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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether learning strategies play a mediating role in the relationship between learning attitude and foreign language proficiency. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) were employed to analyze the structural connections among language learning strategies, learning attitudes, and their potential influence on language proficiency. The data were gathered from 1208 Saudi Arabian female secondary school students. The results indicate that learning attitude significantly influences language learning and has a notable impact on students' foreign language proficiency. Additionally, language learning strategies, particularly strategies such as memory, compensation, and cognitive, play a pivotal role in mediating the connection between learning attitude and language proficiency. This study holds implications for English language teaching. Foreign language educators should not only focus on imparting knowledge but also on fostering students' learning strategies and attitudes.

This study examined Saudi secondary students' and science teachers' knowledge of, and attitudes towards, biotechnology. A mixed methodology approach (i.e., incorporating semi-structured interviews and questionnaires) was utilised. A questionnaire was provided to 138 Saudi students (44 grade 10 students, 45 grade 11 students, and 49 grade 12 students) and 75 Saudi science teachers; in addition, a semi-structured interview was carried out with 10 of these science teachers to explore their opinions on biotechnology. The questionnaire was a Likert scale survey comprising 43 questions. Fifteen of these questions (i.e., the Biotechnology Knowledge Questionnaire, BKQ) were linked to biotechnological knowledge as a way to determine the extent of the secondary students' and science teachers' knowledge about biotechnology and how it is used; a further 28 questions were added to fulfil the above objective. The findings from this research indicate a limited awareness of biotechnology among Saudi students and science teachers. Furthermore, most of the interviewed educators agree that the Saudi science curriculum insufficiently addresses the most important issues in biotechnology. In order to increase their awareness, students need to be introduced to the subject of biotechnology within an overarching Saudi science education curriculum.

This study sought to examine the impacts of the application of the McCarthy Model (4MAT) teaching approach in enhancing seventh-grade female students' conceptions of electricity in physics. The study sample comprised a total of 41 female students, who were selected from two schools located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's city of Aljouf. The sample was divided into two groups, comprising 20 and 21 students in the experimental and control groups, respectively. The students in the experimental group were taught the science content through the 4MAT teaching approach, while students in the control group were taught with a more traditional approach of teaching. In order to attain the study objectives, two different study tools were designed, a teacher guide centered on the 4MAT teaching approach and a knowledge test concerning the physics conceptions of electricity. The findings showed that statistically significant differences were observed in enhancing the conceptions of electricity in physics between the experimental group and the control group, with students in the experimental group found to perform better than students in the control group.

This research explored science teachers' perceptions of BBL. Data was collected from 105 Saudi Arabian science teachers via a questionnaire survey, establishing how BBL is viewed and applied, and whether this interrelates with teachers' years of professional experience or qualification level. Furthermore, in a quasi-experiment comprising a single experimental group, a chemistry learning unit was designed using BBL methods and approaches and was delivered to 26 Saudi Arabian Grade 7 students. Pre- and post-lesson measurements of knowledge and achievement were conducted. The findings confirm the arguments in the BBL literature and show that BBL awareness is relatively high and BBL is viewed very positively. The results of the quasi-experimental component show that BBL methods are likely to improve student learning and outcomes. Teacher qualifications and years of experience were unrelated with BBL perceptions.

The present study focuses on studying the psychometric properties of Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) in Saudi educational milieu. It is a cross-sectional study and the data was collected from 309 educational supervisors from six educational offices of General Department of Education in Jeddah. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was carried out to study the psychometric properties of the EC scale. Kuder Richardson's Cronbach's coefficient '[alpha]' was used to assess the reliability of the nine dimensions of the EC scale. Findings of the study revealed that nine dimensions of the EC scale had a good model fit. Hence, it is suggested that EC scale is valid and reliable for use within the educational context in Saudi Arabia. This study also compares the findings of the current study with previous findings. Results of the present study will provide much-needed impetus for future research in EC particularly, within the educational organizations throughout Saudi Arabia and generally in other Arab countries of the region.

Students' perceptions of the Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) approach in Saudi Arabian public secondary school chemistry classes was investigated. The sample comprised 189 Grade 10 students (male and female) from four schools in the northern and southern regions. Student-centered (POGIL) and teacher-focused chemistry teaching approaches were applied using the same instructional materials to randomly selected gendered experimental and control groups over a four-week period in winter 2018. Results from analyzing "What is Happening in This Class?" (WIHIC) data revealed that POGIL helped students more actively engage in the classroom thus enabling them to perceive their chemistry learning experience as positive and academically effective. POGIL also improved students' affective traits such as cohesiveness and personal relevance. There were no gendered differences in overall WIHIC scores. Results suggest that (a) POGIL mitigates the impact of borrowing education curricula and policies from Western countries and (b) Saudi pre-service and inservice teachers should receive POGIL training because POGIL works in the Saudi educational context.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of using communicative language teaching (CLT) activities on EFL students' speaking skills at the English Language Institute (ELI) of the University of Jeddah (UJ). The researcher conducted the current study in two classes of 21 female EFL students each; one class was the experimental group and the other the control group. The experimental group was taught using three communicative activities--interviewing, problem-solving, and role-playing--while the control group was taught using traditional methods. The current study followed a quasi-experimental study to answer the primary research question. The quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pre- and post-test design to determine if there was a significant difference between the scores of the experimental and control groups. The findings of the current study show that the experimental group scored higher than the control group. These findings have positive implications for the continued implementation of CLT teaching practices at the ELI of UJ.

This semi-empirical research utilises a structured interview interview approach to explore Saudi children's ideas about living things and to examine the effects of iPad use based on a socio-cultural perspective involving group work and discussion. The sample comprised 40 grade 1 children; 20 were empirically taught using iPads according to a socio-cultural perspective, and 20 were taught in the traditional teaching style. The structured interview approach in which children classified 21 cards (7 animals, 7 plants, and 7 artefacts) as living or nonliving things. The results indicated that children had varied misconceptions regarding the classification of and justifications about living things, especially regarding plants. The use of iPads according to a socio-cultural perspective had a positive effect on children's knowledge development. Children in the iPad group performed better in categorising different types of animals and plants and in justifying their views.

This study investigates how Grade 12 secondary school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) perceive and respond to teaching and learning on evolution. A mixed-methodology approach including a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was used. The study shows that Saudi students are aware of the great significance that has been assigned to the theory of evolution in the scientific domain, particularly in terms of its scientific validity and testability, and its acceptance within the scientific community. The students made a decision as to whether they accepted or rejected the concept of evolution, after considering the evidence that was presented along with any conflicts in terms of their religious beliefs. On the whole, the students in this study were found to support the teaching and learning of evolution; in addition, they provided a number of reasons to explain why they supported the inclusion of this subject within their science education. The link between religion and science, and the nature of science (NOS), was found to have a significant effect on the perceptions of students regarding the teaching of evolution. However, further work needs to be carried out on renewing, developing and creating new science education policies that are suitable and relevant for modern Saudi society. Such policies should encompass the acceptance of learners with varying viewpoints and opinions and should emphasise coexistence with and tolerance of others, thus ensuring the presence of discursive consultations and positive dialogue in science education within the KSA.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which the listening and speaking lessons which are presented in textbook entitled "Mosaic One Listening and speaking (Student's Book)" are characterized with appropriateness and meaningfulness in light of communicative competence and meet the Principles and features of communicative language teaching. The content analysis was at micro and macro level in terms of the availability of seven criteria of communicative competence in the textbook under the study and in terms of strength and weakness of the content. The findings indicate that the English textbook entitled "Mosaic One Listening and speaking (Student's Book)" fulfilled 84% of communicative competence's criteria of the good EFL textbook adapted from some experts in the light of communicative competence.

This work investigates the effects associated with training initiatives consistent with formative assessment to enhance teaching among science teachers in Saudi primary schools. The programme comprised training sessions that were ongoing for a period of two months, which emphasised the strategic skills of adopting the formative assessment. The researcher adopted an experimental approach centred on the design of the control and experimental groups to establish the overall efficiency of the suggested training programme in the development of knowledge among teachers in the field of formative assessment strategy skills. The sample comprised 33 primary school science teachers who were based in Sakaka in the Al-Jouf region; the sample was randomly divided into an experimental group (16 teachers) and a control group (17 teachers). The findings indicate the success of the proposed program, in which the experimental group was more a function of the control group in the telemetric measurement. Moreover, classroom observations were applied by the researcher, in which the science teachers were assessed with the aim to determine whether a form of formative assessment was used following the completion of the programme. The findings suggest that the science teachers adopted various strategies of formative assessment, including sharing learning goals, open questions, assessment-based evidence, and teacher--child classroom dialogue.

This piece theorises the limitations of transitioning reflection from individualistic to participatory practice. It addresses the question: what are the challenges of introducing crowd-reflecting into Arab academia? To answer this question, 140 Arabs from an academic organisation were invited to crowd-reflect, online, on their institution, using a five-phase model. The data analysis showed that limited cultures of collaboration, healthy conflict, cross-gender communication, integrity and critical thinking in Arab academia challenged crowd-reflecting. Despite implementing strategies to overcome these challenges, crowd-reflecting resulted in chaos at the institution, forcing management to intervene to stop the project. This chaos ensued because crowd-reflecting, unlike individualistic reflection, entailed numerous individuals and intersubjectivity -- which complicated reflectiveness, turned thoughtful Arab individuals into a mob and jeopardised the well-documented gains of individualistic reflection. Although crowd-reflecting was initiated to improve organisations, it destabilised the institution and turned it into a counter-learning organisation. This implies that, in Arab academia, beyond micro-level small groups, the more participants there are in reflection, the less effective the learning outcomes may be. In Arab academia, meso-level reflection (and, by implication, macro-level reflection such as the mega-reflecting of the Twittersphere) can risk ruining the art of reflectiveness.

The concept of 'Blended learning' is presently one of the most widely discussed topics in education. Blended learning (BL) is a hybrid learning approach. BL combines dual or multiple teaching modals, most frequently traditional classroom learning with eLearning (Staff, 2019). This research project utilized a quantitative, non-experimental descriptive survey for the purposes of evaluating: Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), and Social Influence (SI) in a BL environment. The research participants were 167 graduate students in the College of Education at King Khalid University (KKU) in the City of Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This research utilized Venkatesh et al. (2003) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as the primary theoretical framework. Data were collected via a self-administered online questionnaire. The hypothesized model was validated empirically using data collected from the study participants. The proposed model supports and explains up to 54% of the variance in behavioral intention to use blended learning. The research indicates that PE and EE are statistically significant predictors of behavioral intention to use blended learning. Results also show no significant effect on SI. This study contributes to the relevant body of knowledge by identifying determinants that predict students' behavioral intention to adopt and use BL. This paper also confirms that Venkatesh et al. (2003) UTAUT is a valid model for studying technology acceptance and use in education. Based on the results of this research, the authors herein present recommendations for instructional practice and future research to implement BL in academia.

Arabic and English belong to two different linguistic families: resultantly, some Arabic speaking learners of English in both SL and FL situations have a major obstacle to overcome to be intelligible to other users, especially in the international context. Of the various skills one needs to acquire to become "proficient" in a language Pronunciation is perhaps the one most relevant to real time usage. However, this is ironically also an area of training that is relegated to the "not so important" category in the EFL classroom in Saudi Arabia as a result of which learner aspirations are not fulfilled in learning English. The current study empirically evaluates the present pronunciation proficiency of Saudi learners at Qassim University, KSA and checks the outcomes of a pronunciation intervention programme. Its aim is to document the specific linguistic elements of difference using empirical means. It further aims to suggest methods to bring the Arab learners' pronunciation closer to an optimum level of universal communication as well as arrive at generalizations to enable policy changes commensurate with learner aspirations.

This study aimed to ascertain the current level of writing apprehension experienced by Saudi prospective EFL teachers and their current level of essay writing ability. It also aimed to assess the impact of peer reviewing on their writing apprehension level and essay writing ability. Data collection was carried out via two instruments: Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) (Cheng, 2004) and an essay writing test. Reliability and validity of the two instruments were verified. The study sample consisted of 40 EFL major prospective teachers at Taibah University, KSA. These were equally divided into two groups: control (n=20) and experimental (n=20). Both groups were similar in terms of academic level, mother tongue background, and target language proficiency. The experimental group participants were introduced to peer-reviewing essay writing sessions while the control group participants were taught through the traditional teacher feedback-based essay writing. Results of data analysis showed positive impacts of peer reviewing on experimental group participants' writing apprehension and essay writing ability. Implications for using peer reviewing in ESL writing were discussed. (Contains 1 figure and 7 tables.)

The purpose of the present study was to examine the validity of modeling science achievement in terms of 3 social psychological variables (school connectedness, science attitude, and active learning) and 2 self-perception variables (self-confidence and science value). Two models were tested: full mediation and partial mediation. In the full-mediation model, effects of the 3 social psychological variables upon science achievement were hypothesized to be completely mediated through science value and self-confidence. In the partial-mediation model, however, those 3 variables were hypothesized to affect achievement directly as well as indirectly through the mediating roles of science value and self-confidence. Data were obtained from Grade 8 Saudi students (N = 4,099) who participated in TIMSS 2007. The relationships among constructs were examined with the use of structural equation modeling software Mplus7. Results indicated that both models performed adequately in terms of fit indices, but the partial-mediation model was retained due to its superiority over the full-mediation model in representing the sample covariance matrix as tested through chi-square difference test. The mediating role of self-confidence in the relationships of science attitude and active learning to achievement was substantiated, but the mediating role of science value was not supported.