Bridging Lab to Life: Pedagogical Impact of Remote Sensing Training on Secondary Teachers

Abstract

Whenever it comes to experiencing, analysing, and effectively evaluating the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and environmental sustainability—that is, “how much lost and how much retained of our natural resources by our activity now”— geospatial technology is the best tool available. The objective of this study is to evaluate the current knowledge, need for teacher training, and various creative activities and explore an attractive pedagogical process as well as their effect on selected teachers. The various pedagogical interventions (such as explanation, model preparation and demonstration, ICT-integrated learning materials, experiential learning, ICT-integrated hands-on, and analytical thinking) are provided in the classroom for enhancing the competency among teachers. A pre- and post-training assessment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The findings indicated a significantly positive impact on teachers from five western states of India. Due to their limited prior knowledge related to the content, participants were highly focused throughout the program. Notably, teachers of Chhattisgarh scored 48.11 percent more in the posttest as compared to the pre-test scores. Teachers from Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa got 31.44 percent, 40.33 percent, and 12.88 percent more score, respectively, due to prior knowledge about ICT and lack of syllabus of remote sensing in the textbook of Gujarat. Therefore, these results suggest that the study will be immensely beneficial for students, curriculum developers, and stakeholders across the field of remote sensing in educational sectors.