Dr Mujahid kicks off “Innovations in Teaching and Learning” in Punjab University

Lahore: Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that in the global arena, the only way to live with dignity is creation of new knowledge and the Muslims must invest in education sector for development.

He was addressing the inaugural session of Pakistan’s largest International Conference of Research in Education ICORE 2014 on “Innovations in Teaching and Learning” at Faisal Auditorium. PU Dean Faculty of Education and Research Prof Dr Mumtaz Akhter, Plymouth State University USA’s Prof Dr Christie Sweeney, Aga Khan University’s Prof Dr Muhammad Memon, Federal Secretary Dr Ahmad Bilal, Chairperson Department of Technical Education Prof Dr Tahseen Mahmood, Dr Shahid Farooq, delegates from USA, UK, China, Philippine, UAE, KSA, Germany, Malaysia, Australia, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh and Jammu and Kashmir, various public and private sector universities of the country and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Researchers from 19 international universities, 62 indigenous public and private universities, 5 colleges and 5 schools will present 308 research papers in the three day conference which will conclude on Thursday. Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the 1/8th part of the Holy Quran stressed to resolve mysteries of the universe but we were not allocating our resources according to these instructions of the holy book. He said that the US’s total GDP was around 16 to 17 trillion dollars and it was spending around 800 billion dollars on education and around 320 billion dollars on research and development. On the contrary, he said, Pakistan’s GDP was around 200 to 225 billion dollars and we were spending less than 2 percent on education and 0.1 percent on research and development. Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the best people should join teaching profession as nobody from outside would resolve our problems. He said that the current students of IER were more intelligent and vibrant as compared to their seniors. He hoped that the conference would provide an opportunity to improve Pakistan’s education system. Federal Secretary Dr Ahmad Bilal said that the greatest challenge being faced by our education system was to provide educationists as there was scarcity of teachers of English language, mathematics and science. He stressed the need to promote distance learning programs.

Shedding light on politics of education reforms in Pakistan, Dr Muhammad Memon said that our reforms were influenced by the vision of donor agencies. He said that it followed political dogmas and wisdom of bureaucracy focusing on expansion than consolidation and transformation. He said that old ideas were presented in new ways. Regarding stakeholders’ expectations from schools, he said that schools should inculcate moral and social values among children. He said that schools should prepare children for their future life by developing their adequate knowledge base with life skills, critical, analytical, positive thinking and problem solving skills.

Dr Memon said that schools should develop children’s sense of empathy, appreciation, collaboration, healthy competition and self-directed learning. He said that the existing status of schooling lacked clear direction and societal aspirations and needs that were “misrecognized/ misinterpreted”. He said that teachers and students were consumers of an official knowledge rather than contributors. He said that teachers’ pedagogies were not contextually and academically responsive which perpetuated inequalities and discrimination in the classrooms. He was of the view that assessment/examination tools were poorly constructed which mainly focused on measuring students’ memorization capacity rather than assessing students conceptual, analytical and problem-solving capacity. He said that yesterday’s schools were not future oriented therefore they tend to focus on present needs.

“Changing school culture, developing teacher practitioners as researchers, managing change, building capacity of student learning through leadership and systemic improvement are the phases of school improvement and effectiveness,” he cited Hopkins’ work. “School improvement is merely seen as providing physical facilities rather than covering all aspects of improvement. Education reform through a top-down approach won’t work until school improvement process is conceived as system-wide transformation with partnership of provinces, districts and schools led by principles and moral purpose of education, 21st century learning needs through extensive participation of society as a whole”, he concluded.

Giving a detailed presentation on “Multiple and Emotional Intelligence: Nine Ways to Improve Student’s Engagement in Learning”, De Christie Sweeney said that emotional intelligence might be understood as the application of multiple intelligences to real life. She said that brain sought stimulation and it was unnatural not to learn. She said that instructional strategies were most powerful when they were cognitively and emotionally charged. She said that learning required risk-taking and a safe environment would foster risk-taking. She also detailed relationship between the mind and the memory and memory pathways i.e. emotional, semantic, episodic automatic and procedural. Dr Mumtaz Akhtar said the conference would be a great opportunity for researchers, teacher educator, educators, practitioners, social scientists and professionals around the world for presentation of research based knowledge, experiences, new advancements, research results and innovations in the field of education. She said the event would contribute to achieve national and international educational goals and targets and it would also be an opportunity to offer policy guidelines for the policymakers. Later, shields were distributed among the delegates.