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Writing a research paper as a graduation requisite by university students is an important part of university education. It is not a simple task for most university students who face several problems during writing the graduation project. Several kinds of research have been conducted onrecognising the challenges and problems that face students in academic writing, but to the researcher's best knowledge, no study has been conducted on the problems faced in writing a graduate research paper by Jordanian undergraduate students of the English Language and Literature major. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the academic writing challenges and difficulties encountered in writing graduation papers by EFL undergraduate students in the Department of English at Alzaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ). The data for the study was collected through distributing a questionnaire of three parameters: attitude about writing a research paper, methodology challenges, and background knowledge about research. The questionnaire is based on identifying the causes of the students' challenges in writing their graduation papers. The respondents were 45 undergraduate students of the English Language and Literature. The findings revealed that the most important problems were lack of an academic prerequisite of teaching the techniques of how to write a research paper, lack of knowledge of research paper writing process, lack of resources, lack of the methodology, etc. Thus, for these reasons, the present study attempts to present suggestions and recommendations to overcome such hurdles faced by graduate students in writing their graduation research papers.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Arab World are still in their infancy. Many Arab countries are now starting to launch their MOOC platforms; however, there are only a few who have actually implemented such systems. This paper will explore online learning, in particular the rise of MOOCs around the world and their impact on the Arab World. The purpose of this paper is to give a true picture of the development of the first MOOC platforms in the Arab World. It will analyse in detail the concept, definitions, background, and types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs), as well as the main MOOCs platform in the Western and Arab worlds, and a timeline of the development of MOOCs. It will then observe the status of MOOCs in the developed world, opportunities in the Middle East, and the influence of Western MOOCs on the Arab world, from many perspectives, e.g. educational, religious, cultural and social.

How has education for refugees been shaped by broader dynamics of educational privatization? This paper argues that the invoking of the 'refugee crisis' narrative has been a crucial force in facilitating the privatization of this sector. The urgency of crisis helps to naturalize private actors' participation in refugees' education as equal partners to host governments, multilateral agencies, and civil society. Consistent with Stephen Ball's (2012) distinction between privatization in and of education, the privatization of refugee education also advances through two dimensions: the creation of a new space -- a new 'market' -- for private actors, and the infusion of market and business principles such as 'innovation' into all aspects of education. The crisis narrative has created a new 'horizon of taken-for-granted' (Hall, 1993), where it is simply natural that private actors must participate in the assumption of the traditional responsibilities of the state in providing education for refugees.

Study aims to determine whether the university students' scores in the compulsory Islamic culture course test on a selected sample differ across the paper-and pencil test (PPT) & computer-based test (CBT) versions, and to reveal the relationship between gender and the student's level of performance in the test. Therefore, the study evaluated the comparability of two versions of a compulsory Islamic culture course test (PPTs) and (CBTs). The importance of conducting the study in Jordan stems from the fact that public and private universities have begun to move away from the traditional patterns of tests such (PPTs) and went towards (CBTs). In addition to detecting which model gives the best in the output and has the characteristics of the psychometric test, furthermore, indicates whether there were any differences between males and females, the study sample consisted of 120 individuals, 67 females and 53 males from scientific, health and humanities colleges. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two versions provided to students CBT and PPT with 0.36 moderate correlation indicators in the pre-CBT test, no significant differences between the males and females in the CBT test results. Therefore, on the basis of the results of the present study, the CBT test is an option and a preferred alternative for regular students of the bachelor's level at the University of Jordan.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing literature concerning the domains of accreditation and quality assurance in various sectors. Accreditation and quality assurance play vital roles in ensuring the credibility, transparency, and effectiveness of educational institutions, healthcare facilities, industries, and other domains. This paper synthesizes the findings of numerous studies, focusing on the conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and outcomes associated with accreditation and quality assurance processes. The review encompasses a wide range of perspectives, including historical context, best practices, challenges, and advancements in accreditation and quality assurance. Through a systematic analysis of these scholarly works, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of accreditation and quality assurance across diverse sectors and shed light on potential future research directions.

One of the major impacts of hearing disability that hinders the individual's effective participation in society and full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms is his/her ability to communicate with others. Sign language is one of the main methods of communication used by people with hearing disability. Therefore, improving access to sign language services and increasing the availability of interpreters contribute to better inclusion and integration of people with hearing disability into society. This paper explores the experience of a Jordanian university that launched a pioneering initiative by offering a sign language course for its students. It reports the findings of a study that evaluated this initiative from the perspective of students. Feedback was recorded during unstructured interviews with 23 student participants who had taken the course. The paper concludes that universities can play a significant role in integrating people with disabilities into the education system and promoting their participation in society.

The use of language in digital discourse for marketing has rapidly developed through mass media. This paper elucidates how advertisers employ various pragmatic strategies to persuade the recipient to act (behavior) by purchasing specific products. This study utilized different theoretical and conceptual frameworks (Theory of Reasoned Action and Aristotle's Models of Persuasion) to address the shortcomings of the social cognitive approach in studying persuasion, to investigate how language of advertisements can influence the recipient's thinking of a product from a psychological perspective. Guided by the principles of TRA, the present study argues that persuasion in advertisements is structured by three dimensions: attraction (through language features and appeals), evaluation (through beliefs, attitudes, and intention), and behavior (social acceptance or reluctance). This study revealed eight persuasion techniques employed by advertisers including demonstrating distinction, honoring commitment, expressing authority, hyperbolizing, glorification, providing proofs, expressing solidarity, and proving success. Showing distinction and Honoring commitment were the most frequently used strategies. Additionally, the study found that strategies of persuasion involved ethical, logical, and emotional appeals for their large effect on the recipient as they contribute to the recipient's positive evaluations. Appealing to reasoning (logic) is the most common one in slogans.

The present work explores the potential role of smartphone addiction in mediating the correlation between self-efficacy and Psychological Escapism among university students. The paper's stratified convenience sample comprised 195 students from the World Islamic Sciences and Education University. Validated scales measuring self-efficacy, psychological escapism, and smartphone addiction were utilized for data collection. The findings indicate that smartphone addiction, self-efficacy, and psychological escapism were all found at moderate levels. Moreover, the presence of smartphone addiction as a mediating variable resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of explained variance in the level of psychological escapism attributed to self-efficacy (31%), compared to the absence of this mediating variable (22%). Additionally, while gender and academic year have significant effects on psychological escapism, the demographic elements investigated did not demonstrate any significance with self-efficacy or smartphone addiction among college students. Accordingly, this research points out the importance of developing curative and preventive counseling programs aimed at reducing smartphone addiction and mitigating the level of psychological escapism by enhancing self-efficacy among college students.

The Interest in blending soft skills along with the cognitive ones in the EFL teaching field originates from dimensioning the drastic changes facing the world with the hit of the COVID-19. Eventually, EFL teachers are confronted with hostile situations that challenge individuals' ability to adapt to the work environment. Employers and teachers in this particular field need to recognize this reality because they should be prepared to transform the classical approaches of education and respond by teaching strategies to mitigate these difficulties. Through the quantitative method, a questionnaire and a survey that 121 experienced employers and 250 teachers have responded to, this paper provides EFL teachers with a clear perception about their required soft skills acquisition degrees that are demanded by employers in the EFL teaching field. The results showed a strong availability degree in Communication and Time management. It also showed a significantly positive correlation between the acquisition of the in-demand soft skills and the EFL teachers' performance. Moreover, this paper contributes in providing employers some practical strategies and tools to be utilized to enhance their EFL teachers' soft skills acquisition, thus, enhancing the teaching-learning process.

This paper focuses on the use of video technology (VT) in Jordanian schools. The Jordanian Ministry of Education (MoE) has endorsed the use of VT in schools in recent times thus the number of schools employing VT in Jordan is expected to increase dramatically in the near future. One of the existing pedagogical frameworks that can help in understanding the integration of VT into teaching is TPACK. However, TPACK does not provide sufficient insight or understanding into the integration of this specific form of technology. Therefore, this paper presents the conceptualization of a novel modified theoretical framework specific to VT, namely Video-TPACK, which is adopted from TPACK. This paper then introduces a novel collection of pedagogical processes that can be integrated into Video-TPACK, namely Video-Based Pedagogical Processes (VBPPs). Engaging the VBPPs may encourage a "sweet spot" balance of teacher knowledge domains thus an optimal pedagogical outcome becomes more likely.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of transformational leadership on the cultivation of human capital in an academic setting from the perspective of university employees Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative data was collected from a range of staff working within three universities located in Jordan using an online questionnaire survey. The focus was on identifying which factors of transformational leadership were perceived as having the greatest potential contribution towards developing human capital and if there was a consensus amongst staff about these factors. Results: 131 staff members submitted a completed questionnaire giving a response rate of 93%. Respondents generally had a good understanding of the concepts of human capital and transformational leadership, but the way in which transformational leadership was perceived to impact on human capital differed. Conclusion: Overall, the findings from the survey, consistent with other similar studies, confirmed that there was a correlation between transformational leadership and human capital in the context of academia from the perspective of staff. Research limitations/implications: The study confirms the need for leaders in academia to consider the leadership approach that is adopted to ensure that human capital, which is one of its main assets, is supported and developed appropriately. Practical implications: The paper describes implications for leaders in higher education, as well as more broadly for educators who are attempting to develop human capital in their organisations. Originality/value: This paper expands upon a developing field in leadership in higher education.

The purpose of this article is to explore Microsoft Corporation as a new international actor shaping educational reforms and practices. This study examines how the implementation of Microsoft's global Partners in Learning (PiL) program varied and was mediated by national politics and national institutional practices in two different contexts, Jordan and South Africa. The global PiL blueprint was implemented using similar memoranda of understanding worldwide. The program, however, ended up looking very different in Jordan and South Africa. I describe localization practices that were shaped at least in part by differences in the political, cultural, and ICT (information and communication technology) contexts of the two countries. It was Microsoft's localization practices that ultimately enabled them to shape policy goals, directives, and decisions in favor of the use of commercial software and services in schools. In both countries, public authority relations were transformed by Microsoft's entrance into the educational policy arena. Government did not give up fully its authority in either case but shared it differently with Microsoft. In Jordan, the Ministry of Education's policy role became that of public facilitator of private sector ICT-in-education activities in Jordanian public schools. The PiL program in Jordan was a stand-alone program implemented parallel to public sector activities. The South African PiL program was tightly woven into the Education Department's programs and activities. Thus, the department played a public integrator policy role, although, in this case, the PiL program was developed and funded by Microsoft. (Contains 3 tables and 4 footnotes.)

Purpose: Heavily regulated higher education institutions may not be able to possess the autonomy to produce students who are both college and career ready. This paper aims to explore the role of the Ministry of Higher Education in Jordan in determining the content and direction of general education requirements, the historical roots of this type of intervention and its possible implications for the future of liberal arts in general education requirements. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a critical and historical reflection that combines practitioner research perspectives -- the author is a university president -- with reference to a single case study from a Jordanian university to demonstrate the real-life context of government intervention in general education requirements. Findings: University education is inextricably linked with employability rather than inquiry-based disciplines that produce both intellectual development and technical skills. Jordanian universities, heavily regulated by the government, are required to allocate between 21 and 27 credit hours to general education requirements. Lost between universities that are mandated to have them and policymakers who impose them, general education requirements, as recently reformed, possess neither the ability to produce intellectual skills or career-readiness skills. Originality Value: This paper highlights the importance of university autonomy in determining its approach to general education requirements to allow students to develop both career-readiness and college-readiness skills.

Research on the internationalization of inclusive policies for students with special needs is still developing alongside the shifting implementation of practice. This analysis seeks to understand the process of adopting inclusive policies in Jordan and the subsequent implementation through a modified comparative case study framework. Current research demonstrates how global forces have led to the adoption of a national inclusive education policy that local programs redefine and negotiate in implementation. The paper uses emerging frameworks from Schuelka (2018b) and existing comparative case study methodology from Bartlett and Vavrus (2006; 2009; 2014; 2017) to structure an in-depth analysis of the macro, mesa and micro levels of inclusive policy adoption and implementation across time. Jordan is a developing nation and in a strategic geographic location, two factors which bring multiple international organizations into its borders. This has had a significant effect on the development of education policy. At the same time, local construction of disability and inclusion continue to marginalize students with disabilities, especially in rural communities. This paper will outline the current state of inclusive education at the international, national and local levels in Jordan based on a review of policy and academic literature.

Recent studies on language acquisition and motivation have targeted Japanese language learners in a formal educational context, with less attention paid to learners who study Japanese informally. The current study aims to investigate the impact of Japanese animations in the context of informal third language acquisition. It targets the native speakers of Arabic who are interested in learning Japanese as a third language (L3), and investigates the motivations of Arab teenagers and young adults to learn Japanese. Further, the paper also focuses on examining aspects of Japanese language proficiency among teenagers and young adults, including vocabulary enhancement and grammar competence. The methodology used in the current study is twofold: an online survey questionnaire adopted from Armour and Iida (2016), followed by an engaging experiment in which participants were divided into two groups (reality anime group vs. action anime group) in order to examine the effectiveness of anime selection in boosting proficiency level. The findings of the online survey indicate that Arabic native speakers are highly motivated to learn Japanese, while the experiment results confirm that the type of anime and consistency of exposure do support the acquisition process. Further, the study concluded that consumption of anime series contributes to the learning process and facilitates learners' proficiency in general and vocabulary learning in particular. However, it remains unknown whether or not Arabic native speakers' motivations lead to their enrollment into formal Japanese foreign language education. Avenues for future research and implications are also presented toward the end of the paper.

This study aimed to identify and analyze the patterns of final exam questions prepared by English teachers for the 9th and 10th grades and to analyze all the revision questions presented in the English language textbooks in Jordan, based on Bloom's taxonomy to determine the nature and types of these questions. The sample of the study consisted of (63) English language teachers (31 male and 32 female teachers), the English language revision questions within the 9th and 10th grade textbooks, and questions included in the 1st semester final exams in 2018 for 9th and 10th grades. To achieve the goals of the study, the researchers developed an analytical card for the revision questions and the exams papers prepared by teachers. Results indicated that the questions of teachers' final exams' papers based on Bloom's taxonomy, remembering level had the highest relative average with a percentage of (30.75 %) and the analysis level had the lowest level with a percentage of (4.07%). Results also indicated convergent percentages among the revision questions, where both the comprehension and the application levels had the highest frequencies with a percentage of (26.56%). Moreover, results indicated no statistical significant differences, at the level of analyzes, between the questions of the final exams and the textbooks revision questions. However,, statistical significant differences were indicated between the frequencies and the percentages of the analyzed questions of the final exams and the textbooks for grade 9 and grade 10 and the highest was the remembering level with percentages of (17.19%) for the remembering within the textbook revision questions and (30.75%) for teachers' final exams. By way of concluding, this study highlights several recommendations, among which the Ministry of Education is advised to benefit from the results of such a study in developing the English language textbook.