AY 2007-2008 Projects - Near East and North Africa

Country                                   Bahrain
City                                          Isa Town
Host Institution                       Ministry of Education

Project Description
The EL Fellow will support the Ministry of Education’s initiative to develop training courses and trainers for English teachers so that they will have the skills to implement the new student-centered Ministry of Education English curriculum that features human rights, civic education, and democratic classroom practices. Working with Ministry of Education Departments of Curriculum, Training, and Educational Supervision the EL Fellow will develop and implement a teacher evaluation process for teachers in basic and secondary education; link the teacher evaluation process to a professional development plan featuring Shaping the Way We Teach English course (produced by the US Department of State); and coordinate teacher training across Curriculum, Training, and Educational Supervision Departments. Bahrain is in the process of implementing a new curriculum featuring human rights and civic education in all subject areas. The RELO Office has supported this initiative by providing EL Specialists, enrolling 14 Ministry of Education staff in e-Teacher courses and six ministry staff in the Shaping the Way We Teach English online course, and by providing two EL Fellows who worked on curriculum development and on a preliminary teacher-training initiative. As a result, the English curriculum team has led all other subject areas in this process and has been one of the first to submit its new curriculum to the Minister for approval. In order to ensure the success of the new curriculum, the Ministry needs to coordinate the teacher training efforts of the Curriculum, Training and Educational Supervision Departments and develop a coherent and consistent teacher evaluation and professional development plan. All of these departments at the Ministry of Education are very progressive, and all have asked for an EL Fellow to help them develop coordinated strategic teacher evaluation and development plans. In addition, the EL Fellow will work with teacher supervisors and trainers develop targeted and efficient training courses directly to ensure that teachers have the expertise needed to implement the new curriculum. The results of this program will be a teacher evaluation plan linked to a teacher development plan, trainers and supervisors trained to implement the plans, larger numbers of teachers with the expertise to implement the new curriculum and teaching methods, and students from primary and secondary schools who will benefit from student-centered, democratic teaching methods as well as human rights and civic education.   Finally, the EL Fellow will advise on materials to include on the English Language Development Section of the American Corner for the public use, and conduct workshops at the newly established American Corner in Manama Bahrain.  

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