Photo credit: ADEC
This week, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) launched their first ever professional development week, held across 48 different school locations in the region for over 11,000 teachers. The Tanmia Professional Development Week was an extension of existing training courses that ADEC teachers receive every week, providing new strategies, tools, hands-on-experiences, and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues.
“Our teachers are not beginners. They are professionals. For that reason, we offer them opportunities that help challenge their minds, and allow them to select programs that they feel will help benefit them the best during their day-to-day interaction in the classroom with their students,” said Dr. Amal Al Qubaisi, ADEC Director General, about the development week.
Seven professional development streams were offered to teachers: differentiation, positive classroom assessment, encouraging high achievement for all students (including special needs and gifted students), planning for high-quality instruction and literacy strategies, English language learner strategies, 21st century learning, and 21st century strategies for kindergarten students.
“These programs are being offered to teachers based on 21st century skills and their desire to learn more about a particular topic. Our aim is to help equip our teachers with some of the best skills to graduate a strong generation of youth as per ADEC’s strategy plan and the Abu Dhabi Economic 2030 vision,” said Dr. Al Qubaisi.
Teachers participated in group sessions facilitated by ADEC school leaders, heads of faculty, and teachers who were trained to facilitate practical, hands-on classroom scenarios. Each teacher completed 20 professional development hours over the course of the conference in order to bring back significant educational learnings to share with coworkers.
“This training not only provides teachers with top-notch professional development training in an area they are most comfortable pursuing, but also offers an opportunity for people to collaborate and share best teaching practices. The networking opportunities help teachers brainstorm and share their learning journey with each other,” noted Mr. Mohamed Salem Al Dhaheri, ADEC’s School Operations Executive Director.
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