Terms of Reference and Scope of Services
Needs Assessment Consultant
The Arab American University-Jenin has received a Grant from the Quality Improvement Fund (QIF) – Ministry of Education and Higher Education and funded by the World Bank for the project entitled: “Mathematics Education Pre-service Teacher Education Development”. The Grant aims at developing the Bachelor of Education Program, major in Teaching Math to the upper basic level (grades 5-10), and the secondary level (grades 11-12), in the three consortium member universities: Arab American university, Al Quds university, and the Islamic University in Gaza to better comply with the requirements of the Teacher Education Strategy.
Assignment Objective
The Arab American University- Jenin is considering the selection of highly qualified consultant to identify training needs of up to 40 faculty members that offer mathematics education and mathematics courses at Palestinian Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) under the supervision of the Project Director and the Project Steering Committee. In identifying the training needs, a special attention should be given to the requirements of section 2.3 of the Teacher Education Strategy and in particular to the standards that constrain the curriculum for teacher education programs identified in section 2.32 and the methods of teaching and learning at teacher education programs identified in section 2.33.
Main Tasks and Responsibilities
The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
- Review the project documents. These include project’s proposal, project’s implementation plan, concept note for the Pre-service Teacher Education Development cycle, Teacher Education Strategy in Palestine (particularly chapters 1&2), and the teacher standards issued by the Commission for Developing the teaching profession.
- Develop and submit for review by project director a detailed work plan for conducting the training needs assessment for the mathematics faculty members at Palestinian TEIs. The training needs assessment should be based on both quantitative and qualitative measurement methods.
- Prepare appropriate data collection instruments and procedures and make arrangements to administer them. These instruments should include questionnaires and focus groups.
- Implement data collection procedures in coordination with the project director.
- Analyze results of data collection for evidence of performance discrepancies that exist because of apparent knowledge or skill deficiencies. Moreover, part of the analysis should look into how these training needs match with the requirements of the Teacher Education Strategy as described in the assignment objective section above.
- Generate strategies for remedying the performance discrepancies as training needs.
- Assign priorities to the training strategies for the benefit of the project management in making their implementation decisions in accordance with the available budget.
- Present the results of the training needs assessment to the project’s steering committee and submit a report in the English Language which describes the purpose of the assessment, outlines the procedure followed, and the training strategies selected in priority order.
Qualifications & Skills:
Arab American University Jenin seeks a consultant with the minimum following qualifications:
- Familiar with the Palestinian education system and the Teacher Education Strategy in Palestine
- Ph.D degree in a field related to organizational/institution capacity/training needs assessment.
- Considerable experience in undertaking similar assignments.
- Good communication and writing skills in English and Arabic.
- The consultant should be able to conduct the needed data collection and the required studies for the Math faculty members at Palestinian TEIs in both the West Bank and Gaza.
- The consultant cannot be on the Arab American University payroll
Expected Outputs and Reporting/Deliverables
1. An inception report including a detailed work plan for conducting the training needs assessment for the mathematics faculty members at Palestinian TEIs.
2. Midterm report identifying data analysis and priorities of the training strategies.
3. Final Report upon completion of all tasks including specific conclusions& recommendations.
Time Frame: The duration of the assignment is 6 weeks.
Contract Type: Lump Sum contract
Interested applicants can E-mail their CVs, cover letter, technical and financial proposal to [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than Wednesday 20 April, 2011