119th Orientation Course at PU

Chandigarh, July18, 2018: UGC- Human Resource Development Centre, Panjab University, Chandigarh organized organizing 119th Orientation Course attended by University and college teachers from different States and disciplines. Professor Pam Rajput in her inaugural address highlighted that the objective of the Orientation Course is to inculcate in young lecturer the qualities of self-reliance in social, intellectual and moral environment to discover self- potential and confidence and to contribute to the role of teachers in resolving the problems and work towards Nation building.

Professor Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Department of Political Science, Delhi University, Delhi delivered two special lectures titled ‘Thinking Differently: Interconnecting Part and Whole’ and second session was ‘On Methodological Pluralism’. Dr. Singh adopted an innovative, interesting and invigorating approach for conducting these sessions. Both these sessions started with an activity. The 1st session started with an individual activity where all participants were required to give 5 different definitions or interpretations of a ‘Chair’, placed in the front of the seminar hall, on a piece of paper. After collecting the responses, Dr. Singh took the responses from each participant, ensuring that no response was repeated and then analyzed the responses to highlight the patterns that emerged. Although the process seemed very simplistic but the learning that emerged from this activity was quite radical and drastic. Participants could realize their boundaries as well as tendency to make assumptions. At the same time they were encouraged to challenge their perceptions and use imagination and creativity to come up with novel explanations while making connection between the abstract and concrete concepts. The activity was helpful in clarifying the thinking process and also brings a methodological clarity which is crucial in effective research and communication.

The second session started with a group activity where the participants were divided into four different groups and each group was given a topic to write on. The members of each group were required to interact, discuss, deliberate and describe their views on the topic in form of 10 bullet points. Again the responses were collected and each paper was discussed at length with the whole group. The first topic was regarding ‘Women and Body’ and the discussion revealed hidden patriarchal tendencies of the participants. The purpose of the discussion was to reveal the assumptions that we all make on account of our cultural, social or religious beliefs and to avoid these assumptions in our interactions with our students. Dr. Singh through the phenomena of sunrise and sunset stressed the need to adopt a skeptic or questioning attitude towards the established issues and to challenge the hidden agendas or dominant narratives. He also gave the example of dictum ‘one cannot step into the same river twice’ to highlight the need for renewing our knowledge, approach and thinking to remain updated and be prepared for the changes that are happening around us at a fast pace. The participants were very delighted with this session and wanted to continue the discussions but the constraint of time did not allow for the same. A formal vote of thanks was proposed by the officiating chair of the session.