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Alice Wakefield had only one assignment from
the Ministry of Education when she got to Qatar:
make suggestions for improving the country's teaching
methods. Little did she know that she would continually
need to change her strategy to accomplish the
assignment.
Wakefield, a professor of early childhood education
and early math education at Old Dominion University
in Virginia, traveled to two model schools in
the capital city of Doha while on her Fulbright
grant. She eagerly began her nine-month award
by holding a series of staff development workshops
for teaching math, science and language arts.
"The workshops were met with a very positive
response," she says, "but the teachers
did not incorporate the ideas into their classroom
work." She decided to do classroom observations
then give written feedback and discuss her suggestions
with each teacher. Once again, the teachers were
very amenable but made few changes.
By December, Wakefield was certain the teachers
were not changing their traditional direct-teaching
method, so she began working on a proposal. Her
plan would bring six Qatari teachers to an award-winning
school in Virginia annually, where they would
participate in studentcentered team-teaching.
She also proposed transmitting a master's degree
program in education via satellite to Qatar from
those same Virginia classrooms. The Ministry backed
the proposal until the war in Iraq broke out.
The plan was then put on hold.
Enlisting the help of the math coordinators and
teachers, Wakefield tested third graders in math
so appropriate fourth-grade curriculum could be
written. "The educators were amazed that
oftentimes students solved the problems in a different
way than they had been taught," she says.
"Those who watch the testing are more likely
to understand and value the power of student thinking
in understanding math relationships," notes
Wakefield.
Near the end of her visit, Wakefield did some
team-teaching in math, then taught word problems
while the teachers observed. "Watching their
students respond to me, I think, prompted them
to actually imagine using that method," she
says. "I wish I had done this earlier."
Based on her observations, Wakefield wrote collections
of activities for math and language arts, conducted
hands-on workshops and produced three staff development
workshops for newly hired math teachers.
Although the hard work taxed her, Wakefield says
there were many wonderful instances of friendship
and hospitality that she will never forget. One
teacher took her to the tailor and helped her
order traditional jalabiyas (robes), which
she wears when talking about her experience in
Qatar. She and her husband, who accompanied her
to Qatar, were invited to join a number of excursions
into the desert, and one teacher took the couple
to a camel farm.
Wakefield is working with her home university
to keep her spring semester open so she can do
more projects with Arabic countries. She has signed
up to study Arabic and plans to work with the
math supervisor on an Arabic text. "There
were frustrations," Wakefield says, "but
nothing that kept me from thoroughly enjoying
every single day of my time in Doha."
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"International education
exchange is the most significant current project
designed to continue the process of humanizing
mankind to the point, we would hope, that
nations can learn to live in peace"
--J. William Fulbright |
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