AIOU conference: Education experts emphasise the need for critical research

Academics seek positive change in society through knowledge

ISLAMABAD: Education experts stressed on the need for diverse research methods and critical thinking  to improve the quality of research in Pakistan here on Wednesday.

This was said at the closing ceremony of the two-day International Conference on Research and Practices in Education at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) here on Wednesday. Better training programmes for teachers and increased use of technology to disseminate knowledge were identified as integral steps towards improved educational research.

Dr Jean B Hache from the Universite de Montreal, Canada, told The Express Tribune that such conferences produce educational knowledge which is important for developing the educational system, saying, “Children’s education can improve with good knowledge, which comes with research.”

The importance of research and the significance of its methodologies was a key point of AIOU Vice-Chancellor Dr Shahid Siddiqui’s address too. He advised students to not only focus on quantitative research but to also use qualitative methods; and encouraged them to conduct rigorous literature review before selecting a topic.

Students from over 20 universities in Pakistan participated in the conference, many of whom considered the event very educational. They were impressed with the quality of the 170 research papers presented at the event and thought that some were even worth implementing. They identified ‘peace education’ and ‘innovation and research’ as the emerging issues in education; and which had taken centre-stage at the conference too.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2016.