[About Education Forum]
Welcome to the Virtual Education Forum 2021, We are pleased to share this journey of the virtual Forum organized by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for the year 2021 under the slogan:
“Visions and Aspirations ... Beyond Challenges”
By anticipating the future of optimal educational life, and bringing you our visions and aspirations for the advancement of the human being empowered by knowledge. Together we stand challenging all difficulties and sparing no efforts to ensure the learning outcomes, the requirements of the labor market, and sustainable development are always at the forefront of our priorities.
In this session, experts anticipate the future of education in light of updates and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how to ensure education sustainability as a human right stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The participants will also discuss the role of education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the potentials provided by technology in artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), cloud computing technology, social media, among others, and their impact on the current and future landscape of education and fulfillment of the requirements of sustainable development and labor market.
Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi is a Qatari chemist and researcher. Dr. Al-Naimi holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Southern California (USC). Prior to his current appointment as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Al-Naimi was the Dean of College of Science at Qatar University, and subsequently President of Qatar University and President of Stenden University Qatar. After that Dr. Al-Naimi chaired the Outstanding Schools Oversight Committee at the Supreme Education Council and President of the Community College of Qatar. A member of several international academic societies, Dr. Al-Naimi has participated in a wide variety of conferences around the world and presented research papers on environment, climate change, natural resources and other topics. Through his current position as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Al-Naimi’s main mission is to improve education performance and strengthen international cooperation in many fields such as scientific research and education. Dr. Al-Naimi, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue has been chosen among the 10 most influential leading Islamic figures in the world for the year 2020 according to the classification of the Belgium-based Institute of Peace and Development (INSPAD).
Dr. Ahmed A. Al-Emadi is the dean of the College of Education at Qatar University. He has extensive teaching experience and has taught a variety of under-graduate and graduate level courses including research sports management, research methods and data analysis. His research interests cover a wide range of areas such as Sports Management, Sports Tourism, Sports Governance, Sports Marketing and Mental Training. Dr Al-Emadi is an active member of many different health and sports organizations. He is a member of the North American Society for Sports Management (NASSM), the Pan-Asian Society of Sport & PE (PASSPE).
Dr. Asmaa Al-Fadala is the Director of Research and Content Development at WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation. Dr. Al-Fadala has twenty years of professional experience in K-12 education and higher education. Prior to joining WISE, Dr. Al-Fadala was an associate policy analyst at the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute. She has also taught in the College of Education at Qatar University, and worked at Qatar’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education as a physics teacher and then as the head of the science department. She is widely published in the field of educational leadership and policy, and author of the book “Qatari School Leadership Portraits: Lessons Learned from Education for a New Era Reform”. And another book in teaching entrepreneurship. Dr. Al-Fadala’s research interests include leadership for learning, school improvement, entrepreneurship education, teacher professional development, educational reform and research skills. Dr. Al-Fadala is a member of the Comparative International Education Society (CIES), and the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI). She also serves as an advisor for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s education strategy and is a board member at Qatar Academy Sidra school in Doha. She is also a jury member for Riyada award, the Entrepreneurship Award in Oman. She is a board member at the Diplomatic Courier. Dr. Al-Fadala holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Cambridge University, UK, in Educational Leadership and Policy, an M.A. in science education from Brighton University and a BA in Science and Education from University of Qatar.
Dr. Al-Marri is the Assistant Director of the Educational Supervision Department of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Dr. Al-Marri holds a PhD in General Curriculum. Prior to his current position, Dr. Al-Marri served as the Head of the Islamic Education Supervision Section and member representing the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the Supreme Committee for Developing Education Capacity of Military Personnel. Dr. Al-Marri also was a team member of the Institutional Culture Project of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and part-time lecturer at the College of Education - Qatar University. Dr. Al-Marri was a member of the State Award for Child Literature Board of Trustees at the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Through his experience, Dr. Al-Marri has participated in many international conferences and events.
This participation aims to guide educators in rooting the concept of national identity through promoting dialogic pedagogy to build human values. For building national identity inspired by our religious values and Islamic history, this session is providing an integrated educational model to prospect the national vision, which achieves sustainable development and national and citizen advancement.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]A number of themes will be covered in the workshop while linking them to realistic models of crisis leadership, as follows: - The concept of crisis, its forms and the concept of crisis leadership. - The difference between crisis leadership and crisis management. - The role of professional development for crisis leadership (presenting global models for crisis management through professional development). - Presentation of some research and studies. - The concept of foresight. - Strengthening the institutional principles for sustainable development.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]A presentation of study results regarding “How Far Sustainable Development Concepts are included in Social Studies Handbooks in Qatar”. Thus, the main result is: the distribution of sustainable development concepts on tool’s fields on percentage basis: Social and Cultural field (53.84%), environmental field (17.93%), economical field (16.38%), political field (10.84%) and finally technological and informational field (1.01%). In light of the study results, the recommendation is mainly: achieving balance of sustainable development concepts at all different fields in Qatar social studies curriculum and handbooks is necessary. Thus the required integration of sustainable development system will be reached, and that what students at different school stages should acquire.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]Introducing the concept of STEM schools and explaining the STEM educational approach and its role in preparing students for future enrollment in science disciplines. The lecture will discuss the importance and steps of transitioning to knowledge-based economy and the role of STEM schools in achieving the same. The lecture reviews the experience of the Qatar Science and Technology Secondary School for Boys in preparing Qatari youth to face present and future challenges, and empowering them with 21st century skills. It discusses tools for identifying students' interests for science disciplines, measuring their orientation towards STEM disciplines and how to utilize such interests in guiding students and developing curricula with aim of achieving sustainable development goals.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The presenter, as Head of outreach at Teach for Qatar, will talk about their experience to create unique educational opportunities for the community and connect different sectors including private and governmental with educational system during the last years after the Organization has established.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The presentation focuses on answering some questions: why do we teach our children? What are we teaching them? Is it enough to educate our children literacy? Does the journey finish when the certificate is obtained? Shall we teach them what the labor market needs? Who should decide such? When we are discussing adaption of education outcomes and labor market needs in addition to sustainable development, we imply two topics: a common national vision and very early professional advisory. Recently, the productivity of an educated person is not enough to meet the needs of labor market. We notice this through the current gap between education outcomes and labor market. The productivity of productive person should be the basis of the national vision. Such productivity requires guided professional advisory at early age. Changing the vision to develop a person who has a definite goal to achieve makes a hardworking academic human being who has a clear vision and productive. Therefore, the role of professional advisory at primary and preparatory stages is necessary nowadays.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]This lecture reviews a category of special education students that differs from other groups by positive deviation in terms of mental, creative and innovative aspects. Talent is among the themes under spotlight by countries around the globe, and for this, the lecture focuses on the concepts of giftedness and talented individuals and their mental, physical, social, and emotional characteristics, Besides, the lecture discusses the fields and types of giftedness, the mechanism of identification of the gifted, while highlighting the characteristics and competencies of the gifted teacher and the strategies for teaching the gifted students in order to keep pace with modern education systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants will receive a first-hand contact with the different types of gifted care programs, namely: Acceleration, enrichment, extension services, and the annual competition held by the department of Special Education and Gifted Students.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]It is essential to acknowledge that anybody can be a leader. Anybody ,based on his will to flourish and improve, can still have to step into a leadership role from time to time. Leadership is a power relationship among leaders and followers who plan real changes and consider their mutual purpose.. In this session you will get to know how to enhance your leadership effectiveness, by raising awareness of your dominant leadership style through undertaking a leadership style assessment and get a repertoire of the other leadership styles so that you step into them based on the situation and the people you are dealing with. At first lead yourself so that you lead others and use the appropriate approach based on teachers’ skills. We will be revealing the three categories of teachers, their reflective tendencies, their practices in the classrooms and the best style and strategies that they will lead them to grow into reflective teachers.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]This session will explore a school’s journey in moving to an online system that naturally eases teacher workloads, brings transparency to the teaching, learning and assessment processes and seamlessly unites parents, students, and staff without placing any extra burden on teachers. Data silos are removed, enabling organizational processes to be streamlined and teacher collaboration strengthened. The powerful inbuilt data analytics tool supports you to peel back the layers and easily track both individual student progress and school progress, to discover what really is happening in your school.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : Yes]Social Emotional Learning (SEL) practices supports all students learning and development. This session provides strategies for building students’ skills and advancing excellence while promoting wellbeing in the classroom. After reviewing the definition of SEL, participants will analyze a SEL framework and apply it to their school's context. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a bank of SEL strategies that can be implemented in the classroom.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : Yes]This lecture sheds light on the general conditions the field of early intervention that has faced during the last two decades, and the best practices that have contributed to the continued flexible provision of early intervention services despite the emergency conditions; whether due to wars or conflicts, or in refugee situations or epidemics and other conditions that required flexibility and quick response in ways that are commensurate with the emergency circumstances and do not conflict with the requirements of the early childhood stage and the specificity of this stage. The lecture will review international experiences (the Australian experience in particular because it is distinguished during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of speed of response) and Arab experiences of countries in situations of conflicts, wars and refugee contexts.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]Artificial intelligence techniques are able to revolutionizing the educational system. This lecture introduces answers to several questions, such as: what “adaptive learning” is, how it works, how teachers could use it to benefit from the power of artificial intelligence in order to manage their education plans that focus more on each individual student.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The lecture will cover the following elements:
The Workshop aims to guide education leaders to employ some school procedures that encourage staff to professional self-development for sustainable development that suits their job description and professional code of conduct, as well as, teachers’ professional standards. This can be achieved by applying quality cycle in professional sustainable development, which starts from identifying the training needs after the analysis of school performance track forms, strengths that need to be developed, and make the necessary recommendations to develop goals and objectives within a timeline of professional self-development. Then encouraging staff to measure the impact of self-training on performance development and transfer the experience to their colleagues within professional learning communities. This will lead to improve the professional practices in employment community which consequently will reflect on school results.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The workshop will address the following:
The importance of promoting digital citizenship has emerged as one of the most important attributes that everyone should have during the COVID-19 crisis. In this workshop, we will introduce digital citizenship by differentiating between the digital citizen and the digital immigrant and the objectives of its dissemination through defining the elements of digital citizenship until we answer the following questions: Have we attained digital citizenship? What are the means to achieve such elements? How to apply them with emphasis on linking digital citizenship with the 21st century skills by applying them to equip our students with the 21st century skills? Why do we need them? How do we equip our students with such skills? And conclude this workshop with the participants obtaining a digital citizen passport.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]Participants in this workshop will learn about Nxplorers and “NX Thinking” approach, which was the result of extensive research conducted by Shell Qatar to support efforts to promote STEM skills among future generations, which are currently being applied in 17 countries worldwide. Participants will go through the three basic phases of such approach, i.e. exploration, creativity and change. Participants will be able to use the phase-specific tools and learn how to apply them with students to enable them to explore challenges in depth and think about the future and how to plan change.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]In this session, a new teaching-learning strategy based on using Augmented and Virtual Reality for teaching reading in EFL classes is presented, which is used to motivate students to learn and provide more opportunities to develop their 21st-century skills. Integrating AR and VR into your school will help your students use the technology that will be part of their daily life, giving them an advantage as they prepare for their future career. Bringing such kind of technology in your classroom can breathe a new life by supplementing current pedagogical materials. This technology has been tested on a group of students in Qatar in reading lessons at the secondary stage. The reading content has been visualized and they were given opportunities to interact with the content instead of reading it directly from the book. They used tablets and mobile phones to explore and learn more information while they are enjoying the content.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The Early Years Education is ideal for introducing and exploring age-appropriate engineering challenges that benefit from the development of children's cognitive, social, physical and language skills. Children are natural born engineers where the function of education at that stage is to exploit their curiosity, and unleash their creativity, to enjoy learning and being aware of it. This has been observed in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) curriculum by introducing engineering as an essential part of the education process. Recent studies have demonstrated that introducing the STEM method at an early age supports learning of literacy and numeracy. Only engineering projects are capable of developing competencies, because engineering, in general, is the application of science and mathematics in the field of technology design, structure and maintenance, it is ideal for meaningful learning which is closely related to life.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]This presentation discusses storytelling activities based around comic strips created for the grades 1 and 2 Top Stars English language textbooks currently used in Qatari state schools. These activities were designed to make learners aware of sustainable development and global citizenship issues in ways appropriate to their lived experience. It also attempts to show how very young learners whose understanding of the world and language resources are limited can be enabled to use English as a lingua franca to engage with issues around sustainability and global citizenship in ways that are meaningful to them, thus working towards target 4.7 of UNESCO’s sustainable development goals.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]In this workshop, you will be introduced to the concept of digital learning elements in order to distinguish between their different types, and on what basis they are built. As a result, you will be able to evaluate the digital elements and know to what extent they achieve the designated goals. The workshop targets education leaders who are interested in the field of e-learning and education digital content.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The lecture discusses the experience of Ruaa Center during the challenges of COVID-19 focusing on the following:
Teachers should realize that integrating values in teaching English is as important as teaching any other aspect of the language i.e. ( Core Skills ).. This presentation may provide English teachers with an identification of the most common elements they need to employ and apply for integrating values in English language teaching.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]This lecture focuses on the importance, analysis, and role of education quality for preparing individuals to take key roles in establishing, growing and thriving such envisioned sustainable knowledge society. More specifically, the chapter focuses on: 1) Overview and analysis of trends and improvements in education quality considering the achievements since early 2000s; 2) Education enrollment and achievements, 3) Challenges as evidenced by various quality indicators; 4) From a policy making approach, identifying, opportunities and making recommendations for effective and continuous improvement of the overall human capital development system and strategy.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : Yes]In this session, She will discuss how to integrate social and emotional learning, inquiry-based STEM education, and civic engagement using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a curricular framework for helping young children ages 5-9 use the processes of science to positively impact their community. Education is a crucial part of the SDGs, not only due to its role as a specific goal (Goal 4: Quality Education), but also because it is essential to the possibility of progress on all goals. To demonstrate how to use STEM Education for Sustainable Development (STEM4SD), I will draw on the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project (ssec.si.edu/global-goals) and our research on how to inspire student action-taking. I will share free curricular resources, teaching tools, and our “Global Goals Action Progression” learning framework to help education leaders develop children’s “Sustainability Mindsets.” This program takes a transdisciplinary approach to learning by drawing on diverse perspectives from global professionals working on these issues in their communities, and it challenges young children to examine complex SDG topics through social, environmental, economic, and ethical lenses that are developmentally appropriate.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : Yes]How effective feedback can be provided among various parties of educational situations , from teacher to student, and from an educational supervisor or academic vice president to a coordinator or teacher. By reviewing the influential aspects of effective feedback and its role in improving the professional competence of teachers by applying the eight effective tools for effective feedback .linking these tools to educational situations from the Prophet’s biography and the great history of scholars. Also seeking to correct common misconceptions associated with feedback processes . Training will also be on the use of some tools and applications that teacher can use to provide effective feedback to students during the learning situations according to the required feedback such as (standardized criteria , reflective sheet, coding feedback and crib sheet,) explaining the role of effective feedback in (zone of proximal development) to increase Students achievement with real help from teachers according to the theory of social constructivism (Vygotsky).
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]n this interactive lecture, we will discuss how to use education coaching skills in promoting, developing and empowering educators, and how such skills can support education leaders in facilitating change while does not impose it through the use of different principles, attributes, skills and models of coaching. The use of basic coaching skills enables school leaders to transform institutional challenges and issues into participatory learning opportunities to ensure future benefit, as well as maximize group and collaborative learning opportunities in the work environment, which has a significant impact on the teaching and learning process.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The lecture shall demonstrate the impact of distance education on parents’ psychological health through:
The presentation shall demonstrate the importance of leadership role in preparing the twenty-first century teacher during the rapid changes that the world is witnessing. We will try to identify the challenges that face the twenty-first century teacher. In addition, we shall present the most important skills that teachers of the twenty-first century should possess and the role of school leadership in promoting them. Finally, we will discuss the criteria for evaluating the performance of the twenty-first century teachers.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The workshop focuses on how to use “Class Point”, which is connected to Microsoft PowerPoint, as it is a powerful interactive test tool in the classroom that helps build strong direct interaction with students in online lessons, improve their learning outcomes and get immediate feedback as if the student was in the classroom. Adding “Class Point” to the PowerPoint program is a powerful and easy-to-use addition to enable teachers to create an integrated classroom environment in terms of presentation, use of the interactive whiteboard, and various interactive activities. This shall increase student interaction during the blended learning.
[Language of delivery : Arabic ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No]The Cuban Educational System has faced the multiple dilemmas imposed by COVID-19 on humanity. Faced with this challenge, it has generated responses that guarantee the continuity of the educational process from the curricular adaptations. It assumes as background the results of the investigation of the Improvement of the National Education System, which in its design assumed five types of investigation: theoretical, massive, deepening, commissioned and consultation, as well as the results of the experiment of the curricular conception: the materials, new ways of working, the institutional and group educational project, networking, methodological work and with the family. The proposed curricular adaptations have their theoretical support in the philosophical, political, legal, sociological, psychological, and pedagogical foundations of education, as well as in compared studies with other educational systems. In addition, actions were designed that allow, from intersectoral work, the attention to students, teachers and families, using educational television and the possibilities offered by information and communication technologies from an appropriate face-to-face-virtuality relationship. From a practical point of view, it contributes in a particular way to curricular theory and from a general point of view to Educational Sciences, allowing its use in similar contexts and conditions.
[Language of delivery : English ][Simultaneous Interpreting availability : No][Sponsors and partners]
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