Celebration Of Teachers' Day 2021

       On the occasion of Teacher’s Day, Embassy of India, Beirut, organized a webinar on the theme “Modern Teaching Techniques and Methodology” with participation of Indian and Lebanese teachers in different institutions in Lebanon on September 6, 2021 at 3:30 PM. Cd’A a.i., Shri Sandeep Grover and other officers from the Embassy participated in the event. Guest speakers included (i) Dr. Imane Kamali, Director of Elite Center for Culture and Education, Tripoli (ii) Prof. Bassam Lahoud, Senior Instructor, School of Architecture, Lebanese American University (LAU), (iii) Dr. Digamber Patra, Professor at American University of Beirut (AUB), (iv) Ms. Preeti Bhatia, Teacher in American Community School (ACS). Ms. Rima Saab, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture, Head of Fine Arts Department of Lebanese University (LU) sent a video message on the occasion which was screened in the webinar. Apart from these speakers, many Lebanese students attended the event virtually from Elite Center, Tripoli.

2. Cd’A a.i., Shri Sandeep Grover made the welcoming remarks and spoke on the occasion. Cd’A stated that teachers inspire us in many ways to do well and succeed in life by giving us a purpose eventually making us a good citizen of the world. Among other things, Cd’A stated that technology has helped a great deal during ongoing Covid pandemic where students and teachers have moved to online classes and not attending the schools in person. This has encouraged everyone to explore more into ways to impart education through audio-visual means. Cd’A stated that Schools, Universities and colleges are around the world are collaborating to design and invent newer techniques to impart education. In order to promote and develop new ideas, the exchange of students and teachers among different schools, universities and colleges of the world play a major role.

3. In her speech, Dr. Imane Kamali presented an adequate and comprehensive study on the newly adopted teaching techniques and methods, which are all activity-based and centre the learners, involving them entirely into the process of learning. She also proposed, based on a study undertaken by Professor Randi A. Engle from the University of Pittsburgh and Professor Faith R. Conant from the university of Cambridge, a four-principled model for fostering productive disciplinary engagement in a community of learners Classroom. Dr. Kamali added that during the past two years, we have witnessed a transformation in learning, which occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, as learning changed from face-to-face learning to virtual learning, in addition to the corresponding transformation in the use of technology, media, designs, models and assessments used in distance learning. She concluded that education is the need of the hour and as all fields of life have changed, education has also witnessed, due to the introduction of technology along with innovative teaching ways, a drastic revolution.

4. Prof. Bassam Lahoud, Senior Instructor, School of Architecture, Lebanese American University (LAU) shared his experience in India, Indian culture, cuisine, languages and diversity of India while he was ICCR-sponsored Fellowship Professor in 2017 in Kolkata.

5. Dr. Digamber Patra, Professor at American University of Beirut (AUB) spoke about modern education techniques and methodologies that have changed with technology and social structure. Dr. Patra stated that among new tools, online teaching, youtube, clickers, Moodle, Power points, Simulation, etc. are widely being used in modern instructing medium. Dr. Patra stated that traditional teaching was largely one way where instructor was giving information and theories, however, modern teaching methods encourage multiple ways of participation, where students argue, debate and study in different prospective. Dr. Patra stated that liberal education is one of the key techniques in modern college and university education where understanding philosophy of humanism, social order and scientific rationality are emphasised in a cross-discipline approach. Dr. Patra stated that modern teaching techniques give enough scope for innovation, research, creative writing, ethics, developing special skills, etc where student can explore cross discipline and easily switch over to another track that he/she finds more interesting and joyful, similarly, possibilities of various interactive learning such as group learning, project-based learning, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, research-based learning, gamification etc. make modern teaching more skilful and ethically enriching.

6. Ms. Preeti Bhatia, Teacher in American Community School (ACS) along with her colleague, Ms. Madhumita, teacher in ACS showed a presentation in the webinar which included Reggio Emilia Philosophy - a research based early childhood education approach. Among other things, she also spoke about Rabindranath’s Philosophy.