Organization and implementation of student-centred active learning in science at secondary and university levels: the Qatari experience

Abstract

Qatar’s National Vision 2030 and Education for New Era emphasise the need to encourage teachers to move from a didactic teacher-led mode of instruction to one that is more student-centred, but also teacher-guided, which encourages the development of critical thinking, problem solving, inquiry, and investigative skills. With an emphasis on an initiative in chemistry, we describe a project that brings together educators from Qatar and Australia to explore the utility and cultural transferability of student inquiry learning approaches that involves improving student conceptual understanding as well as their attitudes and self-efficacy. Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is being applied in foundation chemistry classes at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and studied in parallel with an established learning environment at Curtin University using the same method of instruction. The comparisons are being carried over a number of years to establish longevity of any impact.