Amrita School of Pharmacy organized a five day teacher training program as part of the quality improvement policy at the Kochi campus from June 9-13, 2015. The objective of the program was to empower teachers and to impart basic skills needed to become excellent teachers. The program started by lighting the lamp by Dr. Sabitha M. Principal, Amrita School of Pharmacy.
The training was officially opened by a session on educational objectives by Dr. B. Umadethan, Professor and Head of Forensic Medicine at Amrita School of Medicine. He emphasized the importance of such a workshop and shared his ideas and experiences as a teacher. He provided a brief overview of educational objectives, types of learning objectives and their importance. All participants formulated specific instructional objectives containing these elements and various tasks on educational objectives were also given.
The second day began with the topic “Lecture Method of Instruction” by Dr. Umadevi P., Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Amrita School of Pharmacy. She pointed out the importance of planning and delivering a lecture effectively. She demonstrated how to make the class lively by introducing some icebreakers. This was followed by a session on “Proper Selection and use of Teaching Aids” by Dr. Aneesh T.P., and Dr. Subin Mary Zachariah, Assistant Professors of Pharmaceutical Chemistry & Analysis, Amrita School of Pharmacy. Dr Aneesh T. P. demonstrated the method of black board teaching and integration of technologies like PowerPoint. “The success of this depends upon the appropriateness and context of subjects,” he said. He also gave the importance of TPS (Think, Pair and Share) to generate ideas in classroom. Dr. Subin Mary Zachariah discussed the appropriate use of an overhead projector and explained how it can be utilized to deliver instructional materials effectively.
On the third day of the program, a self assessment form was given to all participants. The session was presented by Dr.Vidya Viswanad, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics, Amrita School of Pharmacy on “Mastering MCQS”. She highlighted the importance of preparing questions based on learning objectives. Guidelines for preparing MCQs and few workout examples were also given.
The fourth day of the program began with a session on “Value of Values in Education” by Sri. Madhu, Assistant Professor of English, St. Peters College, Kolenchery, Ernakulam. He stressed that faculty form a valuable resource in an educational system and the quality of teachers reflect the quality of students. Many faculty expressed their views on quality and he shared some experiences.
The session was followed by a microteaching session by participants. Participants demonstrated a class on a selected topic for 10 minutes and were evaluated by fellow participant peers with feedback about the delivery of the topic. This gave all the participants valuable tips in delivering lectures effectively.
On the last day of the program, Sri K. K. Shanmukhan, Corporate Trainer, highlighted the ways of effective communication. He mentioned the T.P.S (Think, Pair, Share) for effective communication. He expressed that practice can make everyone masters of language. This was followed by a feedback session from participants. Many shared their experiences and participants expressed that they all benefited and enjoyed the teacher training program.
At the end of the session, the Principal highlighted the importance of implementing main aspects presented during the sessions in day-to-day teaching practice. To close the training, the participants had a chance to interact with each other and the program came to a formal end with the National Anthem.
