The prick of a pin or a touch from a loved one and countless other such sensations come alive for us as a result of communication between billions of interconnected neurons. The neurons in our nervous system form precise circuits akin to modern computing devices, albeit a few thousand times more complicated. These circuits dictate our daily sleeping and eating habits, how we interact with our physical and social environments, and even how we demonstrate our emotions. The basic pattern of circuit organisation and their corresponding functions are conserved across genus and species. If and when these networks go awry, our basic capabilities falter, relationships deteriorate, the quality of life and its expectancy diminish.

Some newer technologies have made it possible to identify and dissect behaviour-specific neural circuits. For example, optogenetics allows for activation or repression of specific subgroups of neurons through targeted expression of genetically altered rhodopsins, which respond to light of different wavelengths. Using this technique, it is possible to activate pain-related neural pathways and create the sensation of pain in the absence of any external painful stimuli. This ability to manipulate specific groups of neurons has afforded the opportunity to identify neural networks that mediate specific behaviours. Another innovative way of identifying novel circuits is through viral-mediated tracing of inter-connected neural networks. For example, the rabies virus can be modified such that when it is introduced into the nervous system targeted to a specific group of cells, it does not cause rabies any more, but can jump synapses and deliver genes of interest to neurons that are pre-synaptic to the target neurons. Complementing these efforts are advances in microscopy and immuno-histochemistry, which have allowed scientists to generate three-dimensional maps of developing neurons in human embryos at microscopic resolution. Together, individuals from scientific background as diverse as molecular genetics to chemistry to electronics are joining hands to develop newer and ever better ways of interrogating the nervous system in ways that were previously unimaginable. There’s excitement galore.

Significant investments by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Max Planck Institute, Allen Brain Institute, and others have propelled the study of circuit neuroscience at an accelerating pace. Silicon Valley giants like Google and its parent company, Alphabet, are investing heavily in neural computation and artificial intelligence. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan recently created the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative with a mandate of basic neuroscience research. Apart from the west, Japan and China have also made significant contributions in this revolution. China launched “China Brain Project” in 2016, a 15-year initiative to understand the neural basis of cognitive function.

India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched the Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI) to fund basic neuroscience research in May, 2017. Research in this cutting edge area of science is yet to gain momentum in the country. As India seeks to forward its own scientific enterprise, this is a discipline that cannot not be ignored.

Given the existing expertise in mathematics, statistics, computer science, chemistry, and wealth of natural resources, India can potentially carve a unique niche. For example, India can leverage its expertise in computational technologies to develop tools to study/analyse data generated in studying neural circuits. While recording the activity of neurons in mice, fish, flies, and monkeys over days, biologists generate huge amounts of data, often to the tune of hundreds of terabytes. Organising, analysing, and cataloguing this data in meaningful ways requires extensive computational power and expertise, which biologists performing the experiments often lack. Development of freely available software with user-friendly graphical interfaces is the need of the hour. Increasingly, a lot of such datasets are becoming publicly available. Which creates an opportunity for mathematicians and computational biologists to look for unique or unifying patterns underlying the data.

Most of our understanding of the fine structural details of neurons and glia in the nervous system come from observations of neural tissue under microscopes that provide nanometer-scale resolutions. Since high-end commercial systems are prohibitively expensive for countries or institutes with proportionally smaller scientific budgets, such a disadvantage necessitates the development of indigenously built systems that can democratise modern neuroscience.

The inherent ability of viruses to enter cells and transfer genetic materials allows scientists to map and manipulate any circuit of interest. While neurotropic viruses such as rabies and herpes simplex have been enormously helpful in mapping brain circuits, their usefulness has been limited by their toxicity and inefficient expression. Improvement of existing strains and discovery of novel ones that are less toxic and more efficient call for interdisciplinary collaboration between microbiologists and neuroscientists

Studies over the past decade have deciphered circuits with unique molecular signatures responsible for regulation of sleep, satiety, taste, chronic pain, and memory. In order to manipulate those circuits in patients with neurological disorders, one needs to develop drugs or strategies to uniquely target these circuits. India with her wealth of bio-resources and expertise in chemistry can foray into developing compounds targeting these circuits. Apart from improving access to technologies, biological questions of interest pertinent to India can be researched. For example, neurological disorders associated with viral infections endemic to the subcontinent or the possibilities of intellectual shortcomings due to chronic malnutrition can be investigated at the cellular and molecular level.

Most importantly however, there is an urgent need of disseminating the developments in modern neuroscience to the general public. In particular students at an early age should be exposed to the possibilities these developments hold for them.

To be appointed as a school teacher in India, a diploma or graduation in education is a must. This ensures some familiarity with pedagogy. Contrast this to faculty candidates at higher levels, who are selected based mainly on content knowledge. Consequently, knowledge and/or experience of teaching methodology is either limited or entirely absent.

Throughout my professional career as an educator, I have consistently sought to think not only about what is being taught, but also how it is taught. Determined to do more than criticise the system, I chose to become a consultant to teaching faculty. In this capacity, I work with teachers, either individually or in groups. At other times, my services are hired by an entire school/department/institute. Whatever the situation, the process requires me to gather background information and customise my advice based on that; it also matters whether the advice is sought for short- or long-term. I work with teachers to identify lacunae, we mutually agree on goals as I guide them towards solutions. Though there are a few concepts common to most cases, I consider each person/situation uniquely. I outline below some of the avenues available for professional growth of undergraduate faculty in India, and share my advice as a freelance consultant.

What does Professional Development involve?

Broadly, professional development includes tracking and documenting of skills, knowledge and experience that teachers gain beyond any initial training (formally and informally). In addition to 'learning on the job', it is both necessary and possible to seek expert help in teaching well. The experts may be more experienced and/or effective colleagues, content specialists or advisors in pedagogy. The National Curriculum Framework of Teacher Education (NCFTE, 2009) states a number of aims of ‘Continued Professional Development’ for Indian teachers. They range from 'exploring, reflecting and developing one's own practice' to 'researching and reflecting on learners and their education', and 'breaking out of intellectual isolation and sharing experiences and insights with others in the field, both teachers and academics working in the area of specific disciplines as well as intellectuals in the immediate and wider society'.

Everyone is familiar with the orientation programmes for new faculty offered by academic staff colleges; but these are mainly catered to university faculty. A main drawback of these programmes is that they are too generic and therefore vague. Funding agencies like the UGC and DBT or faculty associations at various levels also organise workshops for faculty. The options I have listed here are of more customisable nature, catering to needs of individual faculty or college/institute.

Professional development for college faculty: ‘why’ and ‘how’ to do it?

Usually, only schools are monitored by Education departments. We do not hear of inspectors visiting college classrooms to assess activities and progress. I am not advocating the need for such supervision but an internal, self-motivated system of feedback set up by the faculty for themselves would go a long way in improving teaching practices in colleges.

Reflecting on one's own teaching practices, maintaining a journal of self-appraisal, is the simplest yet most effective mode of professional development. To aid in this self-analysis, one's apprehensions as well as achievements as teachers can be discussed with students, seniors and colleagues resulting in instant feedback. Subscribing to and reflecting on the content of relevant magazines and blogs can also be very useful. Examples include articles in journals as Active Learning in Higher Education, Journal of research in science teaching.

Online platforms like the national knowledge network and Google groups such as 'Teach in India', can be utilised to carry out discussions with like-minded faculty. These forums provide opportunities to discuss with colleagues, contributing articles to these sources can greatly help faculty in their professional growth as teachers.

Interested faculty can also sign-up for online courses offered by EdX and Edutopia, for instance, often allowing the learners to proceed at their own pace. The benefits would multiply if several members of the faculty register for the courses together and gain from discussing the content and performing the activities together.

Colleges can also avail services of consultants (some freelance, others work as adjunct faculty) to advice on improving teaching practices. I would like to close with a couple of my experiences as a reflective practitioner teaching at the undergraduate level:

> In a course on organismal biology, focusing mainly on ecology and evolution, the students were asked to write one of their assignments as a journalistic report. In consultation with science writers and non-biologists, I prepared a marking chart considering weightage to be given to various aspects of the report like the title, content, style etc. In one batch, unexpectedly, a student decided to add a very relevant photograph to the report, which really enhanced the assignment. This led me to rethink my chart – I had to add a column for images. So, in addition to taking the help of experts in other fields, work of a student also enabled me to plan the evaluation/feedback better.

> As a resource person, I met Biology faculty from different universities at a workshop on laboratory techniques of conducting experiments with fruit-flies. In the four-day workshop, some of the participants who worked with fruit-flies for the first time, realised how simple and low-maintenance the flies were. This experience assured them of being able to grow stocks of flies in their respective laboratories and several of them discussed clear contexts and lab sessions they planned for their students using different aspects of flies at various stages of their life cycle. Presenting the ideas to their peers from other places provided them with insightful advice which helped to make the plans more practical and effective.

As an undergraduate faculty, if you would like to discuss options for your own professional development, I would be very interested to hear from you.

Further Reading:

https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/teaching-talk

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(The author has been a researcher in biology and an educator, formerly a faculty at the undergraduate programme of IISc; now freelancing as an independent advisor to academic institutes and teaching faculty.)