Day 1 : 11th June 2008
Inaugural Session and Key note Addressing
The inaugural ceremony begins with prayer. There after deep pragatya was done by honorable Vice Chancellor Dr. R. G. Kothari, Guest of Honorable Shri A.G. Mehta, Dean, Faculty of Science and Shri Kiritbhai Patel, Secretary, Bardoli Pradesh Kelavani Mandal followed by warm welcome by Mr. Sundeep Kiklawala, Co-ordinator of the workshop. During the Keynote address Honorable Dr. R. G. Kothari sensitized participations with current scenario in Higher Education. He kept forwarded several statistics regarding higher education in India and other countries and tried to emphasize the importance of Higher Education and its impact. As a pure academician he raised his worry about higher education by asking a question "If everyone is going to study in applied science, then who's going to carry out the research in pure science?" to participants. He elaborated upon four pillars of Education - Learning to live together, Learning to know, Learning to do and Learning to be.
Session 1: "Student Services and Campus Issues" by Dr. V. D. Naik
Dr. V. D. Naik, Principal, S. P. B. English Medium College, Surat explained analogy between Universities and Service Industry. He discussed on the term "service", its feature and which services are important for students. He also explained how an education system can be the provider of these services. He talked on "What should be done by universities / institutes for 360 degree development of student?" and explained importance of Sports and other co-curricular activities promotion. Continue with discussion, he discussed various campus issues like Hooliganism, Ragging, etc. and suggested few preventive measures to minimize such issues.
Session 2: "Role of Teacher in Holistic Development" by Dr. Ghanshyambhai Raval
Dr. Ghanshyambhai Raval, Syndicate Member, V. N. S. G. University and President , Keshav Smruti Trust, Bardoli threw light on "Teacher's role in Holistic Development". He explained how the society gets negatively affected if students don't have holistic development. He very wisely explained the difference between "clean" and "holy" along with basic instinct of individuals: "bhay, bhukh, bhog , nindra". He shared the opinion that as education is imparted at universities and colleges too, these bodies play vital role in student's holistic development. Further, he also explained that teachers are pivot of education system and so teaching community is major responsible for downfall or upliftment of a student. He clearly stated the do's and don't of teacher's attitude towards student.
Session 3: "Writing Research Proposals and Getting Fund" by Dr. Kiran Pandya
Dr. Kiran Pandya, Professor and Head, DRMISSS, V.N.S.G. University, Surat, started with answer of "Why one must go with writing research proposals?" He explained the format of research proposal and importance of each chapter that must be included in Research proposal. He suggested ways to review literature available for research. He guided the participant with sources of literature and how one can get them. He introduced different funding agencies, their objectives and process of how to get fund from them.
Day 2: 12th June 2008
Session 1: "Benchmarking in higher education" by Dr. B. A. Prajapati
Dr. Prajapati, Pro Vice Chancellor, V.N.S.G. University, Surat, begins with the four pillars of Knowledge Economy and then continued with how education is related with Knowledge economy. Then he explained Benchmarking and its importance in higher education. He thoroughly explained different practices of benchmarking through which an institute can benchmark its education process by highlighting Benchmarking Methodologies and different criteria used by NAAC. He also introduced the audience with Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the (US) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Commonwealth Benchmarking Club.
Session 2: "Imparting Value Education for overall development" by Mr. Mehul Thakkar
Mr. Mehul Thakkar, Lecturer at SRIMCA, led the audience towards understanding Value Education and its importance in world today. He urged the participant not to think that imparting value education must be at schools only. He wisely explained it as the responsibility of society, education system and parents. He emphasized the "such education must not be a curriculum; instead it must be imparted at every moment in the classroom with subject teaching..."
Session 3: "Stress Management" by Dr. Rudresh Vyas
Dr. Rudresh Vyas, Lecturer at MTB Arts College, Surat explained different ways to achieve relaxation when one is under stress. He said that "A stressful mind affects body and a stressful body affects mind." With this, he explained, how one can relax the body and gradually propagated the relaxation to mind including alpha, beta and theta state of mind. The participants practiced few breathing techniques for achieving relaxation. The participants were also taught the technique to reach beta state of mind by gradually relaxing body organ from toe till face. He urged the participants to teach these techniques in class for making the learning process more effective.
Day 3: 13th June 2008
Session 1: "Role of Teacher as Counselor" by Dr. Dipti Oza
Dr. Dipti Oza, Reader, Dept. of Education, M. S. University, cleared the misconceptions regarding counseling & guiding during the beginning of the session. She explained the basic assumption to be kept in mind while counseling/guiding is "All individuals are unique and the differences must be respected." She threw light on Erickson's bipolar theory which can help a mentor to guide/counsel the student by knowing their personality traits. She also discussed the roles of parents and teachers in treating and guiding the adolescents, and emphasized on the problems and anxiety of transitory phase through which a student pass when they leaves school and enters university/college. She also suggested few strategies to minimize them. She ended with an appeal for all the teachers to be BEST OF HUMAN.
Session 2: "Preparation of Blueprint and Evaluation Items" by Dr. Satish Pathak
Dr. Satish Pathak, Reader, Dept. of Education, M. S. University, explained importance of teaching learning process and its evaluation including Planning, Preparation and Try-out to design a good question paper. He explained different techniques to be used in all these phases and thoroughly made understood about different blue prints to be prepared for evaluation. He explained different types of Evaluation Items, their strengths and weaknesses.
Session 3: "Gender Sensitivity and Campus Issues" by Dr. Dipti Oza
Dr. Dipti Oza begin with concept of Gender and Sex. She explained that male/femal terms are given by the biological symptoms during birth, but boy/girl is made by nurturing. She wisely narrated through different examples how a parent, a teacher or society might react in case of girl and boy. She urged for equal treatment to both boy and girl. She said "Student should be treated as an individual, not as a girl student or boy student." She discussed on campus issues like Exploitation.
Session 4: Preparation of Project Proposal by Dr. Satish Pathak
Dr. Satish Pathak addressed on different parameters to be kept in mind while planning and preparing a project proposal. He discussed on how to estimate the budget and duration. He also discussed few legal issues related to project work. He introduced different agencies that require institutes to do project for them.
Day 4: 14th June 2008
Session 1: "Education and Character Building" by Harshadbhai Shah
Shri Harshadbhai Shah, a renowned educationalist, threw light on different aspects of character. He said "Your character can be decided by what you are in dark." He explained the chain of thought, action, habit, character and destiny. Continued with the discussion he argued that the teaching community must consider student character building as an important responsibility on their shoulders. He has ended talk by elaborating personal character and national character.
Session 2: "Progressive Methods of teaching in higher education and Integration of Techno Pedagogical Skills in higher education" by Dr. Mahesh K. Yagnik
Dr. Mahesh K. Yagnik, Prof. & Head, Dept. of Education, S. P. University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, discussed importance of concept that must be thoroughly inculcated in minds of students. He said "Studies has shown that students weak in mathematics are generally poor in basic operations..." by which he explained how a deficiency in core concept leads to overall downfall on student in that subject. He asked the participants to list at least 2 core concepts they feel important regarding their respective subject and also to list what best quality each participants hold to prove that one is a good teacher. He asked the participants to enhance collaborative learning technique among students and also the practice the same with co-colleagues for self-development and development of society.
Session 3: "Teaching without Lecturing" by Dr. M. A. Chotalia
Dr. M. A. Chotalia, Reader, Dept. of Education, S. P. University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, kept forward different teaching learning techniques required in best education imparting. He made the participants to role play the same in session, so as to get the actual idea how a student will be benefited by such techniques. He explained and demonstrated four techniques which encouraged the qualities like Group learning, Team leadership, Content memorizing and Learning with fun. The session lasted for 3 hours without break.
Day 5: 15th June 2008
Session 1: "Legal Structure for the Functioning of an Affiliating University-A Case Study of VNSGU, Surat" by Dr. V. D. Naik
Dr. V. D. Naik, Principal, S. P. B. English Medium College, Surat, explained the legal structure that is found in Affiliating Universities of India. To explain effectively, he used the case study of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. His discussion focused on the Hierarchy of Authorities and their responsibilities including inter-linkage among all the authorities. Further, he explained about Act, Statutes, Ordinance, Regulations and Rules. He made the audience aware about different rights and duties framed for teaching staff and explained in detail all the sections related to it.
Session 2: "Guidelines for Paper Writing and Presentation" by Dr. Rameshchandra G. Kothari
Dr. Rameshchandra G. Kothari, Vice Chancellor, V.N.S.G. University listed the process of how paper writing must be done. He explained how selection of theme and subtheme must be done carefully whenever planning for holding seminar / conference. He explained the dos and don'ts to be kept in mind while writing each component of paper. At the end, explanation was given about approach of paper presentation and responsibilities of presenter, Session Chair person, and peers during the presentation.
Group Discussion and Valedictory Function
The session was kept open with discussion regarding satisfaction with respect to duration, topics covered and speakers of the workshop. The participants were satisfied with the organization of the workshop. Their opinions clearly reflected their sense of pleasure in food and hospitality. On completion of the discussion, certificates were distributed to participants by Dr. R. G. Kothari, Mrs. Kothari, and by Dr. V. D. Naik.
