Sample Writing
Article
Copyright Saud Abraham Al-Phuwaini. Saudi Arabian citizen, research to improve home country educational system.
Ghostwriting with research: one draft, 30 pages, 25 hours
The original work is double-spaced and follows style guidelines.
Statement of the Problem
For training elementary school teachers in Saudi Arabia, we need more information from other countries in order to provide better teacher education. There are several problems with Saudi Arabia’s teaching programs. (a) Not enough time is spent in training our teachers; one semester is too short a period for anyone to learn to be a good teacher in the classroom. (b) Most supervisors who are training the school teachers are doing so in subjects that are not their major, and most have no experience in the field of education. (c) We need to look at whether to teach specialized subjects or a broader, more general coverage of many topics as in the United States.
Evaluating the teaching programs of the U.S. and other countries can help us see the differences in our educational systems and determine how we can best improve our own schools and teacher training programs. We should ask ourselves, is it enough to teach 150-175 hours in all subjects, but with a special study of only 40 hours? Should we be teaching more than mathematics, geography, science, social studies, and history, in addition to Arabic and religion? This report addresses these questions and other questions and presents an expanded outlook on how we may better prepare our young people for today’s world, both economically and philosophically, by providing better teachers. As we move into greater participation in the western culture, it is to our advantage as a people to prepare our children and our teachers the best way we possibly can.
Introduction
In the United States, there is not only one form of instructing teacher education. It varies by state, even by university. While the federal government has had legislative input in the U.S. educational process, for the most part individual colleges develop their own curriculums and teaching strategies. This report focuses primarily on new trends, with reference to previous practices, so that Saudi Arabia, in its growth of educational methods, will be able to utilize the most recent and innovative techniques now being taught to prospective elementary teachers in America. The vast array of information provided here substantially will enable educators and universities in Saudi Arabia to select those features that most suit their unique cultural needs.
The preponderance of public and political debates in the United States today complain about the quality of teachers and education. Jimmie E. Cook (1998), in his article “Teaching the Teachers,” contradicts this. He believes that he and all the teachers he knows teach more than the basics. Yes, they teach reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, punctuation, grammar, reading and language arts. They also are teaching neatness, politeness, developing a critical thinking style, how to search for answers, and how to make decisions. This is the goal of all parents and educators. Yet in many U.S. schools the practices that Jimmie Cook described apparently have not been the result for some time with many students.
The current trend in America is to restucture its schools for the new “knowledge-based” economy (Darling-Hammond, 1999). To do this, the mission of schooling and the job of teaching are being redefined. Teachers are expected to no longer merely teach a curriculum; they also must relate to the children and offer moral support. The goal is to prepare young people for jobs that require thinking, not just manual labor; youth are being taught to frame problems; then find, integrate, and synthesize data, and create a new solution; in addition, be able to learn on their own and to work cooperatively. To effectively teach this new mode, Darling-Hammond emphasized in her new book A License to Teach: Raising Standards for Teaching that “teachers must understand cognition and the many different pathways to learning. They must understand child development and pedagogy as well as the structures of subject areas and a variety of alternatives for assessing learning.” The author added:
The capacities teachers need to succeed at the twenty-first century agenda for education can only be widely acquired throughout the teaching force by major reforms of teacher preparation and major restructuring of the systems by which states and school districts license, hire, induct, support, and provide for the continual learning of teachers.
The topics discussed in this report are: (a) teacher preparation; (b) new education strategies; (c) theory vs. practice; (d) the changing political climate; (e) standardized testing; (f) certification; (g) technology in schools; and (h) related studies. My recommendations include references to a premier example of excellent teaching.
Recommendations
. . . What better way for children to learn to be healthy adults? Such teachers are a credit to society. Such teachers are best grown in preparation courses that put them personally in touch with those they someday will teach—children. Learning does not take place in a vacuum. People learn not only from books. Mostly people learn from what they personally experience.
As Easton (1997) wrote, “Waldorf aims, theories, and practices can inspire us to rethink our educational paradigms and structure conversations about how we can respond more creatively to the particular needs of children from diverse backgrounds in our pluralistic society.”
Conclusion
It would be wise of us in Saudi Arabia to utilize and benefit from applying at least some of the training processes that exist in the United States, especially the new ones. Even though the U.S. is itself going through change in its education system, we can learn from their mistakes and we can benefit from what they have learned and assessed. Also, we can pick and choose the programs that will best suit our own needs and culture.
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