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Item The Role of School Leaders In Supporting Inclusive Educational Practices through Continuous Professional Developments: A Study among Selected Primary Schools in Abu Dhabi(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-05) ALARYANI, MANAL; Dr Solomon DavidEnsuring inclusive education practices for students with disabilities in mainstream schools poses significant challenges for school leaders. Despite legal frameworks emphasising inclusion, some leaders struggle to effectively integrate and accommodate these students due to a lack of clear approaches and professional development. This study investigated the role of school leaders in supporting inclusive educational practices through continuous professional development (CPD) in selected primary schools in Abu Dhabi. The rationale lies in the pivotal role school leaders play in implementing inclusive education, making it crucial to understand their perspectives and challenges. CPD training emerges as a key tool to equip leaders with strategies for promoting inclusive practices, aligning with evolving global trends. The study drew from leadership theories highlighting leaders’ influence in fostering inclusive cultures and Rabin’s foundational concepts emphasising meaningful learning, social interaction and student empowerment for effective inclusive practices. A sequential mixed-methods design involving document analysis, surveys (n=163 participants) and focus groups captured quantitative and qualitative data from leaders, teachers and parents. While indicating overall support for inclusion, the study revealed concerns about teacher qualifications, resource availability and implementation gaps across schools. Effective leadership practices, collaboration and cultural sensitivity emerged as critical factors. Policy implications underscore the need for refining inclusive education guidelines. Leadership training is crucial for creating inclusive environments. Professional development should empower educators with inclusive teaching strategies. Recommendations include specialised leadership programmes, ongoing teacher training, collaborative planning, equitable resource allocation and promoting cultural understanding through training to enhance inclusive practices. This comprehensive study offers insights into the multifaceted challenges of inclusive education and the pivotal role of school leaders. The recommendations serve as a roadmap for stakeholders to foster more inclusive learning environments through collaborative efforts, continuous improvement and a nuanced understanding of the complex educational landscape.Item The Impact of Time and Cost Management Practices on Labour Productivity in the UAE Construction Industry(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-10) MABROUK, ZAKKARIA; Dr Muhammed Waris KhanThe purpose of this study is to identify the impact of time and cost management on the productivity of labour within UAE construction firms. Construction companies like Emaar and Arms Construction have focused on time and budget optimisation activities in terms of executing construction activities in the UAE. The optimisation of time and cost ensures the projection of the highest utilisation of the financial and human resources, which results in achieving the highest labour productivity with lower investment. Technology tools like BIM, 3D printing, and project management software are used for optimising the cost and time usage that delivers the highest efficiency of financial and human resources in terms of the construction of buildings. In this study, the data collection is primary and it is done with managers, engineers, supervisors, etc., with the process of analysis carried out through the help of SPSS. The findings suggest that the major factors that are required to be improved by construction managers constitute the proper estimation of costs, project scheduling, and the proper allocation of resources. It is also linked with the right kind of control for risks and proper communication with quality parameters. It was also found that BIM integration, 3D modelling, and software linked with project management help in improving the process of managing construction projects. The integration of BIM, 3D printing, and project management software has made work easier in the construction sector in terms of designing unique and innovative building designs, and the application of software tools has made the completion of projects easier with fewer mistakes. Keywords: Technology tools, Time and cost management, Optimisation, Resource usageItem Adaptive and Ambidextrous Differentiation: The Role of Digital Transformation and Strategic Orientations on UAE Enterprises Sustainability(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-10) AL JABRI, MADHAD ALI SAID; Dr Lahrech, AbdelmounaimPrevious research has highlighted the importance of firms building up their resources continuously to gain competitive advantage and remain viable in the fast changing and dynamic market. This is achieved by resources renewal enabling unique innovative products offerings and operational excellence resulting from all kind of strategic capabilities. However, firms’ ability to maximise opportunities realisation and balance their exploration and exploitations varies due to various contextual and organisational challenges such as digital maturity and strategic orientations which plays a crucial role in the evolving digital ecosystem. To improve our understanding on how firms can achieve sustainable competitive advantage and what strategies (outside-in or inside-out) need to be followed while uncovering whether strategy should be static, dynamic, adaptive or ambidextrous, this empirical research study examines how adaptive marketing capability influence firm's long-term survival and sustainability in the marketplace. This investigation is done considering the joint effect of market ambidexterity mediation and the moderation of both strategic orientations and digital transformation. This assessment is made using a deductive, quantitative method as the researcher philosophy is more positivism where a survey is a technique adopted and a Likert questionnaire is designed to collect data from ICT, IT and Telecom digital services enterprises in the UAE context where digital transformation is given a focus during and post the COVID-19 Pandemic and EXPO2020 event. Previous published literature was used to adopt validated scale where 224 responses were tested using IBM-SPSS 26.0, Smart PLS 4.0, and IBM- Amos 26.0. Data were analysed using variance based structural equation modelling (SEM) due to the model complexity and sample size as well as the non-uniform distribution of the sample data. The results suggest that adaptive marketing capability is statistically positively related to sustainable competitive advantage through market ambidexterity and the joint effect of digital transformation and strategic orientation is significant as mediation-moderation on this relationship. However, the impact of adaptive marketing capability found in-significant as a direct relationship and on a similar manner while digital transformation is moderating this direct relationship. Also it was found that firms with strategic orientations are more likely to leverage the ambidexterity capability leading to sustainable competitive advantage. This study contributes to literature on providing more insights on how marketing and strategic management interact to provide long-term competitive advantages in extremely volatile digital environment with global open ecosystem. It also enlightens the market ambidexterity body of knowledge during digital transformation and strategic orientations cultural shift programs. It also provides better understanding on the intersect between Resource Advantage theory, dynamic capability theory, organisational ambidexterity and adaptive marketing capability views. In addition, it proposes a converged (strategic and marketing management convergence in digital era) theoretical framework for future research. It offers executives practical insights on how to utilize the digital transformation and ambidexterity programs for building strategic ambidextrous capabilities that balancing the tensions between the exploration and exploitation activities and developing strategic orientations that is risk taking and with a culture of positive engagement to enable higher organisational success. Keywords: Adaptive Marketing Capability, Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Market Ambidexterity, Strategic Orientations, Digital Transformation, Dynamic Capability Theory, R-A TheoryItem Deep Learning Speech-Text Chatbot for High School Advising(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-11) Assayed, Suha Khalil; Dr Manar AlKhatibHigh school is a crucial stage for students as they begin to shape their future. During this time, students need to identify their strengths and interests, choose the right curriculum, and prepare for university applications, including admission tests and selecting majors. However, not all high schools can afford college-career advisers to assist students with these important decisions, leaving some students less prepared for their future compared to those who receive guidance. This thesis addresses the challenges faced by both students and advisers in schools, proposing a novel, affordable bilingual speech-text chatbot designed to provide equal support to all high school students, including those in underprivileged schools. We explored various deep neural network models to determine the most effective model for this task. The proposed architecture integrates an encoder-encoder framework with different layers of deep recurrent neural networks (RNN), such as LSTM, BiLSTM, and stacked LSTM layers. Additionally, automatic speech recognition (ASR) is incorporated to convert spoken inquiries into text, allowing the chatbot to generate effective responses. Evaluation using the ROUGE metric showed that the BiLSTM layer achieved the highest performance, particularly in precision. A qualitative study comparing our chatbot (HSGAdviser) with ChatGPT revealed that students preferred our chatbot, especially for Yes/No questions, demonstrating its potential to provide equal, accessible advising for all students.Item Sustainable Vs. Conventional Villa A Case Study of Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme, Al Seyouh-Sharjah(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-03) AL HOSANI, RASHID; Professor Bassam Abu-HijlehThe Gulf Region has witnessed rapid economic growth and infrastructural development beginning in the 21st century. The United Arab Emirates has emerged as one of the region's major economic and technological hubs due to its distinct commercial infrastructure, thereby growing its reputation. Against this backdrop, this paper's primary concern lies within the country’s housing infrastructure for its citizens. As the country is undertaking massive housing projects as part of its ongoing infrastructure progress, the paper seeks to inform the government about cost reduction techniques to alleviate the government and its citizens’ pockets in the housing sector while enhancing sustainability. These techniques are critical considerations for reducing utility costs with optimized efficiency. The four critical proposed parameters in this respect are HVAC, lighting parameters, building envelope, and solar water heaters. The study has found that HVAC systems with a higher coefficient of performance upgraded from the current 3.4 to 3.6 and 4.1 provide a potential 2.3 to 7.0% energy savings and simultaneously enhance sustainability. The study has also found that optimizing lighting parameters with the proposed Lighting Power Density Scenarios achieves energy savings ranging from 10.4% to 13.9% in villas. Furthermore, the study discovered that utilizing a more optimized range of U-Values in building envelopes can save housing utility energy, lowering annual costs for inhabitants by at least 10.9%. Finally, the report found that switching from conventional power to solar water heaters results in a 7.1% savings. Overall, the study discovered that applying all the above-mentioned parameters can result in total average energy savings ranging from 26% to 30%.Item Deep Learning for the Extraction of Aspects in Textual Opinions(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2023-07) ALSEREIDI, MOHAMED SOHAILThis study aimed to explore the effectiveness of deep learning models, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), Transformer-based models, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), in aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) of textual opinions. The research conducted a comprehensive literature review to analyse existing studies and articles in the field, focusing on comparing the performance of deep learning models with traditional rule-based or lexicon-based approaches. The findings indicated that deep learning models demonstrated promising results and surpassed the performance of traditional methods in ABSA. CNN-based models, in particular, achieved remarkable outcomes on benchmark datasets. Transformer-based models, such as BERT and RoBERTa, also exhibited strong performance across various natural language processing tasks, including sentiment analysis. Additionally, GNNs showcased potential in leveraging text structure to improve aspect and sentiment extraction. The research identified a research gap, emphasizing the need for further exploration and advancements in the utilization of deep learning models for ABSA. This study contributes to the understanding of the potential of deep learning in ABSA and provides insights for future research in this field.Item The Impact of Cognitive Ability Testing on Students with Special Education Needs and Disabilities in Primary Schools in Dubai and Sharjah(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-06) SAWALHA, OMAIMA SAMI; Professor Eman GaadThis research aims to investigate the effects of administering cognitive ability tests on students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in primary schools in Dubai and Sharjah. It is hoped that the findings can support the improvement of assessing the needs of students with SEND. Additionally, the study seeks to examine the extent of access to cognitive ability tests by students with various diverse needs. A mixed-research method approach has been followed. The quantitative data collection included conducting a survey among 215 respondents, parents, and teachers, while the qualitative data collection was conducted via interviews among 16 inclusive school leaders, specialists, and teachers within Dubai and Sharjah. A systematic review of the literature was also conducted. The findings entailed that cognitive ability testing has positive impacts on identifying the needs of students with SEND. The results indicate that cognitive ability tests can enhance the academic performance of students with SEND. This research suggests enhancing assessment practices and refining cognitive ability testing procedures and accessibility to ensure they effectively measure the diverse needs and abilities of students with SEND. Additionally, the study recommends a set of possible measures to make the best use of the findings of such tests to enhance and maximize the learning experience for students with SEND.Item The Role of Technology in Shaping Education Leadership and Policy-Making For Abu Dhabi Private Schools(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-11) ALJABALI, RANA; Professor Christopher HillThe study 'The Role of Technology in Shaping Education Leadership and Policy-Making for Abu Dhabi Private School' reveals that with the increasing incorporation of digital tools in education, technology is revolutionizing the way leaders make well-versed decisions, involve stakeholders, and allocate resources. The study explores the way emerging technologies that include data analytics, e-learning tools, and digital communication platforms contribute to the development of education policies, policymakers, stakeholders, and nurture cooperation between stakeholders, policymakers, and educators. The research employed a mixed method that combines quantitative data from a survey session and qualitative viewpoints from in-depth interviews. It is obtained that the study sample involves 30 survey respondents along with four interview participants (Two educational leaders and two policymakers). The statistical tools that include SPSS were utilized to evaluate the quantitative data, and at the same time, thematic evaluation was implemented for the purpose of interpreting qualitative outcomes. The study also addressed noteworthy issues that include infrastructure limitations, the requirement for constant professional development and the digital divide to make sure policymakers and educators can completely leverage the potential of technology. At the same time, most of the respondents address the advantages of technology, and some express concerns based on the adequacy and accessibility of training offered to education leaders. The study concludes that technology noteworthily enhances decision-making, shareholder cooperation, and policy formulation; its accomplishment relies on identifying the associated issues. This dissertation contributes to understanding the changing role of technology in education and provides suggestions for its efficient incorporation.Item Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Implementation in the Automotive After-Sales Service Sector Using the Six Sigma DMAIC Approach(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-09) ALI, ALI SHERIF ALI HOSSNEY; Dr Sa'Ed M. SalhiehThis research explores how Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) is applied in the automotive after-sales services operating within a service centre located in Dubai, UAE. It also aims to solve the inefficiencies of allocation using conventional costing methods which do not reflect true service, as well as the general overhead costs in this industry. Through a Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) methodology, this study offers a structured way of dealing with TDABC implementation. The research design entailed collecting detailed information on service activities and time and resource consumption, thereby devising an enhanced costing model. The major results show that TDABC has significant improvements insofar as the accuracy of costs is concerned when compared to conventional methods. As such, pricing strategies have become more precise due to the introduction of TDABC, while there has been better management of resources, leading to increased profitability. In summary, this research illustrates that TDABC can be integrated into Six Sigma's DMAIC process to not only enhance cost transparency but also to improve the operational effectiveness. This study offers valuable knowledge for car service shops looking to maximise their management of costs and profits from service delivery.Item Burnout and Job Performance of Special Educators Working with Students Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study at Specialised Centre in Dubai(The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2024-11) GURSHCHENKO, ANTONINA; Dr Emad A. S. Abu-AyyashThis case study seeks to examine the effects of burnout on the key work performance indicators of special education teachers in a Dubai specialised centre for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the potential predictive relationship between various demographic characteristics like age, gender, education, years of experience, and the age group of the students they are working with, and three burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment. This study employs a quantitative approach in its research design. The data revealed that there is no strong direct impact of burnout on the performance indicators of the special educators working with students diagnosed with ASD. Regarding the demographic variables that can potentially directly affect special educators' burnout, no confirmation was found that all three dimensions of burnout – emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment – were equally affected by certain variables collectively. It was found that the age and experience of the special education teachers have an impact on emotional exhaustion. The education qualification may affect depersonalisation, and gender is associated with feelings of personal accomplishment of the special education teachers. Academics, educational leaders, special education centre managers, special education teachers, and policymakers can benefit from this research's results. When seeking to improve the educational experience for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it will be helpful to utilise the findings of this research to make informed decisions when addressing issues associated with the burnout of special education teachers working with children diagnosed with Autism. Keywords: burnout, special educators, performance