21. Teacher Moderation in the time of competition ?

Recently I came across a reference to an useful idea called ‘Teacher Moderation’. J. W . Little’s study found that teachers who engaged consistently in the moderation process were able to:

* Identify strengths and areas for growth based on evidence of student learning.
* Build common knowledge about curriculum expectations and levels of achievement.
* Share effective practices to meet the needs of all students, monitor progress, and
celebrate growth.
[Little, J. W. et al. (2003). Looking at student work for teacher learning, teacher community and school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(3), 185–192.]


Ever since the introduction of UGC scales, the monitoring of teacher performance at the end of each academic year has led to the birth of competition among teachers. Today, teachers strive to outshine his or her colleague in terms of the number of articles published and the number of seminars and workshops attended. As student performance is also a criteria for teacher assessment, getting own students score higher marks than that of his or her colleague is deemed by some, a matter of honour!

To add to all this, there is the common clash between the bright and the mediocre, the intellectually rich and the materially rich, along with crass politics which boils down to affiliations in terms of caste, region and religion.

It is common knowledge that, where there is competition, there can only be pretensions of cooperation! Will the concept of ‘Teacher Moderation’ ever make its presence felt in colleges in Hindustan? What do you think dear reader?