ELC (283)
A collaborative effort of the ELC Research and Consultancy Committee and Professional Development Committee of Ibri College of Technology was evident on 28.6.2018. The first workshop of the day was on Bloom’s Taxonomy and was second in series. It began at 09.00 am in room no 2031/2032, with a quick recap of the previous session on Bloom’s Taxonomy. This helped the audience to quickly relate to the second session.
The significance of effective implementation of Bloom’s Taxonomy was emphasised by asking the audience to go through the emails from college administration. The emails added a kind of authenticity to the whole atmosphere and motivated participants to reflect on various aspects of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The focus of the workshop was on the third and the fourth cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Mr Jose Chandapillai dwelled at length on the third cognitive level (applying) of Bloom’s Taxonomy while the fourth cognitive level (analysing) was discussed in detail by Mr Joseph Vadakel. The last two levels too were briefly dealt with in the concluding part of the session. The presenters came up with interesting activities that consolidated the concepts that were introduced during the workshop.
Dr Sultan Al Ghafri, the head of English Language Centre emphasised on the effective use of Bloom’s Taxonomy and acknowledged the efforts of the committee and appreciated the presenters for sharing their expertise with the staff.
As per one of the decisions made by the College Academic Committee to conduct practical workshops on Bloom's Taxonomy in line with the OQF, the ELC decided to conduct a series of Workshops on Bloom's Taxonomy. The Research Committee facilitated the first of these workshops on the 5th of June, at 11:00 am, in classrooms 2017-2018. Joseph Vadakel and Jose Chandapillai were the presenters.
Ms. Anuradha, the moderator of the workshop, welcomed the attendees. She emphasized that Bloom’s Taxonomy is used to create learning outcomes and to create assessment parameters that accurately report students’ progress on these learning outcomes.
Mr.Joseph handled the first part of the session and stated that not many teachers are aware of Bloom’s Taxonomy, as per the survey that was taken in ICT and hoped that teachers would use Bloom’s Taxonomy consciously in teaching and assessing. He showed the participants a video, which showed the pyramid of lower order thinking skills, such as remember, understand, apply, and higher order thinking skills like: analyze, evaluate and create, suitable for all learners, from the Foundation to Advanced level. After that, Mr.Joseph gave a reading passage about a farmer’s tale, with questions and instructions. The teachers had to underline the action verbs in each question or instruction and categorize them under the appropriate label of lower order thinking skills, such as: remember and understand. The activity was done in groups, with some teachers conferring with others, as to which label each verb belonged to.
Mr.Jose handled the next part of the session, where the teachers were given another handout with a reading passage taken from the current book Pathways used in the Foundation programme and a list of Bloom’s Taxonomy action verbs, categorized under remembering and understanding. The participants were asked to read the passage and prepare questions making using of these verbs. Most of the participants shared their questions in the end.
Mr.Jabez, a member of the research committee also took this opportunity to encourage staff to form research and consultancy teams, which is according to criterion
The joint effort of the ELC Research and Consultancy Committee and Professional Development Committee of Ibri College of Technology had many rich takeaways for its staff on 28.6.2018. They had a unique way of encouraging teachers to share their expertise that enhanced the quality of learning and teaching in various ways. The series of workshops which were conducted in room no 2032 had lot to offer and each one was rich in itself. The first session was by Ms Desiraja Nagaraja Kumari who shared an interesting classroom activity titled “Backs to Board.” The second session was by Mr Mohammed Amir on use of Authentic teaching materials in ELT classroom.
The first workshop was on Teaching Tips. It is a novel platform introduced by the PDC for the teachers to share their best teaching practices to generate interest in students and motivate them to learn more. Ms Desiraju Nagaraja Kumari demonstrated an activity titled “Backs to Board.” It was highly interactive and involved the participants in creative way. It was fun to watch the participants to guess every word of the sentence written on the board. The audience was not allowed to prompt the participants through gestures. They were instructed to come up with equivalents of the words written on the board through synonyms, grammatical structures in English. The activity stimulated thinking minds. It was a rich takeaway and was interesting enough to carry it to the classrooms.
The second workshop titled “Using Real Life Authentic Materials in ELT” and the last activity of the day was conducted by Mr Mohammed Amir Abbas. He opined that textbooks are generally believed to be the most useful material in ELT classes, but ‘realia’ in EFL classes generates interest among students and encourages them to know more and learn more. He introduced creative ways of using newspapers as authentic materials to teach reading, writing, speaking and grammar. He also made an interesting statement that a language thrives in society and dies in society but not in a classroom.
Dr Sultan Al Ghafri, the head of English Language Centre encouraged the participants and applauded the efforts of committees. Ms Mariette Oberholzer awarded certificates to the presenters.
The Staff Development Committee, ELC organized a training workshop on Bloom's Taxonomy on the 22nd of May 2018. Mr. Joseph Vadakel and Mr. Jose Chandapillai (ELC Staff Members) conducted it. They said “Bloom's Taxonomy is one the big challenges teachers face when teaching receptive skill". Dr. Sultan (Head of ELC) emphasized that Bloom's Taxonomy is so crucial in setting learning outcomes and deciding assessment tools. Mr. Faisal Shamali, Head of Staff Development Committee stated that Bloom's Taxonomy theory has developed its relevance to planning the lessons and testing students leaning achievements. At the end, Ms. Sharon Ruth (ELC Senior Lecturer) handed over the certificates to the presenters.
Toastmasters International is an organization with more than 352,000 members around the world. It helps people in communication and leadership development. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 16,400 clubs in 141 countries.
On May 8, 2018, two teams of the Toastmasters International Oman visited Ibri College of Technology to brief its staff and students about the organizations’ background and objectives and to help them establish Toastmasters Club at Ibri College of Technology. A full regular session of the club was also presented to help the audience understand the way the club functions. Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Mr. Younus Al Za'abi attended the event along with the staff and the students of Ibri CT.
On Wednesday July 9th, 2018, the ELC gathered in Dr Sultan’s office to celebrate the success of 4th ELTPDW April 18, 2018 and cake cutting ceremony. Head of Staff Development Committee and Head of Organizing Committee of 4th ELTPDW Mr Faisal Shamali started the celebration saying “ Success is everyone’s mission. Life is full of challenges and opportunities, but only for those who actually struggle to grab the opportunities and overcome the challenges. Hard work and dedication are the only mantra in the journey to success” Then Dr Sultan Al Ghafri, Head of ELC and Chairperson of 4th ELTPDW started his speech” Without being passionate and the willingness to work hard, no one can achieve success. We share here different samples of successes that will help all of us in making an impressive future to the ELC” then The head of Staff Development Committee honoured Dr Sultan the shield of the 4th ELTPDW.
Keeping in mind the importance of research activities, IBRICT has launched a Research Funding Programme. Research and Consultancy Committee IBRICT organized a session about its awareness under Dr. Anupriya. IBRICT has launched this internal funding programe to nurture Research Culture and Consultancy Services among the Faculty and Students to promote research culture. RCC Committee will have one chairperson and Coordinators from each department including IT, Business, Engineering and ELC. Coordinator will further arrange teams.
Six main research areas have been identified in the College’s Research Agenda for period 2017-2022. The areas are:
- Minining and Mineral Resources
- Renewable Energy
- Tourism in Mountain-desert Areas
- Agricultural Engineering & product Marketing
- Transportation and Logistics
- Data Mining
The research proposal will be evaluated for a total score of 100 points. The deliberation of the points include the followings:
- Scientific, academic, innovative or technical merit and competency- 50%
- Capacity building-20%
- Collaboration with other departmens of college or government organiations or outside agencies-10%
- Interdisciplinary project-5%
- Topics in college research agenda-10%
- Prior Publication in related field-5%
Maximum limit for budget will be 1000 OMR for one project. Which shouldn’t contain more than 20% of the maximum limit for scholarly activities like attending workshops, seminars, conferences, and related travel expense.
The ELC organized a tremendous and flashy awarding ceremony for the top three achievers of each level in Foundation and Post-foundation students on 8 of May 2018. Since the respected head of ELC, Dr. Sultan concerns a lot in engaging students in the various activities and occasions, the ELC Students’ Activities Committee has prepared and trained more than 7 students to run the ceremony. The event received satisfactory feedbacks and compliments from the assistant dean, Mr. Younis and all the teachers who participated in the ceremony. The top achievers were awarded by the sponsor of the event, Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Manthari, Assistant dean and Dr. Sultan. The employees of the month including Mr. Faisal Alshamali (February) Dr. Mohsen Amiri (March) and Ms. Maha Aldarei (April) were also awarded with the certificates. At the end of the ceremony, five students of the English Society appreciated Dr. Sultan for his outstanding efforts for the ELC with their notes.
Ms.Badour Al-Hinai participated in the Open Day activities as presenter a Ibri School, on April 24, 2018. She conducted a workshop on "Designing Videos to Enhance Learning" for school teachers. A number of school teachers attended this workshop. The object of this workshop was to train school teachers in using modern technology for effective teaching and learning. She highlighted the importance of using technology especially videos, in teaching and learning. The teachers can design their own videos and utilize them effectively in the class. It saves their time, enhances students’ interest and motivation, and improves their practical skills. Last but not the least, teachers can achieve the desired learning outcomes. The participants of this workshop got innovative ideas from this activity.
The English Language Centre spearheaded the 4th English Language Teaching Professional Development Workshop with the theme “Strategies for Encouraging, Engaging and Educating Students” on April 18, 2017 from 7:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at Ibri College of Technology.
The event commenced with an opening speech from Dr. Sultan Al- Ghafri, the Head of the ELC, by welcoming the guests, presenters and participants from various colleges and universities in the Sultanate of Oman and abroad. He said that the English Language Centre at IbriCT has always been a platform in providing opportunities to English language teachers to share their expertise and motivate students to enhance their English language skills. Dr. Al Ghafri also assured that the ELC at IbriCT will continue to offer opportunities for those who want to be part of a knowledge seeking and sharing society.