Declaration on Internationalization in Higher Education In ASEAN (Model ASEAN Summit)

DECLARATION ON INTERNATIONALIZATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ASEAN

WE, the Heads of State/Government of Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on the occasion of the 2021 Model ASEAN Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, on 13th July 2021;

RECALLING the Bandar Seri Begawan Declaration on Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment, adopted at Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam on 22nd May 2013;

TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION the four priority areas and 20 specific programmes for implementation under the ASEAN Five Year Work Plan on Education 2011- 2015;

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Eight Key Elements on Education Adopted at the 8th ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting (ASED) in Lao PDR, September 2014;

COMMENDING the on-going efforts in developing the ASEAN 5-Year Work Plan on Education 2016-2020;

REAFFIRMING the Cha-Am Hua Hin Declaration on Strengthening Cooperation on Education to Achieve an ASEAN Caring and Sharing Community, adopted at Cha-Am Hua Hin, Thailand on 24th October 2009;

DO HEREBY DECLARE OUR COMMITMENT TO:

1. Encourage and strengthen partnerships among universities of ASEAN countries, by providing a variety of scholarships to young talented applicants, introducing cultural field trips and expeditions to education programs to further unify cultural diversity among ASEAN nations; 

2. Implement an ASEAN academic franchise to eliminate the difficulty of credit score, by exchanging procedures for eligible applicants, providing domestic-based learning environment to local students, considering franchise only the specialized major or selected major that contribute the most to our country, and authorizing our local lecturers to be trained at franchisor institutions; 

3. Enhance the abilities and qualities of teaching by revising study programs for students to gain intercultural competencies, incorporating more up-to-date equipment to provide better quality in training to specific education courses, and providing training sessions to domestic educators to maximize overseas teaching efficiency while reducing costs; 

4. Monitor the effectiveness of ASEAN curriculums, by introducing necessary changes in order to provide students with up-to-date learning experiences, analyzing the current curricular education to ensure the quality of its courses, and incorporating transferable credits to other universities in ASEAN member states; 

5. Support the significant role of academic and administrative staff in further development, by operating the exchange programs, exchanging the experience and the effectiveness to obtain the knowledge or skills to improve the advanced education from other well-established universities in ASEAN, improving and fostering various skills for student personal development and increasing academic opportunities; 

6. Improve students’ study performance and readiness for academic changes, by providing new knowledge for both national and international universities, strengthening research studies and knowledge production for students, observing students’ learning outcomes, creating more opportunities for academic pursuit, including secondary languages into curriculums, and implementing models of digital and blended learning in the classroom; 

7. Accept and display uncommonly planned administration for international applicants, by offering many types of assistance and services that covers immigration procedure and house funding to reduce costs and expenses for oversea students, recruiting and training faculty staffs to understand the diverse cultures of ASEAN countries, joining forces with local area offices and family volunteers that offer moral supports to exchange students, providing pre-class support to better prepare students for their oversea movements, and creating working programs that provide students with the opportunity to earn extra profits; 

8. Exchange information regarding the effectiveness of ASEAN countries' curriculum to establish stronger partnership and promote educational changes, by promoting cultural exchange between students to strengthen ASEAN identity, and providing both students and educators with the opportunity to travel overseas;

9. Provide incentives to encourage students to further pursue higher education, by providing more direct admission places for socio-economically disadvantaged students, facilitating greater access to education for both students and educators, and considering the importance of academic credits transfer procedure for students when they return to their home countries; 

10. Enhance the mobility of ASEAN learners in order to improve and boost the awareness of the importance of higher education in ASEAN, by improving the quality of higher education programs within the region to global standards, and offering overseas training courses to domestic and foreign educators. 

Done in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, this Thirteenth Day of July in the year Two Thousand and Twenty One.

Done by students from class M3.5 (2020-2021), DOE, IFL, RUPP

Global Studies 302: Introduction to ASEAN

Virtual Class, MS Team

Disclaimer: This declaration is written by student delegates solely for simulation and academic purposes. These views herein do not in any way represent the view of any Cambodian university and ministry and government or any other institutions in ASEAN. 

***This article is published here for the purpose of sharing the format/sample. We are aware that there are many rooms to improve for this paper.

My Reflection on Student Assessment

The system of giving numbers or letters to indicate students’ performance is commonly practiced almost all over the world, and my university is no exception. The bachelor program in which I took requires me to sit for exams, tests and other tasks to receive those numbers known as scores and/or letter known as grades. My academic performance in the B.A program is shown on a piece of paper known as Academic Transcript with both scores and grades and their indications. Yet, those numbers and letters are very subjective and do not, I argue, perfectly reflect the actual performance of students in general and mine. This article is written to describe (1) how my academic performance is assessed, (2) my personal analytical opinions on prior assessments on my learning and (3) my preferences on assessments and (4) my overall evaluation of the prior assessments on my actual learning achievement.  

Prior Assessments

The four-year bachelor program required me to sit for an exam (entrance exam) even before I could register and enroll in the program. The program assessed students’ proficiency with their designed proficiency test that contained Vocabulary, Grammar and Sentence Structure and Reading sections. Those who scored top among the test takers were admitted to enroll in the program. The system of assessing students using exams did not end there. The four-year studies were practiced with similar things. Although exams, in this sense referring to final exams, were not the only criterion to assess students’ performance, they were still dominant components that affected the indicated scores and/or grades on students’ performance. Over the years, final exams were reduced their domination on assessments and on-going assessments gained better popularity. Reforms on how students were assessed were made during my study. Final exams decreased their percentage from 50% to 40% on overall assessments of students. Meanwhile, on-going assessments gained their percentage up to 60%. The on-going assessments contained different criteria to assess students, some of which, however, included two tests or a mid-term which was worth 20% and quizzes 5%. By looking at this, it shows again, testing was still dominant on overall assessments. The program did include class participation, presentation, assignment, and homework as parts of assessments, yet those criteria were inferior compared to testing methods, which included both final exams and tests and quizzes (in on-going assessment). If we take a closer look, the above testing methods dominated over 65% of overall assessments. 

Opinions on the Assessments 

What favors me about these assessments is the increase of values or percentage of the on-going assessments within overall assessments. This gives me a positive thought, which is parallel with my preferences, that learning takes place during the class and activities beyond exams should be assessed because exams alone could not really measure the actual learning outcomes of students. Assessing students on their class discussions and participation, presentations, role-play or simulation activities, assignments and homework and other tasks is more meaningful. Unfortunately, these important criteria get less attention. Exams and tests are still dominant assessing criteria that take over 65% of the overall. This fact raises questions to me if we study to prepare for exams and tests or we study to learn. How reliable and valid are these exams and tests to measure my learning and understanding? These questions have never been explained by lecturers or program coordinators. Gradually, it has become a culture which no one has questioned and a common practice for all course assessments on students’ learning. Students generally do not understand clearly what it means by particular scores they get, and, in some cases, teachers do not consider what it means when they give particular scores. In some other cases, tests contain errors and some questions do not reflect student learning and course objectives. Some other questions reach only the first level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which requires students to remember and restate the information from the book. Are these methods of assessments useful and effective ways to measure students? Are these methods accurate to generate numbers and letters that are shown on students’ academic transcripts? These questions are partially answered in the last section of this article. 

Preference on Assessments

As briefly disclosing above, I would prefer assessments that evaluate students’ on-going activities (process and product) in a greater way than just exams and tests. By this, it means that exams and tests should give minimal impacts on overall assessments. Although exams and tests still play an important role in assessments, in my opinion, they should get one-third or less on overall assessments. At the same time, assessments should rather focus on processes of learning, such as simulations, role-plays and the likes and products, including assignment, homework, reflection papers and to name a few.

The Assessments and Actual Learning Achievements  

Overall, I think the assessments described above on my learning achievements do not really reflect my actual learning achievements. The first reason is that test designers and markers are not experts or are incapable of designing and marking tests reliably and validly. Secondly, tests themselves are designed with faults and do not test what is intended. Thirdly, I am not a good test taker, especially on those tests that contain questions requiring memorization. Therefore, such assessments do not really measure my learning achievements; instead, they downgrade the evaluations of my academic performance on the transcript. 

Beliefs and Practices: Teaching English as A Foreign Language

 I. Beliefs about teaching and Teachers 

Teachers’ beliefs are of critical importance to the understanding of the process of teaching and learning. Different teachers hold different beliefs on how their classroom should go. Of course, there are many variables that affect the beliefs of teachers, and it is not denied that their beliefs affect classroom activities, their behaviors, teaching and learning principles and practices, and learners (Gilakjani and Sabouri, 2017). I am not an exception. My beliefs about teaching affect the way I teach and the way my students learn. There are many philosophical explanations and approaches to teaching and learning, and to some extent, I am more influenced by some than the others. From teacher-centered to autonomous approaches, there is no extreme end for me. I do not believe that the process of learning should be accomplished by a teacher alone. Meanwhile, complete autonomy only creates chaos. I believe that teaching should be somewhere in between - somewhere a teacher can be a helpful resource provider to students or a scaffolder for students to process their learning beyond. Moreover, teaching is an art. It should include entertainment, a sense of humor, excitement, and simplification, in addition to well-prepared pedagogies. All in all, beliefs about teachers and teaching play significant roles in impacting learners and learning, and my beliefs are that teachers need to play considerably vital roles in scaffolding learners and make sure the classroom is an environment of both enjoyment and learning.

II. Beliefs about Learning and Learners 

When we talk about learning and learners, motivation can’t be ignored. Motivation in learning can be classified in different categories, including but not limited to, intrinsic and external motivations. Ones can learn better when they have motivation in their learning, or in other words, no matter how good a curriculum and teacher are or how advanced technology is used in the classroom, they might learn less or the least if they find no motivation in their learning. Yet, we have to bear in mind that there is no single factor affecting learning; motivation is just one of those several factors. I believe that learners need to be motivated enough to acquire knowledge and that will be even more beneficial when other factors, such as an appropriate curriculum, qualified teachers, a good learning environment, and assisted equipment availability, are fruitfully involved. All of these factors will assist learners to achieve the acquisition of the subject of learning.  

III. Social Context of Language Learning and Course Curriculum  

Other elements considered to be vitally important in a process of learning include social context and course curriculum. These two variables contribute to teaching and teachers, and learning and learners – in ways good or bad. A social context that appreciates a foreign language, for example, makes it easier for the learners in that context to expose more in the language learning and authentically use the language to serve their purposes. In some other cases, a social context can also drive external motivation among learners to achieve their goals. An example includes a society in which a foreign language is necessarily needed for employability. Another element worth discussing is the role of a course curriculum. A good, adequate, and well-designed curriculum takes much effort, and it is not easy to develop one. Yet it is of significance to always have it to pave a right and appropriate path to achieve a real desired outcome. Moreover, to develop a responsive course curriculum, it takes many factors into account, and that includes all the matters mentioned above - teaching and teachers, learning and learning, and social context. In turn, a designed course curriculum affects all the above-mentioned characters. A course curriculum influences teachers and especially their teaching. Furthermore, it also impacts how the subject/language is learned and knowledge is structured. More importantly, a social context and a course curriculum are correlated. A social context influences how a course curriculum is designed and, of course, a course curriculum responds to the needs within the context, and it, to some extent, impacts the social context future to come.

References: 

Gilakjani, A. P. and N. B. Sabouri (2017). "Teachers’ Beliefs in English Language Teaching and Learning: A Review of the Literature." Canadian Center of Science and Education 10(4).

How Student Mobility Contributes to Realization of Sustainable Development Goals

Internationalisation in Higher Education (HE) is regarded as one driving force toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As mentioned by Mr. Vong Chorvy, director of International Relations Office (IRO) at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia during his interview with me “Why Internationsation Matters”, there is a strong linkage between the two following variables: Internationalisation in HE and the SDGs. In the context of internationalisation in HE, he stresses, more importantly, on the importance of students’ mobility. Students who have done their international exchange usually commit to contribute to community services and improve the society. This aspect of the return effects of student mobility encourages me to seek deeper understanding on more possible and potential opportunities that student mobility can offer to HE and especially the SDGs. Therefore, this paper intends to investigate mainly on the opportunities of student mobility for HE and the SDGs, taking Cambodia as a case study.

While the above main investigation question is set, other sub-focuses are also included to better understand the topic. This paper is organized by first (1) defining what student mobility in this context, (2) issues of student mobility, (3) contribution of student mobility to HE, (4) opportunities of student mobility on SDGs, and (5) discussion and recommendations.


I. Student Mobility

Student mobility is an important agent to drive internationalisation in HE. The European Parliament and Council (2006) regards international student mobility as the  process undertook by individuals or students of learning abroad in formal and non-formal programs with the purpose of acquiring broader knowledge and developing professional skills (Anna, 2014). In the Cambodian context and for this paper’s purpose, student mobility or exchange study program will be limited to the movement of students to attend or participate in degree- programs, non-degree semester study exchange programs, short courses, trainings, cultural exchanges, seminars and other conferences or meeting settings that are done outside of the country.


II. Issues of Student Mobility

While many students and the general believe that student mobility is important for students’ professional development and for the national development at large, the flow of student mobility is very limited in Cambodia. I conducted an informal discussion among university students in their freshmen year, there are a number of challenges that students see to pursue their mobility studies. Those issues include funding, information, assistance, ICT, language skills, culture and environment, confidence and health. I asked them to list three most challenging issues among mentioned issues and the majority agree on funding, information and ICT that require urgent addressing solutions.


III. Opportunities of Student Mobility for HE

Meanwhile, student mobility plays crucial roles in supporting HE. The European Union Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE), which implements its programs to support HE in ASEAN region, states that student mobility is of utmost importance to further foster “internationalization” and “harmonization” of HE. The European Parliament and Council (2006) also mentions the benefits of student mobility as a tool for European area to create “lifelong learning, promoting employment and reducing poverty, and to help promote active European citizenship.” In addition, the Second ASEAN Mobility Forum in Yangon, Myanmar discussed comprehensively during the ASEAN debate session to produce a student statement regarding the challenges, benefits and recommendations of student mobility in the region. The statement contributed by me as a head of the Cambodia student delegation and other heads of students’ organisations from all ASEAN countries mentions the contributions of student mobility to HE and those include (1) strengthening international credibility, (2) boosting international rankings through increased inbound students, (3) acquiring a more diverse student body, (4) gaining opportunities to improve its International Relations Office (IRO) capability and operations, (5) widening opportunities to increase academic cooperation and partnership with other higher education institutions, and (6) sharing and learning pedagogical methods with and from other institutions. These outcomes presented in the student statement reflect the opportunities of student mobility on HE Cambodia and ASEAN countries.


IV. Opportunities of Student Mobility for SDGs

The discussion on the relations between student mobility and SDGs is usually broad. HE plays an important part in realising the SDGs. Therefore, internationalisation by student mobility in any way effects how the HE contributes to the SDGs. Student mobility contributes to the increase of internationalisation which will further improve the education quality. As mentioned by Mr. Chorvy during his interview with me, student mobility requires partnership with not only HE but also other stakeholders internationally. This means student mobility directly and indirectly drives collaboration among intellectuals, universities as well as ministries and states to work beyond its own border to increase awareness of world issues and foster professional development to respond to issues and improve the world globally. The opportunities of student mobility on individuals are also great regarding their actions toward SDGs. My observation supports the above statement. Students who do their study mobility are greatly aware of social issues and actively engage and partner with all stakeholders, locally and globally, to solve challenges they are facing. As such, there are a number of student associations or NGOs formed by students who take the same or similar programmes. Some student alumni associations in Cambodia include SHARE Alumni Association of Cambodia, Erasmus Association, Fulbright and Undergraduate State Alumni Association of Cambodiato name a few and actively engage with the public to implement their projects to support their various purposes. Their activities support education empowerment, literacy and foreign language trainings, student mobility, poverty reduction, leadership, social-project trainings and volunteerism. In direct or in indirect ways, these actions do make impactful results on the SDGs at large.


V. Discussion and Recommendations

In the context of Cambodia, student mobility is generally viewed positively based on my observation. Students are encouraged to pursue their study in a foreign country as it is believed that it will help them discover the outside world and develop professional skills to respond to social changes. While student mobility is important for students and is demanded, there are a number of challenges students face when they want to study abroad. Funding is a great challenge for Cambodian students. Most students can go on mobility programmes by seeking international funding, for example scholarships provided by foreign countries or non-state actors. While funding for studying abroad is limited internally, information and ICT are also a problem for students. They find it difficult to access to information and to take opportunities because information is not widely spread to those in disadvantaged areas and because they have limited knowledge of using ICT to apply for funding and admission to study abroad.

As this paper argues, student mobility plays an important role in HE and the SDGs at large. The process of student mobility could be improved if the above mentioned issued are co- responsively solved. The contributions of student mobility to internationalisation in HE will further encourage HE to play a greater role in realising the SDGs.

This paper, therefore, provides the following recommendations after the evaluations of the options above. First, local funds should be more available for students who wish to continue their study in other countries. Second, universities should take a greater responsibility to raise awareness among students about the SDGs and support and initiate projects that are helping realising the goals. Furthermore, universities should cooperate with all stakeholders internationally to work on the SDGs through their internationalisation process, for example establishing joint SDGs projects or SDGs courses for international students. Last but not least, students should be more active in actions toward the SDGs’ realisation. The student alumni associations, for example, should take SDGs as one of its main focuses for their projects.

References: 
Anna W. (2014). International Student Mobility: Approaches, Challenges And Suggestions For Further Research. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814042785 

European Parliament and Council. (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on transnational mobility within the Community for education and training purposes: European Quality Charter for Mobility. Retrieved from http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:394:0005:0009:EN:PDF

SHARE. SHARE Scholarship. Retrieved from: https://www.share-asean.eu/activities/scholarship/about?_ga=2.97015903.1771495909.1556426536-466012259.1521564110 


Robert J. D. and Paul O. The Role of Education in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Empowering a Learning Society for Sustainability through Quality Education. Retrieved from https://pub.iges.or.jp/pub/role-education-sustainable-development-agenda 

Why Internationalisation Matters

Taking Action at the International Level

SDGs as a Catalyst to Reorient Internationalisation

International attentions and actions have been focusing on education as a mechanism to resolve challenges and to improve lives. With the global agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), education is regarded as a global integrated framework while it plays a significant role for realizing the other SDGs.

“Education serves as a means of implementation (MOI) that cuts across all of the SDGs and will support the overall achievement of the post-2015 development agenda, for which education is recognised as having one of the highest long-term returns on investment of all development goals,” Robert and Paul.
In a narrower context, internationalisation in education is significantly driven by universities. Internationalisation in university is viewed to optimise international opportunities and developments. To further understand internationalisation in university, this paper takes a case study of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, aiming to discuss about (1) the Purposes of university in internationalisation, (2) the Focuses or Policies of internationalisation, (3) the Benefits of internationalisation, and (4) the Relations between internationalisation in the university and the Sustainable Development Goals. The method of this study is an In-depth Interview with the director of the International Relations Office (IRO) of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).


I. Purposes of University in Internationalisation

RUPP is a flagship university of Cambodia, having the largest number of students. Not only is it a home for higher education to local students, but also to a number of exchange students. RUPP opens its doors for international mobility, which supports both inbound and outbound activities. Internationalisation is not new for the largest national university. The establishment of the International Relations Office (IRO) allowed to ease the process of internationalisation more than ever. The Director of IRO states that RUPP has clear and direct purposes for the internationalisation of the university. “First of all, we internationalise our institution to improve the quality of education,” said Mr. Vong Chorvy, director of IRO. He continues saying that “in that sense we are committing and assisting our students and staff to move to different places, conferences, and study programmes.” He mentions that the university aims to send students and staff to experience different life in different places and different study programs from different countries. “That is very important and that is what RUPP has been doing to provide the best assistance to our inbound and outbound students,” he said.


II. Focuses or Policies of Internationalisation: Students Mobility, Credit Transfer, Quality Assurance

RUPP regards internationalisation as one of the priorities among others. “The internationalisation in RUPP focuses on student and staff mobility, conference and joint research,” said Mr. Chorvy. RUPP aims to assist students and staff mobility by having MOU with different universities across the world, partnering with various programmes, such as EU-SHARE and Erasmus programmes. In addition, to improve the process of internationalisation in university, RUPP also actively participates in international conferences on student mobility, credit transfer system and quality assurance. The university also welcomes joint research programmes with different institutions.


III. The Benefits of Internationalisation: Students, Teachers and Community

Mr. Chorvy stresses the importance of internationalisation in university: “It helps students and staff being exposed to different study programmes and culture and it is very important that they bring back the knowledge from the world to refine and develop our education and community.” He mentions that “not only does our job [internationalisation] help our university to provide better quality of education, but it also helps students and staff to strengthen their knowledge and skills for future job opportunities and social contribution.” He implies that by having study mobility, students are equipped with better knowledge, social skills and culture understanding and that helps them to find jobs more easily, locally or abroad. At the university level, internationalisation allows the exchange of ideas, knowledge and skills that help university to provide better study programmes to the students. At the community level, internationalisation in university allows students and staff to see the possibility of networking, to initiate social projects, and to support the community.



IV. Relations between University Internationalisation and Sustainable Development Goals

When asked about the relations between internationalisation in university and the SDGs, Mr. Chorvy says there is a strong linkage between the two. “Education plays a vital role in supporting our basic daily life, responding to social and world change,” he explains. “SDGs are global commitments and those goals need global efforts. Internationalisation in university responds to the commitments because by internationalising our institution and boosting the mobility of our students and staff, we are partnering with others to see the problems and collaboratively find responsive solutions to reach our goal,” said Mr. Chorvy. He also mentions that education is important for achieving all of the other goals. If the university can produce quality education, it helps the citizens to respond to the problems effectively and if the university supports the students and staff to mobilise, it promotes students’ motivation, networks and cooperation that will turn into action to achieve all the goals.

Written by Uk Dararath, ACR7 participant from Cambodia

Reference
Robert J. D. and Paul O.  The Role of Education in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Empowering a Learning Society for Sustainability through Quality Education. Retrieved from https://pub.iges.or.jp/pub/role-education-sustainable-development-agenda

Interviewee
Mr. Vong Chorvy, a director of International Relations Office of Royal University of Phnom Penh

Cambodian Students to the Second ASEAN Mobility Forum in Yangon, Myanmar

Cambodian Students to the Second ASEAN Mobility Forum in Yangon, Myanmar

The Second ASEAN Student Mobility Forum was held on 28-29 August 2018 in Yangon, Myanmar, bringing 170 participants, 130 of whom were students. Cambodia sent five SHARE student alumni along with two International Relations Office staff from Royal University of Phnom Penh and one representative from Ministry of Education.

Photo: SHARE

The forum aims to “empower the participating students to positively influence the development of an ASEAN identity in all ASEAN countries, through mobility programmes that enable students to experience life and study in another country.” Plenary and Parallel sessions were run throughout the forum. Some significant plenary sessions included “How a Mobility Opportunity Has Changed Me” and “ASEAN Debate: the case for a mobility driven common higher education” and parallel session on “Why mobility” allowed students to raise their voices regarding specific topic of each session. 


Cambodian student delegation was enthusiastically active in contributing to the forum. The student delegates shared their mobility experiences, including challenges and opportunities that were received from their mobility during the first session of the forum; led the parallel discussion on Why Mobility: What’s in it for me?; and shared the outcomes from the parallel discussion to the forum. More importantly, Cambodian delegation participated in the ASEAN Debate: the case for a mobility driven common higher education to discuss on the Student Joint Statement.

Photo: SHARE

The roles of Cambodian student delegation were noticeably important for the forum. We brought concerns from Cambodian perspectives to be heard by experts and discussed altogether for solutions. We also contributed to the most important document of the forum, which is the Joint Student Statement that is to be submitted to the ASEAN Senior Official Meeting (SOMED) through ASEAN Secretariat. The Student Joint Statement was intensively drafted prior to and discussed during the debate session. The Joint Student Statement draft includes (1) the benefits of mobility in the ASEAN region, (2) the challenges of mobility in the ASEAN region and (3) recommendations. All the concerns in the statement are directed to three levels: (A) Students, (B) Higher Education Institutions and (C) National and Regional Bodies. 


The forum is important for students to raise their voices on matters of higher education and student mobility. To students, it is recommended that they be more active in contributing to higher education and student mobility through obtaining better knowledge and initiating and joining educational activities where their actions and voices can influence or make positive changes on the progress.

Photo: SHARE

Photo: SHARE

Photo: SHARE

Innovations in Education

From Teachers to Institutions on Innovations in Education

I. Introduction 

Picture from LiveMint

Innovations in education have been gotten attentions as the world is getting more advanced and globalized. Changes of societal trends including ways of living and working have pushed new adaptation and reformations on education over traditional teaching methods and learning objectives. Innovations in education have been studied extensively in accordance with the changes and demands of the society. With these regards, this particular study on innovations in education takes two articles for analysis of similar findings of innovations in education. 

1.1 Article Reviews  

The first article taken for this study is the report from European Expert Network on Economic of Education (EENEE). This report on Innovations in education for better skills and higher employability (Falch & Mang, 2015) explores the aspects of relations between innovations in education and the innovative capacity of the economy.  There are four parts of the focuses of the report, including innovation in teaching and learning, teachers on innovations, the roles of education to equip students with skills that respond to the workforce and its changes and governance for innovation and improvements in education. The key arguments in this report include, first, the introduction of the use of computer and e-learning as an innovative teaching method. As found ITC skills do not “universally increase” student achievement.  Second, teachers are one of the most important actors on the innovation in teaching methods. Third, institutions and policies on education, such as teacher train, decentralization of teacher recruitment and internationalization and engagement of education institution and stakeholders, increase innovation in education. 

Another article is on driving innovations in education of European Schoolnet (Durando, 2017). This article focuses on how far European Schoolnet, which is a network of 31 Ministries of Education from across Europe, leading educational innovation at European level, has provided the services in education and where it is going to promote educational innovation. The three main objectives of European Schoolnet are to give concrete confirmation and information in the innovative education, to help support schools and teachers in teacher training, and to introduce a school system that leads to creative teaching and learning styles. This article is structurally and chronologically organized into what had already been achieved throughout 20 years (1997-2017) of cooperation among the ministries within European Schoolnet, and what need to be achieved in the future. The past twenty-year achievements are described in seven stages, including the Creation of Policy Networking, the Initiation of School Network, the Interoperability, Digital Citizenship, Stem Education, Mainstreaming Education, and FCL - EUN Academy. For future actions, there are ten key education areas which focus on Digital citizenship, Skills and employment, Innovative teacher education, Assessment, Whole school change, School networking, Formal, non-formal and informal learning, Education technology, Pilot and demonstration projects, and Large-scale deployment. Likewise based on the ten above-mentioned key education areas, there are four future priorities which are sequentially identified to help students to be more active in modern society, to strengthen teachers’ ability, to provide a new environment for learning, and to increase innovative scale. 

1.2. Study Scope and Objectives

The two above articles are used abundantly for this study. This study focuses primarily on innovations that have been practiced. Therefore, arguments that are found similar in these two articles are taken for comparisons. The compressions provide insightful ways of critical understanding in innovations in education, what agents contribute to the innovations and how the innovations are linked to economic sectors.   

II. Innovations in Education 

2.1. Understanding Innovations 

The relations between education and economic development are generally viewed to have a strong connection. Education plays an important role in human resource development and it is a key sub-sector contributing to socio-economic development of each nation. The purpose of education is to some extent regarded as one of the most important actors in economic development. For instance, higher education in Cambodia provides students with knowledge and skills that help them contribute fully to national development and labor market needs; employment related-skills; and understanding of and positive attitude towards work and a capacity to manage and work effectively and harmoniously with others, according to Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Cambodia. 

According to the article we review, the role of education is to generate skills to equip with students who can correspond to the workforce (Falch & Mang, 2015). The article continues to explain that therefore educational sector should respond to the demands for different types of skills changes accordingly. It is suggested that innovations must be there for such responsibility. Innovation in this sense refers to the creation of new and improved products and new methods that make greater efficiency that is for economic growth. Innovation in education is the use of the new technology in education as well as the invention to improve learning, equity and system and to solve a real problem precisely (UNICEF, 2017). The concept and practices of innovation have been widely studied. The importance of innovations includes new emergence of ideas and the implementation of the ideas into practice. Serdyukov (2017) introduces three main phases of innovation which include an idea, its implementation and the outcomes. Innovations in education include many aspects including but not limit to teaching technique, institutional tools, learning process and institutional structure. “Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education must prepare a man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined,” said Drucker (cite in Cunningham, 2017). Obviously, through innovations, education can provide many productive paths and opportunities for its followers.  Therefore, innovations play a constructive role in pushing education to reach its effectiveness, for it brings about creativities and possibilities to improve not only learners and educators but also the institutions themselves as well as the society as the whole. Likewise, Koa (n.d), an author and advisor of innovation and organizational transformation, defines the word innovation as a set of abilities that enable the continuous realization of a desired future.  Therefore, innovations are forms of introductions of teaching methods, including the introduction of technologies and internet, and arrangement of curriculum that all of these aim to make best outcomes for teaching and learning that will produce skills for the workforce and for the responses to the changes in the innovative society.  

2.2. Innovations in Practices

2.2.1. Technology as the Innovations in Education

The first similarity which is found in the two above-mentioned picked-up articles is about technology as innovations in education. Through experiments, the first article shows how technologies create the new teaching methods. Being compared to the traditional teaching environment, the existence of computer as well as the internet in the classroom is seen as the most beneficial innovation for teaching and learning development. (The Economist, 2013). Particularly, internet and computer enables teachers and students to share knowledge effectively and efficiently through e-learning. Besides its negative impacts which will be described in the next following part, e-learning seems to be a new potential method in teaching and learning, for it gives opportunity for students to learn by their own pace and for teachers to interact with their pupils more easily. For instance, everyone can participate freely in one popular online course named Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in which students and teachers can communicate with each other. Computer and software also make students and teacher lives more convenient; for example, teachers can prepare and finish student tasks in the adjustable speed without any burdens, and based on Krueger and Rouse (2004) (Falch & Mang, 2015), students in US can improve their computer-based test through one software named “Fast ForWord”. Similarly, using the technology as pedagogical use in strengthening teaching and learning is the central purpose of European Schoolnet in the second article. In 2002, this network of education tends to establish the school networking activities through technological advancement for exchanging knowledge and learning resource. This network offers Future classroom Lab and MOOCs in order to link the technology and pedagogy closely and effectively. Doing this, it believes that every educator can interact and cooperate with one another easily in improving the productive process in education. 

2.2.2. Teachers on Innovations 

Teachers play a crucial role in innovations in classrooms. Teachers initiate new teaching methods and test in the classrooms. The two articles mention how important teachers are to innovate new teaching methods. Teachers are responsible for developing new pedagogical approach to support their teaching and student learning. The report by EENEE (Falch & Mang, 2015) mentions that teachers are responsible for learning environment in class. Teachers can initiate productive innovations inside classroom by coming up with ideas and then make experiment to test to see how it works. Teacher quality contributes to productive innovations as well. It is mentioned that teachers who graduate from a famous university and who get high scores on teacher license examinations, in additions to other factors, are more likely to introduce new innovations. High-quality teachers innovate concepts and test them and get the result to see how such innovations work, whether failure or succeed. “It is plausible that it is high quality teachers who are most judge what will be smart experimenting, and also able to bring the best knowledge and the most relevant evidence from experiences in other schools and other environments into the classroom,” (Falch & Mang, 2015). Innovations in teaching methods are important for productive learning outcome and require teachers to able to innovate.  

2.2.3. Innovations and Stakeholders 

Both articles reveal another important point in common, which is the relation between stakeholders and innovations. According to the report by EENEE, those who are considered as the stakeholders of innovative education are government, employers, and parents. Because of being carefully and endlessly observed by the government in term of quality of performance, each school needs to be alerted all the time about their teacher methods and student learning achievements. This can be a pressure for schools, but it is worthwhile for society and its people since students consequently leave schools with better qualitative skills to contribute to the workforce. Employers are also vital stakeholders for innovative education.  Due to changes the nature of workforce, students should have better skills to works in accordance with the changes. This might be a burden for schools in shaping and equipping their students with well-appreciated innovative tools and capacity. This requires school to innovate new innovations to deal with these requirements. Another necessary agent of stakeholders is parents. Parents contribute much in their children education. According to Jeynes’ surveys (2012) (cited in Falch & Mang, 2015), there is a noticeable positive relationship between students’ performance and parents’ involvements. Parents play a very important role in assisting their children at home. Schools conduct programs that can give advice to parents about how to help their children as well as receive parents. Not much different from the previous article, the second one also expresses that education has many stakeholders such as policy-makers, researchers, schools, teachers, students, industry opportunities. All of these are the causes that push education to produce innovative elements for adapting with every need.

2.2.4. Education and Employability 

Last but not least, the two articles share the same point of view regarding the relation between innovative education and the employability. It is stated in the first article that competition is functioning as the root of innovation, and innovation is catalyze of the economic growth. In education field, it also implies that when schools encounter the challenges, they come up with more efficient drives of innovation. As the result, students will be capable enough to compete with the social barriers and have a better skill which can lead to a well-appreciated employment. Likewise, the second article focuses on the connection between STEM and its related careers, which that is also found in the first article. European Schoolnet aims to promote STEM education in all schools in Europe, which is one of the strategic initiatives because it is believed that this innovative subject can provide students with a variety of careers in society. Occupations within the STEM field are mostly digital skills and paid with the high salary, which can push the economy to thrive dramatically and consequently improve the living standard of citizens. Beside encouraging students to be interested in STEM studies, schools also need to provide a service of sharing the information and guidance on job opportunity, which is considered as the new effective method in strengthening the link between skills and employment.

III. Conclusion

To sum up, innovations in educations are critically important to drive the development. Innovations are needed to adopt to the changes and/or to make changes in society. The two above articles have four major findings in common, including the technology as the innovation in education, the relations between teachers and innovations, the importance of stakeholders and innovative education and the linkage between innovations and employments. 

Having been through these similarities, this study eventually provides the worthwhile knowledge and insightful ways to view on the innovations. Policy-makers schools, teachers, and other stakeholders are among important actors who are responsible for innovations. The study also find out that the purposes of innovations in education are critically important in this contemporary education system. While traditional education remains important, reformation of the traditional way of education and adaptation to new innovations are an utmost importance. Another important aspect of implication is that innovations take time since it involves experiments and results can be either positive or negative. It requires patience for stakeholders to hold in order to make innovations which are useful for productive outcomes. Throughout the study, teachers have an important position making innovations for teaching methods that is to increase learning outcomes and to respond to the workforce. 

Authors: 

Uk Dararath  and Som Kuthea

References
Cunningham, J., (2017). The Wisest Philosopher in Business: Peter Drucker. https://thunderbird.asu.edu/Knowledge-network/the-wisest-philosopher-in-business

Durando, M., (2017). Driving Innovation in Education. How far we have come and where we are going. European Schoolnet, Brussels.  www.eun.org/documents/411753/817341/Driving_Innovation.pdf/ 

Falc, T. and Mang, C., (2015). Innovations in education for better skills and higher employability. www.svt.ntnu.no/iso/Torberg.Falch/Articles/EENEE_AR23.pdf 

Koa, J., (n.d). Education in The Age of Innovation. http://johnkao.com/education-in-the-age-of-innovation/

Serdyukov, P., (2017) "Innovation in education: what works, what doesn’t, and what to do about it?", Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIT-10-2016-0007 

UNICEF, (2017). Innovation in education. https://www.unicef.org/education/bege_73537.html