The Jordanian Education System has reached a “turning point,” according to English teacher and International Leadership in Education Program alumnus Mamoun Al-Zoubi. As a teacher who was recently selected for the National Team for Designing Curricula by the Jordanian Ministry of Education for the recently founded National Institute of Education, Al-Zoubi could not be more optimistic about the progress of his country’s education system.
To find the most qualified applicants, the Jordanian Ministry of Education’s Department of Training and Supervision undertook a highly competitive process of reviewing various professionals’ experience in curriculum design, teaching, and educational background.
Al-Zoubi was selected from 10 finalists of professional English teachers to be part of the team responsible for drafting curricula for standards of teaching English for the National Institute of Education, which will begin its work in January 2010. Additionally, the team, which has been working since mid-October 2008, will work on crafting a Jordanian Philosophy of Teaching and Standards of Learning and Assessment. After it has finished drafting the curriculum, another team of professionals will design a training curriculum for incoming teachers.
The National Institute of Education’s mission is to provide newly-appointed teachers with the best possible training and methodologies. Its certificate program will include “formal courses, supervised field activities, [and] study groups,” in addition to other training activities. The institute will launch its program with teachers of Arabic, English, Mathematics, and Science, who will stay at the institute for eight months.
Sponsored by the Office of Queen Rania of Jordan, the Jordanian Ministry of Education, the Teachers’ College at Columbia University, Yamoun University, and Jordan University, the National Institute of Education highlights the importance of teacher training and education reform in Jordan, and encourages the international exchange of teaching methodologies.
Mamoun Al-Zoubi is an alumnus of the International Leadership in Education Program (ILEP) [8], a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. ILEP, administered by IREX, is a professional development program for teaching professionals. As part of the ILEP Program, teachers audit classes, complete an internship program with an American teacher, and attend seminars on teacher training and leadership, as well as curriculum design.
