Students’ and Teachers’ Views on School-University Partnership in the Omani EFL Context


  •  Fawzia Al Seyabi    

Abstract

Educational partnership between schools and higher education institutions has become an important tool towards enhancing students’ achievement levels in both contexts and increasing students’ college readiness level. It has also been identified as one key element of educational reform. The present paper reviews a number of models of school-university partnership from different parts of the world. It also presents the results of a study that investigated- among other things- the views of 749 school students and 68 school teachers on the topic of school-university partnership. The paper provides a summary of participants’ suggestions on how best to create better progression between EFL syllabuses in both contexts: post-basic schools and foundation programs in Omani universities, with particular reference to the teaching/learning of EFL reading and writing. Students’ suggestions have mainly focused on three themes, which were collaboration at the administrative level, the need for orientation programs and exchange visits. Teachers’ suggestions were more centered on the need for curriculum change as well as alignment in curriculum issues between the Ministry of Education and the higher education sector. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for future practice and research.



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