Empowering Palestinian girls through digital learning innovations in STEM fields

In West Bank and Gaza, fewer than half of all children successfully complete high school. Girls in particular face barriers to accessing quality education, leading to significant societal and economic impacts because many will not have opportunities to earn higher wages or achieve greater social mobility. The education system faces a variety of challenges, including access to qualified teachers, social and gender biases, and access to appropriate educational resources.

As part of its drive to develop educational models that make a significant improvement to the educational system, Palestinian Ministry of Education is releasing a new curriculum for grades 5-12 designed to emphasize educational best practices. Part of this curriculum plan involves distributing computers and tablets to students. If the implementation of this new curriculum is to be successful, teachers will need training appropriate to the new pedagogical context.

This project, implemented in collaboration with Birzeit University, seeks to assist teachers in adopting the new curriculum and learning paradigms. It will also contribute to the evolution of the curriculum as it is revised over the next few years (including such concepts as how to work with gender, technology, social change, and the future of work). The project also aims to support the development of quality open educational resources in the Arabic language.

Finally, this project seeks to amplify the use of digital tools for education by supporting interactive teaching that helps students design, make, collaborate, innovate, and code. It will test hypotheses on how training and access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and digital skills can open new routes to employment and to life-long learning opportunities for girls and other excluded communities. It will also conduct research on a scalable approach to learning by developing and testing digital educational tools that improve the quality and accessibility of education for girls.

The project should lead to strengthened technical and human capacities of the selected schools to develop and implement locally relevant digital learning innovations, especially in the STEM fields. These strengthened capacities will contribute to the creation of an inclusive and stimulating learning environment to produce more engaged, creative, and motivated girls. Finally, the project should result in a better understanding of the effectiveness of different digital learning innovations targeting girls in the STEM areas. Ultimately, the project will seek to inform the Palestinian Ministry of Education policy on digitizing education.