Faculty training in engineering is important to improve teaching methods and student learning outcomes. Traditional training focused only on subject knowledge but now must also include pedagogy. Effective training programs address both discipline expertise and teaching skills. They apply researched techniques, cite evidence, and ensure practical takeaways. Assessment shows training positively impacts instructional methods and student learning, though not all faculty implement changes. Suggestions are provided for successful in-house training under TEQIP-II funding.

1. Need of Faculty Training in
Engineering
(SUBJECT DOMAIN AND
PEDAGOGY)
Dr. J. N. Jha
Professor and Head (Civil Engg.)
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana,
Punjab India
Email: jagadanand@gmail.com

2. Effect of Training
 Job Done in a Wrong way unknowingly
(Before Training)
 Job Done in a Right way knowingly
(After Training)
 Job Done in a Right way unknowingly
(Training and Updating)

3. Faculty Training
(Subject domain and Pedagogy)
 Broad objectives (Pedagogy Training)
 Assist faculty to become more effective teachers
which will enable them to improve the learning
outcomes of their students.
 Job-requirements and employer expectations from
the newly graduate engineers within the
developing Indian economy and available
international opportunities and link these to the
current learner requirements and teaching-
learning process.

4.  To equip the faculty with the latest tools and
techniques for effective teaching
 Training through discussions, group work,
lectures, laboratory work, workshop exercises,
assignments, projects, etc.,
 To prepare faculty for their role as motivators and
guides within and outside classrooms for helping
students achieve their post education goals.

5. Challenges of Faculty Training
 Pre World War II of 19th century:
 Engineering education- Emphasized training at
Shop floor, Drafting and Laboratory courses for
industrial practice (Industry oriented)
 Post World War II of 19th century:
 Engineering Education: More emphasis from
practice to theory toward scientific and
mathematical fundamentals (Shift from
practice to theory in the curriculum)

6. Practice to Theory Learning-
Aftereffects
 Chorus of complaints (began to arise from the
employers of engineering graduates) - New
hires lacked skills in areas as critical and
creative thinking, communication, and
teamwork
 Theory-oriented lecture-based instruction
(dominating engineering education ) - Failed to
address both the development of skills desired
by industry and the learning needs of much of
the student population

7. How to overcome?
 Meaningful engineering education reform
(Understanding the need for change)
 To explore alternative approaches to teaching
(Preparing the faculty to teach utilizing the new
methods and technologies -A word of caution : Do not
overemphasize Digital technology - Result in an e-
version of the whole curriculum!)
 Transforming faculty from “knowledge
imparters”(Discrete lectures designed to tell students
what they need to know) “knowledge
developers”(Guiding students to become active
learners, skill development in gathering and
evaluating information)

8.  Traditional reluctance of faculty members to
participate in professional development
/Training
 Apprehension that FD program/training
created and maintained with TEQIP funding
may disappear once the funding ends

9. Faculty Development/Training
Programme
 Component of FD Programme -
 Instructional development and support
 Campus infrastructure and climate

10. Instructional development and
support
 Programs open to all faculty,
 Programs specifically for new faculty members,
and
 Programs for graduate students

11. Campus infrastructure and climate
 Appointment of Faculty coordinator: To organise,
coordinate the faculty development/Training
efforts based on Training Need Analysis
 Teaching Resource Centre: Sources For
pedagogical expertise along with it should
compliment the discipline specific expertise
 Incentive, reward and involvement of Faculty:
Provisions for the faculty incentive and reward
system Who not only supports but brings the
improvements in teaching and educational
method

12. Training Programs for New
Faculty
 College teaching only skilled vocation that neither
requires prior training for its practitioners before
joining the job nor is being provided by the
employer after or during the job
 Typical time required for new faculty members
to become as productive in research and effective
in teaching are generally 4–5 years
(Self Learning Process)
 A good faculty Training program can reduce the
learning curve to 1–2 years “quick starters”

13. Types of Training Programs open
to all faculty
 Workshops : Designed specifically for engineering
and science faculty covering various aspects of
pedagogy
 Seminars : Teaching methodology and use of
modern technology, Learning outcomes
assessment,
 Teaching Inter disciplinary Subjects : Design
introduce need based multidisciplinary subjects
and other topics
 Sensitization: Supporting women , minorities and
physically disable in engineering for inclusive

14. Special Training Programs for
graduate student
 Learning curve for new Faculty can also be
shortened by providing them with some
training while they are still in graduate school
 Suggested Topics :
 Addressing different student learning styles,
 Effective lecturing techniques,
 Active and cooperative learning,
 Dealing with common student problems,
 Success strategies

15. Important Factors Required for
successful Faculty Training Programme
 Emphasize discipline specific relevance in Training
programs
 Discipline specific relevance is perhaps the single most
important feature of any training that induces
engineers/Faculty to take them seriously
 Workshops/Seminars: Recommend specific discipline
wise examples for devising effective teaching
strategies.
 Tailor made presentation as per the needs of the
targeted audience (explicit about the promotional
materials)
 Engineers/Participants/Faculty likely to come to a
Training workshop if there is some plan to address their

16.  Insert the Practicality Aspect in the Training
 second most critical characteristic of successful
engineering Training programs is their perceived
practicality
 Most Faculty/Participants who attend Training on
teaching workshops want to know what they can
do next Monday to make their classes work better
(Not seeking philosophical discussions about the
nature of learning)
 Some material (especially research data) should
be part of the presentation to support the practical
ideas

17.  Include both pedagogical expertise and
disciplinary expertise
 Construct some practical examples and exercises
with some insertion of technical content/terms like
“partial differential equations” and “entropy” during
introduction of the training programme.
 Participants when hear these familiar magic
words, they tend to be more willing to listen to the
presenters
 Many engineering faculty members who come to
the Training workshops do so because they know
that one of the facilitators is willing to discuss
discipline specific expertise

18.  Cite the research input in the Training
 Most engineers are “thinkers” tending to make
decisions based on facts, logic, and hard evidence
 Teaching workshops must have solid theoretical
foundations extensively supported by empirical
research,
(Science, mathematics, engineering and
technology)
 Workshop handouts should include summaries of
relevant research results and references for those
who wish to check the research for themselves for

19.  Avoid appearing prescriptive, dogmatic, or
evangelical
 Presenter while recommending the methods
teaching (solid evidence to back them up) must
not imply that they are providing a recipe which is
the only acceptable way for effective teaching
 Most professors resent being told that what they
have been doing in their classes for so many
years is wrong and now must be done differently
 Professor should be encouraged to take a gradual
approach, trying one or two new techniques at a
time rather than trying to do everything at once,

20.  Practice what you preach
 Participants are acutely conscious of whether or not
presenters do what they are recommending
 Some suggested recommendation
 If one recommendation is to write instructional objectives
for courses, then presenter must also define and write a
set of objectives for the present workshop/Training
 If the importance of presenting visual information is being
emphasized- Presenter should make sure that the
graphics presentation of workshop looks professional
 If active learning is advocated, the Training/workshop
should include large number of group exercises for
different type of specific problems

21. Assessment of Program Effectiveness
 Goal of Faculty Training Programme:
 Ascertaining participant satisfaction
 Judging the impact of training programs on the
teaching of the participants
 Discovering whether the programs had an
impact on student’s learning (Rarely bothered)

22. A Case Study
 An e-mail survey conducted to the active engineering
faculty (1999) by sending a structured questionnaire
to 1621 faculty (e-mail addresses) who had attended
Some sort of Faculty Training Program
 A follow-up survey was sent a month later to the non-
respondents
 After elimination of blank and duplicates forms from
the returns, number of valid and usable surveys form
was only 586, (a return rate of 36%)
 75 were again excluded from most analyses because
the respondent had not taught undergraduates in the
last three years
 Actual number of respondent for analysis was only
511.

23. Main survey results (FDP- All analysis
based on only 511 respondent)
 Participation in faculty development activities:
 82% of the respondents reported attending one or
more teaching workshops on their campuses,
 64% attended a meeting or brown-bag lunch
dealing with teaching,
 62% consulted books,
 59% consulted a newsletter or a web site,
 40% observed a videotape,
 35% participated in a mentoring program,
 13% worked with a teaching consultant

24.  Use of active learning:
 60% assigned small group exercises for brief
intervals in their classes with 22% doing so
once a week or more,
 37% used active learning for most of the class
period and 8% doing active learning so once a
week or more

25.  Use of team-based learning:
 73% gave assignments on which students had
the option of working in teams with 35% doing
so weekly or more often
 54% gave assignments on which teams were
required with 16% doing so weekly or more
often
 82% reported assigning a major team project
in some or all of the courses they taught

26.  Writing instructional objectives:
 65% reported usually or always writing formal
instructional objectives for their courses.
 Giving writing assignments:
 88% gave writing assignments in their
engineering classes
 21% gave assignments weekly or more often

27.  Impact of FDP on instructional methods
 59% reported that they either began or
increased their use of active learning,
 43% wrote instructional objectives,
 43% used team-based learning,
 28% provided study guides before tests,
 18% participated in a mentoring program

28.  Impact of FDP on Student’s Learning
 69% of respondents reported improvements
 6% said they could see no improvement,
 25% indicated that they had not made any
efforts

29. Some Suggestion for In house Faculty
Training under TEQIP-II
 Some tailor‐made programmes to suit the faculty
members’ requirements
(Experts from other institutions and industry can be
involved)
 One week in house course for faculty at the beginning
of every semester by each department
(Involving outside subject experts to give necessary
exposure and depth of knowledge for teaching various
courses effectively)
 One week pedagogical training for conducting
experiments in various lab to all the newly joined
faculty members

30.  Training on some state‐of‐the‐art technology
 Finishing school for engineering graduates
 Training programme about the use of software
available at the institute for all fresh and
newly‐recruited faculty members
 Training for in house software development for
purposes such as laboratory experiment simulation,
assistance for smooth conduct of university
examinations etc.
 Needs of women teachers kept in mind while finalizing
training
(Computer Science and Engineering, Information
Technology, Electronics and Communication
Engineering)

31. Final Comments
 Adopting above suggestions should significantly
enhance the chances of making a Training
Programme more attractive and persuasive to a
broad spectrum of the faculty.
 But offer no guarantee of success of the FDP if
the above suggestions are adopted
 Faculty development programs are like any other
college courses and Faculty are also like
students: no matter what you do, someone won’t
like it.

32. Acknowledgement
 Wishes to acknowledge the various sources used
during the preparation of this presentation which
may have aided and enhanced the quality of
information
Any Question ………..?
The End
Thanks for your attention