Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted School Principals' Perceptions of their Level of Knowledge and Use of Effective Professional Development Practices in Qassim School District, Saudi Arabia(Saint Louis University, 2024) Alharbi, Anbar; Everson, SusanThis dissertation focuses on the professional development knowledge of secondary principals in a high school in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of the study is to investigate high school principals' perceptions of their knowledge and use of effective PD practices in public high schools in the Rass Educational District, Al-Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. The research questions that guide the investigation are: What do principals report about their knowledge of effective professional development practices for teachers? How do principals report regarding their support to teachers through implementing these practices? A convergent mixed method, a combination of two phases quantitative and qualitative strategies, was applied. In Phase I, a survey was used to collect quantitative data; in Phase II, open-ended responses were used to gather qualitative data. Both data sets were analyzed independently and then integrated data analytic procedures to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research findings. The participants in this study were high school principals in the Al-Rass Educational District, Al-Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. Quantitative data was analyzed by calculating frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations to rate principals’ knowledge and use of effective PD practices. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic coding. The survey items are developed from the literature review, focusing on professional development features, including a. Content Focus, b. Active Learning, c. collaboration, d. models of Effective Practice, e. coaching and Expert Support, and f. Sustained Duration. The findings of this study provided data and information that educators, administrators, researchers, and policymakers at the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia may use to form future decisions about professional development practices. The study revealed that the majority of the sample had moderate knowledge of PD practices and sometimes used them. Also, most of them had not attended training on PD implementation in their schools, which was so high 76.5%. The emergent themes of the study revealed challenges in implementing PD, including the need for more support, differentiated learning activities to meet diverse needs, sufficient time for training, and improved collaboration. The explanations of these findings provided the following conclusions: (a) high-quality differentiated instruction, (b) barriers to professional development, and (c) the necessity of training school leaders. These conclusions suggest school leaders and policymakers at the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia must make every effort to enforce, reinforce, and sustain PD to close gaps that hinder the refinement and improvement.15 0