Facilitating effective mathematics learning and higher mathematics achievement have long been recognized as a key to the scientific and technological advancement of the African continent. While the central role that language proficiency plays in mathematics teaching and learning has received an overwhelming research attention in the literature over the past two decades, this is not the case among African policy-makers and political leaders. Drawing mainly from our professional experiences as mathematics educators and from the international research literature, our primary intent in this paper is to answer this question: How does the learning of mathematics in English at the basic school level help or hinder students’ mathematical proficiency? To answer this question, the paper is organized as follows. The first part, the introduction, gives a brief overview of the language of learning and teaching in Africa. The second part describes the method and conceptual framework undergirding the research. In the third section, we have analyzed the effects of mathematics learning and teaching through English for basic students whose mother tongue is a Ghanaian language. The conclusion offers four recommendations for developing and improving the mathematics proficiency of students in basic schools.

Effective communication between faculty members and students is one of the concerns of the educational stakeholders at the Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia. This study investigates the relationship between teachers’ effective communication and students’ academic achievement at the Northern Border University. The survey questionnaire containing 26 items was administered on 100 students, 50 males and 50 females to ask about their perception towards the effective communication of the faculty members and their academic achievement at the Faculty of Education and Arts, Northern Border University in the City of Arar, Saudi Arabia. The results of the Descriptive statistics method showed that, almost more than half of the students agreed that, the friendly and understanding position maintained by their faculty members had helped them to highly achieve academically. The results of the independent sample T-test found no statistically significant differences between the students ‘academic achievement and their faculty members’ verbal communication across the respondents’ gender and year of study. The study recommended for the Northern Border Authority as well as the Saudi Government looking into other areas that might bring about the effective communication of the staff and the students’ academic achievement in the University.

This research study investigates the cognitive, psychological and personal factors affecting the accuracy and fluency of English language usage among Arab learners. Early research led by Chomsky (1965) and Krashen (1981) suggested that an individual’s Language Acquisition Device once triggered at the appropriate time and supported with adequate Comprehensible Input can lead to automatic development of an L2. Relevant research suggests that children are born with the instinct or innate facility for language acquisition provided they have no physical or mental impairment (Al Ghazali, 2006). However, past research (Engin and Seven, 2014; Hanani, 2009; Gupta, 2008; Latu, 1994) has led to the identification of additional factors that go beyond the cognitive domain. These factors were examined individually and against a background of teaching methods, phonetics application, and classroom conditions. In this research, a mixed research study was designed in which a survey and interviews were conducted with a number of university students. With minimal effect from the researcher, the data were collected to examine the influence of these factors on learners’ proficiency of English language and application. The findings reveal that Arab learners’ ability to learn English is dependent on psychological motivation, physical needs to apply it, and personal reasoning.

This study considers the interaction between an e-learning system, the Blackboard system, and the students who use it in Saudi Arabia. While previous work exists, there is limited consideration of the assessment of the preferences of e-learning system usability variables based on students’ perspectives, especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. This paper attempts to fill the gap by investigating the relative importance of the design criteria developed for e-learning system usability evaluation from the students’ perspective in Saudi tertiary education. Based on reviewed literature, a set of usability principles was developed that have had an influence in the students’ learning process and use of the e-learning system. The list includes system navigation, system learnability, visual design, information quality, instructional assessment and system interactivity. An exploratory study was carried out to identify the most important usability design characteristics from a student’s perspective and then evaluate the overall usability of the current e-learning system, based on this subset. A quantitative approach was adopted to weigh usability design characteristics, based on 181 learners’ perceptions. The sample consists of undergraduates who are users of a web-based e-learning system in a university in Saudi Arabia. The research instrument was tested for construct validity and reliability. The analysed results have shown that information quality is the most important dimension followed by the navigation of the e-learning system. The study has also revealed that the system learnability and visual design came third and fourth in order of importance of e-learning system usability assessment. Finally, the least important design categories that influenced the e-learning system usability assessment were instructional assessment and system interactivity. The empirical results of this study may help to provide insights for designers and evaluators leading to a more effective approach to improve the usability and uptake of the e-learning system.

This study aimed to investigate the degree to which teachers in Qatar implement differentiated instruction as well as the impact of years of experience, qualifications, grade, school subjects and training on teachers’ use of differentiated instruction. Also the study tried to explore the obstacles impeding the application of differentiate instruction. The study targeted all early childhood teachers (1,836) in 99 Qatar public schools spreading across the country. A random sample of 236 teachers, accounting for 12.9% of the population participated in the study. Following the mixed approach, the researchers used questionnaires and interviews to collect the data. The results showed no statistically significant differences among the respondents in the degree of application of differentiated instruction due to training and qualifications; however, statistically significant differences were detected in relevance to years of experience, grade, and the subject being taught. The study also found an agreement among teachers on the obstacles they face during their application of differentiated instruction, most notably the teaching load, class size, and time. The study concluded with recommendations for education providers, teachers and researchers.

The study aims at investigating basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' mathematics learning disability (MLD) in the context of Nepal. It is based on a mixed-method research design in that it combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches as appropriate. Using the stratified random sampling technique, 300 basic level mathematics teachers were selected from 150 basic level (grades 1-8) community and institutional schools representing the three significant ecological regions (the Mountain, the Hill, and the Terai) and demographic variables (gender, place of residence, and school type) from Province 1 of Nepal. A Mathematics Learning Disability Awareness Scale (MLDA-Scale), was developed and used to measure the basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' MLD. Besides, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the purposively selected basic level schoolteachers for the qualitative data. The basic level schoolteachers' awareness of MLD factor categories was calculated using descriptive statistics. Similarly, t-tests were conducted to examine the effects of the demographic variables. The qualitative data, however, were analyzed thematically. The results reveal that the majority of the basic level schoolteachers' knowledge toward their students' MLD was inadequate and that the demographic variables had no significant effects on the teachers' knowledge of their students' MLD. Finally, the study recommends developing the managerial practices regarding the MLD issue further.

The progressive integration of mobile technology in the classroom is generating new scenarios to innovate teaching methods. The aim of this study was to analyse the perceptions of university students toward the use of Socrative and its implications in gamified learning situations. This is a descriptive-survey investigation, complemented with content analysis techniques. The data were collected using a questionnaire designed ad hoc by Quiroga-Estévez et al. and structured interviews. The sample consisted of undergraduate students (n=472) of the degree of Primary Education from the Faculty of Education Sciences of a Spanish university. The results show significant changes in the learning process of the students, in social relations and in the teaching methodology.

Citizenship education has been recognised as a desirable attribute of students both by the educational system and Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. The aims of citizenship education will be difficult to achieve unless teacher educators incorporate citizenship education as a main outcome of their courses. Yet, that mainly depends on their understanding of the meaning of citizenship and what the component is that they ought to develop. The current article aims to analyse the perceptions of teacher educators about citizenship and their related teaching practices. Study adopted a qualitative method to collect the data by interviewing five teacher educators from college of education, Sultan Qaboos University. The findings showed that those educators associated citizenship with patriotism and a personally responsible vision of citizenship. In addition, they reported limited practices pertinent to citizenship education and clearly expressed their need for professional development in citizenship education.  

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is regarded as one of the formulas to embracing many of our imminent challenges. STEM education benefits the learners by encouraging interest in STEM disciplines. This daunting task needs everyone’s concerted efforts in creating and innovating mathematics teachers’ classroom practices Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to identify best practices for STEM education following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) by Moher et al. (2015). The reviewed articles were published from 2016 to 2020 and accessed using the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. Three themes for best practices were identified namely (a) core competencies encompassing 21st-century teaching skills; (b) instructional designs; and (c) requisite STEM execution. Results of PRISMA determined the dominant STEM practices were critical thinking, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, research-based pedagogy, problem-based learning and project-based learning, technological integration, accessibility, professional development and learning support, evidence of effectiveness, access to materials and practitioner support, and scalability. Mathematics teachers should determine the best STEM practices to employ even though there is a lack of studies on integrated STEM domains. When more students are interested in venturing and exploring into the field of STEM, the high demand for STEM related careers could be met by the younger generation.

The main topic of the presented article is the pedagogical concept of self-reflection of students of Social Education. The authors understand the pedagogical concept as primarily educational determinants that influence and shape students’ self-reflection. To identify this aim, the authors formulate the main research question: How do social education students reflect on themselves as students, and what are the determinants of study self-reflection for social pedagogy students? The authors used the qualitative research strategy, specifically The Grounded Theory, through which sixty self-reflecting essays were analysed. These written self-reflections were further complemented with six in-depth interviews in which we acquired clarifying information on self-reflection and self-assessment of social education students. It was ascertained that students’ self-reflection is shaped through an awareness of internal and external study factors, which subsequently influence the overall concept of their study, motivation to perform, study style, and self-assessment.

The current study explored the potential effect of using the flipped class strategy in developing grammatical concepts among fifth-grade primary school students in Irbid, Jordan during the academic year 2019/2020. The study followed the quasi-experimental design, which was applied to a sample of 52 female students, who were divided into a control and an experimental group. The control was taught traditionally and the experimental group was taught grammar through using a flipped classroom strategy respectively. The study developed a list of suitable grammatical concepts for the study sample and a test to measure the Arabic grammatical concepts: declension, case marking, case ending, representation in a sentence, and extraction. After performing the appropriate statistical analysis, the results of the study showed the presence of significant differences between the experimental and the control groups in all grammatical concepts in favor of the experimental group. The researcher recommended applying the flipped class strategy in teaching the grammatical concepts for female fifth graders.

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has shaken the world, forcing countries to implement a state of emergency, including the education system. Students have been forced to remain in hostels or houses since they cannot get to university campuses. As a result of this predicament, university authorities have no option but to implement an online learning environment. Specifically, Saudi universities have faced numerous difficulties in bringing the online learning systems to continue the educational process. On the other hand, students faced difficulties to cope with such circumstances (complete online learning) without any preparation or backup plan. According to the findings of the literature research, students experienced difficulties that were difficult to overcome. The aim of this study was to determine the challenges that first-year students of the University faced. The present research got a total of 234 valid responses from the participants. The findings indicate that respondents were not fully prepared in this situation in terms of physical, environmental, and psychological readiness, with some variances in viewpoints depending on their gender and age. Respondents expressed concern about the effect of lockdown on their ability to perform well academically. In this study, the researchers found that switching suddenly to an all-online alternative cause significant obstacles for students. It was determined that the present blended learning model, which utilizes online learning to support face-to-face instruction, has encountered a critical challenge when it comes towards replacing it, particularly with underprepared learners.

This study aims at identifying the level of psychological and professional stress in light of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It adopted descriptive and analytical methodologies. Two scales were prepared: one scale for psychological and professional stress and the other for coping with psychological and professional pressures. The study sample consisted of 608 female teachers at public schools in Al-Kharj province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results show a moderate level of psychological and professional stresses. The findings show statistically significant differences in teaching experience variable. The differences were in favour of female teachers with experience of less than 5 years. However, no statistically significant differences were found on the variable of academic qualification. It was found that female teachers had followed strategies to cope with psychological and professional stresses including resorting to faith, connecting with other teachers and students, planning different strategies, seeking help from others and managing time. The study recommends arranging training courses for female teachers to develop remote teaching skills and using various technologies and applications in this field particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigated student teachers’ teaching self-efficacy level and factors that predict it (using five-factor mentoring model). Two hundred and ten third and fourth-year student teachers (N=100/N=110; 93.8% females) were involved in the study and asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. The “Mentoring for Effective Primary Teaching” instrument and “Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale” were used to collect the data. Findings indicated that higher levels of student teachers' self-efficacy are positively associated with the level of mentoring experience during the teaching practicum. The results found that fourth-year students reported significantly higher levels of teaching self-efficacy than third-year students. This study reported that there is a significant mean difference in student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in terms of having parents in the teaching profession. A multiple regression found that mentor teachers’ personal attributes are the best predictor of student teachers' teaching self-efficacy beliefs.

The research aimed to examine students' attitudes towards learning and teaching processes in an online course, investigating whether there was a difference between Jewish and Arab students' attitudes towards this course. The study combined mixed methods. Data were drawn from a questionnaire (including mostly closed-ended questions) completed by 195 graduate students and eight semi- structured interviews. Additionally, the students' grades for their course assignments were analyzed. Findings indicated that all course participants perceived the teaching and learning processes positively, but Jewish students held stronger positive attitudes concerning the learning processes' effectiveness than did Arab students. Jewish course participants' achievements were higher than those of Arab participants. The variable `sector` had a moderating effect on perceptions of the course structure's clarity and success in the course, strong clarity led to Arab students' success on the course but not for Jewish students. Arab students shared their difficulty adapting to a learning style necessitating autonomous learning processes. These findings are explained by Arab society's unique cultural dimensions, characterised by high-power distance and strong avoidance of uncertainty. The findings can inform designers of multicultural online courses that optimal teaching practices necessitate culture sensitivity, and this constitutes an issue for future studies.

This study aimed at exploring teachers’ perceptions of reflective teaching strategies in their teaching practice and the barriers that hinder the implementation of reflective teaching strategies. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained by using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study took place in the context of high schools in most of the provinces in the Mekong Delta. The respondents involved in this research were fifty English as a foreign language (EFL) high-school teachers. The results revealed that most teachers have positive perceptions of the significance of reflective teaching strategies in their teaching. At the same time, the participants found barriers preventing them from implementing reflective teaching strategies in their language teaching such as lack of awareness of reflective teaching strategies, time or workload limitations as well as some obstacles related to the application of peer observation as a strategy of the reflective process. Finally, accordingly, the findings gained from two types of research tools, some pedagogical implications, and research suggestions on the effectiveness of EFL teachers’ application of self-reflection strategies in the teaching-learning process were proposed in the study.

Systemic thinking skills are an increasingly important aspect of contemporary life for all students. Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between systemic thinking skills, epistemological beliefs, and mathematical beliefs in a sample of 120 secondary school students aged 16-18 years in Saudi Arabia. The second objective was to examine gender differences in these three variables. Participants answered scales measuring the Systemic Thinking Inventory (STI) and the Mathematical Beliefs Scale (MBS) created by the researcher. Additionally, participants answered the Epistemic Belief Inventory (EBI). Results showed a positive correlation between systemic thinking skills, epistemological beliefs, and mathematical beliefs. In addition, significant differences were found in favor of men on the systemic thinking skills on the holistic vision of the system and systemic synthesis skills subscales and females on the systemic analysis subscale. Significant differences were found in epistemological beliefs. A particular difference was innate knowledge and omniscient authority in favor of males, simple knowledge, certain knowledge, and rapid learning in favor of females. In addition, differences were found for mathematics teacher competence and self-efficacy beliefs in favor of males and the usefulness of learning mathematics, difficulty in mathematics, and enjoyment of mathematics in favor of females. The results are discussed in light of the relevant literature, and suggestions are made.

COVID-19 pandemic forces training for principals to be conducted online. This study aims to evaluate the context, input, process, response, study, behavior, and outcome to determine the effectiveness and make recommendations for training. The approach used in this study was a mixed method with a concurrent embedded design and a qualitative method as the main method. The subjects of this study were the principals, committees, and instructors. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and questionnaires and analyzed using Miles and Huberman's model, descriptive analysis, and a t-test. The results show that e-training is effective in context, input, and process. Response, learning, and attitude assessments prove that knowledge, skills, and attitude have improved. Participants will be able to implement the experience gained and impact school quality improvement. This study contributes to the combination of the two evaluation models proven to produce a complete result. The study for the e-training recommends needed assessment before the training, the activity before the training to acquire the skills in using the learning management system, and the monitoring and evaluation after the training.

This study aims to explain the success factors of e-learning. The participants were 427 students in public universities in Indonesia. To demonstrate the success of this e-learning, we developed a more comprehensive e-learning evaluation model that considers the system's characteristics, students, and instructors. The results show that higher student performance is associated with higher student satisfaction. However, the increase in performance is not due to the use of e-learning. Social and cultural factors influence the use of e-learning. Culture and social environment influence students' use of e-learning. The instructor's ability to implement e-learning has been shown to influence student satisfaction. The difference in the implementation of e-learning compared to classroom learning requires different teaching methods that affect student performance. In addition, e-learning is used in all courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the current research is to identify the correlations between moral intelligence and both academic entitlement and academic performance; in addition to identify the mediating role of academic entitlement between moral intelligence and academic performance. Four hundred and forty-four students from (Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan) participated in the research. The moral intelligence scale and the academic entitlement scale were applied to the participants and data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant negative correlation between moral intelligence and academic entitlement and a significant positive correlation between moral intelligence and academic performance. Besides, results demonstrated the mediating role of academic entitlement between moral intelligence and academic performance. The results of this research can be employed in building programs and setting plans for developing moral intelligence and eliminating academic entitlement behaviors and beliefs to encounter the problems of secondary school students.