As teacher licensing becomes a reality within the education sector, the nature of\u00a0professional learning will inevitably shift with it. The existing landscape of professional\u00a0learning (PL) within the United Arab Emirates is complex. Professional learning doesn\u2019t\u00a0happen in a vacuum and teachers across the United Arab Emirates experience the\u00a0country\u2019s diversity, its different regulations, school settings and local challenges on a\u00a0daily basis. The vast majority of teachers in the public and private sector are expatriates,\u00a0employed on two-year contracts. International schools have a short period of time to\u00a0invest in new staff and they must remain ahead of the game to retain their top talent.Teachers are a hot commodity and the global shortage of high quality teachers is\u00a0understated.<\/p>\n
Within the education sector, it is common to see phrases such as \u201cWe are committed\u00a0to professional development\u201d or \u201cWe are committed to developing people\u201d across\u00a0international teaching adverts, as a token message to signal commitment to teachers\u2019\u00a0professional growth. Up until now, this has never been explored on a national level with\u00a0teachers across the sector, of all curricular and all levels.<\/p>\n
We know that professional learning is an implicit responsibility within today\u2019s evolving\u00a0education sector. Teachers must be committed learners and school leaders must be\u00a0invested in their learning to retain them and harness their expertise. International\u00a0schools are under pressure to recruit the best teachers and retain them to develop their\u00a0communities, build continuity and ultimately retain parents.<\/p>\n
This report summarises the findings of the first national UAE teacher professional\u00a0learning survey. It explores what teachers think about themselves situated within their\u00a0schools, and how they perceive their learning as professionals, working to improve the\u00a0lives of the children they care for. The report compares teachers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai,\u00a0the two largest private school markets in the UAE, and teachers teaching in UK and US
\ncurriculum schools. The UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda emphasizes the development\u00a0of a first-rate education system, which will require a complete transformation of the\u00a0current education system and teaching methods. Teacher growth is central to this,\u00a0as the teachers that build professional knowledge within this context will be valuable\u00a0assets as the education market matures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Executive Sumary<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the significant findings of this survey was the impact of collaborative professional\u00a0learning. This particular type of professional learning is known to have the greatest impact\u00a0on teachers, children and wider stakeholders, and based on this survey, it is prevalent\u00a0in the teachers\u2019 practice within the UAE. 76% of teachers said that they collaborated\u00a0with their colleagues in school. 64% of teachers said that their school allocated time\u00a0within the time-table to allow this collaboration to happen. 61% of teachers said that\u00a0their professional learning had improved since moving to the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n The findings are extremely promising and indicate that professional learning, whether\u00a0intentional or unintentional is a real strength of the sector.<\/p>\n Professional learning needs to be more than a bolt on, more than activity; it should be part\u00a0of the DNA of the school and driven by the students and teachers working collaboratively\u00a0to improve classroom practice. This report shines a light on what the teachers think and\u00a0attempts to address the much bigger question: what should professional learning look\u00a0like for an international school teacher in 2017?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our professional learning survey was carried out with over two hundred teachers connected with the UAE Learning\u00a0Network. The teachers were asked a series of questions over a three month period relating to their beliefs, perceptions, and\u00a0reflections about themselves and their learning within their context.<\/p>\n The purpose of the survey was to get a meaningful snapshot\u00a0of the perception of professional learning at a classroom and\u00a0school level. How would teachers rate their professional\u00a0learning? How would they rate the environment they are in?\u00a0Do they feel supported? Are they equipped to evaluate if their\u00a0professional learning is having an impact on themselves and\u00a0their children? Do they feel that their learning has improved The results, which show some clear trends, will be helpful\u00a0to school operators, school leaders, regulators, investors\u00a0and governors. UAE teachers and other educators will\u00a0be able to see how their experiences resonate with this\u00a0sample. School principals, governing boards and investors <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"product_cat":[90],"product_tag":[89],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/17136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=17136"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=17136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nsince being in the United Arab Emirates?<\/p>\n
\nwill be able to gain some valuable insights from the data\u00a0on how to plan for improvements within the professional\u00a0learning arena.<\/p>\n