A case study: balwadis in Pragat Shikshan Sanstha

1. A case study: balwadis in PragatShikshanSanstha Dr. Shubhra Chatterji & Devika Sharma Data collected by Dr. ShubhraChatterji, Devika Sharma, & SwatiBawa

3. Method • Sample – 2 Balwadicentres • 10 days of field visit • Data collected through : Participant observations of balwadis, i\Formal and informal interviews with parents, teachers, director, mentor, founder, Focus Group Discussion with teachers, parents, going through various artefacts such as children’s work, assessment cards, newsletters, guidelines for teachers to plan, yearly plan for each gat (group of children) etc. Tools used - School Readiness Instrument (SRI), Early Childhood Education Quality Assessment Scale (ECEQAS), Adaptive Behaviour Scale (ABS)

4. Phaltan As of 2001 India census, Phaltan had a population of 50,798. Males constituted 51% of the population and females 49%. Phaltan has an average literacy rate of 75%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 70%. In Phaltan, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. (wikipedia) Kamla Nimbkar BalBhavan , Phaltan http://www.mumbainet.com/template1.php?CID=15&SCID=6

5. A brief background of the organisation PSS was started by Dr. Maxine Berntsen in 1978. She had come to Phaltan to do her field work for her linguistic research …she first started literacy classes …… supplementary centres….. balwadis …. gradually it all grew to a full fledged programme called ApliShala. A full time Marathi medium School (KamlaNimbkarBalbhavan) was started in 1986 – when her friend’s grand daughter refused to go to school after her first day in a KG class!

6. Philosophy : nurturance of the human spirit • School should be a welcoming, joyous place where the child learns to trust the world • School should be grounded in the child’s own cultural context • School should be a place where teachers get opportunities to develop, innovate, grow and create knowledge that is based on sound theory and grounded in experience. • The logo is also quite unique – the double helix of the DNA denoting equality . The motto has been taken from Pasaydan by Sant Dnaneshewar, the famous Marathi Bhakti poet - Let all things in creation be friends. (culled out from the organisation’s webiste)

8. What we found in the two Balwadis • Colourful, attractive, clutter free environments carefully planned and prepared to stimulate children’s interest, inviting them to participate in many different kinds of activities. • Multiple choice free play methodology was followed where children played and moved around in arelaxed and fear free atmosphere, during which time, lots of interactions among children and with teachers was actively encouraged. • The environment was print rich as the focus was on “Emergent Literacy” – for which teachers have been undergoing rigorous training for the last 4-5 years by a pre school expert – with a PhD in Emergent Literacy.

9. What we found in the two Balwadis • Colourful, attractive, clutter free environments carefully planned and prepared to stimulate children’s interest, inviting them to participate in many different kinds of activities. • Multiple choice free play methodology was followed where children played and moved around in arelaxed and fear free atmosphere, during which time, lots of interactions among children and with teachers was actively encouraged. • The environment was print rich as the focus was on “Emergent Literacy” – for which teachers have been undergoing rigorous training for the last 4-5 years by a pre school expert – with a PhD in Emergent Literacy.

10. Are children ready for school?

11. Claim 1

12. Evidence of good practices :Claim 1 Relationship based approach is used to foster social emotional development of children : • Parents and teachers, teachers and children, teachers and teachers and children and children, all are nicely bound together in mutually supportive relationships. This is observable in the informal interactions in every day practices as well as in mentoring and scaffolding offered during more formal interactions. • The communication channel is open – parents feel free to consult teachers any time. The home-school boundary is not sharply defined by design and our research team found ample evidence of this during their stay • The collaborative spirit of the school is appreciated by parents from varied social backgrounds – in their interviews they appreciated the positive effects that this culture has had on their child’s personality. Children feel emotionally secure in an atmosphere where their home backgrounds are respected and valued. • The positive effects of this approach were also reflected in the results of the Adaptive Behaviour Scale, where the average score of children was found to be 33 out of 40.

13. CLAIM 2

14. Claim 2 Free play with embedded literacy activities, along with individualised instruction is used to promote school readiness Free play, when it comes with multiple choices, we found, was good for all round development of children : • children were learning to choose and take decisions, take charge of what they were doing and this was helping them to become self reliant and confident. • They were getting scope to use their imagination, to explore and find out for themselves - in the various ‘learning centres’ e.g. BhauliGhar, Blocks, Science Corner, Book Corner, etc. • They got time to use language in a meaningful way. • The teacher got time to observe children and find out their strengths and weaknesses on the basis of what they were doing or saying • This was the time when teachers found time to given one on one support to children…. mentoring and scaffolding was made possible • This is the time when children got opportunities to browse through books and ‘write’ down their thoughts and feelings

15. Claim 3 The cycle of observation, reflection and planning helps teachers to make individualized plans and get into the mode of evidence based practice Evidence Based Practice • Planning • Reflection • Observation

16. Evidence Based Practice OBSERVATION REFLECTION PLANNING

17. Capacity Building Approaches

18. Creating a Community of Learners Encouraging evidence based practices Using library as a resource Creating a Community of learners

19. Capacity building approaches : in small doses – setting a few goals Mentoring

20. Eclectic reading approach PSS approach to reading: Eclectic and meaningful Developed by Dr. Maxine Berntsen with DattaAhivale in 1987 Sentences that a grade 1 child may want to write… Haa mi (this is me) Haamaajhaamaamaa(this is my uncle) Hi maajhiaaii(this is my mother)

21. Interactions (teacher-child, child-child)

22. Aryan is playing with the car T: where’s the car gong to..to which town? A: Taai, Pune T: what are you taking? A: It’s empty..while coming back I’m going to bring maal. After sometime T: if you’ve had enough of the car, give it to Atharva. A: Taai, it has not yet reached Pune. • Classroom interactions or children’s stories are documented, displayed and later in the week read out

23. Reading out routine activities

24. Shared book reading

25. Classroom setting

26. Organisation of time – free play

27. Variety and ample resources

28. Insaanaisibaatseekhtaahai…jivankaisejiyaajaaye…Avanti badi to voh koi bhi school meinhosaktithilekinkuchbaateinyahansiikhnekojo mil saktahaivoh koi aur school meinnahi… (Here) one learns…how should one live life…Avanti could have grown up in any school but the things that she can learn here, in no other school can she learn those things.. mother of Avanti, student of Balwadi in KamlaNimkarBalbhavan, Phaltan

29. Thank you!