Lahore, August 11, 2023 (PPI-OT):Seemingly, the quality of teaching is plummeting in Pakistan. One of the reasons that has surfaced is the less vested interest of institutes in introducing contemporary academic trends to the faculty. Knowing that faculty development plays a decisive role in maintaining academic vitality, the Office of Research, Innovation, and Commercialization (ORIC) at The University of Lahore (UOL) curated a five-day faculty development program (FDP) from July 17 to July 21, 2023.
This first-ever faculty development program at UOL was based on a range of activities that were targeted towards helping academicians improve their teaching, research, and administrative skills. Moreover, the faculty was introduced to advanced teaching gadgets and digital tools, and they were guided regarding patent submission and grant acquisition. Moreover, the ethical dimensions of teaching and research, effective assessment methodologies, and the role of quality assurance and integrity in higher education were also addressed.
During this five-day program, eight eminent scholars and experts were invited to share the insights of their respective fields. The speakers were specialized in various domains of higher education, including Ms Noor Amna Malik (Managing Director, NAHE, HEC, Islamabad), Prof Dr Shafiq ur Rehman (Vice Chancellor, University of Haripur), Mr Nasir Shah (Director General, QAA, HEC), Dr Zeeshan Zaib Khattk (Director, Institute of Management Science, University of Kohat), Dr Muhammad Rafiq Dar (Corporate Trainer and NLP Practitioner), Mr Irfan Ali (Controller of BISE-Lahore), Mrs Shakra Khurshid (Assistant Controller of Patents at IPO, Lahore), and Dr Mirza Habib Ali (Chairman of BISE, Lahore).
The first day of the training week was characterised by the welcome note of Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal (Director, ORIC), who shared the schedule as well as the implicit purpose of this training initiative with the audience. Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf (Rector, UOL) also shared his expectations regarding the first-of-its-kind training program. The training week began with the elucidatory talk of Ms Malik on ‘Academic Planning and Management and Research Ethics’.
Ms Malik regarded teachers as critical and effective change agents, playing the most important role and responsibility in the learning process. In addition to that, she talked about academic planning and management of a semester and needs assessment as a formal, in-depth study or an informal review. She advised the faculty that before academic planning and designing learning interventions, it is important to know who the learners are and what their level and background are in the subject; otherwise, the desired outcomes will not be effective. Stressing the importance of adopting learner-centred teaching methodology, she said that every activity, assignment, and even the classroom lectures should be curated in a way that would involve the active involvement of learners or students. She elaborated on the three points that are to be considered in teaching: Needs Analysis, Design, and Evaluation. Ms Malik also shared ethical considerations that ought to be considered in teaching and even while conducting research.
During the FDP week, Dr Dar delivered training on employing Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) Techniques for improving teaching. The training started off with the elaboration of the NLP model of communication and the different types of modalities (Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and auditory digital) that students might endure. Dr Dar shared ways such as questionnaires, word choice analysis, body language analysis, etc., via which teachers can clue out the modality that most of the students prefer in a particular class.
Dr Dar suggested that a teacher should design the lecture to cater to students with different modalities. Lectures should include visuals, e.g., images, flow charts, graphs, etc., for visual learners; verbal examples and scenarios for auditory learners; sentimental appraisals for kinesthetic learners; and logical arguments for the auditory visual learners.
Other areas that were discussed during the training week included the role of quality assurance and integrity in higher education, the conduct of examinations and assessment methodologies, the latest research tools and techniques, insights into the Pakistani patent system, and hunting research grants from exotic resources. All these sessions were tailored towards the outright training of faculty to enable them to achieve excellence in their teaching careers, consequently providing knowledge to students in the best possible way. The training week ended with a certificate distribution ceremony to acknowledge the contributions of the participants. More details about the UOL’s faculty development programme will be shared in the upcoming website stories.
For more information, contact:
The University of Lahore
1 – KM Defence Road, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-111-865-865, +92-42-35322501 +92-42-35321761
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.uol.edu.pk