Assoc. Prof. Sumaya, who teaches at the Department of Biological Sciences of MSU-IIT’s College of Science and Mathematics (CSM), will impart her professional and personal experiences of working in the field of nematology with her talk entitled Life after nematology graduate studies: making the most of every opportunity to learn, lead and serve during the Nematology Seminar Day 2021 that will be held on May 19, 2021.
Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) faculty member Assoc. Prof. Nanette Hope Sumaya’s talk will be one of the highlights in the Nematology Seminar Day 2021, an annual event organized by the Faculty of Science of Ghent University (UGent) in Ghent, Belgium, in association with Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad -Universitaire Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIR-UOS), Nematology Education in Sub-Sahara Africa (NEMEDUSSA), and the Eramus + Programme of the European Union.
This year, the seminar focuses talks about life after getting a degree in Nematology and career development. A workshop on “Let’s talk Gender!’’ will also take place in the afternoon.
Assoc. Prof. Sumaya, an alumna of International MSc in Agro- and Environmental Nematology (IMaNema), formerly known as Postgraduate International Nematology Course or PINC, was invited by IMaNema of UGent to speak to students at Auditorium 6 of Campus Ledeganck, 04.10 – L2.
Aside from Assoc. Prof. Sumaya’s talk, the event will also feature talks of other invited speakers, namely, Mrs. Lirette M. Taning of ILVO and UGent (Faculty of Biotechnology); Dr. Annika Pieterse of Nemlab/ Stellenbosch University in South Africa; Mr. David Pires of MED/University of Évora & INIAV in Portugal; Dr. Sidy Diakhate of Green Agro Consulting in Sénégal; Mrs. Lilian Mendoza, the Director of the Human Resources Department of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria; and Dr. Gundula Fisher, a social scientist and gender expert from IITA-CGIAR.
The Seminar Day, which is organized in the frame of the Summer Course: Networking and Seminars for the IMaNema students, is also open to the public and can be followed online.
The Department of Technology Teacher Education (DTTE) of MSU-IIT College of Education (CED) welcomed their visiting professor, Dr. Hanna Teras, a faculty from School of Professional Teacher Education at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland on January 11, 2021. Dr. Teras is the first visiting professor hosted by DTTE.
As visiting professor, Dr. Teras conducted online lectures on flexible learning modality to faculty members of CED via Google Meet on January 15, 22, February 5, 12 and 19, 2021.
Three Levels of Thinking and Teaching of Biggs
In her first lecture, Dr. Teras talked about Keeping the Student Engaged and Motivated in Flexible Learning. She emphasized in her discussion the Three Levels of Thinking and Teaching of Biggs. According to the Finnish professor, Level 1 thinkers refer to What Students Are. She said that there are two types of students – the good students who are the engaged ones and the poor students who are considered as the less engaged.
Level 2 thinkers refer to What Teachers Do. She explained that a good teacher is one who is entertaining and uses all kinds of tips and tricks, utilizing various pedagogical teaching tools and methods. However, if students do not learn, the teacher is blamed for his teaching skill deficits.
The third level of thinking is What Students Do level which she describes as a good learning level. She said that this level is not the result of what the students and teachers are like, but primarily as a result of what the students are doing.
“Learning takes place through the actions of the students with the help of the teacher taking into consideration the use of appropropriate pedagogical design,” she added.
Dr. Teras also linked the topic to the results of her study which indicates that to improve student engagement in online learning, there must be a clear learning management system (LMS) design and instructions, accessible materials and activities, as well as having checkpoints such as self-assessment, milestone and feedback.
Authentic Tasks in Online Learning
Her second lecture was about Designing Appropriate Authentic Task in Online Learning. Dr. Teras defined authentic learning as a meaningful learning experience that is active, constructive, intentional, and cooperative.
She said that “authentic tasks involve authentic problems leading students to better understanding and transfer of learning through solving complex problems, creative thinking and collaborative work.”
Dr. Teras explained that, based on the Authentic Learning Model of Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver (2010), technology enables the creation and sharing of authentic contents and facilitates collaboration in doing authentic tasks. Hence, it is viewed as an effective tool for learning.
Research-based Teaching
During the fourth session, the Finnish professor presented the topic Research-based Teaching by Conducting Effectiveness Evaluations Through Action Research. She conveyed to the participants that action research is a reflective practice whose results bring a beneficial change to those who are affected by it such as the students, colleagues, department and university in a particular social setting.
In addition, Dr. Teras said that “it is a form of an experiential cycle of professional development to systematically improve teacher’s practice to benefit our students.”
The last session was devoted to the Consultation and Reflection on Teaching in the InFLex Implementation. The facilitators shared the general reflections of the participants on the training based on the synchronous and asynchronous activities. Dr. Teras provided insights and suggestions on how the training design could be improved.
Dr. Amelia T. Buan, CED Dean, shared her plans to form a group of peer facilitators in the college to assist and provide stronger support to the faculty in creating a more engaging and flexible learning environment for the students.
Dr. Buan is currently engaged in one of the BUKA Projects which promote equity and access to higher education in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines through the use of inclusive instructional design (ID) and learning analytics (LA) in online and blended learning, especially in the context of Open and Distance Learning (ODL).
To know more about this activity, you can read the BUKA REACH Project that supports teachers on innovative flexible learning.
Through a Google Meet virtual conference, the College of Education (CED) met its third visiting professor, Prof. Dr. Ir. Wim Van Petegem, from the Faculty of Engineering Technology of Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, Belgium.
The Belgian professor talked about teaching and researching in a digital world with CED faculty and students during the March 4, 2021 online lecture.
He also discussed with them the different models of digital literacy and emphasized the characteristics of a digital scholar using his Digital Scholar Framework.
Dr. Petegem said that “a digital scholar is someone who is involved in teaching, research and service, who thinks about how he positions himself in the digital world, and who behaves as an author, storyteller, creator, integrator and networker.”
A digital scholar is someone who employs digital networked and open approaches to demonstrate specialism in the field, he added.
During the question and answer session, Assoc. Prof. Onnah Pierre P. Talle of the English Department of the College of Arts and Social Sciences asked Dr. Petegem what was the most important in his Digital Scholar Framework: teaching, research, or service.
“I think they are all important in a way that the turning arrows symbolize that you cannot teach without doing research if you want to become a digital scholar. Even as a teacher, you always have to ask yourself, ‘Am I doing it the right way?’ and trying to answer the question means that you engage in research. And as a teacher and researcher, you have a responsibility towards society particularly to your students”, the Belgian professor said.
As part of his visiting professorship, Dr. Petegem has a consultation session with the different research groups of CED on March 8, 10, and 11, 2021, to guide the teams in the initial steps of their research projects.
A follow-up consultation will be conducted on July 5, 8, and 14, 2021 to help the teams in the analysis and discussion of their data. The final output of this endeavor will be a paper presentation or publication so that the CED researchers can share with others the results and insights gained from the research projects.
Dr. Petegem was the head of KU Leuven’s Media and Learning Center from 2001 to 2012. Later, he became Director of the Teaching and Learning Department. He regularly gives training in different countries on innovation in education. He is actively involved in different networks of universities to improve education in an international context.
Dr. Petegem is also a regular panel member of review committees to assess the quality of education in Flanders and the Netherlands, and a partner in many implementation and development projects financed by the European Commission.
Dr. Petegem’s lecture was also live-streamed through CED-AVMC’s Youtube channel and was hosted by the CED’s Department of Professional Education.
To provide relevant and timely information on teaching in an Innovative and Flexible (InFlex) modality, the Department of Technology Teacher Education (DTTE) conducts webinar series on technical-vocational education in collaboration with partner universities and TESDA on November 18, 23, 24 and December 4, 2020.
Delivered through Google Meet and Zoom platforms, the department invited competent speakers to share their expertise in skills transfer, competency-based instruction, and research. It was also simultaneously aired in Youtube so that the majority of the participants could attend.
In the first session, Dr. Romeo S. Ebonite, the speaker from Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) Manila, talked about How the Pandemic has Impacted Technology Teacher Education in the Philippines pointing out the main challenges of administrators and teachers such as professional development, resistance to change, new schooling models, delivering informal learning, failures, and personalized learning.
To adapt to these challenges, the speakers told the participants to use the three As: Adapt to the new normal; Adopt strategies most appropriate to the current situation; and, Adept under strategies technologies of modes of teaching and learning deliveries.
The next webinar was about The Teaching of Technology Education Subjects in the Time of Pandemic. Dr. Gaspar S. Gayona, a resource speaker from TESDA Regional Office VI, described an effective educator of the 21st century who is a collaborator, visionary, and one who is culturally-sensitive to provide equity in order to create a highly engaged classroom. She said “Good teachers create an environment of students working together as active learners. Hence, powerful learning demands a well-prepared teachers in and out of the cyberspace.”
Moreover, Dr. Gayona also pushed to infuse the thinking process into the curriculum by utilizing higher-order learning outcomes, increasing the use of project work and in-course assessment, and incorporating a large-scale real-world case study to integrate content, thinking, and other process skills across the curriculum.
For session 3, the topic was about The Role of TESDA on Skills Transfer Among Technology Education Students in the Time of Pandemic with Dir. El Cid H. Castillo. The speaker from TESDA Bukidnon Provincial Office underscored the United Nations sustainable goals which are no poverty, zero hunger, quality education, and decent work and economic growth which are aligned with the long-term vision of the Philippines by 2040.
As a government agency which manages and supervises technical education and skills development in the country, the primary goal of TESDA is expressed in the slogan Abot Lahat. Dr. Castillo said, “We must win the hearts and minds of the people through TVET as a solution in stamping out the cause of poverty, what TESDA does directly impacts on the lives of the people.”
The speaker also promoted the e-TESDA open educational resource and encouraged the participants to avail such a program. The TESDA Online Program (TOP) aims to make technical education more accessible to Filipino citizens through the use of information and communication technologies. It provides an effective and efficient way to deliver technical education and skills development services to a wide range of users at a lesser cost.
In the fourth session, Dr. Paulito C. Nisperos, from Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University, discussed Competency Based Instruction in Remote Teaching and Learning. He explained that competency-based instruction is a framework that reconsiders time, space, appraisal, and other central components of training to guarantee all students build up the abilities they need to succeed. Competency-based learning or CBL is custom-made to meet diverse learning capacities and prompt more productive results.
Dr. Nisperos reminded the school-leaders that “as we embark on this journey toward embracing online learning, the school leaders and decision-makers should not forget the students and families who may be put at a disadvantage because of the current problems on equitable access to education and lack of funding.”
He further noted that every child has the right to high-quality education, so the decision to move online should not make high-quality education a privilege only for those students who can access the internet. As educators, his role is to break down barriers that prevent students from accessing and enjoying high-quality education. In this new normal, to uphold the right to high-quality education is to provide multiple pathways to learning that can accommodate every student.
The fifth session was about Design Thinking in Technology Education with Dr. Sasiteph Pitiporntapin, a speaker from Kasetsart University, Bankok, Thailand. Before the fifth session took place, the DTTE department together with the CED Dean, Dr. Amelia T. Buan organized a 2-day consultation with the resource speaker.
Since design thinking is commonly applied in Science and Mathematics, the consultation was done to establish the relevance of applying design thinking concepts in the field of Technology Education through product design and development. A questionnaire was sent to determine the needs, perception and acceptance of the participants about Design Thinking as an approach in the classroom and as a research methodology.
During the webinar proper, Dr. Pitiporntapin defined design thinking as a creative problem-solving process, to create meaningful solutions to prototype, solve complex problems, and understand the users and designer’s tool kit to integrate the needs of people.
He said further that “Since we have experiences when it comes to designs in terms of chairs, toilet, room numbers and even a nonstick frying pan, design thinking is very significant to overcome these problems by allowing us to think outside the box.”
In the final session, Dr. Sarah O. Namoco, a speaker from the University of Science and Technology of Science and Technology – Cagayan de Oro, talked about Research in Technology Education in the New Normal. The discussion went to quantitative and qualitative forms of research. Research objectives and questions must fill in the gap which is the discrepancy between what is known, what should know, and what to answer.
She stressed that the next time when we look at the research, we should not look at it as a puzzle that is difficult to decipher, but instead a problem that needs an immediate solution. Although the time was very limited, her talk was clear and comprehensive.
Overall through this webinar series, DTTE aims to strengthen it collaboration with other higher educational institutions, TESDA, and other stakeholders for future endeavor particularly in instruction, research and extension.
Any form of human endeavor demands an intent, devotion and practice. No one reaches the peak of a desired goal without having an initial idea of what it is, possessing the drive to pursue it and taking time to act on it regularly. Such is the impetus that moves people to attain the height of their ambitions.
Envisioning excellence has become an ideal of many educational institutions. MSU-IIT, College of Education aspires to provide quality standards of services to their constituents. To be in the toplist of excellent schools in the country entails persistence in maintaining quality standards. The process of achieving eminence does not happen in just a quick nap, but it actually begins with the right motivation. Furthermore, this also means keeping everyone attuned to its vision, as well as aligning personal and organizational goals.
For this reason, four faculty members were sent to complete graduate and post-graduate studies and now has returned to CED, their beloved home. These young and competent professors are Roxan A. Consolacion, Ed.D., Shelanne Theresa P. Ruales Ed. D., Avril Joy V. Ramayan, and Vanessa B. Zabala.
Dr. Consolacion graduated Doctor of Education in Instructional System and Resource Management last March 2019 at University of San Jose- Recoletos, Cebu City. She was a K to 12 Transition Program Scholar sponsored by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Having gained a lot experiences from her studies, Dr. Consolacion sees this opportunity to initiate innovation in the college. She aims to become a productive and successful faculty in terms of research and extension.
Dr. Ruales, a graduate of Doctor of Educational Sciences at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium, has insightful experience working in a research lab of about 20- 25 people, where she was the only Filipino and one of the two Asian post-graduate students. She was amazed automated the procedures and processes in her university. Enrolment is fast and the ID card is delivered by post in one’s home. Aside from these academic activities, being able to travel to different countries was something she always looked forward to during breaks. With her comeback, Dr. Ruales is planning to continue the research she did during her doctorate and collaborate with her PhD supervisors. Thus, she is excited to share with her students the things she learned during her doctorate and hopefully inspire them to study their Masters or PhD in the same university where she studied.
Through the years, the College of Education has supported its faculty force in achieving personal and professional development to gain expertise in the field they are teaching. This also demonstrates the strong commitment of CED faculty members to uphold the ideals of the university.
The College of Education of MSU-IIT, along with the commitment of Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol, serves the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by conducting a research project entitled “Mapping Study of TEIs serving the BARMM”. The project aims to explore the quality of pre-service programs and teacher education graduates of TEIs in the BARMM. It also seeks to identify the development and support for pre-service teacher education, for a better understanding of the status of basic education in Mindanao.
In collaboration with the Philippine National Research Center for Teacher Quality (RCTQ), Philippine Normal University (PNU), and the University of New England Australia, this research undertaking is also supported by the Australian Government. The Mindanao State University and the Western Mindanao State University are also partners in this project.
Dr. Rizalina G. Gomez, faculty member from the College of Education represents MSU-IITas the field Researcher tasked to facilitate interviews and surveys. Series of trainings, orientations, and briefings, required before the conduct of online survey, in-depth interviews, and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) started in October 2020 and commenced in December 2020, with a number of faculty members and alumni from Teacher Education Institutions serving the BARMM.
