A Strategy for Promoting Educational Reform in Developing Countries.

Educational reform in developing countries, specifically in Saudi Arabia, will be facilitated if certain strategies are employed when implementing educational change. Problems which restrict reform tend to be a culture which opposes change, staffing, finances, a shortage of relevant learning materials, excessive centralization of authority, expatriation by the educated, and urban migration. Also counterproductive to educational reform are rigorous standards of achievement and the ethnocentrism of foreign educated nationals who fail to understand the culture in which they are working. Strategies to combat these problems include carefully selecting and working toward established educational goals, reorienting students toward their traditional culture, and improving the quality of instruction in the classroom. Educational research and development centers which would become a center of authority in the system and laboratory schools which would offer a place for experimentation in educational alternatives should be established. Current projects in a Saudi Arabian research center include analysis of a leading Arabic language private school, an investigation of English language teaching, proposals for introducing computer-assisted instruction, and the development of standardized measurement instruments. (KC)