Five Reasons Why We Should Always Celebrate World Teacher’s Day
UNESCO proclaimed October 5th to be World Teacher’s Day. It is an annual occasion for us to celebrate the teaching profession and to acknowledge those who have been making tireless efforts to help generations of learners realize their hopes and dreams through learning. Indeed October 5th is a special day as it is also the […]
Why Teachers Matter in Humanitarian Emergencies
When I first arrived in Katsikas refugee camp in April as a volunteer teacher, I was yet to learn the weighty elements of this experience that no amount of information could have prepared me for. There was the immediate visual depression of the camp’s conditions; endless rows of floorless tents on a barren bed of […]
Teaching Arabic Language for Arabs: Challenges, Tensions, and the Way Forward
The challenge of teaching Arabic is significant, and is further intensified by a range of political and cultural debates in various Arab countries. Traditional practices in teaching, learning, and assessment are well-established, making change difficult to implement. Efforts to reform language teaching, particularly in conservative cultures such as the Arab world, have always faced opposition […]
Freedom to Play, Freedom to Learn
In a globalized, fast-changing world, education as we know it is being redefined. The 21st Century requires young people to master a set of technical skills that are highly valuable in the workplace. Companies like Google are sponsoring kids to learn coding. Mobile devices and social media have opened new opportunities for innovative learning. And […]
Gender Gaps: a Paradox from Learners to Teachers
The question of women empowerment and gender equality is at the heart of the education debate worldwide: girls should be educated and empowered to have the same opportunities as boys. However, gender gaps are not limited to classrooms. In fact, they are surprisingly accentuated in the education job market. Two fields are representative of this […]
Today’s World Needs a New Kind of Literacy: Emotional Literacy
As parents in a hyper-competitive world, we are on a constant quest to give our children an edge. We want to equip our kids with EVERY possible skillset mentioned in the titanic guide on achieving success in the 21st century. But this mission is doing more harm than we realize. Our children are reeling under […]
Little Victories – There Are No Instant Miracles in Education Development
I am a bit of an impatient person by nature – unfortunately. I am endlessly calculating the speed of each line when standing in queues at the checkout and you don’t want to be driving behind/in front of me in traffic! However, crucially, I know there is little space for this less than admirable characteristic […]
Training Leaders to be Intermediaries Between China and the World
As international education has become larger and more diverse, one significant trend has emerged: an ambition to teach leadership. But that is not an easy call. There is still an ongoing argument about what makes a good leader, about the degree to which leadership varies with the context in which it is set and about […]
Your Education…is Live: There is a Time for Real-time Online Teaching
Distance education used to include synchronous teaching. China’s Radio and Television university was a live broadcast system, using radio and television to reach students at diverse locations. In 2015, the Open University system enrolled 3,503,872 students. In some other places such as Saudi Arabia, where gender differences may pose cultural challenges for teachers and students to […]
Promising Practices in Equity and Project-Based Learning
One-third of American workers are now engaged in some kind of freelancing, or project-based, work. Our lives are increasingly being organized around gigs, short term or longer term projects. Even if young people decide against joining the gig economy and land long term jobs with stable employment, they are likely to do most of their work in projects. […]