Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed education systems around the world, which caused 172 country-wide closures with more than 1.5 million learners affected at the peak time, including the Arab States where the education of nearly 86 million Arab learners has been suspended. More than 90 percent of ministries of education worldwide have been adopting the policy to provide different forms of distance learning, including internet/PC, TV and radio. In the Middle East and North Africa Region, there are 52 percent of students potentially reached by TV, 26 percent of students by internet/PC, and 2 percent students by radio. However, the educational personnel have not received the necessary training to provide quality distance education, and they lack the skills and competencies to plan and provide distance education and evaluate learning outcomes and students’ progress. The result of a complementary survey conducted by UNESCO Beirut Office underscored that teachers need to be better trained to teach online classes with around 45% responses, especially to be more interactive, to ensure students’ understandings, and to have better instructional designs. Consequently, teachers need support, training and professional development opportunities to quickly adapt to pedagogical shifts, enhance their performance, build their capacities to be able to provide quality distance education and identify and respond to learners' needs more efficiently during the COVID-19 pandemic and thereafter.

In light of the above, UNESCO Beirut and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS) have joined efforts to organize a webinar on efficient teaching strategies for distance learning targeting teachers to support them in continuing professional development and provide them with the scaffolding they need to better deliver distance education and meet their students’ needs.

The main goal of this webinar will be to build the capacities of teachers in the Arab region to deliver quality distance education more efficiently. The webinar will thus serve as a platform to share knowledge and good practices for the efficient delivery of distance education starting from lesson plan to delivery and learning outcome assessment.

Expected Outcomes

• Strengthened teachers’ capacities and their understanding of the key considerations and recommendations in effective distance education planning, delivery and learning outcome assessment.
• Enhanced preparedness and readiness of teachers for pedagogical shifts to overcome commonly heightened challenges such as adjustment of instructional design to promote learners motivation, high risk of students’ disengagement, sharing good practices and resources among teacher

Target Audience

The target audience will include academia, teachers and educators, as well as any other relevant educational practitioners involved in education and distance learning.

Registration

• Registration is free and required in advance. Password: 760258
• Once you register, a unique join URL will be sent to your email.

Live Transmission on YouTube

Live streaming will be provided for those who might not be able to register in advance or to join due to limited capacity of the platform.

Languages

The webinar will be conducted in Arabic and English. Interpretation services will be provided.

The International Task force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF) in collaboration with UNESCO Beirut and UNICEF Regional Offices will host a Regional Virtual Meeting for Arab States on 8 October at 10:00h-11:30 (Paris time GTM +2).

Following from the Regional Meetings initiated in May/June of 2020 on distance teaching and the return to school, the TTF, with member organizations and partners is organizing a new series of discussions to coincide with the WTD celebration.  These will build on the initial dialogue while also exploring the topic of teacher leadership and its key role in developing effective solutions to address challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and building back resilient education systems.

In particular, the regional meetings will provide a forum to:

• Share examples of leadership that emerged, were implemented or are planned during different phases of the pandemic including the transition to remote teaching and the return to school;
• Identify the different systemic or policy level enabling factors that were conducive to foster effective leadership amongst school leaders and teachers at the classroom-, school- and community-levels;
• Identify challenges that need to be addressed to ensure leadership can be enhanced and teachers can take the lead on different dimensions of teaching and learning;
• Discuss different tools available to support teacher leadership, including the new TTF Toolkit for Reopening Schools, and TTF Knowledge Platform.

Some of the main questions to be covered will include:

• What government interventions were implemented or are planned to strengthen leadership capacity of school leaders and teachers to ensure the continuity of learning in the use of distance education and the return to school (if applicable) at the classroom-, school-, and community-levels?
• Given the lack of time to prepare for school closures in most countries, what examples of leadership decisions and actions emerged to ensure the continuity of learning at the micro-(classroom), meso-(school) and macro- (community) levels?
• What forms of social dialogue were conducted or are planned within a strong teacher leadership orientation to ensure the voices of teachers are included in planning?
• What enabling factors and challenges currently exist to foster a leadership mindset?

The meeting is open to TTF member countries and organizations as well as non-members. TTF focal points, representatives of Ministries of Education, and other relevant education stakeholders working on teachers’ issues in the region are invited to join the meeting.

• Read the Concept Note

• Register her

• Watch the video (in Arabic)