Bassem Shraydeh is a Professor of Chemistry at An-Najah University. Professor Shraydeh has over thirty years of service to the field of education in chemistry. One of the subjects he teaches is what his colleague and Chemistry Department Chairman Dr. Samar al-Shakshir calls “the most difficult branch of chemistry”—Quantum Chemistry. After receiving his PhD from the University of Wales/Cardiff in 1980 Dr. Shraydeh mentions having accidentally discovered his teaching abilities at Bethlehem University—and he has not left teaching since. In discussing his love for teaching he notes that he sees his students as very important people he goes to meet for class sessions. Many of his colleagues in the science department at An-Najah University were his former students.  He also produced the lab manual that has been used at An-Najah University since 1984. In an interview with him, Dr. Shraydeh demonstrated some of his strategies for linking his chemistry lectures to the real world so that his students can have an easier and more dynamic time understanding the material. In his lesson plans he also includes demonstrations of chemical reactions and, while they are conducting experiments he encourages his students to look for new chemical research ideas.

 

Ahmad Atawneh is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Hebron University, where he began teaching in 1991 after completing his PhD. His philosophy as a teacher was affected by his own professors when he was a student. He recalls that his most inspiring teachers were those who were caring and appreciative towards their students. Dr. Atawneh makes his private home and office libraries available to his students for their research. The care and attention that Dr. Atawneh gives to his students is apparent in his evaluation marks—his students continuously rank him high enough to surpass the university’s average rankings in almost all areas. In his syllabi Dr. Atawneh emphasizes two things: linguistics education as a means of acquiring critical thinking and analytical skills and writing research papers as a form of professional development for his students. This demonstrates his longer-term vision for his students. He has demonstrated excellence in teaching as both an administrator and as a teacher. He supervised the first symposium on research in applied linguistics in 2009; he has travelled with his students on an educational visit to the United States; and he has helped various students obtain scholarships for graduate degrees abroad. In their letters of recommendation Ahmad Atawneh’s students emphasized a combination of his qualities that make him an excellent teacher: service to the community, profound knowledge of his field, and a conscientious person.

 

Sami AL-Jaber is Professor of Theoretical Physics at An-Najah National University in Nablus. In his statement of teaching philosophy Dr. Al-Jaber notes that the most important assets of physics for students are critical thinking and problem solving. In his view, education must serve to develop the thinking of human beings. For this reason Dr. Al-Jaber has an open book exam policy—he encourages understanding and analysis rather than memorization. In his opinion, an excellent teacher possesses three qualities: he knows what he is teaching; he likes his job; and he has the ability to simplify big concepts while allowing his students to think. He makes the analogy that teaching a course requires a road map that a teacher and students can use together to make sense of their journey, much as one needs to navigate through a city like Chicago. His pedagogy was inspired by his graduate professors at Southern Illinois University where he obtained his MA and PhD. The interview committee was enthralled by examples he gave of how he breaks down complex physics into comprehensive and easy to digest information about the physical world around us. Dr. Al-Jaber is also concerned with the humanistic aspect of teaching—that above everything else a teacher is working with humans and that sciences should benefit mankind. In fact, according to his student’s letters of recommendation his impact goes well beyond the field of physics or their own critical thinking skills. He has impacted each of them as teachers—they all state that they have adopted his methods of teaching into their own practice.

 

Samar Mousa is an Instructor of Physical Education and the Director of the Athletics Department at Bethlehem University where she has taught for 24 years. Mrs. Mousa believes that she must transmit theories and concepts which then must be applied into reality. Her mission is to provide her students with the ability to remain healthy and fit, to learn to be competitive while remaining respectful and understanding, and to create in them a sense of team spirit and cooperation. She is driven by the various personal challenges she has had to face as a woman in the field of physical education—first in choosing to study physical education at the University of Jordan after scoring 93% on her Tawjihi, then in working in the male-dominated sphere of physical education where her abilities were questioned. According to her colleagues and her students, she has succeeded tremendously in her position due to her dedication, professionalism, and hard work. This is reflected in her student’s evaluations and achievements—many of whom graduated to establish themselves in sports. It is also reflected in her own achievements, as Head of the Palestinian Sports Federation, for example. She sees an excellent teacher as someone who is patient, has a vision, maintains a good personality before her students, cooperates with them, and communicates well.  But Mrs. Mousa is also a different kind of teacher—she is a coach of volleyball, football, and tennis. Her commitment to physical education and to empowering women and girls has also lead her to conduct various research projects including obstacles faced by Arab women in the sports field in Arab Countries and how to make coaches better critical thinkers. Her commitment to teaching is such that, when approached by her students about initiating the first Palestinian women’s football team Mrs. Mousa not only obliged but also found herself convincing their parents to allow them to join the team and driving them to and from practice every day.

 

Eeman Salem has been a Lecturer of Geriatric Health at Al-Quds University for the past five years. She is currently working on earning her PhD in Community Medicine from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In her short career, Ms. Salem’s enthusiasm for teaching is evident in her record for constantly attempting to provide additional opportunities for her students. She has submitted grant applications to create a Communication of Science Disorder masters program and to build a community based teaching, research and service project to bring together students of nursing with their constituency in Palestinian communities. As she teaches geriatric nursing, Ms. Salem often takes her students outside of the classroom and into the nursing centers to learn first-hand and brings in guest lecturers. She emphasizes flexibility above all else in her teaching philosophy and she uses a variety of teaching methods in her courses. She believes that a good teacher is open to assessing her student’s learning habits and capabilities as she proceeds with her lessons and can focus on transmitting the knowledge to them in ways that are conducive to their own needs. Her students boast about her ability to move through the semester’s lessons in a timely and well organized fashion. Her 4^th year nursing students describe her teaching method as “creative, artistic, and talented”. As recipient of the Junior Teaching Excellence Award we believe that Ms. Eeman Salem’s future as a teacher is promising.

 

Akram Kharroubi is Head of the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences at the Faculty of Health Professions at al-Quds University and Associate Professor of Biochemistry. He has been teaching since 1994 after obtaining his PhD in Biochemistry at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Dr. Kharroubi’s philosophy of teaching in the sciences depends on developing the critical thinking skills of his students that would enable them to deal with the complexity of biochemical problems. He believes that he can help his country by graduating minds that can think. This is how he measures his own success as an educator. He describes an excellent teacher as one who can give students the information and skills to solve a problem until they can think independently. His dedication to teaching is such that, when he found that there are no good textbooks in biochemistry, he decided that he would develop his own course. Currently he is also working on developing a course in biotechnology. But the innovation does not stop there. The courses Dr. Kharroubi is developing are e-learning based rather than classical courses. He describes classical education as passive, whereby students are waiting to receive information from the teacher. E-learning classes are more learner-centered because it requires students to review the course material and prepare assignments ahead of time. His innovative style of improving education also takes place outside of the classroom. This year Dr. Kharroubi was able to secure the funding needed to upgrade the clinical labs for the medical laboratory sciences department and he even established a masters program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1996. Dr. Kharroubi also takes research very seriously—he believes that you cannot call yourself a biochemist if you are not a researcher. He has also wants to strengthen the research skills of his students by encouraging undergraduate research and providing his colleagues with the tools and skills that they need to evaluate their students’ work. His students and his colleagues alike wrote extensively in recognition of Dr. Kharroubi’s contributions to the Faculty of Health Professions in terms of research and learner-centered education.

 

Nadia Naser-Najjab is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, where she came to teach after completing her PhD in Middle East Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Her courses at Birzeit include Women in Contemporary Arab Society, Modern and Contemporary European Civilization, and Psychology of Women. As her interests lie in women’s issues, Dr. Najab’s current research is on the psychology of women in polygamous marriages. Her courses therefore produce some controversy and plenty of discussion. She talks about the challenges of teaching such issues as well as how she overcomes those challenges. In her psychology of the personality class Dr. Najab assigned the book the Yacoubian Building as a means of studying and analyzing various personality traits. In attempting to apply philosophical theories and concepts to the real world Dr. Najab invites guest speakers to her classes and applies interactive lessons like role playing and games. She stresses that one of her main goals is to encourage her students to accept different perceptions of the same situation, thereby promoting tolerance of various opinions and outlooks. Similarly when she taught the psychology of people with special needs she worked to produce an understanding of the difficulties faced by people with special needs. Two of her students then decided to continue in the field of special education. Dr. Najab has just completed a short term fellowship with Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies where she continued her research, adapted methods of improving her teaching methodology, and worked on upgrading her syllabi.