MSU PhD student Deepali Shahdadpuri awarded the University Research Scholarship

Scholarships is awarded on the basis of quality of doctoral research work and other social factors

Deepali Shahdadpuri, a PhD student of Department of English, Faculty of Arts in MSU has been awarded the University Research Scholarship of Rs. 6000 PM for a period of three years. This scholarships is awarded on the basis of the quality of the doctoral research work and other social factors.

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda is the only state University in Gujarat to offer such scholarships to the meritorious students. At present nearly 215 students are pursuing PhD in different faculties and out of which only 15 students were awarded University Research Scholarship. Deepali Shahdadpuri is pursuing PhD on “From Curriculum Framework to Testing Practices: A Critical Evaluation of Foundation Courses in English at UG Level under UGC’s Choice Based Credit System”.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY:

The only reason for making such research proposal is that no such study in Gujarat has been carried out so far with best of the researcher’s knowledge. So, after consulting the proposed guide, it felt that it is necessary to undertake a concrete research in this area.

On the other hand, the researcher is particularly interested to learn about curriculum reforms and development and hope to contribute knowledge through examining the topic that has not been considered from the current perspective, by answering the research questions on the basis of hypothesis, presented in the next section.

HYPOTHESIS:

1. Students lack the proficiency that they require to meet the growing demands of the present-day workplace competencies.
2. English teachers are unaware about the curriculum framework designed by UGC.
3. The syllabus Foundation Courses in English is not designed as per the guidelines of UGC model curriculum and the “Learning-Outcomes Based Curriculum Framework”.
4. Teaching methods used by the teachers of the universities help to increase the knowledge of the students in a specialized field, but do not develop accurate communication skills.
5. The structure of question paper is heavily loaded on testing memory and does not give space for communication skills and radical thinking.
6. The use of the same format of the question papers and the structure of the question papers has led to set a particular restricted pattern that can be guessed easily by the students, putting a big question mark on their reliability.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. Are students, who perceive Compulsory English, able to meet the demand of today’s world?
2. Do the teachers of the universities of Gujarat know about “Learning Outcomes-Based Curriculum Framework”?
3. Are the syllabi of Foundation Courses in English in the universities of Gujarat designed as per the guidelines of UGC?
4. Do teaching methods used by the teachers of the universities of Gujarat help students to develop accurate communication skills?
5. Does the format of question paper test the proficiency of students’ communication skills and radical thinking?
6. Is the ‘same format’ of question papers over the past years reliable and test students’ knowledge?

METHODOLOGY:

Data collection will include a checklist-cum-questionnaire and face-to-face interviews for collecting relevant data. The use of other methods would also consider for the collection of the data depending largely upon how research takes shape. Samples for collecting data will be taken randomly from the selected group of 250-300 teachers working in the universities of Gujarat. The tentative variables would include: (a) the urban and rural segments and (b) low and high performance of institutions (based on NAAC Accreditation and Govt. of Gujarat’s AAA).