Educational Research Center Pan-Arab Conference to discuss electronic assessment platforms for meaningful learning
Organized by Educational Research Center (ERC), the annual conference on educational measurement brought together, this year, national, regional and international leaders in the field of e-assessment, for a comprehensive overview of this rapidly expanding area in education.
The conference was held on Saturday March 27th, 2010, at the Royal Hotel, Dbayeh, under the patronage of HE Prof. Hassan Mneimneh, Minister of Education and Higher Education of Lebanon, represented by Director General of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Fady Yarak. It was attended by representatives of more than 15 Arab countries, as well as representatives of international organizations and governmental agencies, like UNESCO, ALECSO, ISESCO, and the British Council.
This conference was a gathering of educational experts working for integrating electronic assessment in learning and teaching, while taking advantage of best practices in the field, including those of ERC on authentic assessment and Profile Shaping Education (PSE), a new research-based educational theory developed and already deployed at ERC.
“We are pleased to be playing a key role in bringing expertise to the region,” declared Mr. Habib Sayegh, CEO of Educational Research Center. “ERC is developing the International Arab Baccalaureate (IAB), a secondary school diploma for the entire Arab World that will, in due course, be internationally recognized. IAB will be grounded in a Profile Shaping Education (PSE) framework, and will rely on a specific electronic platform, all developed at ERC.”
Various topics were also covered: from practical elements of technology in the classroom and beyond, to various types and forms of assessment, especially formative assessment that provides continuous feedback as an essential part of any closed-loop system that highly contributes to the improvement of education.
Professor Ibrahim Halloun, Developer of Profile Shaping Education, the IAB Framework, added, “This year’s conference was particularly important, as it allowed participants to explore electronic educational models that empower students with 21st century skills.”
Mr. Tony Tohme, Director of ERC, emphasized that ERC is prepared to assist all interested stakeholders in the Arab World to make valued judgment about assessment with the aim to continuously improve the state of education.
The conference had been a tremendous success. In line with the ERC motto, “what you measure is what you get”, assessment is being regarded more as means to meaningful learning than an end by itself.
Participants left the conference with innovative ideas, and the possibility to adopt the best practices in e-assessment and implement them to improve the state of education in their own countries.
