BOONE—Qatar is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, thanks to its rich reserves of oil and natural gas.

The country is further expanding its economic base by focusing on education and is overhauling its education system to develop a knowledge economy, which will include a science and technology park to serve the many companies locating in the Persian Gulf country.

Appalachian State University is playing a role in the country’s transformation of its education system.

“The president of Qatar University and the Emir’s second wife are very interested in educational innovation, and building a world-class educational system and world-class university to help students become critical thinkers and readers,” said Gary Moorman, a professor in Appalachian State University’s Reich College of Education.

Moorman teaches courses on secondary education literacy focusing on reading and writing in the Department of Language, Reading and Exceptionalities. He will spend four months at Qatar University leading faculty development workshops, providing guidance on the university’s new reading and writing across the curriculum project, and working with the reading component of the university’s undergraduate degrees in education and elementary education

He will be accompanied by his wife, Kathy, a teacher at Hardin Park Elementary School in Watauga County.

This is Moorman’s third visit to the country. He previously led faculty development workshops for Qatar University’s Office of Faculty and Instructional Development as a volunteer with the International Reading Association. This first visit led to a cooperative agreement between the Qatar University College of Education and Appalachian’s Reich College of Education. On a second trip, Moorman and Reich College of Education colleagues Julie Horton and Dave Koppenhaver led a series of workshops that focused on interactive teaching and learning.

“The university is moving away from the traditional British lecture and recitation model of learning to a model of engaged learning, and they are looking to the United States for guidance in this,” Moorman said. “That’s our conceptual framework here in the College of Education – learn by participation, not by isolated study or reading other people’s works, but by engaging actively in the learning process.”

Moorman also hopes to compare the way reading instruction is approached in Qatar and the United States for future research projects. “I expect to gain insights into how children learn that I don’t get here because either I’m overlooking them or there is something going on in American education that blinds me to that,” Moorman said.

Moorman believes one of the best ways to address the conflicts occurring in the Middle East is through education and helping others learn to read and think critically about issues, including those related to cultural differences.

“If there is a more important thing than bringing the Arab/Islamic and Christian worlds into harmony, I’d like to know what it is. We are spending a lot of time and money on military activities, but we are not spending nearly enough time trying to help their children read better so that they can critically analyze the fundamental common areas that our cultures share,” Moorman said. “I look at this opportunity and think there is so much I can do that will make a difference.”

###