About Us

---

 Since 2014, American Scholars Press (ASP) has published scholars, students, and practitioners in the broad field of education. ASP’s journal, the International Forum for Teaching and Studies (IFOTS), has an international distribution. It attracts a broad readership of professional educators and educational theorists from many settings around the globe.

Over the years, The IFOTS journal articles often prompted informal exchanges among authors, occasional Zoom-based discussions on popular topics, and symposia among the published scholars and practitioners and a wider audience. As a result of our global conversations, the interest for professional development emerged, calling for dialogue and mutual learning informed by international perspectives.

IFOTS CAMPUS was created by a select team of educators to meet this increasing demand. We are poised to collaboratively build a globally-informed learning community in which to address continuing professional development and training by, with, and for new and versed education professionals.

What exactly are our approaches in teaching and learning we ought to embrace? What is our foundation, our theory of knowledge that guides our praxis? How do our philosophical orientations influence our teaching? Are there globally shared fundamental strategies and methods to considered? 

As we are experiencing a growing interdependence among our world society with geopolitics, economies, cultures, and populations, correspondingly, our teaching and learning philosophies and praxes have been and will continue to undergo transformation to accommodate the emerging assets, needs, and partnerships of a global community.

Traditionally, knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) have been defined within conventional Western epistemologies, generally labeled as technical knowledge, communication skills, critical thinking, adaptability, and leadership skills. Within global transformations of our socio-economic systems alone, this necessitates emphasis on particular KSA that focus on preparing for transnational and transcultural workplace and worklife readiness and collaboration for building a sustainable society. 

Over many decades and continuing to date, a cacophony of authors proclaim concepts about a shift toward a 21st Century Educationwithin particular characteristics and competencies said to be needed by teachers and learners (e.g., UNESCO 1996; Strohschen and Elazier, 2007, Strohschen, 2009, Jerald, 2009; Erdem, Bağcı, and Koçyiğit, 2019). These include collaborative problem solving, creativity, applied learning, critical thinking, information and media literacy, cultural competencies and so forth. Already in 1998, however, Audi noted,

This shift has far-reaching implications for epistemology—the theory of knowledge—as well. If machines can perceive and interpret the world through sensory data, then they can also contribute to a more nuanced understanding of reality, one that is not solely dependent on human cognition. This challenges long-standing philosophical assumptions about the uniqueness of human perception and continues to open up new avenues for exploring questions about consciousness, existence, and the nature of reality itself.

Hence, with the advent of technology in education institutions, institutions of education emphasized teaching approaches during the last three decades that relied more and more on technology. The required KSA shifted to embrace vendor-driven innovations for online delivery, not necessarily (if at all) aligning the functions and capacities of the technology (the medium) to the learning objectives and tasks  (the content and instructional process) at hand.

Then, in 2008, Chris Anderson, the former editor-in-chief at WIRED magazine, sought to provoke deeper considerations: Out with every theory of human behavior, from linguistics to sociology. Forget taxonomy, ontology, and psychology. Who knows why people do what they do?

Add these considerations to the ideas about a next phase, i.e., the Fifth Industrial Revolution, or what is termed the Dawn of the Cognitive Age, we recognize a pivotal point in human history, upon which researchers seek to redefine the very fabric of society and human existence. As we stand on the brink of this new era, the harmonization of human and machine intelligence emerges as the imperative for the advancement of humanity. As Nosta (2023) suggests further about this transformative context,

The next phase will be driven by the continued evolution of AI, particularly technologies like GPT models. These models represent more than mere tools; they are cognitive partners set to redefine societal structures, economies, and the very essence of human existence.(para. 5).

For educationists and educators, these considerations culminate in becoming tasked to meet known and as of yet unknown challenges of preparing for them as a global society and with a highly competent teacher and trainer workforce. And as educators we are called upon to teach youths and adults to navigate our rapidly changing global life world, learning, and work environments. Researchers are working diligently, re-envisioning our traditional approaches to education and exploring how to best leverage the latest in education and technology to graduate competent teachers to meet these challenges. And yet, a data revolution is under way that has far-reaching consequences to how knowledge is produced and disseminated, business is conducted, and governance is enacted, according to Kitchin (2014). For commentators such as Chris Anderson, big data, new data analytics, and ensemble approaches signal a new era of knowledge production, characterized by the end of theory.

And with that we arrive at the opportunities our IFOTS CAMPUS offers us to collectively pose problems and identify solutions. With overwhelming amounts of Big Data that are easily available, we appear to be able to determine solutions for equitable, accessible, and relevant education and training content and process. However, it is when exchanges across societies and cultures take place that foster dialogue about actual needs, experiences, and practices on the ground can we benefit from insights to increase knowledge, understanding, and repertoire for developing…not models…but contextually appropriate approaches.

References:

Anderson, C. (2008, June 23). The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/

Audi, R. (1998). Epistemology: a contemporary introduction to the theory of knowledge. Routledge. https://people.cs.rutgers.edu/~biglars/epis.pdf

Erdem, C., Hakkı Bağcı, H., & Koçyiğit, M. (eds). (2019). 21st Century Skills and Education. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-3966-2-sample.pdf

Jerald, C.D. (2009). Defining a 21 st Century Education. The Center for Public Education https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=0252e811a5dee8948eb052a1

281bbc3486087503.

Kitchin, R. (2014). Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts. Big Data & Society, 1(1). SAGE Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951714528481

Nosta, J. (2023, October 6). The 5th Industrial Revolution: The Dawn of the Cognitive Age How technology is driving a revolution of thought. [Online Magazine]. Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/the-digital-self/202310/the-5th-industrial-revolution-the-dawn-of-the-cognitive-age.

Pushpanadham, K. (ed). (2020). Teacher Education in the Global Era. Springer.

Strohschen, G., & Elazier, K. (2007) The 21st Century adult educator: Strategic and consultative partner. Assumption University Journal 1(1), 42-53.

Strohschen, G. (ed). (2009). Handbook of Blended Shore Education: Adult Program

Development and Delivery. Springer Verlag.

UNESCO (1996), Education for the 21st century: Learning to learn. The UNESCO Courier: A Window open to the World, 49(4), 537, 3-50,

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000102622

• Within a deep commitment to lifelong and life wide learning for teaching professionals, many of us have expressed our views, our hopes, and our concerns; and we have shared our research, concepts, models, and practices within the pages of the International Forum of Teaching and Studies (IFOTS) for the past two decades.

The IFOTS CAMPUS concept takes on these global challenges before us. For 20 years,

IFOTS has been a free forum for scholars and practitioners in the teaching and learning professions from around the globe. Practitioner-scholars, leaders in administration roles, researchers, university students and fresh graduates, and teachers at all levels from 16+ countries have contributed significantly to enhance the knowledge and skills of stakeholders in our profession, all benefitting from these exchanges on the page, mostly.

In response to overwhelming requests for more in-depth and comprehensive follow-up on these research and praxis reports in our journal, the IFOTS CAMPUS now gives you direct access to and collaboration with the various contributors directly to engage in meaningful exchanges. 

We extend an opportunity for you to not only participate but to contribute your expertise in this forum, as well. You will be joined in conversations with colleagues from eminent institutions in Afghanistan, Afrika, Canada, China, Germany, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK, Thailand, Taiwan, and the USA. These include accomplished faculty members, directors of education programs, thought leaders, community-based practitioners, and trainers from colleges and universities, as well as subject-matter-experts from major training organizations and businesses who specialize in professional development for teachers and trainers at all levels.

The benefits of these conversations and collaborations extend beyond the obvious Western Shores only knowledge and practices and include critical topics, such as:

• Closing the Knowledge and Skills Gaps for 21st Century Learning in a Multi-polar World
•  Educational Leadership
• Specific Praxes For Challenging the Hegemony of Western Education Practices 
• Sharing Local and Cultural Wisdom for Teaching in Cross-Cultural Contexts
• Conflict Resolution and Peace Negotiations
• Professional Development for Appropriate Use of the Technology Medium
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the Role of Relevant Instructional Design 
• A Basic and Fundamental “Boot Camp” for Refreshing Instructional Design Skills
• Strategies, Methods and Techniques
• Program Development 
• Andragogy, Critical Pedagogy, and Metagogy