Curtin Staff are students for a day

MIRI, 13 November 2006 – It’s not only the students that do the learning at Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, but the staff as well. On Saturday morning 24 lecturers from the School of Pre-University Studies attended a half-day team-building workshop at Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club. The workshop aimed to give lecturers a hands-on experience of working effectively in a team.

A welcoming address was given by Beena Giridharan, organiser of the day’s event and the acting director for the School of Pre-University Studies at Curtin. Speaking before the event, Giridharan said: “I feel that most organisations see continuous development as a key priority. We are hoping that this staff development opportunity will be fun, and will help to get the staff away from the long semester where they’ve been putting in a lot of work. They will learn by doing. We have very sharp objectives and we hope that in a half day session it can be achieved.”

Beena Giridharan was awarded the ‘2006 Carrick Australian Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning’ in July this year. The award is recognised Australia-wide.

The Deputy Director for the School of Business, Shamsul Kamariah Abdullah, is facilitating a practical session on team building at the workshop. Abdullah was the recipient of the ‘Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award 2005’. This award is Curtin’s highest recognition for exemplary teaching.

The workshop allows newer Curtin lecturers to be trained by some of their more experienced colleagues. It is an opportunity for lecturers who have been recognized for their teaching excellence – such as Giridharan and Addullah – to share skills and advice with newer lecturers. Commenting on this function of the workshop, Abdullah said: “Where there’s new staff coming in to an organisation we want to make them feel welcome. When you are new in any organisation you feel like a stranger. But once you get into the system, being in the system is not the only important element, another element that should be included is how the current staff help one another, especially the new ones, in developing the program in their organisation. So in this case I think team building is very important.”

Abdullah, known for her vibrant and fun teaching style, started off the session with some challenging group activities. Lecturers balanced eggs on spoons and walked blindfolded across the room, and the entire group tried to pass small beads through straws, all in the name of team building.

Other sessions taking place at the workshop include stress management and a brainstorming session for teamwork. Giridharan said: “The main theme of the workshop is team building. We’ll talk about how to work together effectively in teams. We’ll describe the behaviours of a highly motivated team, and then the staff will be given a task to demonstrate how they make effective teams. It’s all going to be fun activities, we won’t have any boring lectures.”

This is the first time that the School has held a team-building workshop for its staff. Earlier this semester Giridharan held a workshop on research methodologies, and she has planned yet another session for staff this semester. “I hope to have another workshop before we finish next semester which will be on R&D [research and development] strategic development for our school”, she said.

Curtin Sarawak’s lecturers are frequently recognised for their teaching excellence, often at an international level. Lecturers keep up with the latest developments in subject areas and integrate the newest advancements in educational technology into their classes. Workshops such as this are one of many ways in which Curtin’s lecturers continually build on their knowledge and skills.

If you would like more information about the team building workshop or the School of Pre-University Studies at Curtin, please contact the acting director for the School, Beena Giridharan on +60 85 443939 Extn: 3854, or email: beena@curtin.edu.my.