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Staff Spotlight
Rebecca Pierce: Qatar Academy Learning Support Team Leader
As the daughter of American parents living in Madagascar, Rebecca Pierce learned at a young age what it was like to be a “third culture” child. Not feeling like she truly belonged in her home country or her host country, Rebecca developed a culture all her own; a place where she could balance between her life in the United States and her life on an island off the coast of East Africa. It was this balancing act that made her want to come back overseas years later to work with students at Qatar Academy.
Rebecca Pierce spent nearly 24 years working with students with learning disabilities in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, and one year in Cameroon teaching in a multi-level classroom with students in grades 4 through 7. “I finished my last year of high school in the US, attended an American university, and worked for years in the US, but I always felt like I was missing something. I felt like I needed to reconnect with who I had been growing up overseas in an expat community.” Becca wanted to work in an international setting with children who were feeling the same way she had felt as a child, children who were learning the balancing act not only culturally, but academically as well. So once her children had graduated, Becca moved to Japan to work in Learning Support. Becca could empathize with these kids and felt like she was finding a “third culture” home in international education.
A doctoral program brought Rebecca back to the US and to the University of Minnesota where she spent three years acquiring a PhD in Educational Psychology. Once the program was complete Becca set her eyes back on the international education scene. “Some of my peers were shocked when I decided to move overseas again to work in a classroom setting. They couldn’t understand that, although I may have been a good writer, I did not love academia. I didn’t enjoy writing research papers or grading university exams. Kids are my joy, pure and simple. I needed to get back into the classroom.”
For the past three years, Dr. Rebecca Pierce has worked at Qatar Academy as the Learning Support team leader. Most of the staff at QA doesn’t know that Rebecca holds a doctorate at all. She is quite humble about her education and says with a laugh, “the only time I get called Dr. Pierce is when [assistant principal] Derek Nelson wants to impress someone.”
Most of Becca’s days are spent working with students one-on-one or in small groups around a kid-sized table in her sunny office. She works with students who are struggling with reading, writing, and math - any sort of general processing issues – and helps them build a bridge to higher-level thinking and learning skills. “I like to make teaching concepts transparent, hands on, manipulative; conceptual teaching, that’s what I enjoy.”
Ms. Pierce describes conceptual teaching as a way to help students gain independence. “It frees students from the constraints of basic skills and allows them to learn how to use their higher level thinking skills.” As an example, Becca refers to a student who may not be good at addition or subtraction in math class. “A trick or two to help with the lower level challenges (i.e., subtraction) may enable a student to move on to the tougher problems required for multiplication or division. A weakness in the area of basic skills should not hold a child back from conceptual learning!”
Ms. Pierce continues: “The most rewarding part of my job is being able to focus on early identification and intervention. Qatar Academy is in the enviable position of having resources that allow us to intercede before a child develops bad academic habits.” With her learning support team, Becca screens all kindergarten and first-grade students and then begins intervention with students who evidence a need. Some students need long-term assistance; others just need to learn a few quick tricks in order to bridge the gap. “Students deserve equal access to information. Being proactive with them at a young age is a huge step in the right direction.”
Ms. Pierce is finding her balance at Qatar Academy. After being a young student who didn’t quite fit in culturally, she now works with students who don’t quite fit in academically – enabling them develop a third culture of their own. “I am passionate about working with these kids,” Ms. Pierce concludes. “This is where I belong.”
