Mohammad calls for modern teaching methods
Vice-President attends educational workshop
Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday attended part of the massive workshop organised by the Ministry of Education at the Dubai Bab Al Shams hotel. It will run for the next two days to set up long-term educational strategies in the country.
Shaikh Mohammad spoke to the workshop participants from the second and third category leaders in the ministry along with Arab and foreign academic experts.
He emphasised the need to educate students without memorisation methods followed and utilised in government schools which are obstacles for developing students' capabilities and gifts.
Shaikh Mohammad also talked about the importance of giving students a chance to express themselves before their teachers and other students, which will give the teacher the opportunity to assess the extent of understanding and absorption of students regarding the class topic.
Shaikh Mohammad added during his directives to the ministry's educational leaders that the point of educating students is not to make them memorise solely for the exam. He asked educators to break the routine and adopt modern methods of teaching. He added that students learn more through dialogue and discussions than from the memorising method of learning used in the UAE and other third world countries. He said that giving students the chance to talk, ask, discuss and answer will establish a dynamic base to help teachers discover their gifts, study orientations, and interests, hence the school can adopt their creative gifts to make use of them in developing the educational process in the country, while building qualified generations to protect both the civilisation's and country's development in different areas.
Strategies
On his part, the Minister of Education explained the features of the long-term educational strategies in the country, which the ministry is keen on adopting and establishing to develop the educational process, according to the strategy and directives set by Shaikh Mohammad's government policy for the educational sector.
The minister further clarified that the strategic project, which will be launched later in 2010 by Shaikh Mohammad, concentrates on standards for choosing teachers and defining the priorities of the educational process, in addition to the concentration on the national, Islamic and UAE identity perspective.
