n mid-2016, Spire Research and Consulting collaborated with global education service provider Pearson for the fourth consecutive time, to conduct a survey of 6,494 teachers from higher education institutes and schools across 546 cities and towns in India (serving around 18.9 lakh students). The survey revealed the opinions of teachers on Indian students’ level of engagement in active learning and gave recommendations on improvements.The Pearson-Spire survey revealed that, in the view of teachers, close to 55% of students are involved in active learning. These (percentage of) students are found to be the highest in Telangana at 63% and the lowest in Haryana as well as Kerala at 48%.
The overall engagement level of students in school (61%) is higher than those in higher education institutions (50%). Furthermore, respondents felt that what facilitated engagement was real-life stories (86%), group discussions/activities (83%) and technology platforms for better student-teacher interaction.
Nonetheless, challenges such as excessive use of personal gadgets (29%), lack of parental support (12%) and lack of interest level in their subject/career stream (9%) inhibited learning.
Interestingly, teachers felt that participation in extra-curricular activities showed improvement (73%) over the past five years. However during this time, they felt that there was a sharp decline in students’ ethics and values (42%) as well as discipline (38%).