B.Ed. Students awareness about Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Abstract

NEP 2020 has given highest priority to foundational stage of school education and recognised Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) as an indispensable prerequisite for all future schooling and lifelong learning. The foundational stage (FS) of schooling aims to nurture physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, aesthetic, and cultural development, alongside literacy and numeracy skills among children. Teaching at this stage should be active and interactive, Use of toys, puzzles, and hands-on activities both indoors and outdoors dominate the teaching-learning process. Children at this stage require tenderness, nurturing and love. Teachers teaching in this school stage need to be patient listeners, model different behaviours for children. They need to engage children in conversations, storytelling, singing songs and rhymes, dancing and movements, art and craft, indoor and outdoor games, spending time with nature. As per the current scenario, students who have done B.Ed. are eligible to teach in standards I to V. However, are these students trained for adopting pedagogy that is appropriate for the children from age groups of 6 to 11? With this question in mind, the present study explored about the awareness of B.Ed. students regarding FLN and pedagogy adopted in foundational school stage. The findings revealed that B.Ed. students have medium to low level of awareness regarding various aspects of FLN. Further gender, location of the institution and the course pursued had significant influence on awareness scores of students.