Best Practices 1

Title of the Practice:

Seminars organized by teachers and students of the College

Objectives:

The above practise was initiated with the following objectives :

# Proper and preferable topics of seminar could help the students to get rid of boredom from monotonous subjects confined in the specific syllabus offered by the University’

# Such practises made the students  enjoy the learning and helped them to increase interest and attention in their subject matter as given in the syllabus

# Students as well as teachers got several chances to experiment with the available amount of resources.

The Context:

Bookish knowledge is incomplete knowledge. The ancient education system was based on downward infiltration method in which knowledge was gathered from teacher and imparted to students through verbal or chalks and talk method. But due to enlargement of modern syllabus concentrically it became difficult to perform teaching and learning with the help of such old methods. Hence in order to change the methodology of teaching and learning process we decided to bring some changes in the classical method. 

The Practice :

This practise was carried out in the following manner:

*A meeting was organised under the chairmanship of the Principal along with teachers from all the departments.

 * Resolutions were adopted regarding the matter which highlighted the problem of loss of concentration among students in the traditional mode of teaching and learning.

 *To overcome the situation we decided that seminars and workshops could be conducted regularly so that the monotony of the students as well as teachers could be reduced eventually. In this Academic Session we increased the frequency of seminar and workshop in a regular basis.

 *Teachers from all the departments selected one day each in a week to engage with the students not only from their own department but also from other departments to make the events appear inter-departmental. 

 *Not only bookish topics but topics were also chosen from all other areas like sports, national and international events, entertainment, literature etc.

* Not only teachers, students were also encouraged to participate in these seminars in order to develop their concept of public speaking and handling it with confidence.

*Teachers of all the departments were consulted and requested to enlighten students from all other departments regarding various topics.

*After the completion of the seminars, verbal feedback was taken from the participants in order to know about the outcome of their entire initiative as taken up by the College in imparting practice based knowledge of various subjects through Seminars within the College.

Evidence of Success:

The program was highly successful as the students and the teachers could establish a better relationship among themselves through the program. They also came to know about various other topics beside their syllabus and subject. It was highly successful in terms of the bonding that it created among students of all departments as these seminars were attended by students from all departments. The students appeared more confidant in all their future public speaking assignments as assigned to them within and outside the College.

Problems encountered and resources required :

As this practise was largely conducted by the teachers of the College, no such great problem arose while conducting this. Resources available within the College like the Seminar Room, the Computers, the boards and the library were of great support for the entire programme.

2. Best Practices 2

Title of the Practice:

Science Exhibition

Objectives:

Science exhibition was organised by the Science departments of the College in which students and teacher representatives of the neighbouring schools were invited to have a glimpse of the exhibition which was prepared jointly by the Science department teachers and students of the College with the objective of increasing scientific awareness among the young generation of modern rural India. This was also hoped to inculcate a strong growing interest in the participants about the Science subjects and familiarize them with the necessity of Science in their daily lives.

The Context:

As has already been mentioned previously that our College is situated in a semi- rural atmosphere, it is difficult to find the infrastructure promoting the study of science in higher educational level. The College also functions under a scarcity of resources and learners willing to take up Science based subjects in their Undergraduate Curriculum. The teachers are unable to exercise their full capacity in this situation and this becomes a cause of frustration for them in many cases. The Science exhibition was a way out from all these concerns.

The Practice :

The above mentioned  Practise was carried out in the following ways:

*A meeting Resolution was adopted by the teachers of the Science Department and the Principal of the College regarding the manner in which the practice of conducting the Science exhibition would be carried out.

*A Plan was chalked out regarding the kind of experiments which would be displayed in the exhibition.

*As this was a student oriented programme, very basic high school level lab instruments were utilized in the entire programme. Students of our College were encouraged to bring their handmade experiments in this exhibition as this could increase their confidence level to another degree.

*Two dates were fixed according to the convenience of teachers and the invited schools.

* The first day was based on a theoretical introduction of the Science based subjects by the teachers who were invited from the visiting schools. Power Point was utilized to make the session more enjoyable for the students.

*The second day involved visiting of the Laboratories and making independent survey of the labs by the students. A small session was also held in which the students could put forward their queries to the senior College students and teachers of the College.

*The practical demonstrations were highly helpful as it added to the perspectives of the new age learners from high school of our locality.

*The exhibition also provided small tokens of appreciation in the form of gifts given to the students coming to visit the College Science exhibition.

Evidence of Success: The programme was highly successful in creating a standard interaction among the students who came to attend the programme on those two days. It gave us a hope about an increase in the number of students taking up Science in their curriculum. The exhibition gave an immense satisfaction to the teachers of the schools, the students who had come to visit us and became a memorable experience for our College as this ensured a smooth functioning of the curriculum in future. The students coming from primarily rural and underprivileged background had a one of the greatest experience of their lives through this exhibition.

Problems encountered and resources required :

Since the College has a severe scarcity of funds, it was not possible to enlarge our vision by incorporating the desired amount of laboratory equipments for the Science subjects. In spite of that, the intention of learning new things helped to make this programme a great success in this academic session. The College was able to make good use of the available resources like the existing lab facilities, the Computers, the library books and the teaching staff in this practice.