CISCE schools focus on board students’ time management for critical-thinking questions
Times of India | 3 November 2024
12 Kolkata: City schools affiliated with Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) are focusing on time management when handling 25% critical thinking questions and are holding special sessions, workshops and practice tests for board batches. In the 2025 board exams, students will get approximately 25% weightage for higher-order thinking questions. Candidates need to apply their analytical skills and creative knowledge to score well in this domain and schools are focusing on practising these types of questions to develop students' analytical skills, which will help them answer questions within a stipulated time frame.
Several schools are helping students practise answering these questions within the shortest time. This ensures they will not face any trouble while writing papers in the board exams. Julien Day Group of Schools director of education Terence John said, "We have divided the question papers into three parts, so more and more questions are being given for each part to enhance students' understanding. Our teachers are attending workshops conducted by the council, and we have asked them to prepare questions on logical reasoning and share them with the children. However, we are concentrating on stress management. Our counsellors are taking sessions on it and I'm personally guiding them on time management to get a good score."
CISCE has released the pattern and uploaded practice material for students' understanding. In the 2024 examination, students faced over 10% weightage for such high-order and critical thinking questions. The council has been organising a number of workshops for subject teachers involving experts while schools are making efforts to prepare their students by following special workshops and practice exams.
Rammohan Mission School principal Sujoy Biswas said, "Our subject teachers have been attending workshops organised by the council, and they are preparing children in classroom learning." St Augustine's Day School, Shyamnagar, principal Rodney Borneo said, "Questions are familiar to them but the content is converted to critical thinking in many forms, encouraging children to shift from rote learning to using their skills to understand basic principles. Our teachers are taking good care of students preparing for boards and we are organising workshops from time to time as well."
Frank Anthony Public School principal Ian Myers said they tested board batches through the half-yearly exams. "We set questions including at least 25% application-based ones. Class X and XII batches handled such questions well and answered tactfully, so we hope these questions will not be much difficult for them. In Dec, we will have a practice test before they appear for pre-board exams," he said.
CISCE held a workshop in Hyderabad from Oct 21 to 25, where around 150 secondary-level subject teachers from affiliated schools across India participated. A team of subject experts discussed the best practices of the competency-based teaching-learning system and assessment under this new system.