Contemporary Curriculum Design for Higher Education: An Islamic Appraisal

Education is a key to developing positivity in human beings. It helps to become a good citizen. In Islam, education has a central role that every Muslim must seek. Islamic education is centered on the teaching of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The Quran is revealed in Arabic, therefore sources of the teachings of Islam are in Arabic. It is the religious duty of the Muslim Ummah to learn Arabic and have command in it. The Quran is the only Book that provides complete guidance to humanity, whether the matters related to social life, economic matters, political issues, or religious life. Keeping this in view, the curriculum should also be prepared in the light of the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Focusing on the contemporary curriculum design for Islamic studies for higher education, this paper describes the missing material in the existing curriculum and suggests that the use of modern resources, arranging conferences, and an expansive transformative framework for Islamic studies are the key tools for its implementation. It stresses the curricular designers to approach the existing curriculum more comprehensively which covers Islamic Law, comparative studies, contemporary trends in world traditions, peace dialogue, and practical involvement of students too. This goal can be gained through amendments or revising the existing curriculum. The outcome of it will results in students' critical thinking, positivity, comprehensive knowledge, language proficiency, and character building.

Using Portfolios to Formatively Assess the Writing Skills of Undergraduate Esl/Efl Students

This action research aims to trace the development of a model of portfolio for formative assessment in a non-credit, remedial writing skills’ course at a private higher education institute in Karachi. It is aimed to gain holistic insights into the ways portfolio is used, the benefits that emerged and the challenges that arose. At higher education level, writing is mainly assessed through traditional methods, which have several limitations (Sahakian, 2009). A portfolio has the potential to overcome these limitations. Most of the studies on portfolios in ESL/EFL settings employ quantitative methodology (e.g., Moradan & Hedayati, 2011; Öztürk & Çeçen, 2007; Qinghua, 2010; Tabatabaei & Assefi, 2012) and a few of them are action researches. Drawing upon multiple sources for data collection that was subjected to thematic analysis, it was found that portfolios enhanced students’ writing abilities in terms of producing paragraphs with better organisation and clearer sentences, citing evidences for arguments, and demonstrating awareness of metacognitive strategies. For these benefits, the students found the teacher’s feedback particularly useful. Portfolios also allowed focus on critical thinking skills rather than reproducing content knowledge, provided a clear means of monitoring progress, and fostered students’ creativity. These perceived benefits were consistent with previous findings. However, the challenges were that most of the students did not consistently meet the submission deadlines and maintain the portfolio in the prescribed order. Moreover, some students displayed negative attitudes towards revision. Despite these challenges, the educational value of portfolios cannot be denied. The implications of these findings relate to the issue of students’ ownership of work, assessing their work in a formative context, and the difficulty of changing their attitudes towards formative assessment. Pedagogical suggestions for improving the portfolio model are offered for English language teachers of tertiary level students. At the end, recommendations for the stakeholders are presented.