This study examines the effect of students' ethnicity on teachers' educational decision making. A total of 207 elementary school teachers from a large midwestern city participated in this study. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions. Each group was provided with a short case vignette describing a gifted child. One third of the teachers read a vignette describing a European American student, one third read a vignette describing an African American student, and one third served as a control group and received no information about the student's ethnicity. After reading the vignette, all participants were asked to respond to two questions. The results of this study indicated that the student's ethnicity did make a difference in the teachers' referral decisions.

This study examined the metacognitive awareness and reading comprehension strategies used by advanced proficiency ESL readers whose native language is Arabic. The study looked at the perceived use of reading strategies by Arabic native speakers in Arabic and English and their actual use of these strategies in reading academic texts in the two languages. The goal was to compare the reading strategy profiles of Arabic native speakers in English and Arabic through quantitative means using a self-report survey of strategy use (n=90), and qualitative means using a think-aloud protocol with a subset of the original sample (n=10). The topic and research questions are pertinent because they add to a relatively small database showing Arabic native speakers rely heavily on reading strategies in their L2 than when reading in their L1.

The digital divide affects equity in inclusive classrooms. It can create a gap in accessing information-communication-technology (ICT) resources or inequalities in skills and effective use. The present study is a qualitative SWOT analysis; it explores teachers' views on access and use issues that widen the digital divide in inclusive classrooms in the UAE. Six teachers from intermediate and secondary-level schools were interviewed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with ICT use and access in their inclusive classrooms. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed, using thematic analysis. The study found that, although all of the students, irrespective of disabilities, have equal access to ICT resources, various factorsincluding a lack of training, insufficient resources, heavy workloads, and a shortage of human resources-are expanding the digital divide in inclusive classrooms. This study discusses ways to overcome the challenges and implications; it recommends research avenues for future studies.

Reading in Arabic is a vital skill for academic success and progress in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) elementary schools and beyond. However, there is substantial evidence to suggest that a significant number of UAE children in lower elementary grades experience difficulties in reading school-related materials. Research in reading has clearly documented that the lack of phonological awareness skills is a major contributor to reading difficulties. The aims of the present study were to (a) identify phonological awareness deficits among UAE’s struggling first-grade readers, (b) provide intervention in the area of phonological awareness deficits through direct training, (c) determine whether phonological awareness direct training significantly increases phonological awareness abilities, and (d) determine the effect of gender on the reading intervention. The results of this study indicate that a direct training intervention program in the UAE positively impacted struggling first-grade readers’ phonological awareness abilities.

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