The Lebanese Curriculum:   

            The Need For An Urgent Shift!

 

      The Lebanese Curriculum is definitely in need of a big radical change. Our current curriculum with all its aspects concerning goals of education, strategies and content in all of its practices needs an urgent shift. We need to develop a new curriculum that should be viewed according to the new contemporary educational philosophies that have emerged which concentrates on the learner as a whole and to keep up with the continuous arising educational development across the world which has had a great impact on our society as a whole and the individual in specific.

  If I had been given the chance to participate in developing a new curriculum for Lebanon, I would consider choosing the contemporary philosophies as a base for the framework of the new curriculum. I would go more into progressivism and reflect some aspects of reconstructionism that can be applicable in our society and without neglecting some ideas that can be adopted from traditional philosophies which are highly reflected in the current Lebanese curriculum such as drilling and recalling strategies that are important in some levels of learning especially in kindergarten. I would also add my own beliefs that education should be available for all and public schools should dominate over private ones. There should be equal learning opportunities for all. Learning should be fun and our message as teachers should be to teach,inspire and motivate. The question that may arise here is why we should shift to contemporary philosophies to guide us in building a new curriculum. We as curriculum workers should view things from various perspectives and should do our job in a coherent way while choosing the best foundation for our curriculum. It is very important to point out the fact that we should stress on the learner as a whole. We should be aware that the interests and beliefs of students are of great importance.

 Our Lebanese curriculum is overcrowded. It concentrates on the cognition of the learners rather than their interests. It depends highly on the traditional ways of delivering knowledge. The learner passively recalls the information since there is not enough time or space provided for students’ creativity and critical thinking. Ideas are great but students should test these ideas through experimentation. The goals of the new curriculum should be more student centered than teacher centered. Educators should be facilitators and guides where they guarantee that students are thinking and are playing an efficient role in the learning process. There should be space for practical methods and active experiences that reflect real life of the students to make them better change makers in the future. We should inspire our students which will help the community become a better place for all. The curriculum should include new strategies like problem solving and project learning methods and all that can promote their critical thinking which can make them successful citizens in the future. Through our curriculum students should be taught not just to know but how to apply what they learned. For all of this we need to shift and reshape a new curriculum based on contemporary views which serves for the best of our students and education as well.

 

 Importance of Assessment 

in the teaching and learning process: 

    Assessment is a powerful weapon it can either encourage students to learn, improve and succeed or else it might destroy their desire to learn or succeed. At the end , it is only the students themselves who are going to decide whether they are going to learn or not and our job is to help and motivate them to learn and benefit from our teaching.

So an educator must pay attention to his assessment practices in every step in the teaching and learning process and try to use what best fits his students, what motivates them and what make them feel that they are capable to learn and to value what they have learned. 

Build positive relationships with  students should be the concern of teachers to assure their engagement in learning. Teachers have to show their students that they love what they are doing.

On the other hand, the assessment methods teachers are going to use must have clear purposes and clear objectives that should be clear to the students as well. Teachers should assure to their students that all can succeed and that their success is important.

In addition to that, educators should understand the importance of quality assessment by putting it in sound practice that targets the best learning of their learners. At the end it is only through assessment with all its types that we can know and understand how our students are learning. This is why it is very important that educators should understand the importance of quality assessment and follow certain sound standards to guide their assessment practices in their classrooms. This can only start when we have our students understand that they shouldn’t be afraid of assessment. On the contrary, we should implement in them the motivation and love of assessment. So when teachers have clear purposes, clear targets and sound designs for their assessment and when they match their targets with their assessment methods, students understand how they are being assessed. They have clear idea of the criteria used in the assessment method and how are they are going to be judged which gives them a sense of motivation to work in a comfortable environment. Teachers should pay attention to the quality and type of questions she uses in her assessment. Teachers must also consider the different learning styles of students. So we have to work on improving our students’ desire to learn and sound assessment plays a very big role in achieving this purpose.

  What can you do now that we were not able to do a year ago?

    An interesting question may come to one's mind:             

"What can I do now that I were not able to do a year ago?"

 The last two years have imposed lots of challenges which made us learn and experience lots of  things and acquire new skills most of us never imagined they would ever need to pursue.

Life after the covid-19 pandemic hasn't been really so normal. Having to sit home, study or teach remotely has led us as teachers or students to master new skills in order to be able to keep up with all the challenges that faced and is still facing the teaching- learning process.

One thing I learned during this time how to be able to manage multitask. Doing everything from home. Teaching, being a mother and a housewife at the same time from the same location all the time was a new thing we weren't accustomed to.

On the other hand, speaking from a teacher's point of view, I have learned a lot too. Technology wasn't one of favourites yet remote learning made it one. Infact I started to adore technology and love it which persuaded me to discover more about it so it became an inevitable part of my teaching. Searching for new applications to use in my classes in which may benefit me in my real classroom after going back to schools as well has become a passion. 

I believe I had the chance to develop a lot during the past two years and I am very thankful for that. So it is a matter of choice. Trying to be always positive and make use of hard times and exploit in rewarding issues which help you to evolve, move forward and develop continuously rather than surrendering and lamenting things that cannot be recovered.

 Challenges you face when 
 learning/teaching online:

  As Technology has become an essential and inevitable part of our daily life, computers, ipads, cellphones are all the time at hand of everybody and within the reach of all including students and teachers. As we all know, online learning  has become an urgent need after the late harsh covid-19 pandemic which made the use of technology inevitable in the teaching and learning process.However, this as well brought forth many challenges to both teachers and learners.

Teachers should be well prepared to give online classes. They should have enough knowledge how to manage technological resources and applications to be able to use them in their classes and teach their students how to use them. Motivating and engaging students in learning online is one of the most important challenges a teacher might face. Some students may feel isolated, bored preferring face to face interaction. Problems of electricity, internet and lack of necessary resources form a big challenge as well. And the most important thing is lack of reliability especially if students or teachers themselves are not willing to learn how to manage technology in a proper and useful way. 

 

What do you think students should be taught when working online to avoid problems?

    Students should use the internet but at the same time they must learn how to use it safely and acquire the necessary skills needed to work online and avoid problems. Of course technology with all its wide meanings is a marvelous thing from which students can benefit a lot in their learning yet at the same time if used improperly it might lead them to slip up and encounter unwanted consequences.

First students should learn how to become good digital citizens. In fact schools should start on working on including in their curriculum digital citizenship and teach it to to their students. From another hand, kids must work online under their parents' supervision. Honesty and dedication of the students' themselves are very important. They must also know how to verify safe sites and use those that are proper to their age only. 

Through awareness, proper online education and by practicing online safety students can learn how to work in a safe online environment far away from problems and free from harmful situations that they might encounter such as cyberbullying and other negative challenges. In fact we have to enrich in them as much as possible the positive aspects of using technology with all its beneficial sides and motivate them towards that.

                         

 How to be a digital citizen?

     Imagine if everybody would follow and apply good citizenship rules, the online world would definitely become a more friendly and safe medium for all. 

We have to put in mind that everytime we go online, we might have a large audience and  may be monitored all the time. So we should pay attention to every step we take while we are on the net and abide by certain specific standards that lead us to become good digital citizens.Some of these rules might be the following:

 -Acquiring the necessary skills needed in the online world.

 - Keeping private information private is an important rule.

 - Avoiding to steal others' ideas and trying to be authentic.

 - Communicating with others; with respect.

 - Trying to be positive and intelligent.

We as educators should teach our students how to become good digital citizens as well by practicing how to be successful digital citizens ourselves.Then teach our students how to use their devices and  navigate the net safely by protecting their privacy and respecting others' privacy  as well. Then equip them with all the necessary skills to help them acquire all the necessary standards that prevent them from facing serious problems in the online world.

 Tools that can be used in Online Assessment:

    Assessment forms an essential part of the teaching process. An accurate assessment must have specific purposes and goals and the design a teacher chooses to use in her assessment depends on these specific purposes and goals. So after putting an aim, an assessment tool is chosen.

 Online Learning has imposed new styles and methods in teaching which urged the use of totally different new types of assessment techniques that can help teachers keep track of their students' work.   Online assessment has become easier for teachers through the different online tools and applications offered throughout the web. These assessment techniques can be engaging and motivating for students much more than the ordinary pen and paper classroom methods and teachers can always  monitor and track their students while working online all the time.

  Through these assessment tools teachers can evaluate their students' progress and can even grade their work if needed.

Hereby I provide a list of some online assessment tools or applications that a teacher can use in her classrooms with a small description hint aside each:

• Google form: Quizzes
• Word wall: Assessment for learning                   

• Socrative: Quizzes
• Jamboard: Formative assessment
• Google Slides: Project presentation
• Poll everywhere: Discussions
• Mentimeter:Quizzes,formative assessment
• Edpuzzle:Formative,summative assessments
• Liveworksheets:Summative,Formative assessments
• Teknologic: Participation
• Google Docs: Exams( Answers)
• Padlet: Participation,formative, peer assessments

 Technology Integration:

  Technology has become an essential part of  our everyday life to an extent that it is used in all aspects of our daily life. At the end we are living in a digital era. So how come we deny its importance and relation to education. Technology has become a predominant part of our students' lives. It has affected the way they think, imagine,  play and perform. This is why we cannot deny the fact that Technology should be integrated into teaching. It is very beneficial for teachers and students at the same time.

Teachers can improve their quality of their teaching and the productivity of their students as well. Using technology in the right way saves time for teachers in preparing and while explaining their lessons. It allows them to create innovative and motivational classroom environment for their learners. Students are not only engaged in the learning that occurs inside their classrooms yet they are also taught how to acquire the important 21st century skills regarding creativity,problem solving,reasoning,communication skills and understand how to use technology efficiently. 

EDUC561

 

EDUC 561- Educational Media and Technology

 1- What do I enjoy in this course?

   Every Monday at 3:30 we attend the educational media and technology course with dr. Amal Farhat. I am really enjoying this course. It is very motivating and engaging. We are learning how to benefit from technology to be able to use it in our classrooms with our students in a productive way by discovering new applications and exciting programs that can make teaching more fun and exciting.

2- What you wish were different?

 I am very satisfied of the content and the activities we are doing during this course and I wish I took it before so that I could have taken advantage of what we are learning during online classes with our students.