Yale literacy professor Dr. Brian Bailey reads to elementary school students in the U.A.E.

Service learning is a new concept for university students in much of the Persian Gulf.  But the incorporation of service learning into a revised curriculum for primary and secondary school English teachers enables Omani and Emirati educators to enrich their teaching strategies.

The training, provided through an an HED partnership funded by the U.S. - Middle East University Partnerships Program, demonstrates how future teachers in the Persian Gulf can utilize service learning to improve teaching.  In Oman, 60 Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) students volunteered to add community service components to the coursework that prepares them to become English teachers. Begun in 2006, these outside-the-classroom-activities require the students to use English through community service.

Faculty members are thrilled that so many students have volunteered for the public service project even though it requires a great deal more time as part of their university studies. “The expected long-term value of this innovative teaching method is to show future English teachers how to incorporate service learning into their own classroom teaching when they become secondary teachers,” says Thuwatba Al-Barwani, professor of curriculum and instruction at SQU.

Northern Kentucky University (NKU) faculty members point out that English teaching is enhanced when language practice is linked with service learning. An added bonus for NKU is that the institution has added Arabic language study to its curriculum, thanks to the access this partnership gives NKU to Arab-speaking teachers.

Photo submitted by: Dr. Brian Bailey