GEMS in Dubai
A NEW WAY OF LEARNING FOR A NEW GENERATION
Basing its learning environment on Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero, a new school in the United Arab Emirates promises to equip its students with the skills needed to meet the challenges of a changing world.
he announcement that GEMS Education, a worldwide international-school group, will open a flagship school in Dubai in 2016 has caused ripples of excitement in the world of international education. GEMS has said that it will be basing the learning environment of the GEMS Nations Academy on the principles of Harvard’s Project Zero, which is dedicated to enhancing the development of learning and thinking skills through a deep understanding of the arts. “We’re seeing a rising need across the globe for a learning experience that brings together the latest advances in educational thinking and new technologies,” says Dino Varkey, group executive director and board member of GEMS Education. “With GEMS Nations Academy, we aim to provide that next-generation educational environment for students, preparing them with 21st-century skills for a dynamically-evolving world.” Project Zero was founded by the Harvard Graduate
T
School of Education in 1967, and led by philosopher Nelson Goodman. Its central principle in the early days was to study and improve education in the arts, but it has since grown to encompass innovations and investigations into the nature of intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity and cross-cultural thinking. Today, according to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero is looking at ways in which today’s teaching environments can prepare young people for a future that hasn’t even been imagined yet. It hopes to promote a deep understanding that helps students to solve complex problems. “Project Zero explores ways to deepen student engagement,” says the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “It encourages learners to think critically and creatively, and makes learning and thinking visible. In a Project Zero classroom, teachers are also learners who model intellectual curiosity and rigour, interdisciplinary and collaborative inquiry, and sensitivity to the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of learning.”
A FRESH APPROACH
By adapting the lessons of Project Zero and integrating them with the American learning programme based on the Common Core State Standards in the US, the Nations Academy plans to create a new benchmark for education, not just within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), claims GEMS, but across all emerging nations.
The GEMS group has committed to developing its international education programme, and, in recent years, has attracted senior education talent from across the globe. In the summer of 2015, Tony Little, former head of Eton College, the prestigious UK boys’ school, took up the new role of chief education officer with GEMS. Tom Farquhar, currently dean of American- curriculum schools with GEMS, will lead the new Nations Academy as its founding head. Mr Farquhar has previously led some of the most prestigious schools in the US, including Sidwell Friends School, in Washington DC, where he contributed to the development of the new American curriculum in the US.
“I’ve been working with schools in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf region,” says Tom Farquhar. “I am impressed by the exciting combination of a diverse international student population and a deep commitment to achieving world-class innovations in teaching and learning. “With this background, it is clear that Dubai offers the ideal setting for a new school that will go beyond the old limitations, with a faculty drawn from the brightest and best, a design for schooling that is innovative and inspiring, and a programme that capitalises on every child’s potential for creativity, cognitive growth, and academic achievement.” The school will open in Al Barsha in September 2016, and will offer places for students from kindergarten through to Grade 8.
Keep Informed |
relocateglobal.com | 173
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236
