Collaboration between Jordan and CPD strengthened

Vonda Jump Norman, principle investigator for the Strengthening Early Childhood Education in Jordan project, is preparing to return to Jordan in October to continue the early childhood education collaboration with two Jordanian universities that was started almost two years ago.

Jordan's Ministry of Education is actively promoting the development and improvement of its higher education system, especially in the area of early childhood education. The partnership developed through the CPD project is working to  improve the undergraduate degree programs at the two Jordanian universities to reflect best practices in early childhood education.

For the past two years, Dr. Jump Norman has met regularly with the Jordanian early childhood team, here and in Jordan, to implement some of the project goals that include 1) moving the teaching format from strictly lecture to include small group, hands-on learning, and developmentally appropriate practices instruction, 2) increasing the opportunities for student teachers to be placed in the public education sector instead of being limited to private schools, and 3) improving the collaboration between the universities and the Ministry of Education  Dr. Jump Norman has also been instrumental in making arrangements for a state-of-the-art developmentally appropriate practices manual to be translated into Arabic for students to use in their undergraduate programs.  

This summer, Dr. Jump Norman hosted a group of Jordanian faculty members and two members of the Jordanian Ministry of Education at USU.  While here, they met with directors from a variety of USU departments to learn about the early childhood initiatives available on campus. The group also took time to go rafting, spend a couple of days on a retreat at Bear Lake, and visit some tourist sites in Salt Lake City. 

Joining Dr. Jump Norman on her upcoming trip to Jordan will be Mary Hubbard, Vice Provost for International Education at USU. They will be meeting with university and Ministry of Education personnel to continue discussions about future collaboration efforts to enhance the quality of undergraduate early childhood education in Jordan.  Meeting with them will be the faculties and deans of two universities and president of one university to discuss what the project has accomplished and what lies ahead for the next year.