Search

Teachers generally understand technostress to represent the psychological distress resulting from problems associated with teaching in a virtual classroom context. This study has been conducted to develop a tool to measure the level of technostress of primary school teachers. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Technostress Scale (10 items) using a sample of 829 (490 female and 339 male) primary school teachers from different geographical regions of Saudi Arabia. The average age of the participants was 38.22, with a standard deviation of 7.08. Exploratory factor analysis produced one factor with eigenvalues of 5.01. This explained 50% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed good model fits for one correlated factor, with a comparative fit index of 0.968, a Tucker–Lewis Index of 0.959, a standardised root-mean-square residual of 0.051, and a root mean-square error of approximation of 0.094. Although these multi-group analyses demonstrate that the structure factor of the technostress scale is invariant with respect to gender and experience, no differences were observed for the impact of training. This is due to the efforts of the Saudi Ministry of Education to provide the necessary training for teachers to use distance education tools. Keywords: CFA, technostress, quantitative approach, teachers

There is a demand for students with various types of thinking skills to be prepared for the 21st century. In line with this trend, the Ministry of Education in Oman started integrating new pedagogical methods to teach thinking skills in middle school settings in Oman. This study utilizes a qualitative approach to explore teachers' attitudes toward teaching thinking skills, identify the strategies teachers use to teach thinking skills, and investigate the challenges teachers confront while implementing thinking skills activities. Twenty-five teachers were responded to an open-ended question form from different areas in Oman. The thematic analysis approach was used for data analysis. The findings of this study revealed that teachers have positive attitudes towards teaching thinking skills in their classes. Teachers' attitudes toward teaching thinking skills were motivated by different factors, including individual school support and TPACK. Therefore, decision-makers have a strong role in designing professional development programs to motivate teachers to teach thinking skills. This research contributes to the existing literature on teaching thinking skills in middle school settings in the new context because Oman and decision-makers can use the findings to design intervention programs to accelerate teaching thinking skills in Omani schools. The limitations of this study were related to the sample size. Future research should be conducted by extending the sample of this research and using a new methodology. The researchers suggest investigating the influence of teaching thinking skills on students' outcomes.

With rapid development of emerging technologies, teachers have been required to integrate mobile technology into their practices to improve learning outcomes. However, teachers have been reluctant to integrate technology into teaching because of technostress. Many studies have investigated the reasons and consequences of technostress in different contexts more than education, specifically teachers in K-12. To shed light on the boundary condition of using new technology, this study investigated technostress as a boundary condition that influences perceived usefulness for continuance intentions of using portable technology. Therefore, the authors introduced a model to describe the relationship among technostress, perceived usefulness, and K-12 teacher attitudes toward and continuance intentions to using mobile technology in the Palestinian context. 367 teachers from different backgrounds participated in the quantitative study. SPSS and AMOS were used to find the path coefficients of the model. The findings revealed that technostress has non-significant direct effects on continuance intentions of using portable technology, where perceived usefulness plays a crucial role in continuance intentions. Technostress has negative effects on both perceived usefulness and teachers’ attitudes toward mobile technology. Participants in the study were from northern Palestine, which limited generalizing the findings on other technological tools. Longitudinal future studies are recommended to understand the impact of perceived usefulness and its relationship with technostress, which is important to deepening our understanding of continuance intentions in using mobile technology.

This study sought to understand the experiences of female 11th-graders in English classes that used Google Classroom applications during emergent e-learning due to COVID-19. Teachers and students u...

The COVID-19 crisis affected the world globally in 2020 and caused school clo-sure around the world, which promptly embraced online learning and raised ethi-cal awareness for teachers and students. Online learning that is based on continu-ously gaining relevance in educational institutions, is challenged by lack of doc-umented ethics that maintain rights and encourage applying online learning. Un-fortunately, online learning ethics are still obscure at this moment. This study aims to propose online code of ethics for Palestinian schools. Applying the mixed methods approach: A focus group with teachers and a questionnaire that was built to explore the teachers’ degree of agreement on the proposed online learning ethics. The code was finally being evaluated by online learning experts who have extensive expertise in the field. Results revealed principles of online learning eth-ics that were highly accepted by school teachers. The researchers recommended conducting future research on the impact of this code on learning and teaching.

This research aims to identify the best practices implemented by school teachers in Palestine online during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-depth the best practices through two focus group sessions composed of 24 different specialty teachers from different schools. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers were also conducted to listen to their lived experiences and how they sustain teaching and communicating with their students. A grounded theory was used to analyze and categorize the qualitative data. The findings of this study are unique and novel since no other studies related to online learning were done during COVID- 19 in Palestine to support best practices that teachers should adopt. Moreover, the results will benefit teachers to rejuvenate and adapt their methods and strategies in different ways to fit learners’ needs. The results revealed that teachers use many free tools such as Google Classroom and Zoom and spend a lot of time understanding and learning about these tools. Teachers were eager to explore and use new teaching strategies to engage their students and support them emotionally during the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, teachers were committed to their social responsibilities during the crisis, weremotivatedand self-learners, as they asserted by exchanging experiences with colleagues. This study could be used to adapt experiences to other scenarios, so teachers can benefit from the findings of the studyand can transfer them to other contexts.It is recommended to conduct a mixed approach for generalization purposes for further investigation.

Student engagement in online learning enhance students performance and the outcomes of the learning process in online learning environment. The existed literature revealed various factors influencing student engagement in online leaning, however these studies were before the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of the current paper is to explore the factors that influence student engagement in online learning during the COVID-19 crisis in middle school settings in developing countries where is a lack of studies about the factors influencing student’s engagement in emergency remote learning during the crisis. A qualitative approach was used for data collection and analysis. Semi-structured interviews with 34 participants (14 students, 13 teachers, and 7 parents) were conducted for 20–30 min. Furthermore, online class observations were used for data collection; 13 online classes were observed. Each class was 40 min. A thematic analysis was used to categorize the findings into themes and subthemes. The findings of the study revealed that various factors influence student engagement in online learning during the crisis including infrastructure factors, cultural factors, digital inequality, and the threat to digital privacy. Cultural factors were the important factor that influences females because of parents’ culture and their bias against females using online learning compared to male students. Teachers’ presence and quality of content were the major factors that influence student engagement, where parental concerns, norms, and traditions emerged as the major factors in the crisis, influencing engagement. Most of the participants reported that teaching and learning online during the crisis has broadened the digital inequality and threatened their digital privacy which influenced negatively student engagement. The limitations of this research included the limited number of participants covering a large geographic area, and the research design using diverse and often limited educational software and delivery methods. Future studies could utilize a mixed-method approach and include more participants. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-021-10566-4.

How can teachers be inspired to integrate technology properly into their teaching? As technology has been playing a more crucial role in classrooms, it is highly necessary to investigate how teachers perceive the benefit of technology and feel confident to use it. The present study focused on teachers’ self-efficacy and belief regarding mobile computing devices. To investigate the relationship among self-efficacy, belief and technology integration, we administrated a survey to teachers (N = 57) in middle schools adopting one-to-one technology initiatives. Results showed that teachers’ self-efficacy toward mobile technology predicted the integration of the technology. Teachers’ belief had a positive relationship with, but did not predict, technology integration. Factors related to teachers’ self-efficacy and belief were discussed.

The purpose of the study was to examine the procedures to design technology-integrating activities and the factors that influence discussion among middle schools teachers. A multiple-case study design was employed to achieve the purpose of the study. The participants of the study were 27 teachers from different middle schools in Palestine, which is a conflict zone. Twenty-two teachers were organized in four teams. Five participants preferred to design mobile technology-integrating activities individually. The 27 teachers have different experiences with mobile technology integration into the classroom and have different backgrounds. Teachers participated voluntarily in the study. Different instruments were used to collect data including design teams observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. The findings of the study revealed that violence has a negative impact on design teams. Furthermore, the cultural and religious factors were important factors in the discussion and the content of the activity. In addition, beliefs, experience, and the policy of the Ministry of Education influenced the discussion. The main challenges of the design teams were to find a time to schedule the meetings, social responsibility for team members, and the lack of training.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the challenges associated with emergency remote teaching in the developing countries of Palestine, Libya, and Afghanistan, as reported by middle-school students, their parents, and teachers. These countries have been struggling with an unstable and violent situation for decades. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 participants from the three countries and 60 online classes were observed. Findings revealed that COVID-19 widened the digital gap among students and families, which created challenges in terms of online class attendance. In addition, violation of students’ and parents’ digital privacy emerged as another key challenge to emergency remote teaching. However, teacher presence and timely feedback in synchronous online sessions strengthened students’ engagement within the emergency remote teaching environment. Overall, emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 crisis deepened inequities across students and infringed upon the digital ethics of students, teachers, and parents.

The shutdown of schools and universities due to the pandemic has impacted the global education system as well as Palestine's education system. The future of education is unpredictable now, but new features have emerged. The education system in Palestine responded to the pandemic in different ways, and the current experience in schools and universities with eLearning has two sides. One is bright and the other is dark. In this chapter the challenges that faced teachers and students will be discussed, and the best practices will be analyzed, according to the framework of eLearning developed by Khan. uture insights will be presented on reshaping education in the future under new morals, values, and quality standards.

The purpose of the current study was to explore students' characteristics that influence student's readiness to use mobile technology at An-Najah National University in Palestine. The researchers used a quantitative approach to achieve the purpose of the study. 214 students from different schools were participated in the study. A descriptive and one-way ANOVA to test the hypotheses were used in data analysis stage. The findings of the study revealed that the availability of technology is an important factor to use mobile technology in higher education, as well as the student's capability to use mobile technology for her study. Furthermore, student's attitudes towards mobile technology integration plays crucial role in student's readiness to use it. Higher education institutions could benefit from the findings of the study through designing capacity building programs for students to encourage them to use the mobile services inside and off campus. The limitations of the study were depending only on one tool for data collection from one university which could raise doubt about generalizing the findings to another context.

There is little research which explores middle school teachers’ response to school closures in developing countries in times of crisis. This article presents a case study of Afghanistan, Libya and ...

Open-source materials are being used for education in a variety of contexts, and educators can reuse them to achieve different objectives in both higher education and public education. Educators in Palestine are using open education resources for professional development to improve their performance and learning. There are different advantages to open education resources; for example, they can reduce training costs, as well as the time and effort required by students and educators. Different open resources have emerged in Palestine, such as MOOCs and open learning objects for K-12.

Factors influencing the adoption and acceptance of tablets as a mobile technology were explored one year after their integration in middle schools in Palestine. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 teachers. The participants held a variety of attitudes toward accepting mobile technologies in their instruction. The findings revealed that teachers' attitudes are an important factor in accepting or rejecting tablet use in classrooms. Many factors influenced teachers' attitudes such as technical support, instructional assistance, and infrastructure. A teacher's prior experience with tablets was also important for integrating technology into the classroom.

This study examined the types of learning behaviors students demonstrated while performing inquiry tasks. It also explored the relationship between the learning behaviors and students’ domain knowledge. We observed fourteen students in five groups during a ninth-grade biology course. Three types of learning behaviors (inquiry, collaborative, and minimally productive behaviors) were identified and time on each type was measured. The results suggest that students demonstrated different patterns according to the types of learning behaviors. Correlation analysis revealed that learning outcomes had a strong positive correlation with the inquiry behaviors but a strong negative correlation with the minimally productive behaviors. The results suggest that attention should be paid to facilitate the more meaningful inquiry behaviors while reducing minimally productive behaviors.

espanolEste trabajo describe la experiencia de desarrollar un MOOC en la Universidad Nacional de An Najah y como ha sido transferido a un SPOC desde la perspectiva del equipo de desarrolladores. Para comprender su contenido, se habian analizado las respuestas y la participacion de los estudiantes. Los datos reunidos describian la motivacion para desarrollar el MOOC y luego utilizarlo como un SPOC, ademas de presentar los desafios que enfrenta su desarrollo e implementacion. El desarrollo del MOOC “Genetica y Sociedad” en la Universidad Nacional de An Najah paso por diferentes etapas que comenzaron con la oferta del curso a los estudiantes cara a cara y luego el desarrollo del curso en linea y su preparacion como un MOOC, para finalmente utilizarlo como un SPOC para la universidad de los estudiantes. Los resultados mostraron los principales motivos para desarrollar el MOOC como un medio adecuado para aumentar el contenido en linea en lengua arabe de ciencia. El principal desafio al que se enfrentaron los disenadores del curso fue la falta de apoyo tecnico. El documento recomienda desarrollar mas MOOC en diferentes idiomas en el campo de la Medicina. EnglishThis paper described the experience of developing a MOOC at An Najah National University and how it was transferred into a SPOC from the perspective of its team developers. Learners' responses and participation had been analyzed in order to understand its content. The data collected described the motivation for developing the MOOC and then using it as a SPOC, in addition to presenting the challenges that face its development and implementation. The development of the MOOC Genetic and Society at An Najah National University went through different stages starting from offering the course to students face to face and then developing the course online and then preparing it as a MOOC, finally using it as a SPOC to student university. The findings showed the main motives for developing the MOOC such as the well to increase the online Arabic content in this area. The main challenge that faced the course designers was the lack of technical support. The paper recommends developing more MOOCs in different languages in the medical field.

The purpose of the study is to explore students’ and faculty members’ responses to universities’ migration from face-to-face to online instruction as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. To this extent, a qualitative approach was used for data collection and involved a number of qualitative methods: an open-ended question survey, focus group discussion, social media data, and university reports. Additionally, a thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that students and faculty members were overwhelmed and stressed at the beginning, but as they started to acclimate to it, faculty members were satisfied. However, students seemed to be dissatisfied with this new approach to learning. Furthermore, faculty members and students both mentioned different challenges they had faced. The study reports on the technological tools used to mitigate the emerging challenges of both students and faculty members. Evaluating and assessing students was a main challenge for faculty members as the study analyzes the assessment and evaluation tools that they use in their online teaching. Comparative studies from Palestine and other countries are suggested for future research.

The tacit beliefs that affect all the judgments made during the design process (core judgments) of 11 practicing instructional designers were studied via their discussions of strong and weak designs during interviews. Transcripts were analyzed from a phenomenological perspective. The study demonstrates that while designer judgment is rarely discussed in the field, these designers do appear to bring core judgments to bear on their designing, and these judgments are complex in nature. Researchers argue that core judgment, unaccounted for in rational models of instructional design, requires further attention from scholars and design educators.

The purpose of the present study was to explore, in depth, the factors influencing teachers’ attitudes towards the integration of tablets into their classroom for teaching purposes. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 teachers from five rural middle schools in Palestine. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the interview data. The findings of the study revealed that teachers use tablets because it facilitates their teaching as well as provides equality of access to the Internet and educational technology for students in rural schools. Furthermore, there was diversity in teachers’ attitudes towards tablets based on a variety of factors such as technical support and the availability of suitable educational resources. Further research is needed to conduct a comparative study between schools and different topics.

The purpose of this study is to explore and analyse the user experience (UX) of Arabic educational and entertainment applications designed for children aging 8–10 years. This paper reports the results of an experimental study conducted on a sample of 53 children in two elementary schools in Qalqilya and Nablus, Palestine. The context of the current study is different from previous studies that were conducted in a western environment in terms of knowledge, awareness, demographic changes and background variables. Qualitative methods captured the enjoyable and attractive parts of the software being used. The qualitative content analysis showed that participants’ enjoyment using the system was quite different. During sessions, children showed much excitement and interest while working with the math app more than the science app. However, girls were less interested to use the math application compared with their use of the device itself. Following Hassenzahl’s model, the descriptions of UXs were also categorised into two categories: pragmatic and hedonic; the functionality, technical and ease of use aspects of UX of both the tablet and the math application were categorised as pragmatic. Enjoyable, exciting, confusing and upsetting experiences were categorised as hedonic. Male participants were more familiar with the use of mobile devices than female participants. The results of the present study showed that gender, culture and religion are important factors that affect children’s experience to use new technological devices since three female participants were reluctant to use the tablet especially due to cultural and religious factors.

The rapid growth of ICT, especially the Internet, opens up the possibility of a new teaching and learning paradigm. The e-learning approach has internationally been deemed necessary to enable twenty-first century learners to adapt to global changes. This paper explores the potential of e-learning methods in conflict situation with mobility restrictions to enhance the educational process and to provide continuous learning for secondary students in Palestine. An interactive web-based application prototype called the Alaws Educational Network (AEN) developed providing a variety of methods for a student-centered learning process including virtual classrooms, a discussion forum and e-training courses. Students and teachers were asked to evaluate different aspects of the AEN in terms of usefulness, self-efficacy, willingness and challenges as indications of their ability and readiness to embrace e-learning. The results show that both students and teachers have positive attitudes towards the usefulness of e-learning methods but that they might not yet be ready to adopt them. This paper further highlights several challenges to implementing e-learning in public schools in developing countries and discusses the opportunities offered by e-learning technologies in a conflict context.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of students’ interaction, as well as their discussion patterns in an online course. The study took place in a large Midwestern University and 17 graduate students participated in the study. The primary data was obtained from students’ discussion forum postings. The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to describe and analyze the types of discussion and interaction. The researchers developed a coding scheme based on theories and models. The findings of the study reveal that computer mediated communication (CMC) has a positive potential to increase interaction among students. Furthermore, the findings confirm the effectiveness of asynchronous online environment in supporting online learning community. Participants were engaged in social interaction to build their knowledge. This study recommends two-way interaction for achieving sustainable discussion and promoting higher level of interaction.

The current paper proposes a heuristic instructional system design model (ISD) for designing online courses. The main goal of ISD model is to organize the process of designing effective online courses or self-study materials for both higher education and K-12. The current paper proposes a heuristic instructional system model based on Kemp's model; ASSURE Model, and Keller's model, in addition to using the LORI instrument to evaluate the quality of the learning objects. Designing instructional material for Distance Learning in higher education is inherently different than face-to-face learning. This is because of the intervention of temporal, psychological and geographical distance between teacher and learner via a Web-based interface. The current model introduces new strategies for designing online courses based on creating learning objects. Using motivational strategies design is an essential part in designing these objects to sustain learners' attention on online courses. This paper further highlights the benefits of using this model and various challenges in designing learning objects and incorporating several components of the model.