Conference on Education 2015. Partners in Excellence

In this talk we give a brief overview of innate mathematical knowledge and ability for children entering formal schooling and discuss the role of curriculum in continuing the development of mathematical thinking in children. We discuss the distinction between doing mathematical tasks and doing mathematics and the use of mathematics enrichment to support students in learning and doing mathematics. We then describe math circles and discuss how these can serve to introduce deep mathematics to elementary-school children and their teachers.

Introduction: Facebook is the most frequently visited social media networking site worldwide (Ryan & Xenos 2011). Mason and Rennie (2007: 199) reasoned, “shared community spaces and inter-group communications are a massive part of what excites young people and therefore should contribute to [their] persistence and motivation to learn”. Following this line of reasoning, higher education institutions have increasingly used Facebook as an alternative space wherein students can network online with peers and faculty. This offers students and instructors opportunities to communicate and engage with learning tasks through technology that they are already using to socialize (VanDoorn & Eklund, 2013). There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that Facebook enhances students’ learning outcomes, such as their ability to demonstrate understanding of the unit material, and construct knowledge for themselves (e.g. Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010; Yu, Tian, Vogel and Kwok, 2010). Facebook is broadly used among university students as a social media tool in Jordan. However, the field lacks studies that focus on its use for educational purposes. Study Objectives: This study aims to explore the use of Facebook for learning and instruction purposes among instructors and students at higher education in Jordan. Specifically, the current study intended to answer the following questions: - What is the level of utilizing Facebook for teaching purposes among university professors? - What is the level of utilizing Facebook for learning purposes among university students? - Are there statistical differences in faculty members' use of Facebook for teaching purposes, due to their level of experience, their rank, their faculty (scientific/humanistic), and their gender? - Are there statistical differences in students' use of Facebook for learning purposes, due to their gender, their year of study and their faculty (scientific/humanistic)? Methods: During the fall semester 2014/2015, a total of 300 students and 30 faculty members from the Hashemite University/Jordan were invited to participate in the study. All participants have active accounts on Facebook. Two questionnaires were used for data collection; one for faculty members entitled "Faculty members' use of Facebook for Instruction", and the other for students entitled "Students' Use of Facebook for Learning". Qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed to analyze the generated data. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS. Results and Conclusion: The preliminary results of the study suggest that Facebook has the potential to serve as a powerful learning and instruction tool in addition to being a popular social networking tool. The results of the study provide valuable feedback for instructors and students who use Facebook for educational purposes. Further, it provides instructors who wish to integrate Facebook into their courses with helpful information about the best practices related to such technologies. Furthermore, the current study provides university authorities with a clear picture of the use of Facebook on campus; this will help them shape the rules and policies regarding integrating this technology.

Historically, writing has taken a backseat to reading. In the 21st Century, the writing process and six traits are seen by many teachers and students as slow and tedious in comparison to the latest technology that is available. The Language Experience Approach has been documented (L.Lamoreaux and D. Lee, 1943; Huey, 1908; Smith, 1967, Nessel & Jones, 1981; Tompkins, 2003; Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart, & McKeon, 2002) and discussed for years to enhance students’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities. Educators have also advocated the value of LEA for English language learners (ELL), including elementary, secondary, and adult ELLs (Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Dorr, 2006; Nelson & Linek, 1999; Wurr, 2002). The teachers from Al Jazeera Academy in Qatar will be trained in the LEA to improve writing. They will learn to use their student’s vocabulary, language patterns, and background of experiences to create reading text through the writing process and the Six Traits of writing. The teachers will mediate the students so that the process of writing will become especially meaningful and enjoyable. The teacher’s perception will be assessed in a pre and post survey. It is the expectation that the teacher’s understanding of the writing process and six traits will crystalize. Student’s engagement in and motivation towards writing will increase. The LEA will impact student’s writing.

This session is highlights ways in which programs can adhere to aspects of quality assessment systems with multi-section courses and multiple teachers implementing common learning outcomes. Effective educational assessment systems are coherent, comprehensive, and continuous (The National Research Council, 2001). Educational assessment communicates to learners and other stakeholders how well students achieve the stated learning outcomes of a particular course/program. Results can be used for a multitude of purposes; therefore, it is essential that educational assessment systems are purposeful and robust. They should provide an appropriate balance of assessment practices that yields the most valid and reliable information about students' learning while having positive washback into the classroom. The presenters draw on research and practical experience from two different cases within a university setting to frame recommended measures to develop a purposeful and robust assessment system. The session discusses different ways to structure assessment systems, the role of assessment in ensuring common learning outcomes are met, and the impact of structured assessment systems on learning, instruction, and formal evaluation.

The present study aimed at 1) exploring early childhood teachers’ perceptions about teaching writing in Qatari early years settings, and 2) identifying the impact of several social-demographics variables on these views. To achieve the objectives of the study, a reliable and validated self-administrated questionnaire was utilized. Early Childhood teachers from private and independent schools in Doha voluntarily participated in the study. Results indicated that early childhood teachers expressed positive views regarding teaching writing in Qatari early years’ settings and their views were in line with recent theories and practices in teaching writing in early years’ education. Moreover, the results showed statistical significant differences due to a number of study variables. These results were discussed and implications for supporting teaching writing in early years’ settings were presented accordingly.

The study uses Habermas’ account of critical theory to investigate leadership curriculum in selected UAE business and education programmes and examine the extent to which the curriculum is derived from and linked to students’ cultural and Islamic values. The study is conducted in response to scholars’ call for developing leadership models and practices that integrate both traditional and international knowledge to mitigate the dominance of Western theories and values over the curriculum, which threatens the Islamic and cultural identity. It aims to start a dialogue between different sources of knowledge and to select the practices that work best in a certain society given its unique cultural and religious values. This research employs a mixed methods approach that takes classical pragmatism as its philosophical foundation. The purpose for mixing methods is complementarity, development and triangulation (Greene, 2007). Research methods include critical discourse analysis of course materials, class observations, student survey, and faculty interviews. The results were integrated at the interpretative level and abductive reasoning was used as the logic of justification. Results show that there are increasing efforts in the three institutions to incorporate cultural and Islamic values into the curriculum. However, the curriculum is still mainly dominated by Western theories and models of leadership, especially in the leadership courses offered by business schools, mainly because of the lack of English resources and theories on UAE and Islamic models of leadership. There was a significant difference between business and education leadership courses. Education leadership courses tended to include more materials on UAE and Islamic leadership than business courses did. Thus, education students viewed the curriculum relevant to their cultural and Islamic values more than business students did. It was also found that faculty played a significant role in adapting the curriculum to students’ cultural and Islamic values. Faculty who were either Muslim or came from a multicultural environment (e.g. Australia, Canada, New Zealand) where they taught Muslim students tended to include more materials on Islamic and UAE leadership models than those who were not exposed to similar experiences or possessed the same knowledge about Islam. Faculty attributed the limited use of Islamic and cultural materials to the lack of published work on Islamic leadership and UAE, on one hand, and to the academic standards that they have to meet to achieve international accreditation, on the other hand. Based on these findings, the study offers a model that is derived from Habermas’ theories of knowledge and human interests and communicative action to develop culturally relevant approaches to leadership teaching. This model assumes that a good leadership curriculum would contain sophisticated scientific knowledge, moral and cultural values, and opportunities for self-reflection, self-discovery, and communicative actions. It suggests that the curriculum should give participants space to contribute their own cases, articles, histories, perspectives experiences…etc. Such a curriculum will provide a balanced learning experience leading to social evolution, as indicated by Habermas.

Objectives. The purpose of the study was to explore Emirati teachers’ perceptions of voice handicap and to analyze their acoustic characteristics to determine whether acoustic measures of teachers’ voice would verify their perceptions of voice handicap. Methods. 66 Emirati school teachers (33 males and 33 females, with different years of teaching experience and age) and 100 control participants (50 males and 50 females) underwent vocal assessment that included the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-Arab) and acoustic measures (F0, Jitter%, Shimmer%, SNR). Results. Significant differences between the teachers’ group scores and the control group scores on the following subscales of VHI-Arab: physical (p = 0.006), emotional (p = 0.004)) and in the total score of the test (p = 0.002) were tested. No significant differences were found among teachers in the three VHI subscales, and the total score regarding gender (functional p = 0.307; physical p = 0.341; emotional p = 0.126; and total p = 0.184), age (functional p = 0.972; physical p = 0.525; emotional p = 0.772; and total p = 0.848), and years of teaching experience (functional p = 0.319; physical p = 0.619; emotional p = 0.926; and total p = 0.638). Significant differences between the teacher’s group and the control group in terms of three acoustic measures: F0= (p= 0.000), Shimmer% (p= 0.000), and SNR (p=0.000) were investigated. Significant differences were found among female and male teachers in F0 (p = 0.00) and SNR (p = 0.007). As for teachers’ age, significant differences were found in SNR (p = 0.028). Teachers’ years of experience did not show significant differences in any of the acoustic measures.

The rapid developments in technology makes it a must for educators to figure ways in which these tools can be utilized for educational excellence. The availability of various tools can mount pressure on teachers and other education stakeholders to weave such tools into everyday practices of educational institutions in order to transform education to become more relevant and effective. The new technologies have also paved the way for new trends and models in education. Currently, the “Flipped Learning” is gaining increasing attention because of its powerful idea of making efficient utilization of both students’ and teachers’ time in schools and homes. The model is based on promising ideas such as competency learning, increasing interaction and collaboration between students and teachers, saving teacher’s time, helping all kinds of students to excel especially students with special needs, and helping students to reach higher order thinking. However, earlier educational initiatives have proven to be complex and their implementations are challenging due to the various factors that might interfere with the implementation process. The aim of the current study was to investigate the experience of three Jordanian schools which implemented the Flipped Learning model from teachers’ point of view as they are the ultimate implementers of any educational initiatives. The study employs questionnaires for collecting data from 120 teachers who were active implementers of the Flipped Learning model in the participating schools. The findings of the study are expected to shed the light on several factors that can derail the Flipped Learning projects as well as factors that can facilitate its implementation which can provide guidelines for other schools that are trying to adopt this model.

This has been developed within the context of a secondary school in New Zealand thatis in an area of low economic development and low expectations for many of thecontributing students. This is a multi-cultural community and a suburb of a major city of over a million people. The school harbors over 1600 students spread over five year levels, from year 9 to 13, which is (Grade 8-12.) With so many students arriving at year 9 with abilities in numeracy and literacy far below their age levels, it was felt that a whole new approach was required. The intake is usually around 400 for year 9 each year. A trial was conducted in the school during the academic years of 1997-1999. The results were promising as far as better development especially in literacy. The students in the intake of 2002 were assessed and analysis showed that the bottom 100 had reading levels of 8 years, (Grade 4) and numeracy levels that were similar. It was decided to use highly trained teachers with wide experience to work as a team in the core basic subjects to see if improvement in these areas could be achieved such that, by year 11, when external examinations were held some of them might have a chance to attempt these. They were to be given a two-year program for year 9 and 10 to enable them to join into the mainstream at year 11. Each teacher was to look after one curriculum area and the students were to have their learning sessions within a set building so that movement between classes was better controlled and limited time lost between periods. I was one of these teachers and taught the Mathematics program. As a Senior Leader in the schooI, I had access to records and was able to follow their history through the rest of their time at the school. The results were interesting and unexpected. After attending a recent international course on Integrated Curriculum, it supported the types of learning we were working on several years ago in NZ. There are interesting aspects about this approach to teaching and learning that will be outlined and a general analysis will be shown. Insights to the way in which planning was developed will also be shared , which is supported by recent research and training programs.