Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce
Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce
We are delighted to invite you to our upcoming international conference on “Nurturing Critical Minds: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education and the Workforce”. The conference is interdisciplinary, it will cover a diverse range of fields and perspectives on the development of critical thinking skills in different academic fields at universities and labour market institutions. Showcasing the holistic approach, the conference aims to explore the vital role of critical thinking in diverse academic disciplines and its significance in the ever-evolving landscape of labour market institutions.
The conference aims to bridge the gap between universities and labour market institutions, fostering a culture of critical thinking that thrives in the classroom and enhances professional growth in the workplace. This conference will serve as a platform for educators, researchers, and labour market professionals from diverse fields to explore innovative strategies, and share best practices and collaborate on integrating critical thinking skills into educational curricula.
Keynote speakers
Alistair Starling
Co-Founder and Managing Director of the European Diplomats
Luís Sebastião
Associate Professor in the Department of Pedagogy and Education, Director of the Center for Research in Education and Psychology, University of Évora
Dimitris Pnevmatikos
Professor in the Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Western Macedonia
Erika Vaiginienė
Associate professor in the Department of Business, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vilnius University
Inga Jončienė
Head of Business Development at Alliance for Recruitment
Adam Mastandrea
Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University
Daiva Penkauskienė
Director of Modern Didactics Center, Associate Professor in the Institute of Educational Sciences and Social Work, Mykolas Romeris University
Sandra Kairė
Associate Professor, Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University
Kay Hemmerling
Dr Kay Hemmerling, Chairman at the Institute for Moral-Democratic Competence (IMDC e.V.)
Programme
Programme
Inga Rozgienė
Effectiveness of the Course English for Academic Purposes and Research: The Learner Perspective
Effectiveness of the Course English for Academic Purposes and Research:
The Learner Perspective
Inga Rozgienė
Vilnius University, Lithuania
The aim of this paper is to present the results of a survey undertaken to find out students’ perception of the effectiveness of the course English for Academic Purposes and Research (CEFR level C1) introduced into Vilnius University in 2019. The course is constructed using the principles of the action-oriented approach, where students are exposed to typical situations encountered in the academic environment and engaged in appropriate interaction and mediation activities to identify and propose a solution to global and/or subject-related problems through collaborative critical analysis of authentic sources. The course aims to develop a range of capabilities embracing not only communicative language competencies but also transferable, academic, and subject-specific skills, which are assessed through production activities.
The sample of the study consisted of 70 first-year students at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences who were asked to complete a questionnaire immediately after the examination and evaluate the effectiveness of the course from different perspectives. The respondents were asked to assess their own progress in terms of the acquisition of transferable and academic skills, language proficiency, and subject-specific knowledge. They were also asked to evaluate the activities, assignments and tasks regarding their usefulness, rank them by their difficulty and specify the ones that posed the greatest cognitive challenge.
The results indicate that the repertoire and sequence of the tasks create a strong platform for the development of competencies set in the description of the course; however, some adjustments (e.g., giving preference to certain activities, allocation of more time to practice particular tasks, or even raising the visibility of the usefulness of some formats) could be made to increase the efficacy of the course.
Keywords: course effectiveness, English for Academic Purposes and Research, action-based approach, learner’s competencies, authentic materials
Biography
Inga Rozgienė is a lecturer at the Department of Foreign Language Teaching and Research of the Institute of Foreign Languages (Faculty of Philology), Vilnius University, Lithuania.
She has been teaching English for Specific Purposes, and English for Academic Purposes and Research to students of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Nanomaterials Chemistry programs at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences since 2009. Research interests include teaching ESP, content and language-integrated learning, designing course materials based on authentic sources, and the possibilities of using technology in language teaching.
