Kheloud Al Dhaheri, Vice Principal in Al Raqia School in Al Ain and Elise Tarvainen, Director, Global Operations, EduCluster Finland Ltd have been working in the past two years side by side to try to find the best possible way to fuse the Emirati and Finnish school systems together.

During a round-table-discussion held on day 2 at the GESS exhibition, both Kheloud and Elise presented the five-year Educational Partnership Programme (EPA) to a large audience of educators and attendees.

The EPA programme was introduced to create a pedagogical fusion combining both the Abu Dhabi and Finnish experience, leading to the creation of world-class flagship schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain from 2010 to 2015.

Both female experts spoke about their experience with the implementation of the EPA program in the past two years. Their intriguing transparency about their feelings towards the program drove a large number of attendees to raise side-line questions after the meeting, ones that were related to how one of the best educational systems in the world (Finnish education) is being implemented in a school like Al Raqia in Al Ain.

“The Finnish education system is neither centralized nor de-centralized yet it is considered both, which was very confusing for me as a Vice Principal to get used to in the beginning. However by the second year, I got to understand how important it is to encourage everyone in a schools decision making process, Principals, Vice Principals, Administrators and Teachers, as is done in Finland, since this encourages everyone to become committed to coming up with decisions that are beneficial for students,” said Kheloud who has worked with Cycle 1 students at Al Raqia school since the initiation of the EPA programme, a new and exciting challenge for her after 15 years teaching experience.

During the past two years, Kheloud explained that she’s become more familiar with leadership skills, patience and transparency.  “We speak about any issues that occur in our school in a transparent dialogue and brain storm ideas and best practices that are beneficial for our school students.  We gain in-depth experience from teachers who highlight issues related to subjects and the classrooms and on administrators who can see the whole picture from the outside.”

Kheloud currently works with 24 Finnish teachers and a school principal, who all either Master degree or PHD degree holders. “You cannot argue with those teachers about education, because they are highly competent and well educated. They always provide me with good answers to my questions about classroom structures and other issues. They have set professional standards for themselves, and are self-directed and committed. They never leave un-done work behind, and always think about students before themselves.”

According to Elise, teaching in Finland is a highly respected career path, one that selects and enrolls only 10 percent applicants due to strict training and teaching requirements. “No teacher in Finland is allowed to enter a classroom without completing a Master’s degree as well as go through an intense four to five year professional training. This whole selection system is what attracts the best teaching potential available.”

Finnish teachers are not only taught how to practice best teaching methods in classrooms are taught how to conduct research and how to practice self assessment, self reflection and share professional ideas with a school community.

Kheloud alongside 40 other Emirati teachers and academics from both Al Raqia School and Al Ameen School in Abu Dhabi have undergone an intense professional development program that focuses on a student centered learning process, while preparing for their Master’s degrees. An experience that will enable them to become licensed to teach in Finland as well as in the UAE ofcourse.

After working as a teacher for the past 15 years, Kheloud discovered that she was focusing on serving a school curriculum rather than focusing more on students. “I was busy preparing, practicing, evaluating a curriculum where-as my core focus should have been what best suits students. This practice however has changed since Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) has introduced the New School Model (NSM), which focuses on a student centered learning, one that encourages application and hands-on-experience rather than on memorization and routine learning.”

“My experience with Cycle 1 students in the past two years in Al Raqia School has taught me that the Finnish approach is completely different than our teaching approaches in the UAE. The Finnish approach focuses on preventing a problem before it occurs. Teachers observe their students carefully, and have an open dialogue with other teachers and parents on that particular students’ performance. If it’s clear that the student concerned requires special teaching or enhancement classes to prevent him/her from struggling in the future, we provide him/her with a flexible supporting system in parallel with regular teaching methods. These students are never separated from their classrooms.”

The EPA program has also encouraged Emirati teachers to self-evaluate themselves in order to improve the quality of teaching in schools. “I struggled to admit my defaults at first, and needed to train myself to be honest about the things I needed to improve about my performance. But now self-assessment and self-evaluation has become a part of our daily life styles. We now measure our progress towards certain objectives and are clear about our career paths,” explained Kheloud.

While the EPA builds on a the core pillars of the Finnish primary (Cycle 1) curriculum, it also considers specific teaching and learning methods using ADEC’s new curriculum. In addition, the EPA offers a professional development program for Emirati educators operated by the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland.

“Emirati’s are very proud of their culture and identify. It is very difficult for us to import a foreign system and use it in our own country; however the EPA program has established new pedagogical knowledge and skills which enable Abu Dhabi teachers to develop teaching and learning practices through a classroom teacher model,” said Kheloud.

Commenting on her statement, Elise added: “If it was possible to come up with the best education system in the Finland it is also possible in the UAE, especially now that teachers are learning to take ownership of their progress and are engaging in an open-dialogue. There is no magic ingredient in the Finnish success, it’s all about sticking the pieces together and creating a holistic understanding of what is best for Abu Dhabi’s education system,” concluded Elise.

Source: Abu Dhabi Education Council, http://www.adec.ac.ae/english/Pages/NewsDisplay.aspx?ItemID=503