Shaily Asthana

I am Dr. Shaily Vinai Asthana who is a bibliophile in true sense. My passion for English literature is the main driving source for me opting for the noble profession of teaching as I strongly believe that knowledge always increases when it is shared. In my 20 years of teaching experience, I am blessed to have shared my knowledge with end number of students of various levels from Under graduates to Post graduates to my Ph.D. students that helped me to grow in a holistic manner and equipped me with the rich and infinite literary realm along with giving me a comprehensive exposure to innovative ICT methods inclusive of adapting to smart classrooms, online mentoring, etc.. When it comes to teaching and learning process, I strongly believe that education and learning is closely related to cognitive theories of motivation. I believe that what goes on the classroom is solely my responsibility as a teacher, thus, by working with my students, we can create an ideal environment for education, safety, understanding and even fun. The presence of literary essence in me always has helped me to prove to be a better administrator as a good administrator always has the quality of compassion. My flexible attitude has helped me to be an effective link between the management and my subordinates. Also, due to my vast experience of working with some of the premier organisations like Sinhgad College of Commerce, Pune, I have been able to comprehend things in a much better manner utilising my human skills which are coupled with managerial skills that gave way to solving many issues related to faculty and students. Also, my current profile of being the director of a language institute which teaches more than 12 Indian and foreign languages is helping me to explore not only the changing trends of English but also providing me an opportunity to get introduced to other languages and their literary culture such as Urdu, Spanish, French, German, Persian and many more. Along with my administrative skills, I also have a rich research experience. Till now 4 students have completed their Ph.D. under my guidance. I have more than 20 research papers at both national and international level in peer reviewed journals and Scopus indexed journals having good impact factors along with a couple of books entitled “English” and “English and Business Communication” respectively, Both the books have been prescribed for Nagpur University syllabus. I also feel elevated to share that my first book “English” is one of the referred books for the PG diploma in the curriculum of Madurai Kamraj University for PG Diploma in Industrial and Company Law and PG Diploma in Actuarial Management while, another book “English and Business Communication” a best seller for B.B.A. and B.C.A. under Pune and Nagpur University. I have also got the honour of being the key speaker of a number of workshops, Faculty Development Programs and other academic events in which I got a great opportunity to know the stalwarts of my area. Recently, there was an implementation of NEP 2020 in my university which gave me an opportunity to design the curricula of both UG and PG as per the guidelines of NEP 2020. I consider it as one of the excellent exposures that gave me a great learning experience. As per the NEP 2020 guidelines, a multidisciplinary approach to education is the need of the hour and considering these guidelines, I, along with my colleagues designed a curriculum of Communicative English that has been introduced as an Ability Enhancement Course for all the streams of the University including both professional and non-professional students. Keeping the same consideration, we have also started an exclusive literary association of students to encourage them to get introduced to various forms of literature through an array of activities such as reading clubs, skits, radio talks, role plays, debating, extempore, etc. Thus, I can say that my research and teaching experience along with administrative skills have taught me the most important life lessons of being committed, creative, analytical and a collaborative leader who believes in working with coordination for the continuous growth of the organisation.