Preparedness to teach : the perceptions of Saudi female pre-service mathematics teachers : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Being well prepared and experiencing a sense of preparedness for teaching is a key learning outcome of any initial teacher education (ITE) program. In order to understand more about the nature, development, and sufficiency of mathematics teacher readiness to teach, this study explores the phenomenon of preparedness. The aim of this study was to investigate how well Saudi pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel prepared to teach mathematics at secondary or middle schools (i.e. to explore their sense of preparedness to teach), delving into the nature and origins of that sense. The participants in the study were a sample of female mathematics PSTs (N=105), who were near the end of their teaching methods course in the final year of their 4-year education degree. The construct of preparedness was operationalized through a survey of PSTs’ efficacy to teach mathematics and an interview-based exploration of the factors influencing these perceptions. The data were collected over 4 months from 2015 to 2016. The quantitative data were analysed in SPSS and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The key findings of this study indicated that for the PSTs, being prepared to teach means having teaching efficacy, good knowledge for teaching, a sense of preparedness, and professionalism. However, PSTs are not fully aware of all the kinds of knowledge needed for being prepared. The study showed that PSTs were generally confident that they were sufficiently prepared to teach. They felt most confident in the areas of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) rather than pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings showed that the PSTs felt inadequately prepared in some aspects of their teaching roles, and needed more support and guidance from their university–school communities. The majority felt that classroom and behaviour management was the aspect in which they felt least prepared. They also expressed only a moderate level of general teaching efficacy (GTE), expressing a lower sense of efficacy relating directly to supporting students as learners. These were related to the disjunction between theory and practice that resulted from the two most influential factors shaping PSTs’ sense of preparedness and feelings of efficacy: the practicum experience and the ITE. Although these factors had positive impacts on their perceptions, they also expressed how the classroom environment, challenges, and school culture encountered during the practicum had lowered the PSTs’ sense of preparedness and teaching efficacy. Indeed, half of the PSTs felt that the school was neither sufficiently prepared nor sufficiently resourced to support PSTs learning the work of teaching. The challenge of closing the gap between theory and practice has led to PSTs’ desire to have more time in the mathematics methods course, as well as extra time in the practicum. It is hoped that the findings from this study concerning PSTs’ current perceptions about preparedness, combined with the suggestions for improving their levels of preparedness, will contribute to improvements in ITE and teaching quality in Saudi Arabia

Virtual Black Holes from Generalized Uncertainty Principle and Proton Decay

We investigate the formation of virtual black holes in the context of generalized uncertainty principle (GUP), as a mediator for a proton decay process which is forbidden by the standard model. Then, we calculate the lower bounds of the GUP deformation parameter by the experimental bound on the half life of the proton.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. Minor typos corrected. Published in EP

Sliding to predict: vision-based beating heart motion estimation by modeling temporal interactions

Purpose: Technical advancements have been part of modern medical solutions as they promote better surgical alternatives that serve to the benefit of patients. Particularly with cardiovascular surgeries, robotic surgical systems enable surgeons to perform delicate procedures on a beating heart, avoiding the complications of cardiac arrest. This advantage comes with the price of having to deal with a dynamic target which presents technical challenges for the surgical system. In this work, we propose a solution for cardiac motion estimation. Methods: Our estimation approach uses a variational framework that guarantees preservation of the complex anatomy of the heart. An advantage of our approach is that it takes into account different disturbances, such as specular reflections and occlusion events. This is achieved by performing a preprocessing step that eliminates the specular highlights and a predicting step, based on a conditional restricted Boltzmann machine, that recovers missing information caused by partial occlusions. Results: We carried out exhaustive experimentations on two datasets, one from a phantom and the other from an in vivo procedure. The results show that our visual approach reaches an average minima in the order of magnitude of 10-7 while preserving the heart’s anatomical structure and providing stable values for the Jacobian determinant ranging from 0.917 to 1.015. We also show that our specular elimination approach reaches an accuracy of 99% compared to a ground truth. In terms of prediction, our approach compared favorably against two well-known predictors, NARX and EKF, giving the lowest average RMSE of 0.071. Conclusion: Our approach avoids the risks of using mechanical stabilizers and can also be effective for acquiring the motion of organs other than the heart, such as the lung or other deformable objects.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Do the Standards of the National Commission for Academic Accreditation& Assessment (NCAAA) Lead to Organization Excellence

One way to meet the challenges in creating a high preforming educational institution is the approach of organization excellence. The National Commission for Assessment and Academic Accreditation (NCAAA) was established under the supervision of the Higher Education Council and Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia to assure the quality standards are applied. This research aims to examine the NCAAA standards based on well-known models for organization excellence that has been used in the education sector. Results show that the NCAAA should focus on some specific areas to assure that excellence of educational is instituted. These areas include: leadership, strategic planning and partnership

A Case Study of Academics’ Knowledge Sharing Motivations at Malaysian Public Academic Institutions

This qualitative case study aims to explore and describe the academicians’ knowledge sharing motivations in a Malaysian public university. A single case study was conducted with the aim to gather deeper insights on the knowledge sharing motivation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. A total of 15 renowned academicians were interviewed. Content analysis method was used to extract the knowledge sharing motivations from the qualitative data. The research results reveal seven important factors which motivate academicians to share their knowledge. These motivations are build reputation, acknowledgement (includes gain rewards, get a promotion, and recognition), to be knowledgeable, reciprocity, vision and mission, mentoring, personal beliefs (includes culture, sense of responsibility, and religion). The research comprehensive analysis and results would expand an area of knowledge sharing motivations among academicians in universities which may still theoretically and empirically not adequately explored and described

Globalized Management and Tacit Knowledge Role in Human Resources Development, “Franchise Companies as an Empirical

This study aimed to investigate the role of tacit knowledge in human resource development in franchise companies according to the globalized management concept through  identifying how far is the perception of employees, working in franchise companies in Jordan, of using tacit knowledge and its characteristics and how far its impact on human resource development is?. It aimed also to set a proposed conception for human resource development through using tacit knowledge approach in such companies according to the globalized management concept. Study problem was represented in an attempt to answer the following question: “Does tacit knowledge has a role and an impact on human resource development according to the globalized management concept in franchise companies? In this study, the descriptive analysis approach has been used, where the study population was consisted of franchise companies located in Amman. Study sample was a random sample of 15 companies where150 questionnaires were distributed, 120 questionnaires of which were collected and met the conditions for analysis, i.e.  The response rate was 80%. The study concluded a set of results as follows: tacit knowledge has in terms of use, application and characteristics an  impact and a role on  human resources development under globalized management concept in franchise companies, and the relationship between study variables is positive strong  one, and  there are no differences between study sample regarding the use of tacit knowledge, its characteristics and human resources development and globalized management concept due to the  following variables: (education level, years of experience, and job level) Keywords :Globalized Management, Tacit Knowledge, Human resources, and Franchise companie