Learning Styles in Relation to Academic Performance in Middle School Mathematics

Research was conducted with middle‐school Kuwaiti children to assess the effectiveness of student learning styles in predicting students' academic performance in Mathematics. A group of middle school students who had received first quarter grades and enrolled in an after‐school tutoring program were studied, with half of the students in a traditional tutoring program and the other half in a Markova learning style‐tutoring program. Results show that the students in the experimental group (mean = 45.91), whose learning styles were accommodated for, performed better than the students in the control group who studied using the traditional method (mean = 43.80) of teaching. Gender, type of school attended, and area in which the students lived were all analyzed within the experimental group. The experimental group results show that the highest‐grade improvement in Mathematics was found to be predominately male students attending private institutions, and living in the urban areas of Kuwait. Students learn in a variety of ways, and their ability to attain this information also varies. A student's capacity to learn is impacted by the teacher's style of conveying information. Unfortunately, little attention has been given to how children think (Markova, 1992). Often, it is assumed that students' minds operate in the same way as the teacher's does. So much of student failure in school comes directly out of the larger failure to stimulate all those areas in the children's brains, stimulation which could open up their minds in so many ways (Markova, 1992). Student's academic performance is a matter of concern to educators, parents, and students themselves. The ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains, and retrieves information are collectively referred to as his or her learning style (Felder and Henriques, 1995). Unfortunately, the manner in which children acquire the information to perform well academically is too often ignored. Considerable research has examined the relationship between students' learning styles and their academic performance (Witkin, 1973; Gregorc, 1979; Claxton and Murrell, 1987; Brunner and Majewski, 1990; Schroeder, 1993; Klavas, 1993). These studies have consistently found that when learning styles were considered in the teaching process, academic performance increased. Schroeder states that accommodating the variations in learning styles could improve curricula and the teaching process (1993). The results of a study by Dunn et al. (1995) suggested that students whose learning styles are accommodated would be expected to achieve 75% of a standard deviation higher than students for whose learning style had not been accommodated. Many researchers have reported that students often classified as poor achievers, learning disabled, at‐risk youth, or dropouts were able to improve their academic performance when instruction was redesigned to respond to their particular learning style preferences (Stone, 1992; Perrin, 1990; Elliot, 1991; Andrews, 1990). Children suffer deeply when their natural way of thinking, of absorbing and processing information, of creating and expressing is criticized, mocked, or ignored (Markova, 1992). However, learning efficiently empowers children to gain confidence since many believe they have learned a skill only after they can perform it easily. Markova acknowledges that many approaches to understanding individual differences include something about the fact that most of us have one sense we are most comfortable using in the learning process. Understanding these patterns of processing information is crucial to finding the most effective ways to educate our children. Markova has identified six patterns of personal thinking, which are different combinations of the perceptual kinesthetic (K), auditory (A), and visual (V) channels. He posits that information is first received by the conscious mind, sorted by the unconscious mind and finally integrated by the subconscious mind (Markova, 1992). The six different combinations (KAV, KVA, AVK, AKV, VKA, and VAK) are referred to as personal thinking patterns and determine the most comfortable and effective way for each learner to learn.     

Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wādī Ḍebayʿān,northern Qatar

Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid‐Holocene sea levels at Wādī ?ebay?ān, north‐western Qatar (Al‐Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al‐Naimi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 excavations at Wādī ?ebay?ān revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al‐Naimi & Tetlow 2013).     

Review Article: Nationalisms,National Identities and Nation States: Gendered Perspectives

Books reviewed in this article: Nira Yuval‐Davis, Gender & Nation Lois West (ed.), Feminist Nationalism Rick Wilford and Robert L. Miller (eds.), Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition Cynthia Cockburn, The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict     

Electrochemical Characterization and Dating of Archaeological Leaded Bronze Objects Using the Voltammetry of Immobilized Particles

The application of solid state electrochemistry techniques for the characterization and dating of leaded bronze objects is described. Characteristic voltammetric signatures of copper and lead corrosion products were used as markers of more or less prolonged corrosion periods. The proposed methodology was applied to samples from the Roman archaeological sites of Valeria (Spain) and Gadara (Jordan), Roman and medieval sites in Xàtiva (Spain), and modern statuary exhibited outdoors, on the campus of the Universitat Politècnica of Valencia, Spain, covering a time interval between the fourth to second century bc and the 20th century ad . For such samples, the ratio between the signals for copper and lead corrosion products decreased monotonically with the corrosion time. This variation was modelled on the basis of thermochemical and kinetic considerations, the experimental data being consistent with a potential rate law for the corrosion process.     

The Economic Role of the State in the Classical Islamic Literature: The Views of Ibn Taimiyah

This paper explores the economic writings of Ibn Taimiyah, particularly his views on the economic role of the state. In so doing, it offers some explanations to the “great gap” puzzle posed by Schumpeter, and introduces the reader to a model of the medieval Arab and Islamic economic thoughts.     

Tribalism,Sectarianism, and Democracy in Kuwaiti Culture

The absence of legal equality and social justice among different ethnic groups plays a major role in making societies heterogeneous. However, during the process of nation building and the making of a new state, these differences among the population should usually give way to the buildup of a national identity that usually overcomes ethnic and religious differences. However, adhering to a single national identity does not necessarily mean neglecting ethnicity and religion, and the challenge becomes in keeping the balance between both identities, the national one that is related to being a citizen and the original one that deals with the citizen's background. Keeping this balance in a way that does not allow any identity to neglect the other is usually the answer to a stable society that lives in harmony among its components. Kuwait is an example of such a heterogeneous society that has divisions across tribal, as well as sectarian, lines. Therefore, it has been a stable political entity because the ruling elite usually take into consideration the need of all social components in this country. The ruling elite try to guarantee that all groups are satisfied and happy, a practice that has led to stability in this country ever since it was established.     

Perceptions of Academic Librarians in Kuwait of Library 2.0

This paper reports the results of a Web‐based survey designed to explore the perceptions of academic librarians in Kuwait of Library 2.0. It investigates their familiarity with Web 2.0 concepts, tools, services and applications as these relate to academic libraries, and also explores the obstacles to their use. A Web‐based questionnaire was administered to all of the librarians in four universities in Kuwait. It was found that these librarians have a low level of familiarity with Library 2.0 applications. Lack of training was found to be the most inhibiting barrier to their use. There is a positive correlation between their years of work experience and their perceptions of Library 2.0 applications in academic libraries but no correlation between their years of work experience and the barriers to its use. The results from this study contribute to an understanding of the effect of these technologies on academic librarians. They could also be used to create and support appropriate initiatives for the integration of these applications in academic libraries.