DU participated in the 22nd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI 2009) in Vancouver, BC Canada, from 4th to 7th January 2009.  It is one of the leading congresses in the area of “New Departures For A Learning World Of Quality And Equality”. The focus of the congress was to connect four key areas:

Knowledge of School Effectiveness –The rigour of this tradition to answer the question: What do we know?

Knowledge and Practice of School Improvement –To move our knowledge into action to improve the learning lives of all our young people. How do we apply what we know?

Imagination – An emerging body of work is making a difference to learner engagement. How can we incorporate this thinking into our learning improvement work?

System Transformation – Jurisdictions around the world are making the shift from sorting to learning systems. Can we work together to build on our strong traditions and foster innovation?

This conference attracted more than 150 delegates from across the North America and around the globe. International presenters from 34 countries participated in the conference including: USA, UK, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Iran, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, India, Malaysia, and Oman.

Dhofar University was represented by Dr. Habib Ullah Khan, who is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Information Systems, College of Commerce and Business Administration. His paper was entitled “Can Computer Mediated Communication be a solution for equity and performance related problems of educational group work in under developing countries of gulf region?”. The outcomes of his research also suggested a suitable online mode of communication to reduce the equity problem and to increase the performance of the students of the gulf region. His paper also suggested a model of qualitative data analysis.
Papers during the congress covered a wide range of topics, and their main aim was to explore that: How can we use innovation and imagination to create transformation in classrooms, schools, colleges, districts, systems, and countries? What are the emerging understandings about quality and equality of learning and what are the implications of these new models for leadership? And how are countries, organizations, colleges, universities, and schools meeting the challenge of improving learning for ALL learners?