MCE Update

Salaamun Alaikum,


1)  The 5th pilot assessment of a madrasah was undertaken at Sharikatul Hussain Saturday Workshop, Leicester on 9 February 2013. Eight assessors who were trained in Birmingham last year carried out the assessment process. The process started with meeting and briefing the madrasah management followed by interviewing teachers, observing lessons, and speaking to the students and parents. It ended with the assessment team giving preliminary feedback to the management. A draft written report has been sent to the madrasah. Every MCE trained madrasah assessor in UK has had the opportunity to partake in a pilot assessment.

2)  The curriculum development team has developed a Muslim Worldview from which a conceptual framework has been created. Using the tabulation and analysis of curricula from different madaris that was carried out last year, themes and sub-themes are being identified and positioned into the framework.

3)  Following some brainstorming sessions, a two-pronged approach is likely to be used for madrasah teacher development. The first area of focus will be to address the specific training needs of madrasah teachers. It would be done by working with the madrasah and collecting the appropriate data. The second approach will be to develop mentors in each madrasah who would provide support and coaching to the teachers.

Teaching Tips

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment gives pupils the opportunity to mark each other's work. It has several advantages:

    • It allows them to see the standard of work that is being produced by their peers and where they are in relation to them - this could encourage them in the future to do better to keep up with others.
    • It gives them the power to 'play the teacher' and decide what marks they should award.
    • It forces them to become familiarised with the mark scheme and by doing so, they have a clearer understanding of where they are losing marks.
    • It forces them to look through the corrections that have been made, and take note of them.

There are several key steps to carrying out peer assessment:

    • Design a simplified mark scheme that the pupils can relate to. Even better, get the pupils to design it themselves! For example, if marking an essay, ask them 'Which key areas would you give marks for?' (Spelling, punctuation and grammar / content / length of essay) or 'Why wouldn't you give a mark for this answer?' (irrelevant / not specific enough)
    • Ensure all the work is anonymous, so they do not know whose work they are marking - more likely to be unbiased.
    • Go through examples with them on the board.
    • Give them small sections to start with, not whole essays.
    • At the end, show them what you would have given that piece of work and why.

Sharing a Good Practice

Teaching Islamic history based on calendar events
It is often the case that when children attend majalis to commemorate the wiladat or shahadat of Masumeen a.s., they have little knowledge of the personalities whose day is being observed, especially if the majlis covers a different topic. Hujjat Workshop has been using the method of teaching about an event around the Islamic date of that event. The timelines, lives of the prophets and other personalities are slotted in between.
The outcomes of this method are:

    • Students attain a greater awareness of the calendar events
    • Helps to build knowledge of Masoomeen a.s.
    • Encourages attendance of majalis with better understanding of the event

Competition for Madrasah Students

The World Federation will soon be publishing a book on the daily prayers(Salah, Salaat or Namaz)aimed at Madrasah students in their final classes, typically aged 12-14 years.Islamic Education of the World Federation is now running a competition for all community madaris throughout the world to suggest a catchy title for this new book.

Madaris are requested to encourage their students to enter the competition. The deadline for submitting entries is 24 March 2013. For further details, please click here.

Madrasah Details

In order to have accurate data on each madrasah and to keep in touch with them, we have started to build a database of madrasah and their teachers. A request form for data collection was sent to all madrasah principals for completion. We have received only 29 madrasah profiles to date. Madaris that have not yet returned the forms are once again reminded to do so as soon as possible. If you have not received the form, please notify us at [email protected]

We Need Your Feedback

We look forward to hearing from you with your feedback, suggestions and opinions on this important initiative of The World Federation. You can contact the Head of MCE by emailing him at [email protected] or call him on + 44 (0)121 246 3575
We would like to thank the readers who have contributed some of the articles.