Five IUG academics joined the face-to-face training at University of Tampere in September (10.-14.9.2018) – Dr Monawar Najim Abbas, Dr Mohammed Abuowda, Dr Magdy Aqel from the Faculty of Education, Dr Mohsen Alafranji from the Faculty of Arts, and Dr Basem Boshnaq from the Faculty of Sharia and Law. The intensive training programme included sessions at UTA as well as several visits to other education institutions in Tampere, such as UTA Teacher training school, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University of Technology.
The IUG project team organised two workshops in which the academics shared their experiences from Finland with their IUG colleagues. The first workshop held on 29.9.2018 was primarily intended for the participants of FinPal training of trainers. The second workshop was organised in cooperation with the Scientific Committee of the Faculty of Education on 28.10.2018.
Dr Alyan El-Holy, member of the project team, opened the second workshop by presenting the eTraining FinPal project and its implementation through cooperation with UTA.
Dr Magdy Aqel talked about the visit to UTA Teacher training school (https://norssi.uta.fi/english/) and the way a science class was organised there. Two teachers facilitated the activities with 40 sixth grade pupils in a large classroom equipped with smart-boards and tablets. Dr Aqel described the educational tools used during the class, the app-controlled robotic balls, which the pupils needed to move by calculating the distance and speed thus learning about mathematics, science and technology. Dr Aqel explained that most schools in Finland are governmental and that great trust is given to teachers who are required to obtain Master’s degree to teach in school (approx. 4 years of specialisation and general studies and 1 year of pedagogical studies).
Dr Mohammed Abuowda presented Demola and Y-kampus, two models that support innovation and entrepreneurship in education. Demola (https://www.demola.net/) is an innovative global alliance of students, researchers and companies that facilitates co-creation projects and offers a modern learning experience. Y-kampus (http://y-kampus.fi/en/) provides entrepreneurship and innovation services to the students and staff of the three universities in Tampere.
Dr Monawar Najim Abbas talked about the visit to the Master’s thesis seminar at UTA and the ways students are encouraged to develop a research plan. She also discussed the role of the supervisor in guiding and supporting the thesis-writing process.
At the end of the second workshop, a discussion was held on how to benefit from the shared experiences in practice. Three teams were formed as a result of the discussion. The teams composed of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Education will start working on proposals for international collaboration in order to learn from the best practices in developing and improving the teaching performance and scientific research.
Sharing experiences from Finland – Workshop I at IUG on 29.9.2018
Sharing experiences from Finland – Workshop II at IUG on 28.10.2018
