HRDisciple
Training of Management Faculty

For Discussion Paper for Proposed Workshop of AICTE

Teacher is key figure in an educational process, be it a teacher of science, liberal arts or professional course. Yet not much attention is paid in preparing a teacher for the job, nor adequate facilities exists for in-service training. This should be viewed in comparison to what all efforts and resources are spent in training a civil servant. In Management Education, faculty development is a neglected area. The fact that large number of different kinds of Management Schools producing MBA’s or PGDBM’s have been set up during the last few years makes one wonder as to how these institutions have managed to have competent core faculty and how do they manage to update the academic staff.

Not much information exists in literature about the profile of teachers of management schools especially about their academic and professional qualifications and competencies to tackle the complexities of management education which in essence is business management. It needs no emphasis that business today is specialized and as much intellectual activity as any professional or academic discipline. It needs expertise and imaginative thinking, like of which comes from diverse disciplines as economics, psychology, demography, ecology, sociology, geography, law, forestry, anthropology, politics, health sciences, fatigue dynamics, ethics and many more. These disciplines by their nature are adaptive and are changing. It is therefore, imperative that a teacher who is responsible for Management Education and training is sensitized to the above situation so that she/he carries out her/his job effectively. Hence professional development of faculty. Professional development has to be both for career development of individual teacher and for the general growth and culture of the management institute in terms of pedagogic, research, consultancy and organizational set up. It means therefore, that faculty development/training has to be related to the needs of the individual teacher and those of the institution, and management institutions have to clearly define their aims and objectives and those of faculty members and the two should be as much approximate as possible.

Before proceeding further it may well be desirable to make a statement about the significance of terms education and training. Thirty years ago, Peter in his book on Ethics and Education stated that "Education implies that man’s outlook is transformed by what he knows, whereas training suggests the acquisition of appropriate appraisals and habits of response in limited conventional situations and lacks the wider cognitive implications of education". The definitions of the terms may be different but education and training are not mutually exclusive. In any professional institute activities have to be a mixture of both education and training. Our institutes prepare the students for skills essential for the world of work and therefore are training biased in response to the need of the industry/corporate sector. Whether this is desirable or not is a debatable question. Should we have training that responds to the requirement of industry or that (education) which will first change the existing industrial system itself.

Any programme of faculty development will have to deal with the above issue. One of the important and foremost components of faculty training is to enable the teacher to develop skills for effective teaching followed by upgradation of knowledge of her/his specialization. Effective teaching not only implies pedagogic achievements, it also means sensitization in many areas for enlarging vision that is critical for attaining effectiveness. Sensitization has to be in societal, economic and industrial context, it has to be about development processes that constitute anthropogentic level of social transformation and instrument of modernization of society. A teacher has to be sensitized to understand a changing role of professional education, identification and characteristics of values, their relevance and suitability in the present day context. He must understand, what is the benefit of cooperation and community spirit as stated by Dubos in 1981. Dubos wrote that "in future most valuable people might be not those with greatest ability to produce material goods but those who have gift to produce goodwill." Details about the topics for sensitization are given under orientation module outlined at the end.

Not much is known about Faculty development in management education. But now it would gain significance because on account of increased fee structures and other factors like competition there would be public demand for good teaching which could be achieved through faculty development efforts. Even AICTE which accords approval to various institutions would be questioned for poor teaching at these places; hence the concerned authorities must see that every approved institution has a programme for faculty training and sets apart funds for this activity -- funds for induction (orientation) programmes of newly appointed faculty, for orientation of other members of faculty, for updating knowledge, for sabbatical leave, for attending workshops and conferences, for teaching aids, teaching awards/incentives and other such activities. The faculty development programme in a management institution has to be different from that of UGC’s Academic Staff Colleges which are responsible for professional development of university staff teaching undergraduates, though the philosophy underlying the both has to be similar. Faculty development programme for management education has to be biased towards industry/corporate sector. Therefore faculty’s exposure to industry/corporate sector has to be incorporated into any kind of training programme especially for those teachers of management institutions who came from academic stream.

Whether a teacher came from industry or from academic institution, she/he has to have a skill for good teaching. Almost for every teacher in a management institute, teaching skills is left alone. Teachers develop this in their own style. If a person has come to teaching by own choice, she/he would try to become good teacher. Those who have come to teaching not by their own choice would like to become good teacher if they become aware that they are not performing well. Awareness itself is a very important step. A well conceived programme of faculty training has its aim to accompolish the task of awareness, that is prerequisite for motivations to learn to become good teacher.

AICTE may set up Centre for Professional Development for Management Education and in due course may have four regional centres for training of teachers. The centre may have following :

1. Training Unit for conducting various kind of courses for management teachers.

2. Research unit.

3. Unit for linkages with Industry/Corporate sector.

4. Unit for preparation of Reading Material for teachers working in management institutions.

5. International collaboration unit.
The training unit should devise three types of courses:

(a) Induction or orientation courses.

(b) Subject specific or discipline based courses for updating.

(c) Specialized courses based on need.
(Details about the duration, the extent of collaboration with Industry/Corporate sector, FICCI, Assocham and other organizations, finances and other modalities have to worked out).

In case AICTE does not set up a centre, it can specify certain institutions to conduct the courses for the professional development of teachers.

An outline of Induction Course is given to illustrate the purpose and philosophy of training programme. The philosophy of an Induction (Orientation) Course for teachers in Business School embraces the following:

(i) Teachers develop a broader vision and understand their role in context of contemporary society and identify main characteristics of values, and their relevance in changing socio-economic scenario.

(ii) In order to carry out the responsibility of transmission of knowledge and skill formation, teacher would know the socio-psychological characteristics of clientele group.

(iii) Pedagogy in a management institution is different. Self learning is very important. Teacher would know how to stimulate the student-managers for self learning. Lecture method, is dominant method for transmission of knowledge and would continue to be so, but other methods -- case studies, projects, tutorial and seminars, have to play an important role. Participants would learn how to lecture to keep the students attentive for one hour. Use of teaching aids -- video and computer would be incorporated into methodology.

(iv) How is management education managed? A teacher would know about this aspect.
Sensitization of teachers to the above may be done through a course, (Module-I), the contents of which are listed below:

UNIT-I

Need for Professional Development.

History of Management Education.

Structure of Management Education.

Management Education and Economic Development.

Management Education and Manpower Development.

Management Education and Transmission of Values.

Equity issues in Management Education.

Financing of Management Education.

Women in Management Education.

Management Education and Environment and Energy Issues.

Management Education and Health Problems.

Role of Information Technology in Management Education.

Industry - Business School Interaction.

Academic Audit and Quality Assurance.

UNIT-II

Insight into Affective Domain of Clientele Group.

Adolescent and Process of Learning.

Adults and Process of Learning.

Rural Urban Dichotomy in Youth.

Student - Teacher Relationship.

Quality of Life, Hostel Life and Recreation for Youth.

Student Services.

UNIT- III

Imparting knowledge through :

(i) Lecture Method -- its advantages and drawbacks.

(ii) Tutorials.

(iii) Case Studies and Projects.

Use of Audio-visual Aids.

Computer Aided Learning.

Evaluation.

Examination System.

Curriculum.

UNIT- IV

Role of Governments (State and Central) AICTE, UGC, and other agencies in Management Education.

Role of Private Trusts.

Issues in Management of Business Schools -- Autonomy, Accountability, Democratization, Regimentation.

Conditions of Service of Teachers.

Career and Professional Development of Teachers.

Self appraisal of Teachers.

Management of Extra Curricular Activities.

The course outlined above would be given by resource persons drawn from industry/corporate sector, academics from management and other similar institutions, administrators from government departments and public undertakings.

This Module is subject specific and is meant to update teachers in their area of teaching and specialization. In view of globalisation and technological innovations, important components of management education viz. Marketing, Finance, HRD, Operations and Systems Management, and various sub-disciplines have been changing. In fact, the changes are no less significant than industrial revolutions of earlier centuries. Management of business has already been transformed in advanced countries, which necessiates different approach to teaching - learning process at business schools. There is a pressure on the institutes to generate venture ideas. There is pressure to ensure quality products and services and adding value. Refresher courses in various areas mentioned above have to be arranged to update the faculty. AICTE may have to identify various institutions that have expertise in one or more areas to conduct these courses.

Subject specific refresher courses evince greater interest among the faculty. Therefore, these have to be planned with the help of experts drawn from more than one institution to sustain the interest. Like, Induction Courses, the resource persons for refresher courses will have to be drawn from among academics, industry, corporate sectors and administrators.

This module is subject specific but different from Module-II in two ways :

(i) It is need based and is demanded by the faculty for their advancement.

(ii) It is of shorter duration with a focus on specific topics.


No programme of professional development or faculty training would be successful without the involvement of Head of the Institution. The Director/Dean has to be a partner in this programme. In fact, it should be the responsibility of the Heads to strengthen and update their faculty and in ultimate analysis the faculty development has to be a built-in programme of the institution because it is this that would reflect the culture of the institution.

From India
manjula
Hi I am from Bangalore and looking forward to take up this course.Can you let me Know how to go about it Regards Manjula
From India, Bangalore
shamil
1

hi, i if the following could also be added it would be fine. internship opportunities for university teachers soft skills development for UTs English language traing for UTs regards
From Sri Lanka
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