The  6^th Session of IPAT module  was specialized to the Learning Environment and it’s roll in the learning process. We discussed more aspects of the concept which are affects the quality of learning in the class and the around of school.

The term learning environment can refer to an educational approach, cultural context, or physical setting in which teaching and learning occur. Effective learning environments do not limit themselves to time or space, but comprise a variety of support systems that take into consideration the ways in which we learn best as well as the unique learning needs of each student.

 Learning environments today need to embrace the variety of places, ideas, and people that the modern world demands and reflect a flexibility of space, time, people, and technology.

 

A positive learning environment is one of the most critical components of a skills-based health education classroom. A positive learning environment is created when you value participatory teaching and learning and when there is trust and rapport among students and between yourself and students. To establish trust that leads to true participation and engagement in learning, you first need to set the stage by establishing a learning environment in which all students feel valued, safe, and supported.

Creating a positive learning environment begins with the teacher's self-reflection, continues with planning, and then is ongoing and dynamic during the implementation of the curriculum. Maintaining a positive learning environment is a work in progress - you must always consider how to maintain a positive learning environment and must be thoughtful about how the learning environment is perceived by students.

Assessment tools, 

- 7^th Session was he initial lesson of the theme of assessment tools, In this session we learned that how we should begin the assessment and how we should end it. 

- Assessment tools are techniques used to measure a student’s academic abilities, fluency and skills in a specific subject or to measure one’s progress toward academic proficiency in a specific subject area.

- Assessment tools refer to learning methods educators use to make informed decisions regarding strategies to enhance student learning. This helps determine if learning interventions are needed to ensure student success.

- Assessments can be either formal or informal. Informal assessments are often inferences an educator draws as a function of unsystematic observations of a student’s performance in the subject matter under consideration. Formal assessments are objective measurements of a student’s abilities, skills, and fluency using screening, progress monitoring, diagnosis, or evaluation. Both types of assessments are important

- Educators use assessment tools to make informed decisions regarding strategies to enhance student learning.

Why do we assess?

1.To find out what students are learning. An important reason to assess student learning is to find out how well students are learning what we say we are teaching—to what degree are they accomplishing the learning outcomes we hold for them. Information from assessments can tell instructors, programs, and institutions if they need to make changes in what they teach or how they teach it.

2. To talk about what is important to learn. The process of developing assessment plans, assessment tasks, and scoring rubrics also provides an opportunity for discussion among faculty, staff, and students about what is important to learn.

3.To improve, improve, improve. Ongoing assessment of student learning allows us to engage in continuous quality improvement of our programs. Even when our evidence shows that students are doing well and achieving the desired learning outcomes, we can always do better.

4.To demonstrate accountability. Finally, we also assess student learning because, for better or worse, we are often required to provide evidence that students are gaining value from the experiences we provide. Parents, governing boards, lawmakers and students themselves increasingly want to know what students learn from our programs

How to Assess Students' Learning and Performance

·  Creating assignments.

·  Creating exams.

·  Using classroom assessment techniques.

·  Using concept maps.

·  Using concept tests.

·  Assessing group work.

·  Creating and using rubrics.

-  8^th Session was about Assessment methods/Tools

·  Direct Assessment

1. Written Work
 2. Portfolios of student work 

3. Visual or audio recording of oral presentations or performances with self, peer, and or instructor evaluations using a rubric; may include recordings of subsequent performances to document improvements
4. Capstone Projects
5.Field or service learning projects
6. Performance on in-class tests (or portion of a larger exam), assuming they are valid, reliable and objective
7. Presentations
 · Indirect Assessment 
1. Surveys
· Surveys can reveal your students’ attitudes and opinions about what they learned, which may also help you evaluate your outcomes.
2. Course Evaluations that you create to garner specific information from students
3. Curriculum and Syllabus Analysis
4. External Reviewers
In the same session we learned some knowledge about guidelines and the rubric for assessment. So at the end of the session Mr. Miran gave as assignment on the session. The assignment was as the following.
Make a 15 to 20 minute presentation
 Section One
 Imagine that you are going to use the specified teaching method in section two based on your group.
 • how  you explore it with your student , provide
 the guide line to you student ( For example , lab experimentation need a lab sheet, what info should contain on the lab sheet, how you organize it  , Graduation project need a Final report, what info  show be on the report )
 •Design a detailed rubric about how you assess the final work ( report, presentation , result , etc  …)
 
 Section Two
 G1  Lab Experimentation
 G2  Case Study
 G3  Oral Presentation
 G4  Filed Trip
 G5  Graduation Project
 G6  Project based Learning
 G7  Problem based Learning

Parya Omer Ali

Name of module: Edupreneurship  

This module was managed by Dr. Karwan ali and Mr. Miran Hama Rahim from (1 September to 27 September) 2021

The beginning of the lectures was about what the meaning of edupreneurship is and what we understand from the word of edupreneurship. And then our teachers describe the module contents as:

* Module description

* Teaching themes

1.    Market oriented education

2.    Intellectual capital and innovation management

3.    Leadership and interpersonal skills

 Before starting the modules, we will introduce the concept of Edupreneurship, based on the Finnish understanding Entrepreneurship education, is the combination of enterprise and entrepreneurship education. In the most simplistic terms, Edupreneurship is about creating or building learning capacity, and it is about driving change and reform. Edupreneurship can mean building unique learning programs, developing e-learning software and apps, or even getting involved in the gamification of learning a particular content area.

The ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. (John A.shedd)

The first theme started with this beautiful sentence of John Shedd. that attracted my attention.

The theme consists of following content:

-   Verbal communications:
Verbal communications is any communication that uses language to convey meaning. It can include oral communication, such as speaking to another person over the telephone, face-to-face discussions, interviews, debates, presentations and so on.
there four types of Verbal communication: (intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, small group communication, public communication)

Intrapersonal Communication
Intrapersonal communication is when the receiver and the sender of verbal communication are the same person. Speaking to yourself is intrapersonal communication. Silent thoughts is also considered intrapersonal communication even though no words are physically pronounced. 

Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication occurs between two people, it is a one-to-one situation. Examples are a casual conversation, a job interview or a phone call. 

Small Group Communication
Small group communication is when there are more than two people involved in the exchange of information. As the term mentions, small group communications is not the verbal communication between large groups but rather small groups of people. 

Public Communication
Public communication is when an individual or groups of people project verbal information to a large group. Examples of this form of verbal communication are large seminars, a news report on television and a speech in front of a large crowd of people.

-   Presentation and its types as ( providing information, teaching a skill, reporting progress, selling a product or service, making a decision and solving a problem)
In my opinion the most important issue of this theme was verbal communications. Verbal communication is the use of words to share information with other people. It can therefore include both spoken and written communication. In this lecture we talk about our experiences with first impression and also we discuss about the first minutes of speaking and why it is very important.

A good presentation comprises of: Context, method, presenter, message, audience, impediments. I think that presenter have a great role in a presentation by points such as well prepared, clothes, voice, body language as facial expression, gesture and eye contact.

The second theme was about market oriented education that refers to the relationship between education and career in all fields. Market oriented education should become a central principle for the academic institution in Kurdistan and it is one important aspect of bologna process that allows student to tackle opportunities through project based learning and independent work. 

In this lesson, I better understand the meaning of Edupreneurship that it is practice of entrepreneurship in the education sector.

Entrepreneurs can cultivate this skill and remain curious inventors and innovators who are not afraid to take risks and question societal norms.

Entrepreneurial skills are ( creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, entrepreneurial mindset. And also we discuss about who is the entrepreneur that is the key element in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. In answer to this question, we can say that someone is a entrepreneur that who:

-         Can take risks

-         Has ability to work hard

-         Feels the need for achievement

-         Has desire for responsibility

-         Has some financial strength

-         Seeks for opportunity

-         May have previous experience

-         Has desire for independency

 

Actually before I took this class I was assuming entrepreneurs have very different personal traits than me, obviously I was wrong. There were points that I realized being an entrepreneur is not an impossible thing to do.

Another important issue that was raised for us was marketing orientation that means the resources of the company are directed toward meeting the wants and needs of the customer. Some characteristics of market oriented management are ( universities are required to generate additional revenues from market, enable transaction between academicians and market users, both students and corporate clients require quality teaching and research output, administration should be to support teachers and not to control them, universities must pay more attention to improve their efficiencies , and ….)

About disadvantages of market oriented education I can say that most obvious disadvantages are: some universities may sell their education programs by lowering the quality of education in order to generate more revenue. Also vicious competition among institutes lures students by giving colorful advertisements, hiding their shortcomings and the courses offered by them. Another point that is important is that as profit motive is a breeding ground for adding new capacity, institutes start building additional capacities and compete with one another.

As final words on marketing, you need to reach out to your customers; you need to think like your customers.

Finally last theme was about intellectual capital and innovation management. In this lecture I understand means of intellectual capital that is term given to the combined intangible assets which enable the company to function. Ability, skill, expertise, and other forms of knowledge that are useful in organizations. Major categories of intellectual capital are:

-         Human capital

-         Structural capital 

-         Relational capital

Human capital is the individual level knowledge, such as professional skills, experience, and innovativeness that each employee possesses. Results of having higher human capital are: increase organizational performance and success, strategic renewal, source of creativity and innovation, positive effects on financial performance.

Structural capital is the sum of all assets that make the creative ability of the organization possible. And its categories are: culture, knowledge based infrastructure, intellectual property, processes, working systems and routines, and organization path.

Relational Capital is a sub category of intellectual capital focusing on the intangible value present in the relations an organization has with business partners and other external parties that contribute to fulfill the company's needs, and also includes elements like corporate reputation and customer potential. By this concept we can say relational capital has stablished with its stakeholder groups such as customers, suppliers, the community and the government.

Customer capital is the main determinant in the conversion of intellectual capital into market value, acting as a bridge and catalyst on the operations of intellectual capital. Some important measuring relational capital are (customer complaint, customer satisfaction, customer retention rate, customer database, customers need identifying).

Finally , I want to say I have never expected taking this course will change my look on teaching this much. Surprisingly this course was one of the lives changing moments for me. 

Thank you so much dears Dr.Karwan and M.Miran for your help, we really appreciate it.

 

Parya Omer Ali