News & Event

The Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Arab Center for Educational Training for the Gulf States, inaugurated this week the activities of the "Training Camp for Students’ Acquisition of Higher Thinking Skills in Light of Future Education", under the patronage of HE Dr. Ali bin Qassim Al Lawati, Chairman of the Royal Academy of Administration, and in the presence of HE Dr. Abdullah bin Khamis Ambosaidi, Undersecretary for Education, Dr. Moza bint Nasser Al Kaabi, Director of the Arab Center for Educational Training for the Gulf States, a number of members of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Center for Educational Training, and a number of directors general of the Ministry’s General Diwan and the educational directorates in the governorates. The inauguration took place at the Inter City Hotel, and the training camp continues for four days.

The training camp targets a number of supervisors, first teachers, school principals and educators from the various educational directorates in the governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, and from the GCC states, and the Republic of Yemen.

The opening of the training camp began with a speech by the Arab Center for Educational Training for the Gulf States, delivered by HE Dr. Moza bint Nasser Al Kaabi, Director of the Center, in which she said: “Through the training camp, the training center provides educators with an opportunity for dialogue and discussion on a very important topic for future education, which is to provide students with thinking skills in the light of future education, especially that higher-order thinking skill is one of the basic skills in educational fields in relation to the application of students’ abilities and the development of their thinking, especially since with knowledge progress and development in our time, knowledge is not limited to what the student receives in the lessons, but rather has become a means of learning and training in higher-order thinking skills, including core skills such as decision-making, critical thinking, problem-solving, innovative thinking and metacognitive thinking. This enables students today to face the burdens and problems of life and enhance their abilities to make appropriate decisions in their lives.”

Dr. Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Jamoudi, Director General of the Directorate-General of Educational Supervision at the General Diwan of the Ministry of Education, delivered the ministry's speech, in which he said: “Students’ possession of future thinking skills has become a necessity of the times, and it has become of great importance to build a generation of thinkers who are able to solve problems and possess thinking skills on current and future issues, in addition to the necessity of providing them with future thinking skills and developing a thinking mindset in the dimensions of the past, present and future; a thinking pattern that requires processing previously learned information in order to anticipate future prospects. This training camp covers a number of topics that include: foundations and methods of developing thinking skills, future thinking skills in the educational system, integrating thinking skills in school curricula, applying augmented reality technology in developing thinking, in addition to applying modern teaching strategies to operating the brain where the camp organizers were keen to give priority to practical applications and interactive activities in presenting the contents of the camp, in addition to a school visit and attendance of classroom situations to measure the participants’ ability to apply modern teaching strategies to operate the brain on the educational ground.”

The training camp began on Monday morning with two synchronous sessions targeted 50 in-person trainees and 11 trainees online. The first session was titled “Future thinking skills in the educational system” presented by Coach Hafs Abu Mallouh, Educational Consultant and Expert in Jordan, whereas the second session was titled “Foundations and methods for developing thinking skills” presented by Intisar Al-Sulaimi, Trainer and, Abdullah Al-Mujaini, Educational Trainer at the Specialized Institute for Vocational Training for Teachers.

The second day of the camp also includes two synchronous session that target 50 in-person trainees and 111 online trainees. The first session is titled “Integrating thinking skills into school curricula (Practical applications)” and the second session is titled “Application of Augmented Reality Technology in the Development of Thinking.

The third and fourth days of the camp, participants are to make field visits to each of Al-Ula School for Basic Education (1-4) in Muscat, Sultan Qaboos University, and the Military Technical College, to measure the participants’ ability to apply modern teaching strategies on operating the brain on the ground and holding dialogue sessions on the participants’ insights into the application of these strategies.