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Emirati teachers go back to classroom

One hundred and fifty-one Emirati teachers are taking a year off from teaching this academic year to attend an intensive professional development programme aimed at enabling them to teach an integrated curriculum next year as per the new school model.

The ‘Sabbatical Programme’ will help teachers to move from one subject to whole class teaching, integrating numeracy (Math), literacy (English) and science, and use English as the medium of instruction.

“This is a programme for teachers who are already teaching to deepen their knowledge on the new school model and early childhood education,” explained Danielle Montes, Professional Development Manager at the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).

In September, the 150 female teachers and one male teacher underwent a six-week intensive programme with GEMS Education in preparation for their November 4 to June 30 courses at the state’s higher education institutions — UAE University (UAEU), Zayed University and Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).

“We ran two bridging programme in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, covering the major themes of the new school model, such as the positive behavioural management of children, early years’ literacy and numeracy, differentiation or treating children as individuals with different learning styles and multiple intelligences,” said Michael Gibbs, project director at GEMS Education.

Jhina Mikati, project coordinator at Zayed University, said the university has already welcomed 83 student teachers from the Adec.

“We’ve given them placement tests to test their English and teaching knowledge, then they were divided into five groups based on the results (and) their needs,” she told Khaleej Times.

Mohammed Al Nuaimi, a Math teacher from Sadar School in Al Ain and the only male participant in the first group, was pleased with the opportunity to improve his knowledge and skills further.

“I have been teaching only Math subject in Grade 5 for the past five years. With this programme, I found I have so much to learn, especially learning how to teach three subjects,” he said.

Wafah Alshehhi, a Science teacher for four years at Al Muzdalefa Primary School in Al Wathba, is taking her postgraduate qualification course at Zayed University. She said she hoped to improve her English language skills to “match the needs of Adec”.

Participants will be awarded a postgraduate diploma upon completion of the programme.

olivia@khaleejtimes.com