Early Childhood Education Capacity in Jordan

For the University of Jordan (in Amman) and the University of Petra outside of Amman, Jordan, early childhood education is about to experience a change. This December Dr. Vonda Jump will be heading to Jordan a second time to begin a three year project to build early childhood capabilities in young educators. This project will improve on the training and modules that Jordan’s ministry of Education has already begun for public school teachers.

Dr. Jump will be working in a partnership with professors in Jordan “to think about what their needs are”. In this way, the partners will be looking at their position in early childhood education and will seek to improve the training programs by taking a focused look at the strengths and challenges in the programs.

On her preliminary visit with the University of Jordan she discussed with colleagues there the teacher’s lack of knowledge about assessment tools. Dr. Jump will therefore collaborate with her Jordanian partners to develop a course on assessment that will allow young teachers to assess their students and determine the course for improvement within the classroom.

These assessment tools will also be valuable in order to measure individual students’ progress. Perhaps the greatest and most beneficial change Dr. Jump hopes to provide with this project is a lasting partnership between the two universities; the goal is to have a higher level of collaboration. Although only half an hour apart, this kind of partnership does not yet exist for these universities.

With such collaboration, Dr. Jump hopes the universities will be able to provide ongoing and stimulating education workshops for undergraduate students. She wants to give educators resources beyond just a single hour or two of lecture. In compiling a full-day workshop, she hopes to not only respect what the professors want to do, but also provide a fun, engaging, and hands on way for undergraduate students to gain additional knowledge that will enhance their ability to teach.

 More on Dr. Jump's infant work in India

Dr. Vonda Jump is a Senior Research Associate at the Early Intervention Research Institute at Utah State University.