Urdu language and Literature / Social and Emotional Skills Teacher at Simadree Virahsawmy State Secondary School

• MBA Educational Leadership, Open University of Mauritius, 2016
• MA Education, University of Brighton&MIE, 2013
• Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Urdu), MIE, 2010
• BA Urdu with Education, University of Mauritius and Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 2008
• Teacher Trainee Certificate Primary (Urdu), MIE and MGI, 2005
• Diploma in Urdu with Education, MGI, 2005

Conference papers given

‘Enhancing argument presentation in Literature at Advanced level. An Action Research.’, Post Graduate Research Conference: Connecting Research with Curriculum Innovations: MIE, April 2014.

Research completed

• The teaching of short stories at upper secondary level. A case study. (PGCE)
• Enhancing argument presentation in Literature at Advanced level. An Action Research. (MA Ed)
• From policy to practice: Critical analysis of students’ and educators’ perceptions on Activity Periods at secondary level and future directions. (In connection to MA Ed)
• The contribution of School Development Plan in bringing efficiency and effectiveness in school system. (MBA Educational Leadership)

Research in process for my doctorate thesis

An exploration of Teacher Professional Development within the space of Educational Reform

Mauritius is currently undergoing the Nine Years Continuous Basic Schooling (NYCBS) reform. The reform project is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Education which is to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (National Curriculum Framework Nine Years Continuous Basic Education, 2015), and which in return is responding to the universal 2030 Education agenda (Hinzen&Schmitt, 2016). As response to the reform, educators are expected to shape themselves to cater for students’ learning and holistic development. Therefore, following the systemic reform’s aims and goals, and keeping in mind the organizational context and resources available, I brought about pedagogical shifts gradually in my day to day teaching experiences by innovating and testing carefully designed pedagogical strategies through Action Researches aimed at both lower secondary and upper secondary students and with both Urdu and Social and Emotional Skills students. The innovative learner-centred pedagogical strategies for both lower secondary and upper secondary levels are mostly based on and adjusted as per students’ grade level, curricula, profile, interest, and availability of resources. For example, I use of songs for vocabulary and language improvement (Kusnierek, 2016), visual aids (pictures, newspaper cuttings, posters, advertisements, etc) for brainstorming and promotion of critical and analytical skills for the purpose of essay discussions and short videos for the development of their emotional intelligence (Shabiralyani, 2015). Think-Pair-Share strategy ensures the promotion of and engagement in higher order thinking like critical thinking and problem solving skills (Dol&Halkude, 2017). Furthermore, case-scenario approach engages students to analyse and discuss specific scenarios though intense interactions between their peers (Giancalone, 2016). Since the new learning culture of the Generation Z skews towards self-learning and exploration, through self-directed professional development, I carried out an Action Research on the ways in which we can use digital instructions in the classroom with the minimal amount of resources available to teacher and students; not all schools in Mauritius are equipped with state-of-art technology. After a few cycles of the Action Research, it has been found that the use of WebQuest with the upper secondary level students has proven to result in positive changes in the critical and argumentative skills of the students because a WebQuest is an Inquiry-base learning strategy which is teacher led, student led, student student led and teacher student led. The findings also reveal that even without internet access and a digitized classroom, WebQuest can still be used as an effective strategy in the development of student agency. The innovations in my pedagogical strategies are ongoing because each and every year the student profile changes and, bearing inclusiveness in mind, I also realise that “If learners are not learning the way we teach, may be we should teach them the way students learn” (Ignacio Estrada).

References

AL-Edwan, Z. S. (2014). Effectiveness of Web Quest strategy in acquiring geographic concepts among eighth grade students in Jordan. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 10(4), 31-46.

Dol, S.M. & Halkude, S.A. ( 2017).An EffectiveWay to Improve Problem Solving Skill using TPS, T24S and T21S: A Comparative Study. Journal of Engineering Education Transformations. 30(3), 2394-1707.

Giancalone, D. (2016). Enhancing student learning with case-based teaching and audience response systems in an interdisciplinary food science course. Higher Learning Research Communications, 6(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.18870/hlrc.v6i3.304

Hinzen, H., & Schmitt, S. (Eds.). (2016). Agenda 2030 – Education and lifelong learning in the sustainable development goals. IPE 75. Bonn: DVV

Kuśnierek, A. (2016). The role of music and songs in teaching English vocabulary to students. World Scientific News, 43, 1-55.

Shabiralyani, G. et al. (2015). Impact of visual aids in enhancing the learning process case research: Districk Dera Ghazi Khan. Journal of Education and Practice, 16(19). 226-234.

UNESCO (2015b): Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all. Declaration of the World Education Forum 2015, Incheon, Republic of Korea, 19-22 May 2015

This discourse is a brief overview of the teaching experiences that I went through after almost 15 years in the teaching domain as both a primary and a secondary school teacher, and also about the pedagogical shift that I tried to bring about following the current educational reform in Mauritius.  Being an Urdu teacher as well as a Social and Emotional Skills teacher in a state secondary school, I get the opportunity to work with mixed-ability students aged 11 to 20 years old and in multi-cultural classes of up to 43 students per class. 
 
In the beginning of my practice, the challenges I faced as a novice teacher were mainly linked to students’ unhappiness with Urdu language and literature and discourteous behaviours of the adolescents within the classroom of not only mine but of other teachers as well.  Whatever teaching strategy I was using proved to be ineffective since the students had their own beliefs about the subject and me.  After a whole year of tension, I finally discovered the reason behind their insolences and unwillingness to study.  It happened after I thanked them for helping in the setting up of the stage for the Music Day at school.  That simple note of thanks from me helped them to open themselves and confided that it was so rare that somebody appreciated them.  They had always been judged and laughed at because of their social background.  I realised that students of that school were in need of affection, trust and mainly respect.  Since then, though it was difficult to gain their trust in the beginning, I started to enact respect in my teaching and even when they were being insolent. I should admit that it took me some months to win their trust and consequently, what I could notice was a remarkable change in their learning.  My class became their best class and I became their best teacher.  I also found that it was only then that I could use different teaching strategies that could help them improve their performance.  After this experience, I learnt that pedagogical strategies are successful only when there is sustained respect between teacher and student.  Since then till date, eight years have already passed by and I got transferred from there to work in another state secondary school.  However, the lessons drawn from my experience at my former school are still relevant and will remain memorable and invaluable to me. 

All the innovations and initiatives in my classes have ‘respect’ as cornerstone. It is infused even in the pedagogical shift that I am trying to bring in my teaching within the space of the Nine Years Continuous Basic Schooling (NYCBS) reform in Mauritius. The strategies are mostly based on and adjusted as per students’ grade level, curricula, profile, interest and availability of resources. For example, just to mention a few, I use songs, visual aids, Think- Pair-Share strategy, nature, drawings and case-study for the holistic development of students.  Moreover, since the new learning culture of the Generation Z skews towards self-learning and exploration, I try to use digital instructions with the minimum amount of resources available for teacher and students; not all schools in Mauritius are equipped with state-of-art technology. I carried out an action research on the use of WebQuest with my upper secondary level students and found that it has proven to result in positive changes in their critical thinking.  The findings also revealed that even without internet access and a digitized classroom, WebQuest can still be used as an effective strategy in the development of student agency.

From a teacher’s position, I expect to acquire new pedagogical strategies that fit and adapt to the Mauritian context and the current education reform. I do also expect to acquire practical solutions based on real issues in education from a variety of specialized fields and also gain insight on how different countries are addressing gaps in their education system which in return can contribute to our local context.

As a teacher-researcher, I expect to meet and share with peer researchers findings of my action research. However, I above all expect to learn from them not only about pedagogies they will have evolved but also research methodologies in the field of education. Such methodologies would have to be disseminated to encourage educators to grow in their teaching through a continuous improvement.