A month ago,15 teachers from a government high school in Karnataka completed the Master Coach programme organised by Quest Alliance. We're here to tell you all about this programme, Quest Alliance and what they hope to achieve.
Quest Alliance is an NGO based out of Bengaluru that works with children and educators to improve the way they learn and teach. Master Coach is a programme intended to enhance teachers' teaching strategies, interpersonal skills and other 21st century skills that are required for them to reach out to their students in a better way. Lenin Joyal, the Training Coordinator at Quest Alliance, says, "These days, organisations and institutions look to develop 21st century skills in youngsters. Our work in the education sector helped us realise that it was necessary to improve educators' skills and help them evolve. Thus started Master Coach in 2012."
Initially, this programme was meant to train educators working at ITI and VTI institutions. But later, the programme evolved and it was left open for teachers and educators dealing with children of all ages. So far, 3,762 educators have been trained under the Master Coach programme across 20 states and one union territory too! So, how does Quest Alliance reach out to these educators? Lenin explains, "We have been working with a lot of institutions and ITIs across India for other programmes. When we tell them about the Master Coach programme, the teachers at the college enrol themselves automatically. We've also had individuals working with different institutions enrol in the programme."
Talking about what is taught during this programme, Lenin explains, "The programme was initially designed as a four-week course where teachers would participate in face-to-face sessions and workshops. But after the pandemic hit, the programmes have been redesigned to suit the virtual model for eight weeks. In the first week of their session, we teach them about collaborating with students, the different types of learners and so on. We, subsequently, explain to them the importance of 21st century skills, the importance of online classes and a lot more. The second week is followed by understanding the student-teacher relationship using the PIES model — Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social. All these steps are essential when teachers teach students and they make students feel that they are learning in a safe environment."
Lenin continues, "The most essential part of this programme is introducing teachers to experiential learning. These days, learning for any student is incomplete without experiments and that factor of touch and feel. We help them understand why it is essential to explore different ways to engage with students when explaining key concepts. Most importantly, we encourage the teachers to explore this further on their own. Once this base is understood well by the educators, we train them on different teaching pedagogies. This includes using the Head, Heart and Hand model. In the traditional classes that we attend, only the head is used for coordination and understanding but in modern classes, we tell teachers to involve heart and hands as well."
By the fifth week of their programme, educators would have completed half their training and would have already begun implementing these tools in their classrooms. During the programme, the teachers also learn all about inclusion. Lenin explains, "We condition the teachers to understand their own biases. Usually, girls in ITIs are demotivated from operating heavy machinery. It's traditional biases like these that we aim to remove and educate them that everyone is equal. We provide them with gender glossaries when they address students in the classroom. After this, we move on to the future of learning which is online classes. We teach them simple processes like using Zoom, recording classes, making presentations and sharing them on Zoom or any other platforms. We also help train their students to adapt to the online mode of learning. Finally, we provide them with tips, tricks and add-ons that can be used while teaching to make the learning experience better."
Lenin concludes, "While the content on the website and the Quest app is available in English, the programme and training happens in different languages including Hindi, English, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and many other regional languages. We hope to cover a greater canvas through our Master Coach programme."
