Education in the 21st century has at its core the promotion of original thought, creativity and innovation. The move away from rote learning and repetitive memorization of facts has helped engender a new culture of inspiring children to use their imaginations to find solutions to problems, and subsequently develop a confidence in one's decision-making, which will be a tremendous advantage throughout life. In Abu Dhabi the emphasis on innovation is embedded in a number of strategic policies, including a call to build “an environment that fosters innovation, cultivates a healthy risk-taking culture and strengthens the research and development capacity” in the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, and a call for an economic model of growth “driven by knowledge and innovation” in the Vision 2021. However, how does an education establishment begin the process of teaching creative learning and problem solving? What skills are required by teaching staff and what availability of equipment is essential to this task?

Redesigning the curriculum is of prime importance to constructing an approach that creates an environment where the student can feel at ease and confident to reach out and try something new in his or her learning experience. This desire for creative learning, and the problems involved, is not new to the UAE; Canada, Sweden and Finland, among many others, have also spent the last 30 years grappling with reforms in an attempt to promote educational equality and greater quality, particularly in terms of improved student performance as part of their response to the global economy.

In recent years, the importance of higher education (HE) has rapidly developed within many countries. The traditional role of just being a place for educating people and awarding a degree has transformed into a more significant contributor to the welfare of societies and growth of economies. In addition, HE has become a strong medium between the expectations of the students and the requirements of employers in terms of knowledge, skills and degrees. HE has grown within many countries as:

Therefore, traditionally, the importance of HE has been on the achievement of presenting effective discipline knowledge and the “development of more general intellectual and social skills and capabilities.” This perspective was also confirmed by Boden and Nedeva, who have pointed out that one of the tasks of HE is “producing workers so that we can compete in the global knowledge economy.” Teichler and Kehm highlight the functions of HE as general, professional and academic where the professional is “expected to provide a foundation of knowledge relevant for those occupations which are usually taken over by graduates for direct professional training.”

Within the framework of the UAE's ongoing efforts to diversify its economy, its recognition of the growing importance of investment in human capital to build a knowledge-based society, and its promotion of the values of citizenship, the need for a skilled workforce will increase in order to effectively achieve sustainable development and the ability to compete globally. Developing such a workforce will need an educational system devoted to producing outstanding graduates able to meet today's challenges of the knowledge economy, reflected by the revolution in information, science and knowledge. For these important reasons, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) organized its 4th Annual Education Conference under the title “The Future of Education in the UAE: Innovation and Knowledge Production,” under the patronage of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and President of the ECSSR.

The objective of this publication based on the 4th Annual Education Conference is to support the UAE's ongoing efforts to develop an effective and innovative education system that prepares its students and educational institutions to contribute to the country's growing knowledge economy and to compete internationally. This volume is a compilation of a number of the speakers' papers and puts forward a clear and useful set of recommendations for future education policy, outlining the latest perspectives on educational reform, while experts from within the UAE aligned those ideas with the practical realities of the country's current education system.

There is no more globalized environment in the world than the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Located at the center of one of the world's most important regions and at a crossroad between East and West, the UAE and the Arabian Gulf in general has emerged in the past quarter century as a strategic global center. In addition, the UAE has a globalized population with a workforce coming from all parts of the world. Built originally on the basis of energy exports, the UAE is rapidly developing as a hub for higher education, medical care, financial services and emerging technologies.

The UAE is subject to the forces of globalization. Despite its wealth and increasingly well-educated population, the region is subject to economic, political, and increasingly cultural and educational trends from abroad. The concern in this chapter is related to higher education—an area that is an excellent case study of globalization, since all of the UAE's higher education institutions have roots elsewhere; and the large majority of faculty members and often students are from abroad.

The UAE's Context of Higher Education Globalization

The UAE's higher education environment is both complex and highly globalized, perhaps to a greater extent than anywhere in the world. Here, broad globalization trends are being described and analyzed as the affect of higher education in a broad context, but it is worth briefly examining the UAE context.

This paper forms part of the efforts to bridge cultural gaps and help develop procedures relevant to education so that science and technology are transferred, localized and used effectively in order to contribute to cultural activity and development. These efforts emphasize teaching productive thinking in general, and creative thinking in particular, and also find creative solutions to problems. This chapter will focus on eight key topics, namely:

1. Talent and creativity: a cultural dichotomy.

2. Developing effective learning environments.

3. Educational excellence: creativity and innovation schools.

4. Critical and strategic thinking as the keys to creativity.

5. Education and learning based on problem solving.

6. The role of teachers and family in educational excellence.

7. Modern technological advancements: The Renzulli Learning System (RLS); and

8. Law and legislature.

Talent and Creativity: A Cultural Dichotomy

The Significance of Science and Technology

When dealing with matters of life and death, searching for the meaning of life, and facing threats to existence, humanity has responded by producing extensive knowledge and experience. In our time, this knowledge base is largely constituted by informatics: the use of computerized technology and the desire to know, test and identify the future in virtual space.

This paper explores key levers for developing the innovative school and curriculum design that is recognized in Abu Dhabi and across the world as being important for developing knowledge-based economies. In Abu Dhabi the emphasis on innovation is embedded in a number of strategic policies, including a call to build “an environment that fosters innovation, cultivates a healthy risk-taking culture and strengthens the research and development capacity” in the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 and a call for an economic model of growth “driven by knowledge and innovation” in the Vision 2021. The paper also explores strategies for supporting innovative school and curriculum design in a way that responds to and builds upon local strengths and challenges.

The paper responds specifically to the challenges identified in Natasha Ridge's 2011 analysis of “the role of the curriculum in the creation of a knowledge-based economy in the UAE.” Ridge highlights pressures created by summative attainment goals, accountability and standardization and their effects upon the education system, and this paper examines evidence about particular strategies that are helpful in addressing these challenges; strategies that are also helpful in addressing some of the tensions described in some depth by Abdullatif Al-Shamsi's analysis of “school, curriculum and the knowledge economy” that was commissioned as part of the ECSSR's annual conferences.

The world is in the midst of a great brain race, a global quest by nations to attract the best and brightest minds. The reason? There is now broad-based acknowledgment that higher education is at the heart of a nation's competitiveness. Colleges and universities are themselves economic drivers. More than that, they often produce the new knowledge that is at the heart of the innovations that drive the global economy, and produce the next generation of workers and leaders who will create the companies needed to take advantage of innovations and attract workers.

Many developed nations, mostly in the West, have well-established higher education systems. These higher education systems emerged over decades, if not centuries, which puts many developing nations at a significant disadvantage to compete in an economic era driven by innovation. These countries do not have the time necessary to create a higher education system in the same way—i.e., by waiting years to develop the academic capital to compete with the established leaders. So, while investing in their own systems of higher education, they have also been sending their students abroad to be educated in countries with leading higher education systems, recruiting faculty members educated in those systems to teach locally, and/or developing partnerships between their institutions and leading institutions in other nations.

To talk about youth is to talk about the future of our nation, and about defining the capabilities of our society to face a wide array of challenges whether economic, social, climate or energy, and the evolving transformation of society. It is also about defining our national identity in the age of globalization and regional and international competition, in addition to the challenges of human and economic development, which will require the development of well-balanced and creative individuals.

When talking about the future, we feel proud that we live in a country that adopts an optimistic outlook to make the UAE influential and a central hub for the region and the whole world. Thus, it is natural to see the 4th Annual Education Conference – held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and President of the ECSSR – look to promote strategies that encourage the contribution of our youth to the development process. Therefore, it is my honor to extend, in my name and on your behalf, thanks to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for the generous patronage of this Conference.

We are witnessing and experiencing the process of revival and a comprehensive development across the entire country, led by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the President of the UAE.

As technology develops there are new ways to undertake learning and research. Yet, it has been a matter of some debate as to whether these are in fact better ways. However, I think it is now accepted that many developments do lead to new and improved possibilities. For example, more flexible delivery of learning or faster and more sophisticated research processes. These possibilities are brought about by technology and new behavior patterns of learners, teachers, academics and increasingly managers and administrators running universities and colleges. The ubiquitous nature of the internet means that the use of this technology is part and parcel of our everyday existence both in our personal and working life. Therefore, it is an inevitability in education. However, education and knowledge creation has always taken advantage of new modes of communication; for example, the Gutenberg printing press or the creation of the academic journal to communicate research findings. The difference now is that in the digital age we are witnessing an abundance of new ways to distribute, use and combine technologies, and the speed of technical innovation is rapid and something that needs constant attention.

In the UK the JISC (previously known as the Joint Information Systems Committee) exists to enable UK universities and colleges to take advantage of technology in appropriate and cost effective ways at a national level. This paper will describe the approach that JISC takes to digital infrastructure development and provision as an exemplar for a national approach.