JREPT: Vol 3 No 1

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https://bspace.buid.ac.ae/handle/1234/1593

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    The challenges of conducting qualitative research: Student perspectives from the United Arab Emirates
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Hill, Christopher; Mohammed, Mona
    Research activity and output is increasingly seen as a mark of excellence. Emerging education sectors often struggle to compete on this stage due to lack of experience or awareness of the process. Student research is an oft under-explored area of this debate and one that requires further attention an analysis. This paper uses a mixed methods approach and an ethnographic case study of two private universities in Dubai, in order to explore the experiences and challenges university students face when conducting research. Set against the backdrop of research output and rankings, this paper addresses key questions and proposes institutional responses to support student engagement, understanding and output.
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    The Creative Use of Cohesive Devices: Exploring New Roles
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Abu-Ayyash, Emad A. S.
    The role of cohesive devices in different types of discourses has been broadly acknowledged to be maintaining texture, or holding the different parts of the text together. This role was emphasised in a plethora of studies in discourse analysis, and cohesive devices have been considered to be the glue-like linguistic tools through which textuality is achieved and without which a certain piece of discourse would look like fragmented, disconnected sentences. Important as it is, the ‘gluing’ role of cohesive devices has been the primary and dominant focus of research and whether these devices can play other roles in texts has been under-investigated, if not ignored. The current paper addresses this gap in research by exploring other possible roles of cohesive devices. Three newspaper, opinion articles for one of the renowned writers, Thomas L. Friedman, were selected and analysed in terms of the various roles played by cohesive devices in them. Through mixed-methods analysis, it was found that cohesive devices played several roles other than holding the various parts of the text together.
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    Distributed leadership in higher education: an analysis of heads of departments’ leadership practice in the UAE
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Ramakrishnan, Senthilnathan; Abukari, Abdulai
    The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which leadership styles or approaches adapted by heads of department in selected independent degree awarding institution in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates use the distributed leadership style. This study used a qualitative research approach to achieve the research aim. Evidence from the data shows that there is always no single best approach to leadership and in all places. Leaders’ approaches are driven by the context in which they practice and usually reflect a mixture of different leadership styles. Every leader is different, and they usually do not stick to one type of leadership style as evident in the findings. Leaders tend to adapt different approaches to manage different situations.
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    Editorials: Sharing best practice in education – sharing the evidence from practitioners
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Abukari, Abdulai
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    The impact of formative walk-throughs in advancing formative assessment and improving student performance
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Al Khatib, Soulafa Ahmad
    What students do in a classroom, their knowledge of why they are doing it and how to do it have a great impact on their performance. Understanding formative assessment and its appropriate application in class will lead to a whole school culture change focused on learning. This study explains the impact of formative walk-throughs in advancing formative assessment and improving students’ performance. This explanatory case study seeks to establish the causal relationship between formative walk-throughs and application of formative assessment which would in turn lead to better students’ achievement in a private school in Dubai, UAE. The results indicated the impact of formative walk-throughs on better application of formative assessment and the role of formative assessment in improving students’ performance and creating motivated self-regulated learners.
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    The Impact of Supporting Parents of Children with Disabilities in the UAE
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Thabet, Rawy A.; Gaad, Eman; Abu-Ayyash, Emad A.S.
    This paper intends to measure the impact of a training programme on parents/caregivers of children with disabilities. This training programme was designed by academics at the British University in Dubai with support from the Al Jalila Foundation (AJF), a charitable organization located in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This research measures how this programme helps those parents and caregivers to cope with the challenging behaviours of their children with different types of disabilities, with a particular focus on people from Ras Al-Khaimah, an emirate of the seven emirates that form the UAE. Mixed methods were used to measure such impact. To this end, 31 parents/caregivers were interviewed and completed pre and post questionnaires. The results suggest that this programme had a positive impact on the quality of life of the participants. The findings also show that there is a pressing need and increasing demand for more training programmes to support parents/caregivers of children with disabilities to better cope with the challenging behaviours. A set of recommendations for further practice is offered to support decision makers in the area of empowerment of people with disabilities and their families/caregivers in the region.
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    Improving Technical and Report Writing Skills of Transition Students by incorporating Solo Taxonomy and Problem-Based Learning
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2020-04) Mogul, Ibtisam Yakub; Mogul, Yakub Iqbal; Bose, Indranil
    Vocational Courses give some amount of technical skills for students to be able to work in industry. However, to achieve higher income and higher sense of achievement, a bachelor’s degree is imperative these days. Many students who have completed their vocational courses thus join Top UP Programme to achieve this goal. In computing curriculum, an advanced module “Web and Systems Based Programming” is introduced to them which has a Summative Assessment that includes a Report and an advanced Website creation. Being from varied universities, their curriculum not necessarily have included the prerequisite modules and skills. These technologies are also important for these Computing would-be-graduate soon for their Employability in Industry. As a tutor and evaluator, it poses a challenging task to make such Top UP students in par with the regular students. The undertaken Action Research (AR) Project aimed to make Top Up students work on the current trends of Web Development Technologies using prerequisite subjects [HTML, CSS, PHP] and Report Writing Skills by applying the curriculum models for this process with SOLO taxonomy and Problem Based Learning. Based on the AR project and from overall assessment, it was realized that the project facilitated the pupils to develop and enhance employability skills, and knowledge of problem-based learning. The product and process curriculum model, problem-based learning, multiple formative feedback and learning through peers promoted the TOP Up learners to come in par with the regular students.