Saturday, October 27, 2007

Book Review: The New Work of Educational Leaders

THE NEW WORK OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS –
BOOK REVIEW

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE
Book Title: The New Work of Educational Leaders – Changing leadership practice in an era of school reform
Author: Peter Gronn, Faculty Member of Education Department at Monash University, Australia.
Author’s Profile: A researcher, a professor and a writer. Published books extensively on aspects of school, educational and organizational leadership. His research interests include all aspects of leadership, in particular, learning leadership and the development of leaders, distributed leadership etc.
Publisher: Sage Publications, London in 2003.
Other Details: Book contains 11 different figurative explanations and two tables while the whole book is consisting of 176 pages. The book seems a result of an extensive study as the author has given 741 references of different books, articles and research papers.
RATIONAL
After having assigned the task, we all group members approached library in search of a suitable book to review. We found many books related to leadership and to have a skim through reading, we borrowed three different books and next day we all found that the books borrowed were not suitable for review as a book was the collection of different articles written by various authors, while other two were also not purely related to ‘educational’ leadership. So, the next day we found Peter Gronn’s book and it seemed very much related to our aim as the book’s main focus (in my opinion) was on ‘distributed leadership’ and it was published recently. Secondly, we were very much lucky to know that IED Library has three available-on-shelf copies of this book and it was convenient for us to borrow an individual copy. But when we (group members) all gone through the book we found that it is not an easy read as the language used was very much difficult and our existing vocabulary was not accommodating the words. Finally to have an expert view and guidance we approached our worthy facilitator Ms. Zubaida Bana with the book, while keeping two more books with us. We told madam about the difficult language used in the book but she very nicely convinced us to work on this book by accepting it as a challenge and she further authenticated that the book is very much relevant and we should work on it. So, after having confirmation from the expert we had to go through the book.
CONTENTS/THEME
The new principal-ship and leadership standards highlighted by the author make, ‘The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform’ a possible resource for principals and leaders in educational administrative preparation of programs. For those involved in educational leadership and policy making should go through this book as it is an essential reading for educational leadership and policy development.
Book Structure
The book is articulated in two different parts: the 'architecture' and the 'ecology' of leadership. In Part I, three chapters outline a new building of leadership by developing the themes of design, distribution and disengagement, while in Part II author discusses in five chapters about What do Leaders do?, Leaders’ Committees and Meetings, Leadership Teams, the Emotions of Leaders and lastly Leadership as Greedy Work.
Part I
Designer-leadership means producing leaders according to design specifications is characterized by the increasing imposition of sets of standards and competences around the performance of leaders. In our context we can relate it to the policy that unless one doesn’t get the M.Ed or MA (Education) degree he is assumed incapable to become leader or principal specifically in government sector educational institutions.
Distributed-leadership means interdependency of the work roles of leaders and their colleagues in schools is presented as an alternative to focused leadership to reflect changing divisions of work and workplace to achieve the common goals. Researches show that it is the new trend increasing after 1980. In the context of Pakistan, we can relate this leadership theme to private educational institutions or self managed organizations.
Disengagement means inability of school systems to attract principals from among the teaching ranks because teachers are becoming more reluctant to take on leadership positions is explored, with particular reference to work intensification. Teachers use to be in their own comfort zones and because of challenging tasks and responsibilities they hesitate to take initiative and the fear exists in their minds. But keeping our context, I was not convinced of this debate, as in our background we struggle a lot to gain the relevant experience so that we would get a chance to become the leader in our institutions. Perhaps it is the general trend in Pakistan.
Part II
Five chapters map an 'ecology' of leadership in this part. Author asks, 'What do leaders do?' and then proceeds to offer a detailed synthesis and critical review of research findings since the 1950s across a number of different countries. Then, author focuses on committees/meetings and teams, respectively, as clear manifestations of distributed leadership. The author picks up on the contemporary theme of the range of emotions experienced in the workplace, with implications for leadership. Finally Gronn draws on earlier concept of 'greedy institutions' to propose that leadership is being reconstructed as 'greedy work', which demands one to be constantly and fully there. Gronn proposes it the core of a new 'grammar' of educational leadership. Although there are many aspects of this representation that are immediately identifiable but there is some misunderstanding between 'greedy work', 'greedy practices', 'greedy occupations', 'greedy policies' and 'greedy rulers and policy makers' such that there is not always clarity about who or what is being greedy. Are educational leaders the victims of greediness, or both? However author defines school leaders' work today as "greedy work". Although greedy work may be addictive owing to the profession's increasing demands, the author believes it is unlikely that younger generations of teachers will embrace it as a career prospect.
REFLECTION
In general terms, I was not entirely convinced that the relationship between Parts 1 and 2 is constructed as clearly as it might be. In my opinion only distributed leadership was concerned with the Part two, not the other two chapters.
Overall the book draws on a wide range of international literature and highly theoretical work, including some detailed reports of empirical researches done by others and, as such, is a very comprehensive synthesis of the field. Author maintains a productive balance between emphasizing conceptual themes and practical issues around leadership. In my view, the book would offer challenges for the beginners in this field as there are some implanted understandings of leadership, which perhaps I could not grab fully as a beginner and going through this book to review. Once again I will emphasis here that Gronn's highly theoretical work is not an easy read for a beginner. I can say this book might be a valuable contribution to understanding changing leadership practice in the modern era and I propose for myself that this book needs to be re-read after some time, when I will get more experience in this field.SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES

Book Review: The New Work of Educational Leaders


Assignment Cover Sheet


Name: ___DARVESH KARIM___________

Class: _____M.Ed. 2009____________

Module: ___________________________

Assignment #: _______________________

Title: ______________________________

I hereby undertake that the material provided within:
i) represents my own efforts;
ii) has not been taken in whole or in part, without reference to whom or from where the information was attained.(For further information on plagiarism, please refer to page 19 in the M.Ed. V Handbook)








Overall comments of the tutor:











Name of CP: ______________________
Date: ________________

Signature of the CP: _______________




TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE. 3
RATIONAL. 3
CONTENTS/THEME. 4
Book Structure. 4
Part I 4
Part II 5
REFLECTION.. 6




THE NEW WORK OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS –
BOOK REVIEW

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE
Book Title: The New Work of Educational Leaders – Changing leadership practice in an era of school reform
Author: Peter Gronn, Faculty Member of Education Department at Monash University, Australia.
Author’s Profile: A researcher, a professor and a writer. Published books extensively on aspects of school, educational and organizational leadership. His research interests include all aspects of leadership, in particular, learning leadership and the development of leaders, distributed leadership etc.
Publisher: Sage Publications, London in 2003.
Other Details: Book contains 11 different figurative explanations and two tables while the whole book is consisting of 176 pages. The book seems a result of an extensive study as the author has given 741 references of different books, articles and research papers.
RATIONAL
After having assigned the task, we all group members approached library in search of a suitable book to review. We found many books related to leadership and to have a skim through reading, we borrowed three different books and next day we all found that the books borrowed were not suitable for review as a book was the collection of different articles written by various authors, while other two were also not purely related to ‘educational’ leadership. So, the next day we found Peter Gronn’s book and it seemed very much related to our aim as the book’s main focus (in my opinion) was on ‘distributed leadership’ and it was published recently. Secondly, we were very much lucky to know that IED Library has three available-on-shelf copies of this book and it was convenient for us to borrow an individual copy. But when we (group members) all gone through the book we found that it is not an easy read as the language used was very much difficult and our existing vocabulary was not accommodating the words. Finally to have an expert view and guidance we approached our worthy facilitator Ms. Zubaida Bana with the book, while keeping two more books with us. We told madam about the difficult language used in the book but she very nicely convinced us to work on this book by accepting it as a challenge and she further authenticated that the book is very much relevant and we should work on it. So, after having confirmation from the expert we had to go through the book.
CONTENTS/THEME
The new principal-ship and leadership standards highlighted by the author make, ‘The New Work of Educational Leaders: Changing Leadership Practice in an Era of School Reform’ a possible resource for principals and leaders in educational administrative preparation of programs. For those involved in educational leadership and policy making should go through this book as it is an essential reading for educational leadership and policy development.
Book Structure
The book is articulated in two different parts: the 'architecture' and the 'ecology' of leadership. In Part I, three chapters outline a new building of leadership by developing the themes of design, distribution and disengagement, while in Part II author discusses in five chapters about What do Leaders do?, Leaders’ Committees and Meetings, Leadership Teams, the Emotions of Leaders and lastly Leadership as Greedy Work.
Part I
Designer-leadership means producing leaders according to design specifications is characterized by the increasing imposition of sets of standards and competences around the performance of leaders. In our context we can relate it to the policy that unless one doesn’t get the M.Ed or MA (Education) degree he is assumed incapable to become leader or principal specifically in government sector educational institutions.
Distributed-leadership means interdependency of the work roles of leaders and their colleagues in schools is presented as an alternative to focused leadership to reflect changing divisions of work and workplace to achieve the common goals. Researches show that it is the new trend increasing after 1980. In the context of Pakistan, we can relate this leadership theme to private educational institutions or self managed organizations.
Disengagement means inability of school systems to attract principals from among the teaching ranks because teachers are becoming more reluctant to take on leadership positions is explored, with particular reference to work intensification. Teachers use to be in their own comfort zones and because of challenging tasks and responsibilities they hesitate to take initiative and the fear exists in their minds. But keeping our context, I was not convinced of this debate, as in our background we struggle a lot to gain the relevant experience so that we would get a chance to become the leader in our institutions. Perhaps it is the general trend in Pakistan.
Part II
Five chapters map an 'ecology' of leadership in this part. Author asks, 'What do leaders do?' and then proceeds to offer a detailed synthesis and critical review of research findings since the 1950s across a number of different countries. Then, author focuses on committees/meetings and teams, respectively, as clear manifestations of distributed leadership. The author picks up on the contemporary theme of the range of emotions experienced in the workplace, with implications for leadership. Finally Gronn draws on earlier concept of 'greedy institutions' to propose that leadership is being reconstructed as 'greedy work', which demands one to be constantly and fully there. Gronn proposes it the core of a new 'grammar' of educational leadership. Although there are many aspects of this representation that are immediately identifiable but there is some misunderstanding between 'greedy work', 'greedy practices', 'greedy occupations', 'greedy policies' and 'greedy rulers and policy makers' such that there is not always clarity about who or what is being greedy. Are educational leaders the victims of greediness, or both? However author defines school leaders' work today as "greedy work". Although greedy work may be addictive owing to the profession's increasing demands, the author believes it is unlikely that younger generations of teachers will embrace it as a career prospect.
REFLECTION
In general terms, I was not entirely convinced that the relationship between Parts 1 and 2 is constructed as clearly as it might be. In my opinion only distributed leadership was concerned with the Part two, not the other two chapters.
Overall the book draws on a wide range of international literature and highly theoretical work, including some detailed reports of empirical researches done by others and, as such, is a very comprehensive synthesis of the field. Author maintains a productive balance between emphasizing conceptual themes and practical issues around leadership. In my view, the book would offer challenges for the beginners in this field as there are some implanted understandings of leadership, which perhaps I could not grab fully as a beginner and going through this book to review. Once again I will emphasis here that Gronn's highly theoretical work is not an easy read for a beginner. I can say this book might be a valuable contribution to understanding changing leadership practice in the modern era and I propose for myself that this book needs to be re-read after some time, when I will get more experience in this field.SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Causes and Effects of Degeneration of Education in Pakistan

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE
DEGENERATION OF EDUCATION IN PAKISAN
Draft By: Darvesh Karim, CP M.Ed. 2009
Pakistan is a third world country and it is, in the process of development in all aspects. It has been the general understanding that until or unless a country doesn’t have the minimum 40% literacy rate; it cannot come to the track of development and cannot be called as industrial world even having lots of natural resources available in the country. We have many examples like Afghanistan, available in the world that there are countries with lots of natural resources but because of their low literacy rate they cannot be called the developed countries. Luckily, Pakistan’s literacy rate has been calculated as 49.9%[1] which shows the potentiality to develop further, if some meaningful measures are taken. At present Pakistan is facing degeneration in Education sector. There can be many causes but in my opinion there could be four basic factors: irrelevant policy makers, less budget allocation, outdated curriculum and lack of professionally trained teachers.
As an immediate cause for the degeneration in education, the government policies or the policy makers involved in Pakistan are actually not familiar with the needs on the grass root level. The educational policy makers formulate polices for Pakistan, but it is very much amazing to observe that the policy makers themselves don’t trust on their policies as their children never been the part of the institutions where these policies are implemented. In contrary their children get education in other systems like A and O levels or just go abroad to get education. This seems that the educational policy makers of Pakistan formulate the policies to capture the nation to produce the mediocre, who could not be in a position to challenge their status. This has been the practice since long and now it needs to be very much fair with the nation as the generations to come need to be educating according to the world class standards but not for mediocre. P. Hoodbhoy[2] (1998) predicts for this situation;
Because the future lies largely upon educating the generations to come, no failure should be more alarming or dangerous than the failure to educate adequately. It is terrifying thought that, if the present education system remains unchanged, the generations to come will largely be uneducated or worse, miseducated. (p.21)
A contributory cause is insufficient budget allocation. Education never has been the priority of politicians in Pakistan since its birth. Therefore the teaching profession has never been regarded efficiently and truly. Education has been the fourth or fifth priority or element in Pakistan and the budget allocation for education sector has been made unplanned and randomly. Education budget never calculated according to the needs of Pakistani citizens resulting mismanaged infrastructure and education system in Pakistan. This behavior towards education is a contributory cause and imposes deep effects on educational standards in Pakistan. According to P. Hoodbhoy, (1998), “Two thousand years ago, Plato observed that the perfect system of education is necessary to produce the perfect society, but on the other hand, the educational system of any society is limited by the total cultural quality of that society”. So, up till today all the governments formed in Pakistan have never taken initiatives to seriously strengthen and to produce the perfect society by allocating a huge budget and effective plans for the development of education.
The second root cause of substandard education in Pakistan is outdated curriculum. Curriculum plays a vital role in educational development and its revival and reformation is continuously required according to the needs and standards all around keeping in view the modern era, while in Pakistan the curriculum being taught has almost outdated and new invasions, methodologies, latest information and updates and material is very much lacking. Keeping the world class standards of education, the existing curriculum is very much outdated. P. Hoodbhoy (1998) describes it;
By an act of parliament, the curriculum for the entire country is uniform and no deviations are permitted. The legal authority for devising curricula is the Curriculum Wing (CW) of the Federal Ministry of Education. Its decisions cannot be challenged. The role of CW has been a negative and dangerous one. The curricula devised by its ‘experts’ often have the wrong emphases, contain outdated concepts and do not provide for a relevant and useful education. Instead, the CW appears preoccupied with the propagation of ideological doctrines rather than the proper education of children. (p.11)
The root cause of degeneration now has been clearly visible that the manpower or the teachers are not so much trained upto the standard and Pakistan is lacking of professionally trained teacher as in my understanding the myth that every one can teach, now came to an end. It has been observed that only a formal college or university degree doesn’t work for teaching. P. Hoodbhoy; (1998) strengthens my findings;
There can be no education without competent teachers. … looking at the state of government teacher training institutions, he points out that the neglect of the education sector as a whole has been bad enough but the need of quality teacher educators has gone completely unrecognized. (p. 13)
To become a professional teacher one should be fully equipped with the relevant trainings and experiences as in teaching there are many aspects to learn for the effective teaching and learning. Attiullah Abdullah (July, 2005) describes that, “teachers still use traditional ways for teaching reading. They are not familiar with the latest ways and appropriate trends of teaching in ESL/EFL context”. Presently in Pakistan the practice is not so much healthy as the majority of the teachers are not relatively trained although they have the formal degrees but that doesn’t work effectively in teaching. To cope up this issue P. Hoodbhoy (1998) suggests;
The only remedy is massive investment in teacher training by the government. However, government control and administration of teacher training institutions is bound to lead familiar results. Therefore, teacher training should be done, with strong government subsidy, in private institutions. (p.20)
As a result of these causes, the standard of education is degrading day by day and educational standard becomes no worth in the world of competition and merit. Joblessness, poverty, problems in ethical and moral development and mediocre outcome is continuing in Pakistan. Ultimately, the outcome or the manpower is neither much capable to handle the situation in a systematic way nor the curriculum is that worth to guide the young generation towards a meaningful destination.
REFERENCES:
The World Factbook - Pakistan (2007, September 6) Retrieved September 18, 2007, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/pk.html
Pervez Hoodbhoy. (Eds.). (1998). Education and the Stat. Oxford University Press.
Attiullah Abdullah (July, 2005). Problems of Teaching in Pakistan. Institute for Educational Development, Karachi.

[1] Current status of literacy in Pakistan

[2] Pervez Hoodbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University, Ialamabad.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Abstract - Movie CAST AWAY

CAST AWAY celebrates the idea that no matter how many obstacles are thrown in our paths, we will find ways to accept them. The story is not so much about the survival of a human being, but rather the survival of the human spirit and an image of the idea that surviving is easy, it's living that's difficult.
The actor (Chuck probably) is FedEx’s mail runner whose personal and professional life are ruled by the clock. His fast-paced career takes him, often at a moment's notice, to far-flung areas and away from his girlfriend Kelly.
Chuck's overexcited existence abruptly ends when, after a plane crash, he becomes isolated on a remote island cast away into the most uninhabited environment imaginable. Much away from the conveniences of everyday life, he first must meet the basic needs of survival, including water, food and shelter. Chuck finally figures out how to sustain himself physically. Chuck begins his true personal journey of survival.
After four years, fate gives Chuck a chance to fight his way back to civilization, only to find an unexpected emotional challenge greater than all the earlier physical ones. His ability to continue and to hope is a product of his life-changing experience. Though the conclusion of Chuck's story may not be a predictable ending, which use to be the endings of Indian or Hollywood movies, it is, like life, full of truth, pain and promise.
The scenes of Chuck struggling for physical, and then emotional survival feature very little dialogue and no music are the scenes among the most active parts of the movie, because something important is going on every second. Chuck makes a daring escape from the island after four years. He returns to civilization a profoundly changed human being.

By: Darvesh Karim, M.Ed 2009

Critical Incident.

Critical incident
First draft by darvesh karim
Human life is full of incidents. We face different incidents since our birth and will be facing them till the last breath on this plant. Hence; incidents are the part of life and these incidents in my opinion, are the actual sources of knowledge, learning and to gain experience. Incidents are actively the happenings which we face in our day to day life and our experience and knowledge increases through these incidents. When we face such situations again in our life, we recall our memory and in the light of past experience we try to deal that situation effectively.
Incidents may be of different nature; some can be joyous incidents, some can be co-incidents and some can be critical incidents and all these incidents may worth to consider and to learn the different lessons. The incident which I am going to narrate here is about a critical incident which made me very upset but played a vital role to transform my behavior.
It was a happening at my former school where I was the in-charge. One day in the last period some important guests from Japan were on a visit to school as we use to receive many Japanese guests, because the school was built by the Japanese donation and patronage and they use to have frequent visits like the education inspectors in Govt. schools. I was briefing the visitors about the school and was showing different venues. When we were in Computer Laboratory and the guests were talking to the students who were working on computers. Meanwhile the school’s ending bell rung and all the students from different classes came out to the corridor and a haste bustle started, which use to happen during the ending timings in every school. But in between that usual situation we heard a very disturbing voice of a student, who was screaming so loud with joy of getting off, but was creating a terrible scene of agitation. The atmosphere become much worst as the guests were there and of-course I had been explaining them about the emphasis on discipline, which we were of course focusing, hence this over reacting and joyous voice of student irritated me, which was giving a contradictory representation of what I briefed the guests.
I left the guests behind in computer laboratory and got out to the corridor with anger while searching for that student like an eagle searching for the food. There were lots of students in corridor who had come out from different classes to leave and among all those students I was not identifying the one who had created the disturbing scene as every one was talking and making fun of each other normally as students use to do often in this situation. I was searching sharply and I noticed a boy who was making fun to his fellow; I thought that he might be the one, who disturbed the setting; I abruptly stopped him and without a single word and having confirmation whether he is the one, caught his left ear so hard and twisted it roughly. The poor innocent boy, I assume very hardly beard the pain; and very surprisingly looked at me with many questions in his eyes. After punishment I murmured angrily to make clear him the cause of punishment, “You don’t bother of school environment and guests and just scream so loudly and disturb the school”. When he become conscious that why I had punished him he started weeping and crying with pain while saying, “Sir I was not making the noise, it was Naved, he run down” – Naveed was a student of an another class - He increased the tempo of crying like a small kid after realizing that I have punished him instead of somebody else who made noise. On realizing that I have punished an innocent, who had not actually created disturbance, I felt very much sorry for the anger and misbehaving with an innocent student without having confirmation of his fault. He went away while weeping and I was much depressed thinking that may be he will complain about me to his parents and I will be not in a position to say a single word to justify my position. Anyhow the next day I was expecting to face his parents and was becoming alert and attentive even on a telephone bell, but till the end of school timing nothing happened and nobody came to meet me. It remained the same for some more days.
At last there was my period in the class where the said student was studying. I called the boy in the front and told him to tell the story to all his class fellows. He hesitated and told me that he didn’t even mention it to his parents and how can he narrate it here. I appreciated his respect towards his teacher in my heart and I encouraged him to tell every thing, so he narrated the whole story and at the end I confessed about the rude behavior and formally apologized.
After that, the said students came very close to me and I used to give him special attention and guidance for his academics. I learnt many lessons from this critical incident that being a teacher we should not lose our temper in any situation and should not misbehave with students and corporal punishment should be strongly discouraged. Another lesson which I learnt that without accurate exploration of an issue, we should not decide and reach to a conclusion, because that ending can be the wrong idea which we perceive.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Description of a Picture.

Mr. Dawar Shah
Observation and Description of a Picture by: Darvesh Karim, M.Ed. 2009
I was asked to look at the pictures displayed on the wall yesterday, and describe any of them. Hence, I approached to the pictures and I selected picture No. 03 to write an observation.
This is a picture of a teacher and I assume him as a Social Studies teacher; as he has been shown in the staffroom checking/marking and counting the numbers of S.St. papers. He is sitting in a staffroom as in his surroundings there are similar chairs on one he is sitting. The staffroom wall I noticed was painted in vivid colors and it seems that he has been teaching in a private school because in govt. schools such type of furniture and decoration can not be expected.
According to his facial look he seems a Pakistani national and specifically from Northern Areas of Pakistan by his healthy-looking face. As far as his physic is concerned he is a heavy person with tall figures and clean shaved. He is wearing a nicely ironed white shirt having a pen in his right hand and a wrist watch in his left hand. He might be wearing a black paint with black shoes as with white shirts it suites him. According to his nationality his name may be Dawar Khan. He seems very much energetic and fair for his work as he very keenly concentrating on his papers. According to my observation he is a primary school teacher as he is checking the printed papers, which normally given to the primary level students.
His hair is receding hairline as we can easily see the baldness on his head. He has a long face but seems a gentle and confident personality. Over all I assume him a confident and gentle teacher who takes very much care of his students and their work.

Observations on Classroom setting

Observations on Classroom setting
in the Video Clips titled as
‘Teacher Education Series’

Second Draft by Darvesh Karim, M.Ed. 2009

The video clips shown were actually the video series of Teacher Education and these clips, in my opinion, were focused on two different teaching behaviors. I watched the video carefully, although I faced some problem understanding the conversation made by the teacher and the students due to their European accent and electronically recorded voice. However, the main discrepancy I noticed in this video was using the same teacher for both teaching behaviors as we perceive an understanding about a teacher by his behavior and teaching methodology and the perception about this teacher was not so healthy in my mind after watching the first clip. It could be more realistic, authentic and understandable, if there were two different teachers and atmosphere. While the same teacher and same class were giving an impression of actors, hired to perform a specific task, in which there was no reality. I believe that artificial behavior of a teacher, which does not come from the depth of heart, but have to perform the duty to rid-off from the unresponsive burden, miss-leads the students, as I consider that teacher use to be the role model in terms of his general behavior within the class and outside of class. Students use to observe, adapt and replicate the social life behavior and some times even the posture and walking style of their favorite teacher.
In the first part of the video students were not motivated as teacher could not even try to inspire the students neither in the beginning nor in the middle of the lesson towards learning. On the contrary, the teacher discouraged them by counting their weaknesses and blaming them for being weak students, rather than building on their strengths and encouraging and motivating them towards learning. There was no linkage to the previous knowledge of the students in the lecture as it is much essential for a teacher to come across the previous knowledge of the students so that he could be able to announce the topic effectively. The teacher was using the lecture method of teaching, which is assumed as the traditional teaching method, while the level of students in my opinion was not much capable to understand it and the teacher was not asking or encouraging the students to share their ideas and understanding with him. The teacher’s behavior was autocratic, assuming himself as the only source of knowledge. Ultimately, the students lost their interest and started making fun of one another. The teacher could not create a relationship between his teaching style and the behavior of students throughout the lesson. The classroom arrangement was made in the most traditional style where students were isolated from each other as well as from their teacher. They had less opportunity of sharing their ideas and activities in groups and this weakness remained in the both teaching sessions.
While in the second clip of the same classroom, same students and same environment, the teacher seemed to perform well behaved, but as it has already been mentioned that because of his first appearance, I had perceived him as a rude teacher and I couldn’t convenience myself to create a soft corner for him and I strongly felt that the person was forced to perform well a specific task. Hence; somehow students also performed well to give a sense of motivation towards learning and teacher also performed well by asking questions and even using some sense of humor, sprinkled with some praise here and there. The teacher encouraged questioning and discussion that led to a rich learning environment. He also created a relationship between his teaching and students’ behavior by clearly instructing and showing a path to go through even in the absence of teacher, for instance when some students tried to make fun (disturb the class) in the absence of their teacher, other students discouraged them and preferred their class work. This; in my opinion, was the motivation and the clear guidance which aroused the curiosity of students to explore further.

Critical Writing on a Slide Show.

Critical Writing on a Slide Show
First Draft by Darvesh Karim

It was a slide show mixed with a melodious music consisting of 18 different slides mainly focused on the causes of pollution, by showing a real picture of this attractive world which is endlessly harmed since long by human being. The theme taken was a serious issue faced by the whole world but the music mixed with the slides, in my opinion was so much melodious and joyous, as a result instead of concentrating on the real event or issue, the viewers get attracted to the music which seems over dominating the main theme. This observation strengthened further by noticing that when we were watching the said slide show, most of my class fellows were initially enjoying the rhythm of music by clicking fingers and tapping their feet on the floor in spite of concentrating and understanding the visuals.
On demand to replay the clips again and again; probably after replaying four times, then we were able to concentrate and observe the visuals. So, when I took a sharp notice of the slide show which started with a beautiful scenery of grassy plateau surrounded with mountains and a lake in middle, I assumed myself to be the part of that beautiful surrounding and was enjoying the soft music but with in seconds the scenery changed and some slides of vehicles; the olden day cars, and the improved versions of different vehicles and then over-crowded roads with different machinery, buses and trucks by focusing on the burning of fuel were fleshing on the screen. The thick trees and forests and then the causes of deforestation were shown. The clip maker very effectively tried to show the rapid increase of machinery, usage of fuel and ultimate damage to environment in shape of environmental pollution by showing two different pictorial differences of world in terms or environmental pollution, deforestation and shortage of water.

IED Courtyard - Descriptive Essay.

IED Courtyard
Descriptive Writing by: Darvesh Karim, M.Ed Programme 2009 (Third Draft) – Aug. 25, 2007
On a beautiful morning one day, I was standing on the top floor of AKU-IED, which is a square multi-storey building with a grassy courtyard in the middle. To observe something, one should have a bird’s eye view as well as the ability to clearly describe what one observes. So coming slowly downstairs from the top floor, the courtyard was right under my full sight. It was very artistically separated in pathways and green enclosures, while four interconnected buildings of AKU-IED are on each side and courtyard is accessible through specified pathways. Rest of its surrounding has been covered with railings, so that only the prescribed pathways could be used.
There were different flowers and plants, but the first and the most beautiful thing I noticed was the plant in the middle of the courtyard which looked like a colorful fountain surrounded by stepped-up bricks around it. Secondly, the beautiful greenery, small and big plants and colorful flowers were giving a pleasant and attractive view. I noticed many flowers which were quite new to me and I realized that every thing exists around us but to know and to feel them we need an exploratory observation. Now, when I was asked to observe carefully and sharply, I was exploring a new, interesting and beautiful world around me. This feeling of realization strengthened further after noticing a shiny-green fly on an identical leaf, which made me think how a fly can be so beautiful. Furthermore, it made me realize that association with the attractive and dominating environment makes its allies the same.
There were some chairs appropriately placed in every corner of the courtyard welcoming us to have some rest, relax and to feel the natural beauty of colorful flowers and plants. Thinking of that feeling I stepped in the courtyard to have a closer observation and it was of course in my mind to walk barefoot on the grass for a while to refresh my mind. However, when I paced in the pathway to the courtyard, two sign boards were smiling towards me saying, “Please keep away from grass”, therefore, disheartened, but to get pleasure from the enjoyable wind blow which was giving a pleasant feelings, I had to approach a nearby chair under the shade of a small tree and sank in it. An interesting thing I noticed was walking on the grass was prohibited but spitting pan on the grass was most probably allowed, as I noticed the stains of pan on the ground. Which signifies that every individual is the part of environment and we all have to play our positive role to maintain a good physical shape and healthy environment around us, but as a general behavior we forget to play our positive role which causes obstruction for a healthy environment?
However, I assume the courtyard of IED can be used to relax, to rest and most importantly keeping a sharp eye on every one who enter or leave IED. I state this because of its location from where the floors and entrances/exits are very much visible.
I have never been to IED in the evening but I imagine that the place must look very romantic, keeping the appropriate lighting system and separate seating arrangements in mind.
I noticed many flower-posts in the courtyard and I guess that this place is also used as a nursery for the whole IED campus. A new technique I observed here was that in order to help the weak plants grow; the gardener had fixed a stick in the middle of the pot. This was done so that the plant may grow-up with the patronage of that stick. I realized the proverb here that “necessity is the mother of invention”.
Finally, I praise the artistic approach and professional excellence of the gardener/caretaker whose attention enhanced the beauty of this squared place of IED, the courtyard.

Discrapant Event

Discrepant Event
First Draft by: Darvesh Karim

As far as my understanding is concern about the discrepant event, I assume it a method to promote conceptual understanding which aims to make a persons capable of understanding the ideas and concepts behind the words he has conceptual understanding. He is aware of the communication involved. He understands there is an teacher or author trying to make him duplicate and understand an idea or concept. When the student has understood the idea and doesn't need the words any more he has conceptual understanding)among students or creating a situation which leads to think about their prior conceptions and actual happenings of a specific action. Discrepant event or the situations can be created in the learning cycle or in the real life situations. It is a step to provoke thought, as this situation proves quite opposite, what students were thinking of, and when the expected result does not come out then exploration or the questions arise in the minds of students. To know about this happening students start thinking, questioning and approaching their fellows and teachers as well.
Discrepant events can be used in the classes by demonstrating the events in front of students but before the actual demonstration; hypothesis of that event must be gathered, so that we could be able to compare the hypothesis and the actual happenings afterwards. Main cause of creating discrepant event is to make the students think, explore, compare and critically analysis their hypothesis and eh opposite result which they were not expecting. Discrepant event not only created to compare but to make students curious about the questions arise in the shape of why, and how and students’ curiosity increases to explore these questions and eager to come up with the solutions.
Discrepant event can be used in classes for the learning process as it raises further questions and students get involved to solve them as these events used to be the process oriented events and these need further process. Discrepant events used to be open ended situation; which welcome the students to provoke their thoughts and explore and make them realize about their opinion and bringing flexibility in their opinion.
Discrepant event in my opinion can be used in the demonstration of Science related questions but these events can be created in any subject. For instance following simple math question is in my opinion is brain storming event and this event can be called a discrepant event.
Two friends step in a shop and a palm-top-radio attracts both of them to purchase. They ask the price from the shop attendant who tells them 50 rupees. Attended was a new employee at the shop while the shop keeper was not present at the moment. So, both friends contribute 25 rupees each and pay the amount to the shop attendant and go away. After a while the shopkeeper comes back and when it comes to his notice that 45 rupees radio has been sold out for 50 rupees. He rushes the shop attendant with 5 rupees to refund the excess charged amount to both friends. In the way the shop attendant decides to give one rupee each to both fellows and to keep three rupees for himself. So he does the same. Now, both friends individual share comes to Rs: 24 and when we add 24 + 24 the total comes 48, plus three rupees kept by the shop attendant. It is 51. So, why one rupee excused?
Of course this a simple question but some times it becomes harder and it creates questions and challenges to students for the solutions and this situation becomes a discrepant event.

Pictures


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