CADER’s partnership with universities enables it to draw on existing international models to offer tailor-made local academic programmes that capitalize on theory to serve the field. The first academic programme CADER offered is a High Education Diploma in ICT in Education. It is a post graduate programme after the B.A. It focuses on new ways of teaching and learning in addition to making best use of ICT tools in enriching the processes of teaching and learning.
High Education Diploma in ICT in Education
Overview
The High Education Diploma (HED) is the first programme of its kind in Jordan and the Arab Region. It is offered by CADER in cooperation with INHOLLAND University/The Netherlands, Delft University of Technology/The Netherlands and Yarmouk University/Jordan. The Diploma was locally tailor-made and developed and was approved by the Ministry of Higher Education in July 2004 as the first accredited High Education Diploma for training of in-service teachers under the name of “ICT in Education” diploma in the Arab World. It is a one-year-post graduate programme that comes after obtaining a bachelor degree in any major. It is certified by both INHOLLAND University and Yarmouk University.
The programme specializes in training teachers to use modern pedagogies and integrate them with the information and communication technology tools in the classroom. The programme is distinguished in its content and delivery approach. Its content is locally developed in the Arabic language by expert practitioners in the field who capitalized on the latest internationally proven theories and experiences to serve practices in the field. Its workshops are highly interactive and depend on application and learning by doing. The programme’s delivery approach is a unique one. It is the first diploma programme that provides training workshops and on the job observation and support outside the university campus in the local schools of the participating teachers. The programme earned a high reputation among educators in the field and broke all diplomas’ records of annual registration numbers.
Content
The programme content draws on proven best practices and learning theories that aim at enriching the learning process and creating an interactive teaching and learning environment. The content relies on project-based learning and promotes learning by doing, active and cooperative learning. It helps teachers form a vision on using ICT in education and on improving education.
The programme also emphasizes the sustainability element of the newly acquired practices through the creation of communities of practice within schools. This is especially focused on in the graduation project the "Masterpiece" which gives space for the teacher to practice peer coaching and transfer the knowledge and experiences acquired in the HED to other colleagues in the school.
The HED makes use of the electronic learning environment (ELE) through providing a dedicated electronic platform for teachers. It is a portfolio-like portal. The trainees can use it to showcase their work, plan for own professional development, submit tasks, communicate with their instructors, get feedback from them, and have discussions with colleagues.
The HED content comprises of the following six themes:
Theme One: Experiments in the Classroom
Theme one gives participating teachers the opportunity to experiment with new ideas of teaching and learning. It also allows them to experiment with ICT in the classroom. The theme introduces the main topics of the programme in an experiential way that is far from theory in a way that engages the teachers and makes them want to know more. In depth knowledge and practice takes place later in the specialized themes.
Theme Two: Learning Styles and Classroom Management
This theme discusses new ways of teaching and learning through introducing teachers to modern pedagogies and the role of ICT in enhancing their effectiveness.
Theme Three: The Role of ICT in Education
Theme three introduces different ICT tools and the unlimited possibilities they offer in the classroom taking into consideration the added value of using such tools in the learning process. Teachers also improve their skills in planning and presenting classroom activities based on ICT.
Theme Four: Specific Learning Topics
Theme four discusses a number of topics related to developing students' thinking skills and levels and ways of promoting thinking in the classroom. It also aims at introducing the role of ICT in promoting thinking skills.
Theme Five: Implementation Strategies of ICT in Curriculum
The theme addresses different subjects in project management and change management. The teacher starts investing the knowledge acquired in the previous themes by putting it to use to serve own school and colleagues. This theme promotes teachers’ leadership to improve the teaching and learning process in own school through starting a community of sharing knowledge, learning and practice.
Theme Six: The Masterpiece
Each participating teacher works in this theme on an individual graduation project in which s/he puts to use what s/he learnt throughout the High Education Diploma. Each teacher’s project should be born out of his/her school’s needs. The project should provide a solution for an identified school problem. It should also be implemented in the school with one or a group of school colleagues. This ensures sustainability of new practices through sharing and transfer of knowledge to school colleagues and embedding new practices in everyday work.
Delivery Mechanism
The programme extends over a period of one scholastic year, distributed over three semesters (48 weeks). It consists of 27 credit hours and counts for 704 load hours. The weekly events of the programme take place as follows:
• A Campus workshop: a four-hour-group meeting in seven major areas in the South, the Middle and the North of Jordan.
• An Onsite workshop: a four-hour-meeting in smaller groups in the field in different schools closer to the teachers’ daily working environment.
• Individual Class Visits implemeted by CADER's Master Trainers that support the teachers in their classrooms
