Feature Our Teacher Aaron Regan

Name and a little bit about you?

I am Aaron, a primary school teacher here at BIS Abu Dhabi, currently teaching Year 3. I studied Physical Education and School Sport at Edge Hill University and I continued my pursuit of becoming a primary school teacher through Mersey Borough SCITT and gaining my PGCE through Sheffield Hallam University. I started my teaching career in St. Helens, North West England and in my first year of teaching I was nominated for an ‘Newly Qualified Teacher of the Year’ award. After teaching in the UK for 3 years, I moved to BIS Abu Dhabi in 2022 to continue both my personal and professional development.

What do you love about Abu Dhabi

I love the different people I encounter from all over the world and listening to everyone’s individual and unique stories. I enjoy experiencing the different cultures you are exposed to in Abu Dhabi and I’ve particularly enjoyed learning about the growth and development of the UAE over the past 50 years. 

What excites you the most about working at BIS Abu Dhabi?

It’s exciting to teach children from all over the world and learn from them as much as they learn from me. I had 16 different nationalities in my class this year and I have managed to pick up a few phrases in different languages as well as learn about several different cultures. It’s also great to learn from colleagues who have taught all over the world and share our different pedogeological views.

What areas of research/topics continue to capture your attention in your field? What do you find interesting about them? What questions do you have?

One area that continues to capture my attention is metacognition and its role in guiding learning strategies. I find it fascinating how individuals monitor, control, and regulate their cognitive processes during learning tasks. Also, I am intrigued by the factors that influence our ability to recall information accurately and the mechanisms that lead to forgetting over time. Developing my

knowledge of how metacognition influences learning, as well as understanding the process of memory and retrieval influences my practice of how I teach from lesson to lesson.

What hobbies do you have? What do you love about them?

When I’m not in school, you’ll usually find me playing golf. We’re lucky to have some amazing courses in the UAE and I love the that you can play the same course over and over but each round will be different. The social side of golf is also great, you get to meet lots of different people playing, and there are a group of teachers at BIS Abu Dhabi who play regularly so we often play together at the weekends. We also enter competitions against other schools and often come out as the winners!