ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGY AS AN IN-SERVICE TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR FACULTY MEMBERS

Effective training is no skill that trainers are born with. It is a lot of science and technique that is combined with artistic vision of the trainer. To produce an effective trainer, training the trainer is one of the best investments can be made. Any slight improvement at the trainer views and techniques would yield a tremendous improvement at the trainee acquisition of skills. For both the new faculty members and the in-service ones, it is mandated to keep sharpening their skills and widen their practicing horizon. This would be the preferred investment for any educational institute to carry out.

New faculty members do join the teaching force every year with high hopes to enjoy the sense of giving and enlightening their students in one hand, but with low support from the surrounding environment sometimes in the other hand. In such a case, many teachers and also students would feel unsatisfied with the teaching outcome and even with the education system. The teacher may be exerting energetic efforts and finding reduced results in students’ skills attainment. The students would feel going through excruciating study hours with modest gain. For the in-service ones, they may lose interest with time or play defensive as they develop the view that they are doing their best and there is nothing more to do.

Active Learning methodology offers a solution to this situation. It would form a well needed training system for faculty development that enables them to view teaching in a new light. It would constitute for the Constructiveness theory, its applications, Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains, and how to design an Active learning course based on these concepts.

In this paper we introduce a faculty development system that offers help and support in training the faculty members on designing Active Learning courses and their learning experiences. It also addresses the setting of the class environment and sharing power with the students. Rather than having the faculty members covering their course material, this system enables them to help the students “uncover” the course. This system was applied at the university level with forty faculty members welling to explore the Active learning paradigm. The training program results were very encouraging as detailed