Pune: STEM Teacher Training Workshop was organised to train participants in designing and deploying research based pedagogical tools (RBPTs)and to develop strategies to assess the learning outcome amongst the students.
As per the information given by Dr Suman Govil, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in her blog, this workshop was attended by 120 science teachers (60 life sciences and 25, 15, 20 teachers from physics, chemistry and mathematics background) from Star Colleges supported by the DBT.
The workshop was sponsored by Newton Bhabha Fund, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. The participants had opportunity to interact with 5 resource persons from faculty of Centre of Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK namely Dr Gareth Price, Dr Julie Jordan, John Walker, Dr Peter Sides, Dr Diana Bracewell, the representatives from British Council.
The eminent persons from funding agencies of Government of India namely Dr Amlesh Mukhopadhyay, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr Suman Govil, DBT, Dr Nandini, India Bioscience, IISER faculty namely Dr Shashidhara and Dr K P Mohanan shared their knowledge on the subject. There was also a Skype lecture by Dr K VijayRaghavan, Secretary, DBT.
During the course of workshop, there was introductory talk showcasing the characteristics and applications of RBPTs and delegates in groups reviewed the posters prepared by different colleges and judged the quality of RBPTs. Delegates in groups formed according to disciplines produced RBPTs suitable for their circumstances and were displayed which were then critiqued by different groups to collate good ideas and approaches. It was decided that the teachers trained in this workshop will be resource persons for such workshops in future.
The workshop was appreciated by all the participating teachers as it gave a unique opportunity for them to learn from each other as well as from experienced faculty.
