Thursday November 9, 2023 – Khon Kaen University carried out the “Education Transformation” Project to answer the society needs. The event, held at the Salil Hotel Riverside, Bangkok, was participated by Dr. Narongchai Akrasanee, Chairman of the Khon Kaen University, Assoc. Prof. Charnchai Panthongviriyakul, M.D., President of Khon Kaen University; members of the University Council, administrators, deans, vice deans and some lecturers of Khon Kaen University.
Assoc. Prof. Charnchai Panthongviriyakul, M.D., President of Khon Kaen University, said that on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Khon Kaen University and with the dedication to transform education for launching quality graduates to the community, who possess the quality and skills of the future, it was an honor of Khon Kaen University to welcome distinguished speakers from the United States, Singapore, and Finland, who were sharing their experiences and creative ideas that would assist KKU towards the transformation of education in different fields, namely, health sciences, technological sciences and humanities and social sciences.
Dr. Narongchai Akrasanee, Chairman of the Khon Kaen University, gave a special talk from the perspective of economics that if we base ourselves on economic thinking strategy, then the market of the university has two key parts: giving the degree certificate to learners and producing bodies of knowledge from research work. Both parts consist of 3 major objectives: building confidence, demonstrating acceptance, and real utilization. However, if we look through the mechanisms of demand and supply, then each university holds different characteristics of products, as we can see from University of Helsinki, Harvard University, Nanyang Technological University. Therefore, the university has the roles to develop in time with the changes of the social context, learners’ needs and future scenario; just like what Khon Kaen University was learning from this seminar.
The event also featured a forum on Education Transformation: challenges and opportunities is a rapidly changing world, led by world-class distinguished speakers: Dr. Edward Hundert, Dean for Medical Education, Harvard Medical School, USA; Dr. Preman Rajalingam, Director, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Pedagogy (CTLP), Institute of Pedagogical Innovation, Research and Excellence (InsPIRE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Dr. Hannele Niemi, Research Director, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Each distinguished speaker also gave a talk each: Dr. Edward Hundert on “New Paradigms in Health Sciences Education”; Dr. Preman Rajalingam on “Introducing and Sustaining Collaborative Learning on a Large-Scale”; and Dr. Hannele Niemi on “Active and Meaningful Learning for the Future Global World – The mission of Humanities and Social Sciences.
After the special talks in the first day, Assoc. Prof. Issara Kanjuk, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Education, one of the participants, said that today he learned from experts from 3 continents. Each has the context that demonstrates how to transform and manage education, from the philosophy and skills of the future, to connection between science and social science. This also corresponds to the context of Khon Kaen University.
“The Faculty of Education, with the role to support the national education, is prepared to drive forward Education Transformation. Now, we have to leap ahead, for we’ve been under the prelim stage for too long. We are now ready from what we’ve learned so far, and we have opened a new program called “Future of Teacher”, which will instill teachers with the spirit of teachers and at the same time will encourage them to use technology, especially AI. We’re also proceeding to integrate programs with other faculties that will principally emphasize people so that teachers graduated from KKU will meet the situation of the future world.”
On November 10, 2023, there was the brain storming activities on education transformation and ‘how-to’-based problem solution. In this session, the participants were divided into three groups according to their fields – health sciences, sciences and technologies, and humanities and social sciences. They also had a chance to learn and share from the expert guest speakers.
News: Panit Khatnak
