A research was carried out recently on, ‘why students were asked to write a lot (more number of pages) in B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education)’. Since teaching is a dedicated and a perspective job in all aspects, it’s the responsibility of one’s own interest come passion, the Educational system, Government and also the institution to create students into a good teacher in future.
The educational system has a change over with due years, so now as days teachers were asked to teach in a crispy manner (short, sweet, clear and neat). Though elaborating the explanation is important for better understanding, focusing on concept and making it clear plays a major role.
“Teacher must explain any concept in it's simpler way".
But in most situations, teachers do fail in making the concepts clear. They explain a lot to students without highlighting the key concept. So, obviously most students won’t understand, what exactly the teacher is about to say or they might lose interest in the class.
Having this in mind, we approached to the students who are being trained for teaching profession, that is, B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education). Every Educational institution trains the students in all aspects to become a Good Teacher, but on the other hand, they haven’t given much importance and training for explaining the concept, which is very much needed for every student.
Instead, what happens is, the students undergoing Teacher Training and Bachelor of Education were asked to write a lot in examinations and they do insist about the page limits for writing. And the saddest part of this is, the marks were given based on the number of pages written.
So when they frequently insist on writing more pages and about the marks, the students focuses on writing more and not about what they write. This in turn makes them to do the same when they go to teach, that is, they explain more with many things and leave off the key concept. So this creates a weird situation between the students and teachers.
One main reason for, why B.Ed. students were asked to write a lot is, they assume that writing a lot looks more professional rather than what you write.
Many people believe that, writing more will look knowledgeable and intelligent (remember it just looks). To be a knowledgeable person, one should have an in depth knowledge and stuff about their field.
So, which literally means, ‘the content what you write is not important, simply you just have to write a lot, fill up the pages as insisted and the marks will be provided for the numbers of pages you have written and not for the content you might have written’.
During the course period, just leaving a sentence that, ‘once you become a teacher, remember to focus on concepts, so that students understands it easily, and quoting that, it’s about understanding students psychology’. Leaving this sentence doesn’t make any difference rather than providing a training which helps them to explain the concepts better.
B.Ed. students were asked to write, not less than and above 40 pages in examinations. This is logically impossible and irrelevant, because, an experiment with 20 people showed that, they took nearly 8 to 9 hours for writing 40 pages. Here, the students were given 3 hours, which looks so pity.
“70 marks examination, need to write 40 pages in 3 hours, only then you can score good marks”, this logic less condition makes the students pressurized.
This abrupt condition of writing creates a mental pressure to students. They work on filling up the 40 pages within 3 hours and lose focus on what they write. Literally they are open to say “More pages, More Marks. (Content not required)”.
A survey and opinion with Higher Professionals says, for 20 marks, writing up to 4 pages is highly enough. So, when the examination is for 70 marks, writing up to 15 to 17 pages serves good marks.
A doctor’s opinion, Dr. Lakshmanan (MD. Acu, Lic. Acu) says, writing 40 pages in 3 hours for 70 marks will definitely create a depression, mental pressure and stress. And can also have adverse effect on one’s mental health, which in turn leads to other health issues.
"Examination shall not assess for memory power, instead the intelligence".
Considering all these opinions, views and situations, the Government, Educational Departments and Institutions has to take proper action accordingly.