Report on Online National Faculty Development Program
The Centre for Advanced Learning of School of Education and Humanities in collaboration with Internal Quality Assurance Cell, Manav Rachna University organized one week online National Level Faculty Development Program on the theme ‘Pedagogical Interventions in light of National Education Policy 2020’ from 9th to 14th October 2023. The FDP was intended to impart an understanding of various pedagogical practices and ideas as envisaged by NEP 2020 for creating meaningful and engaging learning experiences. The FDP also aimed at providing an insight into practical strategies and teaching tools instrumental in bringing constructivist paradigm of learning in the real classroom scenario. In all, 422 participants across various states of India registered for the FDP. The Demographic profile of the participants was representative of diversity in terms of educational qualification and professional affiliation of the participants. The FDP was spread across twelve technical sessions with pertinent themes covered by an expert resource person for every session.
Day I of the FDP began with the inaugural session with the welcome address by Dr. Rashee Singh, Professor and Head, School of Education and Humanities Manav Rachna University. Prof. Rashee Singh extended warm welcome to all the participants. She emphasized upon the need of deconstructing the key elements envisaged by NEP 2020 and for bringing in perspective the ways and means for effective implementation of recommendations contained in policy about outcome-based education. She also expressed her gratitude towards everyone for being a part of the FDP and ensured that active engagement of participants in FDP will enable them to learn and apply various pedagogical tools and strategies in their classroom for creating authentic and experiential learning experiences. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) I.K. Bhat hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Manav Rachna University who discussed the importance of NEP 2020 and expressed his earnest desire that every institution in the country attracts global students through its technological and research advancement. He also emphasized on the collective efforts required from all the stakeholders for effective implementation of NEP 2020. On behalf of Manav Rachna University all the sessions were moderated by Dr. Savita Sharma, Associate Professor, School of Education and Humanities.
The Resource Person for the first session was Dr. Sneh Bansal, Principal, Chandigarh College of Education
Mohali, Punjab. The theme for this session was Universal Design for Learning (UDL) The UDL goals, instructional materials and lesson plans interspersed with valuable insights and activities thoroughly engaged
Methods to remove any barriers to learning and give all students equal opportunities to succeed. The session encompassed interesting activities and discussion with participants providing a rich platform of experiential learning about the topic.
Session II
Prof. (Dr.) Amita Pandey Bhardwaj, Professor, School of Education, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University, New Delhi was the Resource Person for this session. She emphasised that integration and application of comprehensive evaluation and competency-based assessment in teaching and learning process through skillful use of appropriate tools is the need of the hour for holistic development and quality education. Prof. Pandey provided a detailed account of various aspects pertaining to portfolio management
and rubric designing. She advocated upon the dire need to use Competency-based assessments which is
instrumental in providing a holistic approach by focusing on the demonstration of specific skills, knowledge, and behaviors.
Dr. Gaurav Singh professor, School of Education, Central University of Haryana was the Resource Person for this Session. The topic for this session was ‘Integrating Technology with Bloom’s Taxonomy’ wherein Dr. Gaurav exhaustively discussed various aspects of Bloom’s Taxonomy at the backdrop of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy developed by Andrew Churches. He emphasized upon the practical aspects of these taxonomies and how each level of is accompanied by a description of its relevance and examples of digital tools that connect with this taxonomy framework. While communicating with the audience he pointed out that technology is all about learning, unlearning, and relearning. The interactive session was perceived to be the real learning experience for the audience which aimed to inform them about the use technology and digital tools to facilitate student learning experiences and outcomes.
Session II
Dr. Madhavi Dharankar, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Technology, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai was the Resource person for the session on ‘Collaborative Learning’ on Day 2. Dr Madhavi extensively covered the practical use of tools like Canva, Padlet, and Google drawings for organizing activities for group and social learning. With reference to collaborative learning, she highlighted research findings suggesting that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning. Collaborative learning helps in development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills among the students.
Day-3
Session I
The resource person for the first session for Day 3 was Dr. Sonam Bansal, Assistant Professor, Rao Lal Singh College of Education, Gurugram. This session was conducted on the theme, ‘Pedagogical Approaches for technology integrated teaching and learning’ in which speaker covered different models for technology integration like TPACK, SAMR, RAT ASSURE etc. into the pedagogical process along with their practical applications. Dr. Bansal shared hands-on usage of platforms like swisc-online, educaplay, canvas infrastructure, genially and create book to make the learning experience engaging and interesting for learners through technology integration.
Session II
The resource person for the second session was Dr Aerum Khan, Associate Professor, Department of Teacher Training & Non-Formal Education, Jamia Millia Islamia. The topic for this session was ‘Adapting Constructivism in Online Learning: Means and Ways.’ She interacted extensively on the topic and made participants aware about various sites like Stellarium, Olabs etc. She pointed out that in classrooms it is necessary for the teacher to propound a statement problem to the students for their consideration. Dr. Khan further added that This would not only help them develop critical thinking but also make them active participants in the process of teaching and learning which is the essence of constructivism. The session was, indeed, very interesting.
Day 4 of the FDP began with the yet another enriching theme ‘‘Constructivist Approach of Lesson Planning: The 5 E Model’. The speaker for the session was Prof. (Dr.) Tania Gupta Professor and Dean, School of Education, K.R. Mangalam University. The discussion began with an overview of the connections between pedagogy, the SDGs, and NEP 2020. She went on to further explain constructivism, how constructivist classrooms vary from traditional classrooms, classroom management tactics, and ultimately, she informed the attendees of the elements of a constructivist lesson plan before providing numerous lesson plan samples covering five core dimensions namely engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.
Session II
The Resource Person for the second session for day was Dr. Sneh Bansal, Principal, Chandigarh College of Education Mohali, Punjab.The topic for the session was ‘Experiential Learning’ wherein she talked in depth about means and ways of creating experiential learning experiences for the contemporary learners in the classroom through various creative and innovative strategies. She emphasized that creating experiential learning experiences for holistic learning forms the critical part of the NEP 2020.The Kolb’s experimental learning model and its application in the classroom was explained by her using various examples to make the audience understand the details and its implementation in the classrooms.
Session I
Dr. Anjali Shokeen, Assistant Professor in the School of Education at G.G.S.I.P. University in Dwarka was the resource person for the first session on Day 5. The topic for the session was ‘Interdisciplinary Learning with specific focus on Art Integration’ She interspersed her discussion the topic with several practical strategies such as incorporating sculptures or visual representation through videos, pictures, art projects, music, and rhythm. She further elaborated about the procedures and methods for implementing art in an effective manner within multidisciplinary learning. She also mentioned about the Malviya Mission announced by the Government of India, and a few themes in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, 2023.
Session II
Dr. Ajita Deshmukh, Assistant Professor,School of Education and Research at MITADT University, Pune, conducted the second session on day 5 on the topic ‘Culturally Responsive Pedagogy’ She started her session by differentiating between the CRP and multiculturalism and shared the connection between students’ language and culture in context of what they learn in school. She went on to discuss how to be culturally responsive, how to overcome one’s own biases as well as the elements and strategies for putting CRP into practice. The key strength of her session was the use of engaging and fun filled activities to explain various concepts about the topic.
Session I
The Resource Person for the first session on the last day was Prof. (Dr.) Rainu Gupta Professor and Dean, School of Education, Sanskriti University for the theme ‘Critical and Reflective Pedagogy’. Prof. Gupta emphasized on creating safe and supportive learning environments, promoting critical thinking and addressing the issues of power and privileges in our classrooms. Further she elaborated on the use of critical reflective pedagogy as well as the role of teachers and students while using it. During the interaction she made it a point to make the participants understand that students forget what they hear, remember what they see, and comprehend what they do hence stressing on Learning by doing.
Session II
The Resource person for the last session was Dr. Amit Ahuja Associate Professor, School of Education,
G.G.S.I.P. University, Dwarka. The topic for the session was ‘Integrating Research: a Teacher in Action.’ The session revolved around the importance of teachers integrating research as part of the teaching learning process for attaining intended outcome. He helped participants comprehend the significance of selecting the appropriate data collection tools and how to integrate research in classrooms. He also discussed the concept of Action Research. Overall, the session was a great learning experience for the participants as they were able to clarify their many doubts and queries about their specific research areas from the resource person.
As part of the concluding ceremony, valedictory session intended to brief the audience about the summary of all the technical sessions. A few of the participants also shared their positive feedback about the entire FDP and requested for organizing more of such sessions in future as well. The Closing Ceremony of the FDP consisted of its brief Report and a formal Vote of thanks proposed by Dr Savita Sharma, Associate Professor School of Education and Humanities and the Organizing Secretary of the Faculty Development Program.