The fifth in a series of conversations on Advancing Arabic Language Teaching and Learning will explore ways to support children who struggle to learn to read, with a particular focus on boys engagement with literacy. The conversation will explore the effective approaches to identify and monitor the type and level of support needed to meet students’ learning needs. This includes early screening and diagnostic assessments to identify struggling readers and develop evidence-based targeted interventions to provide students with the additional support they require so as not to fall behind.
Opening Remarks
Panelists
Dr. Sami Rahmouni
Arabic Lecturer, Bahrain Teachers College, Bahrain
Dr. Sami Rahmouni, a Tunisian national, graduated from the Faculty of Literature, Arts and Humanities of the University of Manouba, Tunisia. He is a distinguished professor of Arabic language, literature and civilization, an expert in curriculum engineering, and a general inspector of education. He currently serves as a lecturer at the Bahrain College of Teachers in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Dr. Rahmouni has numerous educational contributions in the areas of curriculum design and learning in Tunisia and Bahrain. He participated in specialized research task forces to evaluate the school curricula and provided action-oriented advisory services. He has broad experience in school books authoring and monitoring, preparation of curriculum guides, pedagogical inspections, as well as organizing refresher trainings for Arabic teachers. He also contributed to the preparation of national Arabic language examinations in Tunisia and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Professor William G. BrozoEmeritus Professor of Literacy, George Mason University
William G. Brozo is an Emeritus Professor of Literacy in the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the author of numerous articles and books on literacy development for children and young adults, including three volumes focusing on improving the literacy abilities of boys: To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader: (International Reading Association, 2nd ed); Bright Beginnings for Boys (IRA); Engaging Boys in Active Literacy: Evidence and Practice (Cambridge University Press). As an international consultant, Dr. Brozo has provided technical support to teachers and teacher leaders from the Balkans to the Gulf. For several years, he was a part of team of consultants for USAID providing training and assistance to teachers in Macedonia. He has been a member of a European Union funded grant team (BaCuLit) that developed literacy curriculum and provided professional development for teachers across Europe. His other recent international activity includes work in Romania, where he has provided consulting on the Reading to Learn project and the ROSE project for teachers and teacher leaders, and as an expert evaluator of ELINET, a pan-European literacy policy network, on which he currently serves as a board member. In the Gulf, he has given trainings and speeches for the Ministries of Education in Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. And in Bahrain, he was a member of an expert review panel for the University of Bahrain’s Teachers College. Dr. Brozo was also a member of the working groups of the Learning Metrics Task Force sponsored by UNESCO/Brookings responsible for establishing global learning and assessment standards. He is past chair of the International Literacy Association’s PISA/PIRLS Task Force and was an advisor to the PISA 2018 Assessment Framework expert team for Pearson International.
Dr. Hazem Fahmy
Country Director, CARE, Egypt
Dr. Hazem Fahmy, CARE International in Egypt Country Director, has been working in the field of development since 2003. Dr. Hazem started his academic path by earning a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, followed by a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Civil Engineering on Water Resources Planning and Management. While presuming his graduate studies, Dr. Fahmy was working as a Researcher for the National Water Research Center. Dr. Fahmy then obtained his PHD from the New Mexico State University in 1999 also on Water Resources Planning and Management. After returning back, he continued his work for the National Water Research Center, setting up a Fast Response Unit from 1999 to 2003.
In 2003, Dr. Fahmy joined CARE International in Egypt as a Projects Manager. He was then promoted into Assistant Country Director and finally as a Country Director. At CARE, Dr. Fahmy has been leading the transition across the organization from a project-based programming to a program-based approach, which requires many changes in the organizational culture and operating systems aiming at achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness of the Country Office operations.
Ms. Areeg Hegazy
Education Program Director, CARE Egypt
Areeg Hegazi is currently the Education and Youth Employment Program Director in CARE Egypt. She has more than 20 years of experience in international development and humanitarian organizations in the Middle East in Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco and Iraq and in West Africa. She has gained advanced analytical and research skills and deep understanding of development issues by completing her Masters studies in the American University in Cairo specializing in Professional Development and an intensive fellowship program focused on gender studies in University College London.
Prof. Haitham Taha
Western Galilee College & Sakhnin College for Teachers’ Education
Prof. Haitham Taha is a researcher in the field of learning disabilities, reading psychology and cognitive skills. His main research interest is in investigating the basic cognitive and neurocognitive process in reading among typical and disabled native Arab readers. His main research work is being done in the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at University of Haifa. Currently, Prof. Taha is the chair of the Special Education Department at Sakhnin College and graduated program for studies in learning disabilities and a professor in the Western Galilee Academic College. Prof. Taha published different publications about reading in Arabic from cognitive, neurocognitive and developmental points of view. Beside to his research work, Prof. Taha has a clinical specialization in diagnosis learning disorders and disabilities while he is the professional director of the college center for diagnosis of and treatment of learning and developmental disabilities in the College of Sakhnin.
ModeratorEndowed Professor of Arabic Language, Zayed University
Professor Taha Thomure designed the first system for leveling Arabic texts which is currently used by regional and international publishers to level their Arabic children’s books, with more than 8000 books leveled thus far. She also developed the Arabic language arts standards that have been used by more than 100,000 students all over the Arab world. She is the senior author for Pearson’s Arabic language Arts K-9, a state-of-the-art curriculum that is standards, literature and inquiry-based. She has reviewed the national Arabic curricula for Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain and is an adviser for Arab Thought Foundation, Queen Rania Foundation, USAID, DLI, the World Bank, and many others. Her research is in the field of Arabic language teaching and learning, oral reading fluency, Arabic children’s literature and teacher preparation and curriculum studies.