Events

SLAIHEE CONFERENCES

20th Annual SLAIHEE Conference 2024

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The 20th Annual SLAIHEE conference on Higher Education was held on 26th July 2024 at Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) School of Computing, Colombo 03.   The theme of the conference this year was “Giving students a voice: evidence to have facilitated student voice generation through teaching” and it was organized by SLAIHEE and supported by IIT. The inauguration commenced with Professor Sunethra Perera, Immediate Past President, SLAIHEE giving the opening remarks. It was followed by Dr Iroja Caldera, President, SLAIHEE, welcoming the participants who were from several state and private sector universities. Following this welcome note, she invited the Guest of Honour, Mr Mohan Fernando, CEO of IIT and Professor Suki Ekaratne to launch the Academy for Learning & Teaching Effectiveness Facilitation (ALTEF) at IIT. Following the inauguration, Mr Mohan Fernando was invited to address the audience. Thereafter, Professor Suki Ekaratne, founder president of SLAIHEE and the founding Director of ALTEF delivered the keynote address on “Giving students a voice: evidence to have facilitated student voice generation through teaching”. Following the keynote address, Prof Suki Ekaratne introduced the Dr Shrinika Weerakoon Memorial Award for the Best Paper in Changing Higher Education Student Skills. Then the 2023 award recipients; Ms. Shalini Kaduwela and Ms. Abarnah Kirupananda received the awards from the Guest of Honor. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Jinendra Dissanayake, President-Elect, SLAIHEE. Eight peer reviewed papers were presented this year leading to lively discussions during the Q&A sessions. The papers focused on how teaching practices were improved by Sri Lankan university academics. in order to develop voicing skills in their students. The Conference was followed by the AGM of SLAIHEE.

This year the conference also included a post-lunch workshop facilitated by Prof Suki Ekaratne, titled “How can we get students to ‘understand well’ what we teach them”. It was attended by over 90 participants. The workshop included group work and discussion which drew an enthusiastic response from participants.

Download 2024 Conference Keynote Speech by Prof. Suki Ekaratne

Download 2024 Conference abstract book

SLAIHEE CONFERENCES

19th SLAIHEE Conference 2023

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The 19th Annual SLAIHEE conference was held on 28th July 2023 at Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) School of Computing, Colombo 04.  Held in face-to-face mode following three years of being held online, the conference was organized by SLAIHEE and supported by IIT.  The theme this year was “Outcome-based higher education for developing knowledge-based procedures in students”. The inauguration commenced with Professor Sunethra Perera, Immediate Past President, SLAIHEE giving the opening remarks which was followed by Dr Iroja Caldera, President, SLAIHEE, welcoming the participants who were from several state and private universities. Following this welcome note, she invited the Guest of Honour, Mr Mohan Fernando, CEO of IIT to address the audience. Thereafter, Ms. Sajeewani D Somaratna, Acting Librarian, University of Colombo, delivered the keynote address on “Outcome-based higher education for developing knowledge-based procedures”. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Jinendra Dissanayake, President-Elect, SLAIHEE.Ten (10) peer reviewed papers were presented this year and these led to lively discussions during the Q&A sessions. The papers focused  on how teaching practices were improved by Sri Lankan university academics and secondary school teachers in relation to how specified higher education skills are developed. The Conference was followed by the AGM of SLAIHEE.

This year the conference also included a post-lunch mini workshop facilitated by Prof Suki Ekaratne, Titled ‘Designing plans to improve selected student skills’ it included a group work session which had an enthusiastic response from participants. A 2-3 hour follow-up workshop is being planned for the same participants and based on what participants had completed at this mini-workshop,”

Download 2023 Conference Keynote Speech by Ms. Sajeewani D Somaratna

Download 2023 Conference abstract book

SLAIHEE CONFERENCES

18th SLAIHEE Conference 2022

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The 18th Annual SLAIHEE conference was held on 29th July 2022, online via Zoom. The theme this year was “Improving HE Student Skills for Work & Life Performance Readiness”. The inauguration commenced with Professor Sunethra Perera, SLAIHEE President, welcoming the participants who came from several Sri Lankan universities. Following this welcome, Professor Nelun de Silva, Department of Microbiology, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, delivered the keynote address on “Improving HE Student Skills for Work & Life Performance Readiness”. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Iroja Caldera, President-Elect, SLAIHEE. This year, ten (10) peer reviewed papers were accepted and presented. These were on how teaching practices were improved by Sri Lankan university academics in relation to improving the skills of their students. The Conference was followed by the AGM of SLAIHEE.

Download Conference Keynote Speech by Professor Nelun de Silva

Download 2022 Conference Book

SLAIHEE CONFERENCES

17th Conference 2021

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The 17th Annual SLAIHEE conference was held on the 30th of July 2021, online via Zoom. The theme this year was “Developing self-aware and self-directed students and staff”. Professor Sunethra Perera, the President SLAIHEE, welcomed the participants who came from several Sri Lankan universities and schools. Following the welcome address,  Professor Pulani Lanerolle, Professor in Nutrition and Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Colombo,  delivered the keynote address on “Towards Excellence: Effective Reflection”. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Iroja Caldera, President Elect, SLAIHEE. This year, twenty two (22) peer reviewed papers were accepted and presented. These were on how teaching practices were improved by Sri Lankan university academics and a paper by a secondary school teacher for improving HE-readiness in her students. The Conference was followed by the AGM of SLAIHEE.

Download Conference Keynote Speech by Prof. Pulani Lanerolle

Download 2021 Conference book

SLAIHEE CONFERENCES

16th Conference 2020

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The 16th Annual SLAIHEE conference was held on the 24th of July, 2020 online via Zoom. The theme this year was “Developing & Sustaining Teaching and Learning Practices to meet Higher Education Needs”. Dr T. Sivakumar, the president SLAIHEE, welcomed the gathering. Following the welcome address, Professor Suki Ekaratne, Founding President of SLAIHEE, introduced the “Dr Shrinika Weerakoon Memorial Award for the Best Paper in Changing Higher Education Student Skills” and announced the 2019 winners.  Dr Panduka Karunanayake, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine, University of Colombo, graced the conference as the Chief Guest and delivered the keynote address on “Education’s ‘Three E’s’ and the McUniversities: Some Heretical Thoughts”. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Sunethra Perera, President Elect, SLAIHEE. This year, fourteen (14) peer reviewed papers were presented.

Download 2020 Conference Keynote Speech by Dr. Panduka Karunanayake

Download 2020 Conference abstract book

Awardees, Memorial Award

2023 Awardees

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Note : Full papers of the 2023 Conference can be read here.

Ms. Abarnah Kirupananda
Senior Lecturer,
Business School,
Informatics Institute of Technology.
iabarnah.k@iit.ac.lk		 Ms. Shalini Kaduwela
Senior Lecturer,
Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology
shalinikaduwela@gmail.com
Encouraging development of peer learning skill through in-class activities to enhance student learning experience and interactions

Peer to peer learning is where the students learn from each other in addition to what is taught by the teacher. This method is efficient, and it enables students to take ownership, increase self-confidence and help learn from the experience, knowledge and skills of others. Generally, when students join the university, they have very few friends and they also try to network only with people they knew previously. I also noticed that they worked in silos, missing out on valuable opportunities for peer learning. As students are reluctant to talk with others in class, I planned to introduce activities in class  to  promote peer learning. I decided to do this in a scaffolded manner so that they will be able to adapt to this new concept. I divided the students into small groups, and gave them topics to teach each other. The jigsaw method and group presentations were used as activities in this intervention. Even though there was reluctance among the students initially, they eventually got motivated to collaborate with their peers, embracing the concept of peer learning. As peer learning should be promoted among students, I believe it is necessary we identify the correct technique and implement this in class for students to practice. We should start with less ‘risky’ activities and gradually move to more ‘risky’ activities. By consistently practicing peer learning in the class environment, we can establish it as a habit for students, creating a positive and collaborative learning atmosphere. This not only enhances their academic experience but also prepares them for effective teamwork in future endeavours.

 Use of FouRe’s method to develop paraphrase building skill in higher education students.

The paper focused on a method and a series of activities I used in my English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class to teach paraphrasing skills. I had been teaching paraphrasing for several years in the Foundation and Undergraduate programmes and had not seen the students using paraphrasing skills effectively. I assumed that the steps I taught the students to write a paraphrase could have been complicated, thereby confusing them. This made me research about changing my teaching style which led me to an easy four step method (Reword/Rearrange/Realize/Recheck) for paraphrasing, followed by a series of group and individual activities to support the students in remembering the principles of paraphrasing. The students realized that they require to use their own words, phrases, and sentence structures as they rephrased song lyrics, matched original and paraphrased material and completed group paraphrasing tasks. The outcome of the new method and activities was more effective and successful; with the final paraphrases of the current students being better than those by previous students. I strongly encourage and recommend my colleagues and students to follow this technique as it is simple and enjoyable. Based on SLAIHEE’s theme for 2023, ‘Outcome-based higher education for developing knowledge-based procedures in students’, and having worked on the above paper, I realized the importance of focusing on the outcome to develop my students’ knowledge-based skills to enhance their academic skills.
Awardees

2019 awardees

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Note : Full papers of the 2019 Conference can be read here.

Ms. Ishani Anushika
Lecturer,
Dept. of Languages,
Saegis Campus, Nugegoda.
ishani.anushika23@gmail.com		 Dr. Kasuni Akalanka
Senior Lecturer,
Department of Basic Sciences,
Faculty of Allied Health Sciences,
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
kasuniakalanka@gmail.com
Empathy as a Tool to Develop Learner Engagement in a Mixed- ability ESL Classroom: student perceptions

Background for teaching changes:Improved learner engagement in a class is the ultimate expectation of an educator with the belief that more inquisitive and motivated the learner is, the more s/he learns. However, making students engaged in a mixed ability ESL classroom can usually be a challenging task. This was no exception in the ESL class of 60 students that I was teaching in a well-known state university. In this class, the relationship among students of different proficiency levels was not satisfactory. A writing activity on self-limiting beliefs about learning English disclosed that the affective filter of the less proficient learners was high when they were learning with the advanced learners in English. On the other hand, the advanced learners wished the content of the class to be more challenging, and appeared to be bored when working with the less proficient peers. This suggested the need of turning the class to a learning community where students appreciate, acknowledge the presence of each other and learn to positively depend on one another. Above all, it is known that students should be taught to be more empathetic as empathy involves bridging the gap between the self and the other. To achieve this, I used Bourdieu’s (1986) concepts of cultural, social and linguistic capital to make the students get to know about each other well and to develop empathy. First, I used energisers in the class which reinforced rapport between the students and gave a sense of togetherness. Second, I encouraged students exchanging personal narratives of learning English in order to develop empathy among students. In this activity students wrote their stories of learning English contemplating the opportunities and obstacles they had and have at present in learning English. This was then followed by an open-class discussion about what they learnt about each other. The feedback collected later revealed that these activities had made the learners recognise how the capital learners bring into the class, results in differences in their English language proficiency. It was fascinating to watch how this led to more open-mindedness, attunement to others and nonjudgmental interactions among students in the class. In fact they started to mingle with peers despite their varied proficiency level and to prefer pair and group work over working individually. This whole experience made me realise the potential we have as teachers in making our learners’ learning experience more meaningful.

 “You hear and you forget, you see and you remember, you do and you understand” –adopted from Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)-
 
Background for teaching changes:There has been increasing emphasis in recent years on moving away from traditional teaching towards student-centered learning (SCL). This paradigm shift has encouraged moving control from the instructor to the learner, treating the learner as a co-creator in the teaching and learning process through direct involvement, discovery of knowledge and collaboration among peers. Teachers are therefore required to take a more facilitatory role. In other terms, in a student centered classroom, there would be a high degree of student engagement; challenge, enthusiasm and joy. Students learn in their own pace due to the use of their personalised technologies in learning process. Thus SCL is recognized as one of the best ways of improving deep learning in students. However, since the undergraduates in the University are used to spoon-fed education as majority of lectures are conducted in merely traditional manner, I entertained a hypothesis that students would prefer lectures rather than SCL activities. Thus, the objective of the study was to evaluate student perceptions and preferences on selected teaching learning methods with the question “which teaching methods are preferred by students?”, posing the question to a batch of undergraduates who were taught different sub-topics of Biochemistry using selected teaching approaches.Majority of the students rated conducting merely a lecture as a non-effective way in enhancing deep learning. Engaging students in active reading and letting them present in groups was rated as a highly interesting way of learning as they were able to gather knowledge and present to their peers with enhanced self-confidence. The Jigsaw technique was preferred by majority saying the activity helped them to completely comprehend the given topic. Students were further of the perception that the SCL activities helped them to improve their presentation skills, leadership qualities and self-confidence as well as deep learning of the lesson material.Thus it is highly recommended to conduct SCL activities to facilitate students in deep learning and understanding as what really important is not what is taught, but what is learned.