Positive Schooling and Child Development

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Sibnath Deb Editor

Positive

Schooling and Child

Development

International Perspectives

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Positive Schooling and Child Development

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Sibnath Deb

Editor

Positive Schooling and Child Development

International Perspectives

123

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Editor Sibnath Deb

Department of Applied Psychology Pondicherry University

Puducherry India

ISBN 978-981-13-0076-9 ISBN 978-981-13-0077-6 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0077-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018941232

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, speciﬁcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microﬁlms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speciﬁc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

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The book is dedicated to my parents Sushil Chandra Deb

Sandhya Deb

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Foreword

The poet T. S. Eliot asked fundamental questions for his time and our time. In 1934, the information age had barely begun when Eliot published Choruses from ‘The Rock’. The technological transformation across eight decades since was barely imaginable, but like many great poets, Eliot could see the essence of our evolving human struggle:

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The clear truth that information 6¼ knowledge 6¼ wisdom should be placed atop boards in our classrooms, in footnotes on our PowerPoint slides, and in banners on our websites. Its meaning should be ingrained into the minds of our teachers and our children. As a form of positive discipline, it should be etched above computer screens and on to the smartphones of the growing numbers of misguided Google scholars who loosely connect factoids rather than understand facts, who eschew deep inquiry forﬁltered fake news, and whose actions are based on feelings rather than evidence.

Two decades into the twenty-ﬁrst century, the ﬁeld of child development is awash with information and opinion. Parents, principals, teachers, children, researchers, psychologists, the media, politicians, administrators; we all have ideas about what makes children healthy, resilient, flexible, and ready for their future.

There are many divergent and contested beliefs, but we all have common questions:

How are children shaped by their schooling? Why have some been harmed or robbed of their potential? How can schools be made more positive?

We have, in this book, a serious attempt to learn from the deep experience of a broad range of experts on positive schooling and child development in India and globally.

Sibnath Deb guided this work and has done a valuable service for ourﬁeld. This book captures and interprets important research into children’s development, including the adverse effects of heavy academic pressure and bullying, through to the positive outcomes when child protection and safety concepts and extracurricular

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fun are integrated into teacher training and school resources. The positive impacts that principals, teachers and those who train teachers can have is supported by convincing evidence. When children’s resilience, mental health, and well-being are seen as core educational outcomes, we can realize the beneﬁts of multi-tiered strategies to promote psychosocial competence, reduce stigma and social exclusion, and provide psychological support or specialist referral for troubled children. When healthy child development is seen as a fundamental human right, and when the evidence shows that this right has been transgressed by some forms of traditional schooling, we are forced to act to create environments and programmes that are more positive.

Throughout this book, there is a strong focus on action rather than dispassionate analysis. These authors share an ethos of fairness for children, and they envision a better future for our schools. Most of all, they share their wisdom, which is precisely what we need at this time.

Brisbane, Australia/Hue City, Vietnam Professor Michael Dunne Queensland University of Technology The Institute for Community Health Research

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Preface

Teaching is a noble and satisfying profession for an individual who possesses a real passion for enlightening minds, as one can see the changes in knowledge and performance of children. There are teachers who are committed to teaching the subject with full interest and making the class more interesting to the students. They also ensure that students participate in the discussion. Any student with average intelligence levels can understand any subject if the subject is presented and taught in an interesting manner. They also become admirers of the teacher in the process.

As a result, parents feel more comfortable about the quality of education and safety of their wards. Although a majority of school teachers are responsible, knowledgeable, and committed to teaching, the irresponsible and insensitive behaviour of some teachers and non-teaching staff, especially caretakers, security personnel, school bus drivers and helpers, has become a serious concern for parents and school administrators across the society. The 2017 incident of Ryan International School in Gurugram, India, where a 7-year-old boy was murdered in the washroom in the early hours of school, and other incidents in different schools across the country, raised serious questions about the safety and security of children in the schools. In another incident, a female school teacher slapped a young boy 40 times in two minutes in the classroom in front of all other students for not responding to the attendance roll-call. The CCTV camera had recorded the incident. In another incident, a girl child of Grade V was forced to stand in front of the boys’ toilet in a school for not coming to school in proper school uniform. In both the latter cases, it was female teachers who had punished the students. There are many such examples of violence against children in schools across the world, which requires the immediate attention of school authorities and policy makers for corrective measures.

Other major challenges for students in schools include non-availability of teachers, ineffective teaching by some teachers, not addressing the queries of the students, too much home work just before the inspection of the school, not taking classes regularly, improper evaluation, discrimination, differential treatment, and harmful disciplinary measures. The challenges vary from country to country.

However, these challenges are part and parcel of school life, given the cultural

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diversity, lack of commitment and accountability of people in responsible positions, and the magnitude of the population of different countries. Countries with more population experience more challenges. Challenges require joint efforts and cooperation from concerned individuals. Nevertheless, these challenges could be mini- mized if leaders of educational institutions are sensitive, dynamic, and prone to taking proactive measures involving the teachers. There are some examples of good leadership in some schools where the challenges are reduced. However, for selection of the Principal of a school, seniority should not be the only criteria; it could be just one of the selection criteria. Broad parameters for selecting a Principal of a school could be good academic background, teaching and administrative experience. Most importantly, leadership qualities and passion for administration must be the very essential qualities. In most cases, age becomes an important criteria; that is, a senior teacher who is on the verge of retirement is considered for the post. Generally, a teacher on the verge of retirement becomes more lethargic, psychologically and physically, and thinks twice before introducing a new system.

Rather, they worry about a smooth transition to their retirement so that they can leave the school with all the beneﬁts of retirement.

Although the schooling systems in developed countries are much better in terms of teacher–student ratio, salary package of the teachers, student protection policy, flexible curricula, and so on, the present schooling system in developing countries like India requires drastic reforms in all aspects, for creating a better academic environment and producing responsible and skilled manpower. All the stakeholders, right from the Central Government to the local administration, should discharge their responsibilities effectively. When we talk about reforms, it should start with prioritizing education as one of the most important parts of the social and economic development of any country, and allocating more funds to education. Apart from this, the reform requires enforcement of better salary packages for attracting the best candidates for school teaching jobs and making them more accountable. Apart from this, there is an urgent need to revise the curricula periodically, reducing the load of the curricula, and bringing forth uniform curricula with some regional variations, standardization of evaluation process in terms of framing of same question papers for competitive examinations.

Given the above scenario, there is a need to think about positive schooling concepts from the right perspective and evolve student-friendly policies for ensuring healthy and safe academic environment in the school education system.

The broad objective of this document is to present the schooling scenario across the world and its impact on students and children. It intends to share the issues and concerns related to positive schooling with policy makers, school administrators, teachers, academics, researchers, parents and guardians, and students to sensitize them about the relevant issues for improvement of the situation. Further, this document intends to sensitize school administrators for creating student-friendly school environment so that the students can pursue their studies without fear, and grow with knowledge, skills, and good values and contribute towards social development. Highly experienced academics, researchers and professionals from the developed and developing countries contributed chapters to this volume on a

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wide range of issues related to positive schooling. This is, perhaps, theﬁrst volume of such a kind on this important issue.

There are 22 chapters in this volume, on various dimensions of positive schooling. The dimensions include the concept of positive schooling, challenges in ensuring positive schooling environment, safety in the school, students’ academic stress, understanding and supporting students’ motivation for learning, role of recreational and extra-curricular activities, childhood disability, mental health intervention programmes in schools, life skill education for students, training and motivation of teachers, teacher-student relationships and characteristics of a good principal as a leader.

In Chap.1, Sibnath Deb elaborates upon the basic concepts of positive schooling and its characteristics. Further, the chapter focuses on the ground reality concerning the schooling system in terms of types of schools, leadership in schools, role of teachers, school infrastructure, selection of qualiﬁed teaching staff, teaching methods, students disciplining methods and its impact, school curricula, students’ motivation, students’ psychological challenges, mental health support services, life skills education including career guidance, importance of extra-curricular activities, safety in school, methods of evaluation of students’ performance, and the need for revision of school curricula from time to time. Finally, the chapter proposes a number of remedial measures for the improvement of the school environment and for better academic ambience, in addition to discussing the implications of positive schooling.

Academic stress is a challenge for the students of both developed and developing countries. Cheryl Maykel, Johanna deLeyer-Tiarks, and Melissa A. Bray discuss this issue in Chap.2and highlight the ways in which the teachers and the parents can help the students to overcome academic stress. Further, the authors discuss how school-based interventions, such as standardized muscle relaxation, yoga, gratitude writing, and imagery, can help students to overcome academic stress and recom- mend delivering these support services to the students in the schools.

In Chap.3, Victoria G. Lidchi raises a very pertinent question based onﬁrst-hand clinical experiences of school education in the UK, that is, whether education has lost sight of children. There are many challenges for children and young people in the modern education system, and for the professionals too, who support them. At the end, Victoria G. Lidchi suggests a number of measures for improving the situation.

Motivating students in their studies is very important for their better performance. In Chap. 4, Linda Gilmore highlights the importance of motivation for children’s learning and describes the ways in which motivation may be strength- ened. Finally, the chapter focuses on strategies for promoting and sustaining motivation. In particular, the chapter emphasizes the importance of providing optimal challenge, experiences of success, and support for autonomy, as well as the beneﬁts of positive strategies for developing self-regulatory skills.

In Chap.5, Amity Noltemeyer, Erin A. Harper, and Anthony G. James emphasize the need for adopting culturally Responsive Positive Behavioural Interventions for supporting students. Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is the main focus of the chapter which emphasizes on a prevention-oriented, data-driven,

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multi-tier framework for providing a continuum of behavioural supports to enhance student and school outcomes.

People across society are vulnerable to mental health challenges from various stressful situations. Impulsive, irrational, discriminatory, and judgmental behaviour of some teachers causes tremendous trouble for the students as long as these types of teacher are in service. Mental health practitioners view that the teacher’s personality is an important determining factor of children’s behaviours. Since there is no system of examination of mental health status of teachers, students become the worst sufferers in terms of gaining knowledge and experience other challenges.

Nilanjana Sanyal discusses this issue at length in Chap.6based on her long clinical experience as a Psychoanalyst.

Psychology, with its strong theoretical background and empirically veriﬁed principles, can play an important role in improving the process of education. In Chap. 7, Anjali Gireesan explores the concepts of psychology in the context of improving educational outcomes for all learners based on the ideology of inclusive education. In addition, this chapter presents various existing philosophies like positive psychology and positive schooling in addition to elaborating the innovative teaching-learning methods that can enhance the learning of the students in the Indian context and the policies that facilitate the implementation of these methods.

Chapter8, jointly written by Shikha Soni and Noufal Hameed, discusses, in detail, the concept of mental health promotion, especially strength-based approaches and how schools can play a role in promoting positive mental health among children.

Chetna Duggal and Lamia Bagasrawala, in Chap.9, highlight the signiﬁcant mental health concerns experienced by adolescents in light of recent research and discuss the potential of the school as a site for mental health advocacy. The authors argue that, as a microcosm of society, schools can create a mentally healthy climate for students by changing the discourse from an illness-based approach to a well-being model. Further, the authors propose the idea of adopting a multi-level approach and mobilizing resources for mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention within schools. For this, the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders including parents, teachers, school leaders, peers, and mental health professionals are discussed and the importance of collective efforts is emphasized.

Chapter10, written by Sibnath Deb, is about the efficacy of reproductive and sexual health education for school-going adolescents. The chapter discusses the knowledge and perception of adolescents about various aspects of reproductive and sexual health, in addition to understanding their behaviour, based on thefindings of an intervention programme. Further, the chapter suggests evidence-based measures for disseminating information among adolescents about various reproductive and sexual health-related issues in a culture friendly and sensitive manner so that they become receptive and may benefit from the intervention programmes. Life skills education is one of the most accepted preventive and promotional models for dealing with various challenges and for reinforcing positive behaviour among children and adolescents in a volatile environment. This issue has been discussed in Chap.11by Subhasis Bhadra based on hisfirst-hand experiences in Gujarat and he explains the usefulness of this intervention strategy for the promotion of communal

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harmony among the students in the post-riot context of 2002 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

In Chap.12, Shinto Thomas, K. Alphonsa Jose, and P. Aneesh Kumar critically evaluate the school-based child protection programmes and suggest a model of child protection through positive schooling approach. The need for mental health promotion at schools in order to prevent mental illness and promote mental health has been increasingly endorsed and encouraged in recent times, across the globe.

Chapter 13 by M. Manjula discusses the needs for mental health promotion at schools, in addition to discussing challenges in implementing mental health promotion programmes at schools. Further, the chapter emphasizes the importance of the role of teachers and counsellors in successful implementation of school-based programmes for the students.

In Chap.14, Ana Carina Stelko-Pereira, Jessica Elena Valle, and Lucia C. A.

Williams review bullying literature, explore important aspects of its deﬁnition, as well as its short- and long term-consequences followed by a careful discussion of the importance of recreational activities, such as face-to-face games and online activities to identify bullying involvement and to intervene in the problem.

Evidence clearly demonstrates that extra-curricular activities have several indirect and direct beneﬁts in academics as well as in non-academic activities. However, it has not received much attention from the school authorities. Bangalore N. Roopesh, in Chap.15, highlights the beneﬁts of extra-curricular activities on students’ mental and physical health in addition to positive academic outcome based on evidence. In Chap.16, S. Visaka Devi discusses the major crises on research orientation, to bring about positive amendments in order to keep India secure from the onslaught of social anomalies and offers some suggestions to emerge from the situation.

The role of the Principal in a school is very important in terms of inculcating proper disciplinary methods, creating good academic ambience and motivating the teachers for teaching effectively. Chapter17, written by Bishakha Majumdar, traces the evolution of research in thefield of school leadership to compute the major themes that emerged over the years, along with the important antecedents and outcome variables. Apart from this, the chapter explores the latest developments in thefield, with special focus on the Indian educational scenario and identifies future areas for research.

In Chap.18Vimala Veeraraghavan focuses on the training of teachers to create the needed positive climate in the school so that there is effective teaching and learning and inculcation of positive values and attitudes in students. The chapter also argues for appropriate selection of students for admission to B.Ed. and M.Ed.

programmes through entrance examination and assessments by interview. Further, the chapter states that management and leadership at school have a key role in promoting positive schooling through school climate and recurrent training along the lines mentioned above. Chapter 19, written by Anjali Gireesan, aims to understand the issue of disability in India in the context of various legislations available to different stakeholders and its success in addressing the concerns of the population as well as the management of disability. Also, the chapter aims to understand two types of disabilities, intellectual disability, and learning disability,

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with respect to their cardinal symptoms, prevalence, assessment, and intervention, to provide a broad understanding of the disabilities, since these are understood to be the most prevalent in classroom settings. Finally, some suggestions are offered that may help in better management of disability across the nation, for children.

In Chap. 20, Ann Farrell examines Australia’s national agenda for optimizing children’s life chances for health development and learning. Finally, the chapter identiﬁes key enablers and barriers to optimizing children’s life chances for their healthy development and learning. Chapter 21, written by Lina Acca Mathew discusses the main highlights of the Right to Education Act, and the relevant literature regarding sexual exploitation of children in schools. The necessity for further measures to ensure positive schooling, free from sexual exploitation of children is highlighted in this chapter. Positive schooling is an approach to education that draws on positive psychology and emphasizes upon individual strengths and personal motivation to promote learning. Chapter 22 by Sridipa Sinha and Sutripta Banerjee seeks to look into the educational features of the schools established by Rabindranath Tagore and Maria Montessori. This chapter also tries to identify the various features of positive schooling as reflected in the institutions. An understanding of the practices of the institutions established by Rabindranath Tagore and Maria Montessori will pave the way for creating a positive climate in schools of the present era.

All the chapters are based on evidence from different countries, and readers will find a lot of information for bringing in positive changes in the school education system for the welfare and well-being of the students. I am thankful to all the contributors for their significant contribution to this volume, despite their busy schedule. I hope that the volume will be beneficial for policy makers, educational administrators, school authorities, teachers, parents, school students, research scholars, and academics.

Puducherry, India Sibnath Deb

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Editor and Contributors

About the Editor

Prof. Sibnath Deb, Ph.D. & D.Sc. is full-time professor of the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University (A Central University), India. Prof.

Deb is also acting as Director (I/C), Directorate of Distance Education and Dean (I/C), School of Law, Pondicherry University. Prior to joining the Pondicherry University, he was teaching in the University of Calcutta. In 1994, Prof. Deb did an intensive course on‘HIV/AIDS and Qualitative Research’ from the University of Western Australia. During April 2009 to August 2009, Prof. Deb visited the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia as Visiting Faculty. Currently he is also Adjunct Professor of the School of Public Health and Social Work, QUT, Australia. During 2004–’08, he served the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) as Councillor Member. In brief, he has got 28 years of teaching, research, and administrative experience and has produced 19 Ph.D.’s in addition to publishing more than 100 research articles/book chapters in the leading national and international journals. Prof. Deb has written seven books and edited six books. His latest books titled ‘Child Safety, Welfare, and Well-being’ (2016) and ‘An Empirical Investigation into Child Abuse and Neglect in India: Burden, Impact and Protective Measures’ (2018) have been published by Springer. His two more books titled

‘Social Psychology in Everyday Life’ (Sage) and ‘Distance Education: Prospects, Challenges and Way Forward’ (Pearson) are in press. Current areas of research interest of Prof. Deb include child safety, students’ mental health, adolescent reproductive health, and applied social psychology.

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Contributors

K. Alphonsa Jose is a Maulana Azad National Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.

She completed her Master’s Degree from the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University in 2015. She has cleared UGC NET, and holds a PG Diploma in Industrial Psychology. Her research in the area of Environmental Psychology attempts to identify the influencing factors behind choosing eco-friendly houses. She has authored six research articles in various peer-reviewed national and international journals, as well as in edited books. She has presented many scientiﬁc research papers in international and national conferences, and received the best paper award for “A Study on Incidents of Child Abuse and Neglect” in Puducherry. Funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Government of India.

P. Aneesh Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bengaluru. He has worked as project ofﬁcer for Indian Council for Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) in Pondicherry University and as Head, Department of Psychology, Wadi Huda Institute of Research and Advanced Studies afﬁliated to Kannur University, Kerala. He did his doctoral research on the topic

“burden of child abuse and neglect in Kerala: risk factors and impact”. He has published and presented papers in various national and international forums in the area of public health, child and adolescent psychology. Currently he is also involved in various research project including developing a training model for culturally competent and evidence-based mental health care for diverse societies (United States–India Education Foundation), developing character strength among primary school students through classroom teaching, and socialization of emotion and construal of anxiety and depression among mothers (a multi country project).

His research interest includes child mental health, public health and school counselling programmes. He teaches papers in child and adolescent counselling, counselling interventions for special population, development psychology, and qualitative research methods.

Lamia Bagasrawala is a clinical psychologist with a keen interest in child and adolescent well-being. Having completed her Masters from TISS, Mumbai, she has been working as a school counsellor in Mumbai for the last two years. As a school counsellor, she has engaged in individual therapy work, small group activities and classroom based interventions for adolescents as well as worked in collaboration with teachers, parents, school leaders, and support staff to promote student well-being.

Sutripta Banerjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education of Saheed Nurul Islam Mahavidyalaya. Sutripta Banerjee has a teaching experience of 7 years. She also served as an Assistant Teacher in Government Aided School for 3 years. She completed her Masters, B.Ed. and M.Phil. programme in Education from the University of Calcutta with specialization in Special education and Mental

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Hygiene. Her research areas are Educational Philosophy and Educational Psychology. This year she submitted her thesis from the University of Calcutta. She has also presented papers in various National and International Seminars.

Subhasis Bhadra, MSW, Ph.D. in Psychiatric Social Work, has been working as Associate Professor and Head in the Department of Social Work, School of Social Science, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. Dr. Bhadra started his career from intervention in Gujarat earthquake (2001) and subsequently worked in riots (Gujarat, 2002), Tsunami (2004), Kashmir earthquake and unrest (2005), terrorist attack (Mumbai serial Train Blast, 2006), cyclone Nargis (Myanmar, 2008), Tsunami in Japan (2011), Himalayan Tsunami (Uttarakhand Disaster, 2013) through different organizations, like Care India, American Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross, Oxfam India, Action Aid, International Medical Corps. He supported psychosocial work in few Asian countries, through training and material development. His research interest includes peace building, life skills education, social work interventions in community, disaster mental health, community & school mental health and psychosocial support.

He has delivered lectures in different institutes/universities on invitation; some of them are School of Social Work, University of Denver (Skype Lecture);

Department of Psychology, University of Indonesia; Department of Education, Tohoku University. Dr. Bhadra is actively engaged in various disaster response programme and lectures on disaster management issues in NIDM (National Institute of Disaster Management), New Delhi. In his credit there are number of academic articles and book chapters published at national and international levels.

E-mail: bhadrasubhasis@gmail.com.

Melissa A. Bray is a Professor and the Director of the School Psychology program within the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, USA. She is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. Dr. Bray is an elected member of the Society for the Study of School Psychology. She is licensed as a psychologist in the State of Connecticut, holds national certiﬁcation in school psychology, state certiﬁcation in school psychology, and licensure in speech language pathology. Since receiving her doctorate in 1997, she has published or has in press over 175 articles, chapters, and reviews in the professional literature, and has presented over 100 scholarly papers at national and international conferences. Her research interests are in the areas of interventions for communication disorders (mainly stuttering), classroom disruptive behaviour, and physical health and wellness, especially in relation to asthma and cancer.

Johanna deLeyer-Tiarks is a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut in the School Psychology program within the Neag School of Education, USA. Her research interests include minority stress, mind-body health, and culturally responsive school-based practices. Her background is in childhood social development and the study of socio-psychological processes underlying community systems.

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S. Visaka Devi is currently employed as Assistant Professor, Department of English, Pondicherry University. She joined the University in 2010 and has served the University since then. Her area of specialization is Comparative Literature and area of interests is Poetry, Translation, and Culture Studies. She has attended several National and International conferences and presented papers related to Translation, Feminist views, Concept of Self, Autobiographies, Memoirs, Culture, and Religion for social change. She has delivered talks on topics of literary interest and social values. Her talks focus on Literature and Life, Children and Children’s Literature navigating into Literature in particular as a tool to bring about a positive social change. She has published several research articles to her credit and has contributed articles in edited books focusing in majority on Translation, Feminism, and Socio-Cultural aspects. The subject of both her research articles and creative writing delve into human psyche and holds Literature as the ﬁnest therapy that would serve as a social panacea. A published creative writer, she publishes all her creative works under the pen name Vishaka Sajan. She has published a collection of poems titled Twilight Lamps (2012). She has also published a couple of shorts stories and a couple of translations of short stories from Malayalam to English that have been well received by readers. She is basically interested in understanding human nature which forms the basis of her creative writing. Besides this, she was a featured e-card writer for a Hawaii-based website www.passionup.com (2009) and her cards are still afloat the website.

Chetna Duggal is an Assistant Professor in the School of Human Ecology, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has completed her Ph.D. from TISS, Mumbai, and her M.Phil. in Clinical Psychology from NIMHANS, Bangalore. She is a practicing psychotherapist and works with children, adolescents, couples, and families. She is the trustee of Apnishala, an organization working towards making life skills education accessible to children from under- privileged contexts. She has a keen interest in psychological well-being, promotion, and intervention for children and adolescents.

Ann Farrell is Head of the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive education, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

Her work in policy research, ethnography, and mixed method evaluation has a focus on the rights of children and young people to provision, protection, and participation in local and global contexts. Authoring more than 100 scholarly works, she publishes in the areas of early childhood education and care; transdis- ciplinary research in education, health and the law; research ethics; and global- ization. She is the Minister’s nominee to the Board of the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, the national body supporting the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care. She serves as an expert assessor with the Australian Research Council, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Research Foundation, Reviews and Evaluation Directorate of South Africa.

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Linda Gilmore is a Professor of Educational and Developmental Psychology at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia where she teaches students in psychology and pre-service education programmes. Linda has resear- ched mastery motivation in children, adolescents, and adults for more than 25 years.

Much of her research has focused on children with Down syndrome. She has also investigated the motivational proﬁles of children whose teachers presume they are just “lazy”, demonstrating powerfully that unrecognized learning and attention difﬁculties may underlie students’ apparent lack of interest at school. As a psychologist, Linda has worked with many children, families, and schools with the goal of better understanding and supporting their engagement with learning in positive ways. In particular, her research and practice focus on children with developmental disabilities, such as rare chromosome disorders, and community attitudes towards disability.

Anjali Gireesan has been working as Scientist‘B’ in the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Prior to that, she was working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Amity University, Noida, India. She has six years of full time teaching and research experience. She has published six research papers and written a book chapter titled‘Contexts of Risks and Exploitation’ with Prof. Sibnath Deb for an edited book titled ‘The SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Research (2015)’, SAGE Publication, Australia. Her two more chapters, viz., (i) Enhancing Education: Improving Learner Outcomes with Principles of Psychology, and (ii) Children with Disability in India: Policies, Assessment and Management have been accepted for an edited book titled‘Positive Schooling and Child Development:

International Perspectives’ to be published by Springer in 2018. Her areas of research interest include child development, childhood disability, child abuse and neglect, and student’s mental health.

Noufal Hameed is a Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) registered, licensed Clinical Psychologist. At present, he is pursuing Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore. He holds his Master’s degree in Applied Psychology where he specialized in Clinical Psychology. He also has an M.Phil. in Clinical Psychology from Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. His areas of research interest include positive mental health, mental health promotion, and stigma reduction. As a member of the Positive Psychology Unit, a part of Department of Clinical Psychology, he regularly conducts workshops on topics related to mental illness and health awareness, stigma reduction, inclusion of persons with disabilities, and promotion of safe riding, among many other related topics. His work focuses on people adolescents and young adults. His doctoral thesis involves development of a positive youth development programme for promotion of mental health among college youth.

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Erin A. Harper is an Assistant Professor in the School Psychology programme at Miami University. She was a school psychologist in urban public schools for eight years prior to joining the faculty at Miami. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally responsive school mental health supports for underserved youth in the United States and abroad. As a graduate student, Dr. Harper collaborated with faculty and students at the Georgia State University Center for Research on School Safety, School Climate, and Classroom Management to develop Project P.R.E.V.E.N.T (Promoting Respect, Enhancing Value, Establishing New Trust), a research-based, interactive curriculum to promote the healthy development of adolescent girls. Dr. Harper has published research in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has presented her work at numerous professional conferences. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Spelman College and graduate degrees (M.Ed. and Ed.S.) in School Psychology from Georgia State University.

Anthony G. James is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Science and Social Work at Miami University (OH). His scholarly work uses an interdis- ciplinary approach to understanding social interactions and human development, with an expertise in positive youth development, religion and spirituality, diverse family systems, and family processes. Currently, he is using national data (conti- nental United States) to investigate the role of youths’ spirituality in their positive development, focusing specifically on youth conceptions and self-ratings of spirituality. His has been published in referred journals and book chapters, on topics in the areas of youth development and family relations. Dr. James is a certified relationship assessment facilitator through the PREPARE/ENRICH programme and a certified family life educator through the National Council on Family Relations.

He earned B.S. sociology (military science minor) from Lincoln University (MO), with graduate degrees (M.S. & Ph.D.) in Human Development and Family Studies (religious studies minor) from the University of Missouri.

Victoria G. Lidchi is a consultant clinical psychologist and systemic psychotherapist, trained in mediation, public health, and social development. She worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital before spending 8 years in South America as a consultant, trainer, and supervisor of mental health professionals working with children, adults, and families in the ﬁeld of trauma and abuse in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil. She is an experienced trainer and supervisor. In the UK, she has worked in the Tavistock court service and now manages a local authority service for vulnerable children, young people, and families with complex with mental health, social care, and educational needs. She is also involved in developing an innovative community mental health project commissioned to deal with the aftermath of the Tottenham Riots—“Thinking Space”—bringing together ideas developed at the Tavistock and those underlying community therapy initiatives in Brazil. She has published in four languages in books and journals.

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Bishakha Majumdar a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Indore, is involved in teaching and research in the areas of Organizational Behaviour, Psychology, and Human Resource Management. She has also conducted several management development programmes with organizations such as Coal India and Oriental Insurance, in the areas of communication, leadership, and employee motivation. She has 12 national and international publications and her works have been recognized with, among others, an Honourable Mention (ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2015), the Best Management Research Award 2013 (National Academy of Psychology), Best Publication Award 2012 (Journal of Indian Academy of Applied Psychology), and the Young Scientist Award, 2011 (Indian Academy of Applied Psychology). Bishakha has also taught Psychology at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the University of Calcutta, has also been a Master Trainer for HIV/AIDS counsellors under the World Bank GFATM Programme. She is presently an Assistant Professor in OB & HR at FORE School of Management, New Delhi.

M. Manjula, Additional Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS, has been working as a faculty at Behavioural Medicine Unit of the Department for over 10 years. She completed her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from NIMHANS. Her specialization is in the area of Cognitive behaviour therapies in various psychiatric disorders and health conditions. She has carried out research in the following areas: psychopathology of anxiety, and mood disorders; cognitive behavioural interventions for emotional disorders, personality disorders and sexual dys- functions and community based interventions in youth for mood disorders, anxiety, suicidality, academic stress, relationship difﬁculties and emotion regulation. She has guided about eight Ph.D. theses and about 15 M.Phil. Dissertations in the above said topics. She has published about 35 papers in national and international journals, has written book chapters and edited psychology books for Nursing and Bachelor of Education courses. She is a reviewer for national and international journals of psychiatry and psychology. She has completed funded projects on stress management, self-harm behaviours, suicide prevention, and achieving excellence in sports for youth.

Lina Acca Mathew is Assistant Professor at Government Law College, Kozhikode, Kerala, India. She did her Ph.D. from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, in 2017. Her thesis is titled‘Legislative Models of Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse in India: A Review and Critical Analysis.’ She did her LL.M. from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, India (2002) and her LL.B. from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram (2000), India. She is interested in the areas of information technology laws and child laws, and has published various papers and made presentations on the same.

Cheryl Maykel is an Assistant Professor in the counselling and school psychology programs in the Division of Education at Rivier University in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA. She has authored numerous publications and has presented her work at local, national, and international conferences. Dr. Maykel’s research

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interests are mainly in the areas of mind-body health, including the cognitive and behavioural beneﬁts of physical activity in the classroom.

Amity Noltemeyer is an Associate Professor and coordinator of the School Psychology programme at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA. Her research interests include Positive Behavioural Interventions & Supports (PBIS), child/adolescent resilience, disproportionality in school discipline, bias in school decision-making, and school climate. Noltemeyer has authored many journal articles and book chapters, and has also co-edited a book and guest-edited a journal special issue. She also manages externally funded grants, including her role as co-director of Ohio’s School Climate Transformation Grant. Noltemeyer is a Past President of the Ohio School Psychologists Association, and currently serves as Editor of School Psychology International journal. She was awarded the Robert H.

and Nancy J. Blayney Professorship from the Miami University Ofﬁce of the Provost in 2013. She earned an M.S. and Ed.S. from Miami University in School Psychology and a Ph.D. from Kent State University in School Psychology. She is a Nationally Certiﬁed School Psychologist.

Bangalore N. Roopesh is Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. After obtaining Ph.D. from the NIMHANS, he did Post-Doctoral Research in the Downstate Medical Centre, New York, USA. He has published 14 research papers and presented papers in 16 conferences. Till date, he has completed six research projects successfully.

Nilanjana Sanyal is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta. She has been teaching at the University and has been practicing psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy for the last 33 years. Professor Sanyal has imparted training in counselling in various governmental institutions and N.G.O.s., both nationally and internationally, and is consistently involved in mass media programmes for awareness-generation regarding mental health issues.

She has to her credit a number of national and international publications and is also a columnist in different national dailies and magazines. She has edited a book and is a co-author of a Test Manual. She has 27 book chapters to her credit till date.

Her research interests include personality and clinical psychology, interper- sonal relationships, psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. She is a Co-Researcher for the creation of registered assessment methodologies, namely, the Fairy Tale Test (FTT) with Dr. Carina Coulacouglou, University of Athens, Greece, and State Trait Anxiety Inventory—two Children and Adolescents (STAXI—2 C/A) with Dr. Thomas Bruner and Dr. Charles D. Spielberger, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA. She is an Honorary Member of the Fairy Tale Test Society, Greece, apart from her membership in other national and international professional bodies. She is a Gold Medallist of Calcutta University, both at the under-graduate and post-graduate level. She received Jubilee Merit Prize and Jawaharlal Nehru Award from Government of India along with the Suhashini Basu Memorial Prize from Indian Psychoanalytic Society for excellence of a research paper. She is the

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recipient of Bharat Jyoti Award, 2012 for meritorious achievement and life time contribution to social works, and Prof. Maya Deb Memorial Award from Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 2012 apart from other awards.

Sridipa Sinha is an Associate Professor, in the Department of Education, University of Calcutta, India. Dr. Sridipa Sinha has a teaching experience of 15 years. She has completed some research projects and has about more than 30 publications in reputed journals. Research based paper prepared by her has been presented in many Conferences both at National and International levels. Her research areas include ICT, Mental Health and Guidance, Teacher Education. Her successful guidance has led to the award of M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees to various candidates. She has also good organization capabilities and has organized various Refresher Course, and National and International Conferences.

Shikha Soni is an RCI licensed Clinical Psychologist, currently a Doctoral Research Scholar in Psychology in Department of Liberal Arts at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. She has completed her M.Phil. in Clinical Psychology from Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi, Graduation, and Post-graduation in Psychology from Delhi University. She has dealt with various disorders and their treatment. She has been trained in various psychological testing like psycho diagnostics, intelligence tests, neuropsychology, and other tests (disability/

psychopathology) and therapies like cognitive behaviour therapy, behaviour therapy, supportive therapy, marital/family therapy, and various other therapies. She has worked as Senior Research Fellow in Department of Clinical psychology in NIMHANS hospital, Bangalore in a project studying Cognitive behaviour therapy in partial responders with OCD: a randomized controlled trail. Her research interests bridge the areas of positive, social, personality, and clinical psychology. Her research focuses on positive psychology, cognitive behaviour therapy in anxiety disorder, mental health, psychotherapy processes, and outcome.

Ana Carina Stelko-Pereira holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and is Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Health at Ceará State University (UniversidadeEstadual do Ceará, UECE), a Member of the Laboratory of Analysis and Prevention of Violence (Laprev/UFSCar).

Her main areas of investigation are: school violence, bullying, teacher-student relationship, and games development.

Shinto Thomas has completed his Master’s Degree from the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University (A Central University) in 2013. He also holds a PG Diploma in Industrial Psychology. Currently he is pursuing his doctoral research in the Pondicherry University, India, on risk behaviour of emerging adults.

He has published six research papers. His research area includes mental health, risk behaviour, development, characteristics, and issues faced by emerging adults.

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Jessica Elena Valle is a Psychologist and a Ph.D. Candidate at the Psychology Graduate Programme at the Federal University of São Carlos (Universidade Federal de São Carlos, UFSCar), and an M.A. in Psychology also from the same University. She is has a fellowship from CAPES (Brazil’s Ministry of Education Higher Education Department) and is a member of the Laboratory of Analysis and Prevention of Violence (Laprev/UFSCar) where she investigates: bullying, teacher-student relationship and school engagement.

Vimala Veeraraghavan Former Professor of psychology, Delhi University and Emeritus Professor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, has 35 years of teaching and research experience. She has published more than 50 research papers and written a number of books. Few of them have been published by Sage Publication, India.

Lucia C. A. Williams is a Full Professor of Psychology at the Psychology Graduate Programme from the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil where she founded the award-winning research laboratory Laprev (The Laboratory for Violence Analysis &

Prevention) doing research, consultation and community outreach in the areas of family and school violence. She is a research fellow from CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientiﬁc and Technological Development) and from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, and a Council Member of ISPCAN (The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect).

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Chapter 1 Positive Schooling: Concept,

Characteristics, Situation Analysis and Implications

Sibnath Deb

Abstract The ultimate objective of education is imparting knowledge to students, enhancing their coping skills, helping them in building their character, and,ﬁnally, producing skilled and responsible citizens for nation building. Therefore, schools play an important role in achieving the objective of education and in shaping the career of a child. This chapter outlines the basic concepts of positive schooling and its characteristics. Further, the chapter focuses on the ground reality concerning the schooling systems in India in terms of types of schools, leadership in schools, role of teachers, infrastructure of schools, teaching methods, periodic training for teachers, disciplining methods, corporal punishment and its impact, student motivation, students’ enrolment and attendance, examination and methods of evaluation of student performance, revision of school curricula from time to time, effective parents-teachers meeting and feedback mechanism, involving larger community in the school management committee and taking their suggestions for better functioning. The chapter also discusses students’ safety, their psychological challenges, mental health support services, life skills or adolescent reproductive health education for school students, assessment of students’ aptitude and interests for career guidance, importance of extra-curricular activities, students’ protection policy in school, and student feedback mechanism. Finally, the chapter focuses on revisiting the selection procedure of the teachers and making school teaching more attractive by providing better salary and other facilities in addition to describing the impli- cation of positive schooling for overall welfare and well-being of students and prescribing some steps based on evidence.

Keywords Positive schooling

^Concepts

^Students

^Teachers

^India

S. Deb (&)

Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University (A Central University), Puducherry, India

e-mail: sibnath23@gmail.com

S. Deb (ed.), Positive Schooling and Child Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0077-6_1

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Introduction

A school is a place for imparting knowledge, developing skills, and imbibing dis- ciplined behaviour and, in turn, producing responsible, potentially productive citizens for building a healthy society. Along with the moral developments, the success of the student depends upon a positive, supportive, congenial, and friendly schooling environment. Evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the success of students and a positive schooling environment. Students are generally more motivated to do well, and to realize their full potential, in schools that have a positive academic climate, where they feel safe, included, and supported. A safe and fear-free environment in the school and in the classroom are two essential prereq- uisites of positive schooling. A positive schooling climate exists when all members of the school feel safe, included, and accepted, and actively promote positive behaviours and interactions. Principles of equity and inclusive education must be embedded in the learning environment to support a positive schooling climate and a culture of mutual respect. A positive schooling climate is a crucial component for the prevention of inappropriate behaviour and for inculcating responsible behaviour.

The broad objective of this chapter is to discuss about Indian school education system, characteristics of positive schooling and the role of Principal and teachers in creating effective academic ambiance in addition to discussing about other issues and concerns for revamp of the school education system in India.

Types of Schools in India

Indian schools can be broadly categorized on the basis of administering bodies:

Government (State and Central), Quasi-government (Army Schools), Model Schools (Jawahar Navodaya Vidayalas [JNVs]), Public, and Private Schools. These schools develop their curriculum and conduct examinations at the state and central levels under different institutional afﬁliations: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certiﬁcate Examinations (CISCE) and state education boards. Curricula, and methods of teaching and evaluation of students performance, in the different categories of schools vary, which is in violation of the fundamental idea of the Indian Constitution, of equity and equality. In other words, it might be stated that the present schooling system in India does not give equal inputs to all children, which can be done by following broad and uniform curricula and measuring performance using uniform evaluation methods.

The number of private schools is increasing across the world and in India. But still, it is inadequate as compared to the need. Privatization of education—a drive initiated by the Government of India—is a welcome initiative since the government alone cannot cater to the needs of education. However, the government should also ensure that private schools do not exploit people by collecting high tuition fees in the name of school development. At the same time, in accordance with The Rights

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of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, each school must offer 25% seats to socially backward children.

Characteristics of a Positive School Climate

Some of the essential characteristics of a positive schooling climate for students include safety, acceptance, respectful relationships, trust, and fairness and kindness in the interactions between teachers and students. For teachers, this means a more supportive environment, location of school, availability of adequate facilities of infrastructure, open exchange of ideas and views, inclusive education, punctuality, sincerity and motivation among teachers, updated knowledge in the subject, effective teaching methods, positive disciplining, thus building a positive school climate, and embedding the principles of equity and inclusive education in all aspects of the learning environment. Above all, the school must support the well-being and achievement of all students. These factors are most important to building a positive schooling environment.

Leadership

Effective leadership makes a difference in any institution. In educational institutions like schools, professionally trained teachers should be appointed for careful plan- ning and management of the system. A person with a good educational pedigree might be suitable for effective teaching, but they may not have the required administrative skills for running school administration efﬁciently. Therefore, an individual with administrative skills and pedigree in management, along with a passion for school administration, should be appointed for leading an academic institution. Not much research is carried out on leadership styles of school principals. However, availableﬁndings are quite interesting and they give an idea as to how a school principal should function. For example, according to Hess and Kelly (2007), school leadership is the key to school improvement. In a new era of accountability, where school leaders are expected to demonstrate bottom-line results and use data to drive decisions, the skill and knowledge of principals matter more than ever.

Based on a primary research using an unstructured interview, Blumberg and Greenﬁeld (1986) identiﬁed eight types of principals, in terms of their outstanding characteristics, as revealed through analysis of their comments: the Organizer, the Value-Based Juggler, the Authentic Helper, the Broker, the Humanist, the Catalyst, the Rationalist, and the Politician.

Another study pointed out that the heads should have mastery over time and stress management, exercise and practice of cooperation, learning habits should be such that whatever is learned may be translated into aspired for and desired skills. In 1 Positive Schooling: Concept, Characteristics, Situation… 3

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the light of the analysis of the data andﬁndings of the study, it has been suggested that the selection of potential leaders should not solely be based on academic qualiﬁcation; selection criteria should also take into account leadership styles, traits, and competencies. Besides modern knowledge, perspectives of leadership should be included in the curriculum of teacher education (Malik et al.2016). Further, the authors emphasized that leadership in education must be committed to the vision of excellence, with an equal emphasis on knowledge.

Proper understanding and coordination between the principals and teachers are essential for effective functioning of a school. In this regard, Marks and Printy (2003) focused on school leadership relations between principals and teachers, and examined the potential of their active collaboration around instructional matters to enhance the quality of teaching and student performance. The analysis was grounded in two conceptions of leadership: transformational and instructional. The study disclosed that transformational leadership is a necessary but insufﬁcient condition for instructional leadership. When transformational and shared instructional leadership coexisted in an integrated form of leadership, the influence on school performance, measured by the quality of its pedagogy and the achievement of its students, was found to be substantial. In a review-based article, another author highlights the importance of leaders being learners, its implications for leadership development, and the importance of creating and sustaining certain organizational conditions which facilitate instructional leadership (Southworth2002).

Finally, a school principal should be committed and hardworking with a pleasing personality and management skills in dealing with challenging situations. He must also be knowledgeable, sensitive to teachers and students’ issues, open to criticism and any new ideas for bringing a change in the systems within the purview of the rules and regulations of the school, in the best interest of the students.

School Infrastructure

Infrastructure varies from school to school. However, there are visible differences between private and public schools in terms of infrastructure, although some private schools also do not have adequate facilities. Some of the shortcomings of public schools in India include small classrooms, poor seating arrangements, lack of basic facilities like a blackboard, study materials, poor lighting, lack of sanitary facilities, lack of safe drinking water (Devanathan2014), the lack of a hygienic environment for consumption of food during recess, distance of the school, poor transportation, and so on. However, the infrastructure of public schools located in urban areas is reasonably better compared to public schools located in semi-urban and rural areas.

In semi-urban and rural areas, most public schools do not even have safe drinking water and restrooms. Students mostly depend on tube wells for drinking water facilities and the openﬁelds for excretion and urination. For girls, it is extremely embarrassing to go to the openﬁelds to attend to their metabolic needs and, as a result, a large number of girl students suppress nature’s call which sometimes

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results in other physical health problems. This issue drew the attention of the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, who took a special interest in making arrangements for restrooms in semi-urban and rural schools (Majra and Gur2010; Meller and Litschig2016; Muralidharan and Kremer2006).

There is an urgent need to allocate more budget for creating basic infrastructure facilities for schools: the classroom, ergonomic seating arrangements, sanitation facilities, safe playground and drinking water, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas. If the classrooms are not well-equipped, a teacher will not feel motivated to teach effectively. Without blackboard, chalk, and duster a teacher cannot teach effectively. Seating arrangements in most public schools are not ergonomically suitable which cause back pain for a large number of students. The lack of restroom and safe drinking water are some of the causes for high school dropouts in rural schools in India (Muralidharan and Kremer2006).

The Role of Teachers

Teachers are role models for their students. A sincere teacher with adequate knowledge in his/her subject, good communication skills and effective teaching methods can develop interest among students about the subject. At the same time, teachers play an important role in modelling positive, inclusive, and respectful language and behaviour, inside and outside classrooms. To help develop and sus- tain a positive school climate, boards of study and schools should actively promote and support behaviours that reflect their board’s code of conduct, equity, and inclusive education policy and character development initiatives. The school authority should also invite members of the broader community to become involved in this effort as a part of the school community.

Teaching Staff

For quality teaching, qualiﬁed and experienced teachers are required for every school. There cannot be any compromise in this regard. Only an erudite teacher with good communication skills can impart knowledge among students effectively (Allen et al. 2011; Shulman 1987). However, this is a big challenge for most schools in India, irrespective of the category of schools. There are good teachers in every school who are committed to teaching; teaching is their passion. Students who come in contact with these teachers really enjoy the subject and also develop a special interest in the same subject. If a teacher comes to class with proper preparation and teaches the subject citing simple examples, any student with average intelligence will understand the subject even if it is a difﬁcult subject. So teachers’ skills are very important for quality teaching and generating interest among the students on the subject (Darling-Hammond 2000). It makes a big 1 Positive Schooling: Concept, Characteristics, Situation… 5

Positive Schooling and Child Development

Sibnath Deb Editor

Positive

Schooling and Child

Development

International Perspectives

Positive Schooling and Child Development

Sibnath Deb

Editor

Positive Schooling and Child Development

International Perspectives

123

The book is dedicated to my parents Sushil Chandra Deb

Sandhya Deb

Foreword

Preface

Contents

Editor and Contributors

About the Editor

Contributors

Chapter 1

Positive Schooling: Concept,

Characteristics, Situation Analysis and Implications

Introduction

Types of Schools in India

Characteristics of a Positive School Climate

Leadership

School Infrastructure

The Role of Teachers

Teaching Staff