During the summer break, many teachers involved in the Project-based Professional Development Programme completed work on projects with their students. These projects included a set of activities, which ranged from interviews with community figures to visits to art workshops, universities, municipalities and libraries.
The Project-based Professional Development Programme is a project of the Educational Research and Development Programme (ERDP) at the A. M. Qattan Foundation. In its Gaza-based offices, the ERDP hosted a workshop organised by teachers with their students. In regular sessions, teachers and students developed projects through an ongoing process of action and reflection. These were implemented with support from the ERDP team in Gaza.
Abdullah Haju, a teacher, described his experience, stating: “During the summer break, I worked with a team of 35 students. It was a unique experience. For the first time, I felt free to work with the students themselves. I felt I was not crippled by the curriculum, administrative procedures and routine. In these students, I saw a potential I had not seen before. That potential was abounding with creativity and innovation. I saw students walking in tracks, which they drew and planned. So, did I.”
Explaining his project, teacher Wisam Aabed said: “Writings is not only an educational project, but it is also a dream I had. This is my project. It reflects a human need to communicate and exchange ideas. In this project, I worked with my students will all love. Motivated by my passion, I invested time in my project.”
Teacher Hind Abu Musallam explained that she started implementing Palestine - Half a Century with her students. She wanted to finalise what she had started with them. During working on the project, Abu Musallam notices that students were passionately fond of, and benefited from, research and information they collected in order to uncover Historic Palestine as a whole. All this made them enjoy working during the summer break.
Project-based learning is premised on the principle of learning through action and practice. It builds on and develops human experience through mutual interaction between humans and the environment. It also ensures integrated interaction between intrinsic human features, such as reflection and feeling.
A project is implemented by means of a participatory process between the teacher and students. Together, they select, examine and work on a theme with a view to reaching a particular product. This is grounded in an ongoing research process. Also informed by processes of reflection and evaluation, various tasks are planned, including interviews, studies, comparisons and visits.
Key projects implemented by teachers over the past months included Writings, which experimented the exploration of the act of writing in the context of community change. In Old Gaza, female students learned about and understood the city by exploring the past and reconstructing it as they saw it. A variety of other projects included The Sea and Us, Energy Alternatives, Women and Science, and Palestine – Half a Century.