At UIII, FoE Kick-Offs the 3rd Annual Conference on Well-Being and Education

Contributor: Supriyono | Editor: Dadi Darmadi

UIII, DEPOK – The Faculty of Education (FoE) at the Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) has officially kicked off its 3rd annual conference on Thursday, May 30, 2024, under the theme “A New Way of Teaching and Learning: Integrating Well-Being in Educational Settings” emphasizing the integration of well-being into the core aspects of education.

In her opening speech, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Nina Nurmila, PhD, welcomed the keynote speakers, presenters and audiences, saying that this year’s FoE conference has attracted more paper submissions with better quality papers. She elaborated that in 2022, the conference received 13 papers and selected 6 papers to be presented in the 1st annual education conference. In 2023, the committee received 19 papers and selected 15 papers to be presented. Meanwhile this year, the conference received 46 papers and selected 26 papers for presentation.

“All of these numbers are less than the number of papers we received for the Writing Competition, which reaches 75 papers. Perhaps the awards and money we granted could be the motivating aspects for authors to submit their paper for writing competition. Therefore, beginning last year, we provide similar awards for the best papers submitted for the conference,” Prof. Nina Nurmila remarked.

In terms of the country of origin, Prof. Nurmila explained that her team expanded the origin country of the paper writers from only Indonesia in 2022, to three countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and UK) in 2023, to four countries (Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan) in 2024. “All of these still show that we need to build broader networking to spread our conference to attract more participants from various different countries,” Prof. Nurmila said.

Following the Dean’s speech, Prof. Dr. Jamhari, Rector of UIII, highlighted the importance of the conference theme, saying that it resonates with UIII’s mission of inclusivity and to deliver top-notch postgraduate education, foster innovative research, and contribute to science and social welfare.

“This approach recognizes the importance of addressing students’ emotional intelligence, psychological, and physical well-being throughout their academic development,” Prof. Dr. Jamhari said in his remark.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Charyna Ayu Rizkyanti, PhD, the organizing committee, explained the reason behind the theme, associating it with the human development theory in which universities are the places for adult learners either those in the early to late adulthood phase. Hence, well-being becomes an integral part of the university environment.

“Inevitably, the increasing focus on well-being, particularly mental health, in the education sector occurs for a crucial reason. Educational institutions must adopt a holistic approach to teaching and learning and integrate well-being into their policies and practices,” Associate Professor Rizkyanti said.

This year’s conference invited three keynote speakers. On the first day, Thursday, May 30th, 2024, K. H. Saiful Rahmat Dasuki, S.IP., M.Si. from the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia discussed how to improve the well-being in education setting through practicing moderate Islam. Additionally, Prof. Lindsay Oades from the University of Melbourne, Australia presented the “Flourishing and Well-being in Education”. On the second day, Friday, May 31st, 2024, Prof. Vina Adriany, PhD from Indonesian Education University (UPI) will discuss “Teachers’ Welfare, Professionalism and Well-being” as the conference’s final keynote speaker.

This is the third time the UIII Faculty of Education has held its annual conference. The first annual education conference in 2022 was under the broad theme of Education and Society concentration; the second annual conference in 2023 was under the theme of Education Policy, Management, and Leadership; and this year’s conference is under the theme of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. Next year, the faculty will have the fourth annual conference under the theme Educational Assessment and Evaluation.