THIS PPT PRESENTATION WAS SHOWN TO THE CHILD SCIENTISTS DURING THE FACE TO FACE PROGRAMME

1. NCSC:
A PATHWAY TOWARDS
IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE
EDUCATION AT SECONDARY
LEVEL
IN VIEW TO THE NCF 2005
Sandipan Dhar
Former All India Coordinator
National Children‟s Science
Congress

2. BY NATURE, HUMAN BEINGS ARE
CURIOUS & INQUISITIVE ABOUT
NATURAL PHENOMENA
BE IT PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL OR
ENVIRONMENTAL
 OBSERVATION,
 LOOKING FOR REGULARITIES AND PATTERNS,
 MAKING HYPOTHESIS,
 DEVISING QUALITATIVE OR MATHEMATICAL
MODELS,
 DEDUCING THEIR CONSEQUENCES,
 VERIFICATION / FALSIFICATION OF THEORIES
THRU‟ OBSERVATIONS & CONTROLLED
EXPERIMENTS,
ARRIVING AT THE PRINCIPLES, THEORIES AND
LAWS
THIS IS WHAT SCIENCE SAYS

3. SCIENCE …….
 Is a Dynamic Expanding Body of Knowledge
covering ever new domains of experience.
 It can play a truly liberating role, in a
progressive forward-looking society, helping
people out of the vicious circle of poverty,
ignorance and superstition.
GOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION IS TRUE TO
THE CHILD, TRUE TO LIFE AND TRUE TO
SCIENCE.

4. Problem of Curriculum Load
• Joyless learning
• Examination system
• Textbook as the „Truth‟
• Structure of syllabus
• Language Textbooks
• Starting Early

5. Making of NCF-2005
• Need of drafting NCF-2005
• Procedure of making of NCF-2005

6. • (a) the school system is characterized by an
inflexibility that makes it resistant to change;
• (b) learning has become an isolated activity, which
does not encourage children to link knowledge with
their lives in any organic or vital way;
• (c) schools promote a regime of thought that
discourages creative thinking and insights;
• (d) what is presented and transmitted in the name
of learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of
the human capacity to create new knowledge;
• (e) the “future” of the child has taken centre stage
to the near exclusion of the child's" present”, which
is detrimental to the well-being of the child as well
as the society and the nation.

7. NCF DRAFTING COMMITTEE

9. NCF-Aims of Education
(Based on the Constitutions‟ Vision of India)
• Independence of thought and
action
• Learning to respond to new
situations flexibly and creatively
• Pre-disposition for participation in
democratic process and social
change
• Empower all children to learn

10. Distortion of Aims of Education
(Learning has become a source of burden and
stress for children)
• Textbooks/Workbooks
• Information Overload
• Incomprehension
• Tests and Examinations

11. NCF – Learning And Knowledge
The Child as Learner and What Should be Learnt
NCF Perspectives Commonly Held Views
All children are motivated and Not true of large numbers of
capable of learning children
Children learn in a variety of Children learn in limited ways
ways
Developing capacity for abstract Developing generally only skills
thinking, reflection and work are necessary for helping students
most important aspects of learning pass or excel in examinations
Child as a ‘critical’ learner and Child as passive imbibers of
constructor of knowledge textbook information and
providing set answers to all
questions
Different types of knowledge as Knowledge as embodied in
embodied in the traditional textbooks
curriculum as well as in the world
outside the school

12. Children’s Knowledge And Local Knowledge
Local Knowledge is a Rich Source of Learning
for All Children

13. Implications for Curriculum & Practice
• Teaching for Construction of
Knowledge
• The Value of Interactions
• Designing Learning Experiences
• Approaches to Planning
• Critical Pedagogy

14. NCF CURRICULUM AREAS
Traditional Other Areas
• Mathematics • Art Education
• Language • Health & Physical
• Science Education
• Social Sciences • Education for Peace
• Habitat & Learning

15. NCF - Science
What biology can Janabai, an ‘incapable’ tribal secondary
school student learn ? What biology does she know ?
• Can use different plants as sources of food, medicines,
fuel, wood, dyes and building materials
• Recognises differences between trees and notices
seasonal variations based on shape, size, distribution of
leaves and flowers, smells, textures
• Can identify 100 different plants – more than her biology
teacher who believes Janabai is a poor student

16. NCF - Science
• Science should nurture curiosity and creativity particularly
in relationship to the environment
• Science teaching should be placed in the context of
children’s environment to help them enter the world of
work
• Awareness of environmental concerns

17. NCF – Social Sciences
• Equip children to think critically on social issues
• Interdisciplinary approach to key national concerns such
as gender, human rights, marginalised minorities, etc.
• Civics to be recast as political science
• Significance of history – conception of past and civic
identity

18. NCF-Mathematics
• Main goal of Mathematics is
Mathematisation rather than
Knowledge of Mathematics

19. NCF – Systemic Reforms
Teacher education for curriculum renewal

21. NCF – Systemic Reforms
Examination Reforms
• Shift from content-based teaching to problem solving and
understanding
• Schools should evolve continuous evaluation for
diagnosis and remedial learning
• Maths and English board exams at different levels
• No board or state level exams at Class 5, 8 or 11

22. NCF - Systemic Reforms
Examination Reforms
• Shift from content-based teaching to problem solving
and understanding
Understanding in Mathematics
• If you know that 235+367=602, how much is 234+369? How
did you find the answer?
• Change any one digit in 5384. Did the number increase or
decrease? By how much

23. SOME EXAMPLES

24. Under chapter no. 3.3.2 of
National Curriculum Framework 2005,
it says ………….
……………Inquiry skills should be supported and
strengthened by language, design and quantitative
skills. Schools should give much greater emphasis
on co-curricular and extra curricular activities
aimed at stimulating investigative ability,
inventiveness and creativity, even if these are not
part of the external examination system. There
should be massive expansion of such activities
CHILDREN‟S SCIENCE
along the lines of
CONGRESS being held
SUCCESFULLY AT PRESENT………….

25. This new-found zeal and
camaraderie was further boosted up
by an activity similar to Children‟s
Science Congress in Gwalior, Madhya
Pradesh in the early nineties.
On January 02, 1991 the NCSTC
Network was born under the
watchful eyes of the Rashtriya
Vigyan Evam Prodyogiki Sanchar
Parishad (then known as NCSTC), D
S T, Govt of India.
 National Children‟s Science
Congress made its first appearance
in 1993 and since then it has been

26. THE PHILOSOPHY OF CSC…….
 A unique program motivating children to take-up
scientific research on local specific issues of their choice.
 A real experiment promoting methods of science with
ample opportunities to encourage creativity, innovation
and experimental learning.
 An activity towards promoting congenial team work,
correlating science with everyday life situation
 A potentially strong and effective movement influencing
the impressionable minds to enhance community feelings
and sensitize towards societal needs.
 An event not merely for the privileged and school-going
children; but even for those who are not in the formal
school set-up, drop-outs, or forced to be out of the
conventional mode due to poverty and disabilities.

27. THOUGH WE HAVE ACHIEVED THIS BUT
WE HAVE TO REACH MORE SO…

28. I AM SURE THAT I AM
ABLE TO WASTE SOME
OF YOUR USEFUL TIME
THANK YOU
sandipandhar@gmail.com