Final round of competition to be held on September 21
It was time for teachers of higher educational institutions to don the thinking cap. But for a change, they did not do so for the sake of their students or the institution they were attached to. Nearly 70 of them did that to showcase their creative talent and domain knowledge at a special event organised for them here on Saturday.
They were taking part at the preliminary round of the Teachers’ Day competition organised by the Education Panel of the Coimbatore Zone of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). And, those judging them were representatives from the industry.
The competition, aimed at selecting the “best and most creative among the teachers of higher education institutions” in the region, had faculty from colleges and universities competing in two events, either individually or as a team of two.
As many as 31 teams took part in “Storm in a Tea Cup”, which involved a case writing exercise based on real-time experience in the industry, and 35 took part in “Into the Thinking Maps”, which had teachers teach a topic given to them using innovative teaching methodology. As many as 12 judges were formed into six teams, three each for an event.
“Storm in a Tea Cup” contestants visited industries and wrote a relevant case study that underlined some valid issue of the organisation. They presented the case study in front of the judges and also answered relevant questions. As many as 60 management students from various institutions also witnessed the presentations.
The “Into the Thinking Maps” contestants took 15-minute classes on any one of the following topics – cyber security, mobile computing, green infrastructure, gadgets for communication, green technology in automobiles, changing trends of fabric in fashion, India’s economic growth from 1947 to 2025, use of nano-science in day-to-day life, and mass media to touch lives.
The competition took off at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International School of Textiles and Management with convenor of the CII Education Panel Senthil Ganesh, Managing Trustee, RVS Educational Institutions, formally welcoming the contestants.
After that it was a buzz of activity with presentations happening one after the other. After four hours of classroom sessions, the contestants and judges were a “tired but happy lot”. The judges were appreciative of the effort that the teachers had put in.
Summing up after the competitions, Sheela Ramachandran, Vice-Chancellor of Avinashilingam University for Women, and co-convenor of the CII Education Panel, said that the initiative was a novel attempt by the Coimbatore Zone of CII.
“Best eight finalists will be selected for each event and the final round of the competition will be held on September 21. The teaching methodology competition has been video recorded and this will be uploaded on Facebook in the Teachers’ Day competition page. Students can ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on the presentations. The presentation that gets the maximum number of ‘likes’ will get a special prize,” she said.
The case studies submitted for the competition would be compiled in the form a book. The eight finalists would be announced next week.
