Innovations in Teaching-Learning and Evaluation: An Overview of Processes Undertaken at CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

Introduction And Overview Of Scholarly Frameworks

In their edited anthology Strategies for Fostering Inclusive Classrooms in Higher Education Teaching and Learning (2019), Hoffman et al., define innovation as “positive change” (2) indicating contexts in which new and improved approaches are implemented with the specific objective of making contexts better and finding solutions to extant issues. They also stress the importance of empirical research in the search for innovative teaching-learning models. Reminding the reader that all academic endeavors exist within broader societal frameworks that shape the structures in which we live and work, the author applies the societal model (the structure of the society and the way it is constructed rather than the impairment or disability) to the classroom setting, highlighting the necessity for inclusivity and multiculturalism in classroom settings just as they are important within the broader societal framework.

One of Hoffman et al., key contributions to the notion of innovations in teaching-learning seems to be their focus on aspects of pedagogy such as diversity and equity, both of which are crucial to the building of inclusive classrooms. Often, awareness of such concerns is context-driven, and cannot be determined through examining case studies or through theoretical insights. For example, in the context of CHRIST, international students often form part of a minority community within campus. While in any other context, a citizen of a so-called ‘developed’ nation may be considered more privileged than someone from a ‘developing’ nation, this may not necessarily be the case in a context in which the person is part of an ethnic minority rather than majority group.

Another significant study impacting one’s understanding of innovations is Sengupta and Blessinger’s (2019), Refugee Education: Integration and Acceptance of Refugees in Mainstream Society, given the steep rise in refugee crises the world over, it seems critically important today to address the integration into ‘mainstream’ societal structures of those who are displaced from their homes. It is also important to care for those who go through more psychological processes of displacement by being forced to feel alienated and marginalized within the very contexts that are supposed to nurture and support them. Sengupta and Blessinger give the example of a first-grade classroom in which the teacher asks the students to describe the colour of apples. While most students say that apples are either red or green, one student insists on describing the apple’s colour as white. When asked to explain the answer, the student says, ‘Just look inside the apple’. The anecdote reveals two significant points: first, that none of the students were wrong, but rather all of them answered the question according to their own perceptions; and second, that external appearance rather than interior ones often dictate how perceptions are formed. The student who insisted that apples are white was considering not the external appearance of the fruit, but rather what it looks like on the inside. Through such insights into the psyches of even the youngest of learners, educators have access to valuable means of understanding what works best for different kinds of learners; it is a strong deterrent to the idea of a ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to teaching-learning practices.