Development of Teaching Faculty- Need of the hour

                                                                                             Dr. N. H. DESHPANDE

Preamble:

 With the growth of technical Institutes in India, the Quantity part is probably addressed. The million dollar question remains is that of Quality. Are the Institutes imparting quality education to the budding engineers and managers? Big question mark! And the answer is known to virtually everyone. The policy makers may be strategizing their actions towards this. The managements may be worried about it. The teacher community may or may not be concerned with it. The parents obviously search for Institutes where world class, highly qualified and experienced faculty is working. But the most affected and hence vocal component of education system (around whom everything revolves) is certainly not comfortable with the situation. Thus Faculty development for Teaching Learning effectiveness in Engineering Colleges and Management Institutes is a matter concern of every stakeholder of the system. With the kind of fee structure that prevails, it is (otherwise also) the birth right of every student who gets admitted to professional courses, to have best-in-class education.

With the number of Institutes, as said earlier, no where demand-supply situation was studied properly. Where do we get over night, faculty members who are not only qualified, competent but also meet the requirements of the regulatory bodies? The obvious choices are-

1.      Get faculty from existing Institutes. (Limited and undesirable option in long run.)
2.     Industry is another reservoir of qualified resources- working professionals who wish to             switch over to education for various reasons, or retired professionals.
3.     Fresh pass outs, who along with Industry (or otherwise also these days) are readyto take         career in education as well.
4.     Re employment of those (from all walks of life) who are still energetic to offer their                    services.

Role of Faculty members in changing scenario:

Another profound reason is that the role of the faculty members in Engineering Colleges and Management Institutes has undergone considerable changes over last decade. The training and development need has been intensified in recent times due to information explosion, accelerated knowledge and Industrial growth, global access to learning, increasing alternatives of student learning, demand of need based curriculum and new effective teaching and learning strategies. There is clear demand from students and parents for self-learning and more control along with quality teaching this need is forcing to undergo many changes in teaching and learning process. The changes are so accelerating that any attempt to respond those using established principles, models, practices and processes is likely to be out of order.

On the other hand, there is a pressure on the Institutions from Industry also, to perform better and take steps so that the employment of pass outs is assured. The findings of various surveys clearly indicate that employability of these pass outs is pathetic. There is a need to enhance both effectiveness and efficiency in using institutional resources to make the institutional activities cost effective. There is also a pressure on the institutions to become more autonomous and self sustained in its activities including financials.

Faculty is the key person who manages the whole gamut of activities of the Institute. The faculty is in true sense the face of any Institution. He carries out variety of academic, administrative, managerial and financial activities. If faculty devotes some time and efforts to re-look at the way of using his T-L style, he can better manage the time and resources considering his changing role. There are variety of tools and techniques available including the use of skill up gradation courses to cope up with the changing environment.

The Institutes have tried all options mentioned above and now one concept has prominently come to stay- select those who are ready to join and try to develop them.

Need for faculty development:

On this backdrop, there is a need to sharpen the basic teaching and managerial skills of faculty members of Engineering Colleges and Management Institutes.

But the problem is that there is no formal, structured mechanism (like B. Ed. or D. Ed.) to develop faculty members working in professional institutes.

Training is no doubt universally accepted tool to enhance employee performance in every organization. Faculty members with or without formal teaching experience / background cannot be exception to this. While the word training is becoming little outdated and also taken with a bit of insult tone (Why do I need to be trained? What is lacking in me?), the word Development is increasingly finding acceptance. Development is better quality of life, so even teaching fraternity has no objection to this phrase. It sounds better. Another reason is training gets confined to job performance enhancement, while as development is overall and holistic. So it gets extended to personal life as well. Thus there can be assured support from the participants.

Solution:

Institute needs to organize FDP more frequently for both fresh faculty members and old timers. The programme objectives could be learning and teaching strategies, Media, methods, selection, managing resources and student learning, curriculum analysis, instructional system design and development, implementation and evaluation.

The courses can cover variety of topics such as System approach, boundary, input,

 transformations area, output, feedback, loop Expectation theory, role efficiency, role conflict,

 job, duty norms. Teaching skills, instructional models and strategies, Priority, Challenges,

 Problems, Definition of learning, motivation, models factors,  Recognition, reinforcement,

 cognitive, behavioral and classical theories, ope rant condition. Cognitive, psycho motor, 

affective domains, modified Blooms taxonomy, creativity, hypothesis, decisions, problem 

solving models, Portfolio Concepts, models performance analysis, job and task and learners

 analysis, Macro and Micro instructional plan.

The programmes can emphasize interactive learning using techniques that include syndicate work and presentations, case study, home assignments, group creativity, action learning etc.

Outcome:

Besides enjoying inputs, the programmes can also act as an eye-opener that job of a faculty is multi-faceted and not an easy one. The real outcome will be over a period of time in terms of improvement in class room interactions, use of newly learnt techniques, enhanced confidence level of faculty etc.

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