June 2013

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VOL. # 7 ISSUE #6

Inspiring Teachers
Human Excellence
In this issue: Faculty of the month Dr V Kamaraju The Significance of tutorials Uma Garimella.... Must Read Links .. Perspectives on Curriculum at NIT-Trichy 2 1, 3, 4 3 4

From the editor..

Welcome to this issue of the newsletter. The season for reopening of schools and colleges is usually also the season for orientation programs for teachers. We look forward to an active couple of months. Next month we will be completing six years of operations. It has been a journey with mixed feelings. Sometimes exciting, sometimes not so exciting and sometimes not moving at all. But it is a journey of choice. Our corporate training initiatives are also picking up and we have new members in the team. This months faculty profile has been made by Prof Ramakalyan Ayyagari from NIT-Trichy. The links have been compiled from the various articles that my friends send me, particularly Dr Sridhar Chitta and Dr Anil Kumar Challa.In the last couple of months I have been discussing the issue of providing resources for tutorials in the private engineering colleges. I have shared some thoughts on the topic here. Lastly some of our activities are: Building Team Spirit in DRDO Scientists, ITM, Mussori, June 24th to 27th 2013 Pre-retirement Planning for DMRL staff, July first week Faculty Development Program at NMREC June last week

The significance of tutorials

The wiki defines tutorial as a method of transferring knowledge used as a part of a learning process. It is more interactive and specific than a book or a lecture; a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete a certain task. Depending on the context a tutorial can range from a set of instructions to complete a task to an interactive problem solving session. As this pyramid shows, the lecture is the least effective method of learning. Tutorials are meant to discuss the course content questions on the lectures, discussion on a reading assignment, solving more problems on a given topic, practicing a skill (as in language) and so on. Read more on page 3

Contact us: info@theprofessor.in,

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Faculty of the month

Dr V Kamaraju, Mahavir Institute of Science and Technology, AP
I know him personally since my childhood. His high-pitched fast speech, with honesty to the brim, has always been an attraction to me, in addition to his passion and commitment to his chosen field teaching and research in electrical engineering. While most us, including myself, complain about lack of facilities and other niceties in engineering colleges other than IITs, here is a man who was content and demonstrated that the real output is what one does, and not what one gets. I am really proud of my long standing relationship with him, and its my overwhelming pleasure to interview him, only meekly attempting to show the giant in a hand-held mirror. 1. What other options did you have when you actually chose to become a faculty? After B.E. I had job in APSEB as JE, and in TISCO (Tatanagar) as trainee engineer, and as a teacher trainee at TTT. However, I preferred M E at IISc. Many of my class mates joined APSEB or TTT or industry. Had I joined TTT I would have been in IIT Kharagpur or Madras. 2. Why did you choose to teach? I worked as student trainee in APSEB for 3 months. I did not like the environment. Moreover, my father wanted me to be at KAKINADA. Hence I joined JNTU Kakinada in the department of Electrical Engineering through APPSC. 3. What are the good moments that make you feel good for having chosen this career? I had full professional freedom. I am proud both as an ENGINEER & TEACHER. I have erected & commissioned a medium size HV LAB at JNTU Kakinada, and it is now worth about 50 crores. I also established consultancy for 1 lakh. in those days. 4. What kind of skills and attitude are required to be a good teacher? Basically one must have interest in teaching and not in making money. It is an art. A teacher is a studen t forever; he must learn, update himself and impart knowledge, not just giving marks or grades. 5. Is PhD necessary for teaching? Why or why not? If yes, does it make any difference in obtaining a PhD from IISc/IIT? In my opinion it is not necessary. All my teachers in B.E. were only B.E.s and in M.E. at IISC. only MEs; we had only one Ph.d. Dr. HVG. All the teachers were excellent and worthy. Regarding PhDs today, they are all cut & pastes. I opine that the ME projects are much better. Nevertheless, the doctorates of IITs/IISc are somewhat better.

Before caption a goes here What do you feel about attitude towards teaching profession in society? What were your experiences at Turkey? Teachers have become very cheap. In private sector they are paid like clerks. With our reservation systems and entrance exams, marks are awarded above 95 % in SSC, intermediate etc. Education has also become cheap & worthless. We are now looked down by the society. In turkey I had the best times academically. Students highly respect the teachers and those who really want higher & university education only join. V Kamaraju obtained his PhD in High-Voltage Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was formerly the Professor of EEE and the Principal at the JNTU College of Engineering, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. He was a visiting professor at Middle East Technical University, Gaziantep, Turkey, during 1981-92. He has done extensive research in the area of liquid and solid dielectrics, composity insulation and partial discharge. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India). He has published many research papers and has been a consultant to various industries and to the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board. He has published Electrical Distribution Systems and Linear Systems: Analysis and Applications during 2006-2008. He received the Best Teacher Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2001. At present, he is Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Mahavir Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad, India. See full interview at

http://www.theprofessor.in/vkamaraju.shtml

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MUST READ LINKS

Thoughts on Education:
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/rna/cechscientist.html http://www.npr.org/2013/05/23/185839159/living-intwo-worlds-but-with-just-one-language http://am.ascb.org/dora/ http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/13/d ont-go-back-to-school-kio-stark/

Self Development
http://www.paulstips.com/

Book Reading project

http://indiabioscience.org/features/51/experiencingjourney-science-through-%E2%80%9C-bookproject%E2%80%9D-garware-college-pune http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/collegeand-university/an-indian-education/article4683622.ece http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_silver_hack_a_banana_ make_a_keyboard.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe dded&v=K96c-TGnSf4 http://www.youtube.com/embed/doN4t5NKW-k
Ideally, it should be one-on-one, but in many of the western universities the number is less than ten. In India, the recommended number is fifteen for one tutor. In some of the premiere institutes, the lectures are given to very large classes and therefore the tutorials are a must. These tutorials could be taken by teaching assistants. But in some institutes, senior or regular faculty conduct the tutorials. Such small group interactions give insight to the tutor on why students may not be doing well in a course or what difficulties they have. These observations should be shared with the lecturer. However, tutorial are not merely a means of reaching weak student. It should also provide individualized attention and academic challenge to stimulate the intellectual growth of talented and creative students. Tutors also can have their own intellectual horizons expanded by the observations and questions of such students. Tutorials must help students think like professionals in that subject.

A foreign students experience of Indian Education

Videos

Conference for Math Educators

http://atcm.mathandtech.org/

What a teacher should do

http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/1555159/commentwalk-in-with-a-smile-teacher

Toys for special children http://www.newson6.com/story/22176044/toysengineered-by-tu-students-bring-smiles-at-tulsaslittle-light-house Useful publications from Commonwealth of Learning http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/d efault_copy(2).aspx Low cost teaching aids http://www.scoop.it/t/designing-innovative-lowcost-science-teaching-aids

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Tutorials
Dos and Donts
Tutorials meet at least once a week for a minimum of 50 minutes. Tutors must prepare tutorial sheets, detailing the expectations for the work to be done Tutors must submit a tutorial description and evaluation form at the end of the academic term. These documents track tutorial content and academic development. Copies of these documents are shared with students. Tutors must not use these classes for regular lectures It is necessary to critically review the syllabus and cut down some topics to cater time for tutorials Institutes must let go of the belief that teaching happens only through lecture classes One good idea is to cater to tutorials in the lesson plan, scheduling problems or discussions in correct time sequence with the lectures Another way of scheduling tutorials is near a lab session, tutees can relate the theory with the experiment and have some questions Tutees must exhibit a high degree of preparation. Tutorial assignments are meant for individual discussions, hence tutees must read the material or review the lectures before coming

About 45 teachers from various departments participated in this workshop. The sessions started with the idea of Six Thinking Hats followed by a demonstration. Everyone appreciated how meetings can be more productive using this simple technique. There was a Jigsaw reading session on the alternate forms of learning like

Perspectives on Curriculum Design NIT-Trichy May 8th to 10th 2013 Report

www.teachersacademy.co www.theprofessor.in

Team Based learning, problem Based learning and Just In Time teaching. Faculty could see how this type of reading can be used in their own classes. Blooms and Finks taxonomies, their use in writing course objectives and the importance of assessing these outcomes was discussed. These sessions were followed by teachers self discovery teaching and learning styles, Enneagram personality types, Emotional intelligence were some pointers. Meditation was also practiced. This introspection led the faculty towards better understanding of their students.