Creating Student Centric Institutions
Total Person/Total Brain Development Education
Mr. Selwyn Bhajan
Former Human Resource ExecutiveĀ
Moderator: Dr. Kofi Nkrumah Young, Group Facilitator, Academic, Programming and Delivery Division, The UWI Global Campus
Most educational systems focus on a basic system of literacy and numeracy skills and streamlining into specialised subject areas in preparation for certifications for jobs and career advancement. Students become excellent in academic subject matters but do not learn how to maximise their full brain potential for total person development. The educational institutes are burdened with implementing disciplinary measures and reactive counselling. These students then go on to become employees who are challenged to think critically and effectively interact with others. They lack an understanding of problem solving, and the impact of their attitudes, interactions, and behaviours on others. Such individuals do not add value to their company or society beyond typical job requirements. The underlying cause is that they are governed by a brain that lacks total brain development and therefore they fail to bring out their total person potential.
The brain is the control centre for the human body. Its structure can be generalised by dividing it into four major sections. The frontal lobe controls reflective thinking, intuition, higher self-awareness, and religious or spiritual engagements. The back hemisphere \ controls the senses of perception, automatic processes, environmental awareness, and interactions. The left hemisphere controls logical, mathematical, and systematic abilities. The right hemisphere controls imaginative, spatial, creative, and problem-solving skills. Because of this perspective, students should be exposed to activities that bring out all these brain capacities, not just focus on the memorization of theory.
This exploratory research paper seeks to find practical techniques to help students recognize and develop their full brain potential thus allowing them to be able to contribute to their workplace and society in a more positive, uplifting, and visionary manner. Awareness of this approach is important for educators, employers, and parents so that they can support what is required to achieve this total person/total brain development in their charges.
The angle this paper has taken to achieve these objectives is through its work with a registered NGO in Trinidad and Tobago involved in many self-developmental programs including coaching in total person/total brain development. The techniques implemented include skills development in Effective Communication, Teamworking, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Conflict Resolution, Impactful and Efficient Leadership, Self Esteem, Positive Interpersonal Relationships, Choices and Outcome Awareness, Stress/Tension/Anxiety and Anger Management, Balance & Wellbeing principles, Higher Self Seeding, Personal Wholeness Mapping, Michaelangelo Visualization Principle and Peace and Harmony Consciousness, Creation Awe awareness and Earth care.
Educators across the Caribbean, from CSEC to Post Graduate degrees, can review their present pedagogic practices to include total person development support by utilising methods and practices that are based on awareness of developing total brain capacity. This is understanding, developing, and empowering the student to be a full and balanced person with high self-esteem, self-respect, and productivity. Self-esteem and self-respect are based on self-understanding from their unique brain capacity understanding. Mental orderliness and peace results from brain wave cohesiveness and highest potential brain hemispheres development. The wholistic benefit is a society functioning to its highest human brain capacity.
Applying the Appreciative Education Framework to Create Educational Spaces that Foster Thriving
Dr. Helen Williams-Cumberbatch
Vice President, Student Affairs, College of Science, Technology & Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago
Moderator: Dr. Thomas Edward, Lecturer in Computer Science, The UWI Cave Hill Campus
This presentation will explore the potential of the Appreciative Education framework to drastically transform higher education institutions into collaborative learning spaces that foster thriving among students. This is a critical conversation, in light of the increasing need for HEIs to not only cultivate academic excellence, but also to prioritise student engagement and create positive learning environments. Appreciative Education is an asset-based framework that positions students as active participants in the design and implementation of student interventions and programming. Grounded in Appreciative Inquiry, it emphasises building on strengths, fostering positive relationships, and co-creating a vision for the future. This approach stands in contrast to traditional deficit-based models, and offers a range of benefits, including enhanced student engagement, improved faculty-student relationships, and increased rates of retention and persistence. Participants will be exposed to practical strategies for implementing the Appreciative Education framework in higher education settings, in areas such as advising, administration, student orientation, staff onboarding, customer service, and student affairs assessment. They will explore strategies and techniques for fostering an appreciative mindset among faculty, staff and students, and will gain insight into the experiences of HEIs that have transformed their spaces into appreciative campuses, and the resultant increase in student involvement and success.
A Flipped Instructional Model for Higher Education Learning in the Caribbean
Ms. Nicole Wills
Senior Lecturer, College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago
Moderator: Mr Keron Brache, Administrative Assistant, The UWI St. Augustine Campus, Faculty of Science & Technology
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased use of online instruction in tertiary institutions in the Caribbean. Furthermore, students have become more reliant on technology for information in the 21st century. While Caribbean higher education institutions (HEIs) have traditionally favoured face-to-face instruction, the introduction of eLearning has provided opportunities for various learning modalities: asynchronous, synchronous or the traditional blended (synchronous followed by asynchronous). The flipped instructional design, however, is a blended approach to teaching based on the concept that asynchronous learning (e.g. pre-recorded lecturers and foundation material) precedes synchronous learning (e.g. live discussions). It provides a shift from teacher-centred instruction to a student-centred environment that fosters experiential and self-directed learning, which is essential for the transition from a traditional pedagogical approach (recall and understanding of new information) to andragogical (the application of knowledge) and heutagogical (double-loop learning) facilitations.
While the predominantly pedagogical approach (e.g. emphasis on lecturing and assessments) may be practical in the first year of undergraduate study, the reliance on a learner-centred approach (active student engagement and learning) is critical for the transition from student to professional. The flipped instructional design takes a multidimensional approach to student learning, addressing cognitive, affective, and psychomotor development. This theoretical exposition is two-fold. The first objective is to address the theoretical underpinnings of the flipped classroom by reviewing five key theoretical frameworks: Bloom’s taxonomy, constructivism, self-determination theory, the theory of educational differentiation, active learning theory, and Kolb’s experiential learning theory. Secondly, this presentation aims to develop a model for flipped learning instruction accounting for organisational culture. A review of various scholarly articles using Google Scholar and EBSCOhost will inform this exposition. The central research question is why, how, and when are flipped instructional designs effective?
āWAIS D WORD?ā Cracking the Code by Unlocking Gen Z Engagement Through a Deep Dive into Their Communication Preferences
Mrs. Wynell Gregorio
Marketing and Communications Manager, The UWI St. Augustine
Moderator: Mrs. Kim Ashby, Senior Laboratory Technician, Department of Biological & Chemical Sciences, The UWI Cave Hill Campus
The evolving landscape of communication has significantly influenced how students engage with their academic institutions. As digital natives, today’s students are immersed in a world of technology from an early age, shaping their communication habits and preferences. To effectively engage this demographic, educational institutions must adapt their communication strategies to resonate with the digital landscape Gen Zs navigate effortlessly. Understanding the preferences and habits of students regarding internal communications is crucial for fostering a supportive and responsive university environment.
This presentation aims to shed light on the internal communication preferences and behaviours of students at The UWI St. Augustine Campus. An online survey of the student population was conducted in the latter part of 2023 to explore the degree to which students embrace connectivity, their preferred communication channels, desired engagement with lecturers and administration and the time they allocate to digital engagement.
Where information is the currency for navigating campus happenings, the survey unravelled an intriguing narrative on how students prefer to stay in the loop, shedding light on the channels that studentsā favour and the subtle dance between the digital and physical realms in the dissemination of campus information.
The presentation will delve into the implications of these findings for university administrators seeking to enhance student-centric communication strategies. By identifying the dominance of platforms like Instagram and the prevalence of smartphone usage among students, institutions can tailor their communication efforts to effectively reach and engage their student population. Furthermore, recognizing the declining consumption of traditional communication methods highlights the need for institutions to prioritise digital communication channels. Ultimately, this presentation offers actionable insights that can empower Caribbean universities to create more student-centric environments, leading to enhanced satisfaction, retention, and academic success.
Student Success Imperatives for Student- Centric Institutions
Mr. Oswy Gayle
Lecturer, University of Technology, Jamaica
Moderator: Mrs. Antonia Charlemagne-Marshall, Administrative Assistant, Registry. The UWI Cave Hill Campus
Globally, the notion of student success although known by many other labels has always fascinated higher education leaders, administrators, academics, and sometimes policymakers. The issue of student success is now a global phenomenon and characterises a critical pillar at the strategic level for competitive advantage, studentsā qualitative development, and its potential to impact the wider environments to which students and post-secondary institutions meet. With its multidimensional constructs to include the broad range of students, indicators, outcomes, modalities of learning, and levels of participation, any forward-thinking institution would want to understand this growing trend to truly make their institutions more student centric. However, a critical missing link in this debate is usually the studentsā perspective on how they define success. This presentation summarises some of the most important issues in the literature on student success and presents research findings on how some undergraduates in one Jamaican higher education institution define and measure student success and their perception of their institutionās readiness for student success. This presentation further discusses the imperatives and implications for higher education leaders and managers, other stakeholders, policy, and practice.