Foreign teachers help Indian professors up their game

[pampango]

Source: Global Post

The collaboration was set up with the help of Lowell, the American Society for Engineering Education and the Indian Society for Technical Education, among other entities. Dozens of academics and business people in both the United States and India helped fine-tune the curriculum.

The collaboration was set up in 2007 and the workshops began in earnest the following year. Since then nearly 1,200 Indian faculty members have been trained by at least 36 American professors. With their training, the Indian professors, in turn, have conducted more than 200 regional workshops, helping more than 6,000 faculty members who teach an estimated 100,000 students.

Because the core engineering curriculum is virtually the same worldwide, Vedula says, there is already a common base of understanding no matter the country. And the American professors aren't teaching engineering itself, but teaching their peers how to explain it to their students more effectively.

Raised in a system that emphasizes teaching through lectures and learning through rote memorization, many Indian faculty members lack the skills to engage students, Vedula said. "A lot of professors will give a monologue for an hour. That is the worst way of teaching. After 10 minutes, students lose attention." During the workshops, American professors train their Indian counterparts in what is called "active learning." They introduce strategies for working with students on problems, class participation and group learning.

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/education/100927/india-engineering-teachers

[Vincardog]

1. SO there is another 100,000 Indian expert 'engineers' out there