A case study of the Tatweer school system in Saudi Arabia: the perceptions of leaders and teachers

School reform is a major concern in many countries that seek to improve their educational systems and enhance their performances. In consequence, many global schemes, theories, studies, attempts, and programmes have been introduced to promote education in recent years. Saudi Arabia is one of these countries that implemented educational change by introducing many initiatives. The Tatweer Programme is one of these initiatives and is considered as a major recent reform. The main purpose of this study is to investigate this reform in depth by examining the perceptions and experiences of the Tatweer leaders and teachers to find out which extent they have been enabled to be innovative, and to examine the types of leadership and decision-making that have been undertaken by such schools. This study adopted a qualitative case study that employed interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis. The design of the study has been divided into two phases; the first phase was the feasibility study and the second phase was the main study. The research sample of the feasibility study was head teachers, educational experts and Tatweer Unit’s members. The sample of the main study was three Tatweer schools, Tatweer Unit members and one official of Tatweer Project in Riyadh. The findings of this study identified the level of autonomy in managing the school; the Tatweer schools’ system is semi-autonomous when it comes to the internal management, but it lacks autonomy when it comes to staff appointment, student assessment, and curriculum development. In addition, the managerial work has been distributed through teams and members; the Excellence Team plays a critical role in school effectiveness leading an efficient change. Moreover, Professional Learning Communities have been used to enhance the work within Tatweer schools. Finally the findings show that there have been major shifts in the Tatweer schools’ system; the shifting from centralisation to semi-decentralisation; from the culture of the individual to the culture of community; from the traditional school to one focused on self-evaluation and planning; from management to leadership; and from an isolated school being open to society. These shifts have impacted positively on the attitudes of students, parents and staff.

The experience of teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities

Undoubtedly, statistics has become one of the most important subjects in the modern world, where its applications are ubiquitous. The importance of statistics is not limited to statisticians, but also impacts upon non-statisticians who have to use statistics within their own disciplines. Several studies have indicated that most of the academic departments around the world have realized the importance of statistics to non-specialist students. Therefore, the number of students enrolled in statistics courses has vastly increased, coming from a variety of disciplines. Consequently, research within the scope of statistics education has been able to develop throughout the last few years. One important issue is how statistics is best taught to, and learned by, non-specialist students. This issue is controlled by several factors that affect the learning and teaching of statistics to non-specialist students, such as the use of technology, the role of the English language (especially for those whose first language is not English), the effectiveness of statistics teachers and their approach towards teaching statistics courses, students’ motivation to learn statistics and the relevance of statistics courses to the main subjects of non-specialist students. Several studies, focused on aspects of learning and teaching statistics, have been conducted in different countries around the world, particularly in Western countries. Conversely, the situation in Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, is different; here, there is very little research in this scope, and what there is does not meet the needs of those countries towards the development of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students. This research was instituted in order to develop the field of statistics education. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to generate new insights into this subject by investigating how statistics courses are currently taught to non-specialist students in Saudi universities. Hence, this study will contribute towards filling the knowledge gap that exists in Saudi Arabia. This study used multiple data collection approaches, including questionnaire surveys from 1053 non-specialist students who had completed at least one statistics course in different colleges of the universities in Saudi Arabia. These surveys were followed up with qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews with 16 teachers of statistics from colleges within all six universities where statistics is taught to non-specialist students in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region. The data from questionnaires included several types, so different techniques were used in analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants. The chi-square test was used to determine associations between variables. Based on the main issues that are raised from literature review, the questions (items scales) were grouped and five key groups of questions were obtained which are: 1) Effectiveness of Teachers; 2) English Language; 3) Relevance of Course; 4) Student Engagement; 5) Using Technology. Exploratory data analysis was used to explore these issues in more detail. Furthermore, with the existence of clustering in the data (students within departments within colleges, within universities), multilevel generalized linear models for dichotomous analysis have been used to clarify the effects of clustering at those levels. Factor analysis was conducted confirming the dimension reduction of variables (items scales). The data from teachers’ interviews were analysed on an individual basis. The responses were assigned to one of the eight themes that emerged from within the data: 1) the lack of students’ motivation to learn statistics; 2) students' participation; 3) students’ assessment; 4) the effective use of technology; 5) the level of previous mathematical and statistical skills of non-specialist students; 6) the English language ability of non-specialist students; 7) the need for extra time for teaching and learning statistics; and 8) the role of administrators. All the data from students and teachers indicated that the situation of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities needs to be improved in order to meet the needs of those students. The findings of this study suggested a weakness in the use of statistical software applications in these courses. This study showed that there is lack of application of technology such as statistical software programs in these courses, which would allow non-specialist students to consolidate their knowledge. The results also indicated that English language is considered one of the main challenges in learning and teaching statistics, particularly in institutions where English is not used as the main language. Moreover, the weakness of mathematical skills of students is considered another major challenge. Additionally, the results indicated that there was a need to tailor statistics courses to the needs of non-specialist students based on their main subjects. The findings indicate that statistics teachers need to choose appropriate methods when teaching statistics courses.

Language and culture: representations of English-speaking cultures in 1st year secondary english language coursebooks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dissertação apresentada para o cumprimento dos requisitos necessários á obtenção do grau de Mestre em Didáctica de Inglês

Bionomics of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the province of Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia

The bionomics of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) were studied for two successive years (January 1996-December 1997) at 12 collecting stations representing six sectors of the province of Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia. The predominant species was Phlebotomus bergeroti (41.7%), followed by lesser numbers of Phlebotomus sergenti (11%), Phlebotomus arabicus (10.6%), Sergentomyia tiberiadis (10.5%), Phlebotomus papatasi (10.2%), Sergentomyia antennata (9.6%), Phlebotomus alexandri (3%), Phlebotomus orientalis (2.3%) and Sergentomyia clydei (1.1%). The distribution of the collected species including species that are elsewhere known to act as vectors of human cutaneous leishmaniasis were distributed across different altitudes in Al-Baha. P. bergeroti, P. papatasi and P. arabicus were more abundant indoors; however, P. sergenti was more abundant outdoors. Sand fly populations exhibited three patterns of seasonal abundance in terms of their monthly activity. P. bergeroti, P. sergenti and P. arabicus were found to be naturally infected with Leishmania-like flagellates at an infection rate of 0.2%.

A Comparative analysis of oil production setors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

Aquest article s'aplica un enfocament comparatiu de la gestió del sector petrolier en dos països rics en petroli a l'Orient Mitjà: Aràbia Saudita i els Emirats Àrabs Units (EAU). Més explícitament, s'examinen els factors que millor expliquen la variació en les estratègies que han vingut aplicant en el sector des de l'establiment de les seves empreses petrolieres nacionals (NOC). Recorrent a la literatura sobre expropiació / privatització en el camp d'Estudis de l'Energia, en aquest treball es proposa un marc teòric per analitzar la lògica que hi ha al darrera de les diferents formes d'exploració i les estratègies de producció en el sector petrolier. Teòricament, aquesta investigació té com a objectiu avançar en un conjunt d'eines d'anàlisi per abordar millor i entendre els determinants reals del procés de presa de decisions en el upstream. Empíricament, el model es prova en els casos divergents d'Aràbia Saudita i els Emirats Àrabs Units, i una sèrie de lliçons s'han extret. En última instància, aquest treball ha d'augmentar la conscienciació entre els erudits i els polític, tant sobre el poc coneixement que tenim sobre els mecanismes interns que impulsen les estratègies ascendents en el majors estats productor de petroli.

Genotype-phenotype analysis of Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome in six families from Saudi Arabia.

We sought to explore the genotype-phenotype of Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome (JLNS) patients in Saudi Arabia. We have also assessed the plausible effect of consanguinity into the pathology of JLNS. Six families with at least one JLNS-affected member attended our clinic between 2011 and 2013. Retrospective and prospective clinical data were collected and genetic investigation was performed. Pathogenic mutations in the KCNQ1 gene were detected in all JLNS patients. The homozygous mutations detected were Leu273Phe, Asp202Asn, Ile567Thr, and c.1486_1487delCT and compound heterozygous mutations were c.820_ 830del and c.1251+1G>T. All living JLNS patients except one had a QTc of >500 ms and a history of recurrent syncope. β-Blockers abolished the cardiac-related events in all patients except two siblings with homozygous Ile567Thr mutation. Four of the six mutations were originally reported in autosomal dominant long QT syndrome (LQTS) patients. Eighty percent of the heterozygote mutation carriers showed prolongation of QTc, but majority of these reported no symptoms attributable to arrhythmias. Mutations detected in this study will be advantageous in tribe and region-specific cascade screening of LQTS in Saudi Arabia.

Passive and active hybrid approach to buildings design in Saudi Arabia

The building sector is one of the highest consumers of energy in the world. This has led to high dependency on using fossil fuel to supply energy without due consideration to its environmental impact. Saudi Arabia has been through rapid development accompanied by population growth, which in turn has increased the demand for construction. However, this fast development has been met without considering sustainable building design. General design practices rely on using international design approaches and features without considering the local climate and aspects of traditional passive design. This is by constructing buildings with a large amount of glass fully exposed to solar radiation. The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of sustainability in passive design and vernacular architecture. Furthermore, it compares them with current building in Saudi Arabia in terms of making the most of the climate. Moreover, it will explore the most sustainable renewable energy that can be used to reduce the environmental impact on modern building in Saudi Arabia. This will be carried out using case studies demonstrating the performance of vernacular design in Saudi Arabia and thus its benefits in terms of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It argues that the adoption of a hybrid approach can improve the energy efficiency as well as reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. This is by combining passive design, learning from the vernacular architecture and implementing innovative sustainable technologies.

A study of corporate social responsibility disclosure practices in Saudi Arabia

This paper analyses changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting practices among Saudi listed companies in the past three years. Using content analysis methodology of annual reports, a sample of 174 annual reports representing 58 Saudi listed companies from different sectors were analysed to investigate the extent of the level of CSR disclosure in the years 2010 to 2012. Our paper focuses on trends of CSR information in the four categories: Environment; Employee; Community and Customer. In developing countries, the CSR disclosure studies are limited and in the case of Saudi Arabia. Overall a significant increase in CSR reporting was observed over that period despite the fact that private-sector companies are still in the early stages of awareness as far as integrating CSR activities into their corporate policies and strategies is concerned.

Middle and Late Pleistocene humid periods recorded in palaeolake deposits of the Nafud desert, Saudi Arabia

Present climate in the Nafud desert of northern Saudi Arabia is hyper-arid and moisture brought by north-westerly winds scarcely reaches the region. The existence of abundant palaeolake sediments provides evidence for a considerably wetter climate in the past. However, the existing chronological framework of these deposits is solely based on radiocarbon dating of questionable reliability, due to potential post-depositional contamination with younger 14C. By using luminescence dating, we show that the lake deposits were not formed between 40 and 20 ka as suggested previously, but approximately ca 410 ka, 320 ka, 200 ka, 125 ka, and 100 ka ago. All of these humid phases are in good agreement with those recorded in lake sediments and speleothems from southern Arabia. Surprisingly, no Holocene lake deposits were identified. Geological characteristics of the deposits and diatom analysis suggest that a single, perennial lake covered the entire south-western Nafud ca 320 ka ago. In contrast, lakes of the 200 ka, 125 ka, and 100 ka humid intervals were smaller and restricted to interdune depressions of a pre-existing dune relief. The concurrent occurrence of humid phases in the Nafud, southern Arabia and the eastern Mediterranean suggests that moisture in northern Arabia originated either from the Mediterranean due to more frequent frontal depression systems or from stronger Indian monsoon circulation, respectively. However, based on previously published climate model simulations and palaecolimate evidence from central Arabia and the Negev desert, we argue that humid climate conditions in the Nafud were probably caused by a stronger African monsoon and a distinct change in zonal atmospheric circulation.

Nepotism and turnover intentions amongst knowledge workers in Saudi Arabia

This chapter discusses how international assignment was used as tool to expand knowledge within the organisation using the example of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we focus in particularly on the case of repatriation and problems with subsequent staff turnover, among repatriates in Saudi Arabia’s private sector. Before doing so, the chapter provides a background to the Saudi labour market and the impact of Saudization policies that aimed to reduce relying on foreign labour. Following this, the chapter discusses the Saudi government attempt create a national knowledgeable labour force through international assignment. Finally, using the example of an organisation in Saudi Arabia, this chapter illustrates the possible role of Wasta - a prevalent form of nepotism that permeates organizational life in Saudi Arabia - in repatriates managers turnover intention. Our focus is on unravelling the impact of Wasta on HRM practices with a particular focus on the management of the repatriation process of Saudi employees upon their completion of international assignments.