Overview

The need for supplying quality academic language, tourism and hospitality modules remains a highly challenging objective as global market expectations for graduates with better knowledge, skills and competencies  continuously  and steadily become higher. 

Yet in the quest for higher quality, standardization and competitivity, it remains essential to retaining equal opportunity, equity and inclusion for as wide a range of learners as is practically possible. These challenges also relate to  different learner-types that can also be classified as ‘field-dependent’ and ‘field-independent’, and creating pedagogical models that equally favour both categories without compromising the educational product may be useful. This remains crucial for higher education institutions worldwide, particularly those seeking to create an international profile through publications, professional exchanges and other means. 

The Institute of Tourism Studies [ITS, E10075516], Malta [Institute of Tourism Studies (its.edu.mt)] sent me as part of its process of internationalization and reached out to the Institute of Economy and Trade of Tajik State University of Commerce [IET TSUC E10157092] [https://iet.tj/en/index-e/ ]  to share our experience and expertise in pedagogy and learner-psychology. ITS sent me specifically as an instructor of pedagogy to encourage learner-centered practices, via KA171 to IET TSUC in Khujand, Tajiikistan, for staff training on an 7-day mobility in June 2024.

I am an education specialist in the fields of language, pedagogy and tourism with the Institute of Tourism Studies and therefore extended my services by coordinating, developing materials and delivering this mobility.

Needs analysis discussed between IET TSUC and ITS initially identified the need for:

• Create bespoke learner-centred models of pedagogy to encourage inclusion, learner-confidence, participation and critical thinking;
• Business English and English for special purposes [Tourism English];
• Facilitate bilateral exchange of educators and learners.

Background and over-arching objectives

• Tajikistan is a relatively small country in Central Asia that was part of the Soviet Union and is currently enjoying a rapidly-expanding international focus on its tourism opportunities, particularly linked to its stunning nature. With verdant mountain ranges, vast plateaux, valleys and rivers, the landscape is beautiful and varied. In addition, incredibly friendly people and a delicious cuisine await visitors. It is also safe and affordable.
• Individuality, in terms of needs and potential, is largely not explored. Learners invariably must fit into the education system, rather than the system being flexible and adjusting to facilitate and maximise the potential of as many of its learners as possible.
• It has been said that the education system is overly focused on the system inherited from the Russian colonial legacy; this is teacher-centred and not interactive, does not encourage creativity, and also does not facilitate free-thinking. 
• Learners’ cognitive style such as Field-dependent [FD] learners and Field-independent  [FI] learners have been described as far back as the early 90s [e.g. Chapelle, 1995; Chapelle and Green, 1992].
• The main characteristics defining FD-FI are [i] degree of reliance on internal [FI] and external [FD] reference points [ii] cognitive restructuring skills and [iii] interpersonal competencies [Witkin and Goodenough, 1981; 1977]. Experimenting with learner-inclusion and making the lesson learner-centred via FD-FI  principles of learning-teaching was the primary focus of the mobility.

This work "Builging in Georgia" by Jean Pierre Vaillancourt Cassar is licensed under All rights reserved

On-site bottom-up feedback

• Dialogue with learners, educators and management immediately placed emphasis on the importance of English having a more pivotal role within the university.
• The Russian colonial legacy  has also meant that English is perhaps weaker than is actually needed for young Tajik adults to succeed in the international business or academic world, but also to help internationalise the local tourism market adequately.
• This was generally seen as highly important, therefore to the initial overarching objectives of focussing and exploring student-centred pedagogy was added the focus of facilitating the teaching-learning process via English.
• This is in keeping with the rationale of the university targeting journals that use English as their language of communication, as opposed to their previous quasi-exclusive focus on Russian journals.  

Has this been found to equally important when interacting in your higher education institutions having the linguistic legacy of previous colonial systems?

My personal mobility-objectives while teaching and training on field-dependent learners and field-independent learners.

• As a personal objective to I wanted to develop during this mobility, I planned to attempt classroom observation on how the teaching-learning process took place in this socio-cultural reality, and how possible the introduction of pedagogical strategies based on the field-dependent and field-independent paradigm. 

Have you considered these specific pedagogical practices anywhere in the world and how successful do you feel developing this type of understanding was in the classroom?

• I also wanted to explore local views on the potential of developing tourism, and how it could and perhaps should have a different focus than well-known touristic destination and was in Uzbekistan in 2023 via a KA107 mobility. While in Uzbekistan the focus is on historical and religious tourism, therefore perhaps Tajikistan could focus on a different type of niche tourism based on nature, ecology and trekking, for example. 

• A third objective was the challenge of exploring the possibility of ensuring that English language professors had the necessary knowledge skills and competencies to ensure that their students received the best possible training on how to write academically in English. 

   

Modus operandi and over-arching impressions during this mobility

The modus operandi of the mobility included lectures, presentations, and interactive workshops with professors from the Department of foreign languages, and also the Department of economics. Additionally, I also job-shadowed undergraduate and postgraduate classes for students being conducted by in-house professors and also a visiting professor from the United States. This presented an excellent opportunity for me, as the newly-visiting expert to understanding the pedagogical reality and also the level of English. This was done prior to offering the following workshops and master-classes to in-house professors: 

[1] Workshops on experimenting with learner-inclusion and making the lesson learner-centred via FD-FI  principles of learning-teaching.

[2] Teacher training [without subject specialization] was achieved via master-classes on how to organize and develop academic writing for various disciplines including tourism and hospitality, and business environments.

[3] The writing discourse strategy followed by Tajiks is essentially different from the western academic one and interesting comparisons were made, in addition to outlining western and international conventions. In addition to the didactic components, participants presented topics related to Tajik culture and history via mini-presentations.

[4] job-shadowing – observing in-house professors teach various disciplines where the language of instruction is English; feedback given by me to them afterwards, both generic and with suggestions as to where understanding leaner type, particularly FD-FI perspectives.

[5] job shadowing –in-house professors observing  me teach academic English writing and aspects of sustainable tourism and eco-tourism, with the language of instruction being English; feedback was given to me and these experiences serves as a useful basis for interactive workshops, exploring learner-types, particularly FD-FI perspectives 

How do these observations and experiences compare to those you may have had in Central Asia or other parts of the world?

Conclusions from this mobility: ‘field-dependent’ and ‘field-independent’ pedagogical models observations and characteristics

[1] Workshops with a focus through Interactive, learner-centred pedagogy demonstrate that, like in neighbouring Uzbekistan KA107 mobility in 2023], with which there is a lot of shared socio-cultural and historical background, there was also found to be:

[i] efficient and pleasurable learning through contextualization of learning via local ecological and touristic resources, in addition to the theoretical underpinning obtained in the classroom;

 [ii] show the successful possibility of giving learners greater opportunities to interact with each other, in particular teamwork that included groups having different characteristics, and share views and develop creativity and critical thinking skills.

[2] the FD and FI paradigm appears practical to consider and employ when teaching a mixed-profile class of learners in real time. The vast majority of learners, both field-dependent’ and ‘field-independent, were on-task and felt ‘secure’ in what the learning objectives were from the start and satisfied with their progression in task resolution via teamwork. It is important to use tasks that ‘must make use’ of characteristics of both FD and FI learners [Mallia, 2021], creating an opportunity for learners to contribute usefully and to be better equipped to tackle the task together, giving a sense of value to all individuals.

[3] Regular monitoring of learner-groups ensured teams were on-track; post-task feedback from learners was encouraged for me to regulate upcoming tasks and ensure adequate ;scaffolding’, in addition to planning future sessions. 

[4] Learners were routinely asked if they needed any clarifications, and I also regularly used concept-checking questions to ensure all learners were on-track;

[5] Similarly to what was doe in Uzbekistan, by arranging language  practice with feedback, I facilitated novel information effectively and efficiently being transferred to learner’s cognitive structures; I was tapping into cognitive-theory learning. Cognitivism elements were encouraged in the classroom by using cues (prompts), and practicing, which ensured a strong stimulus-response association. My frequent use of task instruction-checking questions ensured a greater probability of learner-success, boosting self-confidence;

Future focus

A second Erasmus+ mobility [KA171-HED-60709EED] to Tajik Agrarian University, Dushanbe, Tajikistan has been confirmed for autumn 2024  where the ideas and experiences collected in IET TSUC in Khujand, Tajikistan will be disseminated and the impact evaluated via discussion and feedback. 

 Other Erasmus+ mobilities have been planned [KA171-HED-E7B2858C] will facilitate ITS to conduct mobilities with partner countries in Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya and Tunisia] to disseminate and achieve impact via the exploration of the success and limitations of various pedagogical strategies, including FD-FI strategies, in various learning communities worldwide. The ease of learning through a combination of various teaching strategies, for example FD-FI strategies explicit-implicit, deductive-inductive etc. will be explored with these partner countries. 

Educators and higher education institutions with an interest in these educational experiences are therefore solicited to interact via this platform.  

In addition to the above, ITS also will gain additional knowledge on tackling the teaching of these subjects through FD-FI strategies explicit, deductive and explicit, indictive methods to diverse students, ensuring greater classroom equity.

About the author

I am an education specialist focusing on the challenges and opportunities of the teaching-learning process of adults coming from different socio-cultural and discourse communities worldwide. My PhD explored differences in learning strategies based on ethnicity and culture in Egypt and Nubia.

I have organized and delivered projects worldwide, and in addition to completed and ongoing mobilities and projects in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Togo, Sudan, Jordan, Mauritius, Georgia, Armenia Uzbekistan, and of course, Tajikistan, we have ongoing projects in various countries across Europe, Africa and Asia. We would be delighted to share experiences and viewpoints or organize new ones with you.

Additional reading

 Archer, A.L. & Hughes, C.A. (2011). Effective and Efficient Teaching. The Guilford Press, New York.

Chapelle, C. (1995). Field independence/dependence in the L2 classroom . In J. Reid (Ed.),Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom 9p.p. 158-168). Boston. 

Chapelle, C. and Green, P. (1992). Field dependence/independence in second language acquisition research. Language learning, 42(1) 47-83.

Farmaki Nisiforou, C., Sakkalis, V., Loesche, and Nisiforou, E.A (2019). Front. Hum. Neurosci., 11 October 2019. Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience, Volume 13 – 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00345

Mallia, J. G. (2021). Mitigation of classroom dissonance through good pedagogical practices: educator beliefs, practices Teaching Grammar in and motivational factors at the Institute of Tourism Studies. Masters thesis Institute of Education, Malta.

Tinajero, C. and Paramo, M.F (2011). Field dependence-independence and academic achievement: a re-examination of their relationship. Volume67, Issue2, 199-212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1997.tb01237.x

Witkin, H.A. and Goodenough, D.R. (1981). Cognitive styles, essence and origins: field dependence and field independence (Psychological Issues, Monograph 51). New York International University Press. 

Witkin, H.A. and Goodenough, D.R. (1977). Field dependence and interpersonal behaviour. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 661-688