DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

"There is nothing that strengthens a nation like reading of a nation’s own history, whether that history is recorded in books or embodied in customs, institutions and monuments” - Joseph Anderson

History is the one of the oldest disciplines taught at St.Bede’s College. The department of history was established at St.Bede’s college in 1970.The Department of History seeks to better understand what humanity is, by investigating what humanity has done. It believes that historical perspective is fundamental to understand the world in which we live. To that end, the department offers various courses that explores both past and contemporary societies and their people. The general aims and objectives of all degree program in the department are to develop students’ interest in, to promote their study of, the past and to promote historical (subject specific) skills including the understanding of cultural, social, political, economic, intellectual and religious changes in the past, and their relation to the historical context of the period under study. Department organizes various co- curricular and extra-curricular activities for the overall development of the students Department. The History Department has good record of results and it intended to carry the tempo in future also.

MISSION

The department of history at St Bede’s college is committed to excellence and research. Students are trained in specific skills related to the discipline and are provided geographic, thematic, and chronological coverage of the past from global perspective. Our mission reinforces general educational objectives of critical thinking, reading, writing and communication skills. Our undergraduate program trains students in advanced historical methods of research and analysis and provide in-depth seminars that reflects diverse specializations in the department.. And as a teacher I am expected to regularly be engaged in research activities, both to update lecture and class material and to contribute new knowledge.

VISION

The Department envisions to transform young students into inclusive ,broad minded wholesome human beings with critical understanding of the past thereby effectively choosing to cater the future.

OBJECTIVES

• The ability to think historically: identifying the unique characteristics of past eras, articulating causality, and analyzing change over time.
• The ability to engage critically with historical argument.
• The ability to communicate historical knowledge, interpretations, and arguments clearly in writing, oral presentations, or public history projects
• The Department of History has the objective of motivating the students for higher learning in the field of History, especially for research and extension activity.

The college prepares an  academic calendar before the commencement of teaching program incorporating in schedule various activities including periodic test and annual exams. Teachers chalk out teaching plan for the year. College prepares its own academic calendar that includes plan for academic activities, curricular activities, celebrations etc. A timetable committee of the college prepares comprehensive time table for all the faculties and allocates classrooms as per the requirement of the timetable. The faculty members of the department prepares teaching plan according to the syllabus within the time limit and leaving scope for project work and other activities etc.The academic year in the college is comprised of two semesters  &the annual system.

The students academic progress is monitored regularly by adopting the strategy of continuous internal assessment minotest,classtest,seminars,groupdiscussion,assignment,attendance,semester 7annual examination.30%of marks are assigned for continuous internal assessment  and 70%for semester &annual examination.

The Arts courses generally follow the lecture method. In addition to the traditional methods of teaching, the teachers offer demonstration lectures using charts, models, audio visual aids like ,Power Point Presentation, slide projectors, TV, smart classes, computer etc. Certain field trip sand field works enable the students to gain knowledge from the field in their subjects. The students are allowed to speak freely so that the actual class room difficulties are noted and rectified by taking immediate and appropriate action.

Student-centric learning and a list of the participatory learning activities adopted by History Department

Learning is made student centric by the teacher who enlighten them about the prescribed syllabus and give them wider perspective about the subjects through a series of lectures. This is followed by student centric activities like

•  Preparation of assignments
• Seminar on projects
• Report writing
• Group discussion
• Educational Field Trips
• Screening of documentary films
• Displaying models and charts
• Books and journals are recommended in the syllabi for further reading

Apart from these, guest lecture is organized at the department level by inviting Subject Experts. Students are motivated and encouraged to interact with the Subject Experts to gain rich knowledge and clarify their doubts on their subjects. The department has been making sustained and continuous effort to improve the teaching learning methodology by using Participatory Learner Centered pedagogy like Project Work, Field trips, seminars, Quizzes, contribution in College Magazine, Assignments, etc.

Latest technologies and facilities used by the Faculty for effective teaching

For effective teaching the following modern teaching aids are used in the class rooms are

• Computer
• LCD Projector
• Television
• C.D players
• Laptop
• Smart Class room

Students are motivated to collect resources related to their subject from the e sources. The central library has linkage with the UGC and students can access book and journals through e- learning. The students are encouraged access e-resources to prepare their assignments, seminars and projects. As a part of mobile education, the students are taken on fied trips, educational tours, etc.