Primary school teachers to get teaching tips on mobiles

Primary school teachers from across West Bengal would soon be given teaching tips on mobile phones to improve their English teaching skills.
Very short versions of teaching tips in English would be available as video clips on mobile phones, as part of a project to make teacher education materials easily accessible.
The project is funded and developed by the British Council in partnership with Pashchim Banga Sarva Shiksha Mission and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
"By embracing technology for English language teacher training, West Bengal School Education Department and the British Council are pioneering a way of reaching a large number of teachers in remote rural contexts," Director of British Council (East India) Sujata Sen, said.

She said that these materials were designed to support traditional face-to-face teacher training and professional development by using a blend of high quality, interactive digital resources such as films and audio recordings as well as printed work books.
The context-sensitive approach allows teachers to relate directly to the teaching scenarios and the blended approach is likely to enhance the quality of learning of teacher training and benefit learners directly.

The British Council also launched a DVD teacher training series which was available at 726 Circle Level Resource Centres across the state.
The self-access materials includes five audio-visual units in two DVDs with self-access menus and an attractively designed workbook.

The teacher education materials were filmed in government primary schools across West Bengal. The films captured teachers and learners in a variety of contexts and came with a detailed work book and self-access menu.
This enabled teachers to teach English language in an interactive and communicative manner, with stress on speaking and listening skills of the pupils.
In the next phase of this project, all the materials would be available through the school education department's website.
The video clips on mobiles would be launched in the final phase.