Abou Garib, Aida

Born in Sohag, Egypt, 10 December 1940.

Professor, Curriculum and Methods of Teaching (Social Studies) and former Head of Curriculum Development Research Department, Dean of the Department, National Center of Education Research and Development.

Research areas in developing and evaluating curricula; preparing and training teachers; education technology and distance learning; the role of education and training in the field of human development and environmental education–educational activities; girls’ education and human development in Egyptian villages; the school and preparing the citizen; standards of school buildings in the light of education need special curricula and activities at the pre-university stage (basic education, general secondary, technical education with its different sections).

Dropout and illiteracy and their effects on development.

Trends of Egyptian Woman Research in the fields of education and psychology.

Computer educational programs and curriculum development.

Comparative studies of developed countries curricula in the field of general and technical education.

Research experience

Participating in conferences, seminars, and workshops at the local, regional and international levels (UNESCO–ISESCO) and represented Egypt in some international conferences (distance-learning and open education in Australia 1994).

Educational counselor for both the General Institution of school buildings in Cairo, and the center of technological development at the Ministry of Education in Cairo.

Member in the Egyptian delegation in the conference of distance learning at the Islamic World level, participating in preparing the national paper, the national plan and some research papers on international experiences in the field. Lecturer at Ain Shams, Helwan and El Azhar Universities.

Assistant Professor at the Women’s Faculty in Riyadh (1979–1983). Took part in developing curriculum for adult education and illiteracy, United Arab Emirates (1991–1993).

Participated as Head of Curriculum Development Committees (Social Studies) at the conferences of education development in Egypt (1983–1996).

Member in the permanent committees for curriculum development in general and private education (in the field of mental, visual and auditory handicaps).

Head of Social Studies Curriculum Development and Revising Committee in Basic Education at the Ministry of Education in 1998.

Head of PhD and MA theses examination committee in Curriculum Development Department to determine their suitability to the curriculum development in the National Center of Education Research.

Head and member in the public examination of PhD and MA theses committees in the field of curriculum and methods of teaching at the Egyptian universities.

Member in the committees of evaluating general exams, and programs for developing educational evaluation systems and tests in Egypt.

Taking part in developing textbooks and teachers’ guides for the pre-university educational stage.

Contributing in teacher training pre-service and during service programs.

Member in a working team, for setting standards for designing and evaluating textbooks.

Member in the committees of judging textbooks for the pre-university stages presented in the context of announced competitions.

Member in the higher executive committees for developing technological programs and educational communication nets inside and outside Egypt in the Ministry of Education in Egypt.

Head of a working team for designing and producing computerized self-learning programs for primary stage curricula.

Member in a working team for developing the history of Egypt encyclopedia on computer at the technological development center in the Ministry of Education.

Member in many academic associations: the Egyptian Geographical Association; Egyptian Association for Curriculum and Methods of Teaching; Egyptian Association for Environmental and Health Legislations; Association of Preserving Nature Beauty; Member in the Administrative Council of the National Center for Education Research and Development; Member in the Administrative Council of Science and Mathematics Teaching Development Center; Member in the Specialized National Councils since March 1999.

Was honored as one of five women at the Southern Egypt level in the conference of “the woman and academic Research in South Egypt” (March 1996) in Assiut University for the distinguished research in the field of education and academic research.

“DESIGN AND DEVELOPING SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES BASED ON THE CONSTRUCTIVE MODEL OF EDUCATION”

The recent concept of scientific education emphasizes the importance of enabling the school to cope with modern educational systems which proved effective in helping students develop cognitively, affectively, socially and experientially. This recent concept helps them also to develop their cognitive processes that enable them to discover knowledge through direct and indirect experiences and through actual participation and taking part in the learning situation. This new concept can hardly be achieved through the separated subjects curriculum and through methods of teaching based on direct instruction currently adopted.

Through conducting a preliminary analysis of preparatory stage science curricula and of the scientific activities illustrating the principles, the concepts and the phenomena included in these curricula with their branches (physics, environment, geology, biology).

It became clear that there is a need to include activities that enable the students to acquire different research methods and logical thinking processes. These activities should be open-ended with no single answer. They should not be directly related to the knowledge included in the curriculum, rather they can tackle more than one concept similarly, more than one activity can be applied to tackle one concept. Therefore, this study is concerned with designing and developing a set of creative scientific activities for first year preparatory students taking into consideration the French research in the field of Didactic science”.

To fulfill this aim, the National Center of Educational Research and Development cooperated with the National Institute for Education Research in Paris (INRP) to conduct a study entitled “Designing and developing scientific activities for preparatory stage students: A future perspective”. This study was included in the National Center Research plan for the year (1997/98). The study mainly aimed at designing and developing an activity book for students based on the constructivist educational model to help students acquire the ability to search for knowledge included directly or indirectly in the activities content. It aims also at enabling students to relate the information drawn from the activities in a scientific logical proper manner, as well as the ability to answer the questions related to the activities benefiting from the information included and employing a logical way of thinking. This activity book was applied throughout a field study to a pilot prototype of first year preparatory students from El Tabary preparatory school for Boys (Roxy, Cairo). The prototype was composed of 170 students.

As a follow up of this study, another study was conducted through the cooperative efforts of the National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD) and the French center for Culture and Cooperation. These cooperative efforts were summed up in a contract between the two parties to deepen the communication between Egyptian and French researchers. Within the frame work of this contract, the curriculum development research Division included as a part of its research plan for the year (1998/99), a study entitled “Applying the scientific activities designed for first year preparatory students in the light of the constructivist model of education and investigating the obstacles hindering the application process.”

This study aimed, in its second part, at applying some scientific activities developed in the study first part. The application process took part in the natural context of the Egyptian classrooms using the available facilities. The application took part in different Egyptian governorates. It was carried out by regular classroom teachers (after being exposed to a training course prior to application) to define the obstacles that hinder application and to suggest suitable solutions.

In the light of the obtained study results I presented, as the head of the research staff, a memorandum to the Minister of Education including suggestions about publishing and producing samples of these activities and designing them in a way that facilitates displaying them through computer programs and putting them on CDs to be distributed to all Egyptian preparatory schools as a part of developing science curricula and methods of teaching at the preparatory stage hoping to benefit all those working in the educational field especially science teachers and inspectors in the basic cycle of education. His Excellency approved the previous proposal and the project has been taking place for one year.