Nail in the
tyre
v Page 26
Shanghai Film
Festival
v Page 28
Omani speech therapist in
US State Dept project
v Page 26
I don’t think I’m attractive:
Mila Kunis
v Page 28
Old heart test beats high-tech
diagnostic tools
v Page 27
Fea ures
Monday, June 18, 2012
New efficacy scale for Omani teachers
of students with learning disabilities
of the study emanates from
the fact that, in the Omani and
the Arabic literature on this
issue, little attention has been
given to LD teachers’ efficacy
beliefs. Further, the study will
provide a valid and a reliable
measure of efficacy beliefs.
So far, there are few measures
of efficacy beliefs suitable for
special need teachers. However, none of available measures are designed particularly
for LD teachers. The project is
in line with the growing interest of the Omani government
to promote the culture of research among citizens.
T
he Study Covers 50
per cent of LD Teachers
Two SQU researchers
are embarking on a research
project aimed at constructing
a valid and a reliable measure
of teachers’ efficacy beliefs
which would allow monitoring teachers’ competence
levels while working with
students of learning disabilities (LD). The construction of
this measure will be preceded
by identifying the factors that
influence teachers’ performance levels and their adaptation strategies when facing
teaching challenges. The multi-research design that incorporates both qualitative and
quantitative methods will allow the researchers to deeply
understand the psychological
processes that these LD teachers undergo when trying to
help LD students. These processes will be transmitted to
represent the two components
of efficacy beliefs, which are
assessment of personal teaching competence and analysis
of the teaching task.
Dr Said Sulaiman al Dhafri
and Dr Hussain al Kharousi,
of the Department of Psychology, College of Education, set
the objectives of their study
in two parts. First, they will
identify the characteristics of
LD teachers’ working environment, focusing on positive
(eg, administrative support)
and negative (eg, burnout)
aspects of school climate that
influence teachers’ performance and coping strategies.
One research question will be
addressed as to school-related
variables that characterise the
LD teachers’ working environment. The researchers will
also construct a new efficacy
beliefs scale that should capture the essence of LD teachers’ efficacy beliefs when
working with LD students.
This entails another research
question about the nature of
psychometric properties of the
new constructed LD teachers’
efficacy belief scale.
Teachers’ efficacy beliefs
form the core of teachers’
motivation to thrive and succeed. They represent teachers’ beliefs about their ability
to produce positive outcomes
in their student learning. Research has linked teachers’
efficacy beliefs to a variety of
teacher and student variables
that include student achievement, teachers’ attitude, job
satisfaction and commitment,
perception of school effectiveness, feeling of being ready to
teach, openness to innovation,
and willingness to work with
parents. This research con-
cludes that efficacy beliefs
play a major role in teachers’
achievement of educational
goals and persistence in their
complex job.
Compared with research in
regular teachers’ efficacy beliefs, little research has been
done in special need teachers’
efficacy beliefs and particularly with teachers of students
with learning disabilities.
One important reason for the
scant research in LD teachers
is the absence of a valid efficacy belief scale. Previous
research that has examined
LD teachers’ efficacy beliefs
within the population of special need teachers did not use
measures constructed based
on LD teachers’ challenges
and work conditions. Rather,
previous measures administered to these LD teachers
were general measures that
capture a general picture of
special need teachers or regular teachers. The use of such
measures might be misleading
because they do not account
for the contextual nature of efficacy beliefs.
Efficacy belief researchers
contend that efficacy beliefs
are context specific. These
beliefs vary from context to
context within the same work
environment. That is, a regular teacher may feel high levels of efficacy beliefs when
teaching 5th grade students
while feeling lower levels of
efficacy beliefs when entering a 9th grade classroom.
Consequently, LD teachers’
efficacy beliefs cannot be ex-
amined empirically by the use
of a general teaching efficacy
scale that is prepared for regular or other special need teachers. Alternatively, to measure
LD teachers’ efficacy beliefs,
a special measure should be
used that reflects the specific
characteristics of LD teachers’ working environment.
Practical Significance
As to the significance of
their work, the academics
report that it will contribute
to quality improvement in
the Ministry of Education by
examining the possible influence of teachers’ efficacy beliefs on teachers’ motivation.
By identifying the role of efficacy beliefs, the project will
provide feedback to the Ministry of Education to focus on
promoting its employees’ efficacy beliefs to decrease LD
teachers’ attrition.
“Efficacy beliefs are important factor for teachers’
performance. If a relationship
is approved between these
beliefs and other teachers’ related variables, then, teacher
education programmes may
incorporate some special
programmes that focus on
promoting these efficacy beliefs starting with pre-service
teachers in their college preparation programmes,” they
suggest.
LD teachers represent the
heart of special need programmes. If attention is given
to their experiences, possible
supporting programmes can
be designed. The significance
Population and Sample
The study population will
consist of all LD teachers
working in the Ministry of Education schools in all Omani
school districts throughout the
Sultanate of Oman. Based on
the 2011/2012 statistics, there
are more than 1,000 teachers
who are working in both first
(1-4 grades) and second cycle
(grades 5 to 10). The sample
will consist of 50 per cent of
the LD teachers.
For the qualitative part of
the study, a random sample
will be selected to examine the characteristics of LD
teachers’ working environment. For the quantitative
part, all Omani LD teachers
will be invited to respond to
working environment (Strauss
& Corbin, as cited in Williams, 1998). The researchers
will conduct both individual
and focus group interviews to
understand challenges that LD
teachers face when dealing
with LD students, problems
and difficulties, coping strategies, support they receive, and
type of relationships (with
parents, teachers and administrators).
The second part of the
project adopts a quantitative
approach to examine the psychometric properties of the
new constructed measure of
efficacy beliefs. A pilot sample of 30 LD teachers will
respond to the first version
of the new measure. These
participants will respond two
times to the questionnaire to
calculate test-retest reliability.
In addition, the questionnaire
reliability will be examined
through internal consistency
using Cronbach’s Alpha. In
order to examine its validity, a
group of related variables will
be examined.
These include teachers’
burnout, job commitment,
job satisfaction, and coping
strategies. Having these variables in the study will ensure
examining validity. Furthermore, factorial validity will
be examined through factor
analysis.
Sources of soil-borne plant
pathogenic fungi in farms
A
new study is under way to investigate the potential sources of fungal pathogens in Omani farms.
The project, conducted by Abdullah al Sadi at the
College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, seeks to
develop proper screening tools or methods to be used by
quarantine officers over the long-term for assessment of
sources by which plant pathogens enter Oman. Emphasis
will be placed on cucurbits and tomatoes, the top two vegetable crops in terms of production in Oman. Knowledge
of potential sources of fungi and the way by which they
circulate in farms should provide valuable information to
underpin the development of integrated disease management strategies which include prevention of introduction
of fungi into farms.
Dr Al Sadi said that tomatoes and cucurbits, muskmelon
and cucumber are considered the most important vegetable
crops in Oman, occupying almost 20 per cent of the area
devoted for vegetable production in the country. Although
the demand for these vegetable crops has increased over
the last years, production has been constrained by increasing disease problems. Fungal pathogens which survive in
soil, also named soil borne pathogens, represent the biotic
factors most limiting profitable production in soil based
systems. Losses due to some soil borne pathogens have
been reported to exceed 90 per cent of plants in some farms
in Oman. Soil borne fungal pathogens can attack seeds in
the soil and kill them or attack emerging seedlings and mature plants and result in wilt and subsequent death. This has
resulted into an excessive use of chemicals which results in
hazards to humans and the environment.
Arterial stiffness in diabetic kids
O
the project questionnaires. All
participants from first basic
cycle will be female teachers (as they are the dominant
in teacher population in first
cycle Omani schools). Those
female teachers are majoring in either math or Arabic
language. In the second basic
cycle (grades 5 to 10), the percentage of male and female
teaches will be equal and they
will be either teaching learning difficulties related to math
or Arabic language. The participants are expected to have
different experience years.
The project will cover all
teachers including first year
teachers to examine possible
differences in efficacy beliefs
levels based on experience.
Design and Variables
The first part of the study
follows a qualitative approach
to identify the characteristics
of LD teachers’ working environment. Grounded theory approach will be followed to uncover the core characteristics
that constitute LD teachers’
Initial Findings
Through analysing available qualitative data collected
in the first part of this project,
the researchers have found
that LD teachers’ efficacy beliefs consist of seven important components.
These include efficacy beliefs related to: 1) students’
learning evaluation, 2) designing teaching environment,
3) teaching LD students, 4)
counselling LD students’ parents, 5) students’ counselling
and behaviour shaping, 6)
managing personal characteristics, and 7) working with
others to support LD students’
learning. Items are generated to measure each of these
seven components and will be
administered to a representative sample of LD teachers in
the coming Fall semester of
2012.
Summing up, this is a new
endeavour which would shed
light on an important aspect of
the teaching process, namely,
the LD teacher’s self-efficacy
beliefs in the Omani context.
mani diabetic children are the focus of a new research
work by an SQU academic at the College of Medicine
and Health Sciences. The study is designed to measure
aortic and carotid intima-media thickness (aIMT, cIMT) and
arterial stiffness indices in Omani children with type 1 diabetes
mellitus in correlation with classical cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.
Dr Saif Abdullah al Yaarubi, reflecting on his work, said
that atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, is a long process that begins in childhood. The extent of atherosclerotic vascular change has been shown in children to relate to both the
number and intensity of risk factors, such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, vascular inflammation, obesity, family
history of accelerated coronary heart disease, physical inactivity or smoking. A reduction in these risk factors is associated
with an improvement in vascular abnormalities.
He adds that it has been demonstrated that there is a dramatic increase in the morbidity and mortality risk caused by
atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in young adult with type
1 diabetes compared with the nondiabetic population. In children with type 1 diabetes, the measurement of the cIMT as a
marker of incipient atherosclerosis may be clinically relevant.
Some studies have shown that children with type 1 diabetes
mellitus have a significantly greater cIMT than healthy control
subjects.