As yet another milestone contribution in its series of faculty support activities, the Humanities and Management Unit (HMU), School of Engineering,Kathmandu University organized a one-day workshop on “Outcome-Based Planning and Professional Development,” on 27 March 2015. As many as 25 teachers from School of Engineering and School of Science participated in the day-long activities, which were facilitated by Dr. Bal Chandra Luitel, Associate Dean, and Dr. Laxman Gnawali, Associate Professor, from School of Education.
Mr. Hem Raj Kafle, Coordinator of HMU, started the program shedding lights on the fact that university teaching is a complex and ever-expanding discipline where faculties are in need of constant grooming in the human and intellectual aspects of the field irrespective of the areas of specialization and disciplinary inclinations.
Prof. Dr. Ramesh Kumar Maskey, Associate Dean, School of Engineering, highlighted the schools’ general expectations from the faculties. He emphasized on the importance of semester planning, student facilitation beyond regular classroom environment, and faculties’ self-regulation within University’s norms.
The workshop comprised two key sessions, respectively on “Outcome-Based Planning and Teaching” and “Teachers’ Professional Development.” Leading the first session, Dr. Luitel discussed the authenticity of planning with focus to and clarity of the missions, visions, and signature features of the programs, departments, schools, and the University at large. He stressed the need to document graduate attributes within each program and department, and asked the participants to brainstorm representative graduate attributes envisioned in their respective programs and departments. In the second session, Dr. Gnawali engaged the participants in different activities related to professional development. He suggested utilizing local and self-created resources, and drew attention to the value of documenting the stories of failures and successes, and of retrospection on one’s own evolution in the course of experiencing professional growth.
In the feedback session, the participants suggested implementation of the issues covered in the workshop, especially the documentation of signature features and graduate attributes. They also demanded regular faculty orientation and mentoring on pedagogical as well as personal complexities.
