The two day international conference on “Paradigm shift in education: Post pandemic approaches in teaching, learning and assessment” (ICPSE- 2022) was concluded here on Tuesday evening with approval of 33 recommendations.
The recommendations approved by the experts will be tabled with federal as well as Sindh government in order to help policy makers to devise effective strategies of teaching, learning and assessment in future. The concluding ceremony was held in Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium of Sindh Museum Hyderabad which was chaired by the Dean Faculty of Engineering and Technology University of Sindh Prof. Dr Khalil ur Rehman Khoumbhati on behalf of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro. The Dean Faculty of Education Prof Dr Abdul Sattar Almani, Dean Faculty of Natural Sciences Prof. Dr. Wazir Ali Baloch, Malaysian Professor Dr Ravichandran Moorthy, US Professor Dr David J. Roof and many others were present on the occasion.
The experts suggested designing the précised online and offline general education courses including integration of online thinking, reshaping of teaching objectives and contents, re-engineering of teaching process, reformation of teaching evaluation and standardization of teaching management.
The conference suggested that the university teachers should use the online assessment tools in order to enhance the teaching-learning process in general and quality of assessment in particular.
It was also recommended that shifting to online distant learning should be introduced in future higher education plans besides creating awareness among stakeholders to identify solutions through future research in this area.
The conference hoped that the papers which read in different sessions would help readers to understand the challenges and obstacles of foreign language learning during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as encourage facilitating the online education process. The studies provided at the conference will help educational institutions create an enabling environment in higher education institutions, the conference observed.
According to the recommendations, the results highlighted a significant level of regressive linguistic hegemony of Urdu in Karachi which negatively affected the Sindhi native speakers.
It recommended to improve students’ online learning readiness as per recommendation of papers presented which includes preparing various learning resources, presenting interactive content, and optimizing teaching time with learning activities to increase creativity and understanding, providing met cognitive scaffolding support to help students design strategic plans for task completion, adding collaborative learning activities with heterogeneous groups and providing motivation scaffolding assistance to manage student motivation.
It is recommended that due to present and post COVID-19 scenario blended learning should be implemented in elementary schools. The teachers should be trained with online teaching tools for students’ responsiveness in learning achievements and results at elementary classroom, the participants observed.
They also recommended overcoming such issues and challenges there should be provision of professional development programs for the teachers to prepare them for future circumstances. It was recommended based on findings that embedding digital and online tools in post pandemic scenario can improve academic performance and quality of instruction as well. Further, incorporating the traditional methods of assessment with web-based tools can transform the process and results of assessment.
The main issues explored by experts included cost and affordability, connectivity and technology issues, communication barriers, issues pertaining to research/practical component of the programme, gender dimension, duplication/replication in various activities, hurdles in issuance of transcripts/degrees, problems associated in the submission of assignments, timing issues in attending online workshops, computer tutors, the active participation of students in workshops, remuneration issues and fraudulent activities.
It was also recommended that parents of the students should also be trained along with the teachers to have a better understanding and coordinated learning sessions. It was suggested that there should be a policy or proper legislative process document for the regularization of contractual teachers.
The participants of the conference concluded that COVID-19 had a major effect on the children’s learning and mental health that had further widened learning loss of children, strengthened existing class differences and reinforced the gender-based division of labour in the society.
It was concluded that successful formative assessment procedures resulted in students’ effective and improved learning performance. Education administrators should organize programmes to help teachers learn how to use formative assessment in the classroom and make sure it’s done right, based on the specific results, the participants emphasized.
The experts observed that recommendations of the conference will pave the way for the improvement of the verbal proficiency in primary school teachers. They recommended that the teachers who teach computer networking courses should adopt a blended learning approach as a teaching strategy since this approach promotes students’ active participation as well as increases students’ learning outcomes.
The participants of the conference recommended that in order to reduce the addictiveness of social media, parents and teachers should raise students’ awareness about the negative effects of social media on academic development. Internet addiction and physically inactivity is highly prevalent in administrative staff, non-significant association of the internet addiction exists and it should be regarded as serious problem.
