Understanding by design.... a good example of the scholarship of teaching and learning: does it work in the Arab Higher Ed context....? to what extent???

I don't know, but I think we are way way way far to believe , accept and implement that approach in our region. The purposeful intention ( or may be not) to strip faculty of their identity as professionals, dynamic reflective practitioners  and action research leaders ...are the main elements impeding faculty( henceforth, higher ed educators) in the region we work in to be innovative and engage in  transformative educational exchanges. We still practice and have upon us the policing, inspecting, and negative monitoring practices that demolish and diminish our potential to make sense of what we can do and launch our potential  in research and  teaching and ...also, some community engagement ...etc.

In my opinion a better monitoring of the situation can be done by attracting competent faculty with processional and grounded educational experience in the scholarship of teaching and learning in a higher education context, to get rid of the traditionally inherited curriculum practices from early 60' and which were predominantly used at school level to control the huge mass of kids and excessively monitoring the teachers. Changing the vision and approach is key. Faculties have PhDs and not BA's, and some do have educational training ( pedagogical training ) or extended experience in academia topped with professional development workshop in teaching adults or Higher Ed students. Institutions need to limit that irrelevant interventions camouflaged under the umbrella of Quality Assurance. Quality assurance is not admin only.

 Quality assurance needs to take care of the source of the problem: pedagogy/faculty profile and commitment and also those who believe in the innovative ways to addressing complex problems in higher education/industrial models ca contain production and industrial operations where machines and technology can be used and controlled.... not the case with humans .......paper work and all policy and admin stuff is time consuming and needs to be addressed otherwise, not burdening faculty with it . 

Provide educators chances to get ongoing , relevant and customized training & education in the new practices in higher education, not those inherited from industrial models of education from primary or secondary education context. Pedagogical practices are not transferred from your previous teacher, or are ad hoc, there is a whole scholarship behind teaching & learning in a higher education context. Read the literature. If we engage in that, the excessive and tiresome negative monitoring/moderating will not hold. So, recruitment of key profiles is step ONE. These profiles may be costly. Here we need to make a choice: save our image as a university and reach higher stages and ranks or remain the way we are by using and continuously implementing the wrong practices that will not lead to positive outcomes neither at local or global levels.

The video is just an example of the kind of endeavors and philosophies that need to be adopted to intervene differently in higher education.

Importance of professional acumen for instructors engaged in professionally oriented programs (application to translation/interpreting programs)

When teaching students / training trainees in a professionally oriented college or university context, a very key element is needed in instructor, teacher or trainer profile: professional knowing & doing as well as having a sense of belonging to a either a hybrid or sole disciplinary area. The most distinguished/ golden rule is when the teacher, trainer or instructor succeeds in transferring the doing and knowing of the profession to the students....including developing the corresponding identify ( or what is referred to in education literature with self-concept). Of course , students can not make sense of the new knowledge and practice since they have never been exposed to the environment yet unless they did so via internship or occasional access.

Nowadays , many programs in academia claim to provide future/practitioners/ professionals ( as they say) and this creates a certain type of misalignment in terms of existing human resources and needed outcomes in the program. This is due to the lack of such pertinent profiles. The victim in this operation is, of course,  the student and the institutions image/ brand name......on along term. Therefore, quality and supervision of instructor profile and competencies becomes necessary to guarantee a decent level quality of education and assure parents and society alike  of the serious and relevant mission of the institution. In a public university context, this remains a far reached outcome, at least in most of intuitions. In the private Higher Ed sector, the objective can be reached and fulfilled to a certain level. Parents want to ensure that  clear mechanisms ( pedagogical & professional) need to be in place to make sense of their investments, an that it should be fair.

Last, the ache's heal is in the human factor ( faculty, instructor, student, parents) and not in the object ( content, courses, assessments...etc).  For example, investing in humans intervening in the educational contexts and set criteria for them to practice the profession ( even at private sector level) is a fundamental requirement to ensure quality in education. You cannot provide ' transitioning solutions' that could ruin the face value of the intuition - even if you do so temporarily. It is risky. It belittles from the good standing of the institution in place. Brining in an academic or 'someone in the team' to do the temporary task, although not qualified to do so, may impact negatively on students  and minimize from their motivation towards learning and may change their perception towards the entire department/institution.

The above reflections has application in translation & interpreting programs, especially those oriented towards developing professional and market oriented competencies without neglecting or sidelining the academic component( the practical/less abstract and transferable skills and abilities)

Fouad

Simultaneous interpreting ....fully online!

Last semester I taught the advanced course in simultaneous interpreting for my MA students at SEU . It was delivered fully online by then, but now it is delivered in a hybrid format. I used the interpreting environment on zoom ( you need to pay for it) to teach it. Students appreciated the experience of interpreting remotely and it did make sense for them that it could be done remotely ( I mean conference /simultaneous interpreting). The Zoom conference interpreting facility was the solution to go for at that time and  it did fulfill the requirements of the training purposes and objectives. Zoom replaced the interpreting lab environment and no technical issues were faced during the training sessions.

I was the designer and developer of this graduate course that contains 14 modules, 7 Critical thinking assignments, 6 discussion points, a mid and final exam. I am glad I was involved in the design/development and implementation of this course.

Post-Covid curricular practices: Competency models instead of predominantly product, course or text book based models

Reviewing or developing programs in the higher education education always follows a highly bureaucratic product-based pathway: documents, checking and checking...and another checking, documents and documents checking...ect....or sometimes benchmarking or checking what others did so as to imitate them or copy / paste what they worked on with slight modifications. Not so!

In fact, doing the pedago-curricular engineering work, and work on collecting, documenting and saturating relevant and significant data is not a preferred pathway that higher education institutions would like to work on , especially in the public sector. Similar process is followed in the accreditation process.

Evaluation and modeling models in curriculum are various, yet, the most suitable approach for post covid and todays' context seem to be the one that takes competency  as a framework: what we privilege in curriculum evaluation or review is not:

- The shifts and changes in courses titles or contents

- The modification of the outcomes / objectives on paper

- The religious choices of specific textbooks  as a condition to breath and continue development

Instead, the first things to do, in our opinion, is to reshuffle the process: first document and identify practices corresponding to the disciplines at stake in the context ( especially if it has corresponding professional practice in the local and economy and society ), after that select these practices and classify them to develop standards of practice. All these information can be generated by the data collected through interviews, focus group, surveys..etc. After that, we sit down as a team and align the disciplinary knowledge with what we collected from the profession or real life context of the discipline or contents that are taught. Then, we select and categorize. Then we build the continents, activities, pedagogies, training modes, assessment methods aligning with the new engineered curriculum.

I hope this clarifies the point.

Linking research, training and practice ( profession)...in which way?

St. Arnault (1976) gave an amazing allegory to explain the relation between the three axes (research, training & practice): the three Russian Dolls allegory. The first fat doll refers to the researcher, the medium-sized doll refers to the teacher, while the small doll refers to the frontline practitioner. His wish was ( in the 1960s/1970s) that one day,  in a higher education context, he to have a profile that integrates the three dimensions: research, teaching, and professional acumen/agency. Ideally, the profile would allow the small doll to eventually become the fat one, representing a researcher who has experienced practice, taught that practice, and finally conducted research on that practice. According to Arnault, the positivist approach does not hold much value in an educational context, especially when researching professionally oriented disciplines, if the researcher lacks both professional and pedagogical acumen.

I think that a combination of all three dimensions would certainly be the ideal profile sought in a modern higher education context. This is like the case of a medical doctor who has been a practitioner for years and then taught medicine at the university in addition to his or her daily engagement in research. The same can be said about another faculty in engineering or sports sciences. A researcher who lacks practical experience and a tailored pedagogical approach for teaching their discipline appears ineffective in today's higher education context.

Lastly, a similar analogy can be applied to the competencies of translation and interpreting faculty. A hybrid profile with frontline expertise in the language industry, proven expertise in innovative training methods and pedagogy, and acumen to do applied research (evidence-based)—these three elements would make an ideal faculty profile in translation departments par excellence...Rare, but not always! This point has been discussed widely in a doctoral research paper submitted in 2017. Updated articles are in the pipeline.

One more point to explore is the fact that how we report that we include research or professional scenarios or practices in the teaching. In some institutions of higher education, this really needs to be rethought, as the focal point of integrating all of these in an ecosystem and an integrated approach, especially in professional open-ended disciplines, is not really made clear and used properly.

Improvement sciences and higher education pedagogy...

In 2021, I contacted the department of education at Western University in the hope to enrolled for my second PhD. At first I thought the ideas was crazy and unreasonable! Yet, I wanted to take the challenge despite all odds. What made me really want to go further is the new area of inquiry that was suggested by my future supervisor ...I  found it very interesting to explore: Improvements sciences in education. This new emerging field did really align with the orientation of my previous PhD ( Curriculum and pedagogical practice sin higher education). I felt I found the missing link.  That was what I really was working in my previous doctoral work: i.e.,  improvement per see of both pedagogical and curriculum practices in the higher education contexts in the state of Qatar ( and other higher education contexts in the region subsequently).

Few months later, sadly, due to extreme family responsibilities and pressures, I decided to place this adventure on hold. Now, I am thinking of either retaking the pathway or engage in an individual self-directed type of study and inquiry into the new field and  produce future articles in the area of curriculum and pedagogy improvements. 

A question that bothers me when it comes to improvement in higher education is the ongoing traditional, standardized and working pedagogic-curricular patterns that still ongoing in such a context. With covid, things seem to be heading the right direction,  a case in point new post-covid mode of instruction, assessments and intervention modes.....The learning & teaching environments are changing. Thus, time , to engage in improving the curriculum and pedagogical practices. We need to lead inquiries into that . A new mindset of teachers, faculty, administrators  and trainers is needed....we might even move on the barriers of pedagogy and start thinking of using and implementing the concept of andragogy ( how adults learn in professional and self directed contexts).

In my case, advocating for a competency based of approach to curriculum development and design is in itself a request or appeal for or think the curriculum practices. I doubt this will be used and bought by mainstream public university settings (for the moment), but certainly the private college/university sector would be keen to explore the new approach such as the case of universities advocating for the predominant use of the experiential and field/profession/market related types of training and development/learning.

I certainly think that the concept of improvement should start from basic education and move on up the ladder to higher education. It is not only a tool or practice , but  a philosophy and a vision that need to be adopted and believed in. 

Fouad

Does Competency Based Education means the end of the empire of textbooks??!

I worked in 4 universities in the Middle East(Gulf region). In three of the four universities, I lived the experience of renewing our existing program or getting approved new ones. A common traditional feature that I always noticed, especially in EFL or translation courses/programs...even in education courses themselves, is the swift rush to recommend textbooks as if the entire knowledge frames exist in this one or two textbooks. I have never heard any of the institutions use the name competency or competence. Perhaps the competency model does not align well with traditional public-funded universities. They follow a curriculum paradigm that has been going on since over 150 years and inherited form primary and secondary education systems. Usually leading unemployment of the graduates and  to stagnation.

Competency Models need hard work, pedagogical engineering skills and ongoing updates. It is a model that prepares students for real, authentic, lifelong abilities . It is more dynamic and more rewarding for 21st type of generation. It stresses the link between society, economy and the educational institution. It requires teachers, instructors or faculty to design and prepare learning and performance environments customised to specific students needs, market demands and national priorities. It is a different world. More challenging. Without a real pedagogical know-how, teachers/ instructor /faculty will find it difficult to engage in a competency model.

In the case of EFL, authentic and customised life/ context/work oriented learning and performance environment enhanced with experiential and project based pedagogies seem to  be the way ahead.

Research is needed to revamp our curriculum practices and create significant learning & performance activities for our students. Linking and communicating with the world of practice through research and developments is a key requirement in this endeavour.

Teacher's knowledge framework???

 

Teacher knowledge and competencies are worth discussing, exploring and investigating. Nothing is taken for granted by just having a PhD or MA in a discipline. After COVID experience, a new type of knowledge and skills were added to the inventory of what instructors or future teachers at various levels of educational degrees need to appreciate and get trained in.

In any discipline , this is a requirement and professional development is then  needed for certain. Yes, research is very important when it comes to higher education, but also pedagogical and instructional abilities are necessary, especially in professionally oriented types of disciplines/ Vocational training. Neither lecturing nor mere repetitive and experiential learning alone would fill up the noticed gap. We  also need a cluster of other components comprised of knowledge skills and abilities as well.

Schuller(1986-1992) referred to the importance of the pedagogy and content knowledge. This is key variable to align with in designing and developing courses for sure. With the significant development in technologies in instruction, another paradigm emerged adding both the 'technology' and ' pedagogy ' components to Schulman's framework. That was was Sharma (2009-2012) referred to as TPCK knowledge ( Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge) framework that teachers/ instructors/ faculty need to align with and impalements in either K12 or Higher Ed . This is a more comprehensive and efficient approach. Integrated , yet, comprehensive and sustainable.

See details about this theme in general education or in application to certain domains ( translation/interpreting/multilingual studies/EFL) in my next podcasts ( coming up).

The notion of competence in education/training: not abstract as it seems. Let us innovate/look forward instead.

Accreditation bodies always accredit a program according to some very specific guidelines and criteria. The field-specific reviewers scan and examine the program at the content level and  end up deleting, adding or recommending courses. The old fashioned curriculum evaluation was basically based on course content change and modification as if curriculum is all about playing chess with courses and recommending textbooks. May it is about be scanning objectives/outcomes for the most.

 Not so. There are other major factors, not only administrative but in relation with the ' alignment philosophy' as well as relevance of either contents or intended outcomes or any other type competencies ( intended skills, knowledge and abilities to develop in students ) to build. Yet, designing programs and learning outcomes based on the competence model is still a challenge to overcome in many higher education contexts. It is a question of funds/policy and change of mindset.

The challenge becomes more and more thorny in fields of human and socials sciences, since the competence model of program design & evaluation is most implemented in scientific programs whereby hands on skills and abilities can be clearly documented from the profession and then re-designed and modelled afterwards in  a curriculum that aims to develop primarily competencies and then get informed of relevant  content that could feed into developing these competencies( lets say in the field of agriculture, medicine, engineering). There is an entire mindset to work on , which is different from the usual curriculum building /designing/evaluation methods we are used to in Higher Education.

In relation n to translator education?

In this case, my first and foremost suggestion is not to stress only on the traditional trend : focus on the product/ Text side only. Let us also bring in translator competences. After all, who is the agent, producer and deliverer of the outcomes ( translated text/video/audio) ? certainly the human factor/being ( The translator, the subtitle, the interpreter). In fact translation competence is now becoming an outdated topic in applied translation studies. Let us move on ! PACTE group had been talking about this for many years and done a longitudinal research inquiry since two decades ago. Kiraly, Gopfeidig and Chesterman have added new competencies that were not included in the predominately cognitive model of PACTE. Also, we should be discussing translator competence, instructor or faculty competence in translation, competence in translation curricula...etc.

Internship? practicum? field work? ...in the context of social and human sciences.

Some programs in the social and humans sciences do have practicum or field training as part of their education pathway before getting a BA or and MA or , in some cases, a Diploma. This opportunity provides a chance for the learner/trainer/ novice teacher to gain work related types of competencies, although the time is usually not enough due to various reasons: institutional, planning, strategic..etc.

When I carried out my doctoral research inquiry/work on two university based educational programs in the state of Qatar, I addressed and explored the internship and field work dimension. At that time, the team was in the process of developing a guide and protocol document to ensure that the internship process ( that was for future translators/interpreters) did have an adequate training prior to their graduation.

Yet, the support provided to these students needed further work. It is not easy when the multilingual professional is under heavy pressure to deliver on-time projects and at the same time monitor students who have never been engaged in hectic professional environments. The competencies needed in that real life context ( usually psychological, non-linguistic, attitudinal, aptitudinal..etc type of abilities) combined with ( like in the vase of teacher education) managing and addressing the class for the first time as well as making sure that the pedagogical dimension is well taken care of.

In Canada, pre-service teachers or future multilingual providers or any other learner in a professionally type of program, do engage in dual education. Students take this type of internship whereby they alternate between work ( training) and studies. Students engage as both future professionals and ongoing student learners. This way, their learning becomes authentic and contextual : experiential. Hence, this type of work will certainly lead to pertinent outcomes. 

Based on the competency ( rather content based) based type of curriculum developments, the planning of training and teaching should prioritize the list of competencies ( knowledge, skills, and behaviour) that are prioritized in the learning/performance curve of the students. In this regard, new contents , innovative one, should be stressed since traditional content would , usually in the social and human  sciences, not fit in well with the competency model. When we say content we also need to add pedagogy and provision of thriving, relevant nd significant learning environment. It is not about a TEXTBOOK . It about a learning environment that should empower the learner. Textbooks are part of this complex  yet coherent and connected environment.

Experiential learning for liberal arts programs!!

A few years ago I worked at a university in the Middle East and at that time the department (of English) was going through the accreditation process. From what I heard the university or accreditors demanded from the literature or linguistics units to demonstrate how experiential learning could be applied in their courses. Faculty in the liberal arts had a real challenge to face by then. Usually, experiential learning takes place in scientific disciplines or professionally oriented programs ( engineering, medicine). Yet, having that new 'intruding' paradigm into an unusual terrain ( liberal arts) was not easy. Courses that cannot integrate the experiential learning dimension are prone to extinction and maybe the closure of the unit ( literature, poetry, drama). I had a broad idea of how experiential learning could be applied in educational and training contexts such as translation, interpreting, business studies, engineering, and medicine. This is because, in addition to my experience with applied languages, I worked with peers during my doctoral studies in the research lab who were working on the disciplines above. At the end of the day, in education development studies we get the tools/techniques and then we collaborate with subject-specific experts to get the job done and fulfilled. In a classroom or lecture theater, the context is typically confined to a fixed space and limited time. Beyond the classroom, learning can be acquired through other sources like visiting a heritage site or museum, being immersed in a good book....or being in the workplace itself. My other colleagues teaching drama, poetry, and literature were bewildered as to how to integrate experiential learning into their courses. Since what the university wants is the economic/social relevance of the courses or the program. I made some inquiries at the international level. I found a professor at one of the universities in Canada who published three articles about this innovative model of teaching 

COVID-19 and the Global Education Emergency: Planning Systems for Recove...