SIES(Nerul) College of Arts, Science and Commerce organised a state level NAAC sponsored seminar on Curriculum Design and Development on 8th December 2022.
NEP-2020 provides a huge opportunity to revamp education by changing the mind-set of all stakeholders, provided the right strategies are in place for their implementation. In this context, Higher Education Institutions are developing student centric approach for increasing student engagement in the learning process, enriching knowledge, and unleashing their skills and abilities as well as enhancing achievements. Curriculum has become a dynamic process due to the changes that are occurring in the society. There is the need to update, innovate and modernize syllabus to include technological, practical and industrial advancements.
Innovative curriculum with multidisciplinary approach will help in focusing on employability, entrepreneurship and skill development. Teacher’s involvement in the process of curriculum development is also important to align content of curriculum with students and societal needs. Hence teachers need training in the form of seminar for enhancing professional skills and contributing to curriculum design and developments. This seminar is intended to align with the goal of The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of the Government of India, to revamp curriculum, pedagogy and assessment methods.
Objectives of the seminar:
The seminar will focus on:
Planning and developing systematic, progressive and purposeful curriculum process.
Brainstorming on designing curriculum that would deepen learning process.
Discussing on suitable teaching-learning strategies and methods, necessary for positive improvement in teaching-learning process.
Detailed Report of the Program
The keynote address was given by Prof Dr. S S Mantha, emeritus professor, VJTI and Prof.Dr. Ravikumar Chitnis Vice Chancellor MIT World Peace University Pune.
Dr S.S Mantha, former chairman AICTE, CEO MSKC Mahapriet, adjunct professor NIAS Bangalore. He explained how the curriculum is now student centric and spoke about the need: design and development of curriculum. He elaborated on the fact that context and need are two important factors to be kept in mind while designing curriculum. He spoke about reforming higher education with respect to NEP 2020, a layered approach to honing skills for acquiring jobs, personalised learning, break the pre- requisites in Course structure and have credit based systems where students can opt for their course of choice. He stressed on the curriculum processes and how it is now an adaptive system where inputs are considered from students and teachers community. To ensure quality in education one must stress on Curriculum maps and ensure that they are used to increase opportunities to students by using digital technologies on a common platform.
Dr Chitnis spoke about how MIT WPU implemented NEP 2020. They have introduced multiple entry and exit programmes. He spoke about opportunities that organisations can avail to improve their research competencies using STRIDE component. He stressed on the importance of team teaching and its effectiveness. International academic immersion program is a popular program amongst students which can be replicated in other institutes.
He also suggested that incorporating business simulations to understand the problems in business education. It is recommended that ‘Reimagining Assessment and accreditation in Higher Education in India’.-a white paper published by NAAC to be read and to understand the way forward for HEIs(Higher Education Institutes).
Plenary Session-I
Prof Dr Smita Shukla, Director IQAC, University of Mumbai discussed about the pathway to curriculum development. She started the talk by discussing the aims of higher education by referring to the reports of Radhakrishnan committee and D.S Kothari Commission. The creation of an education system that is rooted in Indian ethos is important and that is the aim of NEP 2020. She felt it is important to have a student whose EQ and IQ levels are balanced and that will solve the purpose of educating an individual. The two dimensions of the assessment framework namely quality of goals and processes must be integrated. She further looked at Criteria 1 and how it can be mapped to the needs of the society at large to understand the relevance of the curriculum. She concluded the session by looking at the basic requirements to be fulfilled for completion of a course
Plenary Session-II
Dr Shobha Vasudevan spoke about the innovation in curriculum designing. She believes that innovation is the key for unblocking uncertainties. One size fits all approach is not correct when it comes to curriculum design. Learning should be holistic, integrated, enjoyable and engaging, hence innovation can be done with reference to programmes, content development, nomenclature and other factors. For instance – Flip Learning, experiential learning, project based discussions and role play can be used to innovate pedagogy. Dr Vasudevan recommended a new outlook towards curriculum development which will help the teachers develop a curriculum which is comprehensive and effective as curriculum can act as a tool for imbibing graduate attributes amongst learners.
Plenary Session-II
Dr Bhalchandra Bhole spoke about “Curriculum and Evaluation in Outcome based education” where he discusses outcome based education, Higher Order Cognitive Capabilities. He explained how knowledge should be incorporated in learning outcomes in our Curriculum. Dr Bhole claimed that instructors should be able to define what skills and knowledge, learners should have when they leave the HEI, under an outcome based education system.
Curriculum will include the combination of topics and subjects or activities in the educational program whereas syllabus is a portion of a topic in a particular subject. Graduate attributes were discussed which can be acquired from curricular and extra-curricular activities. Dr Bhole stressed on how the focus on core subjects should be reduced and the interdisciplinary and trans disciplinary subjects should be promoted. Learning outcomes should be dependent on contextualisation of knowledge, praxis etc. He explained the role of formative and summative assessment in mapping student outcomes. He concluded by saying that trans disciplinary education and skill development can improve employment opportunities of students.
The paper/ chapter presentations were conducted post the sessions.
The valedictory session concluded with Vote of thanks. Total of __ teachers participated.
