The Palestinian delegation that consisted of members of the faculty staff at An-Najah University, the University College and the Arab American University concluded its visit to Vestfold University in Norway. An-Najah was represented by Dr. Ali Habayeb, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The visit which started on October 22^nd and ended on October 31^st included several field visits to a number of schools in Norway by the Palestinian delegation. Members of the delegation attended classes where most observations were monitored and evaluation and learning outcomes were witnessed.

Dr. Habayeb mentioned that the delegation participated in the joint project between the Palestinian universities part of the World Bank’s projects. The visit aimed to introduce the delegation to the recent reform in Norway in teacher training from 2007 till now and the scope of partnership between the university and the distinguished schools.

Among the schools that the delegation visited were Andebu and Hillestad primary schools. Dr. Habayeb mentioned that the school visits aimed to enable the Palestinian delegation to gain experience of best practices at distinguished schools in knowledge, development and research. The delegation also learned new methods of teaching in humanities through a two-hour seminar in teaching thinking in geography class and twelve different thinking strategies were introduced in a creative way such as (Odds against, completing stories, and concepts maps, graphic…etc) with teaching examples for elementary and secondary and university level were used in different level in classes that motivates students to learn.

Additionally, the visit as a whole aimed to have Norwegian educators acquainted with the Palestinian educational system and about upgrading practicum in Palestine. To achieve this goal, a presentation by the Palestinian delegation was given to Vestfold staff members and students with a power point presentation. Discussion took place between Vestfold University and the Palestinian ones.

Dr. Habayeb commented on the visit by saying that lessons learned from schools’ competitions in research in the Norwegian new schooling system can be honored to develop practicum in Palestine. Also, the writing of vision, objectives and implementation of organized plan can be adopted to train mentors and teachers to develop the Palestinian educational system.

As part of the visit, Dr. Habayeb also met with Dr. Petter Aasen, Rector of Vestfold University, as well as the Head of the Special Education Department and discussed possible cooperation with An-Najah.

Finally, the delegation expressed its pleasure to visit Norway and meet with the teachers and experts there and hoped that the Palestinian educational system could benefit from the developments that the Norwegian educational and schooling system is witnessing currently.