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Madaba – August 2025 – In line with its mission to serve education and community, and in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Christian Educational Institutions in Jordan, the American University of Madaba (AUM) organized a series of training programs for new teachers. The three-day event, held from Tuesday, August 19 to Thursday, August 21, 2025, carried the slogan “Towards a Nation Rising with Teachers Who Keep Up with the Times.”

The programs were inaugurated under the patronage of Professor Mamoun Akroush, President of AUM, with the participation of Rev. Dr. Ashraf Al-Nimri, Secretary General of the Christian Educational Institutions, as well as a distinguished group of academics and experts.

The opening began with the Royal Anthem, followed by a welcoming speech from Professor Akroush, who emphasized the University’s vision and its pride in the fruitful partnership with the General Secretariat as a model of educational collaboration that serves the broader community. Rev. Dr. Al-Nimri expressed his gratitude to AUM for hosting the programs, praised the trainers’ efforts, and highlighted the Secretariat’s role since its establishment in 1990 in providing quality education inspired by human values. He concluded by welcoming the new teachers from across the Kingdom, wishing them maximum benefit from the training.

The programs included interactive sessions and applied learning activities, enabling teachers to translate theory into practical classroom applications.

First Training Program: 21st Century Skills in Education

The first day of the training program was dedicated to equipping new teachers with the essential 21st-century skills required to meet the demands of modern education and to respond effectively to rapid global changes. The sessions introduced participants to a range of innovative teaching approaches designed to place students at the center of the learning process, foster creativity, and enhance engagement in the classroom.

Among the topics covered was active learning, which emphasizes hands-on activities and group discussions that stimulate critical thinking and encourage student interaction. Teachers were also introduced to the concept of backward design, which trains educators to begin with clearly defined learning outcomes and then develop lessons and activities accordingly. Another focus of the training was the SCAMPER Strategy, a creative thinking technique that encourages substitution, combination, adaptation, modification, new uses, elimination, and rearrangement to inspire innovative approaches in the classroom. In addition, teachers explored Bloom’s Taxonomy, gaining insight into the different levels of thinking—knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—and learning how to integrate them into lesson planning to promote higher-order thinking skills.

The training combined theory with practice, as teachers worked in small groups on problem-solving tasks, designed lesson plans, and applied the newly introduced tools, thereby strengthening their practical grasp of the concepts. The overall objective of the program was to provide new teachers with modern teaching strategies and enable them to design creative, student-centered lesson plans that respond to learners’ needs while addressing contemporary challenges.

By the end of the program, participants were expected to demonstrate the ability to design lesson plans that promote both critical and creative thinking, as well as to effectively use educational tools that enhance classroom interaction and student engagement. This training was targeted specifically at new teachers working in schools affiliated with the General Secretariat of Christian Educational Institutions in Jordan. The sessions were led by Dr. Hanan Madanat, Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Communication at the American University of Madaba.