**Methodology-** The study adopted the exploratory sequential mixed method. The paper consisted of three stages. Initially, six policies were reviewed to compare international, regional, and local licensures. Second, the study collected quantitative data from 300 teachers from public schools through an online survey. The last stage collected qualitative data through a school leaders' questionnaire.

**Findings-** Stage one findings were linked to international and regional practices. A comparative study revealed a lack of career development at the college level and during in-service training in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, there is a need for a standardized teacher evaluation system that includes constructive feedback and reflection. Based on stage two findings, teachers expressed negative views regarding the current licensing programme. In addition, stage three findings confirmed stage two results from the perspective of school leaders and policymakers.

**Implications-** Educators should consider building long-life learners by aligning licensing standards with the exam and desired outcomes, ensuring stakeholders' involvement, create a continuous PD program.

**Originality/value-** This study filled a critical gap in the theoretical field of teacher licensing in the Gulf Region. Additionally, the research suggested a flexible framework based on the best practices and the perceptions and experiences of the stakeholders. The framework asserted that the licensing examination is one of a number of methods for evaluating teachers.

**Keywords:** Teacher quality · Teacher Licensure · teacher licensing exam · Saudi Vision 2030

# **1 Introduction**

Years ago, university certification led to automatic employment, and countries would assume that graduate teachers were fully equipped with the required skills and knowledge. However, the latter concept has weakened through the years, and the responsibility of recruitment was taken entirely by the government and the Ministry of education.

Locally, the current Kingdom of Saudi Arabia licensing programme measures new and experienced teachers with essential skills and knowledge. However, keeping in view the regional visions, Saudi Arabia reinforced the diversity in the region to attract the country's best minds to fill the needs. The KSA government is undergoing significant reform under the National Transformation Plan (NTP), and education is at the centre of Vision 2030 (Patalong, 2016). Vision 2030 seeks to align the needed skills with the modern labour market (Moshashai and Bazoobandi, 2020) and overcome the challenges.

However, teacher licensure exams remain central to the legitimate teaching certification process, and substantial effort is devoted to improving the status quo's validity and reliability.

# **1.1 The Research Questions**

The study revolved around the following question: What is the status of teacher licensure in Saudi Arabia? And the following sub-questions:

# **1.2 The Significance and the Aim of the Study**

The current study has the potential to highlight on the importance of continuous improvement and evaluation of the licensing programme in Saudi Arabia. In response to regional future visions and expectations, Saudi Arabia in particular, this study has adopted varied instruments for additional reliability. The comprehensive data and findings from the data analysis generated valuable references for further study. The study aimed to investigate the development and implementation process of the 2019 T.L. programme in the KSA. Accordingly, the study provided policymakers a recommended framework that could be considered when assessing the T.L. to provide better market-based skills and take relevant measures to implement vision 2030.

# **2 Theoretical Underpinning**

### **2.1 Conceptual Framework**

**Teacher Quality.** The most assuring approach to improving public education outcomes is improving teacher quality, which is considered one of the few subjects where education stakeholders agree (Teacher et al., 2010). In Mitchell et al. (2001), teacher quality cannot be defined clearly because it is complex and can change with social demands and values. Therefore, teacher quality will continue to evolve as societies develop new skills, raise standards, and meet complex demands.

**Licensing Test Accountability.** The issue of licensing test accountability has contributed to teacher licensure instability since the 1990s (Cobb et al., 1999). In contrast, Shuls and Trivitt (2015) found that the licensure exam is regarded as a positive indicator of teacher effectiveness for two reasons. Candidates with good content knowledge can pass the topic to students efficiently. Second, passing the exam indicates intelligence, just as the SAT & ACT correlate positively with teacher effectiveness.

**Professional Development.** Educators are expected to be of the highest quality, not just when they enter the workforce. Continually learning teachers are more effective and influence school development, according to Wermke (2011). What growth do teachers need? Continuing career growth is necessary for teachers to meet educational demands and develop (Lewis, 1999) to solve problems, work smarter, and demonstrate higher quality. Virtual classes and mandatory technology integration are driving rapid change in education.

**Relevant Culture.** The study explored the T.L. programme in the context of the national culture of the KSA. The Gulf states share several characteristics: political, cultural, social, and economic, which have been identified as a 'Gulf state phenomenon' (Wiseman and Al-Bakr, 2013). Consequently, Gulf Region teachers face similar concerns and challenges. According to Planel (1997), countries encounter cross-cutting differences across regions, gender, social class, and ethnic groups. The study considered regional boundaries, revealing substantial similarities in beliefs and education standards.

#### **2.2 Theoretical Framework**

**Constructivism Theory.** Scholars like Piaget (1954), Dewey (1929), and Vygotsky (1978) assured that the learner comes to a learning environment with prior schemata that determine the learner's attitude towards the new learning (Hyslop-Margison and Strobel, 2007). Brau (2018) outlined that constructivism is divided into two main pillars: (1) cognitive constructivism suggests that building knowledge depends on an individual's interpretation of experiences, and (2) social constructivism confirms that individuals build knowledge through social interaction. According to Dagar and Yadav (2016), learners are active agents responsible for constructing information by revising the rules, analyzing, and reflecting. Thus, constructivism needs self-regulation and the ability to fit new concepts into what has been taught.

**Self- Efficacy Theory by Bandura- 1997.** Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to perform the best, affecting the current and future situation. Self-efficacy beliefs decide personal feelings, thinking, motivation, and behaviour. Hence, four major processes are included (1) cognitive, (2) motivation, (3) affection, and (4) selection. According to Bandura (2006), an individual's self-efficacy is developed from four primary resources: "mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological and emotional states" (Petchauer, 2012).

**Evaluation Theories and Techniques.** One of the primary objectives of the teacher licensure exam and evaluation is to measure quality for better teaching and learning. However, measuring the educational quality is a complex process because several components impact the quality, such as teachers, school culture, parents' involvement, students, and administrators. Moreover, teaching is a highly complex task which requires multiple teaching decisions at the same time. According to Papanastasiou (1999), teacher evaluation should be formative and descriptive, not judgmental, by connecting professional development with the evaluation.

**Socio-Culture Theory by Vygotsky- 1978.** Considering that the study was conducted in the Gulf context while seeking an international benchmark, the diversity of culture and society plays a crucial role. Pound (2015) pointed out that Vygotsky (1978) highlighted the impact of culture on identity growth. The teacher develops through social dialogues with experts and knowledgeable people.

### **2.3 Related Studies**

Mitchell et al. (2001b) presented an extensive report on candidates' tests and the licensing test's impact on improving quality. They recommended that each state use a different evidence system to qualify a teacher.

A case study was conducted by Garner and Kaplan (2021) to examine high school teacher professional development in a complex and dynamic context during summer. The findings concluded that the collective group was not satisfied with taking the workshop during summer.

Stotsky (2009) presented a report to the New Jersey State Advisory Committee about the ineffective and biased academic licensure tests presented to urban student teachers. The author called for federal intervention to ensure that teacher licensure tests were reliable.

Wiseman and Al-Bakr (2013) synthesized the literature review and found that teacher certification had no significant evidence on students' outcomes in the Gulf countries.

Libman (2012) suggested that governments should regulate and frame licensing exams, and that students' abilities and family background are the largest source of variation in student learning. Furthermore, teacher quality is the most significant variable that impacts student learning.

Lamprianou and Arabia (2013) investigated teachers' performance on the new T.L. test in the KSA. The results revealed that university graduation and specialty year significantly impacted teachers' exam scores, while training programmes varied in influence.

Larsen et al. (2021) used data from 1991–2007 of 37 dimensions or certificate requirements and found that the stricter the requirements, the higher the teacher quality.

# **3 Methodology and Approach**

# **3.1 Research Approach and Design**

The study adopts a multi-phase exploratory sequential mixed method *design* in three stages: stage one collecting secondary data from official documents and websites. Stage two: collecting quantitative data from teachers' surveys and stage three: collecting comprehensive qualitative data from school leaders' questionnaire (Fig. 1).

**Fig. 1.** The Study Mixed- Method Methodology (Source: Author)

# **3.2 Research Methodology**

**Study Context and Site.** The KSA is considered an appropriate context for the research since the country just started an updated licensing program in 2019, mainly within a semigovernmental organization. The leading site of the study was the public schools where the teachers who applied were fully licensed or were in the process of licensing.

**Sampling.** The study provided varied sampling designs to which each sampling was chosen depending on the required data to investigate each research question. An identical concurrent mixed sampling was conducted when collecting document analysis were collected. On the other hand, a parallel sequential mixed sampling was conducted when collecting the teacher survey (Quan) and the school leaders' questionnaire (Qual) (Table 1).

**Instruments:** The instruments were applied to collect data for the two domains: first domain included the instruments used to explore the policy and practice of teacher licensure at the international, regional, and local levels through content analysis. The second domain used instruments that investigated stakeholders' perceptions through teachers' survey and school leaders.

**Table 1.** Summary of Total Sampling of the Study (Source: Author)

#### **3.3 Data Analysis**

Since the study methodology is a sequential exploratory mixed method, the data collection process took three phases:

The study adopted inter-method mixing to collect data through more than two methods (Johnson and Christensen, 2014).

*The qualitative data* in the document's coding followed the inductive method. When themes or categories overlapped, the data overlapped naturally and presented the cooccurring codes (Johnson and Christensen, 2014). In case of a complete overlap, data were joined. In case of a partial overlap, the relationship was found. Therefore, the nominal codes were converted into numerical codes uploaded to the NVIVO Software. The study identified the relationship between the themes, such as initial licensure with students' performance and orientation programme with teachers' effectiveness.

Regarding *the quantitative data*: Collecting data from stakeholders' experience gave a chance to undergo several uncertain factors such as diversity of schools' culture, teacher background, master experience, and social persuasion on an individual. The teachers' survey responses indicated frequency rated on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistical analysis indicated the correlation between the demographic variables and the teachers' perception of the T.L. programme. The study listed the scores in grouped frequency distribution through the SPSS programme.

# **4 Results**

#### **4.1 Thematic Analysis Findings**

The study outlined nine main themes, which targeted countries that have enacted accordingly. The explored themes were as follows: (1) Description of the T.L. programme, (2) Stakeholders' Participation, (3) Professional Development, (4) Licensure Requirement, (5) Initial Preparation, (6) Feedback System, (7) Teacher Licensure Effectiveness, (8) T.L Development, (9) School Climate and support. Based on the study's analysis of policies and exemplary practices, it was concluded that every country has a distinct history.

Six countries' policy documents emphasized the importance of professional programs to evaluate teacher quality. The porpuse of teaching licensing is to regulate and guarantee teacher competency, (Arias and Scafidi 2009). According to Ingvarson et al. (2013), most countries delegate the responsibility for accreditation to government agencies such as the USA, KSA, and Canada. At the same time, in other countries like Singapore, the teaching licensing procedure would be entirely controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Several countries have implemented programs to facilitate the passing of licensing exams. In Singapore, the Ministry of Education oversees NIE, which trains teachers and awards bachelor's degrees. Australia's HALT program aims to encourage collaboration and maintain high standards among experienced teachers.

Teaching license requirements vary by country. Finland requires a five-year master's degree and experienced teacher observation. Australia demands a portfolio of effective teaching practices. Gulf countries require a bachelor's degree. All must pass an exam, but accountability varies. Australia has a continuous assessment of quality and evaluation by the National Certifying Authority.

#### **4.2 Teachers' Perceptions of the Exam Effectiveness Findings**

The study analyzed the descriptive data to answer research question 2: What are teachers' perceptions of the KSA's teacher licensure programme? Moreover, the study focused on the impact of initial preparation and school leaders on teachers' general scores. The following results were revealed (Tables 2, 3, 4 and 5):

**Table 2.** Construct One Analysis

**Table 3.** Construct Two Analysis

*Correlation Coefficients.* A Pearson product-moment correlation in this section was conducted to examine the relationship between general exam results and initial teacher, in addition to school support to teachers before the exam. The results showed that the general score exam was weak and negatively related to *initial preparation was r* (300) = -.216, *p <* .001, and the correlation was significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). The findings indicated that general initial preparation had a significant impact on teachers' general exam scores. Also, the findings displayed that school support has a moderate and positive impact on the general score of teachers' exams by *r* (300) = .055, *p <* .345, the correlation was insignificant.

*Two-Sample Test*. The study ensured several steps before conducting the two-sample *t*test. The data in each group were random samples from the population, were normally distributed, and consisted of adequate sample size and almost equal variance in Std. Moreover, the dependent variables are continuous, and the independent variable was two level categories (male and female. The overall results indicated there were no significant differences (*t* (298) = −1.0, *p* = .08 *>* .05).

*Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)* One Way ANOVA results displayed the mean score for 1–5 years of experience (*M* = 2.4659, *SD* = 1.12097), 6–10 years of experience (*M* = 2.3068, *SD* = 1.17629), 11–15 years of experience (*M* = 2.3153, *SD* = 1.20866), and more than 15 years (*M* = 2.4481, *SD* = 1.30440).

**Table 4.** Construct Three Analysis

### **4.3 School Leaders and Policymakers' Perceptions Findings**

The principals 'questionnaire was analysed by QSR NVivo 12 into four main themes then several codes were generated: (1) validate teachers' findings, (2) the impact of orientation programme, (3) school support, (4) licensed teachers' evaluation process. Findings showed that 60% of school leaders were uncertain about the reliability of teachers' exam scores. Similarly, school leaders admitted that teachers did not receive more than emotional support or a day off to prepare for the exam. Although teachers disagree with the effectiveness of the licensing exams, leaders have noticed several changes in teachers' practice such as improved communication with students, applying different learning styles, and developing more knowledge of theories and teaching strategies. According to the school leaders' responses, they confirmed that experience increases teacher quality, which supported the earlier investigation of the teachers' survey in stage two. As a

# **Table 5.** Construct Four Analysis

standard method of evaluation, classroom observation and an evaluation form are utilized by most leaders. However, the lack of standardized methods was confirmed, which provoked the choice to use preferable procedures.

# **5 Conclusion**

# **5.1 Integrated Findings**

The first qualitative stage compared international and regional policies with the local licensure programme in Saudi Arabia. The comparison revealed best practices and successful experiences to propose a suggested framework. The document analysis ensured that teachers' preparation and continuous development are essential to increase teacher quality. Referring to the literature review, teacher quality is hard to measure since teaching happens in a complex context. Accordingly, one measurement (licensing exam) would not reflect the quality. That was reflected in the study respondents' frustration with the current licensing exam. On the other hand, countries such as Finland and Singapore proved teachers' licensing success with intensive pre-service and in-service programmes. The study concluded that the shortage of long-life learning culture in public schools and the lack of school support were reflected through teachers' surveys and school leaders' questionnaires. In reference to the quantitative findings, 55% of participants demanded technology training and exchanging knowledge and experience with colleagues. While getting a mentor was the least required. Furthermore, participants revealed negative perceptions toward the difference between licensed and unlicensed teachers' performance. In this respect, the latter perceptions reflected the debate over measuring teacher quality through licensing. Thus, the study findings showed that passing the exam was not evidence of increasing teacher quality.

### **5.2 Limitations**

The researcher started the investigation in 2021 when most schools and teachers did not consider taking the exam seriously. The problem extended to limiting the number of participants in the survey. Moreover, the study planned for school leaders' interviews, where the interviewer could ask probe questions and detailed information. However, the participants preferred to receive the questions online via a questionnaire, and the responses were limited to short answers except for a few.

#### **5.3 Recommendations and Implications**

Becoming a teacher requires more than just passing the licensure exam. Apart from this, having a university-level education and undergoing in-service training with experienced mentors and experts are also essential. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the exam and are seeking continuous support. The Ministry of Education can promote lifelong learning by conducting workshops and mentoring programs. The exam should serve as a measure of progress rather than a final verdict. Teachers should receive feedback on their performance and provide evidence of their best practices through portfolios and classroom observation reports (Fig. 2).

**Fig. 2.** The Study recommended Licensing Programme (*Source: Author*)

#### **5.4 Regional Implications**

Implementing standardized teacher licensing in the Gulf region can ensure consistent education quality while still allowing for flexibility to accommodate each country's unique visions. By placing a strong emphasis on both theoretical and practical research in the education system and licensing process, we can help improve the skills and knowledge of teachers.

# **References**

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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# **The Challenges of Implementing the Emirates Standardized Test as a Proficiency Test in the UAE: An Exploratory Study**

Abdelhamid A. Khalil(B)

Faculty of Education, The British University of Dubai, Dubai, UAE<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract.** This study investigated teachers' and educational leaders' perspectives regarding the challenges that EFL twelfth graders encounter in relation to the Emirates Standardized Test (EmSAT). The study context was a private school in the UAE that follows the Ministry of Education curriculum. The present qualitative study adopted the phenomenological interpretive research approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with four English teachers and four educational leaders. Data were also analysed using thematic analysis that led to the creation of relevant themes. The findings revealed a number of challenges related to the EmSAT exam and recommendations to overcome these barriers. These included issues related to time constraints, anxiety, stress, lack of teaching resources, and learners' low e-maturity level. The study had some implications for teachers, educational leaders, school administrations and policymakers.

**Keywords:** EmSAT English · Standardized test · Proficiency test · Educational leaders · EFL teachers

# **1 Introduction**

In the UAE, the English language is gaining a significant position as it is thoroughly employed in the business, technology, and trade sectors (Madden, 2020). The vision of the UAE Ministry of Education (2017–2021) was built upon the principle that younger generations have the right to interact and engage with the whole world using English, the most common language. As such, students in the UAE are expected to show good proficiency in English language exams in line with the internationally recognized exam results. Among these proficiency tests is the EmSAT exam, a compulsory requirement for UAE twelfth graders to graduate from high school and become eligible for university admission (Al Hammadi and Mohiuddin, 2017).

### **1.1 The Research Problem**

Data generated by the Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC) reveal that almost 95% of high school graduates do not meet universities' admission standards, especially with regard to EmSAT scores (Harold, 2005; Matsumoto, 2019). In addition, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reports that, although the UAE has a fastgrowing educational system, its students continue to demonstrate a very weak performance in international and national assessments, including EmSAT, compared to their peers in advanced economies (Kippels and Ridge, 2019; OECD, 2015). Despite all these challenges, the researcher could not identify a single study investigating the difficulties that twelve graders encounter regarding the UAE's EmSAT exam. As such, the current study proposes to fill in this gap in the literature by investigating these challenges from the perspectives of teachers and educational leaders.

# **1.2 Rational and Significance**

The current study's rationale stems from how student assessment in the UAE is considered a significant benchmarking tool and credible means of evaluating education improvement (Ibrahim and Alhosani, 2020). Moreover, there is a necessity to investigate teachers' and educational leaders' perceptions of the EmSAT exam to identify practical measures in which students and teachers can overcome the exam challenges. Furthermore, the study findings will serve as the baseline of further research investigating students' and educators' perceptions with regard to international assessments such as PISA, TIMSS, IELTS and TOEFL, as well as national assessments such as EmSAT.

### **1.3 Research Questions**

1. What are the perspectives of English teachers regarding the challenges of implementing the EmSAT exam?

2. What are the perspectives of educational leaders regarding the challenges of passing the EmSAT exam?

3. What are the recommendations of English teachers and educational leaders regarding overcoming the challenges encountered through taking the EmSAT exam?

# **2 Literature Review**

This section elucidates the theoretical underpinning upon which the research has been based and provides a review of previous literature on standardized testing.

#### **2.1 Theoretical Framework**

Computer-based assessment (CBA) has emerged as a prominent method for evaluating the academic progress of students in both secondary and tertiary education (Maqableh, 2015). Previous models that depend on technology utilization, such as Davis's (1986) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), have given way to this one. CBA is defined by Charman and Elmes 1998 as the evaluation that results from the learner's interaction with the computer. Numerous factors contribute to the advantages of utilizing CBA, including results that are accurate, cost-effective, and secure (Kreiter et al., 1999). Exam scheduling, result generation and analysis, and exam preparation time and effort reduction are all tasks that CBA is likely to facilitate (Ko and Cheng, 2008). The current study is also grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which was developed by Davis in 1986. TAM has been chosen as the paradigm that effectively examines the impact of technology usage on the technological behaviour of students. Assumedly, the utilization of a system is the consequence of an anticipated response induced by motivation, which is influenced by an additional external stimulus (Al-Azawei et al., 2019) (Fig. 1).

**Fig. 1.** Technology Accepted Model (TAM)

# **2.2 Previous Studies**

This section provides a review of the existing literature regarding the benefits and challenges of conducting standardized tests.

# **The Usefulness of Standardized Tests**

A number of studies stated that standardized tests are beneficial as they measure students' attainment in different areas and evaluate teachers' performance (Brown, 2019; Lai, 2023). However, some researchers are against using standardized test scores to judge teachers' achievement and performance as they believe it is insufficient to evaluate teachers (Salend, 2019; Turnipseed and Darling-Hammond, 2015). In the same vein, some researchers highlighted different aspects regarding the significance of standardized tests, including making teachers work harder and reforming the educational system by running remedial programs for struggling learners (Lai, 2023). By means of elaboration, Lai (2023) concurred that standardized tests create a healthy educational atmosphere since they promote peer tutoring, help struggling students get the required attention and care in order to make them pass tests, and encourage investing for teachers' professional development programs to promote academic achievement and performance.

### **The Challenges of Standardized Tests**

Despite the benefits of standardized tests, there are many challenges related to them. For example, some researchers concurred that these tests have minimal alignment with the local curriculum and are inaccurate indicators of learners' exact levels (Wise, 2019). In addition, some researchers, such as Sulastri and Puspawati (2019), mentioned that standardized tests are always biased since any individual can be taught and tested under the same exam conditions. On the contrary, Brown (2019) disregarded these claims and reported no proof that exam bias is a critical problem. Furthermore, they stated that plenty of exam writers exert much effort to eliminate all bias-related issues of tests (Goodman and Hambleton, 2005). Nonetheless, some studies identified exam anxiety and fear as a challenge that affected students' exam results (Edriss and Matthew, 2016; Kohn, 2000). These findings were in harmony with other studies in which standardized tests were claimed to determine learners' performance and achievement levels without considering the factors that might have affected them on the exam day, such as fear, family issues and anxiety (Wise, 2019).

# **3 Methodology**

#### **3.1 Research Methodology and Approach**

The current study adopted the phenomenological interpretive research approach to investigate teachers' and educational leaders' perceptions of the main obstacles of assessing twelfth graders using the EmSAT exam. The choice of the phenomenological interpretive approach served the purpose of the study and the research questions by obtaining social reality and interpreting meaning from the collected data of the targeted participants (Viswambharan and Priya, 2016).

#### **3.2 Research Instruments and Data Collection**

Qualitative data were collected using two sets of semi-structured interviews in which the open-ended nature of the questions defines the topic being investigated and provides opportunities for the interviewer and participants to discuss some topics in depth. The choice of semi-structured interviews served the purpose of the study in which the researcher tried to identify teachers' and educational leaders' perceptions of the challenges of the EmSAT exam and the recommendations they perceive to overcome these barriers.

#### **3.3 Participants and Sampling Techniques**

Participants of the present study were four English teachers who taught grade 12 students at a private school in RAK, UAE and four educational leaders, including the school principal, head of assessment, head of the English department and head of academic affairs. The school was a private school following the UAE Ministry of Education curriculum. The selection of participants was based on convenience and purposive sampling. According to Creswell and Poth (2016), convenience sampling is the most commonly used in qualitative research since it is fast and easy to achieve the sample size. In addition, purposive sampling is employed with the educational leaders since they possess rich expertise and knowledge, which the researcher sought to obtain.

# **3.4 Data Analysis**

Data were analysed using thematic analysis (TA). Boyatzis (1998) argued that TA is a qualitative method that helps to analyse classifications and provide relevant themes. Moreover, TA is significant in studies that attempt to investigate a phenomenon using interpretations. The choice of TA was due to its flexibility which can easily be modified based on the researcher's needs (Braun and Clarke, 2006). As such, data collected from semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed, and arranged into relevant, meaningful themes that answered the three research questions of the present study.

# **4 Findings and Discussion**

The study results were reported according to the order of the research questions that governed the scope of the study.

# **4.1 Findings of RQ1**

*What are the perspectives of English teachers regarding the challenges of implementing the EmSAT exam?*

# **English Teachers' Perspectives on the Challenges of the EmSAT Exam**

English teachers identified a number of challenges that twelfth graders face regarding the EmSAT exam. For example, two participants stated that exam anxiety, fear and timing were among students' most prominent obstacles. One participant mentioned, " *The EmSAT exam questions are computerized and timed in a way that does not allow students to think well before selecting an answer. This is because the time allotted per question in the grammar and vocabulary sections ranges from 18 to 40 s."* This result was confirmed by another participant who concluded that *"Timing is a critical issue for students since it is very short and does not differentiate between students of good level and struggling students. This causes students fear and anxiety; they randomly answer questions within the given time."*

All participants confirmed that the writing section of the exam was also problematic for most students as it required them to type their answer rather than write it using paper and pencil as they are used to. Besides, among the challenges of the EmSAT exam, as identified by English teachers, was the lack of resources and study materials to prepare for the exam. The majority of participants agreed that the EmSAT exam skills needed to be taught to students to get acquainted with its content and requirements. However, this was not fulfilled since there were no books, resources, or study materials to prepare for the exam. On the contrary, one participant disagreed, and he believed that the exam covers accumulative skills that should not be restricted to a single study book or a set of resources.

# **4.2 Findings of RQ2**

*What are the perspectives of educational leaders regarding the challenges of passing the EmSAT test?*

#### **Educational Leaders' Perspectives on the Challenges of the EmSAT Exam**

Educational leaders explained a number of challenges regarding the EmSAT exam, which were quite different from those reported by teachers. For example, the school principal averred, "*Lack of teacher training about the exam's structure, content, and administration is the most significant challenge since teachers can never prepare students without being trained to do so."* The head of the assessment department confirmed this point by saying, "*It seems that teachers are misplaced and forgotten when it comes to the EmSAT exam preparation and administration."* Regarding university admission, the head of academic affairs argued that the EmSAT exam is a requirement for high school graduation, and it has been planned to guarantee admission to all universities in the UAE. However, a few universities accept the exam for admissions, and the vast majority reject it for the sake of other international exams such as TOEFL and IELTS. Furthermore, she added that "*This is a real challenge as it acts against the basic motives of starting the EmSAT exam in that students avoid studying a foundation year."*

#### **4.3 Findings of RQ3**

*What are the recommendations of the English teachers and educational leaders regarding overcoming the challenges encountered through taking the EmSAT Test?*

#### **Overcoming the Challenges of the EmSAT Exam**

Most participants averred that integrating the EmSAT exam into the English curriculum would make it more familiar to students, increasing their success rate. Furthermore, few participants emphasized the necessity to design a study book and a set of resources that reflect the exam components in order to prepare students for the exam. Regarding training teachers and students, most participants stated, "*Students need to receive sufficient training on how to increase their e-maturity level and how to type using computer software. Similarly, teachers must be trained on the exam content and administration to support students more effectively."* However, some participants recommend reconsidering the time assigned per question to ensure that students of different abilities can answer each question within the given time. This would reduce exam anxiety and fear, resulting in better performance. In addition, a few participants disagreed with adding more time for each question of the exam, and they recommend providing more practice exams that imitate the real exam environment as a better method of avoiding fear and worries. Moreover, regarding technology failure, most participants reported, "*A backup plan has to be ready where students can do the exam using paper-pencil in case of technology failure, but most importantly is that students need to be ready for this step through training."*

#### **4.4 Discussion**

The findings of the study showed that there were many challenges regarding the EmSAT exam, as reported by teachers and educational leaders. For example, English teachers believed the exam time was very short, which caused stress, anxiety and fear. This was also thought to negatively affect twelfth graders' achievement and performance during the exam. These findings were in harmony with previous studies (e.g., Edriss and Matthew, 2016; Lai, 2023). On the contrary, other studies concluded that standardized tests promoted peer tutoring and created a healthy educational environment (Baird et al., 2011; Sulastri and Puspawati, 2019). Another challenge was that the EmSAT exam was neither integrated nor aligned with the English curriculum, making it problematic to practice the exam content. This result was consistent with the findings of previous research (e.g., Mehrens and Lehmann, 1991; Gunes, 2019). Moreover, students' low e-maturity level was another obstacle preventing them from effectively interacting with the exam, especially with the writing section. The findings of the study also demonstrated some challenges as identified by educational leaders, including the lack of teacher training regarding the exam components and administration. Teachers were disregarded from exam preparation and administration, although they are considered the most influential party in increasing student achievement. This contradicts the findings reached by Imsa-ard (2020), in which teachers had a positive attitude towards computerized exams. Additionally, the findings confirmed that the exam was not a guarantee of admission to all universities in the UAE as it had been planned.

# **5 Conclusion and Recommendations**

# **5.1 Summary and Key Findings**

This research examined the viewpoints of educators and leaders in education regarding the difficulties that were encountered throughout the EmSAT examination. By conducting a thorough analysis of the participant's viewpoint on the subject under investigation, this qualitative study achieved its aims and responded to its primary research inquiries through the application of phenomenological interpretive research. To acquire the necessary data and address the research inquiries, two sets of interview questions were employed. Insufficient teacher preparation, lack of resources, and the potential for technological failures were among the numerous obstacles identified in the study's results regarding the administration of the EmSAT. In addition, the results indicated that anxiety, fear, and poor performance resulted from students' insufficient exam time and inadequate e-maturity to respond to all questions. Moreover, in order to surmount these obstacles, the results suggest crucial strategies including enhancing the efficacy of the English curriculum, integrating the EmSAT exam competencies into the curriculum, and providing comprehensive teacher training.

# **5.2 Limitations**

The study has a number of limitations, including the small number of participants, which caused a challenge related to the generalizability of the findings. The study is also limited to one context (a private school in RAK), which does not make it representative of other schools in other emirates in the UAE. Another limitation is related to data collection since the researcher has only implemented semi-structured interviews without adopting another tool to ensure data triangulation which would enhance the validity and reliability of the findings.

#### **5.3 Recommendations**

One recommendation is for the assessment unit at the Ministry of Education to consider the challenges faced by students, teachers and educational leaders and work effectively to overcome them. Another recommendation is for school administrations to provide much support and training for teachers and students on the most effective strategies to deal with the EmSAT exam to ensure increasing student achievement and performance. A final recommendation is for English teachers to adopt their lesson planning and activity preparation in line with the exam specifications and requirements.

#### **5.4 Implications for Further Research**

Further research is needed to increase the number of participants and involve different contexts to identify the possibility of obtaining consistent results from the present study. A key aspect of future research is to use quantitative research methods to generate numeric data that could be used to validate the findings of the present paper.

# **References**

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# **The Relationship Between the Frequency and the Range of Morphemes Used in Students' Essays and Essay Scores in an American School in Dubai**

Siham Abukhalaf(B) and Emad Abu-Ayyash

The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract. Purpose -** The purpose of this research paper was to determine whether there is a relationship between the frequency and the range of morphemes used in students' essays and their actual essay scores.

**Methodology -** To address the research questions, the mixed methods design was conducted to view the findings from different angles.

**Findings -** The results suggest that there is a strong relationship between the range of morphemes used in students' essays and essay scores.

**Implications -** These findings can have meaningful implications for English teachers and linguists in the UAE, specifically, about the significance of considering the morphology used in students' essays.

**Originality -** This paper adds to the growing body of literature by adding information on the frequency and the range of morphemes used in students' writing and essay scores in the UAE's education sector. This may contribute to more significant information within the field of linguistics.

**Keywords:** Morphology · Literacy · Frequency · Essay Scores

# **1 Introduction**

Writing is a fundamental aspect of English Language Acquisition (ELA) learning for teachers as well as students, as some experts argue it is crucial to facilitate the acquisition of the target language (Ferris 2011 in Ene & Kosobucki 2016). The fundamental building blocks of language are grammatical morphemes, which include articles, suffixes, and prefixes. These morphemes encode a variety of concepts; hence, it is crucial for ELA learners to acquire them (Murakami 2014). Therefore, to inculcate literacy skills among students, they need to receive an adequate amount of support in nurturing lexical, syntax, and discourse skills that are necessary for comprehending written text (Hemphill & Tivan 2008). However, despite its importance, acquiring grammatical morphemes seems to be remarkably challenging for second-language learners (Ellis 2008). Considering this point, it could be argued that this is one of the reasons students' essays are mainly graded by the rubric given instead of stressing the range of morphemes used in the essays. Therefore, this research attempts to delve into the morphological analysis, specifically whether the variety of morphemes has an impact on students' essay scores. Essentially, the aim of this investigation is to determine whether there is a relationship between the frequency and the range of morphemes used in students' essays and their actual essay scores. The research questions are:

According to previous research, it has been established that there is a significant correlation between morphology and reading proficiency, such as vocabulary words in a text, and reading comprehension (Northey 2013). However, my small-scale research study for this paper is significant because very few studies have been conducted on the topic of how morphological analysis may contribute towards writing quality in the context of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The research will morphologically analyse students' essays; thus, it is advantageous for English teachers to better understand whether there is a relationship between the variety of morphemes used in students' essays and essay scores.

# **2 Literature Review**

To begin with, morphemes are the minimal units of meaning or grammatical function (Wolter & Pike 2015). Hence, the study of word formation and internal structure, including components like root words and affixes, is known as morphology (Nippold 2016). For instance, the root word "talk", if we add the suffix "plural s", it will be "talks". Another example is "happy" which is considered the root word, by adding the prefix "un" it will be "unhappy". Free morphemes have a distinct meaning and can stand alone (e.g. eat, date). However, bound morphemes make it impossible for it to function as a standalone word. It includes both suffixes and prefixes (e.g. -s, re-, un) (Carlisle 2003). Furthermore, free morphemes come in two varieties: lexical and functional. Lexical morphemes have a meaning and can stand alone as a word. It includes verbs, nouns, and adjectives; for example, girl, boy, and smart. The functional morphemes include articles, conjunction, and pronouns. Derivational and inflectional morphemes are the two types of bound morphemes. The first type is derivational morphemes which alter the part of speech. It brings about a change in the existing word and introduces a new word in a language. For example, (care) and (careless). The part of speech of a word is not altered by inflectional morphemes such as boys (plural s), Jim's purse ('s) (Brady 2021). These definitions are adopted as the authors provided a thorough explanation of the definition of the morphemes and their types clearly.

The theory that supports this paper is "Structuralism" (Levi-Strauss 1973; Jakobson 1976), which emphasised the morpheme concept and categorised syntax as a derivative of morphotactics (i.e., combining morphemes). Put simply, structuralism views language as a set of descriptive and analytical procedures. Analysis of the language can be structured as (a) semantics, (b) syntactic (c) morphological (d) phonological (Siddiqi & Harley

**Fig. 1.** Morphology and its types (Harley, 2014*)*

2016). Although this theory is well-established within the field of linguistics, it has been criticised by some linguists who argue that merely using morphemes to replace the notion of words has its limitations. However, for the purpose of this paper, structuralism is used as a theoretical foundation (Fig. 1).

The importance of morphology integration into literacy lessons as an intervention strategy is generally acknowledged across research (Gilbert 2020). In primary grades, morphological instruction includes teaching students affixes, and root words as a technique for utilising these word parts to develop meanings for new terms (Manyak, Baumann & Manyak 2018). Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of morphological analysis in recognising words, vocabulary comprehension, and spelling when writing (Ash & Baumann 2017). In elementary schools, approximately 60% of the words that students come across in texts are words that consist of derivational morphemes, meaning base words and affixes (Fejzo, Desrochers & Deacon 2018). This has shown that teaching affixes such that students learn how to use them accurately with familiar lexical items, can increase their understanding of unfamiliar words that use affixes, and they may even deduce the meanings of these words (Schultz 2021). Ultimately, the main aim of teaching morphology is to improve students' capacity to determine word meanings, because the study of word components aids in writing skills (Apel & Werfel 2014).

There is a body of research which demonstrates that morphological knowledge plays a role in both text production and spelling, especially for students who are struggling with writing (McCutchen et al. 2014). The representation of relevant morphemes in essay writing is more difficult for students who have written language issues compared to their peers (Rubin & Laboratories 1988); for example, poor spellers have difficulty identifying the distinctions between root morphemes and word affixes. In contrast to the research on spelling accuracy, additional research has shown that reading-problematic pupils struggle to apply morphological rules to novel words (Brittian 1970 et al. in Rubin & Laboratories 1988). As a result, students tend to employ derivational morphemes in writing later than inflectional morphemes (Northey, McCutchen & Sanders 2016). A general but possibly incorrect viewpoint is that derivational morphemes are either too challenging for students or are not crucial for students' literacy development all the way up until middle school level (Carlisle 2003). These assumptions give rise to the practice of neglecting either derivational or inflectional morphology instruction in primary and middle school (ibid). Despite the fact that morphological acquisition is viewed as it is related to grammatical development, learning, or acquiring morphology goes beyond grammatical and structural rules (syntax) (Marinova-Todd, Siegel & Mazabel 2013). Essay writing appears to be related and more pronounced to the capacity to analyse written texts using morphological components (Perfetti 1999). Ultimately, the literature review has covered three major themes about morphology which are (a) morphological instruction across proficiency levels, (b) morphological awareness, and (c) morphological skill in essay writing. This paper contributes to the existing body of literature by adding information on the frequency and the range of morphemes used in students' writing and essay scores within the context of the UAE.

# **3 Methodology**

To address the research questions, the mixed methods design was conducted to view the findings from different angles instead of relying on a single approach (Denscombe 2017). A stratified random sampling was carried out where the researcher ensured that various groups are included. First of all, I divided the students into groups or strata according to their levels (high, average, and low). Then, each stratum was sampled randomly. I chose this technique as it is a practical combination of randomization and categorization that makes it possible to conduct both quantitative and qualitative research (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2017). I classified the marks according to the students' levels.

The participants in this study were female students from different nationalities, aged between 17 to 18 years old, studying at an American school in Dubai. I analysed 9 essays written by these participants and categorised them according to the level of their writing proficiency, as determined by their teacher. From the quantitative perspective, numeric data was collected by representing the frequency of students' essays across proficiency levels. As for the qualitative design, the range of morphemes used in students' essays had been identified, and color-coding was used to identify the range of morphemes used in students' essays. To ensure validity for quantitative design, normality was tested before proceeding with the Pearson analysis to ensure that the data were normally distributed. Furthermore, I ensured all standard steps were taken to ensure this study met the expectations of ethical considerations, as determined by the British University in Dubai (Table 1).

**Table 1.** Research design

# **4 Findings**

This section contains an overview of the study's findings. This part is essential in order to describe the data that was examined and provide an explanation for the research questions. As previously stated, the research question for the quantitative design was "What is the frequency used in students' essays across proficiency levels?". The frequency of the high achievers:-

The frequency of the average students:-

The frequency of the low achievers:-

The data were normally distributed, as assessed by Shapiro-Wilk's test (P *>* .05).

There was a statistically significant, strong correlation between the range of morphemes used in the essays and essay scores in female students aged 17 to 18 years, r = .706, P *<* .05.

As for the research question of the qualitative design "what is the range of morphemes used in students' essays?" color-coding was implemented wherein 9 essays were analysed morphologically. Consequently, some of the key conclusions drawn from these essays are as follows:

#### **4.1 Comparison of Morphological Skills Used in Students' Writing**

High achievers:-

Average students:-

Low achievers:-

Morphemes can be joined in a variety of ways to convey certain meanings or to fulfil specific grammatical functions. The essays reveal that the vast majority of students used lexical and functional morphemes compared to other morphemes. For example, "she had those round eyes that I can never seem to forget when she crosses my mind". However, the number of inflectional and derivational morphemes used in the essays varied across proficiency levels. For instance, the high achievers used a variety of derivational, inflectional morphemes such as "she has pale skin with light brown hair, light brown eyes, and beautiful freckles, I honestly find her one of the most beautiful people I have ever met". Despite the fact students used a lot of lexical and functional morphemes, it can be seen evidently that students used a variety of derivational and inflectional in the same sentence "three derivational morphemes and two inflectional morphemes". Students' lexical knowledge and high-calibre writing are significantly influenced by their grasp of morphology. As for the average students, the researcher noticed that students used a variety of morphemes but not as much as the high achievers' ones, for example, "Yasmin has big gorgeous curly hair and she always looks stunning". This sentence is derived from an average student essay, it can be inferred that the sentence contained a good number of lexical morphemes and only one derivational morpheme "ly", and one inflectional morpheme "s". Regarding the low achievers, the students provided little derivational and inflectional morphemes. They mainly focused on lexical and functional which was easier for them than the use of derivational and/or inflectional morphemes. For example, "My mom is my best friend in my life, and my first human that she came to in my head". It is evident that the low achievers did not provide any of the inflectional or derivational morphemes in the sentence which affected the overall score. Due to a lack of vocabulary, they were able to write a range of lexical and functional morphemes but were unable to add affixes to the base word.

#### **4.2 Using Morphology at the Text Level**

Using a variety of morphemes improves the quality of students' writing and consequently, will lead to a better score. Students utilize inflectional morphemes more frequently than they do with derivational morphemes. Therefore, the production of derivational morphemes develops later than their use of inflectional morphemes in writing. For example, one of the weak students stated "she was my favorite mum's sister in mum's family mum's sister maryam she lives in Kuwait" she was able to use inflectional morphemes frequently but was unable to produce any derivational morphemes. As for syntactic structure, the researcher noticed that the weak writers relied mainly on the basic organisational markers such as, because, also, when etc., which hinders the flow of their writing. For instance, "This two they come first thing in my head because and the first one and my first and favorite human she was my mom and the second person", this student has overly produced connector words "because, and" and tends to use less variety of the word choice and syntax. The high achievers, in contrast, utilised a wider range of organizational markers and syntactic structure efficiently. For example, "since the last time I saw him I can't picture him physically, but I remember his personality. He was so dynamic and talkative compared to me who was reserved". Additionally, morphological skills enabled the high achiever students to generate complex sentences and multi-sentence as stated: "he is just the scrawny boy that I picked a fight with when I was younger". It smoothes the syntax and gives more nuance to the meaning. As for the average students, they were good at generating complex sentences too. For instance, "Even though she lives ten thousand kilometers away, she feels like she's right next to me". Lastly, the low achievers, most of them write little to no complex sentences within the essay adequately. Finally, to answer the third research question "Is there a relationship between the range of morphemes used in students' essays and essay scores?". According to the findings stated above, there is indeed a relationship between the range of morphemes used in students' essays and their actual essay scores. This phenomenon will be discussed further in the subsequent section.

# **5 Discussion and Conclusion**

The research questions of this study were: 1- What is the frequency used in students' essays across proficiency levels? 2- What is the range of morphemes used in students' essays? 3- Is there a relationship between the range of morphemes used in students' essays and essay scores? A mixed method study was conducted due to several reasons, one of the reasons is that with the use of a mixed approach, a phenomenon may be understood completely and thoroughly (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2017); and it may help to answer the research questions more meaningfully. Overall, the data analysis revealed that morphological skill contributes significantly to students' writing development. Hereby, there is a strong relationship between the range of morphemes used in students' essays and essay scores. As a result, the higher the variety of morphemes used in students' essays, the better the scores. Also, the researcher compared the morphology used in students' essays across proficiency levels and found that a variety of morphemes was utilised by high achievers, which most likely enabled them to attain high scores. Thus, using various combinations of morphemes assists in enhancing the writing quality as well as conveying certain meanings or fulfilling specific grammatical functions.

Despite the fact that much linguistic study has concentrated on the discipline of phonology, various studies on language and literacy development have stressed the importance of morphology, another area of linguistics that goes beyond phonology. Researchers with this perspective stressed how crucial it is to cultivate morphological skills in order to enhance the learning process of reading and writing mutually (Carlisle 2003; Perfetti 1999). Thereby, there is strong evidence that morphological knowledge helps in developing students' writing (Goodwin & Ahn 2013; Northey, McCutchen & Sanders 2016). The development of high-quality writing is substantially correlated with morphological competence and literacy. This finding is in line with a growing body of research in the fields of education and psychology that emphasizes the significance of morphology which indicates that morphological skill should be included as an essential component of literacy instruction (Gilbert 2020).

As discussed earlier, there are four main types of morphology which are: functional, lexical, derivational, and inflectional. These types play a significant role in academic writing wherein practice is the key to naturally acquiring these kinds of morphology. According to research, explicit instruction of derivational and inflectional morphemes is necessary to support the continuous development of morphology and syntactic (Marinova-Todd, Siegel & Mazabel 2013). Therefore, recognising the words, comprehending the texts, spelling, and vocabulary would be reinforced among English language learners as well as monolinguals. Apel & Werfel (2014) argued that there is a mutual relationship between morphology and written language which facilitates the acquisition of morphological competence. This paper contains a number of limitations that should be noted. To start with, the sample size was relatively small due to the shortage of time by the researcher. Also, this study does not represent the population. Therefore, it would be better to have more students' essays from different levels of the k-12 sector to represent the entire population. In addition, it is better to consider male students since the researcher focused on female students only.

# **References**

Wolter, J.A., Pike, K.: Dynamic assessment of morphological awareness and third-grade literacy success. Lang. Speech Hear. Serv. Sch. **46**(2), 112–126 (2015)

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# **The Implementation of Critical Thinking Skills in American Curriculum Schools in Sharjah: A Study on Science Teachers' Approach and Academic Standards**

Heba El-Gazzar(B) and Sufian Forawi

Faculty of Education, The British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract.** The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which the science teachers apply critical thinking in their classrooms in some of American schools in Sharjah. In the modern days, the attention towards critical thinking skills is massive. For so many years it's been acknowledged as a central objective in the field of education. The academic standards in various subjects including math, science, and social studies give significance to several connections between critical thinking and the content of the core curriculum, guiding the students in a more superior way. This research study was aspired to delve into the approach of in-service science teachers regarding the implementation and utilization of critical thinking attributes in science classes that apply the NGSS science academic content standards in some American curriculum schools in Sharjah (UAE). In this quantitative study, twenty science teachers responded and volunteered from various schools in Sharjah. A large diversity of standards was attended by science teachers in place of needing critical thinking skills in the face of the fact that a lot of others were contemplated to be inadequate. The scheme concerned with standards perceived high in comparison to critical thinking in science. However, the standards of the science content conceded the minimal amount.

**Keywords:** Critical thinking · in-service teachers' approach · Science standards NGSS

# **1 Introduction**

One of the most fundamental objectives in education is considered to be critical thinking (Blunt, 2010). It is an essential skill that is needed in any workplace being able to aid an individual with his/her mental and spiritual inquiries through the assessment of information in hands, as well as assimilating all the evidence to become theoretical and through argument analysis Furthermore, added to designating students with problemsolving where they make use of teamwork for data arguing, writing reports and immerse in intellectual tasks. These approaches are said to be teachable and trainable CT skills, exclusively in science classes as science portrays an extensive role in the development of the students' intellectual and cognitive intelligence which will eventually create lead to the academic progression of learners (Lai, 2011). There is a massive agreement that is highly required to associate students through the teamwork in practices that are authentic in the educational science classes (National Research Council, 2012).

Critical thinking is a cognitive mechanism where learners are skillfully and passionately engaged and drawn towards various concepts such as application, analysis, synthesizing and evaluation of examined, discovered or experienced evidence, as well as supporting their discovery with reasons and elaborations (Paul and Elder, 2007). From a contrasting perspective specified by (Dewey, 1998), critical thinking is said to be a "way of reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe and what to do". Dewey is considered as the father of the CT or reflective thinking as being termed by him. He believed that reasons are crucial factors having the intent and objective to support the implications that our beliefs relate to, including logical, religious, scientific as well as moral or individual.

The conduction of this research study has a relevant motive behind it as it clarifies and creates realization regarding the importance for the use of critical thinking skills in the academic content standards in combination with the positive effect they imprint on the students' futures, although teachers' beliefs and views about CT have been examined and investigated numerous times, only a narrow number of studies have inspected the knowledge of educators regarding the magnitude of critical thinking skills in the United Arab Emirates. The rational and intellectual skills' evidence has been infrequent and thus the data used for investigation has not been advantageous. Corresponding to the insufficiency of experience in CT, a lot of conflict has been encountered by teachers in engaging students in teamwork that associates critical thinking (Tempelaar, 2006), as well as a huge number of them, do not make use of practices conferred in their textbooks conveniently (NRC 2012). Consequently, considering the students' feeble potential in critical thinking skills, they are struggling with grasping real-life problems and having to solve tough questions. It is necessary for teachers to yield students with a curriculum that involves creating and evaluating CT skills in order to strengthen their learning by obligating higher-order thinking and thus increase the students' proficiency to critical thinking. In such circumstances, expected response characteristics will be knowledgeable to students and thus guide them to studious thinking as well as reflecting a critical thinking way (Deal and Hedge, 2013). This research study aiming to accomplish the needed documents that will enhance the analysis of the following question:

To what extent the in-service science teachers in American curriculum schools in Sharjah emphasize CTA in their implementation?

# **2 Literature Review**

Critical thinking reverses the proficiency of which each individual has to face through convoluted decisions in various life prospects which may take a form of human's personal, educational and social lives (Bagheri, 2015). Critical thinking can be analyzed as a way to approach methods and resolve difficulties taking various factors into consideration such as decision making, contrary thinking, establishing logical, conclusive and rational arguments or statements that include validating, verifying, evaluating and selecting the most accurate and relevant satisfactory response for a definite task from a diversity of alternative solutions with moderate eradication (Karabay, 2015). Concurrently, CT is one of the essential skills for education as it aids individuals in collaborating with a variety of information actively, with the aspiration to recognize the advantages and disadvantages and then to asses them in order to reach to the conclusion of the truth value, to apply knowledge and deposition towards the generation of new perceptions (Marilena and Hurjui, 2015).

According to Paul, critical thinking is said to be "the art of thinking about thinking in an intellectually disciplined manner" (Paul, 2005). Paul certified that this type of thinking has three important factors related to it. These factors include appraising and evaluating which show a higher standard of critical thinking. The final factor deals with developing and enhancing.

The relationship between the accomplishment of students and the use of CT techniques has sought massive attention. CT symbolizes a crucial component in the learning and academic advancement of students. As well as working effectively and precisely in their upcoming academic standard and be willing to oppose in the marketplace worldwide then these students will accommodate and portray a vital aspect in the success in the following generations (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011). There are various aspects that can alter the scheme and advancement of CT skills implementation. The first aspect is associated with the animosity between the tutor's essentiality to illustrate these skills corresponding to the teacher's request for the success of learners on the test of an unsound achievement (Greenstein 2012). The second aspect has a wide connection to critical features that will give aid and support to the application of these skills which take the energy and right amount of time for the application to occur into consideration (Rosefsky and Opfer, 2012). The third aspect is connected to the teachers being capable of promoting these certain skills for the students, while the final aspect is in correlation to the extensive pressure that the teachers are enduring due to high expectation level of academic prosperity that they're required to work up to as conducted by a large number of stakeholders for the purpose of maintaining their positions at their jobs.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards aimed at setting expectations for what students should know and be able to do at each level of study. According to the National Academies Press (2012), One of the three dimensions of NGSS is science and engineering practices which build upon analyzing and interpreting data, developing and using models, engaging in argument from evidence, carrying out investigations, and designing solutions which is totally aligned to the CTA that we are up against in our research, we have selected schools that follow these standards and are controlled by an inspection team of Sharjah Ministry of Education (MOE).

Ministry of Education launched a strategic plan for 2017–2021 to develop an innovative education system for building a knowledgeable and globally competitive society, and encouraging a society that is driven by science, technology, and innovation is also one of its values in education and though, improves the level of students to prepare them to a better future. In order to achieve these goals.

In 2013, the significance of problem-solving and CT is validated by the NGSS Lead States as a crucial factor in the development of the students' learning effect brought in science. Due to that reason, these abilities and skills should be taught to the students from the initial primary stage year with the purpose of acquiring the ability to perform and manifest competence in functioning and appointing research, evaluating, defining and portraying data, conceiving several interpretations and draft various illustrations, analyzing followed by communication of facts and evidences (NGSS Lead States, 2013, p.3). A large number of researchers established the effective results through carrying out critical thinking in various subjects such as geography (Korkmaz and Karakus, 2009), reading (Keller, 2008), technology (Scott, 2010). According to the academic standards of the state and the educational content, for the purpose of the enforcement and development of the learning method results in the classrooms, teachers have to integrate critical thinking skills into the instructions of learning. This can be qualified by using the academic content measures for various subjects. Critical thinking teaching is a main target in education nowadays, because it provides students with the necessary skills to justification social issues in a rapidly changing world. Some people consider the skills of critical thinking hard to be applied and even complicated however it is crucial to the learning process.

This study falls under the umbrella of different educational theories, Cognitive apprenticeship theory proposed in the late 1980s, social Constructivism theory that emphasizes the role of social interactions and the construction of knowledge through collaboration and dialogue, and Bloom's taxonomy theory that classifies cognitive processes into different levels from lower-order thinking skills and progresses to higher-order thinking skills.

# **3 Methodology**

The study in this research is a quantitative study, an online questionnaire was conducted via electronic devices in the form of Likert Scale; the objective of applying this questionnaire is to find a connection between the science content standards from k-12 and the critical thinking skills from the science teachers' points of view, thoughts and ideas. That questionnaire provides a numerical description of different people's strategies, patterns or ideas using learning and checking cases of such a community. There has been a detailed analysis of the value of designing this study questionnaire followed by leading it to an online system (Sue & Ritter 2012). Moreover, the given questionnaire will be able to introduce analysis with a straightforward justification by using claims that draw on its strength points along with weakness points, information gathering and greater efficiency (Creswell, 2014). The in-service k-12 science teachers have been chosen to participate in this study and only twenty volunteered from various schools in Sharjah and they have been classified according to their demographic data. This demographic information could have the names, designation and also in this study I included the gender, years of teaching experience, the grade stages that are taught plus their academic qualifications and whether they had any CT courses before or not. Worth to mention, that the chosen teachers are all using NGSS American standards in their schools that already identified as American schools because they apply the American curriculum. The findings of this online questionnaire were gathered within seven days period of time. According to Forawi 2016, this method has been validated using equivalent approaches as well as being applied by all respondents in this study.

#### **3.1 Participants**

Twenty science teachers who work in different schools in Sharjah participated as a proper exemplification to establish the implementation and alignment of CT instructions and methods used in this research. The in-service science teachers took part in the courses for their methods in science periods in all three levels of primary, intermediate and secondary during the first semester of the current school year to make sure that the adequate numbers of the science standards have been covered at k-12 grades.

#### **3.2 Instrument**

The questionnaire of this study includes two segments, it begins with the demographic data about the participants, and then, it goes to the different ways that participants respond to CTA. The critical thinking attributes or CTA is the name of the instrument that many researchers use and work together in order to build it up and improve it; these attributes include ten major and crucial statements as shown in the appendices. This tool also is able to assess the validity of the arguments and the accuracy of the rationale with the aim of leading to assumptions and explanations of the findings. Moreover, the main premise of this CTA instrument is that it reflects the concept and interpretation of CT which can be considered as a way to examine and evaluate thoughts.

# **4 Data Analysis and Findings**

The following pie charts represent the demographic information about the twenty k-12 science teachers who participated in the study. It shows that most of the participants have more than ten years of experience, and about half of them had critical thinking courses before, the majority of them are teaching science high school while the minority are teaching middle and elementary school (see Fig. 1).

In more details, the Bar graph in Fig. 2 is showing the mean scores of applying each of the early mentioned critical thinking skills in science classes in American curriculum schools that use the next generation science standards (NGSS) and the percentage of each as well. The results of this research showed that almost all the participants are using the CTA in their science classes but they give more focus to the fifth and sixth attributes in order which are related to creating the parameters and scales for evaluation, as well as enhance the levels of questions. The highest mean (4.3) for the sixth attribute that has the highest application rate within science classes. Participants confirmed that they work hard to answer and address the important questions (4.2) in the fifth attribute. The independent thinking and building cognitive capability as well as using the vocabulary of critical thinking both were fairly equal in their mean scores (4). While the least mean scores were (3.5) for both the third and seventh attributes that tend to avoid the early decisions and the analytical skills that are not easy to achieve, while the rest of the required CT skills were proportionally attainable and acceptable.

**Fig. 1.** Demographic information

**Fig. 2.** Applying CTA in NGSS science classes

# **5 Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations**

The study found that science teachers in Sharjah recognized the importance of critical thinking and attempted to apply it in their lessons. Also, the highest percentage of the fifth and sixth CT attributes can be justified as teachers are subject matter expertise who have a deep understanding of skills and knowledge that need to be assessed, and this allows them to refine and enhance the evaluation criteria based on their professional judgement.

As noticed also in the results of the study that the analytical skills practice by teachers should be improved. Furthermore, the results of this study assured the science in-service teachers' awareness of the importance of the CTA and their attempts to apply it within their science lessons in the light of the relation between critical thinking and the standards required in all American schools that use NGSS in the emirate of Sharjah. Forawi & Mitchell (2012), believed that the skills of critical thinking of learners are considered to be present in a social and cultural-oriented system where teaching is responsive and driven, important to realize that this will give a chance to students to expand and enhance their metacognitive knowledge. The new NGSS document (2013) also embraces this concept in which, standards alone will not be considered as a functional framework. Accordingly, innovative new teaching techniques are required to achieve the expected results. It was discovered that one of the most efficient strategies in CT is the inquiry-based teaching method of science that was recognized as a tool for a successful introduction of the new NGSS system (2013) and so it has to be improved. To be able to develop CT in schools, it is necessary for these skills to have a strong basis. This can be achieved by engaging teachers by giving them unique and advantageous CT courses to help teachers to acquire the skills in more analyzing as well as professional way. When these courses are accomplished, the teachers will be more confident as they will get more experience and will be capable of implementing the critical thinking skills of the students in a positive way.

As a matter of fact, it is worth to mention that, to bring out a better result in terms of having clear instructions on CT skills, one approach should be to study standards precisely, closely, and show readiness always to help the teachers to improve their teaching techniques mainly the ones that have critical thinking skills when needed. Critical thinking skills should be integrated into the vocabulary of academic standards in all classrooms, targeted at all teachers all over the world and those in charge of curriculum development.

Implementing CT skills in education prepare students to become lifelong learners and active participants in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. However, a limitation of this study was the inability to evaluate teachers' critical thinking abilities, which could hinder the transfer of these skills to students if teachers are not aware of them or how to apply them effectively. It is crucial to provide teachers with training on effective implementation of CTA using various teaching styles, best practice, role modeling and professional development courses because these guidelines will enhance the efficiency and ensure lasting outcomes. Future studies can explore the implementation of CTA in American schools following NGSS and compare the rate of improvement over time, assessment methods, and curriculum design and alignment.

# **References**

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# **A Case Study Exploring ESL Instructors' Perspectives of Blended Learning in UAE Higher Education**

Azza Alawadhi(B)

The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract.** Recently, universities and colleges across the United Arab Emirates have been actively incorporating new learning technologies to facilitate blended learning pedagogy mandated by the Ministry of Higher Education during the COVID-19 crisis. Despite its popularity, blended learning is still a relatively new approach to learning across higher education in the UAE. This small-scale qualitative study seeks to gain insights into instructors' perspectives of blended learning in an ESL program at a federal college in the UAE. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify the benefits and challenges perceived by instructors teaching in this context. The results revealed several key benefits, including increased flexibility, improved accessibility, and timely and continuous learning. However, instructors also reported increased academic workload, technical issues, and a lack of professional development as barriers. The findings offer recommendations, implications, and possible future directions for stakeholders and academics to inform future directives.

**Keywords:** blended learning · higher education · COVID-19 · qualitative

# **1 Introduction**

In January 2020, the world was struck with a pandemic that led to the closing of schools all over the globe. According to the United Nations (2021), the pandemic created the most significant disturbance in the history of education, affecting over 94% of the world's student population in more than 190 countries. Like many countries, the national education system in the UAE was disturbed by the lockdown. However, as campuses closed their physical operations, it was expected that the delivery of the curriculum would continue. Nevertheless, a rapid transition from face-to-face teaching to entirely online and remote delivery was precipitated, where students learned from home and faculty taught from home. From faculty perspectives, the preparation, planning, and newly acquired skills have been exceptional. However, as higher education gradually progresses to fully reopening campuses, there is a need to ensure a consistent, seamless, and efficient blend of on-campus and remote learning where learning outside the classroom supports the limited contact time spent in the classroom. In this research site, English classes that were entirely delivered through face-to-face instruction shifted to blended learning. During this transition, faculty faced several challenges such as insufficient resources, lack of IT skills, and inadequate training. Despite the challenges, the recent educational crises resulted in academics being forced to depend on technology as the main teaching resource regardless of their prior technology-related views and practices.

Initial research exploring the potential uses of blended learning has mainly focused on comparing blended learning to traditional instruction (Bazelais & Doleck 2018; Mali & Lim 2021). In addition, much of the research in the field of blended learning has been based on students' perceptions, mainly using quantitative measures such as surveys and questionnaires (Napier, Dekhane & Smith 2011; Clark & Post 2021; Saboowala & Manghirmalani Mishra 2021). While the overall student-based studies are important for understanding the potential value of blended learning, not enough studies have detailed instructors' perspectives, views, and attitudes toward blended learning. Understanding how instructors actually experience blended learning environments is essential to inform future developments in learning design in the UAE higher education sector. Thus, there is a need for more qualitative research from the UAE where blended learning has recently been introduced and is still in its infancy.

#### **1.1 Research Aim and Questions**

This small-scale qualitative study seeks to gain insights into instructors' perspectives of blended learning in an ESL program at a federal college in the UAE.

To fulfill this purpose, the following research questions guided the study:

**RQ1:** What benefits did instructors perceive while implementing blended learning in ESL classrooms?

**RQ2:** What are the possible barriers instructors perceived while implementing blended learning in ESL classrooms?

# **2 Related Work**

The term blended learning is not a recent development in education; as it has been around for more than a decade. As blended learning environments continue to evolve, various definitions have been found in the literature (Müller & Mildenberger, 2021). The most prominent definition arises from Graham's (2013) work, who defined blended learning as the combination of traditional face-to-face instruction and computer-mediated instruction. Sharma and Barrett (2007) posit blended learning as an appropriate balance of traditional teaching and web-enhanced learning. The problem with this definition is that it is broad, and it covers almost all learning systems. The third perspective to blended learning is the most common point of view in the literature. For Garrison and Kanuka (2004), blended learning is the thoughtful integration of the best features of classroombased face-to-face instruction with the best features of online learning. This definition is important because it recognizes that such combinations must be pedagogically sound. In the literature, some scholars refer to blended learning as 'hybrid learning', 'flipped' or 'inverted' learning (Rasheed, Kamsin & Abdullah 2020). In this paper, the term 'blended learning' is used in its broadest sense to refer to the integration of classroom face-to-face instruction with some online and distance teaching, making it possible to blend the best features from both teaching methods.

Blended learning has been found to improve students' academic performance (Graham 2013), enable students' autonomy (Bruggeman et al., 2021), improve self-efficacy (Graham 2013), and increase students' intrinsic motivation to learn. Other advantages include increased access to courses while providing academic institutions greater access to the student population. These benefits are also echoed by Smith and Hill (2019), who report that blended learning demonstrated potential for personalized learning, enhanced learner outcomes, and promoted self-directed learning. Other benefits cited in the literature (Bruggeman et al., 2021; Banihashem et al., 2023) include pedagogical benefits, increased efficiency, and improved learning outcomes.

Despite the numerous strengths of blended learning, several weaknesses have been documented in the literature. Past studies (Osguthrope & Graham 2003; Owston 2013) have indicated that time constraints and re-design of the course are barriers to effectively implementing a blended learning model. Lomer and Palmer (2023) agree that stimulating students' engagement, lack of materials and technical problems are critical challenges in online contexts. Furthermore, Boelens, De Wever, and Voet (2017) cited stimulating students' interaction as a key challenge in online contexts. Similarly, Youde (2020) argues that among the shortcomings of blended learning, online peer-to-peer interaction is difficult with instructors. Another major criticism associated with blended learning is faculty's technical skills and literacy. Researchers suggest that in order to deliver a blended program, teaching academics are not only required to have content and pedagogical knowledge, but are also expected to possess technological skills. Therefore, continuous professional development is important, as faculty need to develop new technological and pedagogical skills to successfully deliver a blended learning model. Researchers conclude that failing to provide sufficient opportunities for professional development may lead faculty to fail to fully embrace an effective blended format and eventually, they will replicate their conventional teaching approaches (Garrison & Vaughan 2013). A review of the literature revealed that despite the widespread use of blended learning after the outbreak of COVID-19, research on instructors' views, attitudes, and perspectives of blended learning remains scarce, especially in the Middle Eastern context. This limited focus risks a somewhat narrow and impaired understanding of how blended learning is used in tertiary education in the region. To address this knowledge gap, this qualitative study focuses on the benefits, challenges, and barriers instructors perceive of blended learning pedagogy during the pandemic.

# **3 Research Methodology**

This small-scale qualitative study is based on a constructivist approach that views reality as a shared social experience to gain in-depth insights into the lived experiences of instructors' blended learning experiences. Therefore, a case study design (Yin 2009) fits the purpose of the study. The study was carried out at a tertiary college in the UAE during the academic year 2020–2021. A convenience sample of eight instructors (female N = 3; male N = 5) with an average of 12–15 years of experience volunteered to take part in this study. In this English course, students studied reading, writing, speaking, and listening over a course of 12 weeks. The program consists of a combination of online and on-campus classes, with a final on-campus online exam. In this blended model, the time students spend in the classroom will introduce them to new content skills, assign projects, and set out guidelines for the work to be completed at home.

Data were collected using semi-structured interviews following an interview guide to ensure consistency. Interviews were chosen as the primary data collection tool due to their ability to generate rich insights aligned with the research questions (Merriam 2009). Participants were interviewed individually for about 40 – 50 min. Each interview was audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Sample of interview questions include: *In your opinion, what makes a successful blended/hybrid learning program?* To sustain credibility, member checks were used to validate the accuracy of the data. Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analyses were followed to determine patterns and sub-themes generated from the data. The thematic analysis allowed to reveal patterns across the data, which helped to understand different aspects of the phenomenon that participants experienced. First, data from the transcripts were reviewed and categorized to identify common themes and recurrent patterns. The sub-themes were grouped into three categories.

#### **3.1 Ethical Considerations**

All procedures performed in this study involving human subjects were in accordance with the ethical standards of the field. Ethical considerations suggested by Patton (2015) were practiced throughout the entire study. Informed consent was obtained from all of the participants prior to data collection. Furthermore, no names were used when reporting data from the interviews to protect participants' identities. The researcher also kept a journal to record rationales, notes, and personal reflexivity insights throughout the data collection and analysis of the research.

# **4 Findings and Discussion**

The findings are presented based on the research questions. Three main categories emerged from the interviews. Table 1 outlines the subthemes discussed in the findings.

# **4.1 RQ1: What Benefits Did Instructors Perceive While Implementing Blended Learning in ESL Classrooms?**

Theme 1. Accessibility, flexibility, and convenience

In line with previous studies (Graham 2013; Smith & Hill 2019), data analysis revealed that almost all of the participants found blended learning to offer increased accessibility and flexible and convenient teaching. Some participants also mentioned that attendance tracking was more efficient online. In addition, blended learning was reported to 'reduce lecture time', 'support meaningful learning', and facilitate students' self-directed learning. Comments include "*Students were accessing materials from their homes, cars and anywhere*". "*It is very convenient for students. They are able to do tasks on their own time*".

**Table 1.** Summary of the sub-themes that emerged from the semi-structured interviews

# Theme 2. Timely and Continues Learning

A general analysis of the data revealed that the notion of ongoing learning outside the classroom is stressed, and it appears that there is a consensus that blended learning may foster active learning. Participants also stated that the biggest advantage of blended learning is that it enhances students' autonomy. One participant explained, "*Students are no longer passive learners. They are making quizzes and PowerPoints and helping their peers access materials*". However, one participant disagreed, "*We struggle with students who are coming fresh from high school with zero autonomy…it is their first time to study from a distance.* The participant further commented *"We have a new culture to deal with*". Another participant agreed that *"They are 100% responsible for their education*". These views are reinforced by Graham (2013) who acknowledged the benefits and the challenges of blended learning. More importantly, at least two participants reported that blended learning could empower instructors and learners by transforming teaching and learning methods from highly teacher-dominated to student-centered. Moreover, some participants had different opinions. One participant mentioned, "*Even if students are in class, they are still working online. We can't do group work. I don't think it is working!*" These findings are supported by previous research (Bruggeman et al., 2021; Thabet, Hill & Gaad, 2021) who recognized these issues in blended learning contexts.

# Theme 3. Pedagogical benefits

Instructors confirmed that one of the pedagogical benefits of blended learning is increased efficiency. Nevertheless, one participant disagreed and expressed that "*Students were often passive online, and there were a lot of moments of silence.*" Another participant confirmed, "*Language learning does not happen in isolation*". Some participants emphasized the importance of providing workshops, webinars, and enough materials for students to help them learn how to research and look for information independently. Moreover, some participants noted that blended learning facilitated self-directed learning and fostered peer-to-peer interaction. In contrast, a few participants had a different opinion. Several instructors mentioned that students' lack of 'independent study habits' was a problem. One participant noted, "*Students assumed fewer classes meant less work*." On the other hand, few participants mentioned that blended learning could provide students with valuable skills that the markets recommend. Thus, such technology creates opportunities for students to develop their creative skills, cognitive skills, critical thinking skills, and other higher-order thinking skills.

# **4.2 RQ2: What Are the Possible Barriers Instructors Perceived While Implementing Blended Learning in ESL Classrooms?**

# Theme 1. Increased academic workload

The majority of the participants mentioned that the academic workload increased with blended learning "*We have to edit, adapt, and create new materials to use in our online lectures*". This indicates pedagogical challenges, which are principally associated with the absence of standardized content. Another participant expressed frustration and thought, "*The demand on the teacher is too much*". Teaching faculty went on to state that "*We have to be creative and spend a lot of time preparing supplementary online materials*". One participant mentioned, "*I find myself doing two jobs. One at the campus and one at home*". It appears that with work from home (WFH), instructors reported longer and unlimited working hours as much of their time was spent on content-creating and providing students with feedback in online Zoom meetings. Based on the data, technological problems associated with Wi-Fi and the unreliability of the internet are the primary challenges of blended learning.

# Theme 2. Technical issues

Based on the data, technological problems associated with Wi-Fi and connectivity are the primary challenges of blended learning. All of the participants confirmed that internet connectivity is one of the key challenges that face the effective implementation of a blended learning model. Some participants also mentioned that the technical difficulties are primarily linked to the unreliability of internet connections and the lack of required electronic devices for many students. Other issues underlined by participants were privacy, safety, and copyright materials. Prior studies (Clark & Post 2021; Mali & Lim 2021) confirmed these challenges in online environments.

# Theme 3. Lack of professional development

Many of the participants agreed that the lack of professional development is one of the critical issues that should be addressed, as it could create an obstacle in fully adopting the blended learning system. Faculty stated that they needed time and support to implement change. Participants' comments include: "*I realized that I am a good teacher in the classroom, but online I am different*." Another participant suggested: "*It could have been helpful to have several PDs on how to use the new tools before moving online.*"

# **5 Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Work**

This small-scale qualitative case study reported the views, attitudes, and perspectives of eight instructors teaching in an ESL program at a federal college in the UAE. Data from semi-structured interviews show that faculty may deliver blended learning classes more efficiently with appropriate resources and training. The findings from the study show that instructors welcome the use of blended learning due to flexibility and convenience. However, it appears that instructors' views on learning autonomy and self-directed learning are inconsistent, as the majority of them did not feel that blended learning has improved students' learning outcomes. There are a number of potential limitations to this study. Foremost, the relatively small sample size may limit the generalizability of the findings. Second, the findings focus only on instructors' experiences in a single language program; therefore, caution should be observed in extending the study findings to other populations, settings and contexts. This study extends previous research by investigating instructors' perceptions of blended learning environments in a college in the UAE. By highlighting instructors' early experiences of blended learning, this paper contributes to the literature by improving our understanding of the term 'blended learning' environments. Furthermore, this qualitative study adds to the literature as it focuses on the benefits, challenges, and barriers instructors perceive of blended learning pedagogy during the pandemic. This study provides general implications for policy, practice, and higher education programs. The pandemic has sparked a revolution in UAE higher education, extending the policy to practice. Future studies should conduct a large-scale empirical study to measure the effectiveness of blended learning environments across higher education. In addition, the results from this study may provide stakeholders with data regarding the effectiveness and usefulness of the blended/hybrid academic delivery model, which could inform the design of programs across higher education in the UAE.

# **References**

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# **UAE Parents' Awareness of the Importance of Programming to Primary Students, and Their Perspectives Towards It: A Quantitative Study**

Wafaa Elsawah(B)

Faculty of Education, The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract. Purpose:** Highlight programming's importance and explore parental views on its inclusion in UAE primary schools.

**Methodology:** Employing a quantitative approach, the study surveyed 499 UAE parents with primary school children. Their perspectives on programming and their children's attitudes towards it were gauged.

**Findings:** UAE's primary school programming education needs reform, necessitating enhanced parental and student awareness.

**Implications:** Educational policymakers should prioritize programming as a core subject, backed by this study. It adds to the literature on programming's value, highlighting parental awareness's impact on student attitudes.

**Originality/Value:** This research contributes practical and academic insights, guiding potential expansion. Educational leaders, especially in primary schools, can use these findings to improve programming education.

**Keywords:** programming · coding · block-based coding · TAM

# **1 Introduction**

#### **1.1 Background**

This study highlights the importance of early programming education for primary students, fostering digital understanding and future skills. However, in UAE schools, challenges persist. Some parents view programming as a supplementary skill, potentially neglecting it for subjects like math and physics. UAE's educational policies should integrate programming widely in the primary curriculum, educating parents about its benefits to combat passive technology consumption.

#### **1.2 Study Purpose and Questions**

This study's primary goal is exploring parental awareness and viewpoints on programming education. It addresses these research questions:

# **2 Literature View**

# **2.1 Theoretical Framework**

# **2.1.1 TAM (Davis, 1989)**

Davis's Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is highly relevant to our study's goal. TAM centers on two key factors influencing one's openness to adopting new technology: perceived usefulness and ease of use. These factors impact consumers' attitudes towards new tech and subsequently, their intention to use it (Cheng 2019). Parents who find coding unimportant and challenging might not support their kids in learning it. Conversely, if parents recognize coding's value and simplicity, they're more likely to encourage their kids. Some parents might not promote programming due to misconceptions about its complexity. Other TAM components include attitudes toward usage, reflecting the user's inclination to employ the technology. The blend of perceived usefulness and actual usage predicts the utilization attitude (Fig. 1).

**Fig. 1.** Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989)

# **2.1.2 Papert's Constructionism Theory (1972, 1980)**

In his constructionism theory, extensively documented in technology literature, Papert (1972) suggests kids program computers, not vice versa. He introduced computational thinking, highlighting its empowerment potential. By granting children computer access, a user-friendly programming language, and peripherals for real-time actions, we offer them unparalleled ability for inventive, engaging projects.

These theoretical approaches go well together to serve the goal of this study, which is to consider programming as a critical skill for students' academic and future success.

### **2.2 The Importance of Programming**

### **2.2.1 Programming Impacts on Students' Academic Development**

Programming expedites cognitive development (Brackmann et al. 2017; Zhang & Nouri 2019), comparable to reading and writing as observed by Manches & Plowman (2017). It cultivates skills in science, math (Turan & Aydo˘gdu 2020; Scherer, Siddiq & Sanchez 2018), and STEM (Gunbatar & Karalar 2018; Master et al. 2017; Kucuk & Sisman 2017). Additionally, it unveils computer functions (Arfé et al. 2019; Manita, Durão & Aguiar 2021; Relkin, de Ruiter & Bers 2021 ; Román-González, Pérez-González & Jiménez-Fernández 2017). Psycharis & Kallia (2017) indicated coding enhances cognitive skills applicable to disciplines like Math, Engineering, and Science. Learning coding fosters critical thinking, social skills, problem-solving, and self-management (Popat & Starkey 2019; Schanzer, Fisler & Krishnamurti 2018; Scherer, Siddiq & Sanchez 2018). Psycharis and Kallia (2017) confirmed this via a quasi-experiment, noting heightened reasoning and math self-efficacy through the programming course.

# **2.2.2 Programming Impacts on Students' Future Achievement**

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (2022), information technology jobs will grow by 13 percent over the next decade, far faster than the average for all occupations. Similarly, Sheehan et al. (2019) maintain that the number of jobs in the information technology industry will increase by 12.5% over the next decade; correspondingly, the inclusion of computational thinking in school curricula should increase. Although perceptions of future jobs and competencies required for Industry 4.0-induced changes differ, there is widespread agreement that job profiles related to programming, mechatronics, robotics, data analysis, Internet of Things, design and maintenance of smart systems, process analysis, and bionics are the new job profiles required in smart factory systems (Jerman, Peji´c & Aleksi´c 2020; Benešová & Tupa 2017; Tytler et al. 2019).

#### **2.3 Programming Status in Educational Policies**

Numerous countries promote coding in schools. The UK, US, Finland, Australia, Greece, and France have mandated programming from primary school (Rich et al. 2019). Obama's "Computer Science for All" initiative (2016) aimed to equip US students for the digital economy (Price & Price-Mohr 2018; Tran 2018). Trump's administration allocated \$200M yearly, aided by Amazon, Facebook, and Google (Dickey 2017). England integrates coding into its National Curriculum (Williamson et al. 2019). Australia embraced coding with a \$9M centre for teacher training (Williamson et al. 2019). Japan, Korea, and the UAE emphasize coding too.

Regarding the UAE, the Ministry of Education (2015) underscored coding's importance within the UAE Vision 2021, which prioritizes science, technology, and innovation as key drivers of growth and development. Ongoing efforts aim to adapt to sector advancements, aligning educational outcomes with global standards. Yet, there's uncertainty on how coding skills are taught, particularly in primary schools. The demand for a precise policy and strategic framework for their educational implementation and delivery is pronounced.

# **3 Methodology**

# **3.1 Research Design**

This study utilises a quantitative approach to report on parents' perspectives of the programming being taught to primary students at UAE schools.

# **3.2 Questionnaire Method Selection**

The present research utilizes a Likert-type questionnaire using a five-point agreement scale (ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree). A customized survey was given to parents having children in UAE primary schools. Google Forms was chosen for generating online questionnaires due to its simplicity for coding. In the questionnaire, "strongly agree" reflects full agreement, while "strongly disagree" signifies complete disagreement.

# **3.3 Sample Selection**

The questionnaire was given to parents, not students, to avoid exposing young children to Likert-scale questions (Zeman et al. 2006). Children's emotional development is intertwined with other aspects, raising doubts about their understanding of such scales. The sample size choice is complex due to the unknown UAE parent population size. For unknown populations, the infinite population sample size formula is used, factoring in confidence level (95%), Z score (1.96), proportion (50% = 0.5), and margin of error (5% = 0.05). The formula: S = Z2 × P × (1 − P)/M2 Resulting in: S = 3.8416 × 0.25/0.0025 S = 384.16 Thus, 384.16 participants represent UAE's unknown parent population.

# **3.4 Quantitative Data Analysis**

The statistical information from the questionnaire was processed using SPSS version 23. The study involved 499 participants (70% mothers and 30% fathers) aged between 25 and 45. To enhance validity, responses indicating strong agreement or agreement were considered. A portion of these participants also offered valuable insights and suggestions through open-ended questions, which were integrated into the study's outcomes.

# **4 Data Analysis and Results**

# **4.1 Quantitative Results**

Gathered quantitative datasets underwent analysis through SPSS. The responses were tallied to determine the count and percentage of similar responses. The initial four questions aimed to gather demographic information, succeeded by nine Likert-scale questions. Using a five-point scale, these nine items were divided into five categories, each

#### 122 W. Elsawah

requiring a corresponding response (ranging from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, to strongly disagree). The participant pool consisted of 499 parents (445 mothers and 54 fathers), with a gender distribution of 89% females and 11% males (Table 1).

#### **Table 1.** Demographics of parents

(*continued*)

**Table 1.** (*continued*)

The outcomes of the initial inquiry indicate that a majority of respondents recognize programming's significance. Nevertheless, 7.6% expressed uncertainty, 2.4% disagreed, and 0.4% strongly disagreed (Table 2).

**Table 2.** Programming Impact

**Fig. 2.** Programming Impact

The following query is: Are parents aware of programming's utility? The level of agreement reaches 89.9%, while 7.2% remain neutral and 3% disagree with instructing young students in programming (Fig. 2, Table 3).

#### 124 W. Elsawah

**Table 3.** Programming Necessity

**Fig. 3.** Programming Necessity

Question three queried participants about programming's clarity in their kids' school. Scores ranged from 1 (strongly disagreed) to 5 (strongly agreed), reversed for clarity assessment. A "positive" response was if "strongly disagreed" or "disagreed" in the reversed question. Roughly 50% found the purpose unclear, 29.3% were neutral, and 19.2% felt clarity regarding programming's goal in their children's school (Fig. 3, Table 4).

The fourth inquiry aims to confirm the appropriateness of the programming curriculum. The diagram below illustrates the correlation between the school curriculum and children's ability to grasp it (Fig. 4).

**Fig. 4.** Relationship Map

Unexpectedly, a considerable number of parents indicated that their children could readily grasp programming topics in school. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction ratios were similar across all schools. Ministerial schools had the highest satisfaction at 60%. British schools scored 55.4% and American schools followed at 58.1%. Importantly, a clear programming goal correlated with students' understanding. Clarity on coding's purpose led to better comprehension in schools (Table 5).

(*continued*)

Questions five and six validate the recommendation's viability. Can parents support kids with external guidance or need workshops? 65% can assist, 16.6% cannot guide in programming (Table 6).

# **Table 6.** Programming Guidance

While many parents claim they can guide their children, 90.4% agree training is needed for programming assistance. 6.8% are uncertain, and 2.8% disagree (Table 7).

**Table 7.** The need for programming workshop

The last questions address the second recommendation: dedicating more time and resources to programming and making it mandatory to cover all concepts. High agreement was seen in both questions (93.4% and 85.8%) (Fig. 5, Table 8).

**Fig. 5.** The need for programming workshop

**Table 8.** Time and Resources

**Table 9.** New Programming Subject

Items in the questionnaire were split into "programming value perception" and "recommended education enhancements". SPSS's "compute variables" function combined related items in each category into single variables. "Perception" summed parents' grasp of programming's value. Similarly, "recommendations" reflected their support for researcher-suggested solutions. Table 11 illustrates the positive link between understanding programming's importance and backing proposed solutions (Table 9, Table 10).

The researcher included an elective open-ended question at the questionnaire's conclusion, inviting participants to share any thoughts or suggestions. Several participants

**Table 10.** Correlation.2

shared their insights and recommendations, which have been taken into account in the study's findings.

# **5 Discussion of the Results**

The paper underscores programming's skill-enhancing importance and explores parents' awareness and views on programming education, proposing solutions for improved implementation in UAE primary schools. Questionnaire outcomes, discussed within the study's scope, revealed most parents recognizing programming's value, though a few were uncertain. Some parents displayed confusion, with one associating programming with TV shows like Netflix. This highlights a misunderstanding of programming. Responses to the third question indicated unclear school programming goals, possibly affecting student motivation. While most parents believed primary school children could comprehend the curriculum, their overall confusion casts doubt on this. Some parents felt capable of aiding their kids in programming, but many acknowledged the need for training. As for dedicating more resources and time to programming education and introducing it as a distinct subject, there was widespread agreement and minimal disagreement among parents.

# **6 Conclusion**

# **6.1 Major Findings**

This study highlights coding's importance for primary students and aims to gauge parental awareness and students' grasp of programming concepts. The intention is to prompt officials and decision-makers to enhance this learning process. Most parents affirmed their children's enjoyment and understanding of programming curriculum. Some parents, however, confuse programming with technology. A majority recognized the need for training. Agreement was unanimous for dedicating more resources and time to programming education and making it a separate subject. In conclusion, this study echoes Papert's constructionism theory, emphasizing students programming computers. Learning coding empowers students to control technology, aligning with developed nations' focus on programming education. Comparatively, UAE's policies lack in this area, urging educational policy adjustments and parental awareness to support students effectively.

# **7 Implications for Action**

Based on these findings, this study suggests several actions to enhance programming learning:

# **8 Limitations and Future Recommendations**

While this study contributes significantly, there are limitations affecting its validity and generalizability. Firstly, some participants misunderstood programming, influencing their responses. Addressing this, future research should clarify the concept beforehand and inquire about participants' educational background. Additionally, teacher experience and effectiveness were overlooked, which can impact learning. Future research should assess teachers' coding teaching skills. Moreover, exploring coding's integration with subjects like math and science could be explored in subsequent studies.

# **References**

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# **Developing a Draft Curriculum Framework for Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in UAE Schools Through Analysis of Relevant Literature**

Anwar Sami Obeid1,2(B)

<sup>1</sup> The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE<EMAIL_ADDRESS><sup>2</sup> Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, Sharjah, UAE

**Abstract.** This study is one of the first to investigate Learner with Severe and Multiple Disabilities curriculum frameworks in UAE schools. It will improve inclusive education in formal settings, prepare stakeholders in the region to work with students with disabilities in schools, and accept the UNESCO vision to perform more research in this sector. It aims to develop a draft of the curriculum framework for Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in schools in the UAE.

To achieve the objectives of the study, the systamtic literature review method was used for data collection. Interestingly, the findings of the study revealed that designing a curriculum framework for Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities requires taking into consideration several aspects such as the curriculum itself, whether it is a general or functional curriculum. Other aspects include special teaching techniques, cooperation between stakeholders and the team, curriculum accessibility, efficiency of the assessment process, and the incorporation of technology.

**Keywords:** Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities · inclusion · curriculum framework · inclusive education

# **1 Introduction**

The education system has witnessed in the last few years an active worldwide movement to advocate for learners with disabilities rights. The CRPD and UNESCO emphasized the importance of providing equal education and equal opportunity to learners with disabilities. The UNESCO seeks to achieve goal number 4 from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that guarantees inclusive education for all (UNESCO 2018).

The IDEA (2017) sought to achieve inclusive education by addressing the curricula and learners with disabilities. While Every Student Act (n.d.) demanded that schools provide an accessible environment for learners to be able to learn from general curricula.

The prevalence of Severe and Multiple Disabilities in society is about 1–2 per 1000, as indicated by the Executive Office of the Council of Ministers of Labor and the Council of Ministers of Social Affairs in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (2017). However, there is a limited number of studies about the inclusion of LSMD in Arab countries. Furthermore, UNESCO (2020) stated that in Arab countries, the quality of education for learners, including learners with disabilities, is uneven and variable. Additionally, there are still LSMD who are denied their right to an inclusive education (Agran et al. 2020), despite several studies and appeals highlighting the value of inclusive education and its benefits for all students, including those with Severe and Multiple Disabilities (Alquraini & Gut 2012).

Thus, there are persisting questions about achieving a balance in the education of this category within the academic framework and functional curriculum, in addition to concerns about the accessibility of this group to the general education curriculum. As a result, this study will contribute to enhancing the quality of inclusive education in formal settings, preparing stakeholders in the region to engage and work adequately with learners with disabilities in schools, and adopting the UNESCO vision to do more research in this field.

This paper aims to develop a draft of the curriculum framework for Learners with Severe and Multiple Disabilities in schools in the UAE by critically analyzing the relevant literature.

The author divides the paper's aim into four objectives: identify the main characteristics of LSMD, understand the importance of including it in the regular classroom, research the latest LSMD curricula, and understand the critical educational components shaping the curriculum framework. And attempts to answer the following questions:

# **2 Methodology**

The significance of research design comes from structuring the study to respond to the research question considering the available data and warrants (Jansen n.d.). Therefore, the current study adopted the systematic literature review as a data collection tool to answer the research questions and coded this literature for reaching the findings and conclusion (Hallinger 2013; Onwuegbuzie & Leech 2015). According to Munn et al. (2018), the goal of this type of research is to concentrate on a particular topic, identify gaps and patterns in the available information, and guide future studies in the field. It concentrates on a certain set of issues and independent documents (Xiao & Watson 2019).

The author designed the literature review process and protocol by planning, reading, screening and analysing, authoring, and amending. (Machi & McEvoy 2016; Durach, Kembro & Wieland 2017). A study was carried out using various academic databases and journals (SAGE Journals, ProQuest, BUiD library). Priority was given to updated references for the last ten years matching the keywords. The author carefully assessed the studies which were relevant to the aim, research questions, and inclusion\exclusion criteria such as year of publication, keywords and sufficient relevant details (Hammick, Dornan & Steinert 2010; Mthimunye & Daniels 2019). The study accepts the qualitative and quantitative research in the synthesis of data to provide a comprehensive picture related to LSMD (Hallinger 2013; Machi & McEvoy 2016).