PERSONAL PROFILE
Name—Dr.N.S.K. Swamy
Mobile: 9030528117
Home town-- Hyderabad
Career Objective - Focusing on the concept of “All-round Personality Development”, stive to make each child a SENSITIZED individual with “THOUGHT AND THOUGHTFULNESS”—an individual equipped with INTELLECTUAL as well as EMOTIONAL strengths.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE—30 years in reputed Indian top educational
brand, kendriya vidyalaya sangathan.15years as teacher and 15as principal.
Worked in AP, Haryana, Uttarakand, Dehradun and also Navodaya Vidyalaya
Maharastra. As a teacher underwent various training programmes in academic excellence
and teaching -learning strategies.Training in Integrtion of technology in
teaching and learning.
As a Principal also underwent various training and orientation
programmes organized by KVs in academic administration and financial
assignment. As a Principal imparted training in the following areas to the
teachers like
1. Awakened citizen Program and value
education 2. Career Guidance
3. Communication
Skills 4.
CPPDPT
5. Back to
Basics 6.
Adolescence Education program.
Also
encouraged and guided Teachers in various activities like
Olympiads, Partnership
with other schools, Tarunotsav, Inspire Awards, Swatch Bharath Abhiyan
and school Beautification, Science Exhibitions, Social Science Exhibition, Atal
Tinkering Labs ,usage of technology and established various e-classes.
ACHIEVEMENTS – throughout the carrier acheived 100% results as a
teacher and also as principal with high performance
Personal Profile.
Educational Qualifications-- M.Sc., B.Ed., Ph.d Extra
Curricular—sports and games
Personal Information
Name : Dr.
N.S.K.Swamy
Father’s
Name : N.
Venkaiah
Nationality : Indian
Date of
Birth : 05-02-1958
Marital
Status : Married
Hobbies : Gardening by
using biowaste
Language
Known : English,
Hindi & Telugu
PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN—project based learning and
peer group learning
There is a saying, “You
do not know how much you have learned until you start teaching.”
So, what is the most effective
method of learning?
I would say: “Students
teaching other students.”
i.e Peer
Group Learning
A
Balance between Competition & Cooperation
___________________________________________________________________________
“…learning with and
from each other is a necessary and important aspect of all
courses. The role it plays varies widely and the forms it takes are very
diverse, but without it students gain an impoverished education.”
Today,
information technology (e.g. computer programs/databases, Internet facilities)
has provided “students with excellent opportunities to learn without
requiring a teacher to transmit the available information” , thereby
necessitating a shift in paradigm from the highly teacher-centred to learner-centred education
(e.g. peer learning) in which students are expected to take greater initiative
and responsibility to manage more of their own learning and educational/personal
development.
In peer learning,
students will construct their own meaning and understanding of
what they need to learn. Essentially, students will be involved in
searching for, collecting, analysing, evaluating, integrating and applying
information to complete an assignment or solve a problem. Thus,
students will engage themselves intellectually, emotionally and socially in
“constructive conversation” and learn by talking and questioning each
other’s views and reaching consensus or dissent.
Peer
learning’ is a form of cooperative learning that enhances the value of
student-student interaction and results in various advantageous learning
outcomes.
Peer learning also
strongly motivates learning often attributed to the fun
and joy of learning in small groups.
Critique sessions, role-play, debates, case studies and
integrated projects are other exciting and effective teaching strategies
that stir students’ enthusiasm and encourage peer learning.
Students thus have diverse opportunities to experience in a reasonably ‘safe’
and unconstrained context , reactions to complex and ‘real’ problems they may
face later in their careers.
As students communicate
with one another, they inevitably assume leadership roles, acquire
conflict-managing skills, discuss and clarify concepts, and unravel the
complexities of human relationships within a given context; this process
enhances their learning outcomes. Thus, students’ learning extends far beyond
the written word and even the given task.“Student participation, teacher
encouragement, and student-to-student interaction positively relate to improved
critical thinking.”
Peer Learning Strategies
To facilitate successful
peer learning, teachers may choose from an array of strategies:
Buzz Groups: A large group of students is subdivided into
smaller groups of 4–5 students to consider the issues surrounding a problem.
After about 20 minutes of discussion, one member of each sub-group presents the
findings of the sub-group to the whole group.
1. Affinity
Groups: Groups of 4–5 students are each assigned particular tasks to
work on outside of formal contact time. At the next formal meeting with the
teacher, the sub-group, or a group representative, presents the sub-group’s
findings to the whole tutorial group.
2. Solution
and Critic Groups: One sub-group is assigned a discussion topic for a tutorial
and the other groups constitute ‘critics’ who observe, offer comments and
evaluate the sub-group’s presentation.
4. ‘Teach-Write-Discuss’: At
the end of a unit of instruction, students have to answer short questions and
justify their answers. After working on the questions individually, students
compare their answers with each other’s. A whole-class discussion subsequently
examines the array of answers that still seem justifiable and the reasons for
their validity
Expected beneficial
outcomes
In
addition to content knowledge acquisition, peer learning, especially in small
collaborative groups, nurtures and fosters the development of:
- self-directed
learning skills,
and thus lays the foundation for life-long continuing self-education;
- critical
thinking and problem-solving
skills;
- communication,
interpersonal and teamwork
skills; and
- learning
through self, peer assessment and critical
reflection
Successful Peer Learning
Peer learning is optimised
when incorporated as an integral component of a curriculum, paying special
attention to:
- Creating
a conducive learning environment:
For peer learning to be
effective, the teacher must ensure that the entire group experiences ‘positive
interdependence’, face-to-face interaction, group processing, and individual
and group accountability.
Students must build mutual
respect for and trust and confidence in one another,
so that they “feel free to express opinions, test ideas, and ask for, or offer
help when it is needed” . Peer learning can be further enhanced if the
“environment of mutual help…continues over time and beyond the classroom” .
Thus, students are individually and collectively
accountable for optimising their own learning and achievements.
· Learning
in small collaborative groups: In
addition, collaborative processes are to be devised to get all group members to
participate meaningfully.
“research shows that
students who engage in collaborative learning and group study perform better
academically, persist longer, feel better about the educational experience, and
have enhanced self-esteem” .
Furthermore, “the
peer support…is a powerful psychological ballast to critical thinking efforts”
.
CONCLUSION
The outcomes of peer
learning ultimately depend on the design strategy, outcome objectives of the
course, facilitating skills of the teacher, and the commitment of students and
teachers.
In conclusion, peer learning is learner-centred education that
transcends content knowledge acquisition. Peer learning optimises student
learning outcomes and provides a more holistic, value-added and
quality-enhancing education that will better prepare students for the needs of
the workforce in this millennium.
Although peer-learning
strategies are valuable tools for educators to utilise, it is obvious that
simply placing students in groups and telling them to ‘work together’ is not
going to automatically yield results. The teacher must consciously orchestrate
the learning exercise and choose the appropriate vehicle for it. Only then will
students in fact engage in peer learning and reap the benefits discussed above.
However, peer learning may encourage the presence of
‘freeloaders’—team members who fail to fulfil their team responsibilities, but
are awarded for assignments or presentations the same (high) grade as their
more responsible teammates. Freeloading may be minimised by using peer ratings
to assess individual performance of team members, or conducting a ‘post-test’.
There will then be two levels of accountability: the individual and the group.
Competitive and
individualistic learning situations discourage active construction of
knowledge. It also impedes the development of talent by isolating students, and
creating negative relationships among classmates and with instructors. However,
challenge and social support must be balanced if students are to cope
successfully with the stress inherent in learning situations. There are
considerable data indicating that higher achievement, more positive relationships
and better psychological adjustment results from cooperative rather than from
competitive or individualistic learning
In comparison to competitive or individualistic learning
strategies, cooperative learning promotes a greater use of higher level
reasoning strategies and critical thinking
Hence, students should learn cooperatively, and engage
cognitively, physically, emotionally and psychologically in constructing their
own knowledge, which is important in changing the passive and impersonal character
of our classrooms.
