4th Global Conference
Tuesday 9th August - Thursday 11th August 2005
CERGE-EI, Prague
Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers
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Session 9: Approaches to Learning
Chair: Thong Bui Quang
Bridging the Gap between Language Teaching and Professional Training
Glib
Lipin
British-Kazakh Technical University Kazakhstan, Almati
The paper with
a focus on an interdisciplinary strategy of teaching and learning
describes an experimental project that has been recently launched at
Kazakh-British Technical University (Almati), where I currently hold
a post of Visiting Professor. The paper discusses the teaching strategy
for undergraduate sustained simulation EPP-Engineering courses
The
format of my sustained simulation class is “Designing
KBTU as a Kazakh Technology Park” .
I have designed the scenario for my class that lasts one semester.
What I stress as new is its direct connection with the students’ professional
knowledge and life situation at KBTU.
Currently KBTU is initiating
a challenging innovative project on technopark . This fresh and promising
idea is being widely discussed at KBTU now. Besides, the students
know that their teacher is a member of KBTU technopark project board
and also works collaboratively on it. In this case the students realize
that what they are doing during this period at EPP classes is not
just a game, but a serious life-demanding project. They have a real
and not an imaginary opportunity to contribute their ideas to how
to implement this project. Besides, their efforts to formulate and
to write a tentative rationale cross the hour limit of a lesson.
Their activity becomes all day work – in fact a
life (not only a class) sustained activity, and turns out to be more
than a mere simulation. The students are inside the interdisciplinary
communication environment and their activities have immediate relevance.
They are “plugged” in the midst of the University life
and feel themselves an important part of the intellectual community.
This interdisciplinary nature of simulation, its competitive atmosphere,
the desire to contribute valuable ideas to the project development,
undoubtedly, intensify the process of mastering language skills to
express their views.
I classify this type of “plugged in life” simulation
as a multi-agenda simulation that includes both decision making
simulation, as well as process simulation. The paper
discusses how the movement from traditional tutorials to this interdisciplinary
simulation classes significantly transforms the learning and teaching
process.
Connections between Creativity and Confidence: an Art Educator’s
Perspective
Mary
Blatherwick
Faculty of
Education, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick,
Canada
Art education as a component of teacher preparation programs
at the university level exposes students to diverse contexts as well
as a wide range of creative practices. This paper defines art education
as a myriad of creative experiences and practices that directly and
indirectly prepare students for classroom instruction. From their
involvement in creative experiences education students begin to explore
and develop a wide range of instructional possibilities. Through interaction
with and responses provided by education students, a connection between
their creative involvement and instructional confidence is identified.
Most
students enter the art education courses with little or no previous
experiences with creative practices, and therefore, question the need
for developing these skills and instructional strategies. They are,
however, aware of the complexities of classroom life and know that
they must find ways to, not only effectively teach their area of expertise,
but also make connections between other areas of learning in order
to explore a variety of concepts including race, gender, and cultural
diversity.
By involving education students in creative learning experiences
that not only challenge them to think visually, but also connect, combine,
integrate and develop instructional strategies that relate to other
forms of literacy such as writing, drama, and music, they begin to
understand the meaning of creativity and how it applies to teaching
practice.
The possibilities that arise from their involvement with
creative practices increase their confidence to develop effective and
innovative instructional strategies, which relate not only to visual
art but other subjects as well. These experiences, gained through an
art education course offered in teacher preparation programs, encourage
them to see teaching as a creative process that requires an open, curious
and flexible mind, capable of dealing with the complexities of today’s
classrooms.
As an art educator, I have identified a possible connection
between education students’ involvement with creativity and the
increase in their instructional confidence. To support my position,
the analysis of education students’ reflections and questionnaires
provides insights into their creative experiences and how they affect
their instructional confidence. I make the case that if creative practices,
explored in art education courses, have the potential to increase instructional
confidence, then they should form a more substantial and integral part
of the teacher preparation process. I also suggest that students in
other university programs might increase instructional possibilities
and their level of confidence through similar creative experiences.
PR Theory and Education in the Age of Globalization
Prodromos
Yannas
Technological Educational Institution of Western
Macedonia, Greece
No abstract is presently available