From left: Jeremy Koons, Gabor Scheiring, Anjana Jacobs and Diana Buttu during the panel discussion. Pic: Rajan Vadakkemuriyil/The Peninsula
Doha: Students have been encouraged to ask in-depth, thoughtful questions in the learning environment, even when such inquiries may be considered “uncomfortable” as against “partial questioning” that may be detrimental to their reasoning ability.
This was the submission of panelists at an interactive workshop yesterday on the theme “Centering the Human Experience - led by The Georgetown University in Qatar at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a Qatar Foundation initiative.
The panel focused on the need for educators to teach with justice and empathy, as it is seen differently based on individuals’ values, beliefs and principles.
Assistant teaching professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Anjana Jacobs advised students to employ intellectual attitude as a guide, a substitute when empathy are not sufficient in the classroom.
“Two kinds of responses that students have while adopting an intellectual attitude to the other person is one, confusion and the other is exhaustion...encourage them to ask questions, give them space to ask that question, and then as educator go on to find good answers to their questions.”
Speaking about the challenges of bringing the real-world experiences into the classroom, a lawyer, mediator and negotiator, Diana Buttu explained that dealing with negotiations, mediation and conflict resolution in the classroom involves everybody recognising the humanity in one another.
“It has been a challenge to bring the real-world experience into the classroom, trying to get the students to see past the world that we’re living in today, a world in which we are looking at winners and losers. We need to get a greater and a deeper understanding of a world in which we see that we can all be humans first,” Buttu added.
On the other hand, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at Georgetown University in Qatar Gabor Scheiring urged educators and scholars to prepare students with emotional skills and not only with technical skills to survive the job market.
“This little window that we have at the university, we should use it to ask transformative questions about the human experience, society, democracy, capitalism, globalization, because this is going to allow students to become forces of social change.”
The panellists added that educators should be better role models to the students.
The two-day summit held under the theme ‘Humanity.io: Human Values at the Heart of Education’ at Qatar National Convention Centre came to an end yesterday.
