Earn credits by teaching mates
GTU’s choice-based credit system will allow good students to teach their contemporaries and earn two credits
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, July 11, 2013
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/20130711201307110230028875485ea5f/Earn-credits-by-teaching-mates.html
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, July 11, 2013
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/20130711201307110230028875485ea5f/Earn-credits-by-teaching-mates.html
The students of Gujarat Technological University can lessen their credit burden by teaching fellow students from this academic year. This will also help them earn the much valuable experience if they decide to take up teaching as a career. The opportunity has come up as an interesting offshoot of choice based credit system that GTU is introducing this academic year.
“Students good in a subject will teach fellow students who are weak in it, thus helping each other. This will help students develop themselves and also give them the opportunity to learn team work which is so important for their professional life,” said incharge GTU Vice Chancellor M N Patel of the proposed system.
Admission process to all engineering is on, but session will begin on July 18 across the state. Two days later the university will conduct a diagnostic test of all students to assess their strength and weaknesses. The entire batch will be divided into three categories according to their performance in each subject.
“Each student has some strength and some weakness. Those strong in a subject will tutor fellow students weak in that subject. Thus they will be helping each other and if they perform this task for a certain number of hours, they can earn up to two credits,” said Prof Patel.
The students will undergo orientation on teaching methods before the project takes off, he added. In the present credit system there is no scope for students formally teaching their mates and earning certificate for that.
The idea of students enabling their contemporaries came to the officials in the higher education department and university officials after they found that every year only around 20 per cent students are able to clear the first semester examination.
The remaining either fail or get ATKT (allowed to keep term). “The reasons are many: change of medium of instruction from Gujarati to English, lack of communication skills, weakness in core subjects, etc. Teaching will help them improve their life skills,” Prof Patel said, adding that the diagnostic test will also be conducted on their physical fitness so that the students can take remedial steps.
The university has designed sixweek bridge course in which the students can take and offer subjects. These will be offered in seven courses of two credits each. First semester BE students have to study four regular subjects of four credits each.
The new intake will be evaluated through multiple choice questions and they will be categorised as ‘O’- ordinary, ‘A’- advanced or ‘S’- special according to their performances in the test. The students would learn the subjects of bridge course according to their proficiency, GTU officials said.
On the teachers’ fear that the new system could lead to them becoming surplus, Prof Patel said, “It will not affect student-teacher ratio. The system will only enable students to help fellow students and thereby it will be beneficial to both groups – learners and the student-teachers.”
“Students good in a subject will teach fellow students who are weak in it, thus helping each other. This will help students develop themselves and also give them the opportunity to learn team work which is so important for their professional life,” said incharge GTU Vice Chancellor M N Patel of the proposed system.
Admission process to all engineering is on, but session will begin on July 18 across the state. Two days later the university will conduct a diagnostic test of all students to assess their strength and weaknesses. The entire batch will be divided into three categories according to their performance in each subject.
“Each student has some strength and some weakness. Those strong in a subject will tutor fellow students weak in that subject. Thus they will be helping each other and if they perform this task for a certain number of hours, they can earn up to two credits,” said Prof Patel.
The students will undergo orientation on teaching methods before the project takes off, he added. In the present credit system there is no scope for students formally teaching their mates and earning certificate for that.
The idea of students enabling their contemporaries came to the officials in the higher education department and university officials after they found that every year only around 20 per cent students are able to clear the first semester examination.
The remaining either fail or get ATKT (allowed to keep term). “The reasons are many: change of medium of instruction from Gujarati to English, lack of communication skills, weakness in core subjects, etc. Teaching will help them improve their life skills,” Prof Patel said, adding that the diagnostic test will also be conducted on their physical fitness so that the students can take remedial steps.
The university has designed sixweek bridge course in which the students can take and offer subjects. These will be offered in seven courses of two credits each. First semester BE students have to study four regular subjects of four credits each.
The new intake will be evaluated through multiple choice questions and they will be categorised as ‘O’- ordinary, ‘A’- advanced or ‘S’- special according to their performances in the test. The students would learn the subjects of bridge course according to their proficiency, GTU officials said.
On the teachers’ fear that the new system could lead to them becoming surplus, Prof Patel said, “It will not affect student-teacher ratio. The system will only enable students to help fellow students and thereby it will be beneficial to both groups – learners and the student-teachers.”
