Faculty Development for Effective Curriculum Implementation

The quality of technical manpower, is directly dependent on the quality of teachers, who manage the entire instructional process and provide varied learning experiences to the students for developing desired

competencies for gainful employment. Any institution will have new teachers, teachers with experience and managers of the system at the department, institute and state levels. A deliberate planning has got to be done for keeping the entire faculty abreast with the technology development, development in educational

technology, techniques of student's assessment and institutional management.

The role of the principal of an institution is the management of physical, human, informational and financial resources at the institute level for effective curriculum implementation, leading to gainful employment of polytechnic passouts.

Therefore, the important areas of knowledge and skills required at the Principal's level include the following: (a) Knowledge of principles and practices of institutional management.

(b) Knowledge of optimum utilization of resources, total quality management and motivational techniques.

(c) Knowledge of various stages of curriculum and the processes involved at each stage (d) Knowledge of norms and standards for planning the resources

(e) Information concerning administrative procedures for managing human resources and making purchases etc

(f) Linkage with industry and industrial associations for effective curriculum implementation and placement of students

Similarly the role of Head of departments is to manage physical, human, informational and financial resources at the department level for effective curriculum processes.

Therefore, the important areas of knowledge and skill at the Head of department level include the following: (a) Knowledge of basic principles of managing the resources and particularly training of

faculty.

(b) Knowledge norms and standards, optimum utilization of resources and networking for resource sharing.

(c) Knowledge of instructional strategies and types of learning experiences required to be provided to students for developing desired competencies.

(d) Knowledge of curriculum implementation and evaluation strategies. (e) Knowledge of student evaluation techniques

(f) Action research techniques for improving the functioning of the department

Teacher is the manager of instruction. He/she is supposed to have mastery over the subject and has sufficient knowledge and skills pertaining to the subject(s) being taught by him/her and is good at communication skills, well−versed in principles of pedagogy/educational technology and instructional resources development, good at using a chalk board. In addition he has the ability to use different approaches and media for creating motivation amongst students for learning and promoting innovations and development, knowledge of student assessment techniques, etc.

It is amply clear from the above that faculty development is not a single shot process. This will change as a person move from one position to another. Training and re−training is a life long process. Faculty

development for effective curriculum implementation may have following three essential components: (i) Induction or initial training

(ii) Training for professional development or job related training (iii) Training for horizontal and vertical mobility

Induction training is required for developing essential capabilities needed of a teacher when he/she begins the career. Such a training may comprise of exposing the teacher to industrial/field practices, up−gradation of technological knowledge and skills in the chosen field and pedagogical skills. Such a training should be compulsory for all technical teachers.

Training for professional development is aimed at keeping the teachers current in the knowledge and skills about the development in technology, industrial/field practices, educational technology through short term or refresher courses. Such programmes of training can be off−the−job and on−the−job.

Training for horizontal and vertical mobility is aimed at enrichment of the knowledge and skills and acquire competencies/qualifications which will make a teacher eligible for promotion to the next higher cadre.

Structured programmes that meet the requirements of different job positions should be designed and offered. Technical Teachers' Training Institutes/Quality Improvement Centres should design and offer such

programmes for the benefit of teachers and managers of technical education system.

In the present context of globalization and breaking of the trade barriers, it is necessary that industry is able to compete the world market. Besides competitiveness, other factors are need for quality manufacturing/services due to increased consumer awareness; short lead times and short product lives; complexity and variety in products/services and uncertainty in demand made it increasingly important for the industry to initiate automation steps to achieve all these. Because of its merits, like great speed; accuracy; consistency and efficiency in storage, retrieval, computation and analysis; cost−effectiveness; versatility and compactness, computers have formed a permanent niche in every walk of life whether it is complex system of office administration and management; education/training/research and development;

banking/commercial/accounting activities; business/industry; communication/information/network; legal; medicine/health care; meteorology; power, transportation; tourism; defence; agriculture; art/music/sports; space/nuclear research; mining operation or it is a system of as simple as house−keeping.

Computers have a long association with business and industry in all sectors whether it is primary

(agriculture/mining), secondary (manufacturing) or tertiary (service) sector. Its applications in the industry start right from accounts/management; raw material management; production planning, control and scheduling; marketing to project management through network planning. In planning large projects where large number of related activities having strict precedence relationships, i.e. some activities cannot start unless some other activities are first completed and whereas some other activities can go in parallel, can be computerized by making use of modern project planning and scheduling methods like Critical Path Method (CPM); Programme Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT) and Graphical Evaluation and Review Techniques (GERT), to improve the efficiency in handling the projects. Computer−Aided Design (CAD)/

Computer−Aided Manufacturing (CAM), Computer Numerical Control (CNC), Direct Numerical Control (DNC), Robot Technology, Computer−Aided Process Planning (CAPP), Group Technology (GT), Computer−Aided Quality Control (CAQC) and Computer Integrated Manufacturing System (CIMS) are now a reality in most of the large, medium and small scale industries in India.

Computer integrated manufacturing system (CIMS) is concerned with providing computer assistance, control and high level integrated automation at all levels of manufacturing industries, by linking islands of automation into a distributed processing system. Technical institutions should set up micro factory in an institutional training. environment so that this facility can become an incubating chamber of training students in CIMS and experimenting with various alternatives in advanced manufacturing systems. Once micro−factory environment for advance manufacturing/services is created, it will also lead to offering consultancy services to industry. Virtual laboratory (VL), which is an offshoot of computer−aided−learning/computer−aided instruction (CAL/CAI) allows the learner to perform all types of experiments, play with variables, draw graphics, verify laws and develop conceptual and analytical abilities. In the times to come, VL will replace existing laboratories requiring more space and investment.

The curricula of various disciplines/programmes being offered by technical institutions, will have to integrate these "Advanced Manufacturing/Services" systems to remain relevant with the industry so that the manpower being developed and produced in these institutions fit into the job requirements of present industrial scenario. Further the applications of computer and multimedia have a great potential to give educational technology a "technology push" by which a "teacher−leading instructional" style can be replaced with "student−leading learning" style in the technical institutions

Somewhere a misunderstanding among the teachers and other stakeholders of technical education seems to exist that by providing just one or two programmers/computer professionals and by creating an isolated computer engineering/science department with some hardware resources these gaps can be bridged. In fact developing and using any application/educational computer software require a team work consisting of computer professionals, subject experts and personnel dealing with pedagogy. In order to fill−up the existing gaps and to remain relevant to the present day rapid automation in the industry, an integrated approach consisting of following components will have to be followed if some tangible impact is to be realized:

− Inclusion of contents of computer applications appropriate to various courses/subjects in all the programmes/disciplines being offered by the Technical Institutes and integration of computerization in the 'core−curricula'

− Teacher being the key to success of any educational project/programme, both inservice and preservice teachers, irrespective of type of course(s) he/she is teaching whether the

course(s) are in applied sciences; drawing; engineering/technology sciences;

engineering/technology applications, humanities or management. He/she should be trained and re−trained in relevant hardware and software packages being used in the field to enable him/her "teach with and teach about" various industrial applications of computers including applications of computers in teaching−learning process

− Specially designed, through the involvement of concerned teachers, flexible and

appropriate CAL/CAI packages should be made available to every teacher in the technical institutes

− Development of computer, multi−media and other infrastructure to create an environment to practice softwares/systems like CAD/CAM/CNC/DNC/CIM/CAL/CAI/VR/VL etc., in the

technical institutes setup

− Autonomy to polytechnic to develop interface between higher level institutions/organizations and industries to exchange expertise and offer consultancy services to make the system self−supporting

− Setting up 'micro−factory' environment in the technician level institutions to create situations where students and teachers can get a feel of practices being following in the world of work. − Organized effort in the development of VR/VL course−ware is the need of the hour, considering that not much laboratory and workshop facilities exist in technician level institutions, to improve teaching−learning process.

− Efforts have to be made to train all technical teachers in making use of computer

soft−wares for various engineering applications in a phased manner for effective. curriculum implementation.