Experts address the necessity for reforms in UAE's educational system.
Dubai Women's College (DWC) hosted the Higher Colleges of Technology's (HCT) 6th Teacher Education Division Conference recently. Organised for teachers and teacher educators, the conference brought educators together who exchanged views on the evolution of education in the UAE and the Arab world.
Global trends in education
Keynote speaker Mona Murshed, a partner in the Middle East office of McKinsey and Company, a management consultancy, discussed global trends. She said that despite changes such as an increase of expenditure per student and class size, education outcomes have stagnated.
According to McKinsey's 'How the world's best-performing school systems come out on top,' the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. "The teacher is the most important lever for improving student outcomes," Mona said in her presentation.
"Great school systems attract great people into teaching," she said. Top-performing systems make it difficult to be a teacher, and the profession is positioned as prestigious in those countries. She cited England as an example.
"The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction," she said, adding that improving teacher quality can have substantial impact in a short time frame.
Mona also said that professional development in the classroom enhances performance. This includes "enabling teachers to share best practices, learning from each others' strengths and weaknesses and jointly developing and disseminating excellent practices."
Mona discussed the importance of giving children with special needs extra care.
Sustainable education
John Collins, director of Global Education Management Systems (GEMS) and professor of International Education at the University of Northern Kentucky, USA, addressed the issue of sustainability in education.
"Education is sustainable when it meets present and future needs, standing the test of time in regard to relevance, application and innovation."
Collins gave a presentation showing World Bank indicators on education in the Arab world, adult literacy rates in several countries, the human development index in relation to education and requirements and reforms needed in the UAE's knowledge economy.
According to the World Bank, the UAE's knowledge economy experienced negative growth in the 18 months following January 2008.
Adult literacy rates in the Arab world as indicators of education rose from 50 per cent in 1990 to 62.7 per cent in 2000-2004. This compares with a worldwide rate of 81.9 per cent in 2000-2004.
Another interesting finding is the gap between male and female adult literacy rates, in favour of females at 80.7, as opposed to 75.6 for males. This does not go in line with the unemployment percentage, which is higher among women than it is among men.
New ways of thinking
Collins said: "The goal is to develop in young people and their teachers the relevant new knowledge and new ways of thinking required to achieve social harmony, economic prosperity, secure justice and equity and simultaneously maintain the health of our people and planet."
Addressing the question of how education could be improved, Collins said: "We need to establish what is to be learned, taught, assessed and establish the sequence of the content." The most important key points, he said, are knowledge, understanding and application.
He said that the basic requirement is for education to stand the test of time and combine the best of what educators know about teaching and learning.
In addition, he stressed the importance of coordinating between education and the demands of society.
"Our educational institutions must be informed by the kind of society we want and the kind of employees businesses want. Characteristics such as thinking in depth, encouraging creativity, communication skills, adaptability, responsibility, emotional intelligence, tenacity, flexibility and love of learning are essential.
"To reform education, we need to meet the needs that the knowledge economy requires such as new teaching methodology, new teaching and learning materials, new curriculum and syllabi, higher expectations and appropriate facilities to support the learning," Collins said.
"There is good evidence from research studies that indicates that students will work and achieve at a higher level if more is expected of them; therefore, teachers should expect more of students and students should expect more of themselves."
"It is important to regard pupils' minds as flames that require kindling rather than vessels to be filled; focus on understanding and development of ideas."
Importance of teachers in education
Fatima Al Marri, CEO of the Dubai School Agency under the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and a member of the Federal National Council, gave an introduction on the authority and the Dubai School Agency, which was created to develop the education and human resources sectors.
"KHDA will ensure that the educational developments are in line with the economic and social growth goals as outlined in the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015," she said in her presentation.
She stressed the point that teachers are the key to every education system.
"Our teachers have learned to adapt to the different curricula and varied student needs that spring from a mixed bag of nationalities and cultures. Without their innovative and pioneering methodology and approach we couldn't have reached where we are today," she said.
The conference also featured ...
Training sessions for teaching maths, English and science;
Innovative teaching using technology;
Peer mentoring, literacy and content-based instruction;
Story-telling as a teaching tool;
Classroom management.
By Maysam Ali