Egyptian and Jordanian school leaders visit London for annual Education Development Day

London, United Kingdom 10 February 2016: 16 delegates from Jordanian and Egyptian schools have gathered in London for Pearson’s annual Education Development Day forum. The trip was facilitated by Pearson and the British Council in Amman and Cairo as a way of sharing international best practice in education. 

The delegation gathered at Pearson’s global head offices in London where they heard from education experts about key issues and challenges facing educators. The event was based on three themes:

• Effective solutions to common problems in education.
• Strategies for effective pedagogy.
• Using data to improve student outcomes.

Keynote speakers at the event included:

• Dr Brenda Taggart, an educational researcher and trainer, who delivered the session: Effective Pedagogy in Primary Schools: Evidence from English Research. 
• David Holmes, an education consultant, curriculum advisor and school improvement who facilitator guided the session: Delivering Excellence through Results: Meta Analysis of Student Data to Improve Efficacy of Delivery.
• Mark Griffiths, Director of Research within the Office of the Pearson Chief Education Advisor, who led a discussion entitled: “The Future of School Improvement: From Distractors to Collaboration”.

Mark Griffiths noted the pertinence of the debate around effective school improvement in the Middle East, where governments have committed large sums to achieving measurable improvements in learner outcomes. He said: 

“How can we ensure every student achieves at least one year’s progress for one year of schooling? Governments and schools have spent billions of dollars trying to fix education. But evidence shows that many popular solutions have little impact on student learning. In two reports from Pearson, renowned education expert Professor John Hattie explored common policy ‘fixes’ that distract from other, potentially better, solutions. This forum has been an opportunity to learn more about the research of Dr Hattie, allowing delegates to formulate their own responses to it and explore what it means for policy and practice in their own context”.

May Mousa Goussous, Assistant Principal for Students' Affairs at the National Orthodox School in Jordan attended the event. She said:

"The Educational Day event was an unforgettable experience with important updates about Edexcel Qualifications. It was also informative and enriching, with reference to many effective and updated pedagogical issues. The workshops helped us as school administrators to understand how to help our students achieve excellence through the delivery of the Edexcel qualifications. I felt I was in a seminar in a Master's Degree class.”