Orientation

The Orientation program is intended to inculcate in the young lecturers the quality of self- reliance through awareness of the social, intellectual and moral environment as well as to discover self-potential and confidence.

The orientation programes contributes to the teacher awareness of the problems of the Indian society and the role of education, higher education leaders and educators in the resolution of these problems to achieve desired goals in national development.

This orientation program not only develops the skills of the teacher with respect to teaching but it instills in them the sense of duty and responsibility for teaching profession.  Teachers become aware of educational problems and they try to solve the problems with creative and innovative techniques.

Need for the orientation Course

The orientation courses are needed because of the following reasons:

1)      Psychology of the students: A teacher who enters into teaching profession should know the behavior of the students, their way of thinking, their group dynamics and so on. This will be helpful for him in teaching learning process.

2)      Objectives of Education: The main objective of education is the all round development of a pupil. The teacher should be aware of that.

3)      Methodology: The content knowledge itself is not enough but teacher should have the methodology to teach also.

4)      Development of Self confidence: The orientation course makes the teacher more confident as it trains the teachers to face the students.

5)      Awareness about modern technologies: A teacher should be aware of modern technologies which have come in the field of education.

6)      Managerial skills: It also develops the managerial and administrative skills of the teachers.

Objectives of orientation

       I.            Awareness of higher Education: The new teachers should be made aware of the higher education. Its aims and objectives, administration, teaching learning process and new trends.

    II.            Relationship between education and society and culture:  The orientation course helps the teachers to understand the relationship between society and culture.

 III.            Role of college teachers: The teachers are made aware about their roles their duties and responsibilities.

 IV.            Acquiring basic skills: The teachers are trained in basic skills of teaching.

    V.            Awareness of the new developments in the subjects: The new teachers are taught about the new developments in the subjects.

 VI.            Managerial skills: They are taught about how to manage the college and institutions.

VII.            Personality development: The orientation program also aims at personality development so that teachers have a good personality.

Components of Orientation Program

In order to achieve the above objectives, the curriculum for the orientation course may have the following four components with minimum 144 contact hours, that is, six hours daily for a four-week program:

A.    Awareness of linkages between society, environment, development and education:  A teacher should be aware  of the larger society, school and college  education, culture, globalization and modernization and so on.

B.     Philosophy of education, Indian education system and pedagogy: It aims at  value based education, awareness of Indian education system, economics of education and human resource development, learner and the learning process, technology in teaching, alternate methods of learning and  evaluation and feedback

C.     Resource awareness and knowledge generation: This component should aim at helping the teachers to be self-sufficient, and continuously abreast of new knowledge and techniques, processes, methods and sources of knowledge.

D.    Management and personality development: Under this component teachers should be familiarized with the organization and management of the college/university. They    should be made aware of the ways in which they may develop their own personalities.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Monitoring of the orientation program is done by Academic Staff College. They coordinate and organize the program. At the end of the course evaluation is conducted by way of writing assignment. Program evaluation is done by the participants at the end of the program.

Problems of Academic Staff College in conducting Orientation Programes

These are the few problems faced by Academic Staff Colleges  in conducting orientation programes:

1.      Lack of infrastructure facilities: It has been found that Academic staff colleges which conduct the orientation courses have minimum facilities in terms of infrastructure and resource persons. Often they face problem in accommodating large number of teachers.

2.      Quality of the orientation course: In many cases the quality of the orientation course is low. The high standard is not being maintained.

3.      Linkage between course and career Development: The orientation course usually adds the credit in favour of the participants for promotions but often norms are not followed.

4.      Less number of Academic staff colleges:  In some of the states there are less number of academic staff colleges. Because of this they are not able to organize orientation programes in for large number of teachers.

5.      Lack of encouragement by institutions:  Often management of the institutions do not encourage the staff to attend the orientation course as it disturbs the regular routine.

6.      Non Availability of resource persons: Often proper resource persons are not available. Selection of a research person is also not proper as a result the quality suffers.

7.      Lack of reinforcement: There is lack of reinforcement. Some teachers go out of compulsion. Some go in order to be relieved from teaching.

Suggestion for improvement

1.      Infrastructure facilities: the infrastructure is necessary for conducting orientation course. All the necessary infrastructures should be provided by the government.

2.      Expert resource persons:  The resource persons who conduct orientation program should be experts in their field with sufficient experience in research.

3.      The number of Academic staff colleges should be increased: The number of Academic Staff College should be increased according to the need.

4.      Encouragement by institutions: Encouragement by the institutions is needed for the teachers in order to participate in the orientation course. Even they should be provided TA and other facilities.