International schools in the Middle East tell us how challenging it can be to offer high quality professional development to colleagues whose first language is Arabic. Especially when it comes to professional development focused on improving pedagogy.
An even greater challenge is the ability to offer all staff the same or a similar professional development offer. All to often there is one offer for colleagues whose language of instruction is English, and something quite different for native Arabic teachers.
Exploring a solution
We may have a solution but it’s not yet publicly available. We have developed professional learning materials in modern standard Arabic on behalf of a partner. These materials build understanding in key elements of effective pedagogy found in our Model for Great Teaching. We’d love to know if these materials would benefit your school, if made available as part of a paid-for program of learning.
In this blog we provide a summary of the materials that could be made available to native Arabic teachers, and then link to a short form where you can leave us feedback. If we find there are enough schools interested in the materials, we will carry out development work to release them as part of a professional development offer for international schools in the Middle East.
A Model for Great Teaching
Figure 1: A Model for Great Teaching – Arabic version
Figure 2: A Model for Great Teaching – English version
The Model for Great Teaching, published in the Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review, is a summary of the best available research evidence on the things teachers know, do and believe that has the biggest impact on student learning. It is hugely popular and is used in schools and colleges around the world to define and facilitate discussions about developing great teaching. The Model is the framework around which we have built the Great Teaching Toolkit platform, used by some of the top international schools in the world to deliver their staff’s professional development.
The Model also informed the development of courses and supporting materials used by over 21,000 native Arabic teachers.
A package of support:
With sufficient demand, the following could be made available to international schools across the Middle East as part of an Arabic professional development package:
Courses in Arabic focused on building understanding of the dimensions and elements of effective pedagogy found in the Model for Great Teaching. The course titles are:
- Introduction and an overview of ‘how we learn’
- Creating a supportive environment for learning
- Maximising opportunity to learn
- Structuring learning
- Explaining
- Questioning for learning
- Interacting
- Embedding learning
- Activating student learning
Over 50 teaching technique summaries in Arabic, each describing a classroom technique relevant to the Dimensions and Elements of the Model for Great Teaching.
The program will also include example and template development plans to support teachers in selecting a technique and making a personalised plan for a cycle of deliberate practice in the classroom.
The program for native Arabic speakers could also be used alongside the English medium Great Teaching Toolkit platform which includes a similar suite of courses and resources, but also benefits from video and survey tools to give teachers feedback on their practice. The two together would provide a solution where all teachers across a school are using the same framework for setting their development goals and improving their practice.
Give us your feedback
This is where we need your help. What do you think about the program outlined, is there a need for it? Let us know by answering a couple of questions. It should take less than two minutes.
