Arabic Language Teacher Professional Development

High quality professional development programs and opportunities for teachers are a vital aspect in improving early student achievement. This study adopts a professional development model which tested the difference in early literacy skills and performance of students (n=2028) in Grades 1-3 over a 12-week teacher training program (n=25). The data were analyzed using ANOVA and indicated an overall significant improvement in all tested skills except for phonological awareness, such as rhyming word tasks and reading nonsense words, where there was a significant decrease in performance. The results also indicated a significant difference between gendered scores, where girls outperformed boys in all tested areas except vocabulary knowledge, where there was no statistical difference for Grade 1 and Grade 3 students. Informed by the data, this paper recommends greater teacher preparation in the areas of reading aloud, shared reading, phonics, and basic questioning techniques.