Internationalization at Heart (I@H)

A very good Monday morning to start the first day of the week and month ka!

Last week, I had a great opportunity to go to a faculty of economics and learn about its internationalization process (IZN).

One professor repeated a few times that the faculty is internationalized and sort of annoyed, saying that documents were far too often required without necessity. He said change was fast and the faculty couldn't possibly put everything down in writing as some processes would have to go through a series of meetings and decisions, which were far more important than written records.

I couldn't agree more and empathized with him as well as many others working on quality assurance. We've come too far to think of formerly important requirements for universities to think about systems and mechanisms. However, after almost 2 decades, some in our university community are still scared and it has become their habits to think that assessments of all types require many documents as proof of evidence. We can now do much less than before!

For me, I think some form of KM could help see the overall thinking and actions to be good lessons learned for them and others as well. Records are needed on crucial issues and each university/faculty has to identify them on their own.

The administrators there cited many activities as their evidence. He even invited some staff and students for us to talk with.....it seemed like taking on an assessment exercise:)) and I was amused at my learning atmosphere dee ka.

After over an hour's discussion stressing purely on IZN, I concluded in my mind that this faculty is very internationalized in its own way through continuous efforts carrying out key elements of IZN from commitment of the administrators, exchange of quality international faculty (seems a lot more on the inbound!), meaningful MOUs to serve the faculty's objectives and its capabilities, to sustainable networking to high quality of students (both domestic and foreign) in its graduate programs.

Definitely, there're lots of room for improvements and gaps to be filled. What may need to be done first is to map its IZN process to come up with some specific systems the administrators, ajarns, and staff have been using! They can proceed even more systematically and speedily.

When the world is calling more loudly for Internationalization at Home (IaH) for domestic students to benefit from IZN, this faculty has introduced to us, 'Internationalization at Heart (I@H) as the more they shared what they've been doing, the more I realized how IZN has been embedded in their hearts (well-deployed to be in their culture or not.....need to probe further ka!)

I left with a happy heart ka!

Education for Sustainable Development

Good morning to a special Monday which is so nice and cool kaaaa!

I was a speaker the other day and like most of the invitations, I had an opportunity to listen to the keynote speaker, Assoc. Prof. Yuto Kitamura, from University of Tokyo and a Fulbright alum:))!who talked about 'Education for Sustainable Development'.

Here are what I'd like to share ka:

- Sustainability is our common future with development that meets the needs of the present while safeguarding Earth's life-support system, on which the welfare of the current and future generations depends.

Having some common definition to work on is to ensure mutual understanding and easier implementation ka. I also think that this newly defined meaning only highlights several same issues about how human beings treat the earth, how much our awareness is, how serious our intention and implementation are to protect the earth, and how much we care of our future generations ka.

We seem to know them all but not having true sense of urgency to take enough serious actions ka.

I then think of competitions and a sharper sense of competitiveness with the race to be better economically, the careless urge for more convenient and comfortable living, etc. All could make us off balance about the nature and our existence! Sufficiency economy and Buddha's teaching about the middle path popped up right away loei la ka.

- Links of development have to be made and so transdisciplinary approach is called for, engaging stakeholders in our respective disciplines to share and learn while working with people across the disciplines becomes an integral part.

It led me to the term I coined, 'Lintegration'-- Link+ Integration ka...link disciplines to digest knowledge and experiences to further develop our own discipline and look beyond it.

- According to one Oxford University study, 40% of today's jobs will disappear in 2040.

What have we been trying to teach and offer to the students will be relevant and practical for them and their kids? If we stress on QA mainly the paperwork/report  to fulfill rules and laws and to pass, are we going anywhere close to further improvement and development?

Unesco Director of Unesco Bkk put in his presentation, 'needs to be transformative changes in education,'

- University of Tokyo has seriously promoted 'Active Learning' using diverse modes of teaching and learning, e.g. student participation, PBL, and collaborative studies, etc. and for faculty members to be more of the supporters. It is hoped that the process will enhance analytical skills with more assessment and evaluation to get synthesis as the output.

It also widely introduces active learning in both liberal arts and specialized/professional education, as well as in international programs.

To make sure that the faculty in specialized/ professional areas have more time to offer their content, the University of Tokyo has implemented a project called, 'Plus 15'; adding 15 minutes to each of the session so the lecturers have more time to engage students in the active learning. Positive feedback has been given.

I came up with several questions ka:

A few universities and faculty members in Thailand may say that they've already used active learning....the answer contains the traditional 'yes' of QA to show that I too have done it?!?! Time to think more of the real systematic process to see results planned lae ka!

Would 'Plus 15' approach work in our universities? Would our faculty agree? Would our students be eager to try it with curiosity how they can increase their learning experiences?

For international programs, gaps remain to be around language proficiency and knowledge gaps of diverse groups.

- Learning outcomes should not be assessed by a satisfactory level of students but what they actually learn so self-report is what the University of Tokyo has been using. They also encourage more international experiences -- struck my passion loei!

One and a half hours ignited so many thoughts and more thoughts of what I can add or do in my own passion to promote internationalization ka.

gifts of giving

The past week was a real ‘gift of giving’ ka.

The first was my 4-day trip, covering a few provinces in the north! This is one of the highlights ka:

In Prae, we were allowed to visit Khun Narongchai Prasertsak’s personal museum. A specially guided tour led me to learn more about our own treasures from so many valuable collections, including his designs of textiles that have been awarded/recognized nationally and internationally ka. It was a great blend of the old times and today's competitions. It also reminded me of our slower pace of the past when people were more relaxed and when ‘namjai’(kindness) was so common to get from people on a daily basis! We've lost while gaining from the modernity too!

The tour ended with a very nice afternoon tea with some chill time to enjoy talking with the host about his thinking about life!

I liked it most when he said,’ Giving is his happiness!’ as he has his freedom to do and design what he wants so it is now best to feel great from giving ka.

He gave each of the nine of us a kilo of washed ‘พุทราดอย’ (wild monkey apple).

All of us even our friends who have known him quite well felt real ‘grengjai’ (feeling like troubling someone too much despite the person’s willingness or years of friendship!).

Personally, besides the learning and feeling of grengjai, he showed the real meaning of ‘giving’ ka. When he opened his museum and home with his open arms, he gave the best to the guests. The ready-to-eat fruit was given because it was in season and he wanted us to enjoy it while we were on the road.

The whole afternoon was one of the precious gifts I received from this trip ka.

The second was a different type of ‘gift of giving’ the past Saturday.

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan asked me if I could help organize a session about scholarships for the so-called, ‘The Honor Society’, which is a gathering of Muslims to maximize learning in many aspects. He told me he’d like them to be inspired so they make efforts to learn the English language as the first step to then apply for a scholarship and see more of the world.

The program was crafted for the participants to realize that language proficiency offers more than just higher levels of studies as we could use it to sharpen our minds, to learn cross-culturally, and to care for and help many more people across cultures.

Thanks to my panelists who did a superb job ka. The first from the Australian Embassy shared with the audience what grants are available while the second who is a Thai-Muslim talked about his time in the US for his one-year exchange under the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (administered by Fulbright Thailand), and the third told her story how she could get some grants after decades of work. The four of us had an informal talk and invited questions or suggestions.

When asked what keywords they got from the session, some of the answers were, ‘opportunities’, ‘from border to borderless’ (a speaker’s topic), or ‘change before you have to!’(Jack Welch’s quote that I used!), etc.

Dr. Surin ended the afternoon with one small panel for the audience to learn from direct experiences of two Muslims, one is a medical doctor graduated from Istanbul University and the other is working under ‘Teach for Thailand’. Dr. Surin’s effort, along with his Muslim friends, was definitely admirable for our younger generations to have increased passion and positive contribution to the development of our country ka.

Our session turned out to be quite inspirational as a good number came to ask more questions or to express their thanks to us!

I could pay it forward after I’ve got many, including the most recent from Khun Narongchai.

My heart was filled with gifts of giving!

What a computer science graduate could do?

I have a little story to share again ka.

The other evening, I was invited to have a delicious dinner at a fancy French restaurant. My curious me started to work after my tummy was filled:))!

I asked a waitress (who earlier on was a receptionist to lead us to our table) if her background was in hotel and  hospitality. She said it was a big change for her as she was a computer science graduate. Too bad I didn't ask further what drew her into it in the first place but I asked her what made her feel happy in this job. She said when a customer asked her to mix the second drink. It led me to think of the cruise ship jobs as bartenders are in high demand. She said she wasn't brave enough while some of her friends do enter this industry.

What did I think about the conversation?

First, what exactly is this computer science graduate's position at this restaurant? A receptionist, a waitress, or a mixologist!?! She did all three from what I saw and seemed to enjoy it as well.

The restaurant has a 30-minute training daily for all about the food and how to explain each of them ka....didn't get to ask about other functions, though!

Second, was her reluctance to get a cruise ship job due to language proficiency and courage to explore the world? If yes, what does it mean?

Third, would we consider it a waste for her to change her career from technical to mainly service? Would the weight be given to life preference as the first choice? Would it mean kids need to have better guidance from the younger age? Would it be possible to stress the ability to apply knowledge and skills over the substance of the subjects?

Many questions popped up on my head and they sure relate to our education provision ka!

As a small person in our huge education sector, I can't help but continue asking and creating my own awareness about the gaps in our education delivery, hoping that my increased understanding will shed some lights on what quality of education should lead to ka.

Can't switch off my curiosity mode lae kaaaa!

 

 

That's the way it is!

Happy start of the first day at work in 2016 ka, everyone! Even I official retired, I have lots to do today ka.

I have several little things to share ka:

During these happy holidays, I went to visit my late mother's friends, one is 91 and the other is 94.

For the 91-year-old uncle, he has to use his cane to support his walking and when I wai'ed him, he greeted me with a big smile, saying "I need to walk with a cane now." We updated each other what we've done the passing year and he couldn't hear that well. He again said with a smile, "I also use hearing aids but I haven't put it on yet!" So I sat more closely and spoke a little more loudly.

The more I thought about him, the more I learn about life ka. Even with declining physical conditions, he accepts it real well, not with any complaints or depression but with wide smiles. I keep telling myself that, "That's the way it is!"

If I stay that long, I wonder if I could be so happy accepting the declining health like him ka!

Then I went to see a 94-year-old aunt and was so impressed with her son. At this age, even when her memory is still great, she couldn't possibly follow our conversation and stay that engaged some of the time.

I noticed that her son seemed to observe his mother very often. When she repeated same questions, her son would always answer. The only expression I could spot from his face was his caring concerns. He also let his mother make snacks for sale in front of their house so she could do what she is very good at and feel good about it and definitely about her own self.

It gave me another opportunity to feel the inner happiness flow in my heart ka. Is this the way it is between grownup children and aging parents? I wish I could say 'yes' right out!

The stories fit well with our aging society dee mai ka?