Improving Teaching-Learning Process in Schools: A Challenge for the 21st Century

Teaching-learning is the core process of every education system. Improvement in design and approach of this process is the key to develop skills and competencies of learners which results in enhancement of the quality of school education. The recent decades have witnessed increased interest to develop learner centered approaches. This has resulted in rush of ideas and theories for improving the teaching-learning outcomes, which have been extensively studied and experimented as we move toward the 21^stcentury. Review of large volume of research literature generated in this area indicates that development of learner centered transaction strategies for the curriculum transaction and ensuring their implementation is a continuing challenge. Role of teachers is central to changing of the ways the students are taught. Thus this demands a sustained, long term commitment from teachers to engage in active learner-centered instructional practices that provide academically challenging experiences for all students regardless of their ability, motivation and academic track. It is in this context the paper attempts to review and describe the initiatives undertaken at the school level to improve quality of teaching. The emerging approaches and their use for enhancing teaching-learning in current technology oriented scenario would be the important component of the paper. The role of teacher and their professional development strategies and challenges in improving quality of learning/schooling experience would be addressed. The paper concludes that quality of teaching-learning in the schools would be achieved only when constraints on performance are better understood and addressed by the school managers and policy makers.