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 0Item Open Access Exploring Contextual and Individual Factors that Shape English Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences around Professional Development Programmes in a Saudi Female University Context: The role of professional identity, agency, and emotions(University of Southampton, 2024-06-30) Eshgi, Hadeel; Baird, RobertUnderstanding teacher identity is an essential aspect of teacher development (Cross, 2006), and there is consensus that a teacher's professional identity is influenced by internal factors, such as tensions and emotions, and by external factors, such as context and experiences, placing teacher identity in a position of constant change (Nguyen, 2017; Pillen et al., 2013; Subryan, 2017). Emotions constitute an essential element of teachers’ work and identity, and have a significant effect on identity and its shaping (Hargreaves, 2001; Nias, 1996; Sutton & Wheatley, 2003). The concept of agency is also embedded in considerations of teacher identity and emotion (Vloet and van Swet, 2010), especially in contexts characterised by mandatory professional development practices and restrictive classroom policies, as is the case in this research context. Teacher education programmes play a crucial role in shaping teachers’ agency, and can be integrated into identity performances and constructions (Lai et al., 2016; Lasky, 2005; Priestley et al., 2012), and professional development is a prominent and institutionalised element of the context investigated in this study. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the role and impact of professional development in the environment in which these teachers operate, and this is explored in relation to teachers' professional identity, agency, and emotions. This study investigates Saudi teachers working in the English Language Institute at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, where professional development and educational policies play a distinctive role in student and educator experiences. It aims to provide a holistic, phenomenological account of the intersecting elements that are influential in this educational context. To supplement the phenomenological methodological framework, I drew on Bucholtz and Hall’s (2010) identity framework, Wenger’s (1998) conceptualisation of trajectory in communities of practice, and Lazarus’s (1991) emotion’s theory to provide a theoretical and analytical focus for the study. The method for this phenomenological qualitative study involved observation of professional development training, and narrative and semi-structured interviews of six female English language Saudi teachers. The findings provide valuable insights into how teacher identity is shaped and reshaped by teachers positioning themselves in relation to different elements within the context, indexed particularly through metaphors, and through processes of distinction from and adequation towards others. The findings demonstrate the influence of context, culture, and individual positioning on teacher identity, agency, and emotions, as well as the effect of agency and emotions on teacher identity. This effect is not a one-way process, and should instead be seen as an interrelationship between teachers’ identity, agency and emotions, and this interaction is what constructs and reconstructs teacher identity over time. Overall, this study contributes to our knowledge of how university English language teachers, operating in a context where professional development and policy play distinctive and dominant roles, operate with their own cultures, roles, and expectations, enabling them to engage with both restrictive and developmental practices in different and unexpected ways. Themes around relationality and roles show how teachers respond, often consciously, to different stimuli that require them to negotiate and align elements of their identities, emotions, and agency, which is not always easy and is characterised by change over time. This occurs in ways that require cultural awareness and qualitative insights to understand and interpret.25 0Item Restricted THE ROLE OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCs) IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING COVID-19: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW(University of North Texas, 2024) Alqarawy, Meshael Abdulrahman S.; Spector, Jonathan MichaelThe systematic review in this study focuses on questionnaire-based quantitative and qualitative studies that focus on the role of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in teacher professional development, with a concentration on the COVID-19 lockdown period. Sixteen studies were selected to be included in this systematic review based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study was designed to answer four main questions: (a) how have MOOCs been used in teacher professional development during the COVID-19 crisis? (b) what are teachers’ perspectives toward using MOOCs for professional development? (c) what teacher skills reported as critical in those studies can be improved using MOOCs? and (d) what challenges faced by teachers during the use of MOOCs for training are reported in those studies? The results of this review reveal that (i) MOOCs were used to support teachers moving online, improve their personal skills during that crisis, and allow them to meet teachers in different areas and share their experience through online camps; (ii) teachers viewed a set of positive and negative aspects of the available MOOCs, and they addressed some criticisms of the available MOOCs and factors that may impact the success of MOOCs; (iii) MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic focused on developing three types of skills in teachers: online teaching skills, personal skills, and specialization skills; and (iv) financial and technical challenges, the quality of the available MOOC content, and the lack of time combined with their duties during that time are the most critical challenges teacher faced.23 0Item Restricted Theory and Practice: Exploring an Evidence-Based Framework for Call and Language Teacher Education(Washington State University, 2024) Asiri, Ali; Egbert, JoyThis comprehensive overview synthesizes findings from two studies that explored English language education and teacher preparation through evidence-based approaches. The first study addresses the challenge of effectively integrating up-to-date technology into language classrooms, mainly focusing on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) professional development (PD) for English language teachers in Saudi Arabia. This theory-to-practice paper reviews existing literature on teacher PD and CALL PD, culminating in the proposal of a CALL PD framework tailored to the Saudi context. This framework incorporates elements identified as effective in improving current and future CALL PD initiatives. The second study explores the integration of educational escape rooms (EERs) as a novel strategy within teacher preparation programs. While EERs have proven effective in supporting learners across various disciplines, the study addresses the gap in research regarding their application in teacher preparation. The investigation incorporates four evidence-based theoretical elements (content authenticity, active learning, modeling effective instruction, and providing ongoing experiences) into the design of EERs for 45 pre-service teachers. The results highlight key themes in participant interactions during escape room experiences, shedding light on teamwork dynamics and communication. Moreover, participants reported enhanced learning experiences, emphasizing elements such as authenticity, active learning, 21st-century skills, modeling, challenge, and technology use. The findings suggest that designing learning experiences based on these elements can significantly benefit pre-service teachers, offering meaningful insights for teaching and future research directions.11 0Item Restricted Learning From Consulting In The Writing Center: The Skills And Professional Development Gained By Writing Center Consultants(2023-04) Alamri, Muhammad Thamer; Nickoson, LeeThe study aims to explore the skills former writing center consultants report developing as a result of their work as tutors. The study also investigates how their experiences in the writing centers have benefited them in what they are currently pursuing. The purpose of learning about former writing consultants is to help writing center directors understand their centers’ writing consultants experiences as well as the consultants’ reflections on their professional development as a result of their work in writing centers, the most essential practices for consultant training, the criteria of hiring new consultants, and how best prepare consultants to serve student writers.24 0Item Restricted Exploring Teachers’ Teaching Practices when Engaging in Systematic Reflective Practice: Teacher Cognitions and Identity(University of Southampton, 2023-05-02) Alharkan, Abdulwahed Nasser; Baird, RobertCognition literature is as valuable as identity literature, but when combined in context, they provide a very rich understanding of how people think and interact with others. Thus, this study takes a view of cognition that is holistic and situated as part of analysing reflective practice. Cognition does not exist in isolation; it exists with a history, an environment, interaction with others, and in a specific role, which mean teacher identity and teacher cognition are interrelated areas that can help us understand teachers’ environments, behaviours, practices, and ideas. This research takes place in Saudi Arabia, a context in transition, in which teaching environments embody change in terms of what individuals carry with them from their past, such as education, training, and teaching experience, and what they experience in the classroom, with policies driving towards more communicative and open ways of teaching and learning. The method for this study involved observing, tracking, and interviewing four Saudi teachers of English, as they engaged with a CPD programme employing dialogical reflective practice, both through face-to-face interactions, and social media networks. The study’s findings showed the complexity of reflective practice, and that the often simplified term "reflection" encompasses a wide range of activity and practices, with different implications for teacher engagement. The influence of power relations on perceptions of reflective practice is one of the key findings in the current study, as participants reported that when they felt pushed to reflect as an abstract, mandated practice, it elicited unnatural and inauthentic reflection for them. It seems that, in their mind, authentic, useful reflection exists when they are in control of it, and often when it arises in what is perceived as authentic interactions. In other words, the authenticity and benefits of reflection, both individual and dialogical, are perceived more when thoughts and interactions are characterised by autonomy and choice, whereas the nature of ‘reflection’ is seen and experienced differently when a power structure is seen to be driving the activity. Participants reported engaging with genuine, active, sharing, and comfortable reflection (individual and dialogical) when power relations and communication were perceived as equal and natural, whereas marked power relations and forced communication was met with resistance and a sense of artifice. Overall, participants reported that engaging with contextualised and dialogical reflective practice allowed them to develop deeper understanding and awareness of themselves and their practices, accompanied by a sense of enhanced confidence and effectiveness. The study's findings contribute to literature on teacher cognition and identity, and they inform Saudi educational policy makers, teacher education programmes, and English language teachers.31 0