(Education for life) Schooling as preparation for the world of work

Education for life

 Schooling as preparation for the world of work

By Sayed Abuelmagd

Introduction

What motivated me to write this book was a deep desire to foster creativity in education.

We live in a world of turbulent change. New data. New people. New technology. New problems. We are bombarded every day with something new. Realities shift faster than we can deal with them.

In this turbulent world, the present system of education no longer is effective in all situations. Routine and the culture of memory rarely work now.

The existent teaching methods produce the culture of memory which judges, the ability to memorize.

These methods don’t aim at developing, the faculty of creativity but rather at developing the faculty of memory because they are based on the principle of certainty.

This principle states that for every question there is only one answer which is true.

It is striking that the function of education now is one of making sure that every student knows the correct answer consequently, it is not the right of the student to doubt the principle of certainty. Hence, the principle, not only dominates the curriculum, but also governs the behavior of students, so we deduce that the existent teaching methods are the nails in the coffin of our thinking.

Instead, we must look for a modern education based on creativity with the spirit of rationalism and scientific thinking; we must look for new ways to deal with change.

I have thought ahead and thought more strategically about creating a successful system of education in this difficult time……..

I decided to dream the big dream that can move my soul and drive me to make the compelling picture a tangible reality.

That’s the early specialization in education which can help us reinvent ourselves and our organizations.

We need early specialization to conceive new products, service and process ideas, marketing strategies and ways of allocating and using resources.

My plan has been organized on the basis of subject specialization which will have beneficial spillovers for our country.

A specialized education from an early age can be an important means through which economic growth is transmitted across our country. The student through his specialty “specialty” knows the expert aspects of his immediate tasks.

The great benefit of early specialization is the creation of elites. This system can work miracles in our life. Really, flexible specialization is the best way to improve the educational performance of school pupils. It is also the surest way to a healthier nation. The pupil will have a special focus on his chosen subject which he will study at the age of fourteen.

When we have a clear plan, it is easier to be confident in adapting it.

Technology is growing and we want to be part of it. Hence, to specialization at an early age is a necessity, without it we cannot make economic, intellectual, creative, cultural, social or spiritual progress. Specialization is intended to act as a focus and catalyst for development.  

To be specialist, you must be special and stay special.

               The Blueprint

• The unique feature of this Blueprint is down-to-earth practicality. Here we will find simple, usable methods that we can easily apply in education. My Blueprint takes into account the goals and aspirations of the national vision policy to build a resilient nation, encourage the creation of a just society, maintain sustainable economic growth, develop global competitiveness, build a knowledge – based economy, strengthen human resource development.
• The Blueprint aims to increase the nation’s economic growth towards building a united, just and equitable society as well as meeting the challenges of global civilization and k- economy.
• The ultimate aim is to build Egypt into a developed nation based on its own mould. The Blueprint aims to further develop the potentials of individuals, to increase quality of education and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education management.

 Programs and curriculum

Kindergarten

• It begins at the age of three until the age of six.
• Children don’t learn how to read and write but shall develop their social capabilities.

They learn

• How to sit quietly for a while.
• How to pay attention to the teacher.
• How to cooperate.
• How to adopt good habits about greeting others, answering questions in a clear and friendly manner.
• How to respect human rights and be thoughtful to others.
• How to work cooperatively with the family and community.
• How to see themselves as an important member of a group.
• How to work effectively with others.
• How to feel open and friendly to people of different ages.
• How to develop their taste for modern songs and art.
• How to hate racism, moral poverty, selfishness, hypocrisy and swear words.

What else

• They should gain the ability and skills to live a safe life.
• They should take part in cleaning public places within and around the school.
• They should learn activities like walking, cycling, jogging and swimming.
• They should learn that they mustn’t ignore God.
• They should attend flower arrangement classes.
• They should learn the rules of polite and correct behaviour.
• They should learn that hair should be clean, combed, controlled, neat and natural colour.
• They must have their nails cut, trimmed and cleaned.
• They must learn the value of time and punctuality.
• They must learn that cleanliness is next to godliness.
• They must learn that picking their nose is an ugly habit.
• They must know that we are all human beings.
• They must bear in mind”to be a good talker, you must be a good listener”
• They should learn that business comes before recreation.
• They should learn loyalty and belonging to their country.

The kindergarten curriculum

It consists of eight different domains of children’s life including:

• Health and physical education.
• Social relationships.
• Creative expressions.
• Language and scientific inquiry.
• Group behaviour, the idea of belonging and the idea of difference.
• Understanding and appreciation of animals.
• Protocols and Etiquette.
• Spiritual intelligence.

Goals and content of each domain are presented in different levels

Level 1:

• It is for three to four year old children, using on the basic needs of individual children with content beginning from the most fundamental and simple levels.

 Level 2:

• It is for five to six year old children.
• It is more complex and varied and it includes comparing and analyzing activities.

 The purpose of kindergarten education is all-around development of the child.

The goals of kindergarten education are as follows:-

• Health and Physical Education
• To provide experiences for healthy physical and emotional growth.
• To teach him or her, the senses awareness of body safety.
• To teach each child develops self-esteem.
• To ensure young children emotional security by providing sensitive care in home- like atmosphere.
• To provide snacks on a regular basis to help children develop healthy eating habits.
• To provide preventive services for the physical and mental well-being of the children.
• To help find any physical problems at date in order to promote health for the child and his family as well as his community.
• To teach children how to take precautionary actions and help them to gain the ability and skills to live safe life.
• To teach them the importance of avoiding envy, selfishness, slander, deceit, falsehood, malice and hypocrisy.
• To cultivate in them a melting heart, the giving hand, the kindly speech.
• To teach them how to deal with obstacles.
• The Social Relationships:

• To develop basic habits of daily life and the ability to live harmoniously with others.
• To develop self control skills.
• To develop social knowledge and attitudes.
• To teach them how to get along with other people.

3-Creative Expressions:

 To foster children’s abilities to express themselves in spontaneous and creative ways by providing various activities and thus, develop children’s emotional security and aesthetic appreciation.

To foster children’s abilities to express themselves in spontaneous and creative ways by providing various activities and thus, develop children’s emotional security and aesthetic appreciation.

 4-language and Scientific Inquiry:

• Language:

 To help children gain interest in the spoken word.

• To enable children to enjoy their use of language.
• To give them the basic of language overall.
• In this stage we focus on listening.

• Scientific Inquiry:
• To help children have curiosity and interest for things and phenomena around them.
• To help them inquire about the questions that they have.
• To foster children’s problem solving abilities and attitudes. 

• Group Behaviour, The Idea of Difference and The Idea of Belonging:
• Group Behaviour:
• Social activities such as contents, competitions, lectures, visits to historic places and excursions should be available through the school year.
• Children should be given the opportunity to know each other well.
• They should practice their favorite activities in teams and in a quiet atmosphere away from books and examinations.
• Why do children work in groups?
• By joining a group, children can reduce the insecurity of standing alone; they feel stronger, have fewer self doubts and are more resistant to threats when they are part of a group.
• They may need to cooperate with people who are very different from them and may not like. So, they will have to show tolerance and work with these people.
• The Idea of Difference:
• A difference is required and may be hoped for….
• The idea of difference in religion, nationality, colour, customs, tongues, traditions, culture, education etc…
• God has decreed that the earth must be given to all people whatever the differences among them.
• God has given each one a mind capable of thinking.
• It grows richer when directed to perform its proper function but is dull and stupid when left to laziness.
• The Idea of Belonging:
• The need to belong is a basic aspect of being human; the ways in which we satisfy this need have changed significantly over time.
• Our modern sense of belonging is characterized by a move away from traditional social categories.
• Distinctions such as class, race and nationality are still important makers of identity but the boundaries of what these distinctions actually describe are becoming increasingly blurred.
• Understanding and appreciation of animal:
• Stress can be reduced by training animals to cooperate with children.
• There are a number of organizations and detailed information about the care and the use of animals.
• Protocols and Etiquette:
• Establishing Classroom Etiquette and Dealing with Disruption.
• Protocols:
• We must teach the children that their actions are not above reproach.
• They must be mindful that how they conduct themselves will have an impact on how their country is perceived in the world.
• They should be proud to be in a school that values integrity and conducts its business in an ethic manner.
• The children need a quest a common understanding of what they stand for now and what they want to become.
• We must teach them that their success depends on intellectual curiosity, and a sense of integrity in everything they do, so that they can serve as responsible stewards in the global life science community and all of society.
• We should give the children a simple good idea about the United Nations documents.
• Teaching protocols will prevent violence from continuing to plague our nation and destroy lives.
• All members of society are vulnerable to this crime, regardless of race, age, gender or social standing.
• Etiquette:
• What is Etiquette?
• Practicing good manners.
• Knowing how to behave in a given situation.
• Knowing how to interact with people.
• Basic Social Etiquette:
• Always be punctual.
• If invited to a function bring no one, unless the invitation states “and guest”.
• Don’t smoke, chew gum or tobacco.
• Don’t show up without having responded.

• Social Functions
• Avoid hanging out exclusively with your friends mingle and make conversation.
• Make attempts to meet as many people as possible.
• The art of small talk is asking questions.
• Don’t hover around the hors d’oeuvres!

• First Impressions.
• It takes 30 seconds for a person meeting you for the first time to from impressions about you, your character, and abilities.
• You never get a second chance to make a first impression!
• You are always “onstage”. Always be prepared to look and sound your best.
• Good grooming is essential.
• Smile and make eye contact.
• Etiquette for Kids.
• We teach them the true meaning of love. We teach them how to have proper posture and not to talk with mouth full.
• There must be a culture of reading with the children at home.
• Teachers must be highly valued kids study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
• We help them to have better self-understanding.
• We teach them how to have negotiation skills.
• We teach them how to break bad habits.
• We help them get rid of unwanted emotions.
• We show them the way to become healthy and control their life.
• We spread the atmosphere of creative thinking.
• Spiritual Intelligence
• It is the intelligence that makes us whole that give us our integrity, it is the intelligence that encourages our children to strive to be the best they can be and to find meaning and purpose in life and to make a difference in the lives of others.
• We teach the children how they know the world and everyone in it, how they do what they do, how they create their reality with its heights and depths, how to see, hear, and feel more of the world, to know themselves better and to understand others more clearly.

• Love of God. (Beliefs are the rules we live by)

- Love of God gives the children direction despite the myriad complexities and distractions of our time because God is the source and perfection of love.

• God alone has been in perfect peace so the children will enjoy the peace of mind and try to make others calm by spreading peace around them.
• Love of God makes them open their heart to what they receive and anticipate a glorious future.
• In my point of view the first love is love and support from Allah when we are missing this love, our life tends to be a struggle to have this love, we need to have regular contact with Allah.

Happiness comes to those who love Allah. It comes to those who set limitations upon the satisfaction of self.

• Love of God facilitates learning and education. The more adherent man to Allah, the more cultured he is in knowledge. This love gives us confidence in our ideas.
• What is lacking is not a method, but a goal, and our goal is to worship and love Allah.
• How deep are the feelings which spring form being with Allah raises the soul to a level above and beyond this world?
• I mean the mind and how we think. We teach the children that our actions are not at random, we are always trying to achieve something.
• We teach them that every behavior has a positive intention.

• We teach them the meaning with communication.
• We teach them how to process all information through their senses.
• We teach them that modeling successful performance leads to excellence. They mustn’t become a clone of the person they are modeling. (They learn from them).
• We teach them the values that guide them.
• We teach them the strategy for the journey of their study.
• We teach them how to act differently, think differently and feel differently.
• We teach them adapting to changing circumstances.
• We teach them the skills they want, and attitudes and beliefs they want to adopt.
• Here, they discover what sort of person they want to be.
• The child learns to become the person who moves towards what he wants in his life instead of leaving it to chance or for other people to decide.
• The children build powerful rapport by respecting and understanding the beliefs and values of another person, they don’t need to agree with them, only they should respect what is important to them.
• How we use language and how it affects us.
• Key words and phrases chats designate values. The students learn words that show how he or she is thinking.
• We teach the child how to show the other person that he respects their way of thinking.
• They should learn that mimicking body language is indiscriminate copying without respect and will lose them rapport very fast. Often the best way to gain rapport at the behaviour level is simply to avoid badly mismatching. (e.g., don’t stand if the other person is sitting, don’t talk quickly if the other person is a slow speaker, don’t speak loudly if they have a soft voice.)
• We teach them to be comfortable and congruent themselves when they match other people’s behaviour.
• The language they use offers clues to which representational system they are using.

• How we sequence our actions to achieve goals.
• We teach children how they use their senses, they should pay attention to the outside world and gather information using their fine senses:

Visual: Seeing

Auditory: Hearing

Kinesthetic: Feeling

Olfactory: Smelling

Gustatory: Tasting

• Joy, pleasure, understanding and keenness of thought, everything that makes life worth living comes through the senses.
• We teach them that by paying attention on the outside, they enrich their thinking. By paying attention on the inside, they become more sensitive to their own thoughts and feelings, surer of themselves and better able to give their attention to the outside.
• We teach the children how they create their internal pictures, visualize, daydream, fantasize and imagine.
• Services for parents:
• We should help parents understand the role, rules and goals of childcare facilities through their participation.
• Childcare facilities need to have agendas not only for each day but for entire weeks. Parents should be aware of these agendas.
• There must be a culture of reading with the kids at home.
• We should tell parents to take care of their own children.
• They should give them a good start in life.
• We should help parents to succeed in teaching their children the difference between right and wrong. These values are overlooked by the older generation.
• The head teacher draws up a report providing information about the pupil for his or her talents.
• Schools should create open channels of communication in which parents are able to express their ideas and feelings freely.
• Parents must abide by the code of school behaviour and other conditions.

 Learning Places:

• Most learning places for young children teach art, playing the piano, gymnastics as well as language fundamentals and arithmetic.
• The ultimate aim is to prepare the child to choose his specialty and to discover his talent.

• Evaluation
• Use evaluation to help you teach better and to help your students learn better.
• Evaluation is the process of obtaining and using it to form judgments that in turn, are used in decision making.

• The evaluation process
• Preparing for evaluation
• Obtaining needed information
• Forming judgments in making
• Using judgments in making decisions and preparing evaluation reports.
• The kind of performances that might be evaluated through the use of checklists are:
• Playing a musical instrument
• Singing
• Speaking
• Participating in a discussion
• Leading a discussion
• Appropriate behaviour
• Painting in oil

Primary Education

It begins at the age of seven until the age of thirteen.

• The Classroom:
• In the classroom, the number of learners should not exceed twenty five pupils. There must be a teacher and assistant teacher to have direct relations with the pupils, the pupils should be flying. Once a week moral education classes must be introduced.
• Learning Areas:

The curriculum subjects from the age of 7:9

• Pupils have to learn all the subjects:
• Mathematics
• Information technology
• Languages
• Fine arts and performing arts
• Geography
• History
• Philosophy
• Marine life
• Space and astronomy
• Chemistry
• Drama
• Contemporary literature
• Music
• Cooking
• Athletics
• Gymnastics
• Etiquette
• The curriculum subjects from the age of 10:13
• Pupils have to learn all the subjects:
• Classic literature
• Politics
• Culture and society
• Physics
• Botany
• Biology
• Economics
• Archaeology
• Management and organization
• Agriculture
• Business administration
• Professional education
• Law
• Marketing
• Cinema
• Fashion
• Psychology
• Criticism
• Mass media
• Hotel and tourism management
• Protocols

Evaluation

• It must be based on creativity.
• Education must be achieved through the kinds of performances and products that might be evaluated through the use of checklists.
• Performances
• Speaking
• Playing a musical instrument
• Participating in a discussion
• Leading a discussion
• Conducting an experiment
• Working through a math problem

Behaviour and punctuality  

• Products
• Maps
• Wood products
• Sculptures
• Handicrafts
• Outlines
• Overall layout
• Examinations
• The purpose of the examination is to assess whether a pupil has reached a level of competence to justify further advancement in the program.
• A pupil must pass all of the examinations to remain matriculated in the program.
• Any examination that the student fails must be retaken in the following semester and may be retaken only once.
• Levels of Evaluation
• Project level
• Curriculum level
• Unit level
• Learning step level

Initial evaluation assessment checklist

• How: (techniques-what is most appropriate)
• Questionnaires

(collecting information)

• Interviews
• Confidence logs
• Observations
• Student profiles
• Pre-tests and post tests
• Inventory learning checklists

• Summary:
• The effort that is put into the design of any piece of evaluation will pay rich dividends, however, defining the right question is always the key starting point, there are degrees of correctness of definition but this should always be something that is measurable and possible within the time frame in which they are working. Each evaluation will have its own combination of costs and benefits and estimating them is all part of an evaluation.

 Reports providing information

• When a pupil leaves the school, the head teacher, together with the teaching staff, draws up a report providing information about the pupil for his or her new school.
• A copy of the report is given to the child’s parents. This report will help the pupil choose his specialization subject.