Development Management Policy Seminar: “International Evidence of What Works to Improve the Quality of Students’ Learning Outcome”

The above seminar was held on Monday, 22th June, 2015 in the main conference room of the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS) building. The speaker was Dr. Shinsaku Nomura who is an Education Economist at the World Bank’s South Asia Region. The topic of his lecture was “International Evidence of What Works to Improve the Quality of Students’ Learning Outcome”.

In his presentation, Dr. Nomura introduced some of the new approaches to assessing quality of education. He specifically concentrated on three related factors and these are: 1) determinants of learner-teacher related factors; 2) systemic constraints; and 3) and curricula implementation. With the purpose of making the emerging trends in educational evaluation easier to understand, he shared with the audience some of the existing international evidence, such as the significant variations among teachers in the use of time in Bangladesh.

In the final part of the lecture, Dr. Nomura noted the ineffective utilization and development of the teaching force in Bangladesh, signifying a weak incentive mechanism for attracting the best teachers and retaining the existing ones. In addition, he analyzed problems concerning educational reform in Bangladesh, including the weakness of examination system.

The seminar was highly informative and interesting, as it broadened the knowledge and understanding of all the students who attended. During the question and answer session, the students asked a number of questions, aimed at understanding how teaching methods and beliefs impact student learning. In general, the seminar provided students with the opportunity of broadening and deepening their knowledge and understanding in the field of educational quality assessment.

(Authored by Meng Xiaodong)