 |
|
| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
|
Make classroom teaching more lucrative
Researchers debunk female maths anxiety myth
|
|
|
Make classroom teaching more lucrative
OUR country churns out tens of thousands of graduates every year but less than half of them are employable or possess the basic skills necessary for any productive role. According to a recently published report, claimed to be the first-ever national audit of employability of three-year bachelor’s degree graduates, by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, around 47 per cent graduates in India are unemployable for any job. The report is based on data of over 60,000 graduates pan-India.
We need no fancy reports to tell the quality of academic and technical skills of degree holders around us who can hardly draft a simple leave application correctly, what to say of performing jobs needing higher cognitive skills. We frequently hear the lament of the older golden days when even a matriculate had greater academic skills compared to today’s graduates. The phrase ‘unemployable graduates’ has been repeated so often that it has lost all meaning, and nobody is ready to look into the pit. Interventions are needed at the higher education level. This is obvious. Graduates do not learn anything because they are not taught. Now, why are they not taught? The simple reason is that it is not mandatory for the teachers to teach. Seems confusing? Let me explain. I have employed a carpenter to make chairs at my factory. He makes beautiful chairs, and I have to pay him handsomely for that. It pinches me and I think it is not enough for him only to make chairs, so I put a condition that he must do research on how to make good chairs, types of wood, polish and tools, history and aesthetics of chairs, and also attend conferences. His salary is now linked to how many conferences he attended and how many papers he published. Obviously, it leaves him with no time and energy to work on making beautiful chairs. Though he still makes them, they are no longer beautiful but defective, ugly and non-usable. Quality classroom teaching is a strong antidote to unemployability. Only rigorous teaching can provide theoretical and practical inputs and equip students with adequate academic, technical and intellectual skills for problem solving in the real world. Interaction in the classroom can never be compensated by heavy individualistic research done or workshops attended by the teacher. This should not be interpreted to mean that research is bad for teaching but only that effective teaching is a full-time activity and has to be invested heavily with time, energy, intellectual inputs. One can munch popcorn and watch TV at the same time but assuming that teachers do dedicated research, attend conferences and in whatever little time is left they teach is dangerous and is leading us to a fatal skew in higher education. Doing quality research with full dedication and effective classroom teaching are two full-time activities, and when you juggle both of them you compromise on the quality of one or the other. It is highly surprising that classroom teaching is not incentivised at any level. The promotion of teachers is linked with how many papers/ books they have published and number of conferences attended. Their academic performance is gauged with everything else under the sun save teaching effectively in the class. There are no awards for dedicated teaching. All these policies send a clear message — teaching is not important. Since we do not want our teachers to teach sincerely, they do not; therefore, our graduates remain untaught, though not without a degree. It is as simple as that. We need, on an urgent basis, to find out ways on how to make classroom teaching lucrative. The interventions may range from defining good teaching, framing parameters of good teaching, making physical teaching spaces attractive, providing support for developing and sustaining good teaching skills, awarding good teachers, creating platforms for discussing teaching challenges and focusing our full attention on teaching. We need to raise an army of highly effective teachers who take classroom teaching seriously, irrespective of whether they are good researchers or not.
If we really want our graduates employable, we have to make teaching the central, most significant and indispensable aspect of higher education and not treat it like a half-hearted attempt in a part-time job. The writer is Deputy Director, Academic Staff College, Panjab University, Chandigarh
|
||
|
Researchers debunk female maths anxiety myth
WASHINGTON: Although girls report more maths anxiety on general survey measures, they are not actually more anxious during maths classes and exams, a new research has revealed.
Education researchers Thomas Gotz and Madeleine Bieg of the University of Konstanz and Thurgau University of Teacher Education and colleagues asked students to describe more generalised perceptions of mathematics anxiety, rather than assessing anxiety during actual maths classes and exams. They conducted two studies in which they collected data from approximately 700 students from grades 5 to 11. In the first study, they compared students’ responses on two different measures: A questionnaire measuring anxiety about maths tests, and their real-time self-reports of anxiety directly before and during a maths exam. In the second study, they compared questionnaire measures of maths anxiety with repeated real-time assessments obtained during maths classes via mobile devices. Findings from the two studies replicated prior research and existing gender stereotypes, showing that girls reported more maths anxiety than boys on generalised assessments, despite similar math achievement. However, the data obtained during maths exams and classes revealed that girls did not experience more anxiety than boys in real-life settings. The data further suggest that lower self-reported competence in mathematics may underlie the discrepancy between the levels of anxiety reported by girls in the two settings. — ANI
|
||
|
US students to visit India
for IT projects
NEW YORK: Eighteen students from the University of Michigan, USA, will spend eight weeks in India in the summer of 2014 to work on various information technology projects. They will be visiing India under the Global Information Engagement Programme of the university’s School of Information, according to a university statement. The programme has been granted $1.8 million by the university provost’s office. “The School of Information has strong ties with India, and our new Global Information Engagement Programme will allow our students to strengthen that bond with hands-on experience, solving problems and serving the global community even before they graduate,” Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, Dean of the School of Information, said. Among the projects the students will work on are a smartphone application to book train tickets for Mumbai local trains, a language-learning application for deaf students in India, and an online repository for consultation for human rights for a Bangalore lawyers collective. The selected students will self-organise into groups of two to four. Though they will primarily come from the School of Information, the teams are allowed to recruit graduate students from other university programmes to round out skill sets, the statement said. “Once the student groups choose their projects, we will work with each team, so that they will have a customised training programme tailored to their projects,”Joyojeet Pal, an Indian who is the faculty lead of the programme, said.
Harvard University tops list of alma mater of CEOs
LONDON: Harvard University of the United States is the world’s top university in terms of educating company executives at global firms, followed by Japan’s University of Tokyo, according to Britain’s Times Higher Education journal. Harvard has produced 25 current CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 5 per cent of the total. The University of Tokyo has produced 13, or 2.6 per cent, while Stanford University of the US is third with 11, or 2.2 per cent. The United States dominated the top 10 with four institutions, followed by France with three, Japan two and South Korea one. The rankings published recently are the first of their kind by the magazine, known for its annual “World University Rankings”. It surveyed where the CEOs went to school or earned degrees, while taking into account factors such as the revenues of the firms they manage. The US is home to the most universities on the list with 38, followed by China with 15, Japan with nine, France with eight, Germany with five and Britain with four. — Agencies
|
||
|
Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak GREEN hospitality and tourism is an economic concept, and sustainable tourism is the need of the hour. This was stated by noted environmentalist Vasu Ritu Primlani in her keynote address at a seminar on “Environmental and Business Issues in Hospitality and Toursim” organised at the Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (IHTM) of the university recently. In her thought-provoking address, Primlani focused on strategies required for green hospitality in India. Providing tips on pollution prevention, water conservation, storm water management, solid waste management, energy conservation in hospitality sector, she also highlighted the economical benefits of sustainability in this sector. Earlier, the organising secretary of the seminar, Ashish Dahiya, gave a background of the seminar. He said environment and sustainability are important factors in today’s world. Profesor Daleep Singh, Director, IHTM, said keeping in view the looming energy crisis at global level, eco-friendly and energy-saving hospitality and tourism is needed.
Prof presents research paper in Japan
Dr Randhir Singh Sangwan, Professor in the Department of Geography of the university, recently presented a research paper entitled “Spatio-Temporal Dimensions of Fertility in India: A Perspective on Rural-Urban Disparity” at the IGU Kyoto Regional Conference - 2013 held at Kyoto, Japan. Professor Sangwan also chaired the technical session on “Population Geography”. The International Geographical Union (IGU) is the highest academic body for geographers in the world to assemble on a single platform and exchange their views regarding latest developments in the discipline. The present study has endeavoured to explain the spatio-temporal dimensions of fertility and patterns of rural-urban disparity in fertility in India. The crude birth rate in India declined gradually from 36.9 live births per thousand in 1971 to 22.1 live births per thousand in 2010.
Pt. B.D. Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak The university in a recently held meeting of its Academic Council approved the much-awaited Career Advancement Scheme and allowances of the faculty of the health university, which came up in 2008. As many as 52 agenda items were discussed and approved at the meeting. The Career Advancement Scheme covers the faculty and staff members of the PGIMS, the largest state government-run institute of medical sciences in the state. This scheme was recommended by a committee constituted by the Vice-Chancellor. The committee comprised the Pro-Vice Chancellor; Director, PGIMS; Dean, PGIMS; President, HSMTA; and Secretary, HSMTA; on the representation made by the Haryana Medical Teachers' Association. The scheme will benefit around 300 faculty members of the health university who will now be eligible for better promotional avenues. It will also help boost work environment, claimed a spokesperson of the university. — Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat
|
