17th October 2022

St. Teresa institute of education had organized a session on Innovative Strategies of Pedagogy on 17th October 2022. The session was conducted in the multi-purpose hall of St. Teresa’s institute of education. It began at 11:30 a.m. and ended at 12:30 p.m. The coordinators of this session were Dr. Cerena Dcunha and Dr. Joan Lopes. 45 student-teachers attended this session.

The objectives of this session were to enlighten students to apply new ideas, methods and ways of thinking. And also to improve Students engagement and academic outcomes.

The speaker of the session, Dr Vasumathi Badrinathan, Associate Professor, Department of French at University of Mumbai, was introduced by Assoc. Professor Dr. Cerena D’Cunha. Dr.Vasumathi Badrinathan began the session by asking a couple of question to the students. The questions were, Who has inspired you to be a teacher? Why you want to be a teacher? The responses of the students were very fascinating. Some of the students wanted to be teachers because of their love for children, while some were inspired by their own teachers they had encountered in their life. She then questioned further…. What do you like and dislike about the whole teaching process? Students answered this question by sharing their own incidents and experiences of their school life. This question made the session more interactive and interesting. Some of the things students disliked about the teaching process were rote learning, comparison between the students and siblings and marks being given prime importance. Dr. Vasumathi opined that emotions are also very important and should also be taken care of by emotionally being connected to the students.

Dr.Vasumathi then explained that learning is a life-long process. Constantly we learn from different things we do in our daily life. As a teacher we should always keep ourselves updated as we are going to teach students born in the Technological Era. She then asked students about what innovation means according to you? Some of the students said to be creative, make something new, to give a personal touch etc. Dr. Vasumathi mentioned that one who is innovative inspires others so the teachers have to be innovative in their teaching process and thinking process.

She gave examples of innovative pedagogy like John Dewey, Swami Vivekananda, Aristotle, Rousseau, Paulo Freire, Maria Montessori; how they made a revolutionary change in the education system. She spoke about the Shantiniketan and Viswabharati Universities; how they used innovative ways to make learning and teaching more exciting. She also spoke on inclusiveness – how important it is for an educator to be inclusive by giving a small yet a meaningful example on inclusiveness.

The whole session was enlightening and motivating. The importance of being innovative in teaching process was very nicely explained through beautiful examples. The session will surely be remembered by all the students. The session ended with vote of thanks by Dr. Cerena D'cunha.