Overcoming marginalized children learning through professional development of teachers

This paper will discuss on the attempt in improving marginalized children through professional development of teachers. Despite all efforts to overcome the difficulties of learning face by marginalized children, their performance both in the external as well as in the school-based achievement assessments showed that they lag behind in the learning of Science and Mathematics. This situation starts at the primary level and hence resulted in dropouts before they could pursue their secondary education. Based on a series of observations and consecutive school visits, the researchers were able to identify some of the difficulties faced by the teachers in the teaching of Science and Mathematics as well as in the learning of the language. Teachers tend to use similar approaches as teaching children in the urban schools, which are more directed in nature. Many of the Science and Mathematics teachers do not possess sound pedagogical skills to apply alternative approaches, which are suitable within the context and realm of the marginalized children. In overcoming the situations, teaching modules were developed to provide alternative ways of teaching science. Additionally, teachers were also introduced to the concept of action research. Preliminary results showed that not only teachers perceived that the modules were very useful and beneficial to them, their pupils were also motivated and demonstrated active involvement in the learning activities. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved