SEMINAR ON "CHALLENGES TO THE TEACHING PROFESSION IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM"

PHOTO : H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva former minister and deputy leader of the Democrat Party delivers a speech during seminar entitled "Challenges to the Teaching Profession in the New Millenium". H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva with V.P. Academic Dr. Bancha Saenghiran and Dean Dr. Methi Pilanthananond and other guest speakers after the seminar held at the Hall of Fame on March 3. H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva in a commemorative photo with students of the Graduate School of Education at the end of seminar held on March 3.

The Faculty of Education has all along encouraged students to take advantage of various types of inter-actions in the academic world, gain experience in organizing seminars as well as participating in working groups. This is in pursuance of the faculty's objective of providing opportunity for practical observation and experimentation for students.

A professional seminar, therefore, was held on March 3,2001 at the Hall of Fame, Hua Mark Campus. The students of Graduate Diploma in Teacher Education Program, Class I, who belong to the teaching profession were the organizers. In this seminar, the Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party and Member of Parliament, H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva, was the first keynote speaker on the topic of "NEW PARADIGMS in Education and Politics". He was followed by Mr. James Souza, Director of Admissions, The International School of Bangkok, who spoke on "Tapping Student Behavior Trends to Enhance Learning, "and then by Mr. John Bernhart, Technology Coordinator, Ruamrudee International School, who dealt with "Direction of Educational Technology and its Effects on Student Learning" respectively.

Mr. Abhisit specifically mentioned some challenging points in the new paradigm: Reforming the Learning and Teaching Process, Quality Assurance, and Allocation of Resources and Technology, and changing the school administrator's policies and procedures. With regard to reforming the learning process, teachers have to change and recognize and use the new modem, the paradigm for the teaching and learning process. He also stated that the educational system needed changes to benefit both rural and urban people. In the new educational system, the administrators should be open-minded and ready to accept changes pertaining to the decentralization of administration. For quality assurance program, it was mentioned that all schools needed to be evaluated independently from outside, the results of which will encourage the schools to improve their teaching methodologies. Regarding the process of allocation of resources, it was explained that this will continue to be a problem due to our ongoing economic crisis. However, high priority should be given to find ways to allocate currently available resources to everyone, especially to schools and students in the rural areas. The impact of technology was emphasized as very important in this century.

Other speakers also mentioned about enhancing learning by referring to the aims of education. According to John Dewey, the aim of education is the development of individuals to the utmost of their potentialities. Student learning and teaching styles were also discussed as well as helping the students learn including student assessment to ensure that the objectives envisaged were actually achieved. The last speaker referred to the direction and vision of teaching and learning by pointing out that direction can help the students see what is happening and even help to make it happen. Vision can help the students to discover why we need to go in a certain direction. Finally, the seminar closed with the interesting but still to be explored question "Can classroom technology improve student learning?

Reported by Faculty of Education