Reported pedagogical practices of faculty in higher education in the UAE
- PDF / 655,288 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 95 Downloads / 170 Views
Reported pedagogical practices of faculty in higher education in the UAE Melissa McMinn1 · Martina Dickson2 · Shaljan Areepattamannil2 Accepted: 19 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Higher education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a relatively modern phenomenon, but it is a sector which has experienced immense growth since the first national university opened in 1976. A wide diversity of faculty, in terms of experience, nationalities, and qualifications, is employed to teach in the country’s higher education institutions. In this article, the faculty’s reported pedagogical practices taking place in universities across the country are reported. A well-established, pre-developed survey tool was used to gather quantitative data which ultimately classifies responses as employing more student-centric or teacher-centric approaches. A total of 130 participants, drawn from multiple institutions, were surveyed. The findings indicated that overall, faculty tended to adopt a studentcentric approach to teaching significantly more frequently than a teacher-centric approach. However, there were significant variations in the adoption of student- or teacher-centric approaches by faculty gender, subject specialism, and presence of a vocational teaching qualification. Female faculty adopted a student-centric approach to teaching significantly more frequently than did their male counterparts. However, STEM faculty adopted a teacher-centric approach to teaching significantly more frequently than did their non-STEM peers. Further, faculty who did not hold vocational teaching qualifications also adopted a teacher-centric approach to teaching significantly more frequently than did their peers who held vocational teaching qualifications. Keywords Higher education · United Arab Emirates · Faculty · Pedagogical approaches
Introduction Higher education is a relatively modern phenomenon in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The first national comprehensive university in the UAE was founded in 1976 by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, followed by the establishment of three further national universities, in 1987, 1988, and 2007, respectively. Since the unification of the UAE in 1971, the country’s leadership has actively supported and impressed * Melissa McMinn [email protected] 1
Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
2
Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Higher Education
upon its people the importance of education. In this article, the reported pedagogical practices taking place in universities in the country are surveyed and examined using a well-established, pre-developed survey tool. Responses are classified as more studentcentric or more teacher-centric approaches to pedagogical practice. This research contributes to the international base of studies of pedagogical practice in higher education which are already in existence, but which tend to have taken place among fairly nationally homogenous settings, e.g.,
Data Loading...
