Seward Incorporated

Project focuses on the application of child-centered classroom methods at Sultan Qaboos University

Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 9, 2009 - Seward Incorporated has been awarded a contract with Creative Associates International, Inc. to institutionalize the Child Centered Classroom Methodology (CCCM) at various Ministry of Higher Education’s (MOHE) pre-service training institutions in Oman. The contract is funded by the US Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Creative and Seward will partner with Sultan Qaboos University to create a complete, self-contained CCCM training program that is based on a fully developed and locally accepted curriculum. The program will be developed in close collaboration with the MEPI-funded CCCM in-service training program at the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The training will build on several years of CCCM work undertaken by Creative Associates in partnership with the Ministry of Education as part of earlier MEPI projects. The goal of the new pre-service training activity is to educate new teacher education students enrolled in SQU, and ultimately all teacher training programs in Oman, on CCCM. The training will provide teacher candidates with the skills they need to apply CCCM in classroom settings as they become teachers.

Seward will design the CCCM training so it can be easily integrated into Oman's teacher education system. A gradual transfer of full responsibility for the CCCM program to SQU faculty will take place over the life of the MEPI-funded project.