Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) May 2019 Chlef University International Conference Proceedings Pp. 2-3
Foreword
We are tremendously delighted to write the Foreword to the 1st International Conference “Supporting educational innovation to ensure quality teaching” organised by “Laboratoire de Recherche: Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication dans l’Enseignement des Langes et Traduction” in Collaboration with “The Center of Intensive Language Teaching” CEIL, and Hassiba Ben Bouali University of Chlef, Algeria, on the 28th and 29th of November, 2018.
The main conference themes, which are thoroughly picked out, provide a fertile soil to tackle new issues and handcuffs that put the educational system and university education under pressure, especially with the quick and streamed globalization. These challenges have raised many inquiries on the reforms which are made in the education sector and the teaching methods being adopted. The prime goal of the conference was to put higher education in the Algerian context and the quality of teaching under the lens, hoping that the scholarly contributions of the participants can give life to new teaching approaches to push the wheel of higher education even further, so that it meets the continued changes of globalization and the demands of the market.
Since independence, the higher educational system in Algeria has noticed considerable reforms; most importantly, the inclusion of the LMD system (2004/2005) as in many countries. However, the adoption of this framework to higher education has presented queries for teachers and learners since these reforms are not supported with methods and techniques that ensure the quality of teaching and the markets’ needs.
The diminishing quality of higher education in the Algerian context can be limited to the fact that no appropriate evaluations of the sector were conducted before the incorporation of these changes; in addition, these reforms did not take into account the national context of Algeria which is totally distinct from Europe, mainly France. Apparently, the application of a system, which is blindly dropped from its real context to be incorporated into another, leads the higher education in Algeria to swim against the current.
In light of the aforementioned crises, policymakers, educators, researchers, and teachers are striving to evaluate the system, so that they can improve and ensure the quality of higher education. They have also to innovate in order to cope with changes in language education in general and teaching languages in particular. Given this situation, the conference provided a pertinent place to tackle different issues related to the quality of education including how to evaluate higher education, approaches to quality assurance, quality assurance framework into practice, pedagogy enhancement, course design and market demands, and mission of higher education…etc.
The current research papers provided a thoughtful and relevant analysis of some issues in higher education, language education and new trends on English language teaching and learning including: Action research to ensure quality teaching, The use of ICT tools to improve the quality teaching, E-Assessment and its effects on the students’ writing production, ESP teaching new development, ICT and English language teaching and learning…etc.
We believe that it is through evaluation; we can promote innovation and ensure the quality of university education. It is time to construct the right decisions and put the Algerian educational system on the right path. We hope that the points recommended during the conference will be put into practice. We also believe that these contributions will open the gateway for more scholarship.