Teacher Talks Academy is a brain child of a renowned academician (Educator &Life Skill Trainer), Dr. Vandana B. Patel, who believes in the philosophy of continuous development of brain in order to achieve highest of the capabilities, which in turn would help fulfil the materialistic and spiritualistic needs of an individual in a balanced way.
The program also includes vital component of Students’ Training that includes sessions on confidence building, goal setting, decision making, along with human values, ethics, self- development including spiritual development. This will help students becoming confident, competent and ethical professionals. The academy caters to the continuous development by offering programs which are specific to the needs of both teachers and students.
It has been long believed that the most important resource that any institution of higher education has is its faculty members who teach knowledge and skills to students. These faculty members need to be updated with the latest trends and technologies and also develop true art of teaching. This will enable them to deliver their best thus enhancing teaching-learning. Also, faculty members are currently faced with the increasing demands to be creative, and also struggle to keep pace with current generation. Moreover, as education is dynamic, theories taught and learned some years back may no more be relevant now. This justifies strong need of continuous training. Faculty development programs on teaching pedagogy would address these requirements and help
faculty members to enhance their teaching
skill so as to attain new knowledge, diverse skills, and abilities in many aspects including classroom management, staffroom management, work-life balance, professionalism at work place etc.
Non-teaching staff members have a significant role to play in academic institutions and can contribute a lot in servicing students thus important for an institution’s success. Training the non-teaching staff towards their role and responsibilities can sensitize them and can make tremendous difference in their delivery.
Thus, in total, Teacher Talks Academy, under the banner of Continuing Professional Development, will cover teachers’ and students’ training making teaching-learning enjoyable and interesting. Moreover, it would also touch upon the crucial human component of self-development that will produceteachers and studentswith high morals and values.
Dr. Vandana B. Patel (Inspirational Educator and a Life SkillTrainer) is currently a Founder & Director of Teacher Talks Academy. This Academy deals with training the brain of teachers and students in order to help them deliver their best in professional and personal life, and live the life in a more meaningful way.
Dr. Vandana is a Ph.D. in Pharmacy and M.B.A. in HR with over 31 years of experience in teaching and administration in various capacities like Professor, Principal, PG Director and Dean, Doctoral Studies and Research. She has been associated with several prestigious academic institutes during her career like The M. S. University of Baroda, A. R. College of Pharmacy, Baroda College of Pharmacy, Babaria Institute of Pharmacy, BITS Edu Campus and Parul University. Moreover, she has successfully completed Yoga Training Course, Pranic Healing (Basic, Advance and Psycho), Communication Technology, Mind Education, Body Language, Soft Skills, NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming Practitioner Certification course which helps to identify the learning traits of students and professionals and hence is beneficial to enhance teaching-learning experience).
As a teacher, Dr. Vandana has guided more than 60 PG students and 5 Ph. D. students; 2 Ph.D. students are currently working under her supervision. She has several industrial consultancy and research grants from national and state funding agencies to her credit. She has authored 4 book chapters, 1 book, 82 research publications and has 2 Indian patents published to her credit. She also has presented several papers in prestigious national and international conferences (Dubai and USA) and also organized several national and international seminars/conferences. Dr. Vandana has also delivered several lectures in conferences and refresher courses at various educational institutes. Dr. Vandana is a founder of course named “CPD for Teachers” (Continuing Professional Development for Teachers) at BITS Edu campus and the course received overwhelming response.Dr. Vandana is instrumental in starting the education program for underprivileged children by founding a trust named Sai Shiksha Foundation, a charitable organization that takes care of education, health and values of children.
Dr. Vandana has received prestigious awards namely Shiksha Gaurav Puraskar Award 2015, Innovation in Higher Education Award 2015, GTU Innovation Council - i2i (Innovate to Impact Award) 2016, Bharat Excellence Award 2016, Best Researcher Award 2019 and Principal of the Year Award 2019, APTI Women of the Year Award 2019,Iron Lady Samrasta Award 2019. Dr. Vandana is a member of DoctoralResearch Committee of Gujarat Technological University. She holds reputed position of Chairman, APTI Women’s Forum,Gujarat State Branch(Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India), President, Association of Pharmacy Professionals, Gujarat State and Council Member of Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Vadodara Chapter. Dr. Vandana also holds position of Academic Advisory Council member of ‘Center for Education Growth and Research’, New Delhi. She is a member of several professional bodies like IPA, APTI, Centre for Education Growth and Research, StatePharmacy Council, MSU Pharmacy Alumni Association. After interacting tirelessly with teachers and students for 31 years, Dr. Vandana through her counseling approach noticed a tremendous change in the teaching fraternity and among the youth. Her goal is to help educators increase the effectiveness of teaching so that they are able to guide students on journeys of inquiry and discovery, and simultaneously enlightening the students to understand their strengths and capabilities. Hence, she founded Teacher Talks Academy, as her first step in her long thought journey.
