Prof. Singhal of GIM selected for the International Teachers Programme at CIEBS, China

Ribandar, India, March 13, 2015 (Newswire.com) - China is not really the greatest place for vegetarians, but Dr. Divya Singhal is not complaining. Back to Goa Institute of Management (GIM) after attending the first module of the prestigious International Teachers Programme (ITP) hosted by China Europe Business School (CIEBS), Dr. Singhal speaks animatedly of the global innovations in Teaching.

DIVYA SINGHAL“In Management education there’s continuous innovation; be it pedagogical innovation or curriculum innovations.” says Dr. Singhal, an Associate Professor at Goa Institute of Management. “One of my primary objectives of attending this programme was to understand the various teaching innovations, their usages, and their impacts. I also believe that meeting International faculty members, listening to their experiences, reflecting, sharing and learning definitely helped me in becoming a better educator.”

China is not really the greatest place for vegetarians, but Dr. Divya Singhal is not complaining. Back to Goa Institute of Management (GIM) after attending the first module of the prestigious International Teachers Programme (ITP) hosted by China Europe Business School (CIEBS), Dr. Singhal speaks animatedly of the global innovations in Teaching.

Sinayo Fernandes, Administration

DIVYA SINGHALProf. Singhal is one of the 28 chosen faculty members across the globe, who were selected for ITP 2015. Her colleagues were faculty members from London Business School, University of Manchester, HEC Paris, Hanken school of Economics, Leeds University Business School, SDA Bocconi School of Management and CEIBS of course. Conducted by the International Schools of Business Management (ISBM), a group of thirteen leading business schools located in Asia, Europe, and North America, Dr. Singhal’s was offered a 75% scholarship for the 17,000 Euro course.

“In effect the course fee is 3,500 Euros for me, which has been sponsored by GIM. My travel is also being taken care of by GIM. Goes without saying that Goa Institute of Management always supports its faculty in professional growth avenues.”

ISBM was launched in 1958 by Harvard Business School, with the financial aids of the Ford Foundation to help train foreign faculty on effective learning / teaching processes. Apart from China Europe International Business School, ISBM comprises institutions of the calibre of HEC Paris, IAE Aix en Provence, IMD Lausanne, INSEAD Fontainebleau, Indian School of Business Hyderabad, Kellogg School of Management -Northwestern University, London Business School, Manchester Business School, SDA Bocconi Milan, Stern School of Business - New York University, Stockholm School of Economics, as well as the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

“Teachers came from CEIBS, HEC Paris, Stern School of Business at New York University and Stockholm School of Economics,” says Dr. Singhal. “Most of the sessions were thought provoking. However, sessions by Prof. Aswath Damodaran from Stern School of Business left a deep impression on me; particularly his insistence that Teaching is a craft that revolves around the 3 Es - Enthusiasm, Energy and Empathy.”

Dr. Singhal relates the intense curiosity of all her colleagues and mentors on how business education was being conducted in India. There were several group discussions where she was called upon to share her experiences of teaching at GIM.

“I did contribute during the session on Teaching in a Dynamic Cultural Environment in which I made reference of Hofstede power distance and other measures with respect to India. During a particular session, I also shared my experience of my teaching at GIM. I presented on Questionnaire Design in my Research Methods course. I shared about my experience in devising and using of action-learning component. I also mentioned about the purpose of that component which is to engage students in experiential learning and provide individual feedback for their improvement.”

For Dr. Singhal, the most memorable part about ITP was the interaction with international faculty; and share and gain new perspectives on pedagogies, teaching practices, kind of innovations taking place in terms of teaching-learning, research etc. “Eva Alfoldvi from Manchester, Mary Lynn Mundell from Durham University, Hyun Young Park from CEIBS, Laurence Romani from Stockholm, Mathew Tsamenyi, CEIBS and Sunny from Hong Kong,” she rattles off the name of some of her ITP colleagues she looks forward to meeting again.

“For me, the high point of the first module was ‘In-Situ Micro Teaching session’. We were asked to lead a session of 20 minutes on their choice of topic. The aim was to contribute to teachers’ training by developing their ability to put a fully-rounded teaching/learning scenario, into action by leading a 20-minute micro-session of a training module / class. These teaching sessions took place in controlled situations, i.e. in the presence of two supervisors, and in front of an audience of other faculty members undergoing the training. The sessions were filmed so that the teachers can study their own performance, and analyse it individually or with input from the supervisors.”

ITP 2015 is being chaired by Professor George Yip who has taught at Harvard, Cambridge and London Business School and is currently a professor of Strategy and Co-Director on China Innovation at CEIBS. The course is split into 2 modules. The first one was between 11th and 17th January 2015 in Shanghai, while the second module will be held in the CEIBS Beijing Campus between 5th and 11th July 2015.