Teachers are the main and essential focal point of the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre of Madurai Kamaraj University. Most of the Colleges and Universities are overhauling their departments/schools to stress on enhanced content knowledge, augmented use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and training programs for professional development. The novice teachers are lacking proper help and support. They have to cope with the College/University environs. Counselling and training from experienced persons is crucial to the flourishing growth of a new teacher. Immense orientation programs generate openings for novice teachers to catch ideas from the best rehearsals and presentations. The new teachers will acquire skills from the orientation program, analyze and reproduce the learned skills in their teaching. Great teachers give a hand in creating great students. A stimulating and well-versed teacher is the most imperative institutional factor who persuades the achievement of his/her students. In this regard, the training given by our HRDC is very critical and essential for teachers.
The major philosophy of the HRDC, Madurai Kamaraj University is to help the teachers of higher education to train them to tackle the challenges they face in every day teaching. Teachers should be models of self-reliance and should have a comparatively good knowledge. A teacher should be responsible and believe that his/her duty is to instruct and coach his students. The teachers should immensely think that their students have been hand over to them and they should not violate the society’s trust on them. Teachers should be gregarious persons with all their roots and hopes in the society. The societies of all the countries believe that teachers are the well-wishers of the children of the society. Teachers should prove that they are loyal to the society which helped them for growing as a teacher of higher education with a good salary.
Reading a book is not enough for a good teacher. Even attending the presentations of the resource persons’ lecture about teaching methods is not enough. New teachers require training in teaching combined with effective mentoring in order to help them to realize what is expected from them in their new position. The HRDC of Madurai Kamaraj University is arranging an extensive ‘microteaching’ program in which the expert resource person gives theory and practical lessons and the model teaching classes of the participant teachers are fully video graphed. The videos are later evaluated by the expert teacher and he will talk on the merits and demerits of the participant teachers and they can clarify and correct their teaching method.
It is the era of knowledge, information and communication. The foremost viewpoint of the HRDC, Madurai Kamaraj University is to treat the teacher as the central point of the higher education system. It is the duty of the HRDC to provide opportunities for the teachers to develop their ICT skills. To fulfil this aim, the HRDC is arranging e-Content development theory and practical classes. The participant teachers produce their own e-content unit lessons and submit them to the HRDC for evaluation. The main aim of the Academic Staff College, Madurai Kamaraj University is to teach the teachers to teach. Making the teachers to do research is also an objective of the HRDC, Madurai Kamaraj University. The major aim of the HRDC, Madurai Kamaraj University is to make the teachers to develop their professional skills. The Director and his team prepares a plan well in advance, including the list of names of reputed experts to be invited as resource persons, for every orientation and other programs.
The HRDC adhere to the
(a) Programme schedule
(b) Duration of the programmes
Efforts are being made by the ASC to promote e-learning:
Awareness created through
• Theory
• Websites
• Videos
Proportion of the time allocated for ICT training in programme scheduling:
• Orientation Programme – Nearly 25% of the total time allocated
• Refresher Course – 20 – 25% of time depending on the nature of the subject
HRDC incorporated sessions for improving the teaching skills through:
• Seminars
• Micro teaching
• ICT and Research
• E-learning, educational technology
Educational technologies used for effective teaching-learning processes are:
• Power point presentations by the resource persons and participants
• EDUSAT and Gnana Dharshan programme (EMMRC, MKU)
• Virtual library
• Video-shooting to evaluate the teaching skills of the participants
The HRDC has planned and implemented the programme in terms of Theory, Practical, Participatory methods etc., to have experiential learning in the following ways:
• Orientation programme
• Refresher courses
• Interaction programmes
• Short term courses
• Non-teaching staff training programme
Theory: - Lecture, seminar, assignments, careful choice of resource persons
Practical: - Computer training, educational tools, library & lab visits
Participatory methods:
Group discussion, games, skits, field trip, case study analysis
Innovative methods were used by the resource persons in programme transactions such as :
• Work sessions to avoid monotony
• Problem solving exercises to bring out the creativity
• Skits to create empathy of issues handled
• Games to motivate the participants
Criteria used to select the resource persons for such courses are:
• Subject knowledge
• Experience
• Punctuality
• Communication skills
• Approach to the subject
• Mode of interaction with the participants
• Feedback collected from participants
• Other sources
The diversities of expertise of the resource persons in the area of specialization/research competence/ICT enabled teaching technology etc according to the programme content. In-depth knowledge in the subject, contemporary issues, application oriented explanations, multimedia presentations, Clarity in ideas, communication ability, responding to the queries of the participants and control over the sessions. Rating of Resource persons: HRDC rates the resource persons invited for each session.
