Narrative Testimonials by Alumni
My PGDHPE program and PhD program at CHPE gave me a life changing experience in my career as well as on my attitude as a teacher.
Hidden curriculum learnt, apart from the wide exposure to educational science and technology...
1. Facilitator student relationship – which I learnt from the way the resource persons treated us. The quote stands true “They might forget what you taught but not how you made them feel”
2. Reflection and metacognition – the most important thing that’s learnt
3. Motivating the problem learners by encouraging the areas in which they are good at – I had an eye opening that it’s not the student’s fault to be a slow or problem learner. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to identify the students, the cause and to provide support. This was a turning point that influenced me to take my PhD topic on Students Needing Additional Curricular Support
4. The difference between fact finding and fault finding (to oppose the action but not the person)
5. Sharing the educational resource materials – My teachers taught me the real meaning of “SHARING”
6. Constructive Feedback technique – The feedback for all presentations from the resource persons were too constructive. Never there was a bad or discouraging feeling. When joined I was very much afraid of presenting in front of the most reputed medical educators and their designations. But absolutely no gap was there between us and they were freely approachable. That’s the most inspiring aspect of all our resource persons… too humble for their achievements. I dream to be a health professional educator like them and spread the attitude of teachers what they practiced and taught us too.
CHPE and my career progress through implementation of the principles learnt...
1. My PGDHPE project of “BDS syllabus prototype adopting Choice Based Credit System (CBCS)” was my maiden work on CBCS. Based on the experience and further learning, I played a major role in converting all the non-regulatory programs of SBV to credit based and CBCS based. I also served as a resource person for several faculty development programs/ workshop to train the faculty on CBCS. I am the co-author of several copyrights related to CBCS.
2. I was also honored to be with my mentors and also independently as resource person to conduct workshops at National and International conferences on MCQs, WPBA, SNACS/SNAPS, 21st century learning skills and critical thinking.
3. My PhD project on Students Needing Additional Curricular Support empowered me to do patent, copyrights, publications, international and national presentations with awards and recognition. The hard work also earned me the Best PhD Scholar award – Shri Gurucharan Das Endowment medal.
4. With the results and experience of my PhD project, I prepared the SBV policy document on “Identifying and supporting Students Needing Additional Curricular Support (SNACS) and Students Needing Enhanced Curricular Support (SNECS)”.
5. The passion and the learning helped me to transform, motivate and sensitize several dental faculty members across India, through my responsibility as Coordinator of the Dental Education Unit. I coordinated Training of Trainers program for more than ten institutions apart from the other faculty development programs and conference resource person on my personal behalf. With my team, Association of Indian Dental Educators is registered. I also received the Best teacher award 2020.
6. I am currently working with the Pallium India team, contributing for creating educational modules for the faculty and also guided their module preparation for ASHA workers, nurses and doctors approved by NHSRC. I was able to do this since I’m certified in IAPC program as well as my educational program at CHPE.
7. I’m currently working as a member of the curriculum committee for the certificate program on educational science to be launched by Indian Prosthodontic Society for the dental fraternity.
8. My experience with patent and copyright filing during PhD helped me to guide other faculty members from all disciplines on Intellectual Property Rights. I was made a member of MIPTECH and conducted several workshops on Intellectual Property Rights for faculty within SBV and also external faculty members on my personal behalf.
9. The extension of the education principles helped me to design and implement an executive development program for the School and College teachers – The SCholastic Updates Linked Professional Training (SCULPT). One batch of 50 participants were certified already and the second batch with 50 participants is going on.
10. I also played a key role in the commencement of the first online program of SBV, the online FHPE to PGDHPE program.
11. I’m also serving as a guide to 3 MPhil and 6 PhD candidates on Health Professions Education
12. I’m also serving as Research Advisory Committee member for PhD candidates and Member of Board of Studies for CBCS programs. My other responsibilities and committee list at SBV are much more to mention.
As an alumnus of CHPE, SBV, I gave back my alma mater, apart from the awards, recognitions and the visibility, for the growth of SBV by contributing to CBCS based programs, SCULPT, policy document on identifying and supporting SNACS/SNECS, contributions to IPR through MIPTECH, active and functional member of several academic and administrative committees of SBV. I will continue to work further and bring laurels to my mentors and my CHPE.
From Usha…. Alumni of the maiden batch PGDHPE …
I have had the privilege of being the first batch of PGDHPE at Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth in 2015. We were trained under the tutelage of the legends, such as the former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. K.R. Sethuraman, Dean of Faculty, Prof. N. Ananthakrishnan, and the former Head of Community Medicine, Prof. K.A. Narayan. Working alongside a set of committed professionals, who aspired to infuse quality into the health professions education, also made my experience very vivid and memorable. We learnt through sharing our knowledge in a heutagogy model; thus, developed mutual respect for each other’s’ competencies.
The first learning experience I had in this program, was ‘to know that I did not know’ and second learning experience was ‘to unlearn’. I had grown up as a teacher observing my teachers and by trial and error with my students. As much as I had respected my teaching profession and was acutely aware of the huge responsibility that came along with it, I was equally unaware of the science behind the Educational technology. The one-year short learning experience was an eye-opener that corrected the twenty-year long teaching habits of mine.
Truly inspiring were the two tasks that we had to perform; a. Action Research Project and b. Writing our Portfolio.
a. I tepidly admit that I do not believe in the summative assessment system that is routinely followed. Therefore, Multi-Source Feedback (MSF) in Workplace-based assessment, became the topic of interest to me. My action research was aimed at analyzing the perception of the Dental Postgraduates on implementation of MSF. The positive outcome in the research, led to the actual implementation of MSF in Dental Postgraduation, across disciplines, at Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences. This system is continuing to improve the professionalism, ethical behavior and teamwork of the postgraduates apart from their enhanced technical/ professional skills.
b. Documenting our learning experiences in the Portfolio was an excellent opportunity to introspect and self-reflect on what facilitated and hindered our learning processes. It helped me identify my strengths and weakness and also enabled me to come out with solutions to counter the challenges.
Looking at the long-term impact of my training at CHPE, I must admit that when I switched over to the administrative post from a teaching career, I thought that I would not be able to convert my acquired knowledge to actions in education. But much to my delight, I have come to realize that a foundation in Educational Technology, however limited and humble it was, has enabled me to understand ‘quality’ that pervades all aspects of the educational system. I am blessed that I am continuing my journey to learn the science of education from a different vantage point.
The seeds of knowledge my teachers have planted will continue to grow forever and I bow to them with gratitude and reverence.
I completed PGDHPE in 2017 under the pioneers of Medical education as our Mentors. PGDHPE changed my view towards teaching learning in medical education.
Career Progression & Impact of PGDHPE
• Joined as Professor & HOD at PK das Institute of Medical sciences in 2018 and started Scientific and academic forum for students and faculty. Worked as member of MEU and organized various workshops. One such innovative workshop was on “Humanities in medical education”.
• Appointed as Professor & HOD in Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences (Govt Medical College) Karnataka. Currently holds responsibility of Member secretary of MEU, Member of Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), Chief Superintendent of examination section at KIMS Karwar for RGUHS examinations.
• PGDHPE helped us to understand basics of medical education. It boosted our confidence levels while presenting ourselves in front of students with better lesion planning and interactive lectures. The regular twice weekly contact (workshop mode) sessions of the course helped in acquiring better organizing skills. Better understanding of question paper setting, blue print, item analysis, applying appropriate assessment methods in UG teaching learning was possible only after this course. It’s a effective and best course in current scenario of CBME curriculum implemented by NMC. Proud to be alumnus of CHPE, SBV and many thanks to our mentors Dr. Sethuraman KR, Dr. Ananthakrishnan N, Dr. B. V Adkoli, Dr. K. A Narayan for influencing to bring change in us…. Long live CHPE.
Following Completion of my Post Graduate Diploma in Health Professions education in the year 2014-15, as a Head of the Institution I have realized that the applications of whatever I learnt is only possible with my presence amongst the undergraduate or post graduate students. I have learnt and unlearnt many concepts and theories during my practical experience in education amongst students. I have also learnt there are lot of challenges and limitations in theoretical approaches mentioned in the literature of medical or dental education.
My progress after my PGDHPE was a PhD under Prof. K. R. Sethuraman, who is the reason behind me opting for doing doctorate in Education. The exploratory study of my PhD opened my eyes to many facts, challenges and limitations which I personally encountered in the work place during implementation of the curricular design. The curriculum I planned for interns of dentistry was based on outcome/competency-oriented education which is going to be the norm for tomorrow. It was copyrighted. My work was recognized at the national level when I presented papers and discussed about the problems and issues in implementation. I was given membership in a core committee which was exclusive for designing competency framework for dental undergraduates. I was able to put forth my experiences of my learning in the design, within limitations by the guidelines from the dental council of India. I was also recognized as a member of core group in IPS Education among the senior members of the fraternity for a Certificate course in Health Professions Education for Dental Faculty.
Many teachers we know enjoy teaching students how to wield one of the most powerful thinking tools: metacognition, or the ability to think about your thoughts with the aim of improving learning. A metaphor that resonates with many students is that learning cognitive and metacognitive strategies offers them tools to "drive their brains." The good news about PGDHE course is that it teaches the fact that metacognition can be learned when it is explicitly taught and practiced across content and social contexts.
A student who is excited about being in the driver's seat and steering toward learning success may well be destined to become an independent thinker on the way to charting a responsible course for school, career, and life. Being metacognitive can be likened to being more conscious, reflective, and aware of one's progress along the learning path. Teachers have told us how they feel an extraordinary sense of pleasure teaching their students useful strategies that can be applied to all aspects of their lives. Anyone who undergoes the course is sure to succeed as an educationist pushing the boundaries of formal learning.
The primary reason for my enrolment in to course was to make myself aware about various teaching methods, to be a curriculum designer and a better evaluator. In this course, there is a dedicated module for teaching learning methods, curriculum, assessment and optional elective modules like simulation. My personal favorite module among these is teaching learning module, in this I was exposed to various new ways of student engagement in large group teaching method (didactic lecture) like buzz group, think pair share which I tried during my lecture. Exposure to small group teaching method like fish bowl discussion, was interesting because for me small group teaching is relatively new phenomenon with no clear directions as to how to executive it effectively?
I incorporated this method in renal module small group teaching on Renin Aldosterone Angiotensin topic among first year MBBS students and also presented a paper in I- Mecon March 2021, under theme innovative teaching method and won a promising paper award. Among the elective modules on educational research, I got acquainted to briefly to qualitative research methods like focused group discussion which I applied in one of the educational projects I am currently pursuing. Exposure I received simulation module was an eye opener. Facilitator for the module Dr D Pai propelled us in creating simulation-based curriculum which was a new, challenging and fulfilling experience. This triggered interest of applying simulation in pre-clinical science has led to me pursuing PhD in health profession education.
If you perceive yourself as a medical educationist, this course gives a new meaning to you. Your attitude changes from "Why should I learn all these?" to "Why haven't I used
all these?"
Heutagogy model of our course is an example and role model course for all. This model itself motivates and corrects all our mistakes and encourages and develops our self as an educator. In my view if you want to become a medical educator this is a must attend course.
Truly motivating and fascinating experience. The dedication of the mentors make us sincere too. We should be lucky to learn from them.
I was a poor organizer thinking till the last moment of what to speak in the class. This course had taught me how to organize myself and be prepared... The best thing of this course is that you learn at your own pace, learning by yourself and most importantly with all the guidance you need
PGDHPE has drastically changed me from just a teacher to a
facilitator. It made me realize that I am one among those
responsible for moulding students and act as "CHANGE AGENT"
in my profession.
I consider myself lucky and fortunate to be under the mentorship of legends in Health Professional Education in India. PGDHPE is a joyful, pleasant and remarkable journey, it made me to explore my self as an effective teacher and academician. The course is one of its kind which has created a spirit of life long learning, for me it is a nostalgic experience which i am going to treasure throughout my life.
At the departmental level, while pursuing and after completion of the FHPE course, I was able to practically apply everything that I learned during the teaching sessions. To start with, I was able to make a better lesson plan, and I contributed to the vision and mission for our department. As I am involved with postgraduate and BSc students teaching, I have explored various teaching and learning methods discussed during the course. The best part was that the other faculties in my department were receptive to the new suggestions given by me regarding the TL methods, and they also learned to use them effectively. Formative assessments were organised and structured because of the course.
At the institutional level, I was provided various opportunities for organising and being a part of it as a resource person in educational activities as part of the additional responsibilities entrusted to me as a MEU member and IRC member.
All this and the excellent facilitators motivated me to pursue Masters in HPE and the journey continues.
The academic experience received during my M Phil programme is very useful for me to pursue my work in Medical Education at my home institute. I am able to design course modules, plan teaching learning activities and experiment new assessment methods.