scholarly journals The Effect of a Holistic School Improvement Model in Enhancing School Effectiveness in Oman

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (Number 2) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Abdo Mohamed Al-Mekhlafi ◽  
Mohamed El Tahir Osman

Purpose - This study examined the impact of a holistic school improvement model on overall school effectiveness, More specifically, it attempted to answer two questions: 1) Are there any significant differences in school performance between the control group and the experimental group before and after the experiment? 2) Is there any significant improvement in the experimental group school effectiveness before and after the experiment? Methodology - As a part of a four-year longitudinal research project, the study used a quasi experimental research design to examine the impact of a holistic school improvement model on enhancing overall school effectiveness in Oman. The sample consisted of 16 intact classes selected from 8 schools (4 experimental and 4 control groups), with a total of 2378 students (1157 from grade nine classes and 1221 from grade seven classes). The experimental group schools were exposed to a wide range of school improvement activities within a four-year period. A series of workshops on activating the 13 elements of the Innovation Sustainability Wheel (ISW) were delivered to all administrators and teachers at the target experimental group schools, in addition to empowering students through enrichment programs in five subject areas. Data was collected from the Omani Ministry of Education school performance indicators, which included five subject matter achievement tests aggregated over three years. Findings - The study revealed significant differences in overall school performance across the four years between the control and experimental schools, in favour of the experimental group. Moreover, a significant progression of school effectiveness was observed in the two grade levels of the experimental group. Significance - The findings are significant in terms of providing educational systems with a workable mechanism for identifying key areas of weaknesses and means of improvement; establishing a chain of actions for activating all interrelated elements that act as driving forces for sustainable change; ensuring that the indicators of school improvement should include both operational processes and students’ learning outcomes; and contributing to the knowledge base in the area of school improvement in terms of a research-based model that has potential implications for practitioners and policy makers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Tahir Osman ◽  
Abdo Mohamed Al Mekhlafi

In light of the need for improving the quality of education and extending the boundaries of students’ learning potential, the Sultanate of Oman has exerted efforts in reforming and restructuring its education system during the past four decades. However, most of the reform initiatives focused on either subsystems or certain driving forces in the education system, and thus, did not result in a sustained school improvement (Osman, 2011). This status quo has led to initiating a large cope project which aims to systemically activate the impact of all interrelated elements in the school system that promote the empowerment of student learning in the Sultanate of Oman. As part of this project, this study aims to examine the collective impact of the proposed model (The Innovation Sustainability Wheel- ISW) on students’ academic performance. The sample included a total of 5513 students from eight schools, divided into two groups: the experimental consists of 2906, and a control group of 2607 students (grades 5 -9). The students’ performance was tested over three years in five subject areas (Math, Science, English, Arabic and IT). The findings revealed that students of the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group both collectively and in each single subject area.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy P. Barnett ◽  
Frank L. Smoll ◽  
Ronald E. Smith

A field experiment was conducted to examine the impact of the Coach Effectiveness Training program on athlete attrition. Eight Little League Baseball coaches attended a preseason sport psychology workshop designed to facilitate desirable coach-athlete interactions. A no-treatment control group consisted of 10 coaches. Children who played for both groups of coaches were interviewed before and after the season and were contacted again the following year. At the end of the initial season, children in the experimental group evaluated their coaches, teammates, and the sport of baseball more positively than children who played for the control-group coaches. Player attrition was assessed at the beginning of the next baseball season, with control-group youngsters withdrawing at a significantly higher rate (26%) than those in the experimental group (5% dropout rate). There was no difference in mean team won-lost percentages between dropouts and returning players, which indicates that the attrition was not due to lack of team success.


Author(s):  
Meruyert Koshegulova ◽  
Yerkhan Mindetbay

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of flipped learning on students' academic achievements in the subject of science at Bilim Innovation Lyceums (BIL) in Kazakhstan. For this purpose, pre and post surveys were conducted on 168 students who were divided into two groups; the experimental group consisting of 84 students who took part in flipped learning classes for seven weeks and the control group consisting of 84 students who experienced the traditional method of classroom instruction at the same period. To achieve the objectives of the study, a final placement test score was used before and after the introduction of the flipped classroom model. The results of the study are summarized as follows. There were a significant difference between the two groups in terms of academic achievement when it measured by test scores before and after the concerned semester. On the basis of these findings, several suggestions were made for the schools to utilize innovative instructional methods including flipped learning for sustainable education in the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bulquees Ismail Abdul Majid Daghistan

<p class="apa">This research study aims at investigating the impact of Mind Maps on modifying the lack of attention in Arabic language class among Saudi Kindergarten children. To achieve the goals of this study the researcher used an experimental design with a random sample from AlRae’d Kindergarten’s children in Riyadh -Saudi Arabia for the academic year (2014-2015). The study sample consisted of (40) children divided into two groups: (23) in the experimental and (17) in the control group. The researcher used Al-Obeidi’s (1999) Lack of Attention Scale LAS. Validity of the tool was approved through a half division to measure lack of attention (0.93) which is considered good. The scale was used before and after the implementation of the experiment on both groups. Results showed a positive change in attention concentration in favor of the experimental group. Thus, the researcher recommended the use of Mind Maps in teaching kindergarten children to avoid attention deficiency.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 598-607
Author(s):  
Maya Erisna ◽  
Runjati Runjati ◽  
Apoina Kartini ◽  
Mahalul Azam ◽  
Donny Kristanto Mulyantoro

Women are more at risk to stress in pregnancy than during the puerperium. One method of coping with stress is through physical exercise. Maryam Exercise can be used as an alternative to the development of pregnancy exercises in Indonesia because it covers the holistic aspects and easy to do. It is a combination of basic pregnancy exercises, Islamic prayer (Salat) movements and dhikr.  The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Maryam exercise on the stress levels and cortisol serum levels among primiparous pregnant women. This study used a quasi-experimental study design, pre-test and post-test with non-equivalent control group. In the third trimester of 40 primiparous women  were randomly assigned into two groups such the experimental group (n=20) and the control group (n=20). The experimental group received the Maryam exercise while the control group received the standard antenatal exercise. There was a significant difference in stress levels between the intervention group and the control group before and after receiving the intervention (p <0.05). The cortisol levels also showed the significance difference between the intervention group and the control group before and after receiving the intervention (p <0.05). The findings of this study suggest that Maryam Exercise has a positive impact on stress levels and cortisol serum levels of primiparous pregnant women.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Yassir M Mahgoub

<p>This paper primarily aims at exploring the impact of innovation teaching on future challenges for basic level pupils.<br />The descriptive analytical and experimental methods are used in this research. The researcher can put specific proposals for innovation teaching for basic level pupils.<br />The study sample consists of pupils totaling (20) pupils of the basic schools of the University of Khartoum - Republic of the Sudan.<br />Innovation and creativity are part of the essential skills that enable students to meet with future challenges, can implement a number of tips and techniques that can help students to think creatively and find solutions for future problems.<br />The results showed there are significant differences between the experimental group and control group before and after the test, which confirms that students of the basic schools will be more interested in the future challenges as measured by a survey given before and after the program.<br />The researcher recommended the Ministry of Education should develop a plan focusing on the development of the children creative abilities of the basic level pupils, because student at this level tends to invent things or find solutions.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6331
Author(s):  
Jianfen Wu ◽  
Manlin Zhang ◽  
Wenqi Lin ◽  
Yunpeng Wu ◽  
Hui Li

Emotional competence (EC) is important for children’s social adjustment and sustainable development. The present study designed a school based emotional competence learning (ECL) program and examined its effectiveness with 56 Chinese preschoolers aged 5–6. A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine the impact of the ECL program on young children’s EC. Two upper Kindergarten classes (Daban) for children aged 5–6 were randomly assigned as experimental group (n = 31, 42% girls, Mage = 68.31 months, SD = 3.75) and control group (n = 25, 44% girls, Mage = 68.16 months, SD = 3.77). The experimental group was engaged in a 15-week ECL program, whereas the control group had similar duration courses without emotional competence training. All the children were administered the Test of Emotion Comprehension, Expression Identification Task, and Emotion Regulation Strategy Inventory before and after the intervention. The results indicated no significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the pre-test. In contrast, the experimental group outperformed the control group in most EC components in the post-test. Meanwhile, the experimental group demonstrated greater increases in EC components. The findings suggest that this ECL program has strong potential as a school-based, structured program for enhancing children’s emotional competence. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-52
Author(s):  
Y. Y. Lavryshyn ◽  
B. V. Gutyj ◽  
K. Y. Leskiv ◽  
I. I. Hariv ◽  
L. H. Yevtukh ◽  
...  

The article presents the results of research on the effect of cadmium load on the body of young cattle. The negative effect of Cadmium on the liver causes a wide range of pathological changes at different levels of its organization. The impact of heavy metals on the immune system is particularly significant, because it performs a leading role in maintaining health and is recognized as one of the most sensitive to adverse factors, even in relatively low concentrations. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of cadmium on the cellular part of the immune system of young cattle. The research was carried out on 10 bulls of six months of age, Ukrainian black-and-white dairy breed, which were formed into 2 groups of 5 animals each: control and experimental. The bulls of the control group were on a normal diet. Animals of the experimental group were administered cadmium chloride at a dose of 0.04 mg/kg body weight of the animal. It was found that feeding bulls with a diet of cadmium chloride, the number of B-lymphocytes on the 5th day of the experiment was 17.54 ± 0.95 %. The lowest number of B-lymphocytes was on the 20th day of testing – 15.12 ± 0.37 %. The study of the number of T-lymphocytes shows that at the beginning of analysis the number of T-lymphocytes in the blood of animals of the control and experimental groups ranged from 40.70 ± 3.62 and 40.85 ± 2.54 %. Subsequently, the number of T-lymphocytes in the blood of the experimental group began to decline. The lowest number of T-lymphocytes was in the experimental group of animals on the 20th day of the research, compared with the control group, this figure decreased by 3.63 %. The state of immunity of animals under cadmium load significantly depends on the ratio of T-helpers to T-suppressors. It was found that the immunoregulatory index of blood of bulls of the experimental group probably decreased from 10 days of the research. The number of T-helper lymphocytes in the blood of the experimental group of bulls under cadmium loading is probably reduced by 15, 20 and 30 days of testing. A probable increase in the number of T-suppressors was noted in the bull's blood of the experimental group on the 20th day of the research. Immunoglobulins of different classes are crucial among bull’s serum proteins under cadmium loading. The concentration of immunoglobulins in the blood under cadmium load decreased by 15.9 % relative to the control group on the 20th day of analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1083-1094
Author(s):  
Xiuling Luo ◽  
Bing Wei ◽  
Min Shi ◽  
Xin Xiao

Using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy as the analytic framework, this study examined the impact of the reasoning flow scaffold (RFS) on students’ written arguments. Two classes with a total of 88 10th grade students in a school participated in this study. One class, set as the experimental group, was taught scientific argumentation with RFS whereas the control class received conventional argumentation teaching. They all experienced three argument assignments of writing scientific arguments and the measurement task before and after the teaching intervention. The results of data analysis showed that after teaching intervention, students in the experimental group performed significantly better than those in the control group on evidence and rebuttal while there were no significant differences on claim or reason between the two groups. Some implications and suggestions are provided in the last part of this paper.


Author(s):  
Emine Cabı

The aim of this study is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the impact of the Flipped Classroom (FC) Model on students’ academic achievement. Second, it reveals the students’ opinions about the model itself. For four weeks, the students in the experimental group were taught in a blended learning context where the FC Model was applied, while the lessons in the control group were carried out through traditional blended learning. Both groups were administered a test before and after the Flipped Classroom sessions. To analyze the data, a two-way ANOVA for Mixed Measures was conducted to compare the means of test scores of each group. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the scores of the two groups. Coming to classes prepared and completing the assignments in class, so that students did not need to do assignments at home, were among the positive aspects of the FC Model. The problems encountered in this model, however, are categorized under three main titles: Motivation, Content, and Learning. At the end of the study, the advantages and disadvantages of the FC Model are identified in accordance with the participants’ opinions, and necessary suggestions made.


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