The Egyptian Teacher Taught the World

The day opened with a general welcome to Egypt's guests ” Dr Magdy Qasem – President of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education ”  …, 29 people attended the workshop: from the European Union, the resident expert, the quality systems expert, the project officer Ms Howaida and the interpreter Aya; the technical office of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education; a number of university professors; a number of external reviewers from different governorates; and a number of teachers.
Pasi spoke about the project between the Authority and the European Union, setting out its objectives and what it can achieve:
– It includes activities that will focus on the accreditation process and on certain other processes
– The legal status of the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education, and how that legal status can be reformed
– Today's activity covers self-assessment in schools at the pre-university stage
– The main aim of the training is that assessment should be carried out from within the institution itself rather than imposed nationally from outside, because assessment from inside the school is more useful than assessment that comes from outside the institution
– We have about 40 working days, and Mr Matti is working on this so that we can move from external assessment to self-assessment.
– The expert Mari covered this at national level (outside the school)
– Today the expert who works inside schools will explain how this is done inside schools in Finland
About the expert leading today's workshop
– He is responsible for quality systems inside schools; before that he was a quality director at a university
– In the first session he will speak about what happens in Finland regarding quality inside schools, and about the basic principles they follow when building it
– With Mari we learned how government supports quality in our schools and what happens to quality in schools; but the focus this week is on how we carry out assessment inside schools and how we assess the work.
– The workshop agenda falls under the culture of change in schools
– Its components are: reviewing and updating the country's school development system, and in particular quality assurance and quality improvement activities
– The focus will be at the level of schools, institutions and those who work under them
– And we focus on self-assessment methods and tools
– There is one result we are waiting for: how we can move from external assessment to internal assessment. We will present that part, and we need your help – that is why we are working together.
– Pasi went on to say that they need recommendations, but that they will bring what they have in order to help Egypt. We think about the student: is the education system based on rote learning, or is the student responsible for their own learning with the teacher as their guide?
– Matti said: you are the best experts on your own system and on how things are done in Finland, and you are able to do this.
– The focus is on quality from inside schools and on self-assessment, and on how this is done in Finland; he will set out for us the basic quality system used in Finland.
– But the important question is: what kind of assessment matters if we are to improve quality and self-assessment in Finland? We will also present some examples used in Finland that may be useful.
– The second day will focus on how to begin supporting change in schools
– In Finland there were some mistakes, and they managed to overcome some of them; he will talk about this and about how the process of change happened there, and about the main drivers of any effective change in education. Perhaps we can find answers together, and look at how we measure improvement activities in education.
That was the introduction to the day
The day proper began ((Quality in Education)): the Finnish system for building quality in schools, and their ideas for improving education in schools. We must remember why we do quality work, since no one has told us to improve quality; the basic question is why schools work on quality … in order to reach better quality in learning.
There are facts that have to be discussed, and he referred to what Mari had said about principles at national level: over the past twenty years there has been governance and decentralisation. In quality work, for example, schools enjoy a very high degree of autonomy; assessment is standards-based and focuses on outcomes and on self-assessment. This means that institutions, schools and universities have their own quality management processes. There is broad consultation with stakeholders, though not to a very high degree, and we have a comprehensive assessment culture in schools – two schools assessing each other, for example. We can say that Finnish culture is an assessment culture built on trust, and the state helps by accrediting the quality system in schools; once the state has granted accreditation, it makes sure the school is managing quality properly. In Finland we believe that teachers have the greatest expertise in managing quality in schools, and we trust them. Teachers have very high standing, and teaching is a very attractive profession: it is the profession young men and women most want to enter, so we can say that we choose the most capable young people to be teachers. That is how it is in Finland
Historically we have long valued education; teachers command particular respect and high salaries – a primary teacher earns 2,800 euros, for example, which is considered average. In the 1960s and 1970s teachers began to strike; they were a guiding light that people followed, and they lit up the world for others. There was a single teachers' union, and the union kept working to improve the image of teachers. All teachers hold a master's degree, even kindergarten teachers, and it is very difficult for anyone to enter the teaching profession. Pasi says that his daughter is going into teaching, and that at that university perhaps only 4.7 per cent of applicants are admitted to the faculty that opens the way into a teaching career.
Why teachers in Finland are held in such high regard
Why do teachers receive high salaries? That goes back to a long history of respect. Finland is a small country in southern Europe and relies on improving education, which is why teachers care about quality and are held in respect.
In short, we have good teachers with very high competitive expertise, and that is why we respect them. The teacher's work is research-based, and teachers try to advance. As Mari explained, we take all this into account when we design curricula, and we take teachers' views into account.
In the quality management system the focus of attention is the learning process – that is, how the pupil learns. We will explain an equation that illustrates this:
K2-k1= lr
Knowledge 1 – Knowledge 2 = learning outcome
where k2 is the knowledge the pupil left with
K1 is the knowledge the pupil arrived with (the pupil's initial knowledge)
Lr = the learning outcome
= learning is the focus of attention
When we come to build quality systems we have to know what supports the learning process. This is the basic idea, and it is simple.
In Finland we do it one way and in Egypt you do it another, and of course it is well known that methods which produced results in Finland may not produce progress in Egypt
But we can accept this idea
– The learning process has an important element (the learner). When the learner achieves a result they need feedback, or an assessment of their performance; and as we build the management system in schools we need to work out how to give feedback on this process and how to do it.
– The learner must monitor and develop their own performance; we teach the learner self-assessment tools, and that is a second part of the quality system in schools. A third point is that this system guarantees improved learning outcomes. Improvement has to take place in schools, and there have to be tools that support improvement. These are some ideas about what happens inside the learning process, first of all
– The teacher's role: we believe the teacher's role is to help the learner reach the best possible learning outcomes (there are no final examinations in primary school; examinations are only at secondary level) – in Finland schools teach for life, not to obtain a certificate – and to provide the conditions and requirements for learning.
– The learner is not someone who simply enjoys teaching and receives it, but an active and responsible partner in the educational process, because they are to be equal partners; learning outcomes are therefore not the work of the teacher alone but of the teacher and the pupil together.
– An example on the point that (the teacher and the learner are partners in the learning process): there is an implicit contract between learner and teacher about the main objectives. Can the learner change the learning objectives? No, but they do discuss them.
– The question was raised whether this can be applied in Egypt, since pupil numbers are very large and discussion between teacher and learner is difficult, and this …
– Learning takes place in different forms, and there are differences between them; partnership does exist, and it is true that numbers may limit the process, but in general this is the partnership that is required.
– The final point: if there is failure, it is the fault of both the teacher and the learner,
• How can we reach good learning outcomes:
– Through the teacher, who sets the conditions for how the process is carried out
– The learner and the teacher must cooperate, and consider which teaching materials make the process easier and how good results are achieved
– The teacher and the learner should know the assessment tools and look for the appropriate one
Although there is partnership between teacher and learner, it is the teacher whose experience draws the pupil towards learning and towards good results. There is democracy in decision-making, but it is the teacher who chooses after that, and who has the means and tools to use in the pupil's service.
There are many teaching methods, and every pupil has their own way of acquiring knowledge

For example: laboratory methods and laboratory safety – a pupil cannot be left alone to learn by experiment.
In Finland the pupil has the right to be a learner, and if they say they do not understand, they have the right to ask a naive question … as they wish
The worst thing is for the teacher to tell the pupil that this is a silly question. Very often a mistake is the easiest route to learning.
((Is the pupil allowed to make mistakes, and how do we make use of those mistakes in the learning process)) …
When they start work in their schools on building a quality system:
– The value it will add for the pupil
– The teacher and the learner are partners in the educational process and must cooperate
– Teaching is a process that supports learning
– Learning comes first, and teaching is a process that supports learning.
If we accept the principles we have agreed on, what feedback can they rely on? How do pupils behave during their studies? What happens during the learning process? We want to see the learning outcomes: was the learning effective or not? We therefore need to know how far teacher and learner cooperate. These are the basics, and we will learn how to adapt them. If we agree on the principles, we can set out the pyramid of educational quality in schools
The base of the pyramid is the teaching and learning processes for learners, because of their importance; then the work of teaching; then cooperation between teacher and learner; then quality management

How we draw conclusions from the first and second stages

The Deming cycle – the idea of the Deming wheel

The basic idea underlying Deming's concept is continuity,

, do PLAN

chek
AKER
First planning, then implementation and review, and so on: how we plan strategies and action plans; then how we implement what has been planned, for which we need to know the processes and the steps required to carry them out; then review and measurement tools, and which points are to be measured. After that we look at the actions to be taken for planning, implementation and review, and so on. These are the basic factors we rely on when we build the quality system in Finland.

Planning teaching, delivering teaching, the educational process – the learning outcome, then feedback from the educational process and from the learning outcome, and finally feedback on all the elements. Diagram
In the part concerning the learning process, we assess the teaching that the teacher provides to the learner.
Pasi's own experience: a project to assess the learner and the teacher
In Finland they have no inspectorate and no supervision of the teacher; but after Pasi worked on this project he began to think about how responsibilities should be defined, because they place complete trust in the teacher. The head and the principal do not enter the classroom to monitor the teacher, and intervene only where a problem has been reported by the teacher, the learner or a parent
In the early grades the teacher is responsible for teaching more than one subject, so sometimes a school has a class that is hard to manage and all the teachers share their experience in solving the problem. Where subjects are taught separately, the subject teachers meet and decide the best way to solve it and to make progress in the subject.
There is no direct supervision of the teacher
If there is a disruptive pupil, or particular circumstances, there is psychological counselling, guidance from the medical committee, and cooperation from colleagues to solve the problem.
They are used to communicating in schools through regular meetings, and the purpose of these meetings is to reach solutions. Even in universities, the president communicates with the professors; this is routine and they are used to it. They review this year's work and reports against the previous year's, and so they go back and ask whether what was agreed has been carried out and whether there has been any shortfall. There are certain agreements between the school principal and the teachers, and the teachers deliver what has been agreed.
Teacher development in Finland
Becoming a teacher takes five years of university education
Teaching a particular subject takes seven years, including two years of practical training
A class teacher takes a master's degree in education
They are mentored directly by a more senior teacher, sometimes in vocational schools and vocational training departments
And the big secret: what stages does a teacher in Finland go through
– After taking the master's degree they work as a teacher, and their career curve is flat, with no changes
– Every teacher must take training days over the course of their career (2 days in ordinary schools, 5 days in vocational schools)
– Salaries depend on the number of hours: at 24 hours the salary is standard, and work beyond 25 hours is paid extra, with an increase every 5 years. In primary schools the salary rises and falls with the number of hours; in vocational schools it does not, because most of the work is in workshops.
– Teachers can increase their pay in various ways, for example by taking responsibility for equipment, which can add around 100 euros
– They can teach a particular pupil a particular programme, paid for by the school, with a ceiling on this private tuition.
– There are other ways of increasing income: a teacher can become a pupil's adviser, or go to university and specialise in something, perhaps in a particular subject. Training to teach children with disabilities raises their salary, and so do management and studies in it, in which case their salary can be increased.
– Teachers in Finland assess themselves, and there is no inspection. The teacher can ask the learner, can ask parents, and in some cases the principal carries out the assessment with them.
– The state of education in Finland, compared with Egypt and other countries, is that the teacher in Finland starts from a higher level.
– Dr Magdy said: the Egyptian teacher is the finest teacher of any age, and the Egyptian teacher was educated at a time when we treated education as a national mission – and that will return when we return to that approach. Our thanks and salute to Dr Magdy, whose words raised the standing of the Egyptian teacher. This reminded me of a conference we organised in Gharbia in cooperation with the Yemeni Cultural Centre, attended by the Yemeni ambassador and held in the conference hall at Tanta University – and I remember that Dr Abdel Wali El-Shamiri, Yemen's ambassador to Egypt, stood up that day and said that Egypt had taught us: ” the Egyptian teacher taught us when we were children in our own country, and when we wanted to complete our postgraduate studies we came to Egypt. Egypt is the beginning and the end; the credit for our learning goes to Egypt, and Egypt has rendered a service to every other country.

Dr Asmaa Mostafa then presented the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as set out in the previous workshop on 20 November 2013. Today we added to the weaknesses the failure of education administrations and directorates to apply the standards for quality assurance and accreditation of educational directorates and administrations – noting that the Authority issued them in 2010. To the opportunities we added the diploma in the quality of educational systems awarded by Egyptian universities.
An example of self-assessment tools in Finland
A conversation between the principal and the teacher in which the teacher gives themselves a mark out of 10
– What was agreed last year, what the teacher has done, and whether last year's discussion was carried through; if the teacher did not complete it, they must give the reason
– Annual performance: was it carried out well, were there obstacles, and what were the reasons for success and for failure “because there may be external reasons”
– The principal asks the teacher to give themselves a mark out of 10, then discusses the mark with them; they discuss the teacher's responsibilities and which of them the teacher has carried out; whether their class includes children with disabilities; and whether the teacher is satisfied with their work and committed to it. They then talk about the working environment around the teacher and what improvement is needed. The teacher has to give concrete examples, and after the conversation they begin to set objectives for the coming year and possibly for the years after.
– Does the teacher want to teach children with disabilities ” this increases their income ” or do they want to focus only on their work, or do they want courses or diplomas … The school can help with all of this and can give them the time for it.
– Agreement on follow-up thereafter at set intervals (6 months or a year …)
– They then draw up a training plan: what experience or training the teacher needs
– The principal then asks the teacher whether there is anything else they want, and what their expectations and hopes for themselves as a teacher are.
– Whether the information they need for teaching is easy for them to obtain.
– Anything the teacher criticises must have a solution found for it; the solution is an internal one.
– How the teacher deals with the other parties in the educational process.
– A teacher in Finland must be able to give feedback (which practices went well and which did not, and how to improve them)
This discussion takes place once a year between the teacher and the principal
A report is then produced, because there may be reviews with the teacher about what has not been achieved.
Finland has tools such as:
– The culture of self-assessment in the educational institution
– Improvement practices in the educational institution
– Measuring the quality of the educational climate in the institution
– Feedback in the educational institution
– The school's receptiveness or openness to change
– The research or survey carried out in the school
– The ability to anticipate
– The school's results
In conclusion
We
We
We
We
We
are far better than this – but where are the hands reaching out to make our situation better? We want hands that work for Egypt. Minds have drawn the path; let us help them.
I have included a photograph of Dr Magdy as he spoke, raising the standing of the Egyptian teacher and calling for education to be given proper attention; he said that the Egyptian teacher taught the world
Mervat Fayed,