Continuing Professional Development and Evaluation of Practice.

For academicians, enrolling in courses that aid in understanding the academic practices better has become a necessity.  I found the ‘The Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice’ (PGCAP) course at Pearl Academy to be extremely beneficial for faculty and staff who have been involved in academics. My colleagues, who have done the course already, suggested the same. This course is a step forward towards self-development, self-improvement and allows for self-reflection. The learnings from this course would help one grow as a teacher, especially in terms of teaching quality and ensuring better engagement during the classes. It also helped in understanding various challenges and issues faced from the student’s perspective, some of which even I was not aware of. The ‘Peer Observation’ sessions were one of the best ways to observe another faculty teaching and learn from their good practices. Similarly, their critiques during my teaching observation were very helpful, as I understood the specific points I needed to work on. Overall, it has been a great learning experience.

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After the completion of my PGCAP course, I would start concentrating on publishing some of my research writing works. I may have to improve or further research on these particular topics. In addition, I am interesting in writing research papers for conferences and articles for design magazines. It may be difficult to quantify, how many ‘papers’ or ‘articles’ in the coming year, but this is definitely one of the important things, that I am genuinely interested in doing. In addition, efforts should be made on developing quality work rather than quantity. I also plan to do some certification courses on LinkedIn and Coursera, which could be beneficial for my role as an academician and a leader.

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Apart from academic writing, I also need to find time to work on hobbies like sketching and preparation of art-works.  This could be a great stress buster activity for me. There are many ideas that come into mind from time to time; however, hardly few ideas make it on to the paper.  I feel that it is important to clear the mind saturated with ideas so that new ideas could find their way. We should even practice what we teach our students.

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Apart from being an academician, I professionally work as an Architect and an Interior Designer. I have been practicing for almost fifteen years now. I would be completing a ‘Residential Project’ with complete architecture and interior works by February end in 2022. Another project construction is supposed to start towards the end of this year. As a full-time academician, it becomes difficult to do many projects during a year; hence, I concentrate on a couple of projects only. It is also important for many designers that their work get recognition.  Recognition can be a great motivating factor. I need to ensure that the work I produce definitely stands out from the crowd.

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As a design professional and an educator, I need to have a good idea of the new building materials available in the market and be aware of modern technologies available in the field of Architecture and Interior Design. These learnings are extremely important, as they need to be shared with the students as well. The value of professional development and practice needs to be inculcated amongst the students and the graduated alumni. The alumni needs to understand that after graduation, there is a still lot to learn in the industry. One cannot learn each and everything during design school years. Experience and years of practice becomes the best teacher. One gradually learns through observations, practice and by making mistakes. Even as a professional it is required that one practices often to get better and better. I try to make sure that a student practices enough number of times so that the learning remains with them for a long time if not lifetime. Once this is inculcated as a habit, it allows for experimentation and improvements.

With changing times, skill upgradation is becoming increasingly important in order to perform better in academic and professional fields. One should continue to challenge himself to learn new skills. Coming out of the comfort zone is extremely important. If one is learning new tools that requires extra efforts from ones side and making the person uncomfortable that means the person is probably going the right direction. I see myself working in a senior role as a Professor in the next one year and that would require a lot of hard work in addition to the added experience as an Associate Professor.