Alignment of Teacher-Developed Curricula and National Standards in Qatar’s National Education Reform

Nasser, Ramzi; Zaki, Eman; Allen, Nicholas; Mula, Badria Al; Mutawaha, Fatma Al; Ali, Hessa Al Bin; Kerr, Tricia

doi:10.5539/ies.v7n10p14

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Mostly, these companies helped schools to implement the standards. The goal was to reach the point where teachers could read the standards, group them for the appropriate unit or lesson, identify the appropriateness of the standard for grade and age level, write objectives aligned with the standards according to content, identify the cognitive level related to the objectives (viz., Bloom's objectives), develop the knowledge and skills targeted in the objectives and assess the content corresponding to the curriculum (Nasser et al, 2014). In addition, the SSOs prepared teachers to start new teaching methods that were student-centered.…”

Section: Teacher Professional Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most striking result of the educational reform was the standardized-based system. In most subjects, students did not reach 10% of the required standards, which resulted in a serious reflection about where Qatar might be heading in the next two decades (Nasser et al, 2014). This has led to further strategies for the reform of the education system outlined in the Qatar National Vision (QNV) (Qatar General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008), with a clear message to create an advanced, self-sustaining country by 2030.…”

Section: The Path Forward: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Qatar’s educational reform past and future: challenges in teacher development

Nasser

2017

Open Review of Educational Research

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Until the late 1990s, Qatar's educational system used the intrinsicnationalistic and cultural traditions of Arabic schools. The Qatari leadership and stakeholder was outdated; hence, they approached the RAND Corporation to examine and analyze the existing educational system and recommend options for building a new educational system. The RAND assessment study concluded that the country's education system was rigid and lacked standards and international benchmarks. Consequently, this led to the reform in which a system of Independent Schools was established, new curriculum standards were set, and teacher and leadership professional development were enhanced to find the most effective systems for Qatari students to succeed along international and particularly Western benchmarks. The reform imputed by key principles of autonomy, accountability, variety and choice. Post-reform evaluation suggests that the system is still far from being what it should be. New teacher development initiatives have stressed on improving professional development for teachers through licensing and increased professional development programs. The present schooling is markedly different from what was presented in the reform. This article gives a brief historical preface of the educational system in Qatar and discusses the reform in terms of its future implications on teacher development in the K-12 educational system.

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Section: Teacher Professional Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Path Forward: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qatar’s educational reform past and future: challenges in teacher development

Nasser

2017

Open Review of Educational Research

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“…The first fundamental issue is the lack of standards. According to Nasser et al (2014), standards-based reform is the key to school reform principle. Therefore, for a sustainable reform, the starting point is to set standards for our education.…”

Section: The Fundamental Issues In the Nigerian Education Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Advanced nations like Finland, Singapore, and the United States continually reform their education system (Zinth, 2014;Brenneman, 2014;Christie, 2014). Literature shows that developing countries like India and Qatar similarly had times of reform in their educational system (Srivastava & Srivastava, 2017, Nasser et al, 2014. A Reform starts with the identification of a problem, which is further studied, analysed, and evaluated (Omosewo, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Reforms in Nigeria: The Kaduna State Teachers’ Competency Test

Aina¹

2020

OJED

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This paper critically looked at the crisis generated by the teachers’ competency test in the Kaduna state. Which agitates for the reform of the educational sector in Nigeria. The article strongly supported the need for such reforms nevertheless, faulted the procedural executions which encompassed the Kaduna state Teachers’ Competency Test on the basis of some fundamental issues. The main issue of lack of standard in Nigeria education system was a concern for this paper. This paper reviewed some of the problems in the education system that should have been the crux of the reform. The teacher is an important variable that influences the learnedness of a nations citizenry. There are several skills which qualify a person as a teacher. The competency of a teacher can be characterized by the ability to learn, assimilate, understand and impact an acquired skill or knowledge following predefined standards and methods. This requires a carefully planned investigation using tactical approaches, if the competency of a teacher is to be accessed. This paper argued that for a reform in the educational sector to enhance sustainable development, there must be good governance and a populace free of corruption within and outside the education system. The article suggested some areas where the Nigerian education requires reform such as teacher education, teachers’ condition of service and the school curricula vis-à-vis the Kaduna state teachers’ competency test. Aina, J. K. | School of science and mathematics education, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, Bellville, Western Cape

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“…In measuring curriculum alignment, researchers tend to rate the alignment of curriculum standards based on a list of criteria (Biggs, 1996; Näsström and Henriksson, 2008; Webb, 1997b). The raters then compare the curriculum materials against the set criteria to determine the degree of alignment (Nasser et al , 2014). For example, Porter (2002) used content maps and an alignment index to measure the match between the content of instruction and the instructional materials as experienced by teachers and students.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benchmarking higher education programs through alignment analysis based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy

Lau

Lam

Kam

et al. 2018

BIJ

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a scalable quantitative approach to evaluate alignment within and between courses and programs in higher education for benchmarking purpose. Design/methodology/approach The revised Bloom’s taxonomy, which combines a cognitive process dimension and a knowledge dimension, is used as a basis for categorizing national standards, program and course learning outcomes (CLOs) and assessment methods. Alignments between programs and national standards, programs and courses and assessment tasks and courses are then measured using a series of Cohen’s κ statistics. Two undergraduate business programs offered at an Australian university were used as examples to demonstrate the proposed method as an alignment evaluation tool. Findings The findings reveal that the two sample programs are better aligned with national standards than with their respective constituent courses. The degree of alignment between CLOs and assessment methods varies from course to course within the programs. This might be related to the lack of clarity of some learning outcome statements and the complexity of certain assessment methods. Research limitations/implications This study lends insight into the use of an alignment mapping for benchmarking academic programs in higher education. To serve mainly as an illustration of the proposed approach, the case study is limited to two undergraduate business programs offered at the same university. Practical implications Universities can use the proposed approach to benchmark their academic programs against the national standards and similar programs offered by other competing educational institutions. The alignment indices can also serve as yardsticks to continuously improve the consistencies within and among academic programs to ensure quality. Originality/value The proposed method offers a consistent basis to compare the degrees of alignment of different higher education programs with national standards and their respective constituent courses, hence enabling benchmarking for continuous improvement. It also reveals how the alignment between different parameters in teaching and learning can be improved, thereby facilitating incremental learning and enhancing student performance.

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Alignment of Teacher-Developed Curricula and National Standards in Qatar’s National Education Reform

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

Qatar’s educational reform past and future: challenges in teacher development

Qatar’s educational reform past and future: challenges in teacher development

Educational Reforms in Nigeria: The Kaduna State Teachers’ Competency Test

Benchmarking higher education programs through alignment analysis based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy

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