School of Education's SRPBS: January to April 2017

The Series of Research and Practice Based Seminars (SRPBS) are an initiative of the School of Education to strengthen our community of research and to create a networking platform for faculty members and research students of the School of Education and university. Through sharing of research studies and evidence-based practices among faculty members and students, the SRPBS also features work of other external colleagues and education-related practitioners. 

From January to April 2017, the SRPBS successfully presented the following research-based events that are related to a variety of issues: 

• Workshop: Research Grant Application - The ABCs 
  
  
• Technology Enhanced Language Learning in Malaysia – An International School’s Perspective (by Ms Cheong Ngee Fui, MA TESOL student) 
  
  
• Do I Get What I Bargain for in a Flipped Classroom? (by Dr Wei Keong Too, School of Education, UNMC)
  
  
• Maintenance, Agency and Well-being: An Investigating into Community Powered Collective Action (by Simon Williams, PhD student, School of Education, UNMC)
  
  
• Using Music and Movements for Second Language Development in Pre-schoolers with Severe Disabilities (by Ms Heah Suee In, Alum of MA Special Needs, School of Education, UNMC)
  
  
• Leadership Development and Leadership Activity within the ‘Cinderella’ Sector: The Perceptions of Further Education College Principals (by Dr Phil Whitehead, School of Education, UNMC)

The SRPBS also aims to enhance students and faculty members’ teaching skills through workshops and presentations by experts from different sectors of the education industry. From January to April 2017, the practice-based strand of the SRPBS featured the following events: 

• Workshop: Microsoft in the Classroom
  Convened by Ms. Fairuz Nadira Zainal, Teacher Ambassador of Microsoft Malaysia, this workshop aimed to introduce and equip our students with the technological skills in using the Microsoft Office 365 tools in teaching. 
  
  
• The School Curriculum
  Two invited experts, Ms Kwa Jin Nee who once worked at the the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education, and Ms Azmira Amran, who is currently working at the Curriculum Development Division talked about and convened activities related to curriculum development, to our students. 
  
  
• Education Forum: What and Where a Degree in TESOL Can Bring You?
  Organised in collaboration with UNMC’s Careers Advisory Service, this maiden education forum aimed to expose our students to the various types of career options with a degree in TESOL. Chaired by Ms Nabila Shariff Al-Baiti of CELFE, this forum featured the following panellists: 
  
  
  • Ms Chai Xun Yu, UNMC’s MA TESOL alum, who had worked in an international school in Malaysia and now a PhD student with the School of Education;
  • Ms Constance Yuen, UNMC’s Special Needs alum, a Teach for Malaysia fellow and now affiliated with EduNation Malaysia; 
  • Ms Fairuz Nadira Zainal, a TESL graduate who is now a Teacher Ambassador with Microsoft Malaysia; 
  • Mr Jay Menon, UNMC’s CELFE faculty member with several years of experience in higher education and in the advertising industry; and
  • Mr Joshua Boeyen who is in the publishing industry with Oxford-Fajar Sdn. Bhd. 
• Public Workshop: Supporting the Learning Needs of Persons with ADHD: Best Practices and Strategies
  Attended by more than 60 participants of varying professions: school teachers, parents, psychologists and other special educational needs professionals, and students, this workshop was an initiative of the Special and Inclusive Education team of the School of Education. The workshop comprised a series of sessions by faculty members from the School of Education, University of Nottingham Malaysia and UK. Dr Anne Emerson, Dr Phil Whitehead, Dr Cynthia Doss, Ms Jeanette Whitehead and Dr Alefiya Nomanbhoy shared their experiences as well as practical skills to support the learning needs of individuals with ADHD.  
  
  
• Workshop: Language Awareness and Diversity Management: Developing an Appropriate Framework for Teaching English in Asia
  This workshop was convened by Dr Isabel Pefianco Martin, Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics and Chair of the Department of English, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. The workshop introduced participants to a framework for ELT that engages the sociolinguistic realities of English in Asia, including negative attitudes associated with the language, and the need to learn it for intercultural communication.
  
  
• Project-based and Problem-based Concepts in Higher Education: The Experience of the Oulu EduLAB
  This talk was presented by Dr Blair Stevenson, manager at the Oulu EduLAB programme – a full-time, interdisciplinary EdTech pre-incubator and incubator, coordinator of the LAB international partnerships at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in Finland, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Creative Industries at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. In this talk, Dr Stevenson shared the implementation and the success of the Oulu EduLAB with faculty members and students of UNMC.

The School of Education’s SRPBS is a collaborative effort of the faculty members of the School. Many of these events are open to all for free. Future SRPBS events are listed on http://www.nottingham.edu.my/Education/Research/SRPBS.aspx