An initiative to enhance quality of teaching

The Green University of Bangladesh has launched a faculty development programme aiming to improve teaching quality and motivate teachers to conduct research.

The "Foundation of Learning, Teaching and Research or fLTR" programme was initiated in January by Green University, but the programme involves eight other universities.

"Under the initiative, faculty members of both private and public universities will be trained on interactive teaching and learning," Vice Chancellor of Green University Prof Golam Samdani Fakir said in an interview with The Daily Star recently.

He said 42 faculty members from 20 universities were trained in January and 41 from 21 universities in May. The training is held at the end of every semester.

"During the three-day short training course, faculty members were trained to upgrade syllabus, formulate analytical questions, and encourage students to participate more in classes," he said.

The third round of the training will be organised in September 21-23.

The other institutions are Brac University, University of Asia Pacific, Independent University Bangladesh, United International University, Eastern University, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, and Daffodil International University.

About efficiency, he said, "The challenge is now quality education at the universities.  If we can improve skill and competence levels of the teachers, we will be able to produce quality students."

For a world standard education, Prof Samdani said, they needed to address the importance of teachers training, which was inadequate in the country.

The teachers are joining universities equipped with the required level of education but that is not enough, hence the training, the VC said. A teacher's job is not only to teach, they need to conduct research, help students conduct research, and engage themselves to contribute to the society, he said.

According to him, to make a teacher resourceful, universities should equip them by delivering advance curricula and channelling funds to conduct research.

The professor also stressed the need for having a teaching portfolio to preserve the resume of the teachers, course syllabuses, evaluation sheets, methods of teaching and assessment reports on what teachers learn from their own lectures.

"We are telling the faculty members to maintain the portfolio for their self-improvement."

Prof Samdani said they were planning to introduce a four-month diploma course on teacher training to make teachers more efficient in teaching and research.