The objective of the present paper was to study the effectiveness of c ooperative Learning (Jigsaw strategy) on c ritical thinking Dispositions of secondary school students. t otal 116 students of class 9 th studying in a school affiliated to P.S.E.B were taken as sample. Data was collected by using c ritical t hinking in everyday Life developed by Mincemoyer, Perkins, Munyua (2001) which was revalidated on Indian population by Malhan (2011). By employing 2×2 factorial design of a N c OV a results showed that students taught through cooperative learning strategy (Jigsaw) (Mean=27.12, N=57) achieved significantly higher c ritical thinking Dispositions as compared to traditional method of teaching (Mean=22.39, N=59). c ritical thinking Dispositions was found to be independent of interaction between treatment and gender.

Institutional culture is a multidimensional; it is built upon the human interactions and the institute artefacts that result from such interactions. In other words, it is the behavioural norms of an organization based on the assumptions, values, beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its leaders and members. Very few institutions intentionally and thoughtfully create or design their culture. Else, the values of top management or the founders of the organization influence it. Many times the culture typically evolves from the tactical needs of delivering the products and services the organization provides. t his paper introduces the readers valuing about organizational culture. t he main aim of creating a culture of excellence is purposefully and actively build capability for new ways of institutional working. It looks at the frontier, how we can reform the existing institutional culture and the specific challenges in the context of education sector.

The present study was conducted to study the relative influence of parents and peers on adolescents’ in decision making. The sample comprised 200 adolescents of class VII and XII of which 100 were boys and 100 were girls. The sample for the research was selected by the descriptive survey method. The tool that was used for the data collection was Decision Making Test developed by the investigator. The students were given the questionnaire and the responses were collected. The data was analyzed using percentages keeping in mind the aims and objectives of the study. The results of the study show that the adolescents consulted their parents in all the matters but their decisions in few areas only was affected by the parents.

The study was conducted on the sample of 500 students of Secondary School Students, as per the requirements of 3 * 2 * 2 factorial design in which the independent variables of Mnemonic Techniques (M), Cognitive Styles (C) and Self Concept (S) were studied. Learning Acquisition on some concepts of Social Studies was taken as dependent variable. There were three levels of Mnemonic Techniques and two levels each of the variables of Cognitive Styles and Self Concept. The study was experimental in nature in which Mnemonic Techniques were studied with Illustrations (M1), without Illustrations (M2) and the third group consisted of the control group (Mo). The results showed that F ratios were significant for the main effects of Mnemonic Techniques, Cognitive Styles and Self Concept as also for the double interaction effects of M*C, C*S and M*S. However, the triple interaction effect of M * C * S was not significant even at .05 level of confidence.

Education without character, politics without principles, commerce without morality, Science without humanity, religion without love, culture without unity, administration without justice, knowledge without applications, patriotism without sacrifice are not only useless but positively dangerous so says Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Today’s education in our country has produced more educated person without having in-depth idea of education & mechanised humans without having traits of humanity. It appears that our country is passing through a phase of serious apolitical crisis called value crisis. Everywhere there is a shadow of missing spirit of life as if the true aim of human being is to make wealth effortlessly, swiftly without any hurdle and enjoy a comfortable living standard without adhering to the very basic philosophy of life. Bharat so called India is loosing its cultural supremacy and spiritual diversity in global arena. The paper explores the philosophy of education that was given by Swami Vivekananda. Also it highlights growth and development of school education system of India since Independence and visible loop holes in education system like excessive reliance on recall & memorization process in school education prescribed by British Education system. Further the author advocates vociferously for Revitalizing Teacher Education System , Infusion of Spiritual Element in Curriculum & greater Emphasis on Value Education ,Promotion of Indian Culture , Strong Community Participation in education & integration of Element of Service in Curriculum etc. Deep earnestness, sincerity by stakeholders of education for one of our vital national problem in a new light is the need of the day.

Adult illiteracy remains a worldwide phenomenon in spite of numerous efforts being made by the government, church, community-based and non-governmental organizations. The phenomena surrounding adult illiteracy is fundamentally an abuse of human rights since, it deprives the adult their psychological, social and physical provisions. It is against this background that research was conducted in the Nairobi government prisons (GK prisons) to establish the extent to which physical learning environment influences the participation of inmates in the post-literacy adult classes. Survey and naturalistic designs were employed. Probability sampling procedures were employed to select three adult education officers, six prison welfare officers, 32 teachers and 96 learners (prisoners) and one adult education teacher. To obtain the information from the respondent, questionnaires, interview guide, observation schedule and document analysis were used. Data was collected and summarized into frequencies, percentages, graphs, cross tabulations, charts and narrative reports. The null hypotheses were tested using independent samples t-test and One-way ANOVA. The findings of the study revealed that effective participation in post-literacy project in prisons has been hindered by lack of qualified adult education teachers, lack of facilities and teaching and learning materials.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is a major focus of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – 2005. Along with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at the Central level, many State secondary education boards have implemented CCE at elementary and secondary levels in last few years. In-service teachers, practicing the traditional mode of assessment are yet to come to terms with the CCE. They are facing problems not only with the process but also with the terms (or jargons used in CCE documents). Teachers have been facing problems with the effective implementation of CCE. Many times, parents also have complained that CCE has just replaced the trimester examination with unit tests. Reality is that due to lack of proper orientation, teachers are not able to do justice with CCE processes. To facilitate practicing teachers across the country, Distance Education Programme – Sarve Shiksha Abhiyan (DEP-SSA), a national project of the Ministry of Human Recourse Development, Government of India at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) initiated workshop mode orientation of practicing teachers all around the country. DEP-SSA practiced a unique technology blended workshop model to prepare master trainers at elementary level among various states. Present paper presents a critique of the model of workshop, way of orientation and efforts made to ensure quality and uniformity of training content in this training model. Researcher being a participant in planning and implementation of the experiment, analyzed the whole experiment. It is found that with millions of teacher practicing in school without proper orientation and training, it is not possible to achieve the goals behind implementation of CCE. As the Right to Education Act also provides certain guidelines for the evaluation process to be in holistic perspective, CCE has to play a crucial role. Experiments like one of the DEP-SSA are opening new ways to orient the teacher at their workplace. We can adopt such experiments and adopt them as per local needs and settings to enrich our practicing teachers as onus of successful implementation of CCE lies on their shoulders. Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is a major focus of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – 2005. Along with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at the Central level, many State secondary education boards have implemented CCE at elementary and secondary levels in last few years. The introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) is considered as one of the major steps towards improving and strengthening the quality of learner evaluation. Continuous evaluation is an approach that would capture the full range of learners’ performance (Kothari and Thomas, 2012). CCE refers to a school based evaluation, which covers all aspects of school activities related to child’s development. It emphasizes two fold objectives such as continuity of evaluation and assessment of learning outcomes in a comprehensive manner. It covers all the domains of learning i.e. cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. It treats evaluation as a developmental process. Evaluation in the cognitive domain is associated with the evaluation of cognitive abilities such as knowledge, understanding, application, etc. Evaluation in the affective domain means evaluation of attributes such as attitudes, motives, interests, and other personality traits. Evaluation in the psychomotor domain involves assessing learners’ skills to use their hands (e.g. in handwriting, construction and projects). In CCE, student’s performance in both scholastic and co-scholastic areas is assessed. CCE aims to reduce the curricular workload on students and to improve the overall abilities and skills of students by means of evaluation of students’ performance in various types of activities. Teachers have been following the traditional mode of evaluation and they believe in that system because they were trained to do so and they have successfully practiced it since they started teaching. Proper re-training of teachers is needed. In the changed scenario, a teacher ought to maintain a number of records like child’s portfolios, anecdotal records, prepare checklists, rubrics for assessment. Practicing modes and modalities of CCE is a challenge before traditional teachers. More workshops have to be conducted at State levels and care has to be taken that all teachers undergo thorough training before they start implementing CCE in their classrooms (Kothari and Thomas, 2012). It is absolutely essential that teachers need to be provided with orientation about the CCE scheme incorporating both the scholastic and co-scholastic areas of learners’ growth. (Saxena and Namdeo, 2012) Many times, parents also have complained that CCE has just replaced the trimester examination with unit tests. Gohain (2011) reported that according to a survey conducted by National Association of School Principals, 62% of the parents felt that CCE is not a better system. Reality is that due to lack of proper orientation, teachers are not able to do justice with CCE practices. It has been realized that a sincere effort for training of teachers is required.

The intent of this explanatory sequential mixed-method study is to examine Islamic teachers’ thoughts on improving critical thinking skills in elementary schools in the Southwestern province of Saudi Arabia. This study involves the collection of quantitative data and an explanation of the quantitative results with qualitative data. In the first phase, a survey was administered to Islamic teachers in Saudi elementary schools to assess their opinions on improving students’ critical thinking skills and to identify the factors that influence or hinder their implementation of critical thinking instruction. In the second phase, qualitative data was collected using semistructured interviews with a number of Islamic teachers in order to explore more fully their perceptions toward improving students’ critical thinking skills in Saudi elementary schools. The study’s findings suggest there is a need to also examine female Islamic teachers’ perceptions toward critical thinking in the Southwestern region of Saudi Arabia in order to identify the similarities and differences between the perceptions of male and female teachers.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are a relatively recent online learning model with infinite possibilities of offering freedom for access to higher education. The MOOC design depicts a future of openness in higher education. The evolution of MOOC based on the ideals that knowledge should be shared freely, and the urge to learn should be met without demographic, economic, and geographical constraints. In this framework, creative use of technologies makes a wide variety of open education provision. Along the movement towards open education, this new scenario opens up spaces for sharing thoughts, collaborating between institutions, educators and learners locally and internationally, and for expediting more meaningful teaching and learning process. In order to raise awareness of MOOCs and their implications for Higher Education sector in India, this paper synthesises features and characteristics of MOOCs and describes their potential as an innovation towards greater openness in Higher Education. Also, the paper tries to discuss possibilities and challenges to integrate MOOCs into higher education system of India.

A considerable amount of research done on teaching and learning is as a guide to effective teaching and better learning. There is an extensive body of research and evidence available on how ways of teaching methods and the design of curriculum affects learning. But they will be helpful only if the teacher educators apply these theories in classroom effectively, in order to observe and reflect better results enhancing reflective, autonomous and in depth learning so that the classroom gets converted into a laboratory where the teacher will relate the theory to practice leading to effective learning. The present paper throws light on some innovative approaches towards teaching providing a base for better foundation of learning and lays emphasis on how teaching in an effective manner can be encouraged and led, despite existing formidable barriers to upcoming change, as barriers are a part of any process and crossing these barriers with proper insight and skill will give direction to a way leading to better learning and a destination to a lightened future.