Educart Successfully Concludes Teacher's Workshop On Creating Quality Assessment Items For English Class 9-12
Educart, a sub-division of Agrawal Group of Publication and one of the biggest publishing houses in India for Class 9-12, NEET, and CUET reference books, organised a one-day workshop at the India International Centre (IIC), Lodhi Gardens, Delhi.
With the National Education Policy (NEP) released in 2020, several changes in the academic curriculum, including teacher training and assessment, etc. have been made in the policy aiming to revolutionise the Indian education system.
To keep up with these latest curricular changes, Educart, a leading publishing house of academic books in India, organised teacher training and assessment workshops for PGT & TGT teachers of English Subjects from Delhi/ NCR schools.
For the workshop, organised at the India International Centre on the 8th of July 2024, Educart invited Ms Ruchi Sengar, CBSE Official Subject Matter Expert and Educart’s editorial team trainer. The goal was to train English teachers from top CBSE schools on how to frame the quality questions for assessment at the secondary stage (IX-XII) in strict compliance with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and NEP 2020.
Ms Ruchi Sengar is a seasoned educator with 28 years of experience in teaching. It was apparent that the teachers loved and respected her. She is also known for her work as:
CBSE Official Subject Matter Expert
CBSE SQPs / Question banks Developer
Master Trainer - ELT & CBE
NCERT & SCERT Collaborator for Competency-Qs and Pedagogical Practices
CBSE Teacher Training Manual Developer
NCERT NEP 2020 Textbooks Developer
Trainer for Educart editorial team
The event started with a facilitation speech welcoming Ms Ruchi Sengar and other attendees and providing them with a brief description of the day's events. Following the speech, a bouquet was presented to Ms Sengar as a token of appreciation for her significant contributions to the field. The gesture was met with warm applause from the participants.
This one-day event was attended by more than thirty participants from across the top CBSE Schools of Delhi-NCR, and among the notable attendees were.
| Teacher’s Name | School |
|---|---|
| Hema Sharma | Kothari International School, Noida, Uttar Pradesh |
| Harmeet Kaur | Salwan Public School, Rajendra Nagar, Delhi |
| Meenu Chopra | Shri Educare Ltd, Gurugram, Haryana |
| Neetu Bhajita | Salwan Public School, Rajendra Nagar, Delhi |
| Keerthi Sahni | Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri, Delhi, |
| Neha Gupta | Rukhmani Devi Public School, Delhi |
| Preeti Tyagi | Gaurs International School, Greater Noida |
| Rashi Dua | Arwachin Bharti Bhawan Sr Sec School, Vivek Vihar, Delhi |
| Rupa Mehra | Kothari International School, Noida |
| Rohina Shah | GD Goenka, Vasant Kunj, Delhi |
| Seema Sharma | DAV Public School, Faridabad, Haryana |
| Shuchita Tuli | OPG World School, Dwarka, Delhi |
| Sushma Devi | NDMC School, Delhi. |
Right before the start of the training session, all attendees were provided with the "Support Materials for Quality Assessment - Mapping Qs to Cognitive Levels." These materials included handouts, learning objectives (LOs) for Language (R1), caselet1 and caselet 2 for the secondary stage, a pen, notebook, cognitive domain-based questions for classes 9th to 12th, and a test booklet for class 10.
Ms Sengar started the workshop with a brief introduction to the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 and mentioned the major changes. While explaining the guidelines, she asked the attendee teachers to review the LOs and the Caselets provided in the support material.
These new LOs are introduced to do away with rote memorization, which hinders students' cognitive development. With the NCF most likely to be implemented next year, an understanding of these new Learning Objectives (LOs), which are in compliance with the NCF 2023, becomes very important for teachers.
Before providing the actual hands-on training to the participants Ms Sengar asked the participants to stand up from their seats and join in dancing to the moves displayed on the projector screen. This was a simple exercise meant to energise the teachers for the entire session and make them more active and focused.
While demonstrating Handout 2, Ms Sengar displayed a set of Rebus puzzles on the screen and told the participants to solve them. As the puzzles kept changing the voices from the crowds became more active, were heard enthusiastically answering the puzzles, creating a jovial environment filled with laughter. At the end of the puzzle activity, Ms Ruchi asked the teachers to introduce them to the students in the classroom, explaining their importance in invoking cognitive thinking among students.
Ms Sengar also explained the Text Structure to the teacher and showed them how to use these correctly when framing competency-level questions for students. The nine text structures that she explained in detail are:
- Similarity/ difference
- Predicting
- Summarising
- Inferring
- Sequencing
- Identifying the main idea
- Fact/ opinion
- Cause/ effect
- Point of View/ Purpose
"It is not the content that decides the level; it is the questions you ask," said Ms Sengar while explaining the text structure.
After a brief interlude for high tea, during which teachers were observed engaging in lively discussions, inquiring about upcoming books and workshops, and exploring the Educart bookstall, the workshop resumed with renewed energy.
Ms Ruchi continued the session with Handout 3 and gradually moved on to Handouts 4 and 5 to explain the teaching and question-framing methodologies to the participants. One important methodology she presented for illustrating these handouts and creating competency-based questions was Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, but with a twist. Instead of the traditional upright triangle, she used an inverted triangle, adding a unique perspective to the taxonomy.
Ms Sengar said, “When preparing competency-based questions, you should focus less on asking direct questions like 'Who is Tina?' or 'How old was she?'” referring to the story in Handout 4, she continued, “Instead, concentrate on crafting questions that encourage students to think critically, such as evaluation and analysis-based questions, to help develop their cognitive abilities. Framing remembering-based questions alone doesn't lead to learning," she emphasised while explaining her self-developed inverted triangle of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Ms Ruchi also introduced a unique method to help participants remember the subtle differences between each cognitive level of the model when framing English questions. She asked them to imagine a bicycle of any colour. Then, she gradually built a story around the bicycle, using it to illustrate each cognitive level.
As the workshop concluded, teachers were treated to a sumptuous lunch and were also given a goodie bag containing the One Shot Question Bank of English for classes 9, 10, and 12. The bag also included Educart's Catalogue for 2024-25, test booklets for classes 9, 10, 11, and 12, a diary, a notebook, and a pen. Certificates of participation were also provided.
"Overall, the workshop was very informative and engaging; we enjoyed it a lot and learned how to frame new questions according to the latest changes in the NCFs. When the NCF guidelines came out, we had a lot of confusion related to competency-based questions. But thanks to Ruchi Ma'am and Educart, all our doubts have been cleared now. We are also looking forward to more such workshops by Educart in the future," said Hema Sharma and Sushma Devi when asked about their experiences.
When asked about Educart's books they said- “We love Educart books and have been using them for many years because their quality is on par with CBSE standards. We even use the books as a source to prepare questions for half-yearly and annual exams and highly recommend them to our colleagues and students," said Garima (name changed).
Teachers were also provided with complimentary copies of the English Communicative Question Bank and other specimen books they requested for themselves and their colleagues. Everyone seemed very pleased with the event. They thanked the Educart team for conducting such an informative workshop and requested them to organise one such workshop in their schools as well so that their colleagues could also benefit from it.
Educart is yet to announce its future workshops, but the success of its books and this event has certainly put Educart on a pedestal as a leading provider of educational resources and a connection-building platform for teachers.