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Seeing is believing! In journalism, an image or picture can be so powerful that it can change the world! Jonathan Klein in his TED talk (below) says that images themselves don't change the world but the images have provoked reactions in people, and those reactions have caused change to happen. The image can have a profound impact on our mind and can change our perception on certain issue and how we view things around us. Good image (photo) tells a visual narrative – it tells a story. A photograph has the ability to convey emotion, mood, narrative, ideas and messages – all of which are important elements of storytelling. In another TED talk “ Photography Connects Us with the World ”, David Griffin says, “ photography carries a power that holds up under the relentless swirl of today's saturated media world, because photographs emulate the way that our mind freezes a significant moment ”. There’s a problem, though, a picture can also be deceiving! People will interpret pictures ...

Do you know how MSG (monosodium glutamate, a common flavor enhancer added to food) was discovered? Do you know we can produce sugar from starch – any starch? Do you know the history of food canning? Do you know that everything flows, even the mountain – if we wait long enough? Do you know…OK, let me tell you an interesting story…here goes... I like stories and I think students of all ages also love stories. In fact, one of the classroom techniques that I personally have found most rewarding is the anecdotal and storytelling. Science is full of interesting stories and anecdotes that can spice up and enlighten ordinary lecture/presentation into a memorable one. So whenever possible, I like to start my lecture or presentation by asking question or telling story and anecdotes. Judging from students’ response and facial expression, I would say that most of the time (perhaps all the time) the students enjoy listening to the story. From my experience, every time when I tell a story or anecdot...

Why am I writing about sleep? Well, no obvious reason. As usual, I stumbled upon a short clip " The Power of Sleep " on CBS website. Another interesting clip, also on sleep, has an interesting title, " How to succeed - Get more Sleep ". Actually I've been reading my student's doctoral (Ph.D.) thesis for the past few days. Nowadays my mind get tired easily, perhaps because it's constantly being fed with reading too much of technical things. Reading critically can really drain my energy, not to mention my eyes - and the strain on the neck, back... So how do I deal with the stress? More readings...and listening! This is my escapism, or...hmmm...shall I say, my recreational activity! I like to read blog, mainly educational blog (read this article: 10 reasons to get educators blogging ). I have a long list of websites and blogs in my browser's bookmark.I also subscribe via RSS feed (I'm using iGoogle and Pageflakes). Now I'm rebuild...

" I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think " – Socrates " I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn " – A. Einstein In the quest to explore and probe how teaching-learning practice is best approached, I read with great interest the long (14 pages) article written by Barr & Tagg, “ From Teaching to Learning – A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Teaching ” which was published about 15 years ago. I was interested to get hold of the original article because it is often cited in many discussions (article/book) on student-centered learning vs teacher-centered practice. Basically in the article they compared the traditional “Instruction Paradigm” and the emerging “Learning Paradigm”. The terms are equivalent to “teacher-centered” and “student/learner-centered” that are more prevalent in the contemporary literatures. Barr & Tagg argued that the purpose of teaching institution (schools, colleges, univers...

“ Great teachers maximize the opportunities for students to learn, but even the greatest teachers cannot guarantee learning. The final outcome of what is learned in any course will always be the students’ responsibility ” – Terry Doyle, Helping Students Learn in a Student-Centered Environment . Maximizing the opportunities – that’s the keyword – and the key to good teaching. “ I choose the word opportunities because that is all any teacher can provide for his or her students ”, writes Doyle in his book (page 4). This reminds me of this idiom, “ you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink ”. I truly agree with his view on providing the environment to create learning opportunities that optimize students’ learning. Teachers are not only responsible to teach content but also responsible to create opportunities for students to “ learn how to learn ”. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon put it this way: ‘‘ The meaning of knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeat i...

This presentation is a summary of important points from the first chapter of the book " How Learning Works - 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching " by Ambrose and others. In Chapter 1 ( How Does Students' Prior Knowledge Affect Their Learning ) the authors discuss the importance of teachers to recognize that students bring with them prior knowledge acquired naturally through daily life activities or in prior courses they have studied. Some of the prior knowledge are relevant but some are not directly relevant. Sometimes students have misconception or inaccurate understanding of certain key principles or concepts. The authors emphasized the importance of connecting the prior knowledge with the new knowledge in order for effective learning to take place. This connection can be achieved by activating the prior knowledge at appropriate time during the learning process. I have summarized part of Chapter 1 in the presentation below (in two parts). Each part of the pre...

Picture source: Flickr " Education is a human right with immense power to reform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.... there is no higher priority, no mission more important, than that of Education for All " -- (Kofi Annan, 1998) " ....essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy and problem solving) and the basic learning content (knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions and to continue learning " -- (World Declaration on Education for All 1990). Nearly one quarter of the world's population live in extreme poverty, on less than the equivalent of US$ 1 per day. 70% of these people are women. 39% of the 1.3 billion people live in South Asia, 34% in East Asia and the ...

“ When it comes to teaching, most of us are still learning. Teaching is a complex activity, and yet most of us have not received formal training in pedagogy. Furthermore, teaching is a highly contextualized activity because it is shaped by the students we have, advancements in our respective fields, changes in technology, and so on. Therefore, our teaching must constantly adapt to changing parameters ” -- Ambrose et al., 2010, How Learning Works . Constructivism, behaviorism, pedagody, andragogy, Bloom Taxonomy, student-centered learning...?? I must humbly admit that, after more than 16 years teaching, I didn’t know much about the various learning theories and pedagogical aspects of teaching-learning. I’m not trained as a teacher – I’m a food technologist. My only experience in teaching was teaching my friends and a short stint teaching in a private school (secondary level). Soon after I completed my Ph.D. in Food Technology, I came back and joined the university as a lecturer – and I ...

" If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around " – Jim Rohn . " The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn " - John Lubbock . In the TED talks, Shukla Bose tells the story of educating the poor in India’s slums through her groundbreaking Parikrma Humanity Foundation which brings education to the deprived group. As Bose puts it, the goal of the foundation is to help build a better India by tapping its greatest strength: the vitality and potential of its people. " Education of children is at the core of our aim to transform poor communities into self-sustaining, contributing communities , says Bose.  The vision is to see every street and slum child gets the opportunity and access to education. S he adds " We also believe that it's the content that is more important…it's not the infras...

" There are places on Earth, in every country where, for various reasons, good schools cannot be built and good teachers cannot or do not want to go. And those places, as it turns out, is often where trouble comes from " – Sugata Mitra . The title of this posting is taken from the “Hole-in-the-Wall” website . Hole-in-the-Wall is a famous experiment conducted in 1999 by Professor Sugata Mitra and his research in a slum area in New Dehli, India to prove that kids (in this case deprived kids) could teach themselves and learn on their own without any formal training. In this experiment, a computer was embedded in a wall and connected to high speed internet and left it there. True enough, curious children were immediately crowded around the computer and “playing” with it. Within hours and without instruction, children began browsing the Web. "I repeated the experiment across India and noticed that children will learn to do what they want to learn to do", said Mitra. Fol...

It's a 9.5 min video but worth watching and listening. I must admit that I'm inspired by his dedication to teaching. Some excerpt from his talk: " Teaching has always been one of the greatest and most satisfying experiences in my life. Through the wonders of teaching we can reveal the hidden beauty to our students. Knowledge does not narrow, knowledge only adds...and without knowledge many experience in life remain very narrow and very shallow - and that include the appreciation for art ".

 " If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow " -- John Dewey. Much has been written about integrating technology into a classroom. The question that is usually asked is, is it really necessary - is it really useful? In my opinion, the traditional approach of chalk and board still has its place but I strongly believe that educational technology could offer myriad of pedagogical benefits. Technology today, in various forms, have grown tremendously and have permeated all areas of our lives. Similarly, students today are connected in ways that previous generations could never have imagined and this has a direct implication on how they learn and impacted on how teachers teach in a classroom. So it makes sense to connect with our students in ways they already familiar. It is incomprehensible if educators today are still reluctant to use technology in teaching and learning activities or still perceive technology negatively. Of course, as...

Aha...I stumbled upon this tool called Voki - it offers a free speaking avatar. Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages. To hear the message, simply click on the arrow in the frame below. Here's  an article  describing how avatar can be used in education. Get a Voki now!

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow – Woodrow Wilson . Embarking on a new research project is very much like getting into unknown or unfamiliar territory. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is to carry out a proper and thorough background research. This will help you to become more familiar with your topic and introduce you to any other research which will be of benefit to you when you begin your own project. To do that efficiently, you need a plan. If you plunge into any available sources on your topic, you risk losing yourself in an endless trail of books and articles! What is “literature”? It can be defined as a collection of all the scholarly writings on a topic (Fink, 1998). To put it simply, literature is about telling a story, sort of an interconnected chain story where each writer starts with a partial story created previously by others and expand on it…the existing literature is the story so far…So, doing a literature review is basically...

I presented this topic recently in a Postgraduate Colloquium organised by the School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia (Penang, Malaysia). The participants were largely new graduate students but there were also some senior students. Briefly I covered the common issues, elements, roles, and stages of development associated with supervision along with practical strategies for nurturing rewarding relationships with graduate students. Supervision of graduate students is a challenging journey that the supervisor (advisor) and the student embark on together. It includes not only academic guidance, but also prolonged nurturing of the student's personal, scholarly, and professional development. From my perspective as a supervisor, the experience of supervising graduate students is doubtless very challenging but also very rewarding. Watching a fresh graduate become an independent scholar, plan the project, execute the plan with care and thoughtfulness, write up the results and presen...