| Problems in curriculum change in the State of Qatar have been identified through the use of a normative survey of Ministry level administrators, school level administrators, and public school teachers. These data have been used, along with a survey of the relevant literature, to construct a conceptual model of curriculum development processes as they might be organized for more effective change and introduction of educational innovations.;The survey demonstrates very clearly that the educational problems of developing nations like Qatar are too serious and too extensive to be left to traditional methods to resolve. Every part of the systems surveyed is in need of interventive measures, if the respondents to the questionnaires are accurate in their assessments. The high levels of agreement among them seems to indicate that the problems they report and the improvements which they feel could be made are close to the reality of the situation.;In addition to the need for increasing flow of information and data about attitude "climate" conditions within and between institutions, there are heavy demands for staff development to overcome the handicaps which poorly or insufficiently trained educational personnel experience. The author proposes the adoption of a foundations-laboratory-practicum arrangement for teacher education and suggests that subject-oriented methodology courses should be merged, at least in the introductory stage, in a general teaching methods course. In the laboratory phase, teacher-trainees could learn to perform both instructional and non-instructional tasks (e.g., record-keeping) at a higher level of proficiency, with competencies clearly specified and with a specified standard of performance to be reached before they are placed in the schools for teaching practice.;Though overcrowding of schools is severe, the author feels that new development projects in curriculum must not await the construction of new schools. The morale of teachers and school administrators is suffering as much from lack of information about what changes are planned and how they will be affected by these changes as they are from existing conditions in the schools. They believe that the Ministry is moving toward the establishment of comprehensive schools and the credit-system of course completion, but they are not certain what this means in operational terms.;Communication problems which are the result of vertically structured educational institutions and also the result of Qatar's multi-cultural population are discussed in some detail, and though the difficulties of organizational development are recognized, the author has taken a real-world problem-solving approach based on general systems methodologies.;Research and evaluation, which could improve decision-making at every level of the system, is not well understood, and even if research was understood and valued, there are few qualified research and development specialists to turn to. This is only one of many manpower development needs, however, and there is no consistent means for matching manpower priorities with the interests and abilities of students.;Convinced of the value of education, and committing huge sums of money for educational purposes, both for education in Qatar and in universities abroad, Qatar's educational leaders still find that they have too few trained educators to fill the positions they have open or would like to open, and like most other developing nations, they are seeking ways to attract more students to careers in teaching.;The researcher feels that restructured teacher education and comprehensively planned in-service staff development may yield the best results over the shortest period of time, and believes that such planning and reorganization should share top priority with improved communication processes. |
