The staff development unit of Engineering department in association with the Human resource department conducted a training program titled "Development of Cognitive skills for Academic achievement" on 31st January 2023, for all the academic staff. The SDU committee extends sincere appreciations and gratitude to the Resource Person, Dr. Rajesh, Lecturer in Physics, Engineering Department for agreeing to do a training session on this very relevant topic and sharing some of his knowledge and observations.
The session started with a welcome address by Dr.KJ.Sabareesan, Head of Section, M&I Section, Department of Engineering, who stressed the importance of conducting the SDU activities for the academic staffs and the benefits harnessed out of it, especially with offline SDU activities. Mr. Maroof, Lecturer of Physics had presented a short introduction about the speaker and his expertise to the audience.
In this training session, the speaker stressed on the importance of cognitive and metacognitive skills that are essential for academic learning. Cognitive abilities are the mental aptitudes required for learning and these abilities are what set the “ best learners” from the “ not so good learners”. The brain uses these abilities to carry out cognition related tasks and to interpret our experiences – “to know”. The speaker gave varied examples to emphasize the point that learning is quick and simple when cognitive skills are high and learning becomes difficult when cognitive skills are poor. In the later parts of his talk, he explained the difference between cognitive and meta cognitive skills. Whether you are a student or a professional in the workforce, it is important to understand your learning style and how you retain information for future use. Metacognitive skills help individuals process and retain information through self-recognition and reflection. These skills continue to grow and evolve throughout the teenage years and into adulthood as individuals move from educational to professional settings.
The session concluded with a thought provoking note that, through different classroom strategies and techniques, as teachers, we should find ways to keep them motivated as encouraging the students’ intrinsic drive is also a key element influencing their academic success. The session was followed by an interactive Q & A session, and the moderator thanked the audience for their very active participation.
In the end of the session, on behalf of SDU committee, Dr. Preethy gave vote of thanks message and thanked the speaker for a thought provoking session.