Dr Leni Dam

Educational advisor
Former Educational advisor and INSET teacher trainer
University College, Copenhagen
"Trends and Practices in Teaching and Learning: Focus on Learning rather than Teaching "

Abstract:

The mission of the forum is ‘to present …. effective teaching practices …that promote and support students learning’. The vision of the forum is furthermore ‘to actively engage higher institutions in KSA to take steps of providing and enhancing an innovative, high quality and inclusive learning experience …where youth are valued, well-educated, self-confident, in challenging and supportive environments.

Based on the speaker’s own teaching experiences gained over the last thirty years, an answer to the mission and vision of the forum mentioned above would be to establish a teaching/learning environment where the focus is on learning rather than on teaching.

The talk will give examples of successful learner-and learning-centered classroom practices and their underlying principles. In this connection the following issues will be touched upon:

• Curricular guidelines in a learner- and learning-centered environment,
• Teacher roles and learner roles,
• Activity types
• the organization of learner-directed pair and group work, and
• The role of evaluation, including the use of logbooks and portfolio.
• The talk will end by mentioning some of the positive results from focusing on learning rather than teaching.

Dr. Rosalie Smith McCrea

Assistant Professor, Department of Art & Design
Kuwait University, Kuwait
"Art History’s Past & Present: Teaching Art History as a Tool in Constructing Self-Awareness & Identity Amongst Graphic and Interior Design Students at Kuwait"

Dr Rosalie Smith McCrea is an art historian of Jamaican origin. She received her BA (Hon) and MA in Art History from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and her Ph.D from the University of Manchester in England (2001). Her area of specialization was concerned with the representation of Black peoples within British visual culture of the 18th century during the Debates for the Abolition of Slavery. Rosalie has taught art history as a part-time lecturer at Carleton, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the University of Ottawa. She has also taught at history at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. Rosalie has worked as an Assistant-Curator and Head of Education at the National Gallery of Jamaica from 1881-1986. Since obtaining her doctorate her interests have extended to the area of Atlantic Studies and the critical analysis of visual culture produced within the colonial and postcolonial Caribbean contexts. She presently teaches art history on contract at the College for Women, Kuwait University. Her most recent published article was published in Revisiting Slave Narratives II/Les avatars contemporains des recits d’esclaves II Judith Misrahi-Barak ed. (Montpellier: University of Montpellier 3 Press, 2007)

Abstract:

The paper, attempts to mention briefly the four main departments at the College for Women at Kuwait University and to provide a brief overview of the College’s goal and mission values upon its foundation. It will at the beginning, stress the differences in teaching goals between the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Art and Design highlighting the goals, teaching strategies and results attained within graphic design and information technology as examples for a given year. It will then concentrate mainly on the teaching of Art History as one discipline and model where, methods used in teaching and results gleaned from students of graphic and interior design have shown that history, past and present, in short culture generally and a knowledge of earlier civilizations still have important roles to play in the development and creation of unique contemporary works of art.

Dr. Donelda S. McKechnie

Associate Professor, Department of Marketing
University of Wollongong,UAE
"The Importance of “Business” to a Business School"

Donelda McKechnie holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bradford School of Management, U.K. She has published extensively in referred journals, international conference proceedings and trade publications. Her research interests include service encounters, marketing services and marketing business to business. Donelda has taught in Hong Kong, England, Canada and United Arab Emirates. When teaching, she brings real-world experience to the classroom and encourages students to be inquisitive, push their thinking, and set high standards for their work. Prior to academia, she held senior management positions in manufacturing, service and distribution businesses. Her current project is a book on business schools’ connections to business communities and the value-add for business students and business education.

Abstract:

Business schools are education and business communities are real-world practice. Strengthening the ties between the two can lead to a business school’s quality recognition and competitive advantage positioning in the education marketplace. However, business schools that may be slow to develop relationship potential with business communities risk an education offering with less real-world relevance and application. This paper looks at a business school’s education offering using the product/service framework that is fundamental to marketing activities. The suggestion in this presentation is the viewpoint that a business school without the business community is just another school. This article is particularly important for business schools in the Arab world that seek recognition on the world education stage.

Dr. Don Albert Klinger

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education
Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
"Encouraging Students’ Academic and Professional Learning in Undergraduate Certification Programs."

Dr. Don Klinger is an associate professor in assessment and evaluation at the Faculty of Education at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Klinger has a strong quantitative research background and he uses these skills to focus on assessment and evaluation with respect to monitoring and measuring student achievement and program effectiveness. Dr Klinger is particularly interested in the methods we use to evaluate students and the subsequent decisions, practices, and policies that arise from these evaluations. Dr. Klinger is a founding member of the Assessment and Evaluation Group at Queen's University. Currently, he is a member of the Ontario Education Research Panel (OERP) and the co-chair of the task force revising the Student Evaluation Standards

Abstract:

Undergraduate certification programs face a dilemma in working to meet their own goals while also addressing the expectations of the students in these programs. There is a need to provide an academic and professional body of knowledge and skills while also creating professionals who value the role of ongoing professional learning. The transition from student to practitioner requires a shift in teaching methods, learning, and assessment, moving from an instructor led model to one that creates self-directed learners who use assessment and feedback to direct their own subsequent learning. This session focuses on our ongoing efforts to address these dilemmas in a Bachelor of Education program. Our classes are supplemented by online learning resources and a formative assessment program. A key finding of our work is the need to create a learning culture that understands and values self-directed learning and formative assessment. This learning culture takes time and effort to create and many undergraduate students struggle with this transition. Ongoing support and assurance are required to help these students develop the academic and professional competencies expected of an beginning professional.

Dr. Jim Grant

Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing and Management
American University in Dubai, UAE
"Total Quality Management and Leadership applied to Business Schools"

Dr. Jim Grant holds a D.B.A. from Mississippi State University, U.S. His academic career has included international consulting and teaching in United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Botswana, England, Norway, France, Aruba, U.S. Virgin Islands and New Zealand. Jim has an extensive list of publications in refereed journals, international conference proceedings and trade publications. He has researched and taught in the Marketing and the Management disciplines and specialized in Sales, Sales Management and Strategy. Jim believes education should link textbook knowledge to real-world application. Currently, he is interested in quality gaps within business education and the value that Total Quality Management and Total Quality Leadership can add to the classroom.

Abstract:

The importance of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Quality Leadership (TQL) within business, both the for-profit and the not-for-profit sectors, has been a topic of study and practice for many years. However, the extent to which business schools adopt TQM and TQL practices is quite limited. This is surprising given that TQM and TQL are discussed within various business lectures and sometimes are the course topic delivered over an entire semester or term.

The foundation of Total Quality is customer satisfaction. If evaluating a business school, who are the customers whose satisfaction is important? Certainly, students are customers. Faculty members are internal customers as are the administration and various staff personnel. Externally, families of students, business and organizations who employ the graduates and the community/society as a whole are also customers. However, when evaluating business schools, these stakeholders are often less important than the rankings placement of the school and the number of faculty research publications that annually appear in print.

This presentation discusses the importance of practicing TQM and TQL within a business school. It argues that a business school can adopt a total quality agenda when customer satisfaction is the focus. Important TQM/TQL factors that can benefit education will be suggested for the value that they add to business schools and the business schools’ stakeholders.

Dr. Richard Thompson

Professor / Director, Physics Department
Imperial College London,UK
"Innovative teaching of Physics"

Richard Thompson studied Physics at Oxford University and graduated in 1976. He then took a doctorate in atomic spectroscopy before moving into the field of laser spectroscopy. He spent a year working at the Kernforschungszentrum in Karlsruhe, Germany, before taking a position at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, working on laser cooling of trapped ions. He continued with research in this field when he moved to the Physics Department of Imperial College London in 1986. He has now published a total of around 50 research papers. At Imperial his teaching has covered a range of subjects including in particular optics and atomic physics. He has taught at all levels from first year undergraduate to postgraduate. Since 2003 he has been the Director of Undergraduate Studies with responsibility for 6 degree programmes having a total of around 800 students. He is also currently the Head of the Quantum Optics and Laser Science Research Group.

Abstract:

In recent years it has become well established that conventional lecturing in a subject like physics is not effective for many students. Retention of information is limited even for presenters considered by students to be excellent and inspiring teachers. Various methods can be used to try to address this problem such as small group activities, questions and answers, etc. However, the point remains that most learning takes place outside the classroom in private study. Some recent developments address this point by completely changing the nature of the teaching sessions. One example of this is problem-based learning (PBL) where students (generally in teams) learn by tackling a problem which is designed to lead them into studying the material they need in order to solve the problem. Motivation is high because they can see the benefit of learning the material in order to solve the set problem. A number of UK physics departments have adopted PBL in their physics teaching. Another example is the use of “clickers” in physics teaching. Clickers allow a lecturer to set a question to the class during a lecture and obtain the results immediately by students “voting” for the correct answer using the clickers. This then allows discussion to take place which addresses any misconceptions the students have demonstrated in their responses. At Imperial College we have adopted clickers for some of our courses, including an optics course where we have removed all conventional lecturing and replaced the lectures with interactive sessions using clickers extensively to tackle conceptual ideas which build on directed reading the students have been told to complete before the lecture. Lecture time is also used for other activities such as demonstrations and worked examples. In the session these examples of innovative teaching will be discussed and conclusions will be drawn about their effectiveness for undergraduate physics teaching.