This qualitative study aims to define the ethical decision-making processes employed by a select group of college deans in solving ethical dilemmas using the ethical paradigms proposed in the works of Starratt (Educ Adm Q27:185?202, 1991) and Shapiro and Stefkovich (Ethical leadership and decision- making in education: applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas, 2005) as frameworks for the analysis. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews and field text was analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. The findings show the ethical frameworks of care, justice, and profession as the dominant paradigms applied by deans and their preference for adopting multiple ethical frameworks when making their decisions while the ethics of critique is rarely used. This paper intends to contribute to the current literature by expanding research to administrators working in the context of higher education in the UAE setting. The findings of this study could serve as a knowledge base in designing ethics courses to enhance educational leaders? ethical decision-making skills. The study also provides useful insights into ethical decisions and reasoning processes employed by academic administrators in resolving real-life ethical dilemmas that could be useful at the practical level for aspiring and practicing deans.
This study aims to identify the students? misconception about vectors. The study sample consists of 120 male students at the advanced 11th grade from X school in one of the cities in the UAE. To identify students? misconceptions towards ?vector quantities?, open-ended questions test is developed from Nguyen & Meltzer (2003) and Barniol & Zavala (2011). The test is organized to be suitable and comprehensible to students who have not previously studied vectors. The study reveals that there are several misconceptions that exist within students? cognition. These errors are concluded to be inherent in their knowledge structure since they have not changed despite of direct teaching. Three types of errors were commonly identified across the sample: a lack of students? understanding about vector graphically adding and direction representation, a lack of understanding (or distinction) between vectors and scalars and multiply vectors by number.
The Purpose of this study is to describe the current Family, School and Communities Partnerships? FSCEPs practices and participants suggestions to initiate, improve and sustain FSCEPs in the context of the UAE. The research employed the descriptive methodology using a questionnaire surveying 892 participants from school staff, parents and community members. The finding clarified that most of the partnerships? activities are moderately practiced. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences among the participants. Particularly, teachers reported higher agreement about the existence of FSCEPs activities than parents and community members. Furthermore, the finding indicates that the most important benefit of the current activities is ?they increase the confidence and effective communication between parents and schools?. Moreover, the study revealed that the most vital priority to steer the FSCEPs activities in schools as participants suggested is to increase the students? achievement level followed by prepare students for work and life.
This paper aims to investigate the gifted programs offered to identified students in private middle schools in Dubai and gauge its effectiveness across the learner?s cognitive and affective domains. Currently, we cannot estimate the number of gifted learners that go unidentified leading to individual needs being unrecognized. This disheartening situation is evidenced by the lack of UAE federal laws or policy framework governing the rights of gifted learners and no prior research across private schools in the local context. Following the pragmatic philosophy and sequential mixed-methods, the current investigation will use interview data with gifted educators and KHDA school inspection documentation analysis for gauging the gifted programs offered across multiple private schools. This qualitative data review will be followed by quantitative analysis of attainment data in terms of Math and English scores, ability scores using CAT4 data and Self-perception survey data of gifted students. The present investigation will use Pre-K-12 gifted programming standards by NAGC as the guiding rubrics. Based on the literature regarding the best practices in the field of gifted education, the findings of the research will be discussed and suggestions regarding the improvements in programs alongside recommendations for future research will be included in the thesis.
The core of all existing Giftedness Identification Systems (GIS?s) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are based either on academic performance results, or on referrals from teachers and parents, or psychometric testing. Consequently, can we explore a new approach to identify giftedness that can take advantage of the recent advancements of Neuroimaging techniques within the growing hybrid domain of Mind, Brain and Education? Can the findings within the field of Neuro-Education inform the identification process of giftedness? The purpose of the current research proposal is to explore this untraveled path and explore the fundamental question of this study, Can Neuroimaging Identify Giftedness? If Neuroimaging succeeds in identifying Giftedness, this will mean that it can be utilized for the ?Early Identification? of Giftedness and at the same time provide a unique opportunity to identify Giftedness amongst the ?Twice Exceptional? and those whom their ability is masked by their disability. The core methodology of the study is ?Exploratory Experimentation? that will be based on two potential options: (a) Comparing Neuroimaging Results between Intellectually Gifted participants with None-Gifted Subjects using Standardized Stimuli; or (b) Comparing Neuroimaging Results between Intellectually Gifted participants with other forms of Gifted participants using Standardized Stimuli.
The educational sector in the UAE considers Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) as a valuable indicator to trace educational improvements and to fulfill the country?s National Agenda 2021. By then, the nation aspires to become among the top rated educational systems in the world, simultaneously with the country?s National Day Golden Jubilee celebration. However, grades Four and Eight students scored below the international norm in TIMSS 2015 in both subjects of mathematics and science. Viewing the benchmark results of TIMSS 2015 and 2011, the challenges in content and cognitive domains for the UAE students look similar. This proposal will discuss the factors that are associated with the students? performance in the above mentioned domains. The study will adopt the quantitative research approach through the data analysis of TIMSS UAE 2015 results for mathematics and science. Additionally, contextual questionnaires for schools, classrooms and student are put under scrutiny. The data will be analyzed through multiple linear regression since there were three hierarchical levels of the contextual questionnaire variables.
The study aims to investigate the impact of an iPad program on the performance of students with dyslexia on reading, writing and spelling skills in two classes of a public primary school in Al -Ain, UAE. The study follows a mixed method approach (questionnaire; face-to-face interviews; pre-posttests). Twenty (20) 3rd graders male students with dyslexia, attending English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes were the participants of the study. Students? performance on spelling, reading and writing skills were tested after instructed through an iPad intervention program with multisensory applications. The experimental group?s performance (10 students with dyslexia) was compared to the control group. A pre-assessment test was conducted for evaluating the reading, spelling and writing skills of both groups of students prior to the intervention. After eight (8) weeks, both groups were involved in post-tests for evaluating their performance on reading, spelling and writing skills. The study found that the students with dyslexia skills were improved after the iPad intervention program as opposed to the students instructed through mainstream methods. Interviews with the parents and the teachers corroborated the results of the post-tests but also validated the usefulness and effectiveness of the intervention program for the students? academic improvement.
Automation involved successfully in lots of industrial applications, and recently it started to be researched in construction in the form of additive manufacturing. This paper explores the developments of 3D printing processes which are classified as additive fabrication methods, and discusses the challenges of using such techniques in construction-scale applications especially in the UAE. The main challenge in the use of 3D concrete printing techniques is the material design, as it should have appropriate strength, rapid hardening upon extrusion, flowable enough to pass through delivery pipes, quality, and resistance to deformations. These properties are significantly challenging to have in a cementitious mixture at once. Under the harsh climate of the UAE, material design will be more considerable to account for the high temperature and humidity, which will end up in 3D printing of concrete being an efficiently sustainable solution that can be used in on-site applications.
Fibrous reinforcements used in the manufacturing of composite structures have multi-scale nature with varying permeability depending on the local porosity. Here, we discuss a formulation for homogenization of such multi-scale regions using the analogy of electrical resistance in series and parallel. The analogy is established on the similarities between voltage difference, flow of electric current and electrical resistance to pressure difference, fluid flow and flow resistance. The formulation is based on the Darcy?s law which relates the flow rate with the pressure difference. Using this analogy, we have developed relationship for computing the equivalent permeability of three adjacent porous regions. The formulation is then generalized to any number of regions. The equivalent permeability is the arithmetic mean of the permeabilities of the individual regions in case of parallel arrangement whereas the harmonic mean in the series case. Using numerical simulations, the model has been validated. In case of adjacent parallel regions where permeabilities differ by more than three orders of magnitude, the model does not perform very well. Nevertheless, the models presented here are applicable in the homogenization of multi-scale porous regions encountered in manufacturing of fiber reinforced composite materials.
In this paper, a study is carried out on the use of microwave tomography for bone health monitoring. The application would be helpful for Vitamin D deficient patients to safely monitor their bone density variations. The objects-of-interest are human leg cross-sections with varying fat thickness. The cross-sections are illuminated by antennas transmitting electric fields towards the human leg. The same antennas act as receivers to acquire the scattered electric fields at several locations. The obtained data are inputs for an inversion algorithm based on the finite element contrast source inversion method. In addition, the incorporation of prior information related to the structure and dielectric properties was investigated. Furthermore, the effect of changing the antennas distribution following the shape of the OI is tested and evaluated. From the results, bone density variations became detectable after the incorporation of prior information.
