The Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), has recently collaborated with the University of the Immaculate Conception, Philippines, in organizing the 2nd International Education Symposium 2022 (IES2022). The two-day symposium, held from 21-22 October 2022, was packed with meaningful and exciting discourse as the future educators from various countries met and engaged in discussion on global issues, challenges and development in education. One of the main highlights of the symposium was the webinar series, showcasing three honourable speakers from Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia, respectively. The webinar sessions were attended by the ES2022’s participants on the Zoom platform and live-streamed on EDUTube, the Faculty of Education’s Official YouTube channel for the general public.
Prof. Dr. Faizah Abd Majid, an esteemed professor of the Faculty of Education, as well as the Director of the Academic Development & Management Division, Institute of Continuing Education & Professional Studies (ICEPS), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), was given the honour to greet the audience as the first panellist. Delivering her talk on ‘Teachers’ Craftsmanship: Attuning Human Values Amidst Crisis through ‘Thinker Teachers’, Prof. Dr. Faizah emphasized the importance of Thinker Teachers as a crucial skillset for teachers to survive and triumph in the current world that is fast-changing characterized by the uncertain.
After such an engaging and thought-provoking talk by Prof. Dr. Faizah, the audience dove into the essence of learning as they got philosophical with Prof. Brian J. Masshardt, an Associate Professor of Global Studies at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science, Musashi University, Japan. ‘You Title This Talk’ was the name of the game. Assoc. Prof. Masshardt’s wit and sense of humour presented a refreshing contrast to the depth of the discussion as the session dug into the underlying motivation for venturing into teacher education and the various prospects and complexity of its future directions.
The session resumed after the lunch break and Friday prayer with the third distinguished speaker, Prof. Dr. Dinn Wahyu, the Head of the Professional Teacher Education Program of the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), Indonesia. Sharing the country’s experience in ‘Preparing Preservice Teacher Education Curriculum in a Multicultural Society (A Case in Indonesia)’, Prof. Dr. Dinn highlighted several initiatives undertaken to ensure the success of the culturally-sensitive teacher education curriculum. Kurikulum Merdeka strove as one of the endeavours, supporting a more dynamic teaching and learning engagement as the plan of studies being structured involving multiple classrooms across faculties and/or institutions.
Designed around a short but meaningful and impactful burst of engagements, each webinar lasted for 30 minutes, followed by a 10-minute question and answer session. These sessions can be viewed via the Faculty of Education’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EDUTubeFacultyofEducationUiTM