Oman education: Teachers should develop new ideas to teach, says expert

Muscat: Teachers should develop new ideas to teach, a trainer and English Language Teaching (ELT) consultant said.
“A good teacher should innovate constantly and develop new ideas to teach their subjects, which make the teaching process, as well as the learning process easier,” Gary Pathare, a trainer and ELT consultant said.
Pathare, who is from Spain, has worked in Dubai for the last 15 years and has written a number of books.
He was delivering a speech at the opening of the 2nd ELT Professional Development Symposium held at the Higher College of Technology on Tuesday.
According to him, the teaching process in the region needed to re-energised with some innovative ideas.
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“In this region, the educational background is different. We have to invest more effort because of the different language system for writing,” Pathare told the Times of Oman.
He also asked the participants to share ideas with their colleagues.
The theme of the symposium was centred on, “Innovative Approaches in ELT.” The two-day symposium, which will end today, will feature a series of workshops and presentations. More than 200 participants are attending the symposium.
The workshop will cover topics and themes, such as techniques, instructional technology, student motivation, autonomous learning, classroom management techniques, student—centred teaching and assessment. The varied presentations are based on sub-themes, such as skill integration, critical thinking, mixed ability classes and giving feedback.
Chaired by Ghada Sarhan, the symposium had her delivering a speech where she spoke about professional development needs of language teachers and said teachers should be full of ideas, instead of stuffing students with facts.
"It's quite effective and helpful. It is a great experience to learn from experts,” a symposium participant, said.
“From this symposium I hope to learn some new innovative classroom teaching techniques. I want it to be more student oriented,” said Vijaya Mohandas, English lecturer at the English Language Centre of HCT and a member of the organizing committee of ELT.
“I am especially looking forward to picking up some technology related activities, more so where students are happily allowed to use their mobile phones in class as well. Students today show keen interest when technology is incorporated with learning. So I hope to use and implement some new techniques from some of the sessions,” she added.
The symposium aims to advance teaching and learning processes by addressing the staff’s professional needs and providing them with opportunities for sharing ideas, reflecting and exchanging experiences about different issues in the field.