2016 UGC Expert Committee on Model Courses in Psychology

2016 UGC Expert Committee on Model Courses in Psychology MODEL COURSES IN PSYCHOLOGY, 2016 Contents Preamble Curriculum Development Committee in Psychology Acknowledgement B.A. Course List: Semester-Wise M.A. Course List: Semester-Wise Ph.D. Course List: Semester-Wise B.A. Course Details M.A. Course Details Ph.D. Course Details Preamble: Model Courses for Undergraduate and Post Graduate Studies in Psychology 2016 Higher education, which nurses two constituencies of idealism and realism, has to arrive at a dynamic balance, with a motive to find a fresh equipoise to address the needs of society, groups and the individual. India has been traditionally known for creating world-class education as evident from the records of history. Institutions of higher learning like, Takshashila, Vikramshila, and Nalanda are well known examples. In current times, India has been recognized for its educated work force that contributes to the economies of several developed and developing countries. Even so, the current framework of education and its delivery system require an urgent rethink, in terms of its conceptualization of what education means, updating its frameworks to accommodate rapid technological and scientific advances, and focusing its effort towards strong and inclusive implementation. The percentage of youth enrolling and completing Higher Education is dismal at 4 percent. The present context of internationalization of education, globalization and changing perspectives on education has raised new challenges to the education system in practice. Influences coming from the Western hemisphere, which have shown remarkable success on material and economic fronts, are also contributing to the prevalent situation. The politics of International Rankings invites deeper introspection, as none of the Indian institutions of higher learning figure in top two hundred institutions. It is not only the competitiveness across the globe that is a matter of concern, rather the disconnect of education with individual life and cultural mooring which is creating a challenge. Its academic audience and reference points are primarily Western. The prevailing educational practices are often found decontextualized, lacking in creativity, and address the societal concerns only in a limited manner. Significant too is the deeper connection between work and employment that needs attention. How can Indian educational processes be reengineered and redesigned to respond to these challenges? Higher Education and Psychology It is high time that academicians and policy makers come together to think and reflect about the current situation and engage meaningfully and take a fresh look at the goals and objectives of higher education in psychology. Shaping social and cultural concerns of individuals, groups and collectives with a deep sense of rootedness in our own soil with a global outlook could be considered a critical goal of higher education in social sciences in general, and psychology in particular. To this end, educational institutions have the prime responsibility of shaping the cognitive, affective and behavioral ability of the student and build responsible and responsive citizenry. Following is a statement about the vision, mission, fundamental assumptions and structure of the courses. Vision: 1. To create self-awareness among students to discover one‘s true calling in life for the evolution of higher human consciousness. 2. To create a healthy interface between society, culture and higher education in the context of psychology teaching, learning and research. 3. To bring in, integrate, and strengthen the cultural rootedness and appropriateness of psychological knowledge and practice with a global outlook. 4. To help develop professional skills that empower the students to gain employment, as well as contribute towards the well-being of other individuals and small groups, and promote harmony in the society. 5. To foster and nurture the strengths of Indian society such as diversity, secularism, and accessibility to all thereby ensuring the potential for growth for individuals and the social system. Mission: To create, evolve and demonstrate the knowledge systems in the discipline of psychology that would promote, facilitate subjective strengths and individual specific potentials, as well as egalitarian concerns for maintaining collective existence. Courses should ensure cultural relevance and address other contemporary societal concerns in the program. Fundamental Assumptions of the Courses: 1. One of the fundamental assumptions of the proposed curriculum is based on possibilities of independent thinking, ability to integrate and synthesize from a trans-disciplinary and multicultural perspective, to evolve a knowledge based system for preparing citizens of India who would participate effectively in the emergent world order, with capacities to remain locally relevant and globally effective. 2. Proposed curriculum shall not be confined to the knowledge base and theoretical foundations of the discipline of Psychology. It will also attend to the pedagogical considerations emanating from experiential learning, research-driven problem solving and mentoring. 3. The curriculum proposed also intends to bring a deeper sense of belongingness to the community with engagement in socially driven projects, field/laboratory training and simulations utilizing state-of-the-art knowledge systems and technological facilities. 4. Curriculum proposes to have a strong interface between regular as well as innovative teaching pedagogies and distance learning education system, thereby, actively utilizing National knowledge network resources. 5. The curriculum intends to make credit based system and research oriented activities through which a sense of assimilation and integration would be created with academic processes. 6. The curriculum intends to empower students and teachers by inculcating specific job oriented skills, as well as building other behavioral skills and competencies to cater to the needs of students in general and to leverage special capacities that have been developed over a period of time. 7. The curriculum intends to design courses to have fine blend of virtual and actual class rooms for imparting knowledge by video lectures, small group discussions, tutorials and individual presentations. 8. The curriculum intends to build some basic reflective, computational and communicative competencies in the students. In addition to these it also intends to hone the following competencies: i. Development of critical thinking ii. Problem solving iii. Emotional intelligence iv. Analytical competence v. Independent thinking vi. Cultural sensitivity vii. Engaging in discovering self and inner potential Keeping in view the listed competencies combined with the moral qualities where the learner is placed in a conducive climate of learning and interaction with teachers, classmates and other institutions of society, the structure of courses is presented below. Structure of the courses: To achieve these objectives the proposed curriculum would have the following structure: A. Core (Foundational) Courses B. Electives (Specialization) C. Modular Courses for developing specific set of skills 1. Core courses of the curriculum are designed to promote common educational edifice without which a particular discipline cannot be taught. They are necessary as they enable the students to take up more specialized course of their choice later on. 2. Elective courses would cater to specialization in particular domains. They must highlight the conceptual foundations, pedagogical considerations and specific set of skills required within semester frame. They would strive to bring in a process orientation. These courses would be taught through workshop/experiential/reflective mode, and assessment would be done by process driven activities. 3. Employment oriented courses should also be designed and developed keeping in view the market demands and core competencies available within the discipline of psychology, which would be taught with the blend of pedagogies relevant for psychology as a subject. Principles kept in mind while drafting the Model Courses: 1. These courses were designed and developed by smaller groups of committee members. At least two committee members were assigned the task of designing model curriculum courses. They were given the choice of co-opting experts in that domain. 2. The courses were designed to be commensurate with the credit system, which requires a minimum of 40-50 hours of active engagement over a semester. The details of the course structure with its pedagogical considerations, along with essential readings, have been made explicit. 3. The committee decided in the beginning of the deliberations regarding number of elective papers. It is important to note here that India is a diverse country and expertise in all the optional papers may not be available in all the colleges and Universities across India. It was advised to create adequate options to provide a comprehensive coverage of the discipline and also to the institutions where it would/could be taught. 4. It was envisaged to provide learning possibilities with a high degree of specialization and in-depth knowledge in at least one area/domain of the discipline, or more than one. Nonetheless, developing and retaining appropriate level of skills to enhance employment opportunities in different domains was decided to be a concurrent priority while designing the courses. It is to be remembered that a significant number of

Load more