Saida Affouneh

• PhD
• Head of Faculty at An-Najah National University

Objective: The ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza exposed the Palestinian children to tremendous experiences of fear, pain, hunger, thirst, and deprivation of family and housing. the current paper embarks on exploring the different dimensions of the child's rights as perceived by the Palestinian children who live in Gaza during the Israeli attack on th...

With the end of school closures due to COVID-19, students had to return to school, where they were exposed to various learning pedagogies while adhering to health restrictions. In this era known as the "new normal," several organizations, such as UNESCO, have urged the investigation of effective learning strategies and methods to ensure positive le...

Background Study Several meta‐analysis studies have investigated the effects of mobile learning on learning performance. However, limited attention has been paid to pedagogy in mobile learning, making quantitative evidence of the effects of pedagogical approaches on learning performance in mobile learning scarce. Filling this gap can therefore help...

Connectedness to oneself, one’s emotions, one’s sensibilities, to one’s family, friends, colleagues, to strangers, to the task(s) at hand Shared identities and self-definitions Our multi-dimensional nature of relational connectedness Engaging in the ethical and reflexive Questioning practices and with openness to possibilities Recognising and celeb...

The advantages of using videoconferencing in education has been reported by several studies, and further emphasized during the covid-19 pandemic where all universities had to shift to online learning. However, despite this attention, it is found that scant studies tried to analyze and understand videoconferencing tools in education based on a given...

This book offers authors’ practices, initiatives, and experiences in sustaining their education during the pandemic from different countries, contexts, and political situations. It provides a future prediction for the education system in the world due to the transformation that happened in the post-COVID-19 era. Each chapter of the book is expected...

This study aimed at comparing between the Law and Shareea faculties in elearning during the Pandemic. The data was collected through a closed interview with faculty members of each faculty. It was found that the two faculties are new to elearning and have many challenges running online classes but they were able to overcome some of the challenges t...

The perceptions of students towards turning on their webcams during online learning are conflicting, where some of them support the idea while others are against it. Particularly, limited insights exist in the literature about how Arab students perceive turning on their webcams while learning. To cover this gap, the current study uses mixed methods...

This study explores students' awareness of their learning in light of educators' growing interest in “The learner’s voice”. This is a collaborative semi-structured research paper conducted by Ph.D. students enrolled in An-Najah University's “Contemporary Issues & Trends in Teaching & Learning” course. This interest stems from educators' efforts to...

الأهداف: هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى معرفة دور الألعاب التعليمية في تعويض الفاقد التعليمي في الأزمات في فلسطين وسوريا، والتحديات التي تواجه توظيفها، وسبل التغلب عليها. المنهجية: اعتمدت الدراسة على إجراء مقابلات شبه مبنية مفتوحة مع عينة الدراسة التي تكونت من عشرين شخصا تم اختيارهم بطريقة قصدية من التربويين وخبراء التعليم من فلسطين وسوريا، وتم سؤالهم عن دور...

الأهداف: هدفت هذه الدّراسة إلى الكشف عن أثر تدريب المعلّمين المستند إلى أنموذج تصميم تعليم لابتكار مصادر تعليم مفتوحة (أنموذج غوشه) على الكفايات المهنيّة للمعلّمين. المنهجية: استندت الدّراسة إلى التّصميم المتوازي المتقارب الذي تضمّن جمع البيانات الكميّة بالتّزامن مع النّوعيّة، وتحليلهما بشكل منفصل، والاعتماد عليهما معاً في تفسير النّتائج. اعتمد الب...

Literature reviews are considered a core research approach in developing new theories and identifying trends and gaps in a given research topic. However, the transparency level of literature reviews might hinder the quality of the obtained findings, thus limiting their implications. As transparency is one of the core elements when implementing Arti...

The current study aims to adopt a new model for creating innovative OERs. The model, called ‘GHOSHEH’, supports OERs through multiple learner-centered strategies with authentic assessments, and focuses on practice and reflection. The model is internally validated based on international experts’ reviews. Rogers’ process for diffusion of innovations...

This study examines the role of educational games in compensating for educational loss and their impact on students’ motivation towards learning during crises in Palestine and Iraq. Additionally, the study considers the challenges facing the employment of this strategy and ways to overcome these challenges. By performing separate open semi-structur...

Despite the extensive coverage in the literature, limited attention has been paid to the investigation of technostress among academicians who work under special circumstances, such as occupation, and might have different psychological states due to those conditions. To fill this gap, this study examined the level and factorial structure of technost...

In undertaking a review of archaeological field training at Palestinian universities, the authors set out to examine an area that had not previously been studied in Palestine. The objective was to be able to optimize field training for producing future Palestinian archaeologists, while creating an archaeological framework for protecting and promoti...

Call for papers https://helmeto2022.unipa.it/

Sporadic efforts have been made to introduce computational thinking methods into K-12 education in Palestine, but these have been held back by the challenging educational environment. However, a recent in-service training initiative, funded and organized by the Ministry or Education of Palestine, constitutes a significant effort to embed computatio...

Textbooks are essential components in the learning process. They assist in achieving educational learning outcomes and developing social and cultural values. However, limited studies provide comprehensive frameworks for comparing textbooks. Most have focused on a specific textbook perspective within a particular discipline. Therefore, this study us...

Sporadic efforts have been made to introduce computational thinking methods into K-12 education in Palestine, but these have been held back by the challenging educational environment. However, a recent in-service training initiative, funded and organized by the Ministry or Education of Palestine, constitutes a significant effort to embed computatio...

In undertaking a review of archaeological field training at Palestinian universities, the authors set out to examine an area that had not previously been studied in Palestine. The objective was to be able to optimize field training for producing future Palestinian archaeologists, while creating an archaeological framework for protecting and promoti...

This research aims to study the impact of COVID-19 on women who are working in higher education institutions in Palestine. In addition to examine the negative and positive aspects of their social professional and educational life. A sequential mixed methods approach was used to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on working women. The phase stage of...

Technology became the main pillar of our life. This importance has increased during the spread of COVID-19. This study came to reveal the challenges that face online learning during COVID-19 period. To achieve the study aims, the researchers used a qualitative approach to explore the factors and the teaching strategies that influence students, enga...

This multinational authored article presents the findings and recommendations of a three-year, European-funded project ‘OpenMed: Opening up education in South Mediterranean countries’, which brought together five higher education partners from Europe and nine from the South Mediterranean region. This was the first cross-European initiative to promo...

Please note that the following Acknowledgment was inadvertently omitted from this article as published.

Background For youth in geopolitically at-risk environments, such as Palestine, the issues related to Internet overuse and addictions are complex. Youth residing in the occupied territories of Palestine as in other highly militarized zones have high levels of environmental stressors (e.g., militarization, poverty, lack of employment opportunities,...

The provision of online learning experiences has been implemented by many universities worldwide to overcome several challenges, including inequality in education. However, this experience is still not a common approach in public universities in the Arab region. Furthermore, several research studies have pointed out that a country’s culture should...

Covid-19 pandemic has affected the educational systems worldwide, causing the closure of higher education institutions and schools in many countries in the world. It was a sudden transformation to distance learning. Educational institutions, teachers, students, and families were not ready to confront the challenges of this emergency case. This pape...

The aim of this study is to shed light on archaeological field training at Palestinian universities. A review of field training courses conducted during the summer months at Palestinian universities was undertaken in order to assess their effectiveness in providing students with skills in archaeological excavation techniques. The five universities...

Las universidades y los colegios de Palestina son innovadores y comprometidos. Diseñan e implementan una diversidad de metodologías y tecnologías para apoyar a los estudiantes y a los profesores, de tal manera que mejoren su rendimiento y sus competencias. Este número especial muestra un número de casos de estudio seleccionados con trabajo práctico...

The COVID-19 crisis affected the world globally in 2020 and caused school closure around the world, which promptly embraced online learning and raised ethical awareness for teachers and students. Online learning that is based on continuously gaining relevance in educational institutions, is challenged by lack of documented ethics that maintain righ...

The ethical aspect of the online learning is a major priority that has to be addressed by all stakeholders in the educational field. This study sheds the light on establishing a code of ethics for the online learning based on a Palestinian vision. A content analysis was used for related literature in order to drive themes and major topics, then a q...

This research aims to identify the best practices implemented by school teachers in Palestine online during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-depth the best practices through two focus group sessions composed of 24 different specialty teachers from different schools. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers were a...

This research aims to identify the best practices implemented by school teachers in Palestine online during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-depth the best practices through two focus group sessions composed of 24 different specialty teachers from different schools. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers were a...

This research aims to identify the best practices implemented by school teachers in Palestine online during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-depth the best practices through two focus group sessions composed of 24 different specialty teachers from different schools. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers were a...

This paper described the experience of developing a MOOC at An Najah National University and how it was transferred into a SPOC from the perspective of its team developers. Learners' responses and participation had been analyzed in order to understand its content. The data collected described the motivation for developing the MOOC and then using it...

The purpose of the study is to explore students’ and faculty members’ responses to universities’ migration from face-to-face to online instruction as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. To this extent, a qualitative approach was used for data collection and involved a number of qualitative methods: an open-ended question survey, focus gr...

Much concern has been raised of late regarding factors predicting vulnerability to addictive behaviors in general and most recently those related to the newly emerging area of risk of excessive and addictive patterns of use on the internet, including social media and gaming. The current study was designed to investigate the relationship between lev...

Education is a human right, and many initiatives have evolved around the world so that no child is left behind. This right has been violated several times during crisis situations in many countries especially for marginalised children. It is well-known that crises could emerge for several reasons, either sudden natural events such as earthquakes or...

The shutdown of schools and universities due to the pandemic has impacted the global education system as well as Palestine's education system. The future of education is unpredictable now, but new features have emerged. The education system in Palestine responded to the pandemic in different ways, and the current experience in schools and universit...

There is little research which explores middle school teachers' response to school closures in developing countries in times of crisis. This article presents a case study of Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine as developing countries which have suffered from violence for many years prior to the Covid-19 crisis. It focuses on how teachers in middle sch...

The purposes of this research are to evaluate virtues and strengths included in the new Palestinian textbooks and to assess the acquisitions of these virtues and strengths among the lower elementary students from their teachers' perspectives. The study benefited from the Positive Psychology framework to capture and assess those virtues and strength...

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a comprehensive approach that integrates those disciplines into a cohesive learning paradigm. Applying this approach is very important to modernize teaching strategies in order to provide the current competitive and skill-based job market. This study aims to investigate the impact of using...

The present study seeks to identify teachers' perceptions regarding STEM teaching professional development and to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder the success of teachers' professional development. The participants of the study were 35 teachers. A qualitative approach was used for data collection by conducting semistructured interview...

Open-source materials are being used for education in a variety of contexts, and educators can reuse them to achieve different objectives in both higher education and public education. Educators in Palestine are using open education resources for professional development to improve their performance and learning. There are different advantages to o...

According to UNESCO statistics, more than 1.5 billion children and youth in 188 countries around the globe have to stay home due to the closure of schools and higher education institutions following the Coronavirus outbreak (1). Many countries have shifted from traditional face-to-face methods to e-Learning in the light of the new states of emergen...

Digital professional development of teachers is the essence of implementing new initiatives in the Palestinian educational system. The purpose of using it is to qualify teachers to implement the initiative and to be able to change their traditional teachings ways. Different types of PD are used in the system including online training, face-to-face,...

Unlike most neighbouring countries in the world, teachers in the occupied territories of Palestine face extraordinary conditions and challenges. These are due to the continued Israeli occupation. This article reports on a large-scale survey of Palestinian teachers. It explores the impact of the occupation on the professional lives of the teachers a...

Digital professional development of teachers is the essence of implementing new initiatives in the Palestinian educational system. The purpose of using it is to qualify teachers to implement the initiative and to be able to change their traditional teachings ways. Different types of PD are used in the system including online training, face-to-face,...

Introduction : Le programme de formation “Education ouverte : Approches et fondements », produit dans le cadre du projet OpenMed avec le soutien d’Erasmus + de l’Union Européenne, vise à renforcer les capacités des universités des pays du Sud de la méditerrané sur l’éducation ouverte et sur les Ressources Educatives Libres (REL). Ce programme s'adr...

تهدف الدورة التدريبية "التعليم المفتوح: أساسيات ونُهج"، التي تم إعدادها في إطار مشروع أوبنمد الممول من برنامج إيراسموس + التابع لالتحاد األوروبي إلى بناء القدرات في مجال التعليم المفتوح والموارد التعليمية المفتوحة بين الجامعات في منطقة جنوب البحر األبيض المتوسط. وتستهدف الدورة في المقام األول المعلمين الجامعيين الذين لديهم الرغبة في معرفة المزيد عن...

OpenMed is an international cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + Capacity Building in HE programme of the European Union during the period 15 October 2015 - 14 October 2018 involving five partners from Europe and eight from South-Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan). The overarching goal of OpenMed is to raise aw...

p class="3">This paper will share Discover Palestine, an interdisciplinary Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) and the first MOOC to be created in Palestine, by the E-Learning Centre, Faculty from the Department of Geography, and Department of Tourism and Archaeology from An-Najah National University in Palestine. The paper traces the process of deve...

This paper will share Discover Palestine, an interdisciplinary Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), and the first MOOC to be created in Palestine, by the E-Learning Centre, Faculty from the Department of Geography, and Department of Tourism and Archaeology from An-Najah National University in Palestine. The paper traces the process of development of...

This paper highlights the model of using blended learning in engineering education. It starts with presenting to the status of e-learning at An-Najah National University, the largest university in Palestine, in general, and then moves to the case of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, at specific. The faculty was pioneering in st...

Worldwide fewer and fewer work tasks are done using paper and pen. This paper aims at investigating the implementation, trends and attitudes of Language Center faculty at ANNU towards CB exams, the challenges they face and their recommendation. the whole population of (40) faculty members were targeted. the results showed that this digital form of...

An-Najah National University (ANU), a Palestinian non-governmental public university located in Nablus in the northern part of Palestine, serves 17,807 students with 1020 professors in 11 faculties, and has been striving to integrate technology in its systems to keep up with the global flux of change in all aspects of life. For 10 years An-Najah ha...

إن التسارع المستمر في تطور تكنولوجيا المعلومات والاتصالات قد أثر على جميع مناحي الحياة تأثيراً إيجابيا في أغلب الأحيان، ولكن ذلك لم يخل أيضا من تأثيره تأثيراً سلبياً على بعض الجوانب وبالذات على أمن وأمان المواطن الفلسطيني.

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى تحليل واقع التعليم والتدريب المهني والتقني من منظور النوع الاجتماعي في مؤسسات التعليم والتدريب المهني في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة، اتبعت الدراسة المنهج الوصفيّ التحليلي لمناسبته لطبيعة هذه الدراسة، من خلال أدوات نوعية وكمية وهي المقابلة والاستبانة، بلغت عينة الدراسة (433) طالبأ وطالبة تم اختيارهم بطريقة طبقية عشوائية من مؤسسات ا...

This compendium was created by partners on the OpenMed project and edited by staff at the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University, UK, with significant contributions made by expert interviewees in international open education. It is aimed at: (a) Higher education practitioners with involvement or interest in open educational resources...

Background The coordination chemistry of cadmium(II) with diamine ligands is of particular interest. The most common structure around cadmium(II) center in their complexes is tetrahedral, that is due the octet rule obeyed. Nevertheless, five and six-coordinated complexes are also well known. Now a day, many cadmium(II) complexes with chelate ligand...

For some years, education has been high on the agenda of heads of state, policy makers and civil society, on the international, regional and national levels. Most reforms have emphasized the importance of teachers and, more specifically, the critical impact that teacher preparation is proven to have on student learning (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Rese...

Drawing on pictures, written sentences and interview contributions, this article explores some Palestinian children’s perspectives in order to gain insights into some children’s classroom fear in the light of its potential influence on learning. After presenting some existing research indicating a negative relationship between fear and young childr...

This article explores the concept of fear related to the authoritarian classroom and how children express its influence on their learning. Its investigations draw on the comments of four classes of primary-age pupils, two from a school near London, England, and two from boys’ and girls’ schools in the West Bank, Palestine. It is written by one Engl...

The findings of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (2003&2007) showed that Palestinian children achievement achievement in Science and Math is very low and this was also insured by the results of national tests. This study aimed at diagnosising the reality of Palestinian education for the period between1994-2009, and iden...

This article explores the impact of conflict and war on children's moral education, taking the case of Palestine as an example. It begins by giving a brief background to the emergency situation in Palestine and the impact this has on children. The second section reports research findings about the attitudes of Palestinian teachers, parents and youn...

Many reports have highlighted the vulnerability of children’s rights during times of conflict, and emergency education has come into being as a way of ensuring that children’s educational needs are met in crisis situations. But how far can emergency education provide meaningful values education? The first section of this article examines the concep...