Report on Partap IPDA International Conference 2022

Partap IPDA International Conference on the theme “Professionalism for Education Beyond the Crisis” was organised by Partap College of Education, Ludhiana in collaboration with Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia under the patronage of International Professional Development Association, UK on 8th April, 2022. Prof. B.K. Punia, former Vice Chancellor, M.D. University, Rohtak was the chief guest of the conference. Prof. Vandana Punia, Dean, Faculty of Education, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Dr Ramesh Sandhu, Vice Cahir of IPDA, India from C. R. College of Education, Hisar, Dr Rakesh Sandhu, Principal, Dr G.D. DAV College of Education for Women, Karnal, Dr Chaman Lal Banga and Dr Rajesh Kumar Sharma from H.P. University, Shimla, and Prof. Ramesh Inder Kaur Bal, Director, Partap Public School graced the occasion with their presence. After long effects of COVID -19 pandemic, the conference was organised in blended mode (offline and online). All the international scholars participated online because of the restrictions in travelling and over 200 university professors, teachers and research scholars from India, Spain and Russia participated in the conferences.

Ms. Balwinder Kaur, Assist.  Prof. in the opening dialogue introduced IPDA, UK and MoU signed between Partap College of Education and Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, KFU, Russia. Dr Manpreet Kaur, Principal, Partap College of Education welcomed the delegates, guests, students and all the attendees to the conference and emphasised on the need for education to emerge as a powerful force to face crises such as COVID.

Prof Balwant Singh, Chair, IPDA India acquainted the audience with the theme and subthemes of the conference and stressed on the role of teachers in bringing long lasting change. While depicting the theme of the conference, he pointed out that teachers being the path makers need to recognize their professional responsibility, develop professional ethics through self-determination and self-propelling efforts for academic excellence and to meet the crises.

Prof. Elzara Gafiyatova, Vice Chair, Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, Kazan Federal University, Russia presented welcome address and expressed her felicity for collaboration with Partap College and mentioned that such joint ventures are very useful for both the institutions. She also appreciated the efforts of jointly organising such international events on contemporary sensitive issues and strengthening the professional relationships with international organizations.

Prof. B.K. Punia, former Vice Chancellor, M.D. University, Rohtak presented the first keynote address and talked about teacher professionalism. He expressed that professional ethics ensure better teaching as well as learning environments and improve the quality of learning, so teachers should emerge as highly competent, culturally balanced, secular and research-oriented individuals. His keynote speech was followed by the presidential remarks of Prof. Balwant Singh.

Poster Exhibition has always been the centre of attraction of Partap IPDA International Conference in which research work is presented in attractive and colourful manner. All the delegates enjoyed the poster exhibition being held oriented on the sub-themes of the conference. After poster presentation, eminent scholars from various country presented their research reports on various sub-themes- in parallel technical sessions organised in separate groups respectively both in offline and online mode.

International scholars from Russia, Spain and some of the participants from various states of India presented their research reports online. From Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia, Prof. Tatiana S. Pimenova coordinated and Prof. Iskander E. Yarmakeev, Vice Director, presided over the online technical session. Prof. Svetlana V. Karkina, propounded research report on “Emergency Remote Teaching Based on Signature Pedagogy: Digitalization in Music Teacher Professional Training”, in her presentation she put forward a design of a small private online course based on signature pedagogy.  Prof. Iskander E. Yarmakeev, Prof. Tatiana S. Pimenova, Prof. Albina R. Abdrafikova, presented paper entitled “Social Networks Inbuilt in Training Pre-service EFL Teachers; Perspectives and Concerns”, and assessed the impact of social platform for education purpose. Research scholars, K.V. Klyuchnikova and F.A. Khabibullina, from KFU also presented informative and thought-provoking research reports. All the presentations were interesting and triggered discussion on a wide range of issues related to the theme of the Conference. Prof. Tatiana compiled the findings of various Research presentations and appreciated the delegates for their excellent work. Prof. Iskander E. Yarmakeev concluded the session by his presidential remarks.

Second distinguished keynote speaker Prof. Juanjo Mena, Head of Education Department, University of Salamanca, Spain in his presentation discussed the “Innovative trends in Teacher Education”. He enunciated that gamification has the heyday due to the rise of new technologies and games which are driven by educational goals, not entertainment have been “re-emerged” as innovative teaching-learning strategies that are effective in improving learning outcomes. His speech was followed by presidential remarks by Dr Manpreet Kaur.

Following the key note addresses, to answer the queries of attendees and for interaction, Open House Discussion was held. Prof. B.K. Punia, Dr. Ramesh Sandhu and Prof. Vandana Punia were the chairperson, co-chair and coordinator respectively, whereas Prof. Balwant Singh, Dr. Manpreet Kaur, Dr Rakesh Sandhu, Dr Rajesh Kumar were the panellists for the open house discussion. This healthy interactive session was all the more important and interesting as scholars participating offline or online got opportunity to interact, express and panellists reciprocated the queries of participants.

Prof. Iskander E. Yarmakeev, Vice Director, Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication presented concluding remarks on the conference. He congratulated that all the topics of the conference covered important scientific problems and participation of academicians from different disciplines makes learning more enriching. He also congratulated the organizers of the international conference and expressed hope for many forthcoming new projects under the collaboration of these two institutes of India and Russia.

To make the conference ambience more cheerful and to promote intercultural communication, students from state of Haryana (India) presented cultural performances. Reflections and resolutions on the conference were presented by Prof. Balwant Singh in the closing ceremony of the conference and asserted that teachers are the main contrivance who can combat any kind of crises with professional expertise, ethics and competence. To honour and acknowledge the presence, mementos were presented to all the guests and prominent speakers.  At the end, Ms. Balwinder Kaur thanked all the guests, speakers and participants for their valuable inputs to the conference.