship program on “Teacher Development for an Inclusive School Education System leveraging Technologies”. The TIIE program was conceived as a 3-year program with a one-year pilot project, followed by 2 years of scaling up of the program. The pilot was implemented in select schools in Bengaluru South-3 block. The program extends our model of teacher professional development, building ‘Teachers Communities of Learning’ at multiple levels - within the school, across subject teachers, and across schools in the block.

In addition to demonstrating Technology Integration for Inclusive Education at a school level and building communities of practitioners, the project published teaching-learning materials on the Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER) repository, in English and Kannada languages, for teachers across Karnataka.

TIIE pilot project was implemented in a mix of government schools, aided schools and a residential school from April 2022 to March 2023. This document discusses the work done during the pilot, the project observations, experiences, key insights and our learnings. It also lists out a few recommendations based on our experience and learnings.

3. Program Objectives – APD

The following were the objectives of this pilot project.

1. Demonstrating integration of digital technologies to make-classroom an effective learning space for all children.
2. Building multi-level learning modules on select subjects for-inclusive teaching-learning.
3. Capacity building of teachers and teacher educators to-support inclusive teaching processes.
4. Supporting teachers in creating Open Educational Resources-(OER) for their Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and for-use in inclusive teaching-learning.
5. Enabling students to access digital technologies for-learning.
6. Establishing a teachers’ resource center, to facilitate-creation and sharing of resources for inclusive education.
7. Supporting schools to use digital technologies in-administration and management processes.

We planned to achieve these objectives through a combination of specially designed modules, ongoing resource creation, classroom work, teacher training and establishing a resource center. The approach included a combination of intensive and event-based school level work in select Government and Government-aided High Schools and sharing and learning at block level.

Expected Outcomes

The following were the objectives of this pilot project.

1. School-based models for exploring technology integration in-the context of inclusive learning.
2. Teachers are able to adapt multi-level learning modules to-address inclusion in education.
3. Students are comfortable in using digital technologies for-their expression and learning.
4. Development of block resource center for teachers’-Continuous Professional Development (CPD) on inclusive education.
5. Resources available on Karnataka Open Educational Resources-(KOER) repository.
6. Schools capable to adopt digital technologies in-administration and management processes.

4. Program Design & Methodology – APD (include whatever is already there in program design document; include baseline report link)

The following were the underlying concepts and principles of the program design:

1. Our inclusive-pedagogies included-multi-sensory,-constructivist-and learner-centered-approaches-to address learning difficulties, and-we adopted-following-technology-enabled-strategies:
   1. Peer--learning, experiential learning and--use of exploratory,--co-operative--and--collaborative methods--in teaching-learning.
   2. Explore--the use--and--adaptation of--different technologies--to--support--individual--learner needs.
   3. Use of games, crafts--in teaching-learning /--activity--based learning to facilitate constructivist--opportunities.--
2. We adopted-differentiated learning-including differentiated-instruction and assessment for effective teaching in the identified-schools. This involved-developing-teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students-within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences-in their contexts,-interests-and abilities.
3. We designed, developed and transacted technology integrated-modules and demonstrated in select schools, new pedagogies-emphasizing inclusive education.
4. We focused on integrating Free and Open Source (FOSS)-applications and Open Educational Resources (OER) in teaching.
5. We developed-a digital-resource center to encourage teachers-to come together to create, share classroom resources, and discuss-different possibilities for classroom-intervention.
6. Our work included the use and continuous enhancement of our-resource repository Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER); in-collaboration with teachers.

Key components of the program

The Technology Integration for Inclusive Education program had the following key components.

1. Selection of Schools
2. Development of modules to support inclusive education.
3. School Work - continuous engagement and event based-engagement.
4. Teacher Capacity building – through workshops and-learning-sharing.
5. Setting up of the School lab.
6. Setting up of a Resource Center

Each of these components is briefly discussed in the subsequent sections.

Selection of Schools

The program was implemented in 12 select schools which were a diverse mix of Government and Government aided higher primary schools and high schools in Bengaluru. The selection of schools was be based on identified criteria, including the school size and composition, availability of relevant infrastructure and support from the teachers, HM and management (last for aided schools).

Module Design and Development

For the implementation of the program it was important to identify the specific learning difficulties in students of select classes. We developed tools and tests along with the help of experts to assess and identify students who face specific learning difficulty in the classroom. The diagnostic assessments were used to identify learning difficulties in children and enabled the facilitators to develop structured modules for the intervention. Continuous assessments were conducted during the implementation of the program to understand if students' learning needs are being met and identify areas where they need additional support.

The team referred to a variety of web resources and used a number of digital tools in the baseline preparation process – both while designing the module and in actual classroom transaction. These assessments also provided inputs to the module design. They were used to create a student baseline as well as on a periodic basis to check progress on student learning profile. The observations were recorded during these assessments for the analysis of student learning progress on their difficult areas. The baseline created through the student assessment and by classroom observation helped in understanding the students contexts and needs, as well as the school culture and the classroom environment. This provided inputs to the overall curriculum design. The baseline report is available here https://itforchange.net/insights-from-a-study-of-middle-school-students-foundational-mathematics-and-language-skills.

Specific modules were designed and developed to help all the students in the classroom to learn, including those with mild learning difficulties (MLD). The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles were applied in the design of subject specific modules. Based on the baseline data, it was decided to build modules with focus on foundational numeracy and literacy. Specific modules were developed for Mathematics and Languages. Integration of digital technologies and methods was a key element in the module design. Digital methods were used in designing inclusive education processes and resources, for contextualizing resources and for interacting on digital networks for collaborative working.

School Work

The school work was of two types – intensive classroom work and event based engagement. Specific schools were identified for each type of engagement. We developed strategies to create a safe and welcoming space for students of all levels and abilities to learn, discuss and understand from their peers. We had discussions with the school teachers on this, and they provided valuable inputs.

In the continuous engagement with schools, we visited and worked with schools regularly to transact the specifically designed modules. The focus was on helping every student in the classroom to learn. We adopted diverse pedagogies in the classrooms and developed relevant multi-level content to address the learning needs of all the student in the classroom, including those with learning disabilities and difficulties.

Digital technologies were used in classroom processes like lesson planning, classroom transaction, and conducting assessments – both baseline and endline assessments. The resources developed were also published, along with, experiences and insights on a portal (KOER).

In the event based engagement we conducted activities like Camps and Science Exhibitions. Each event had specific learning objectives. The aim was to expose students to inclusive education approaches and materials developed in the intensive school interactions. Science activities aimed to build scientific temper in students and teachers.

Teacher Capacity Building

The efficiency and impact of the program depends significantly on the support and participation from HM and teachers of the select schools. Through the program, we had regular interactions with HM and teachers. We conducted school level and block level workshops and awareness campaigns to help teachers develop and implement inclusive pedagogy and practices in their classroom. These workshops discussed the school work, demonstrated resources created, shared our observations and learnings, and how all these can be taken to the classrooms. The aim was to both encourage teachers to adapt the project materials and methods, and collect their feedback on the possibilities as well as challenges for inclusive education.

Teachers were encouraged to use, contribute and share the teaching-learning resources – both at the School level and at the block/cluster level. This was done by setting up a lab in select schools and establishing a resource center at the block level.

Setting up Computer Labs in Schools

As part of the project, we have set up and configured the Computer Labs in 8 Schools – including both Higher Primary and High Schools. These labs are being used by both the teachers and students. Our team also conducted regular classes on ‘digital literacy’ in some of these schools and in some others, they provided support to the teachers to conduct the classes. The objective of these classes is to enable children to become comfortable with the use of digital devices and technologies in their learning process.

Block Level Activities

At the block/cluster level, the program activities included designing and conducting programs for Continuous Professional Development (CPD), establishing a Resource Center as well as organizing orientation programs for the Block Resource Persons (BRP), Cluster Resource Persons (CRPs), SI’s, ECO’s and other relevant department personnel. Workshops were conducted for Cluster Resource Persons (CRP), Block Resource Persons (BRP) and Block Integrated Education Resource Teachers (BIERT) to discuss our work in schools, and to create awareness on how the resources can be used to support teachers for implementation.

Setting up of Digital Resource Center for Inclusive Education

A ‘Digital Resource Center for Inclusive Education’ has been set up at the Vijaya Teachers College, a prominent Teacher Education Institute in Bengaluru. This is a (Bengaluru South 3) block level resource center. The resource center has information both about inclusive education in general, and  about the modules & resources developed as part of the project. The Resource Center is important for accessing and sharing of resources that could be useful for student learning in an inclusive setting. We are also working with the Block Education Officer (BEO), to set up a resource center at the block level where all teachers can access, contribute, re-use and share.

5. Implementation – GMP, NB, RB

The project aims to identify innovative and contextual inclusive pedagogical approaches for students in grades 6 and 7 through technology integration. Inclusive education allows students with different needs and skills to attend conventional schools and get equal learning opportunities tailored to meet their needs. It is founded on the idea that all learners, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds, gender, physical or mental abilities, or range of skills, should study together. It recognizes that all children have the capacity to learn, takes into account the different learning styles of children, creates a conducive environment for learning, and develops appropriate instructional strategies and tools.

The design of the module was influenced by a baseline study conducted to understand students’ Mathematics competency levels and language proficiency levels. The baseline engaged approximately 175 students from five schools in a series of activities wherein students worked in pairs or individually to complete the assigned tasks. These tasks were used as checkpoints for facilitators to learn more about students’ levels of learning, cognitive skills, and difficulties which they were faced in Mathematics and English language.

The Mathematics and language module has been designed based on various teaching methodologies under Inclusive Education which encompasses considerations and strategies to support the diversity of learners in the given context by minimizing barriers to learning and helping each learner achieve their full potential. The Inclusive education approaches have been considered in developing the module that can be applied across schools to create a barrier-free learning environment for all students. Owing to the behavioral challenges witnessed in students across schools, content selection and activity design will be done in a manner that can help improve students’ socio-emotional learning and interpersonal skills as well as help them develop a growth mindset. The module has intentionally used themes familiar to students and which have also been previously covered in their prescribed language and Mathematics textbooks.

The design and transaction of Mathematics module based on students baseline analysis, the module has been designed to support the development of students' foundational numeracy skills in basic operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication. The aim is to provide students alternate methods to visualize and engage with mathematical concepts such as place value, addition, subtraction and multiplication and help students to make meaning of these concepts and understand them better in these operations.

Since students were found to have a low exposure to the English language in schools and in their homes, the English module aims to provide a wider exposure to different types of discourses in English to help them become aware of meaningful vocabulary and the correct usage of grammatical structures. The stories that learners read and listen to, the topics they discuss, the role plays they enact, and the activities they engage in, will all have thematic links with issues such as personal and community values including gender, social justice and democracy, health and nutrition, and the environment. They will learn to understand and tackle these issues and develop values as they listen, read and speak.

The Language lab designed to be learner-centric and uses storytelling as a pedagogical tool to develop listening, speaking and reading skills in English. Children enjoy listening to stories and are familiar with narrative conventions. Stories can provide the starting point or act as a springboard for a wide variety of related language and learning activities, and offer an ideal resource for meeting diverse learning needs. They can help children understand the overall meaning of a story with the help of illustrations (which provide clues about the meaning) and facilitator support.

The intention is to not merely read the stories by themselves and check for reading comprehension, but to enable an immersive language experience. Customized digital resources have been developed based on select stories in order to facilitate interaction in English. Stories from Pratham books’ Storyweaver have been used and some have been repurposed to create audio-visual resources in local languages using FOSS tools like Xerte, Audacity and Kdenlive to help apply a multilingual approach to teaching. Some of the activities included in this module are based on KITE’s E-Language Lab software (an initiative by the Kerala Education Department). They include themes such as empathy, teamwork, managing emotions, and other interpersonal skills. The digital audio-visual resources contain level-appropriate listening and reading components, as well as assessments based on comprehension, vocabulary and grammar which can be used by learners individually or in groups, so that children can then respond according to their own language proficiency level and cognitive ability.

How the module aims to address the different barriers affecting listening, speaking and reading skills :

1. Linguistic barriers (difference in the linguistic levels of the speaker and listener) The digital resources have been created in both Kannada and in English including supporting text in both languages. Facilitators will also provide support in other languages such Tamil and Hindi/ Urdu and Tamil for students who have migrated from these language-speaking states.
2. Use of new vocabulary and ‘difficult’ words The vocabulary used includes a lot of simple and commonly used words as per student levels. The exercises provided at the end of the story include the new vocabulary to be introduced along with a corresponding image.
3. Psychological (lack of interest from the part of the listener) The stories used have been selected based on themes and contexts familiar to the students and the corresponding activities have been designed to keep the students engaged be it in individual, pair or group work.
4. Physiological (partial or total hearing impairment) Although no such student has been identified, most activities include corresponding texts in both English and in Kannada.
5. The activities included focus on areas for developing speaking skills using mechanics of speaking (pronunciation), usage (vocabulary and language functions) and cultural and social contexts.
6. Students will be provided with multiple learning discourses and encouraged to read out loud, and will be taught how to break down words or sentences for the same if necessary.

A team of 5-6 facilitators visited the school twice a week regularly to engage 35-40 children for about 80 minutes for a period of 9 months. Students were divided into 2 groups based on their mathematics and language abilities assessed in the baseline. Sessions were organized in such a way that Math and language activities were conducted parallelly at different places available in the school like lab, library and including their classroom and the group would be swapped after 25 minutes such that each facilitator get to interact and engage with 6-7 students. Math session focused on basic operations of addition, subtractions and multiplications and the language session focused on listening, speaking and reading skills.

Cluster meetings- NB

Sharing inclusive strategies in teaching few concepts in Mathematics and Implementation of Language lab and in the Cluster Meetings:

Cluster meetings were held once a month. Different South-3 zones where 2-3 clusters of different schools are combined in one particular school for learning sharing by teachers on various pedagogical strategies. Following our CRP Workshop, CRPs were invited to attend cluster meetings to share our work. Each cluster had 20–30 teachers and two CRPs. Our primary objective in participating in the cluster meeting was to share our understandings of inclusive education, demonstrate inclusive strategies in teaching for a few concepts of mathematics, and introduce the Language Lab work, which was customized digital resources developed based on our experiences and learnings with the KITE E-Language Lab study. During the meeting, one of the stories was shown using the projector, speaker, tabs, and so on. Teachers were given tabs and laptops to explore various stories in various languages; perhaps they found it more interesting to use in their classroom. Language lab was converted to mobile version due to a lack of adaptive technology at schools, as it is easily accessible to teachers in the offline version. The kiwix app was installed on their phones, which encouraged the teachers to use it in their classrooms. So far, the team has attended 9 cluster meetings for both primary and higher primary school teachers, reaching out to nearly 250 teachers.

CRP workshops - RB

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BIERT - GMP

Block inclusive education resource teachers (BIERTs), we got to know about them from the BEO office and made plans to meet with them. There are four BIERT’s in Bangalore South 3 block, two for primary and two for secondary school, and they specialise in Learning disabilities, Visual and hearing impairement, and Mental reatardation during their Bachelor of education training. We met these resource persons informally for about 3 hours over two days with the goal of discussing our TIIE project work, learning about their work nature, pedagogical support, teachers training from the department on IE, and government schemes/facilities to support CWSN. Nearly 347 CWSN students in Bangalore's south 3 block were divided into three groups: those who attended school at home, those who were prepared for school, and those who attended school but had certain disabilities as listed by the department. 50 students from higher primary and high school in South 3 Block are currently struggling with ID and LD. For severe CWSN students (those unable to attend school), the government arranges twice-weekly psychotherapy sessions. It also provides MR kits and scholarships for those with UDID (Unique disability identification card). We are in contact with these BIERTs in order to obtain mutual support for hospital diagnoses for some children who have learning difficulties. In the discussion, we focused on the IE resource centre, whether they maintain any IE resources, if so, what kind of resources they have, and whether they are helpful to our resources, as well as sharing our IE resources with the resource centre.

NIMHANS - GMP

During our school visit, we found that some of the students were having learning difficulty in the classroom teaching-learning activities. We discussed the children with their teachers and began observing and recording their movements in the classroom. We designed a few activities for their level and conducted some individual interactions with those children to better understand their difficulties, and we decided to get diagnoses for a few children, for which we met with BIERT's and sought their assistance. Since the BIERTs were preoccupied with their work, they suggested taking them to the hospital and informing their school HM. We select three students from one of our chosen schools who are experiencing learning difficulties and meet with their parents with the assistance of teachers to gain their support. We first went to Sanjay Ghandi Hospital, and then we understood that only NIMHANS and Victoria hospitals in Bangalore care for children with learning disabilities. Then, with the presence of parents and teachers, three children were taken to the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NIMHANS, where they having undergone detailed and comprehensive clinical evaluation and assessment. For one child they have been able to identify that the child have severe intellectual disability disorder and owing to the child’s difficulties we registered to the child’s Unique Disability ID(UDID) as per the ‘Rights to of person with Disabilities(Ammendments) Rules’ (2009), Government of India. This process has been initiated and is likely to take about 2 to 3 months for completion. Considering child’s learning and parent’s financial and logistical difficulties we plan to put her in a residential special school called Samartham trust located in HSR layout based on their parents' wishes. For other 2 childrens due to some NIMHANS hospital procedures, one student referred to Victoria hospital for an IQ test because her appointment is not until September, and another student referred to Venkateshwara hospital in Tirupathi because he has an Andra state Adhar and ration card. However, we hope to complete the diagnosis of these two children by the end of April.

Teacher's workshop (DL)) - RB

Resource centre setup- RB

Event based camps- GMP - NB

7. Reflections on the program

1. Students (feedback) –

7.1.1 Students Reflections on TIIE.

Feedback is an essential part of learning and enhancing student's learning experiences. It helps to evaluate and improve teaching effectively. Every Student has their own perspective towards the teaching and facilitators, so they were given an opportunity to share their views on sessions. Every individual was given a choice either to speak it or write it which is put together and consolidated into a summary

1. Mathematics

The mathematics module aimed to address the need of the individual child in the Foundational numeracy such as FLU, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication.

Among these sessions Most of the children liked the FLU Model as they were able to understand the Place value and relate to solve the Number Operation. Students were given practice both manually and in the system using Tux Math, GCompris and phet simulation based on the level of the child. The students shared their opinion as Most of the sessions were conducted in the small groups It helped to engage in the activities, also desired to focus on individual learning of the students which develops the deeper understanding of the concepts. It creates a platform to get motivated by their peers towards the common goal and work together to support each others learning.

"gunnakara matte muggi hosa method alli helikottidu tumba use agide" was revealed by most of the students because the Multiplication concept has helped them to comprehend the meaning of multiplication as groups of objects to find the product of any single digit number, Construction of the table was found easy using the number of lines and dots, Multiplication of two digits and more was the challenge we faced during regular method but After introducing to Area model helped us to learn in a very simple and interesting way.

"Modalu namage maths astondu barthililla nivu bandmela nanu lekka madodu kalithe" matte "munche ganitha andre kashta anshtitu adre iga aa bhava yella hogide"

There were few games related to foundational numeracy which helped them to relate it while solving the sums, also enhanced the mental ability of thinking and quick calculations.

2. Language:

The module was designed to be learner-centric and used storytelling as a pedagogical tool to develop listening, speaking and reading skills in English. All the Children enjoyed listening to stories and are familiar with narrative conventions. Stories provide an ideal introduction to Multilingual approach based on the students linguistic backgrounds. Most of the students liked the small group activities such as (Body parts game, Model for sticking body parts, Introducing yourself by passing the parcel, skit, poster making, and so on..)

Among all these group activities, a student has shared her thoughts in skit activity as "Nanage acting madodu andre tumba ista, nivu classroom alli acting/ skit madsidaga nanage tuma khushi aythu" This also helped me to comprehend the story till today, Therefore also learnt how to behave will elders from the story activity.

I liked introducing myself because "Navu namma bagge share madkobahudu namage yen ista yen ista illa anta matte bereavara bagge innu hechhu tilkobahudu"

This helped students to participate effectively as a group, learning in a collaborative situation had greater knowledge acquisition, retention of material, developed problem solving and reasoning abilities, communication skills, than before.

Most of the students in different schools were migrated from different schools or different states had a very low exposure to English Language so those students have said that "yella kathegalannu bera bera bashay yalli torisiddu, mattu kelavomma niva aa katheyannu bera basheyalli heliddu" adu tumabane upayogavagidde yekendare navu bera bera basheyalli artha madikondvi, matte bera bashe kaliyalu protsaha needidira"

In the DL sessions The Language lab was implement in two schools and students have shared that "they enjoyed listening and Reading to all the stories and answering the questions in the different activities

Overall feedback

• "Nivu yavaga barthira, yavaga class tagotira anta gate kade nodtidvi" because the sessions never made us feel sad or boring.

• All the facilitators were very friendly and Polite, they never spoke-harshly/ raised their voices/ scolded/ hit us.
• They also motivated us to participate in all the activities, perhaps-gave an opportunity to express our thoughts/ opinion.
• Most of the time we were disturbing the facilitators by creating-some new sense in the classroom, Inspite of all these challenges-they helped us to learn the concepts which we were finding-difficult.
• DL sessions has impacted to our effective learning as it created an interest to use them, before we had a fear of using the systems but now we are independent to on the systems and use it in a useful way.
• Using of projector, speaker, tabs and laptops made us to learn through interest.

Few Suggestions by the students:

• Few students in-one of the school felt that they would learn more effective if there-was no disturbance in the class.
• Majority of the-students and teachers are willing to continue the sessions for the -Next Academic year.
• One of the student gave a strong statement as "namma government shaaley galalli ida reeti nivu bandu karyakramagalu madidare government shaaleygalu ondu uttama stanakke beleyuttade" this sounds clearly the importance of the sessions after the long gap due to pandemic.

AS, MI - quant of coded part to derive categories, themes; NB – summary

7.1.2 Event based Students Reflection

Students from five different schools in grades 7, 8, and 9 participated in event-based camps that lasted one or two full days. After the pandemic strike students struggled a lot in their learning due to the prolonged learning gap of 2 years and did not have much exposure to Activity based learning. Considering the module was designed based on the students' contexts, grades, needs and interest with specific learning difficulties. Activities were designed which served every student's desire to learn. Scientific ideas were explicitly taught through the teaching-learning process where students were given a chance to investigate and learn via doing(Experiential learning). However, This fosters a scientific mindset towards the subject. Each student enthusiastically involved in every task of the session and shared their thoughts on the camp which is very much needed to improve

When the camp was conducted most of the students felt that “yaro bartidare yeno madtare” but once ice breaker activities was started they felt it as “Evattu namage pata yenu iralla yeno activity games tara madtaray”. We will have a very good time to enjoy and learn. As we got involved more and more it was interesting to get additional information, learn new things.

Science Experiments were very We started to think/ give work to brain in d We also had a very good time with our friends to learn

the facilitators were very helping at each and every step to make us understand the concept clearly. In Acid base experiment was very useful which gave a clear detail to differentiate between the acids and bases. We were observing different leaves but never thought of classification based on colour, size, shape, venation and so on. We were unaware of many things even thought we had it in our syllabus. We also learnt about atoms and its sub atomic particles, also how electricity is conducted due to the flow of charges.

Language we were just reading a story but during the sessions we learnt the story elements (title, author, characters, problem and solution in the story, favourite part, beginning, middle, and end) which helps to remember a story in a meaningful way.

2. Teachers (feedback)

Summary of Teachers feedback about TIIE implementation in 4 Schools

Even though It was challenging to involve the Teachers completely while during the sessions because of various reasons as mentioned below in their feedback, few teachers participated in some of our sessions and have given their valuable feedback on our sessions to help us improve upon further.

The challenges faced by teachers during the initial days of the academic year were lack of concentration, behavior issues, difficulty in reading and writing, inhibition to answer,health problems etc., The sessions conducted as part of the project TIIE was satisfactory as it had indicated positive impact on children inhibition to participate, control their distracting behavior, ability to take up an initiative to do the tasks over the year, and their level of confidence has improved over the year and it helped children to develop interest towards learning. Few teachers have mentioned specific examples of few children and how it had impacted on their participation and behavior. All teachers liked the sessions because of two important factors, one was the activities conducted in the sessions like story telling, asking children to draw about the story they listened, language games, dice games and activities strengthening basic literacy and numeracy skills. And secondly, the strategies that were integrated as part of the session like group work, individual attention, focussing on each and every child, working individually with the child who has difficulty in learning, demonstrating care and concern towards children. They shared positive feedback for digital literacy sessions saying that it has exhibited positive impact on children ability to use and work on computer independently and setting up a computer lab in a govt. school function effectively helps children to expose to a digital world. Few teachers were of the opinion that the session had benefited not just students but teachers as well. They shared some of the instances of children coming to them and share about it as well as sharing among-st themselves where children had expressed their eagerness to participate in the sessions, enjoy being in the session, never want to miss the session, being able to understand better by mentioning the strategies and activities like Math games, language games and exploring maths concepts and story telling using computer were mentioned. Few teachers expressed their resentment to not be able to use these strategies because of the limit of time and pressure to complete syllabus.

Some of the reasons that the teachers shared for not being able to be part of the session were assigning some administrative works to them during session, need to engage other classes, pressure to complete the pending work, etc,. Teachers expressed their desire for continued engagement with the school with the following suggestions/recommendations:

• Involving Teachers in classroom sessions, discussion about classroom plans with teachers
• Extending the scope of work to Lower grades
• Focussing on other subjects like Science, Social, spoken english and Kannada
• Activities aligned with textbook/ syllabus
• Orientation sessions for teachers on Digital Literacy
• Classroom resources for teaching

Teachers feedback - Teachers met through cluster meetings (NB, AS)

Event based camps (GMP) -

3. HMs

HMs not being able to give time and other workload. Challenges in each school - HM interaction summary

Summary of School/classroom reflections

The five schools that were part of the project ‘Technology integration for inclusive education’ are located at South of bengaluru. Each School consisted of around 300-400 children across grade 1-8. We got an opportunity to work with 30-40 children from each Schools. Medium of Instruction in all the schools was Kannada. However, the schools also consisted of children from various languages like hindi, tamil, telugu, urdu, etc., As far as our observations are concerned, Socio-economic status of the parents is mostly lower middle class and middle class. Also, the educational background of parents is mostly literate/ educated and illiterate/ uneducated. The interaction/relationship between the Teacher and students seem to be Moderate. (No child has neither expressed/shared about their like/ dislike of a Teacher nor interactions with them except in one school). Corporal Punishments seem to exist in all schools. (Teachers walk with stick to the classrooms). Periodic observations of the classroom environment and General interaction with teachers revealed that teachers are not aware of Inclusive education practices and consider addressing needs of students with difficulties as beyond the limit of their resources and practices. Hence, It becomes difficult for a teacher to understand and address the learning difficulties that children are facing.

Regular Classroom interactions with students in all the schools revealed that they could not concentrate or engage in an activity and are generally restless/ Some of the behavioral issues noticed in three schools while during the sessions were disturbing, hitting others, jumping, fighting, hitting and bullying (noticed prominently in one of the Schools) each other throughout the session. Even though we used to divide children in two classes it was difficult for us to manage their behavior. This could be due to the fact that they were forced or made to sit silent throughout the day in their regular classes which made them to exhibit behaviors like Restlessness, disturbing others and constantly disturbing the class. Hitting and bullying others (especially those that used to be quiet in the class), Pushing and pulling each other while during the activity, Constantly jumping and roaming in and around classrooms are the behaviors that were predominantly observed among these children during most of our sessions. There were also issues like inhibition among girls to talk or sit with boys, exclusion in classroom based on their language, Constant bullying or teasing the children who used to be quiet in the class.

Various strategies like splitting them into groups, activities to channelize their energy, discussions on understanding the need to devote their concentration in studies, respecting others and treating girls equally were integrated and practiced along with the planned activities throughout our program. Sometimes the session would completely go out of track because of their behavioral challenges, and we would completely change our plans. Sometimes, we would just spend time on discussions about such issues. In one of the School, we also integrated few socio- emotional learning sessions as part of our planned activities to create self awareness about their emotions and overcoming it when we found that the children were hard to control. We tried suggesting various strategies to overcome their anger through planned activities around the Story. All these strategies and activities helped children overcome anger, sensitize them to gender and language issues within their surrounding.We could setup computer labs in schools long with Ubuntu installation. However, In one of the school where there was an existing lab we installed ubuntu. As a result of which children familiarity to computer and digital literacy seem to be prominently improved.

Even though children have slowly begun to come out of their inhibitions to sit with girls and participate in the activity, understand the need to respect others their other behavior like putting it into practice will happen only if there is enough opportunity for them to perceive inclusion within their School environment. For this to happen, We strongly feel that School as a whole system should work together to implement inclusiveness within the School culture and Practices.

Hence, following are some suggestions/ recommendations that the School (A System as a whole) must reflect upon.

Teacher Preparation and Collaboration- Equipping the teacher to integrate the elements of inclusiveness in his/her classroom using different strategies with a thorough understanding of Universal design principles and Collaborating with the peer teacher in developing lesson plans, co-teaching, and sharing resources.

Involving Parents/families- There are various challenges associated with involving parents family, But, its also important that inclusion is not possible without parents/ families engagement. Understanding the Students and their families, communication with the parents about child, Involving parents and families in classroom activities, Allowing the families/parents to share their ideas will aid in developing inclusive environment.

School as a system- should promote inclusion both in and out of the classroom. They should encourage parents and teachers to use inclusive strategies. They should also take inclusive measures outside of the classroom.

An inclusive school culture requires a shift in the attitudes of all the stakeholders as well as the development practices that reinforce inclusive behavior. Real inclusion is about actions, not just words.

8. Analysis (our perspective)

      analysis of the findings, what could be the reasons, implications, etc.

      case studies – hyperlink externally (RS to review and edit)

      school

   • students

Reflect on learnings from all sessions including those focussed on SEL. Need for socio-emotional support to students. Working on mental health and wellbeing. Giving them a space to share, empower them, help them deal with it and cope.

Effect of gadgets, movies, TV

They have very limited space, no playground

   • teachers

   • parents perspectives, challenges, awareness,

      administrative support

   • infra

   • staff, vacancies

   academic support

   • BIERT

   • CRP

   • block resource centre – IE resources wasn’t already existing

   • inclusive edu resource center

   medical/health support

   • NIMHANS

9. Recommendations

   • School & Teachers

   • School system

       ◦ Academic

       ◦ Administrative

       ◦ Policy