The impact of using stories in pre-school mathematics teaching in the Saudi Arabian context

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis study aims to investigate the impact of using stories in pre-school mathematics teaching in Saudi Arabia. An intervention was designed to promote interactive teaching and learning in eight classrooms across three private schools. Integral to the intervention was a series of five stories especially written by the researcher based around the same central characters; reflecting the cultural setting familiar to the children, and with a problem-solving storyline. The stories include a range of mathematical facts, skills and concepts applicable to young learners. Additional resource materials to accompany the stories were also designed and provided for the participating teachers. The researcher adopted a qualitative, constructivist, technical action research approach and three data collection tools were used: a bibliographical questionnaire for the teachers; pre- and post-interventions semi-structured interview schedules, and classroom observations. A thematic analysis of the pre- and post-intervention data was undertaken in order to monitor the impact of using the stories in the pre-school classrooms. The study considers the findings from the data in relation to both the teachers’ and the children's’ experiences pre- and post-intervention. In particular, the impact of the intervention on teachers’ subject knowledge, attitudes, confidence and classroom practice is discussed along with the impact on children’s engagement and enjoyment of mathematics; their mathematical understanding and thinking skills. The study concludes that using stories to teach mathematics had a positive impact on the quality of teaching and learning mathematics. Using the stories prompted a positive change in teacher’s and children’s attitudes and feelings towards mathematics; a greater understanding of key mathematical ideas; and an appreciation of the value and uses of mathematics in everyday life. The implications from the study highlight the importance of providing appropriate training for pre-school teachers (and elsewhere) and the pivotal role that using stories can play in ensuring high quality mathematics teaching and learningGovernment of Saudi Arabia represented by the Minister of Higher Educatio

The Competitive Analysis of Risk Taking with Application to Online Trading

Competitive analysis is concerned with minimizing a relative measure of performance. When applied to financial trading strategies, competitive analysis leads to the development of strategies with minimum relative performance risk. This approach is too inflexible. Many investors are interested in managing their risk:they may be willing to increase their risk for some form of reward. They may also have some forecast of the future. In this paper,we extend competitive analysis to provide a framework in which investors can develop optimal trading strategies based on their risk tolerance and forecast. We first define notions of risk and reward that are smooth extensions of classical competitive analysis. We then illustrate our ideas using the ski-rental problem, and analyze a financial game using the risk-reward framework

Assessing the Financial Impact of Mergers on Islamic Banks: A Case Study of Sustainable Finance and Maqasid Approach

Bank mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been on the rise globally, particularly in emerging economies where policies aimed at enhancing financial system stability have been driving restructuring in the banking sector. Qatar\u27s M&A market, while comparatively new, has distinct characteristics. A recent study aimed to determine the impact of M&A activity on the financial performance of Barwa Bank (later Dukhan Bank) in Qatar over six years from 2017-2022, covering three years before and three years post-merger. The study found that the bank\u27s liquidity, profitability, solvency, and investment ratios did not vary significantly, suggesting that M&A activity did not significantly affect the bank’s financial performance. Despite these findings, the study provides recommendations for future research and implications for theory and practice in this area. The results are discussed in the light of SDGs and Maqasid al Shariah, and which goals this merger support the most are analyzed. The paper’s discussion is expected to be a guideline for future mergers to be more sustainable toward 2030 goals

Daddy, What's Next? The Effect of Paternalist Leadership on Perceived Uncertainty in Organizations which had gone through Merger or Acquisition

AbstractLeadership has been subject to so many studies examining the high performing organizations in literature. Besides leadership style, cultural competitiveness is emphasized as another high performing factor in literature. Within the framework of merger acquisition, our study focuses on the notion that paternalist leadership negatively effects perceived uncertainty. The survey of this study is conducted on 118 white collar employees in performing banks which had gone through merger or acquisition in Turkey. The obtained data from the questionnaires are analyzed through the SPSS statistical packaged software. Analyses result revealed that the dimensions of paternalist leadership negatively effects perceived uncertainty. There is also some significant evidence on demographic variables. It was seen that male employees perceive their leaders more paternalistic than female employees. Employees are found to perceive more uncertainty than managers. Employees who have female managers perceive more paternalistic leadership than the ones who have male managers

Inspection and teachers’ emotions: An emotional evaluation of inspection

In the study, inspection is discussed in relation to the teachers’ feelings and emotions it creates before inspection, during inspection and after inspection process. Teacher’s emotions have been investigated intentionally as emotional side of education has been neglected. Education is closely related to the emotions of teachers, who are the most important producers of educational activities.Educational activities are reduced to standard activities and defined with simple explanations or single labels such as ‘good-bad’, ‘successful-unsuccessful’, ‘adequate-inadequate’. Inspection causes emotions to be neglected. Moreover, recently, it has been discussed that there are approaches and systems that suggest constant and multi-dimensional inspection instead of traditional inspection.Qualitative research model was used to understand of teacher emotions. A semi structured form was used for the 38 primary school teachers’ interviews. After teacher interviews were completed, we analyzed and compared the interviews. Participants’ expressions were checked in terms of correctness, potential validity and reliability problems such as misinterpretation.   The results of the study can be summarized as follows: There were no positive expressions related to the emotional impact of inspection on teachers. In addition, teachers felt that the inspectors were stressed, anxious, uneasy, accusatory, coercive, looking for defect and areas of unsuccessful teaching performance. Most of teachers reported that being observed and evaluated caused them to have negative emotions.Teachers’ perceptions about inspection are found to be negative. There are no statements that indicate there is a positive impression of inspection on teachers. The emotions that are experienced before inspection: pressure, hurry, stress, concern, tension, anxiety, worry, uncertainty; during inspection: stress, tension, anger, loss of strength, humiliation and lack of self-efficacy, and after inspection: relaxation, stress, sorrow, anger, fury, meaninglessness, disappointment. The single positive emotion that the teachers use to describe an inspection is “relaxation”

A new significant area: emotion detection in e-learning using opinion mining techniques

E-learning has sprung up much interest in corporations, educational institutions and individuals alike. Recently, it has been discovered that emotion can affect the elearning experience. However, understanding the emotional reaction of a student in a complicated learning environment is a mind boggling task. By detecting intense emotional experiences being exhibited by students, we intend to detect fluctuations in emotion as learning progresses. To achieve this, we present a conceptual emotion detection and analysis system for e-learning using opinion mining techniques

Kentsel lojistik ve destinasyon yeteneklerin turizme etkileri: Afyonkarahisar, Hatay ve Gaziantep gastronomi şehirlerinin karşılaştırmalı analizi

People migrate from rural areas to urban areas to have a better standard of living and education, healthcare and job opportunities. Along with trade and tourism, the high living standards of citizens are developing due to communication and transportation. The reason why gastronomy cities want to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network is that they want to increase the living standards of the city and country residents by taking the share they want from the tourism market in the world. Therefore, logistics and destination competences are important for gastronomy cities. In the literature review, it was seen that there was no study on the relationship and effects of urban logistics and destination capabilities with gastronomy cities. For this reason, this study was conducted as a comparative research on the logistics and destination capabilities of gastronomy cities. It is seen that Afyonkarahisar ranks first in gastronomy and destination capabilities. However, It is seen that Afyonkarahisar ranks 10th in the life index of Turkey. Hatay ranks the first in the life index. Gaziantep and Afyonkarahisar, which are gastronomy cities, have the same ranking in livability. Furthermore, considering sustainability, Afyonkarahisar ranks first with the highest score. In terms of mobility, Gaziantep is the first and Afyonkarahisar ranks the second.İnsanlar daha iyi bir yaşam standardı, eğitim, sağlık hizmetleri ve iş fırsatlarına sahip olmak için kırsal alanlardan kentsel alanlara göç ederler. Ticaret ve turizmin yanı sıra iletişim ve ulaşım sayesinde vatandaşların yüksek yaşam standartları gelişmektedir. Gastronomi şehirlerinin UNESCO Yaratıcı Şehirler Ağına katılmak istemelerinin nedeni, dünyadaki turizm pazarından istedikleri payı alarak şehir ve ülke sakinlerinin yaşam standartlarını yükseltmek istemeleridir. Bu nedenle lojistik ve destinasyon yetkinlikleri gastronomi kentleri için önemlidir. Literatür taramasında, kentsel lojistiğin ve destinasyon yeteneklerinin gastronomi kentleri ile ilişkisi ve etkileri üzerine bir çalışmaya rastlanmamıştır. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada, gastronomi şehirlerinin lojistik ve destinasyon yetenekleri üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir araştırma olarak yapılmıştır. Afyonkarahisar'ın Türkiye‟nin yaşam endeksinde 10. sırada yer aldığı görülmektedir. Yaşam endeksinde Hatay birinci sırada yer alırken, Afyonkarahisar, gastronomi ve destinasyon yeteneklerinde birinci sırada yer almaktadır. Gaziantep ve Afyonkarahisar gastronomi şehri yaşanabilirlik açısından aynı sıralamaya sahiptir. Sürdürülebilirlik açısından Afyonkarahisar gastronomi şehri en yüksek puana sahip olup ilk sırada yer almaktadır. Hareketlilik açısından Gaziantep birinci, Afyonkarahisar ikinci sıradadır

The mandibular angle in osteoporotic men

Objectives: Osteoporosis induces the reduction of bone mass and screening for low bone mineral density (BMD) by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) has been the current gold standard test to determine osteoporosis. Panoramic radiography is widely used in dentistry for routine examination of jaws. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the mandibular angle (MA) values and the vertebral bone mineral density (v-BMD) in 20 osteoporotic men. Study design: In panoramic radiograms of osteoporotic men, the means were calculated for the mandibular angle values measured in the right and left mandible. v-BMD values were also calculated by manual analysis of DXA scans. The correlation between these variables was assessed. Results: A negatively significant correlation was found between the MA and v-BMD. Conclusions: The size of the mandibular angle decreases when osteoporosis increases. It is suggested that the mandibular angle may be useful in clinical dental practice to identify osteoporotic men with previously undetected low bone mineral density

Florid cemento-osseous dysplasia : a case report

Cemento-osseous dysplasias are a group of disorders known to originate from periodontal ligament tissues and involve, essentially, the same pathological process. They are usually classified, depending on their extent and radiographic appearances, into three main groups: periapical (surrounds the periapical region of teeth and are bilateral), florid (sclerotic symmetrical masses) and focal (single lesion) cemental dysplasias. Florid cemento-osseous dysplasia clearly appears to be a form of bone and cemental dysplasia that is limited to jaws. Patients do not have laboratory or radiologic evidence of bone disease in other parts of the skeleton. For the asymptomatic patient, the best management consists of regular recall examinations with prophylaxis and reinforcement of good home hygiene care to control periodontal disease and prevent tooth lose. Management of the symptomatic patient is more difficult. At this stage, there is an inflammatory component to the disease and the process is basically a chronic osteomyelitis involving dysplastic bone and cementum. Antibiotics may be indicated but may not be effective. A case of florid cemento-osseous dysplasia occurring in a 47-year-old Caucasian female is reported which was rare in regard to race and sex