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07
Oct 2017

Teachers must serve as mentors, says Abdullah

Published: 17:09 October 7, 2017

Samihah Zaman, Staff Reporter

Abu Dhabi: In an era where the role of memorisation is increasingly moot in education, teachers must serve as inspirational models who teach children how to learn, conduct research and improve themselves, a minister said here on Saturday.

“Today, our children know more than we did at their age, and sometimes even more than we do now. They look up information at every given moment, and this is why traditional curricula have become largely invalid and irrelevant,” Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said, addressing delegates at the Global Teachers’ Forum, Qudwa 2017. …

One of the main themes at the forum was the disruptive and changing nature of modern education.

Michael Horn, co-founder of American think tank Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, said schools today must prioritise differentiated teaching that allows every single child to reach his/her full potential.

“In the era of the industrial revolution, schools were first designed to model factories, and this system succeeded at promoting universal education, However, the rigid pace and curriculum meant that many children had large gaps in their education that would hold them back,” Horn explained.

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