new roles of facilitators and learners

Reforms in Teaching Learning Environment

towards Greater Interactivity

New roles of Facilitators and learners

Prof R RamakrishnanEmail:

ramakrish54@gmail.com 

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Education and Training are the Primary systems by which the human capital of a nation is preserved and increased.Quality of education is judged by the kind of humans it produces. Quality in education is what makes learning a pleasure and a joy. The main objective of the teacher is to put quality into education.

Every university should provide for each student opportunities to develop in  

Knowledge, which enables us to understand. Know-how, which enables us to do. Wisdom, which enables us to set priorities Character, which enables us to cooperate,

to preserve and to become respected and trusted members of society.

Our Current Educational System

Exam oriented . Based more on memory and comprehension . Flawless recall and summary of information.

Knowledge Explosion consists of Research and development, Automation and The spread of higher education.

It is not enough to have a vision that relates to how the contents of education should change. It is also necessary to understand the changes required for the educational system itself.

The new Knowledge based society demands workers who are flexible and versatile. They need to learn continuously and upgrade their skills as technology advances.

Education must liberate the mind from all sorts of inhibitions and creativity and synthesis of ideas have a greater role to play.

An effective student-centered, learning-oriented classroom requires different perspectives from both instructors and students.

The goal of instruction becomes the intentional intellectual development of students instead of covering content.

Teaching standards and curricula needs immediate revision.

This involves changing the way students think and encouraging them to confront what they believe in light of facts and evidence.

Students must also significantly alter Their view of knowledge, The role of instructors, and Their role as learners at the same time.

Total Quality Management (TQM) in Education is a timely tool, which must be clearly understood, adopted and implemented as soon as possible.

Basic reforms are required to be made in our education system as we lack standardization

The discipline-oriented learning has to be replaced by interdisciplinary courses that are career oriented gradually The curriculum must aim at giving field based learning experiences for students and must respond to the local needs for human resource in specific work-related opportunities Values need to be brought back into the

education process, without which education lacks substance and direction.

Focus of the Universities should shift from creating the "best" syllabus to the most "effective" syllabus.

Use of active learning strategies such as Group work, Discussion, Case studies, Problem-based learning, and the like.

Higher education must strike a balance between professional training and general education.

Staff must engage themselves in ongoing professional development and continuous learning activities. Teachers need to foster positive teacher-student and student-student relationships through the use of cooperative learning strategies.

Educational institutions have to adopt new strategies to make the best use of the opportunities and counter the challenges.

Strategies Attracting the right people for faculty position by making the position attractive. For courses like Engineering, Management etc the faculties must have some minimum industrial experience. Involvement of students in faculty recruitment process. Orientation program for fresh students, leading to healthy interaction with their seniors and teachers.

Orientation Program for newly recruited faculty members conducted by senior faculty members and outside experts on a regular basis. Introduction of mentoring for junior teachers. Introduction of mentoring for students Feedback on the performance of faculty members from students and from senior faculty members after observing their classes.

Identification of deficiencies of each student at the time of entry and providing additional input by way of extra classes and courses in soft-skill development Creation of an "effective syllabus" by benchmarking of syllabus from national and international institutions to find the gaps and taking appropriate corrective measures Use of active learning strategies such as group work, discussion, case studies, problem-based learning etc.

Use of Information Technology such as video conferencing for delivering quality lectures to a large number of students.Organizing self-development courses Effective use of Total Quality Management (TQM) tools to improve academic standards using Quality circles etc.

Quality of the distance education has to be improved with mandatory practical hours with interactions in industry.

The distance education also must be given due recognition by the concerned authorities and the same need to employed on a vast scale to make higher education accessible

Thank You