The fact that teachers themselves require motivation to inspire students was realised in ample measure by participants of the orientation programmes conducted by the Academic Staff College of Bharathidasan University recently.
At the end of the 28-day programme, sixty participants from all over the State could unravel what developing a zeal for teaching with dedication was all about after listening to lectures on various topics including sociology, culture, politics, economics, higher education, social dynamics, environment, classroom management, examination, lecture methods, extracurricular activities, personality development and utility of statistics in research.
Chidambaram, a teacher trainer, explained the methodology involved in acquiring knowledge and transferring conceptual, human resource and technical skills to students, advocating their learning of as many languages as possible.
Handling a session on ‘Education and Education Technology', Balasubramaniam, Principal, School of Education, SASTRA University, dwelt on the correlation between education and improvement of personality while S.Iyyampillai, Professor of Economics, Bharathidasan University, focussed on the social issues that are central to any transformation facilitated by technology.
Experts
M.Ravichandran, Professor and Head, School of Environmental Management, Bharathidasan University, spoke on environmental issues; B.Bennet, Associate Professor in English, National College, Trichy, on Teacher Excellence and Time Management; A.M.Mohamed Sindhasha, Associate Professor in Commerce, Jamal Mohammed College, on Success Motivation; Mohan Gnanan Olivu, Retd. Professor, Jamal Mohamed College, on education leading to permanent behavioural change and teachers as transformational leaders; and D.A.Jayakar, Retired Principal, Bishop Heber College, on creation of intellectually mature students.
Likewise, Chellam Balasundaram, dwelt on Stress Management and Yoga; Lazarus Samiraj, Professor of Pondicherry University, on teachers as nation builders; Joseph Arul Jayaraj of Department of English, St.Joseph's College on ‘teaching English in English'; K.T.Tamilmani of Department of English, Nehru Memorial College, on Memory Manipulation; and R. Shankar, Director, Career Development Counselling, Bharathidasan University, on exposing students to academic, social, cultural and political dimensions along with their subjects. There were also sessions on political activeness, human rights, youth development, vocabulary development, globalisation and Indian education, self-improvement and openness to constructive criticism, teaching through dramatisation technique, examination reforms, constitutional rights, writing skills, and illustrative teaching.
