Yanbu Industrial College (YIC) has established the Education Development Center (EDC), at the Student Center Training Room. The role of the new center is to provide teaching support for academic staff in a way that helps enhance student learning. The EDC, headed by John Delany, a senior consultant from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) in New Zealand, will give special attention to staffs' teaching approaches and students' learning strategies. The EDC has formed a team that includes YIC faculty members. Team members have been assigned specific responsibility for planning, developing and implementing professional development in both areas of teaching and learning. For the first two years of this initiative, this team will incorporate eminent staff from CPIT, YIC's partner in this project. The aim is to build YIC's own education development capability, so that the EDC is embedded as a fully functioning center within YIC. “I have had the privilege of facilitating the second series of workshops in the program. During this time I have worked with three groups of teaching staff in delivering a ‘Design for Effective Learning & Teaching' course,” said Neil Lancaster from CPIT. “This visit has been my first to Saudi Arabia. I have been very much a learner as well as a teacher! I am very happy about this as one of the underlying principles of effective learning is that teachers need to be active learners themselves,” he continued. “Design for Effective Learning (Learning Design) involves a radical shift from the traditional model of teaching. Central to Learning Design, is the concept of student centered learning; it is about ‘what the learner does' that matters. The traditional method of ‘course design' implies a focus on the content of the course while Learning Design implies a focus on the learning that takes place,” he said. The Teaching and Learning Methods course has also helped teachers in developing different ways to give and receive feedback from students. Supporting the students while they are learning is an important factor of giving feedback and the course has been very helpful in this respect. Teachers have learned that they should not expect students to sit passively and learn, but that they must actually learn to speak and write about what they are learning and reflect upon what they have learned in classes. This helps the teacher to know if they have achieved the planned course learning outcomes. New courses will be progressively introduced over the next two years, and all YIC teaching staff will have the opportunity to complete the entire program. “A frequently asked question is ‘Why change?' There are compelling reasons. In a world of rapid technological change it is critical that students are skilled in learning which they will be constantly required to do in the workplace. Knowledge of facts is no longer enough. Some areas of knowledge do not change. Meanwhile, other areas are becoming redundant and out-dated while new knowledge is constantly and rapidly being created. A question I frequently ask is “how do we equip students to work in a world which employs knowledge we do not yet know about, or in jobs that have yet to be invented?” he added. Another important aspect of the EDC is Subject-Expert Mentoring. This program will use visits by CPIT academic staff to work intensively with certain YIC departments. The visiting mentors will become part of the teaching team for four weeks and work alongside the faculty members in all aspects of their academic role. They will share feedback on classroom teaching, curriculum development and assessment, as well as subject-specific skills and knowledge. In addition to these planned programs, the EDC will offer ‘just-in-time support' to staff who request feedback or advice on all aspects of ‘learning and teaching' “For me, this has been a rich teaching experience. I have also enjoyed enhancing my limited knowledge of your country. Many things here are very different to New Zealand. On the other hand, we share much such as the value of quality education in a changing world,” said Lancaster. CPIT is one of New Zealand's largest higher education providers, with 30,000 national and international students studying for certificates, diplomas, degrees and graduate qualifications in engineering, computing, social sciences, health, business, art & design, music, architecture and languages. __
