International Arab Baccalaureate- IAB
Al Qutami: We race against the clock in the Global Evolution of Education, Science and Knowledge
Sayegh: The IAB is a Pilot Project aiming at creating an Arabic Integrated Learning Environment
Monday April 22, 2013 - The Educational Research Center, in coordination with the Emirati Ministry of Education, held its fifth annual conference in Dubai under the title "Education for Success in Life". The objective of the conference was to discuss the latest developments in scientific research and its role in the service of national educational policies and the improvement of educational systems in the Arab world. The conference was held under the auspices and in the presence of the Emirati Minister of Education, H.E. Mr. Humaid Mohammed Al Qutami, the Lebanese Minister of Education Prof. Hassan Diab, the Director General of the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States H.E. Dr. Ali bin Abdul Khaliq Al-Qarni, the Chairman of the National Center for Measurement and Evaluation in KSA, H.E. the Prince Dr. Faisal bin Abdullah Al Mishari Al Saud, in addition to a number of leaders and officials from the Ministries of Education in Arab countries and with the participation of a group of educators, specialists and Emirati, Lebanese, Arab and International people concerned with the educational affairs.
Al Qutami inaugurated the conference with a speech stating that "Education today has become the basis of progress and the key to human development and prosperity." He added: "Through the combination of human values with the foundations of the scientific renaissance, the features of the world have changed, starting with the early times of discoveries, through a wave of industrial revolutions, to this day, with the acceleration of innovation and creativity and their related sciences, techniques and technologies, supported by scientific researches, great efforts, programs and studies adopted by many countries of the world of which the interest in researches and studies did not stop at the budgets and financial allocations alone, but was extended to the preparation of plans and implementation of the applied research policies, so that the specialized research has become an integral part of their daily work schedule.
He added, "the United Arab Emirates, racing against the clock in this amazing development witnessed by the world at all levels, realizes the value of education, science and knowledge. The State has provided all the ingredients of success to the education sector, such as the modern infrastructure and technology, expertise and financial budgets, because it is confident in the success of its tireless efforts, especially with the utmost attention granted to education by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, in addition to members of the Supreme Council - Rulers of the Emirates."
Al Qutami valued the leading role of the Educational Research Center and pointed out that the Ministry is proud to cooperate with the Center and other specialized research centers, representing, along with its expertise and relationships, an important addition to the educational institutions.
The CEO of the Educational Research Center, Mr. Habib Sayegh, stressed at the opening session that: "It is normal not to import projects and achievements from the West because the civilizations and cultures were launched from the East to the West. However, I would like to confirm, in front of this elite group of experts, researchers, academics and leaders in education who are participating in this conference, that through the IAB project, we recover our pioneering role in applying an educational system based on the educational curriculum in every Arab country, and we export it to the world. The IAB project aims at creating an integrated learning environment that enables our students to succeed rather excel, in the modern life."
He added: "As we have strong determination to provide educational materials tools, especially the electronic tools to enrich the learning environment and support the teachers, we are developing the mechanisms of converting the conventional books to interactive electronic books and we are training our educators, technicians and programmers. We are cooperating with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman in order to re-engineer the process of public exams by applying the latest digital programs in this field, the Pearson E-Pen program, and developing all the procedures in this regard. Furthermore, we are cooperating with Pearson Company in the Educational Measurement and Student Achievement (EMSA). We also cooperate and participate with international companies specialized in e-learning, such as: EducationCity.com, Microsoft, Intel, Pearson, Collins and others. EducationCity.com is the first website to apply the education development through technology in the modern digital learning era, by creating new methods to help deliver the content of the curricula. This site is trusted and used by more than 15,000 (fifteen thousand) schools. We have set up our own website, SayeghSchool.com to display the content of EducationCity.com in Arabic and we hope that this website would be "the future of the curricula" in all the Arab countries, for the teachers, parents and students alike. We have also set up the website LDLP-Dictionary.com, the first site of its kind enabling the user to find the definitions of words in five different languages and in more than fifty encyclopedias and dictionaries published by Librairie du Liban Publishers."
Habib Sayegh also confirmed during the conference, the graduation of the first batch of IAB students, expressing the hopes and aspirations of the Educational Research Center in starting to build a bright tomorrow and its pride in this batch to be graduated by next June.
He also expressed the pride of Sayegh establishments in the partnership and cooperation with the experts in the Ministries of Education and the private education sector in the Arab world.
He concluded by thanking the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Lebanon for its efforts to adopt the IAB system as a Lebanese certificate, in the field follow-up and supervision of the application of the IAB system in the Lebanese public schools.
At the beginning of the first session, Prof. Ibrahim Halloun, Director of the International Arab Baccalaureate (IAB), reviewed the issues and topics related to the IAB, explaining that it is a pan-Arab initiative for educational reform launched by the Educational Research Center several years ago. It is currently applied in the secondary level in some Arab countries, including the Lebanese public and private schools, and it will graduate this year the first batch of IAB certificate holders.
Halloun explained the working mechanism of the IAB which works within the framework of Profile Shaping Education (PSE) to enrich existing curricula so that they empower students for success in life. PSE is grounded in cognitive and pedagogical research and draws on the emerging field of educational neuroscience. Halloun showed how in the context of PSE, IAB promotes brain-compliant education that helps students efficiently reach meaningful understanding of discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary knowledge and develop generic habits of mind and practice that can be productively deployed in various aspects of education and everyday life.
During the second session, Prof. Elizabeth Hinde, Director of the Division of Teacher Preparation, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University, discussed the subject of preparation of teachers, the importance of their rehabilitation and the principles and applications that shall be relied upon in this aspect, stressing that "the constant preparation and education of teachers are not easy tasks but are vital to the achievement of students and success of schools. The level of the teacher's performance quality has the greatest impact on the student's achievement and satisfaction during the exams."
The conference also included a number of important working papers, such as the paper of Dr. Kecia Ray, Executive Director of Learning Technologies, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and the President - elect of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) handling the subject of Blended Learning for All - A Design Model.
The paper of Prof. Jane Schielack, Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean for Assessment and Prek-12 Education in the College of Science at Texas A&M University, handled a vital subject, "Designing Questions to Encourage and Assess Mathematical Thinking".
The discussions also included working papers on the subject of "Solutions and Services for Education - Review of Worldwide View Points", presented by Peter Hamilton, Content and EcoSystem Development Manager at Intel, the working paper on "Learning for Work and Life in the 21st Century", presented by Khalil Abdel Massih, Microsoft Middle East and Africa Academic Program Manager, and the working paper "Electronic Solutions in Education", presented by Engineer George Abou El Ouyoun from the E-learning Department at Sayegh.
The Educational Research Center-ERC
The Educational Research Center dedicates itself to the continuous improvement of the education's condition in the Arab world. It conducts various types of educational research, produces learning materials that are tested on the ground in all levels of public education and helps the governments in the development of the curricula, including the teachers' preparation and the development of the examination systems including the official national exams.
In order to achieve these goals, the ERC works closely with various stakeholders and collaborates with several local and global partners. It consists of more than 150 global and Arab specialists in the various academic and technical fields, equipped with the most modern technology.
The Educational Research Center is one of Sayegh establishments, sister company to Librairie du Liban Publishers.
© Press Release 2013
