The Ideal Teacher Center in Dar Al-Hekma, a womens-only university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has been providing training for school teachers in all grades. One of their activities is sending a group of teachers to countries with good education systems -like Finland- to learn from. We arranged for Dar Al-hekma to visit Japanese schools (twice) and interact with educators and decision makers. Our programs have included setting up innovative workshops in lego education and “Tokkatsu” (special activities), Q&A sessions with the board of education of city municipalities, and visits to the elementary, middle and high school.
Client
University (Saudi Arabia)
Date
January 2018, June 2018
Work
Overseas Training
Overview
The Ideal Teacher Center in Dar Al-Hekma, a womens-only university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has been providing training for school teachers in all grades. One of their activities is sending a group of teachers to countries with good education systems -like Finland- to learn from. We arranged for Dar Al-hekma to visit Japanese schools (twice) and interact with educators and decision makers. Our programs have included setting up innovative workshops in lego education and “Tokkatsu” (special activities), Q&A sessions with the board of education of city municipalities, and visits to the elementary, middle and high school.
Client
University (Saudi Arabia)
Date
January 2018, June 2018
Work
Overseas Training
Our Approach
Prepare a one-week program to visit Japanese schools & conduct workshops regarding education, especially Tokkatsu.
We coordinated with schools and tour companies to conduct the program.
We listened carefully to what the Saudi teachers want to learn from the schools. The requests became very clear the second time around. We took such requests and went to different schools and educators and explained to them what the teachers want. We focused on the cultural differences and the expectations that teachers have and the best ways to manage that.
The whole week’s schedule and detailed documents were prepared in a folder, where each teacher got one copy of it. We improved the schedule for the second visit to make sure the Saudi teachers visit schools and workshops in a proper timeframe.
For each school, a speech by the head of the school was prepared. Different classrooms were attended, Q&A sessions were scheduled, and visits around the school were conducted, answering the Saudi teachers questions along the way.
Upon requests from the teachers to take on workshops in active learning and other innovative areas, we prepared workshops with schools specialized in lego education (only a few schools offer that in Japan). We also created an unprecedented workshop in Tokkatsu (special activities; 特活), where specialists from the field, including the head of schools and university professors, were invited to speak about the topic.
More than 40 teachers have participated over the last two programs. A total of 6 school visits and 4 workshops were conducted.
Services Used
Overseas Training & Delegation
Education, Business & more
Knowledge transfer between two cultures requires physical attendance and face to face interaction. We facilitate everything from planning & coordination, to the actual execution of the project, and providing adequate translation & interpretation.