On 6th October 2019, a collection of global players in education came together at the Qudwa conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to share learnings and discuss the most prolific trends in the space. Qudwa was developed with the aim to elevate the teaching profession and improve the future of education, with the theme of the conference being ‘Teaching for Global Competence’. The focus was to create a culture of collaboration between teachers, and interconnected learning environments, with the desired outcome of developing integrated and holistic education to include behaviour, mindset and skillset.
Ammaarah Martinus, Director of Policy, Research and Analysis, as well as BI4Gov team lead in the Western Cape Government, was delighted to deliver a one-hour masterclass on Western Cape’s Growth Mindset initiative to an audience of UAE teachers, principals, school management, in addition to companies in the EdTech space, civil society, and global development organisations like OECD and other global players. Growth Mindset teaches learners that through persistence and effort, their abilities can grow. Using interactive videos and reflective exercises, the Western Cape Growth Mindset intervention targeted approximately 1,000 learners in 20 low and no-fee schools. The pilot, which took place over 2017 and 2018, led to an 11% increase in mathematics results for high school learners. As a result, the Western Cape Education Department is now scaling up the intervention to schools across the province in a phased approach over 5-7 years.
Despite the wide range of stakeholders present, the aim of the masterclass was to capacitate primarily teachers from the UAE on the delivery of a Growth Mindset curriculum. Throughout the masterclass, the emphasis lay with how mindset, whether that be a Growth Mindset or any other kind of psychological disposition, can enable both teachers and learners to teach better and learn better. In the session, participants were provided with tools to tailor the curriculum and deliver it in different contexts. The masterclass also addressed how to deliver a pilot, work with partners, and overcome implementation challenges that may be experienced along the way.
The Growth Mindset initiative from the Western Cape demonstrates that high-impact programmes can be run in low-resource environments, such as low-income schools in the Western Cape. The success of the Growth Mindset pilot shows that innovative and effective programmes can be facilitated even on a “shoe string budget”. Although, upon first glance, the level of resources available to schools in South Africa compared to those in the UAE are very different, the masterclass revealed similarities; for example, the level of numeracy and literacy (87% of people above age 15 in South Africa and 90% in UAE are literate),1 and the appetite for work around socio-emotional learning to impact on learners’ academic outcomes. A key approach to the latter in the UAE is their approach to teaching - with roots in promoting character building and a holistic approach to education, which has a clear link with the Growth Mindset project.
The conference was also a great opportunity for the Western Cape to learn from our counterparts. The day featured ‘stand-up’ sessions where anyone could openly share their work in the form of an ‘unconference’. Insights spanned from creativity and critical thinking to what the Fourth Industrial Revolution means for the future of education - trends that are top of mind for us all. We heard about major movements emerging in the education sector and interacted with the global experts working on them. This included valuable insight into the existing body of research on education as well as innovative techniques to communicate educational findings.
It encouraged those not only those in the education space, but also in a wide range of disciplines such as behavioural insights, to consider how we can begin to utilise approaches such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. Similarly, learnings were shared on processes such as Values-based Education, which seeks to promote an educational philosophy based on valuing the self and others, through the consideration of a values vocabulary (principles that guide behaviour) such as respect, integrity, honesty and compassion.
Finally, the conference allowed BI4GOV to develop deeper relationships with parties from across the world, especially the UAE. We look forward to future global collaborations to improve the global competence of our youth today, so that ultimately they are able to thrive in a rapidly changing global context.
If you would like to read more about the conference, you can find the session summaries here, and a full video of Ammaarah’s masterclass here.
References
1 The World Bank. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above). Available online at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?end=2018&most_recent_value_desc=true&start=1970&view=chart