Books by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century
E-learning and digital education approaches are evolving and changing the landscape of teaching a... more E-learning and digital education approaches are evolving and changing the landscape of teaching and learning at all levels of education throughout the world. Innovation of emerging learning technologies is assisting e-learning and digital education to meet the needs of the 21st century. Due to the digital transformation of everyday practice, the process of learning and education has become more self-paced and accessible at any time from anywhere. The new generations of digital natives are growing up with a set of skills through their engagement with the digital world. In this context, this book includes a collection of chapters to facilitate continuous improvements including flexibility and accessibility in e-learning and digital education by exploring the challenges and opportunities of innovative approaches through the lenses of current theories, policies, and practices.
Blended Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities
Handbook of Research on Developing a Post-Pandemic Paradigm for Virtual Technologies in Higher Education, 2021
Emerging technologies and the digital transformation in society have changed the way teaching and... more Emerging technologies and the digital transformation in society have changed the way teaching and learning take place. Therefore, techno-pedagogical content knowledge has become an integral approach in modern teaching and learning. This chapter explores issues related to blended teaching and learning in higher education and highlights the challenges and opportunities it possesses. This chapter also outlines how to overcome challenges to provide effective teaching and learning by exploring literature. Moreover, it categorizes challenges for discussion to identify possible solutions and outlines recommendations. In support of evidence, a case study approach was used along with a review of the literature to draw evidence for a wide range of best practices. According to the findings, the blended teaching and learning model allows students to learn freely, demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways, and develop crucial knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will help them become lifelong learners.
Transition from Nonformal to Formal Education in Bangladesh: An Exploration of the Challenges Students Face
This study identified transitional challenges faced by nonformal primary graduates moving to main... more This study identified transitional challenges faced by nonformal primary graduates moving to mainstream formal high schools. Nonformal schools run by NGOs give disadvantaged children access to basic education in Bangladesh and prepare them to enter or re-enter into formal education sector. However, there is significant dropout amongst students following this transition, despite the high quality of learning in nonformal schools. In this longitudinal study, cohorts of young people in two geographical areas were followed, using in-depth case studies to explore the contexts of particular schools and transition between them. There is evidence of academic failure because of transitional challenges faced by the nonformal primary graduates at formal high schools, not simply due to poverty. The study identified priorities for better support to students from the nonformal education sector such that they can go on to achieve educational and other successes. Through this study, disadvantaged students have contributed directly to the emerging debate about nonformal education, to the contemporary humanitarian approach of educational development and to theories of educational transition.
Book Chapters by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
Education in Emergencies, Mental Wellbeing and E-Learning
E-Learning and Digital Education in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Prospects, 2021
The world has been going through an unprecedented situation due to the world-wide health crisis c... more The world has been going through an unprecedented situation due to the world-wide health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It affected all sectors across the globe, including education. This chapter highlights the importance of education in emergencies and how a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic creates challenges alongside opportunities to learn for personal and professional development as well as to ensure mental wellbeing of individuals through e-learning. The chapter explores literature to draw on different perspectives regarding the issues related to effectiveness in handling education and learning in an emergency in addition to preparedness for post and future emergencies. However, it focuses mainly on the role of the education sector in supporting individuals, especially learners and educators during and after emergencies. It also reflects on educational professionals’ work with students during this pandemic i.e. how educational professionals report on their journey and how the pandemic impacted the ability to serve and engage learners. From the professionals’ best practices to assist students in being successful through online education or hybrid teaching and learning formats, many opportunities arose to shape and reform education for a better future and transform the process of lifelong learning. This chapter outlines strategies, in general, for the education sector, and in particular, institutions and individuals to be better prepared for future emergencies through the opportunities e-learning offers.
Coaching Applications and Effectiveness in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Coaching Applications and Effectiveness in Higher Education, 2021
Coaching creates opportunities to communicate better and enhance trust among the service users, e... more Coaching creates opportunities to communicate better and enhance trust among the service users, employees, and employers regardless of their differences. Therefore, higher education institutions are increasingly recognizing the value of coaching for personal, professional, and organizational development. In coaching, contextual understanding is essential to achieve expected growth and outcomes. This chapter explores the applications and effectiveness of coaching interventions in teaching and learning in higher education. Based on literature and personal reflection, this chapter highlights different strategies and good practices and how coaching helps students succeed in their academic journeys and academics to become reflective practitioners. This process of coaching in higher education could also include people from academic, administrative, and professional service backgrounds. This chapter also presents the factors that hinder or support coaching programs and draws a set of recommendations to strengthen coaching initiatives in the higher education context.
Access to Higher Education for Refugees in South Asia
Refugee Education in South Asia: Policies, Practices, and Implications , 2021
Access to higher education for refugees is not a priority as this is not regarded as a basic huma... more Access to higher education for refugees is not a priority as this is not regarded as a basic human need. According to the UN Refugee Agency, only 1% of eligible refugees have access to higher education worldwide. However, the average enrolment in higher education is now 38% globally. On the one hand, access to education and training for refugees is desperately needed if they are to contribute when they go back to normal life. On the other hand, access to higher education is one way to re-establish their lives and professional identities in a host country. By exploring available academic and grey literature, based on examples from different regions, this chapter first highlights the importance of providing access to higher education for refugees and then presents the common challenges and barriers. It found that the legal status of a refugee in a host country, lack of necessary documentation, restrictions on movement, and financial constraints are the key challenges. Based on the key findings, this chapter also outlines some policy recommendations for the policy-makers, stakeholders and practitioners so that governments and other development organisations can make an effort to ease the challenges and barriers of higher education for refugees in South Asia.
Education in Emergencies, Inequities, and the Digital Divide: Strategies for Supporting Teachers and Students in Higher Education in Bangladesh
Handbook of Research on Inequities in Online Education During Global Crises, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic upended the daily life of every individual throughout the world and has had... more The COVID-19 pandemic upended the daily life of every individual throughout the world and has had an impact on every sphere of life. However, its impact on education, especially higher education, is profound. This chapter is based on a recent study, which explored teaching and learning in higher education in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 lockdown. The chapter focuses on how switching from face-to-face to online distance teaching and learning within a short period of time has created educational inequality and the digital divide among teachers and students in higher education in Bangladesh. Based on the findings from the recent surveys (teachers' and students' perspectives), this chapter provides recommendations for the stakeholders to support teachers and students during the emergency remote teaching and learning. It also shows how different strategies could minimize educational inequality and the digital divide during the time of crisis and how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown impacted on the transition and transformation of teaching and learning in Bangladesh.
Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainability in the Bangladeshi School Curriculum
Handbook of Research on Environmental Education Strategies for Addressing Climate Change and Sustainability, 2021
Bangladesh is one of the most affected countries by climate change and extremely vulnerable to en... more Bangladesh is one of the most affected countries by climate change and extremely vulnerable to environmental degradation. Young people, as the new generation, need to understand the consequences of climate change and its impact on their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens. This chapter presents the findings from a systematic evaluation of Bangladeshi school curriculum, and how it prepares the future generation for climate change adaptation and ensures a sustainable future for them. This chapter highlights the recommendations from the findings and suggests how the national curriculum could address climate change mitigation and adaptation for sustainability by providing contents to offer grounding for the young people as global citizens to act in the local context. Although there is some content included in the school textbooks related to climate change and sustainable development issues, there is a need for inclusion of more relevant contents in the national school curriculum so that school textbooks provide enough contents on climate change, its mitigation and adaptation.
Home Education in the United Kingdom: Policy, Practice, and Challenges
Global Perspectives on Home Education in the 21st Century, 2020
Home education is the fastest growing educational movement in the world and the research remains ... more Home education is the fastest growing educational movement in the world and the research remains limited on why and how it has become so popular. This chapter highlights the historical development of home education and its legal base in the context of the United Kingdom. It also explores many of the current issues facing the home educators, the government of the UK, and the wider community. Based on the existing literature, it briefly explores the history of the home education movement in the UK and how policy and practice come to this point at this time. It investigates the different perspectives on how and why home education is the fastest growing educational movement in the 21st century's UK.
Police Education in the United Kingdom: Challenges and Future Directions
Education, Human Rights and Peace in Sustainable Development, 2020
This chapter outlines the historical development of police education in the United Kingdom, more ... more This chapter outlines the historical development of police education in the United Kingdom, more precisely in England and Wales, and highlights new strategies and planning for the professional development of the police. There is a plethora of research carried out regarding professionalism in policing to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century. Considering the recent developments in police education and training, this chapter mainly discusses three newly introduced routes for recruitment and education of police constables under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), namely Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA), Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP), and Pre-Join Degree (PJD). Higher education institutions (HEIs), in partnership with the police forces, are providing professional qualifications for policing as a graduate level profession. Though they have made remarkable progress in developing police education programmes, they are facing various challenges in implementing the qualification framework. This chapter also explores pedagogical aspects of police education including the effectiveness and contrast between different forms of teaching and learning. While featuring the challenges and prospects of the new police education programmes, this chapter also outlines different aspects of partnership for delivering these professional qualification programmes.
Handbook for informal learning - interdisciplinary and international perspectives, Editors: Marius Harring, Matthias D. Witte, Timo Burger, , Jan 2016
This chapter has been written by the author as invited by the editor of the book entitled 'Handbo... more This chapter has been written by the author as invited by the editor of the book entitled 'Handbook for informal learning - interdisciplinary and international perspectives'. In this chapter, the concept of informal learning was discussed and then Bangladeshi contexts of informal learning were presented along with the challenges and prospects.
In Bangladesh, sex workers and their children are in a situation of exclusion where they are deni... more In Bangladesh, sex workers and their children are in a situation of exclusion where they are denied of even the most basic human rights. This article is based on a recent research carried out to explore the impact of education on sex workers and their children’s lives by gathering evidence on social exclusion and child abuse or protection in the context of their lives. The study focused on how education could be a vehicle for them to break the vicious cycle of exploitation. This was a mixed method interpretative study which employed qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitative data was generated through a questionnaire and qualitative data was generated through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Data was collected from different research participants such as sex workers, sex workers' children, teachers of sex workers’ children and NGO workers working in the research site. Thematic and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis to understand the challenges and barriers faced by sex workers and their children in their educational aspirations. The life of sex workers and their children is marginalised by the mainstream society. Though it is very difficult to break the vicious cycle of exploitation, education may be a stepping stone for them to create a better future. However, sex workers and their children need income generating vocational and technical education to earn and support their family. In the implication section of the article, policy recommendations have been made in order to achieve Education For All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and to provide a second chance for these vulnerable people to have a better life.
This chapter suggests that teachers’ professional development is going through a major transforma... more This chapter suggests that teachers’ professional development is going through a major transformation. For most countries in the Global South there is an acknowledgment that the quality of teacher education and the extent of the provision of training will need to be increased. By utilising new interactive forms of technology, open and distance learning has a great role to play in the process of teachers’ professional development. The school is increasingly seen as a place for learning within new models of teacher training programmes. In this era of increased mobile technology, all forms of teacher education programmes are exploring the possibilities of using technology in their contexts. Therefore the chapter, based on the pre-pilot study of the English in Action (EIA) Model, is suggesting that open and distance learning through the use of emerging technology is going to be a major contibution for teachers’ professional development to meet the crisis of inadequate qualified teacher supply in the Global South.
The well-established nonformal education sector which thrives alongside formal schools in Banglad... more The well-established nonformal education sector which thrives alongside formal schools in Bangladesh has the effect of positioning teaching and learning in a very distinctive way. In this chapter, what will emerge from the analysis will be concrete explanations of the way in which the informality of nonformal education is highly valued and meaningful to pupils, providing them with an effective context for making sense of themselves and their environment. The flexible environment of nonformal primary schools in a community context in Bangladesh facilitates the individual development of young people who would otherwise be excluded from the school system. The chapter has explored the features of institutional and wider context which support this nonformal learning environment, as well as contrasting it with those features which create a very different and far less flexible environment in formal high schools.
Journal Articles by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
Education Sciences, 2022
The continuous increase in tuition fees in high education in many countries requires justificatio... more The continuous increase in tuition fees in high education in many countries requires justification by the university authorities. One of the key factors of student recruitment is values for money and quality learning experiences including hands-on industry training that can guarantee immediate employment for the graduates. This article describes redesigning the curriculum of a cloud computing undergraduate module in collaboration with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Academy. Industry-based practical hands-on labs were incorporated into this module for engineering students to improve their practical knowledge and skills related to the Internet of Things. Through an innovative approach, this practitioner research introduces best practices from the industries and hands-on labs in cloud computing. In this approach, academic theories were incorporated in cloud computing with their applications through industry attachment. It enables students to have both the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for ensuring their careers in the field of cloud computing. This study found that students tend to be more engaged and learn better when theoretical knowledge and understanding are combined with real-world applications through the attachment with the industry.
Education Inquiry, 2020
The Rohingya is a stateless minority group in Myanmar, suffering from ethnic and religious armed ... more The Rohingya is a stateless minority group in Myanmar, suffering from ethnic and religious armed conflicts, state persecution, and displacement. Since the escalation of violent conflicts in the early 2010s, they have fled the country and sought refuge in neighbouring countries, and in the biggest numbers, in Bangladesh. Living in densely populated refugee camps, Rohingya children receive very limited access to education and are exceptionally vulnerable to illnesses, violence and trafficking. This discussion paper describes the conditions and contexts under which education is offered, and identifies the serious problems and gaps in provision for Rohingya children in Bangladeshi refugee camps.
Enhancing Student Engagement Using a Blended Learning Approach: Case Studies of First-Year Undergraduate Students
International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 2020
Student engagement is the core of the teaching and learning practice in higher education. This ex... more Student engagement is the core of the teaching and learning practice in higher education. This exploratory action research project was designed to enhance teaching and learning using a blended learning approach to increase student engagement prior, during, and after lecture and seminar sessions of a module run for first-year undergraduate students. Within an academic semester, three action research cycles were carried out to collect data and redesign the classroom practice. Different data collection techniques were used along with Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook. This article presents three case studies of individual students to demonstrate how the digital workspace helped to develop the practice of participatory teaching and learning during a first-year undergraduate module. This study indicates that listening to students' voices through a blended learning approach helped to increase student engagement, thus increasing student participation in shaping and redesigning teaching and learning to engage them within the classroom and beyond.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 2018
Purpose: This article reports part of a study focusing on young people’s transition from the nonf... more Purpose: This article reports part of a study focusing on young people’s transition from the nonformal to the formal education sector, and explores how the experiences of children and young people in remote formal and nonformal schools affect their awareness of issues of health, well-being and the environment. One of the main objectives of Bangladeshi extensive nonformal primary education, run by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in parallel with the formal system, is to prepare children outside schools to enter or re-enter the formal education sector. The study addresses the issue of educational relevance from pupils’ perspectives and looking at the implications for pupil transition between these two sectors. Method: Interviews and observations of students and their classes were conducted in two
contrasting rural high schools in different areas of Bangladesh, and their feeder primary schools. Results: Where formal primary graduates focus more in high school on learning from their textbooks, nonformal primary graduates aim to put their knowledge into practice in their day-to-day life on a range of critical issues. Conclusion: The results suggest an important contrast between nonformal and formal education sectors regarding students’ agency and knowledge of health and well-being,
hygiene and environmental awareness in rural Bangladesh.
Researching Muslim women in the west could be challenging for some researchers with different soc... more Researching Muslim women in the west could be challenging for some researchers with different socio-cultural or religious background. This includes sensitivity associated with religious identity, feminist view and socio-cultural aspects of the research subjects. This article used interview method, a frequently used tool for collecting data in the qualitative research paradigm by applied social scientists. The success of the interview method largely depends on the interviewees and their understanding of the research contexts. This article looks into the authors' understanding of using traditional interview method in a different cultural setting and tries to find out the challenges of using the method with Muslim women going for higher education. The interview process poses some distinct challenges to the interviewing process and needs to be addressed for a rigorous research. This article also reflects on a number of issues related to the interview process, working with the equipment (tape-recorder), flexibility of proposed schedule, and the way of posing research questions for in-depth inquiry. More importantly, it draws on both advantages and disadvantages of interview method for exploring this sensitive issue. The process of data analysis is also summarised along with the consideration of reflexivity and trustworthiness of the generated data. This article also highlights the issues related to gaining access to the participants, sampling, and ethical consideration.
Food Security and Livelihood in Coastal Area under Increased Salinity and Frequent Tidal Surge
Food availability is a crucial dimension of food security in an agrarian society. It is largely r... more Food availability is a crucial dimension of food security in an agrarian society. It is largely realized through own food production of a specific society. Seasonality plays an important role in food security. This article analyzes the existing threat to food security and livelihood in coastal areas of developing countries, particularly in Bangladesh, with a focus on climate change and seasonality. There is persistent food shortage during the sowing season and the pre-harvest period. Food deficit remains high during mid-August to end of October (68–95 per cent) while it is the lowest in December (21 per cent). During the pre-harvest period, farmers have to invest a lot of money at a time though they cannot afford it. Evidence suggests that food loans are common among the poor or small farmers during the food deficit period or in the event of flood. Over 78 per cent of the respondents had taken loans from microfinance institutions and local individual moneylenders. Problem remains as salinity and overfishing has drastically depleted open-water fisheries. Reviving livelihoods still remain a challenge for the vulnerable households especially in areas where agricultural diversity is very limited. Therefore, alternative livelihoods initiatives such as homestead or community-based cage fishing, cash grant and training on non-farm activities of women and men, generating employment through public work programmes need to be in place to ensure food security and livelihood of vulnerable people living in coastal areas.
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Books by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
Book Chapters by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
Journal Articles by M. Mahruf C. Shohel
contrasting rural high schools in different areas of Bangladesh, and their feeder primary schools. Results: Where formal primary graduates focus more in high school on learning from their textbooks, nonformal primary graduates aim to put their knowledge into practice in their day-to-day life on a range of critical issues. Conclusion: The results suggest an important contrast between nonformal and formal education sectors regarding students’ agency and knowledge of health and well-being,
hygiene and environmental awareness in rural Bangladesh.