Education conference targets 300 attendees

KUCHING: The Sarawak Society for Professional Development in Education (Profes) and the Teachers Education Institute Batu Lintang Campus (IPGKBL) will jointly hold the ‘International Conference on Teaching and Learning Through Games 2013’ to deliver best education practices.

The conference will be held on Oct 21 and 22 at the Pullman Hotel here and the organisers are targeting to attract 300 participants to the event.

The campus’ deputy director, Jamiran Salam said the founders of the ‘Teaching Games for Understanding (TGFU)’, David Bunker and Rod Thorpe will be among the speakers and facilitators during the event.

"Other speakers include Deana Leahy from the Monash University, Australia, Will Behenna, a consultant in the British Council from the United Kingdom, and national speakers Dr Mohd Khari from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Professor Madya Julismah Jani from Univerisiti Perguruan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Dr Siti Zaliha Reduan, Razali Yu, Lai Kim Leong and Chong Pek Ling, all from IPGKBL,� he said yesterday.

The organisers paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development, Datuk Fatimah Abdullah at Masja Building yesterday to forward their proposal for the conference and brief the minister on their programme for the event.

Director Awang Hambali Awang Hamdan was among those present.

Jamiran said the conference will feature mostly workshops, adding there will also be some paper presentations.

Themed as ‘Teaching and Learning through Games’, he said the conference is to share their aspiration to deliver the best education practices in the country.

According to him, the TGFU system has been implemented in several countries such as England, Australia, Belgium, Portugal, United States of America, Canada and Singapore, and it has been proven affective.

The system was introduced in Malaysia’s ‘Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah’ in 2010. However, he said many parents and the general public were not aware of it and the benefits of TGFU.

He said the conference would be a platform for innovation for better teaching methods. It was time to step away from the traditional lecture and teaching methods of decades past, educators can now allow their students to benefit from high-interest and interactive games.

Meanwhile, Fatimah said games were often effective in promoting students’ engagement in lessons and they had the motivation to win.

This would keep them tuned in to the lesson and learning throughout the activity.

Also, she said learning through games would allow students to interact with the material in a hands-on fashion.

“There are plenty of benefits from learning through games. If we use the TGFU system, we can also produce intelligent sportsmen as they will be able to respond with grace to situations of victory and defeat. As students engage in game play through their education, they develop the necessary skills to be good sportsmen,� she said.

Furthermore, by getting students involved in games, they will have the chance to practise teamwork spirit.

They would learn to respect their team mates and work cooperatively to solve a problem.

At the same time, students could improve their problem-solving skills, she said.