scholarly journals The Cultural Border Crossing Index: implications for higher education teachers in the UAE

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-45
Author(s):  
Peter Hatherley-Greene
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Retention ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
English Language ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Classroom Culture ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Foundation Program

Student transitions from secondary to tertiary education have attracted global attention as universities and colleges of higher education seek to improve student retention. Over the course of one academic year, I documented the transitional experiences of first-year male Emirati students at a college of higher education in a rural location of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this paper I describe four categories of cultural border crossing experiences – smooth, managed, difficult, and impossible – with easier and smoother crossing experiences associated with close congruency (related to the students’ self-perceived attitude and scholastic preparedness as broadly reflected in their competence in their second language, English) between the predominantly Arabic life-world associated with Emirati families and government schooling and the dominant Western/English language culture in institutes of higher education. Additionally, I describe and evaluate students’ cultural border crossing experiences with some Foundation program faculty, finding that those teachers who developed a classroom culture based on Kleinfeld’s (1975) notion of ‘warm demandingness’ and caring rapport-building appeared to have the most positive impact upon the students. Implications from this research have the potential to positively impact both the student and faculty classroom experience in the Gulf tertiary classroom, in addition to improving overall student retention rates.

Cultural Border Crossings in the UAE

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Hatherley-Greene
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Second Language ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
English Language ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Classroom Culture ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Learning Program

"Over the course of one academic year, I documented the experiences of new first-year male Emirati students at a college of higher education in a rural location of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using the metaphor of a cultural border crossing, I found that the congruency between the pre-dominantly Arabic life-world associated with Emirati families and government schooling and the largely dominant Western/English language culture in institutes of higher education was broadly related to the students’ self-perceived level of preparedness for academic study and the competence of Emirati students in their second language, English. Four types of border crossing experiences were described – smooth, managed, difficult, and impossible – with easier and smoother crossing experiences associated with close congruency between the two different cultures. Suffering from the effects of neo-indigeneity, absent parents, poor secondary school experiences, and a disempowering ‘rentier effect’, I found that the failure of male Emirati students to make satisfactory border crossings to college life initiated a process of departure manifested by high absenteeism leading to eventual withdrawal. This occurred more frequently with students placed in the lower levels of an academic bridge program where cultural and linguistic ‘discomfort’ were felt the most - 66% of the new students left college during the year with a staggering 97% drop-out rate in the lowest level alone. Mainly Western teachers who developed a classroom culture based on ‘warm demandingness’ and caring rapport-building appeared to have the most positive impact upon the students. The development of students’ soft-skills in a new experiential learning program was assessed using a Mental Toughness Questionnaire which surprisingly produced lower post-test scores, indicating greater self-awareness and honesty. A key emerging question asks - whose interests are being served (or not) by compelling first-language students to cross cultural borders into higher education colleges and asking them to study using the dominant second-language of English?"

Integrating Service Learning Into Higher Education Curriculum

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-126
Author(s):  
Vinitha Guptan ◽  
Ratneswary Rasiah ◽  
Jason James Turner
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Reflective Learning ◽  
Business Curriculum ◽  
Higher Education Curriculum ◽  
Interesting Insight

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of integrating service learning into the business curriculum of a higher education provider to enhance learners' competencies and reflective learning. Founded on the educational theories of constructivism and social learning, this research consolidates and takes research forward in the understanding of how transforming the business curriculum by integrating service learning through teacher-learner partnerships enhances a students' ability for reflective learning. Using a self-administered questionnaire-based survey with 256 respondents, the data were analysed using variance based PLS-SEM to reveal that service learning had a significant positive influence on reflective learning and on student competency development. The results indicate the positive impact that team-based service learning through teacher-learner partnerships had on the learners' experience. These findings offer some interesting insight for educators, researchers, and policy makers as a means to enhance the learning experience of students in tertiary education in Malaysia.

Academic Advising and Student Persistence

2017 ◽  
pp. 51-73
Author(s):  
Cherié Kay Thriffiley LaRocca
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Adverse Reaction ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Student Retention ◽  
Academic Advising ◽  
Student Persistence ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Mentoring Relationship ◽  
Undergraduate Experience

Academic advising is at the forefront of conversations in higher education (Drake, 2011). The mentoring relationship that occurs between students and advisors can be beneficial for both students and institutions, yet academic advising programs may not offer a quality mentoring relationship able to impact student success. When properly constructed, quality academic advising can have a positive impact on a student's undergraduate experience, as well as directly connecting to student persistence. If not constructed properly, the adverse reaction on student success may occur, and particularly can negatively impact student retention. The following chapter will explore quality academic advising, the means by which quality academic advising can be provided, the connection of quality academic advising to student persistence and methods to assess the academic advising process.

scholarly journals An Investigation into the Role of Extracurricular Activities in Supporting and Enhancing Students' Academic Performance in Tertiary Foundation Programs in Oman

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1528
Author(s):  
Hranush Ginosyan ◽  
Victoria Tuzlukova ◽  
Fayaz Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Performance Enhancement ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Sultan Qaboos University ◽  
Foundation Program

Sensing the pulse of globalization and the job market, the most recent trends in Oman’ s tertiary education are about teaching methods and education practices’ improvement. Recognizing the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the tertiary education learning environment, especially its foundation program cluster, and identified benefits of extra-curricular activities in having a positive impact on students, this paper reports on a study that examines the role of extracurricular activities as channels of support and foundation program students’ academic performance enhancement. In more detail, using the example of the extracurricular activities offered by the Centre for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University, it focuses on the student-perceived factors related to the value of participation in the extracurricular activities and subsequent effects on the tertiary foundation program students’ development. The study employed a mixed study research design. The data was obtained from two instruments, namely student survey and student reflections which were then auto-analyzed using Google forms software. The findings revealed that extracurricular activities could provide a platform for new ways of learning, academic support, extra practice, variety and fun, and student skills’ improvement. Specifically, they showed some improvement on the foundation program students’ linguistic competences, critical thinking and time management skills. Also, involvement in structured extracurricular activities boosts students’ self-confidence and self-esteem, and mitigates their transitional challenges.

ICT Integration in Post-Secondary English Teaching and Learning

2013 ◽  
pp. 179-193
Author(s):  
Christina Gitsaki ◽  
Abbad Alabbad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Fast Pace

The positive effects of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have been widely acknowledged in the body of literature. While the majority of studies concern the use of CALL in the West, there is a dearth of research on the use of CALL in the Middle East and in particular in the Arabian Gulf where the English language plays a prominent role and being able to speak English is the passport to attending higher education and gaining employment. This chapter documents two case studies in higher education institutions in the Gulf, one in Saudi Arabia and one in the United Arab Emirates. The studies show how the use of CALL positively affected Arab students’ language skills and their attitudes towards learning English with technology, paving the way for further research in the Arabian higher education context, where the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for teaching and learning is gaining ground at a fast pace.

scholarly journals Integrating Content and English-Language Learning in a Middle Eastern Information Technology College: Investigating Faculty Perceptions, Practices and Capabilities

10.28945/3449 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Williams ◽  
John Beachboard ◽  
Robert Bohning
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Sharing Responsibility

The expanding role of English as an international lingua franca has had considerable effects on higher education (HE) provision around the world. English has become the medium of choice for African HE, and its position as a medium of instruction in the Europe and Asia is strengthening (Coleman, 2006; HU, 2009). English-medium tertiary education is also commonplace in the Middle East including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the context of the present study, where the vast majority of courses at university-level are conducted in English (Gallagher, 2011). The increasing use of English-medium programs presents particular challenges for content-area faculty who are in effect called upon to provide disciplinary instruction to students who may not be adequately language proficient. Furthermore, discipline-specific faculty may find themselves sharing responsibility to further develop their students’ English language proficiency. Information technology related schools face unique challenges. A significant majority of IT faculty come from computer science/engineering backgrounds and speak English as a second or third language. Most courses emphasize the development of technical skills and afford relatively few opportuni-ties for writing assignments. While exploratory in nature, the study proposes to identify and evaluate practices that can help IT colleges better develop their students’ proficiency in English.

scholarly journals Identifying the contradictions in the technology enhanced language classroom

Seminar.net ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Miles
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning

This study takes place in the context of a federal laptop-mediated English language pre-university course in the United Arab Emirates. Despite predictions and claims from policy makers and practitioners that 1:1 classroom devices would revolutionise teaching and learning, student results remain static and student attrition remains high. Through the lens of activity theory this paper identifies ten contradictions, and their discursive manifestations, potentially causing failure and attrition. This paper contributes to the fields of technology enhanced learning, 1:1 device initiatives, English language teaching, computer assisted and mobile assisted language learning and activity theory by highlighting several problematic experiences in teachers’ practices and mapping these within the activity system context. The paper also questions the positive impact of a 1:1 laptop initiative in this particular context, with implications for future research.

scholarly journals Supplemental Instruction: Understanding Academic Assistance in Underrepresented Groups

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Michelle Buchanan ◽  
Kathrene D Valentine ◽  
Michael Frizell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Retention ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
Supplemental Instruction ◽  
Grade Point Averages ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Academic Assistance ◽  
Course Grades ◽  
Comparison Groups

Student retention rates are increasingly important in higher education. Higher education institutions have adopted various programs in the hopes of increasing graduation rates and grade point averages (GPAs). One of the most effective attempts at improvement has been the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. We examined our SI program on three facets: attendance, attendance’s influence on final scores, and graduation rates for students who had participated in these courses. These questions were also investigated focusing on specific comparison groups, as we looked into how these effects differed for Minority students and nontraditional students, when compared to their White and traditional peers. Overall, SI attendance led to positive outcomes: increased final course grades and graduation rates, even after adjusting for previous achievement.

scholarly journals Foundation Program English Language Learner Profile: A Case Study in Oman

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1251
Author(s):  
Meenalochana Inguva ◽  
Victoria Tuzlukova ◽  
Pooja Sancheti
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
English Language Learner ◽  
English Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Foundation Program ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Learner Profile ◽  
Context Specific

This paper addresses the concept of the foundation program English language learner profile, its meaning and utility, and explores contextual variables that might have caused success or failure of the students enrolled in the foundation English language courses in tertiary education institutions in Oman. In more detail, it reports on the findings of the study that focuses on foundation English language program context-specific internal and external factors to highlight a variety of learner profile attributes shaping students’ personality and equip them with 21st century skills. A bilingual questionnaire in English and Arabic is used to provide detailed descriptions of the leaner profile, discuss experiences, achievements and challenges of the students of the foundation program exit level English language courses at the Centre for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University. The results demonstrate that the analysis of the learner profile attributes can serve as a guide for informing future decisions about the foundation program English language curriculum design and implementation to enhance students’ academic success.

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