The relationship between attitudes and achievemet in SL ( a case study of students at the University of Qatar)

Attitudes and motivation are considered important factors in Language Acquisition (LA). Learners' attitudes towards speakers ofTarget Language (TL) and the TLitselfhave been the subject of intensive research in applied linguistics and related disciplines. However, the results are not clear. Spolsky (1969), Gardner and Lambert (1972)1 ,De-klerk and Bosch (1193) and Abu-Rabia (1995) have found that integrative attitude is positively related to achievement in language proficiency. An integrative motive is employed when learners wish to integrate themselves within the culture of the second language group, to identify themselves with and become a part ofthat society. The conclusion we may draw from the studies noted above is that integrative attitudes may indeed be an important requirement for successful language learning. Moreover, some teachers and researchers have even gone so far as to claim that integrative attitude is absolutely essential for successful SLL. However, Oller et al (1977) find instrumental attitude to be the best predicator of language of proficiency in an SL setting. Lukmani (1972), and Gardner (1991) suggest that there are conditions under which instrumental motivation leads to more successful SLL than integrative motivation does. Gardner and Lambert have introduced the concept of instrumental motivation in which the learner is motivated to learn an L2 for utilitarian purposes, (e.g. furthering a career, improving social status or meeting an educational requirement). More research on the interrelationships of these factors seems to be needed

Factors Shaping Qatari Students’ Career Expectations in STEM, Business or Public Sector Fields

The purpose of this study was to identify factors shaping career expectations of Qatari students. The study examined individual and motivational variables likely to influence career expectations in STEM fields, the public sector, and business. This study used survey data of 802 Qatari students and 543 parents from the 2012 Qatar Education Study. The results suggest a varied, context-dependent portrait of career expectations. The results indicate that the education system in Qatar influenced students’ STEM career expectations and demonstrate that operating a private business or seeking a job in the public sector continues to rival their expectations about STEM careers in Qatar. The paper concludes with some important implications for policy as well as recommendations for further study and research

Factors Shaping Qatari Students’ Interest in STEM, Business or Public Sector Careers

In this article we examine interest in a STEM career in Qatar not in isolation, but as one of numerous career choice options. In particular, we contrast interest in a STEM career with the culturally-relevant alternative career choices of public sector employment and business occupations. We also explore the degree to which factors known to influence career interest in previous studies conducted outside the region – and in particular, the U.S. and Western Europe – apply in Qatar. We aim to answer the following questions: (1) What motivates students to indicate interest in a STEM over occupations in business or the military? (2) To what extent does the education system in Qatar shape interest in a STEM career

دراسة التعليم في قطر 2012 : تقرير دافعية الطلاب و مشاركة أولياء الأمور

This report examines the views of children, parents, teachers, and administrators toward K-12 education in Qatar. It is based on results from the Qatar Education Study (QES), which is a series of surveys conducted by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) in December 2012. Together, the surveys included more than 4,200 participants from 39 preparatory and secondary schools.يتناول هذا التقرير آراء الطلاب وأولياء الأمور والمعلمين والإداريين حول نظام التعليم في قطر من الصف الثامن و حتى الصف 12( المرحلتان الإعدادية والثانوية). يعمتد هذا التقرير عىل نتائج دراسة التعليم في قطر (QES )وهي سلسلةّ من المسوح أجراها معهد البحوث الاجمتاعية والاقتصادية المسحية (SESRI )في شهر ديمبسر 2012 و قد شملت المسوح مجتمعة أكثر من 4200 مشارك من 39 مدرسة إعدادية وثانوية

A comparison of microleakage of fissure sealants following three different application techniques :

PLEASE NOTE: This work is protected by copyright. Downloading is restricted to the BU community: please click Download and log in with a valid BU account to access. If you are the author of this work and would like to make it publicly available, please contact [email protected] (MSD) --Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education, Dubai, 2011 (Pediatric Dentistry).Includes bibliographic references: leaves 86-95.Purpose: The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the microleakage of fissure sealant placed on the occlusal surface of premolars using three different application techniques. Methods: A total of ninety four extracted sound human premolar teeth were assigned in this in vitro study. The samples were kept in distilled water for not more than a week and then randomly were distributed into three different test groups with 30 teeth in each; (A) teeth in the first group were treated with 37% phosphoric acid etching and Clinpro fissure sealant; (B) teeth in the second group were treated with 37% phosphoric acid, single bottle dentin bonding agent and fissure sealant; (C) teeth in the third group were treated with self etch adhesive and fissure sealant. Groups B and C were further divided equally into two subgroups based on light curing of dentin bonding agent and self etch adhesive prior to the application of sealant. A negative control of 2 teeth and a positive control group of 2 teeth were included to confirm that the basic conditions of the experiment are able to produce negative and positive results. Samples were thermocycled, stained with 5% methylene blue, sectioned and examined for microleakage under the stereomicroscope with a magnification range of X30 to X40. To determine the most appropriate time for maximum dye penetration, a pilot study of 12 teeth was conducted. Groups were compared using Pearson Chi square analysis. Results: No dye penetration was observed in 16, 7, and 11 teeth for groups A, B, and C respectively. Statistically significant difference was found in microleakage between the use of different application techniques (P[less than] 0.01). Etch and sealant group exhibited significantly higher microleakage compared to the other groups. Conclusion: The application of a bonding agent layer prior to a sealant afforded less microleakage than when no bonding agent was used. Furthemore, the separate curing of the bonding agent resulted in significantly less microleakage (P[less than] 0.01). Clinical trials should be performed to evaluate the performance of these techniques before definitive conclusions can be drawn

Qatar Education Study 2015: Students' Motivation and Parental Participation Report

The prosperity of a nation is due in part to the investments it makes in education, the value of which cannot be overstated. Indeed, education is the catalyst for improved socio-economic opportunities for a country such as Qatar, a country that has taken long strides in the development of its system of education. Over the past two decades, the desire for quality education has been very much in evidence and it is now regarded as a central plank in the economic, social and cultural development of Qatari society. Successive governments view it as strategically intertwined with national planning. Striving for excellence in education, Qatar committed significant financial investments to revamp and modernize its system of education in order to prepare citizens for the challenges of modern society. The intent here was to transform Qatar into a modern knowledge-based economy, as outlined in the National Development Strategy 2011 and Qatar National Vision 2030. Since His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s call for reforming the education system in 2002, discernible attempts have been made to improve the quality of education in Qatar, which now boasts excellent capital facilities and an enviable studentteacher ratio. Despite these efforts, however, a perception remains that the education system is still not meeting the needs of many and is deemed unresponsive by some. The QES 2015 constitutes the second cycle of a similar QES survey carried out in December of 2012. The impetus for this second round of the study stemmed from the need to see whether certain aspects of education have improved since the administration of the first cycle conducted in 2012. The QES 2012 was implemented at a time when the National Development Strategy (NDS) and the Education and Training Sector Strategy 2011-2016 (ETSS)4 , both launched in 2011, were in their early phases of implementation. Therefore, the present cycle of the QES, based on data collected towards the end of 2015, is a real opportunity to revisit and evaluate various aspects of schooling and to investigate the changes that have taken shape since the implementation of the QES 2012. Indeed, the findings from the QES 2012 disclosed a rather low level of motivation among a large proportion of students across schools in Qatar, and even more so in the case of Independent Schools which most Qatari children attend. As such, it appears that the Independent Schools system, government-financed schools which replaced public schools that had existed prior to 2002 and once thought of as model schools for Qatari citizens5 , did not live up to the high expectations placed in them. The present report is an opportunity to assess any improvements that may have taken place since 2012 in terms of students’ motivation and satisfaction with the preparatory and secondary Independent School system as well as with Other Schools in the country. The information provided in this report is intended to inform educational strategic planning and decision making in Qatar. It also provides an overview of stakeholders’ priorities, specifying potential areas of intervention, as well as indications that may help guide the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and other education entities in Qatar. Now more than ever 12 before, it is important that decision makers in education act on what students, parents, teachers and school administrators say, and take into account what is important to them. The report gives a summary of the key results from data gathered from the following four surveys: 1. a survey of 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th grade students, 2. a survey of parents, 3. a survey of teachers, and 4. a survey of school administrators. The survey was conducted in October – November 2015 and involved large samples of Qatari and non-Qatari participants across all different school types in Qatar. The report is structured as follows: 1. Section One discusses the results concerning students’ motivation and satisfaction, 2. Section Two focuses on the results pertaining to student plans for higher education and careers in knowledge economy fields, 3. Section Three provides an overview of the results regarding parental involvement in their child’s education, and 4. Section Four summarizes the findings related to teacher and administrator attitudes toward the school system. In each of these sections, the findings regarding the views, perceptions and attitudes of different stakeholders are presented. They are accompanied by four sets of recommendation pertaining to each of these policy–relevant areas and extrapolated from the analysis of the dat

Trusted News Sources’ Measures and their Relationships to Social and Public Attitudes: An Analysis of the First Annual Omnibus Survey of Life in Qatar

An overwhelming majority (77 percent) of Qatari Nationals reported television as their most trusted local news source (87 percent for Arab/regional news and 89 percent for international news), and 80 percent rated the state-owned Aljazeera Network as “very objective” in its news coverage. With such a broad appeal, television news has the potential to shape the social, political and economic beliefs of Qatari citizens. Using data from the first Omnibus Survey of Life in Qatar, this study examined the most and least trusted news sources among Qataris as well as the country’s resident expatriates. The relationship between preferred news sources and attitudes toward social and public issues are explored, and the implications of television as a trusted news source is discussed

Civic life and democratic citizenship in Qatar: Findings from the First Qatar World Values Survey

The present study examines the Arab nation that has remained least affected by the regional upheaval that has gripped much of the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of 2011: the Gulf state of Qatar. Using previously unavailable data from the inaugural Qatar World Values Survey administered in December 2010, we explore the political orientations of ordinary Qatari citizens. Specifically, we extend several recent empirical analyses that suggest a conditional relationship between civic participation and democratic political orientations in Arab and other non-Western societies. As in other non-democratic contexts, we find, in Qatar citizen involvement in societal organizations is not associated with higher appreciation for democracy, nor again with those values and behaviors thought to be essential to it. Rather, associational life in Qatar is simply an extension of traditional society and the prevailing regime, with those most involved being those who derive the most benefit and who would thus stand to lose most from any revision of the political status quo. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013. https://experts.umich.edu/en/publications/civic-life-and-democratic-citizenship-in-qatar-findings-from-the

Civil society and democratization in the Arab Gulf

qatar has been a notable exception to the wave of popular political mobilization that has struck Arab countries since January 2011. This is particularly so given the prominent role of its state-owned television station Al Jazeera in supporting many — though not all — of the uprisings. Why has Qatar been seemingly immune to the protest wave? Its wealth matters, of course, but other wealthy countries like Libya and Bahrain have experienced turmoil. Some new insights into this question can be found in the Qatar World Values Survey (QWVS), an important survey of Qatari public opinion administered in December 2010 on the eve of the Arab revolts

دراسة التعليم في قطر : دليل المرافق 2012

This report examines the views of students, teachers and administrators toward K-12 education in Qatar. It is based on results from the Qatar Education Study (QES), which is a series of surveys conducted by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) in December 2012. In the spring of 2014 the school operators in each of the original 39 schools that participated in the QES were asked to complete a Supplemental Facilities Questionnaire (SFQ) to enhance information collected in the original QES.يتناول هذا التقرير أراء الطالب والمعلمين والإداريين حول التعليم من الروضة إلى الصف 12 في دولة قطر. يعتمد هذا التقرير على نتائج دراسة التعليم في قطر وهي سلسلة من الدراسات المسحية قام بها معهد البحوث االجتماعية والاقتصادية المسحية في شهر ديسمبر من عام 2012 .وفي ربيع 2014 طلب من أصحاب تراخيص المدارس الـ 39 األصلية التي شاركت في دراسة التعليم في قطر تعبئة استبيان تكميلي خاص بالمرافق لتعزيز المعلومات التي تم جمعها في الدراسة الأصلية للتعليم في قطر. وقد شمل االستبيان إجمالا أكثر من 4200 مشارك من 39 مدرسة إعدادية وثانوية