The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education - Essay Example

Kuwait University offers scholarships to master and doctoral-level students to study in different developed countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia (Kuwait University, 2003). These scholarship funds aim to create an expert faculty in different concentration areas including education (Kuwait University, 2003). More specifically, the program for preservice teachers in science education is designed to meet the standard goals of teaching science in the modern world. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education also adopts the latest pedagogical methods by attending regional and global educational conferences (Kuwait University, 2003).

Both professors and supervisors from the ministry are required to attend these conferences (Kuwait University, 2003). This wave of reform in education both generally and more specifically in the area of science education is occurring within a world in which significant and dynamic changes are occurring. The world is increasingly becoming a “global village” in which actions in one part of the world exert powerful influences on other parts of the world. Modes and speed of travel and communication have changed dramatically in the last half of the twentieth century.

Taiwan has a unique role to play in that context, and the educational reform underway in Taiwan is strongly influenced by reforms that have been initiated in other parts of the world, sometimes in very different cultural settings. Establishing literate citizens starts in the schools while the future of the nation’s productivity may very well be affected by what is learned in the science classroom. To meet the goals for science education, it is necessary to create science teachers who are skilled and meet the goals of the science education standards.

The model that science educators focus on throughout world is the teaching through inquiry. The inquiry itself has many levels and categories. Teachers model behaviors and skills to show students how to use new tools or materials; guide students in taking more and more responsibility during investigations; and help students design and carry out processes of recording, documenting, and drawing conclusions. Teachers also support content learning by helping students form tentative explanations while moving toward conceptual understanding; introducing tools and materials and scientific ideas appropriate to content learning; and using appropriate content terminology, as well as scientific and mathematical language (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2000).

Moreover, teaching science as inquiry is about talking to students, asking questions, making suggestions, sharing, and interacting. Teachers should move around the classroom, make themselves available to all students; and help them with appropriate clues and prompts. Science teachers must facilitate cognitive thinking in their students by using open-ended questions that encourage investigation, observation, and thinking. Moreover, they should listen to students’ ideas, comments, and questions, to help them develop their skills and thought processes.

They should suggest new things to look at and try, encourage further experimentation, and encourage student dialogue (NSF, 2000). Given the emphasis on inquiry in the National Science Education Standards [NSES] (NRC, 2000), the present study examined the K-12 literature, uncovering a myriad of usages for the word “inquiry”. Inquiry-based learning or inquiry-based science describes a range of philosophical, curricular, and pedagogical approaches to teaching. Its core premises include the requirement that learning should be based on students’ questions.