Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted The Cultural Adaptation of a Social and Emotional Learning Program for an Intervention in Saudi Arabia’s Preschools(Flinders University, 2024-11) Alqaydhi, Malak; Skrzypiec, GraceSocial and Emotional Learning (SEL) is globally recognised as a pivotal element in early childhood education, contributing significantly to holistic student development. Despite this, its integration into early education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) remains to be fully realised. Currently, the main focus of KSA educational policy predominantly revolves around academic learning, often neglecting essential aspects of students’ social interaction and emotional development. To address this crucial gap, this study sought to explore the potential of SEL in Islamic preschool settings by developing and implementing PATHS for Islamic contexts SEL (PATHS- IC) Program. This culturally adaptive SEL program was specifically tailored to align with the cultural ethos of the KSA preschool education system. The primary aim of this research was to evaluate the PATHS- IC Program’s effectiveness in enhancing the social and emotional development of preschoolers in KSA. Drawing from the researcher’s cultural and practical experience in the KSA, the study methodology incorporated a sequential mixed-methods approach. This encompassed conducting in-depth interviews with 8 teachers and 8 mothers of preschoolers, whose valuable perspectives significantly influenced the development of the PATHS- IC program. Subsequently, 120 5-year-old preschoolers participated in an experimental research study to assess the efficacy of the PATHS- IC program, which was administered by the researcher. Measures used to test the effectiveness of the PATHS- IC program included the Behaviour Assessment System for Children Teacher Report-Preschool (BASC-3 BESS) and the Teacher’s Rating Scale of Child’s Actual Behaviour (TRS-CAB). Pre- and post-intervention measures were undertaken comparing the Control and Experimental Groups using T-tests. The results highlighted the positive impact of PATHS- IC in significantly improving preschool children’s social, emotional and behavioural conduct. The PATHS- IC program intervention led to substantial advancements in preschoolers adaptive and attention behaviours, with the Experimental Group showing significant changes post-intervention. Following the PATHS- IC program, children’s social competencies were enhanced, while internalising and externalising behaviours were reduced, and scholastic conduct was improved. Notably, the Control Group, which attended preschool but did not receive the PATHS- IC intervention, showed progress in some aspects of SEL, although not to the same degree as the Experimental Group. The findings suggest that preschool attendance can promote adaptive behaviour, attention behaviours, social competence, and behavioural conduct in children, indicating a preschool effect. Findings not only support the integration of culturally appropriate SEL programs, such as PATHS- IC, into the Islamic KSA preschool context but also highlight the intrinsic value of preschool attendance (currently at 17% in KSA), which seems to benefit young children before they enter formal schooling. The effectiveness of such culturally sensitive SEL programs, such as PATHS- IC, is enhanced when combined with the developmental advantages of preschool, enriching the early education process. This research points towards a holistic, culturally attuned educational approach in KSA, underlining the vital role of preschool and programs like PATHS- IC in shaping children’s behavioural conduct and future learning paths.19 0Item Restricted The Impact of Google Docs-mediated Collaborative Writing with Teacher Intervention on EFL Learners’ Writing Outcomes(University of York, 2024-07-26) Alharee, Manal; Elebyary, Khaled; Handly, ZoeSome collaborative writing studies advocate teacher intervention in online collaboration; in most, teachers’ online interventions are shown to promote student collaboration but none have examined whether such interventions improve students’ writing abilities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of GD-mediated collaborative writing (GMCW) with teacher intervention on learners’ writing outcomes. An experimental study design was used, with 46 EFL students enrolled at Level 3 in the Department of English Language at Al Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling was employed to assign learners to two conditions: experimental (n=24) and control (n=22). The experimental condition involved learners participating in GMCW activities with teacher intervention while the control condition involved learners participating in GMCW activities without teacher intervention. The study was conducted for 14 weeks. Unlike previous research, a mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate learners’ writing outcomes and their collaboration process in GD, as well as their attitudes to provide a comprehensive picture. The results indicated that promoting learners’ collaboration and influencing their language-learning beliefs through teacher intervention in the experimental condition resulted in learners improving their writing outcomes significantly more than those in the control condition. In experimental conditions, learners demonstrated high levels of collaboration by engaging in collaborative, collaborative/passive, and expert/novice interaction patterns. They also viewed the activities as a means of language learning. Those in the control condition showed low collaboration levels following a cooperative/passive pattern. Furthermore, their prior language learning beliefs negatively affected their attitudes toward the activity. This thesis argues that learners’ writing outcomes and attitudes toward collaboration are related to their collaboration level. Further, this study indicates that advanced collaborative platforms such as GD cannot facilitate learners’ collaboration without teacher support. Teachers should intervene to promote students’ online collaboration, which in turn improves their writing skills.27 0Item Restricted Implementation of the SDLMI in Inclusive Settings and its Impact on Self-Determination and Academic Outcomes(University of Kansas, 2024-07-02) Alsaeed, Abdualziz H.; Shogren, Karrie A.This dissertation has five chapters that focus on examining the impact of the implementation of self-determination interventions on academic outcomes in inclusive classrooms for all students, including students with disabilities. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the importance of promoting self-determination, the theoretical framework that guides this work, and briefly introduces an evidence-based intervention, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI) as well as the dataset used in this dissertation. It also describes the role of goal setting and attainment in enhancing self-determination and academic learning for all students in inclusive settings and provides the research questions addressed in subsequent chapters of this dissertation. Chapter 2 presents a review and meta-analysis of the impact of self-determination interventions on academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities. The results of this study showed that self-determination interventions significantly enhanced academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities. It also highlights the critical need to advance the implementation of self-determination interventions designed to promote academic outcomes in inclusive classrooms. This includes the need for (a) more studies that implement self-determination interventions in inclusive settings, (b) expanding the populations of students who have access to these interventions, (c) infusion of self-directed goal setting skills in self-determination interventions, and (d) common measures that can be used to fully understand the impact of self-determination on academic outcomes. Chapter 3 presents a study that aimed to explore academic learning goals set by students with and without disabilities who used the SDLMI in mathematics general education classes. In addition to examining changes in student academic goal attainment outcomes across two academic semesters, Chapter 3 also explored factors that are associated with academic goal attainment, including the types of academic goals set by students, the quality of goal statements that students set using the SMART goal framework, and the quality of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) rubrics established by students. Findings from Chapter 3 suggest that students who used the SDLMI across two semesters in mathematics classes set academic learning goals that focused both on academic strategies and outcomes. Their goal statements had high overall quality as did GAS rubrics. Chapter 3 also highlights the usability of GAS as a common measure for academic goal attainment. Chapter 4 examined the growth trajectory of student self-determination over an academic year within the context of teachers’ implementation of the SDLMI in secondary general education classes. It also explored the relationship between self-determination and goal attainment outcomes over an academic semester. The results suggest substantial variability in the growth trajectory of student self-determination over an academic year. The results also showed that academic goal attainment was positively associated with end of semester student self-determination. Chapter 5 provides a final discussion of overall results and directions for ongoing research and practice to advance self-determination and academic learning outcomes.16 0Item Restricted A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) of an educational intervention to promote asthma prescription uptake in General Practitioner Practices(University of Sheffield, 2024-04-23) Alyami, Rami; Julious, Steven A.; Simpson, Rebecca M.; Oliver, PhillipBackground: Asthma exacerbation rates in school-age children peak following the return to school after the summer break. Studies have shown a decline in prescriptions collection during August, which is followed by an increase in unscheduled visits to healthcare providers. A previous study (the PLEASANT trial) found that sending reminder letters to parents of children with asthma during the summer vacation led to a 30% increase in August prescriptions being prescribed and reduced unscheduled care visits after the return to schools in the period September to December. The intervention also resulted in an estimated cost saving of £36.07 per patient per year. Objective: To determine if informing general practitioner (GP) practices about the PLEASANT trial intervention results leads to its implementation. Design: A pragmatic cluster randomised trial which utilised the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to send the intervention and collect data. Participants: A total of 1,326 GP practices in England, including 90,583 individuals, with 664 practices (44,708 individuals) in the intervention group and 662 practices (45,875 individuals) in the control group. Intervention: In June 2021, the intervention practices received a letter from CPRD about the PLEASANT study findings and recommendations. The letter was sent to the asthma lead and/or practice manager via postal mail and email. Control Arm: Usual care. Randomisation: GP practices were stratified by practice size (decile) and randomly allocated to either the intervention or control group. Main Outcome: The proportion of children with asthma who had a prescription for an asthma preventer medication in August and September 2021. Results: The intervention did not significantly affect the proportion of children with asthma who had a prescription in August and September 2021 compared to the control arm. In the intervention group, 15,716 out of 44,465 children (35.3%) had a prescription issued, compared to 16,001 out of 45,559 children (35.1%) in the control group (OR 1.01; 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.04). There was also no intervention effect on the number of prescriptions uptake in the same period (IRR 1.01; 95% CI: 0.98 to 1.03). Furthermore, the letter did not reduce the number of unscheduled medical contacts after returning to school from September to December 2021 (IRR 0.99; 95% CI: 0.96 to 1.02) and all medical contacts remained unchanged (IRR 1.00; 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.02). Conclusion: The study findings suggest that passive intervention of providing a letter to GPs did not achieve the intended outcomes. To bridge the gap between evidence and practice, alternative, more proactive strategies could be explored to address the identified issues.10 0Item Restricted A Socio-Technical System to Understand and Mitigate The Negative Impacts of Planned Disruptions on People’s Well-being(ProQuest, 2023) Hammad, Omar; Mishra, ShivakantPlanned disruption events such as highway construction typically span a relatively longer period of time and hence have negative impact on the health and wellbeing of people living in the surrounding communities. Further, these communities tend to have low socio-economic status with high unemployment rate and limited resources (Environmental Justice Communities). The goal of this dissertation is to understand and mitigate the negative impacts of planned disruption projects via a socio-technical system linking data from smartphone apps integrated with existing air quality and transportation APIs. Our focus in this project is on a highway expansion construction project in North Denver, USA (the C70 Project) and its surrounding communities. We started by designing an developing a smartphone app called PureMotion in a three-round usability study with community members from the affected area. After that we deployed PureMotion over two cohorts spanning for four months in total (two month each) and reported results from the analysis done on the data collected. Finally we designed, developed and deployed two intervention apps, PureNav and PureConnect, that contributed in helping community members mitigate the top issues that we have learned from the first two studies, transportation and lack of information11 0