Management of inclusive education in Oman: A framework for Action     

Mahmoud Mohamed Emam 《Support for Learning》2016,31(4):296-312

Inclusive education (IE) and the special education services related to it are relatively new in Oman. Efforts to manage special/inclusive education face many challenges due to a number of culturally rooted factors. Further, empirical research on IE in Oman is scarce and there is a need to advance IE discourse based on empirically validated perspectives. This article examines how IE is managed in schools from the perspective of school leaders in order to develop a framework for action. The author conducted a preliminary qualitative inquiry into how IE is understood and managed in Key stage 1 schools in Oman. The inquiry was based on a focus group interview with a cohort of 25 school leaders who were completing a two year bachelor in educational administration, an endorsement‐like programme at Sultan Qaboos University. Findings showed a number of challenges and tensions between theory and practice, highlighted by school leaders. These challenges and tensions were analysed in order to map out strengths and difficulties. A three level prism shaped framework for action was developed based on the analysis. The framework for action could potentially serve to guide policy‐ and decision‐makers, researchers, practitioners, and is advocated to develop a model of best practice for the successful implementation and management of IE in Oman.  相似文献   

When empathy hurts: Modelling university students’ word of mouth behaviour in public vs. private universities in Syria          下载免费PDF全文

Ali Bassam Mahmoud  Nicholas Grigoriou 《Higher Education Quarterly》2017,71(4):369-383

This study examines and compares word of mouth (WOM) behaviour among university students in Syria. To date, little is known about this important phenomenon which is surprising given the deregulated education market in Syria that allows for private universities to compete for students alongside public universities. Using a mixed methods research design and structural equation modelling, our results show faculty individualised attention and student satisfaction were found to be positively related to university image. Further, student satisfaction and university image were found to be direct sources of students’ positive WOM behaviour. We found a moderating effect of university ownership type on university image. Interestingly, we identified six themes showing how support staff empathy could be seen as a source of low student satisfaction. These were defined as deception/credibility/soft‐soapers/suspiciousness: when support staff coax something out of students; confusion/role conflict: resulting from the diverse roles played by support staff while interacting with students; unfairness: when a student notices discrimination in the level of empathy between their peers; privacy: when support staff empathy can be perceived as a kind of intrusion; self‐congratulatory: when a support staff member shows off or praises their empathy; and support staff/student ratio: when this ratio is seen to be small, the empathy effect reverses.  相似文献   

Distributed coordination on state-dependent fuzzy graphs     

Mojeed O. Oyedeji  Magdi S. Mahmoud  Yuanqing Xia 《Journal of The Franklin Institute》2021,358(5):2826-2845

Multiagent systems are increasingly becoming popular among researchers spanning multiple fields of study. However, existing studies only models communication interaction between agents as either fixed or switching topologies described by crisp graphs supported by algebraic graph theories. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to describing agent interactions using fuzzy graphs. Our approach is aimed at opening up new research avenues and defining new problems in coordination control especially in terms of dynamics between agents’ states, graph topologies and coordination objectives. This paper studies distributed coordination on fuzzy graphs where the edge-weights modeling network topologies are dependent on the states of the agents in the network. In hindsight, the network weights are adjustable based on the situational state of the agents. First, we introduce the concept of fuzzy graphs and give some distinguishing features from the crisp or fixed graphs. Next, we provide some membership functions to define the state-dependent weights and finally we use some simulations to demonstrate the convergence of the proposed consensus algorithms especially for cases where the agents are subject to system failures.  相似文献   

Unique Correlation Between Mutated Citrullinated Vimentine IgG Autoantibodies and Markers of Systemic Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients     

Walid E. Zahran  Magda I. Mahmoud  Kamal A. Shalaby  Manal H. Abbas 《Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB》2013,28(3):272-276

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory systemic autoimmune disease, primarily affecting the peripheral joints. Anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin autoantibodies (anti-MCV) of IgG isotype were shown to be a useful diagnostic marker of RA especially in RA patients who were anti-cyclic citrullinated protein autoantibodies (anti-CCP) negative. Nevertheless, published data correlates rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-CCP or anti-MCV antibodies with either erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or serum C-reactive protein (CRP) as markers of disease activity, not investigated the possible correlations of RA autoantibodies towards ESR and CRP in comparison. Herein, we aim to evaluate the usefulness of anti-MCV as a dependable marker in established RA compared with anti-CCP and RF antibodies and to examine correlations between RF, anti-CCP and anti-MCV antibodies towards ESR and serum CRP. Serum RF-IgA, RF-IgM, anti-CCP and anti-MCV levels were measured in 30 patients with RA and 40 patients with other autoimmune diseases (non-RA) compared with 20 normal subjects. Specificity, sensitivity and AUC for RF antibodies, anti-CCP and anti-MCV were calculated towards RA diagnosis. Our results showed that ESR and CRP had significantly higher values in both RA and non-RA patients compared with our healthy controls with observed significant increment in RA patients compared with non-RA patients. An important finding from our study is that 33.3 % of RA patients were anti-CCP negative but being positive towards anti-MCV. Also, in-between 36.7 up to 40 % of RA patients were RF-IgA and RF-IgM negative while being anti-MCV positive. Anti-MCV antibodies showed the highest specificity and sensitivity (97.5 and 86.6 %, respectively) towards RA diagnosis with the highest AUC value (0.920) compared with anti-CCP and RF antibodies. Correlation analyses revealed that there was no significant correlation between ESR along with CRP towards RF-IgA, RF-IgM and anti-CCP while profound highly significant correlation exhibited between ESR and CRP towards anti-MCV data (r = 0.879 and 0.994, respectively). Thus, our data suggest that the assessment of serum anti-MCV autoantibodies along with ESR and CRP considered as a simple laboratory regime for monitoring RA patients to assess and follow-up disease activity. The addition of anti-MCV autoantibodies to serologic markers in the ACR/EULAR classification criteria for RA will add points for patients with negative anti-CCP and RF antibodies.  相似文献   

Use of a path analysis model to validate factors influencing use of new science curricula     

Hussein Bashir Mahmoud  Arthur L. White 《科学教学研究杂志》1980,17(2):147-151

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Visual motor integration as a screener for responders and non-responders in preschool and early school years: implications for inclusive assessment in Oman     

Mahmoud Mohamed Emam  Ali Mahdi Kazem 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2016,20(10):1109-1121

Visual motor integration (VMI) is the ability of the eyes and hands to work together in smooth, efficient patterns. In Oman, there are few effective methods to assess VMI skills in children in inclusive settings. The current study investigated the performance of preschool and early school years responders and non-responders on a VMI test. The full range test of visual motor integration (FRTVMI) was administered to a sample of 359 children from preschool and elementary school settings in Oman. A two-way analysis of variance showed that there are statistically significant differences in VMI between preschool and early school non-responders. Gender did not show any effect on preschool children's performance on the FRTVMI, whereas it had an effect on elementary school children's performance. Results of the study are discussed in relation to the use of VMI assessment in screening for responders and non-responders in preschool and elementary school settings. Implications for psycho-educational assessment of children who struggle academically in inclusive settings are presented.  相似文献   

Jordanian Pre‐service Teachers' Perceptions of the Portfolio as a Reflective Learning Tool     

Ruba Fahmi Bataineh  Samih Mahmoud Al‐Karasneh  Ali Ahmad Al‐Barakat  Rula Fahmi Bataineh 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education》2007,35(4):435-454

This study investigates how portfolios support pre‐service teachers' learning to teach. The findings revealed that the portfolio provides pre‐service teachers with productive learning experiences which help them develop their library use, knowledge, skills, attitudes, personal traits, motivation to learn, interpersonal relationships and an information source. The respondents were found to consider the portfolio a highly effective tool in their learning to teach.  相似文献   

Education: Present and future     

Messadi  Mahmoud 《Prospects》1972,2(3):259-273

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Figures of speech in the physics classroom: a process of conceptual change     

Dahlia Saouma  Mahmoud Natout  Mona Nabhani 《Research in Science & Technological Education》2018,36(3):375-390

Background: This study investigates the role of figures of speech in the process of conceptual change in the physics classroom. Purpose: Its objectives are to examine what teachers and students perceive to be the advantages in using figures of speech in teaching physics concepts, what they perceive to be the challenges in using them, and how teachers use these in their classrooms to minimize the challenges faced. Sample We chose a purposive sample of 95 students and nine teachers of physics, in four schools in Lebanon. Design and methods: A mixed-method approach was used. Interviews were conducted with physics teachers; questionnaires were distributed to students, and non-participant classroom observations were carried out. Results: Teachers viewed figures of speech as a tool that helps them transmit abstract physics concepts to students in a simpler and concrete way. Questionnaires and non-participant observations revealed several examples of figures of speech used and the positive responses of students towards them. Conclusions: The study suggests several ways to overcome the drawbacks. This study highlights the urgent need for all stakeholders to work collaboratively to include figures of speech in the curriculum to enhance the process of conceptual change in the physics classroom.  相似文献   

Ranking of field association terms using Co-word analysis     

Mahmoud Rokaya  Elsayed Atlam  Masao FuketaAuthor VitaeTshering C. DorjiAuthor Vitae  Jun-ichi AoeAuthor Vitae 《Information processing & management》2008

Information retrieval involves finding some desired information in a store of information or a database. In this paper, Co-word analysis will be used to achieve a ranking of a selected sample of FA terms. Based on this ranking a better arranging of search results can be achieved. Experimental results achieved using 41 MB of data (7660 documents) in the field of sports. The corpus was collected from CNN newspaper, sports field. This corpus was chosen to be distributed over 11 sub-fields of the field sports from the experimental results, the average precision increased by 18.3% after applying the proposed arranging scheme depending on the absolute frequency to count the terms weights, and the average precision increased by 17.2% after applying the proposed arranging scheme depending on a formula based on “TF∗IDF” to count the terms weights.  相似文献