Teachers’ Experiences of Marketization in the United Arab Emirates

Author(s):  
Emily Winchip

The compulsory education sector of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) provides insight into the effects of the marketization of education. Quality assurance by UAE government agencies has required international comparative testing, the results of which have highlighted the uniqueness of the school system in the UAE and the need for investigation into teachers’ experiences. This study was a part of a mixed-methods investigation of teachers’ experiences in marketized systems. Teachers working in for-profit international schools were interviewed. Items were developed based around themes of the initial findings of marketization, control, buffering, and fulfillment. Then, teachers in the UAE were surveyed to find quantitative patterns in their experiences. The findings from the quantitative study show that across types of schools, teachers in the UAE experience the direct effects of a marketized school system and the indirect effects that influence interactions at their workplaces. While the direct effects demonstrate how teachers’ work is modified to be more business oriented, the indirect effects reveal the threats teachers feel regarding their professional judgment, hierarchical relationships, and social pressures due to the marketization of schools. Future research should investigate a broader range of schools for how teachers are affected by the marketization of their school.

1985 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. DeGregorio ◽  
Nancy Gross Polow

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of teacher training sessions on listener perception of voice disorders. Three ASHA certified speech-language pathologists provided the criteria mean. Thirty randomly selected teachers from a Bergen County school system, randomly placed into two groups, served as subjects. The experimental group received three training sessions on consecutive weeks. Three weeks after the end of training, both groups were given a posttest. Listener perception scores were significantly higher for the experimental group. The implications of these results for in-service workshops, teacher/speech-language pathologist interaction and future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Wilsey

Top predators have effects that can ‘cascade down’ on lower trophic levels. Because of this cascading effect, it matters how many trophic levels are present. Predators are either ‘sit and wait’ or ‘active’. Wolves are top predators in temperate grasslands and can alter species composition of smaller-sized predators, prey, and woody and herbaceous plant species, either through direct effects or indirect effects (‘Ecology of Fear’). In human derived grasslands, invertebrate predators fill a similar ecological role as wolves. Migrating populations of herbivores tend to be more limited by food than non-migratory populations. The phenology and synchrony of births vary among prey species in a way that is consistent with an adaptation to predation. Precocious species have highly synchronous birth dates to satiate predators. Non-precocious species (‘hiders’) have asynchronous births. Results from studies that manipulate both predators and food support the hypothesis that bottom-up and top-down effects interact.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135481662199996
Author(s):  
Ali Salman Saleh ◽  
Charbel Bassil ◽  
Arsalan Safari

Tourism in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has recently been considered by policymakers as a new avenue for economic diversification. Despite the considerable literature concerning the impact of tourism worldwide, only a limited number of studies have looked at the tourism sector in the GCC region or analyzed its economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts. This article therefore conducts a systematic review of the state of the literature related to tourism in the GCC region. It provides effective insights about the current status, gaps, and challenges and proposes future research directions in this area for academics, practitioners, and policymakers with an interest in regional tourism development. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses approach was used to identify and select the papers. Some 23 papers were identified and analyzed. The majority of these studies focused on the United Arab Emirates, specifically the Dubai emirate. We found the most dominant research theme to be tourism planning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Brady ◽  
Lisa A. D’Ambrosio ◽  
Adam Felts ◽  
Elizabeth Y. Rula ◽  
Kenneth P. Kell ◽  
...  

Objectives: To explore the effects of membership in a fitness program for older adults on social isolation, loneliness, and health. Method: Using survey responses from SilverSneakers members and matched nonmembers, regression path analysis was used to examine the influence of SilverSneakers membership on physical activity, social isolation, loneliness, and health, and the interrelationships among these concepts. Results: SilverSneakers membership directly increased physical activity and self-rated health, directly decreased social isolation, and indirectly decreased loneliness. Decreased social isolation and loneliness were associated with better self-rated health: social isolation and loneliness had independent direct effects on health, while social isolation also had an indirect effect on health mediated through loneliness. Discussion: Members of SilverSneakers experienced better health through increased physical activity, reduced social isolation, and reduced loneliness. Future research should explore independent effects of social isolation and loneliness on health and the mechanisms by which membership reduces social isolation and loneliness.


Author(s):  
P. V. Kuper ◽  
M. Breunig ◽  
M. Al-Doori ◽  
A. Thomsen

Many of today´s world wide challenges such as climate change, water supply and transport systems in cities or movements of crowds need spatio-temporal data to be examined in detail. Thus the number of examinations in 3D space dealing with geospatial objects moving in space and time or even changing their shapes in time will rapidly increase in the future. Prominent spatio-temporal applications are subsurface reservoir modeling, water supply after seawater desalination and the development of transport systems in mega cities. All of these applications generate large spatio-temporal data sets. However, the modeling, management and analysis of 3D geo-objects with changing shape and attributes in time still is a challenge for geospatial database architectures. In this article we describe the application of concepts for the modeling, management and analysis of 2.5D and 3D spatial plus 1D temporal objects implemented in DB4GeO, our service-oriented geospatial database architecture. An example application with spatio-temporal data of a landfill, near the city of Osnabrück in Germany demonstrates the usage of the concepts. Finally, an outlook on our future research focusing on new applications with big data analysis in three spatial plus one temporal dimension in the United Arab Emirates, especially the Dubai area, is given.


Author(s):  
Adrian Ritz ◽  
Wouter Vandenabeele ◽  
Dominik Vogel

When pressure on human resource departments to make government more efficient is increasing, it is of great relevance to understand employees’ motivation and the fit of an employee with their job, as both contribute strongly to service performance. Therefore, this chapter discusses the role of public employees’ motivation and its relationship to individual performance. More specifically, this relationship is examined by focusing on public service motivation (PSM), a stream of research developed during the last three decades stressing the service orientation of public employees’ identity. Theoretically, how the relationship between PSM and individual performance is dependent on institutions is discussed, and an overview of the existing empirical evidence concerning this relationship is provided. The literature review discusses a variety of aspects such as direct vs. indirect effects, type of performance used, how performance is measured, and effect sizes. Finally, several avenues for future research are proposed, including methodological strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-323
Author(s):  
Zsolt Sándor

This article presents the anticipated safety effects of the implantation of section control in Hungary. The proposed results were originated from international studies and the local circumstances. Effects are depending on the control coverage and the magnitude of the sanctions. Direct (short term benefits) and indirect effects (long term benefits) can be identified. Direct effects are the decreasing of accident numbers, while indirect effects are the decrease of other externalities of transport like environmental loads. Based on the results the implementation cost of the enforcement system is measureable with the proposed social cost savings come from the decreasing number of accidents.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1417
Author(s):  
Abdullah Al Mutery ◽  
Naushad Rais ◽  
Walaa KE Mohamed ◽  
Tlili Abdelaziz

Genetic polymorphisms, causing variation in casein genes (CSN1S1, CSN1S2, CSN2, and CSN3), have been extensively studied in goats and cows, but there are only few studies reported in camels. Therefore, we aimed to identify alleles with functional roles in the United Arab Emirates dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) population to complement previous studies conducted on the same species. Using targeted next-generation sequencing, we sequenced all genes in the casein gene cluster in 93 female camels to identify and characterize novel gene variants. Most variants were found in noncoding introns and upstream sequences, but a few variants showed the possibility of functional impact. CSN2 was found to be most polymorphic, with total 91 different variants, followed by CSN1S1, CSN3 and CSN1S2. CSN1S1, CSN1S2 and CSN2 each had at least two variants while CSN3 had only one functional allele. In future research, the functional impact of these variants should be investigated further.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linzi J. Kemp

The cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance is analysed in this study of an introduction to blended learning for international students. Content analysis was conducted on the survey narratives collected from three cohorts of management undergraduates in the United Arab Emirates. Interpretation of certainty with blended learning was found in: student skills with technology; student acknowledgement of course organisation; and student appreciation of online feedback. Uncertainty with the introduction of blended learning was found: when membership was assigned for group work, higher quality research methods were introduced; where course structure lacked detail, increased time was required for new and different online activities. These international students, from countries with a high score on Uncertainty Avoidance, exhibited that dimension when introduced to blended learning. The implications of these findings are discussed, and strategies suggested for introducing blended learning to international students. The limitations of the study are considered, and a direction for future research is suggested. This is the first study on undergraduates in the Middle East for the effects of a cultural dimension when introducing blended learning. The findings increase the body of knowledge that relates to learning technology in the international business classroom.Keywords: learning culture; blended learning pedagogy; differentiating cultures; learning design(Published: 15 May 2013)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2013, 21: 18461 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.18461


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document