Future Of Education: Don Advocates Fundamental Change In Teaching Approach

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Future Of Education: Don Advocates Fundamental Change In Teaching Approach

August 9, 2023

As the global education system continues to gravitate towards more online learning and less in-person classroom time, a Principal associate at Technology, Education, and Design Associates in Melbourne, Australia, Prof. Som Naidu, has advocated for the evaluation of teaching approaches and student learning experiences.

Naidu said such evaluation requires a fundamental change in approach that shifts the focus from surface features to deeper structures of teaching.

'For a future-focused education, a rethink and recalibration of educational as well as institutional choreographies is required,' he said.

The Principal Associate made this known on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, during a 2-day Guest Lecture and Round-table Discussion to commemorate the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning’s (RETRIDOL) two decades of existence, in collaboration with The African Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL), held at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) headquarters, Jabi, Abuja.

Speaking on the topic, 'Reimagining Education Futures at the Intersections of Technology, Education, and Design, Naidu said It is not just campus spaces that are changing; all university functions are being reimagined, which is creating demand for new and expanded digital services in teaching, research, and administration.

'A more rigorous approach must include a focus on more than one’s teaching actions. In order to achieve this focus, evaluations of teaching need to focus on its design, efficiency, effectiveness and capacity to engage.'

According to the renowned educationist, design comprises a consideration of the underlying intentions and beliefs about teaching, while efficiency is about the execution of the designed learning and teaching experiences.

The learned scholar added that while capacity to engage is dependent on the teacher's capacity to articulate clear learning outcomes, design challenging learning experiences for their achievement, and identify and gather appropriate learning resources, all of which have the potential to motivate students and promote engagement with the learning experience.

On the role of education, he said: 'Education for all is fundamental to creating a peaceful and prosperous world. Education gives people the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, get jobs and foster tolerance.'

Continuing, Naidu said that the tools and technologies available to teachers will continue to change, both in conventional classrooms and in the distance education and online worlds.

'In this regard, teachers will always have to upskill themselves in order to be effective and efficient and make the most of the affordances of contemporary tools and technologies, regardless of their educational context,' he said.

Highlight of the 20th Anniversary event was the Round-table Discussion, which had erudite personalities like Emeritus Professor Olugbemiro Jegede,Professor Carlos A. Pereira d Oliveira, and Prof. Mercy Ogunshola as discussants, with Prof. Francis Egbokahre as the moderator.

Some of the key responses from the discussants include the need to develop content and design that can help students apply them in a fast-changing world, teachers must change; learners must change; and classrooms must change. The new norm after COVID-19 is changing, as already pointed out in the lecture.

Adopting the use of technology appropriately to achieve desired goals and designing educational curriculum to meet the teacher/learner ratio to reduce the workload were also pointed out.