Bedaya

Today was the first official day at work and it was pretty eye opening. All 6000 teachers from Abu Dhabi were put into a room and were given a talk by the head of education. This was quite possibly the biggest room I have ever been in.

The speech, although long, was a little bit inspiring. The ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) told us all about it’s aims for the next 30 years. They, in a nutshell, want all the Emirati students to be equipped for life in the 21st century. They want us to raise the standard in ‘Critical thinking’ and to equip students for jobs that have not been invented yet.

They want to invest in people for when the oil has run out (expected to be in 100 years) and would like to be leaders in future industries such as nanotechnology, robotics, bio-engineering, augmented reality and environmental conservation.

I am very impressed with what I heard and saw over the past few orientation sessions. Yes, it was self-congratulatory, but it is also extremely ambitious and I was impressed at the scope. It is not like England where things are talked about and not implemented. Here, it seems they really listen to educational experts and don’t let politics get in the way of progress.

They are mindful that the old ways were not going to be sufficient. There is no point in teaching kids to memorise facts and figures because all they need to do is look it up on their Ipads or smart phones and it will be in front of them in seconds. Who knows, in the near future we may have a computer chip in our heads as an implant with all the world’s acquired knowledge on it.

What we, as educators, are needed for is instilling a curiosity for new information, but even more importantly, how to judge the information (is it sound? Who says? What is the opposing view? How many people in the sample?) for validity.

The most important thing at all though is teaching them how to use the information once they have it up on their smartphones.

That, it seems, is what ADEC want to do, along with fostering social skills and working creatively with others.

That can only be a good thing right?

On the other hand, this was all talk at this stage. I have yet to teach a day in a school and I haven’t even spoke to a teacher who has. That will change tomorrow when I actually go into the school that I am working in and I am really hoping that ADEC’s views and ideas are being used rather than just paying lip service to them.