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In the context of an abrupt shift to online learning, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines the efficacy of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and derives important insights from this transformation. The research investigated ERT's application at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), especially within its College of Graduate Studies (CGS). Employing a mixed-methods approach, blending quantitative and qualitative techniques through two specifically designed questionnaires, the study gathered input from 98% of CGS students and 96% of faculty members. The analysis centered on using platforms such as Zoom and Moodle, integrating diverse teaching strategies, and overall satisfaction with ERT. The findings indicate a gradual increase in satisfaction levels with ERT among students and faculty, reaching its zenith towards the study period’s conclusion. Importantly, these satisfaction levels did not vary significantly based on gender or academic qualification. The outcomes suggest that given AGU's heterogeneous student body, ERT can effectively replace traditional teaching methods in both crisis situations and regular conditions. Nonetheless, the paper underscores AGU's need to develop precise guidelines and policies for an effective blended learning approach. The implications of this study extend broadly, offering valuable insights for global universities that primarily employ traditional teaching techniques. It contributes to the conversation regarding higher education institutions’ capacity to adapt to ERT, highlighting both the challenges and opportunities in contexts where, traditionally, only in-person taught degrees are prevalent.

Hamdan Intelligence Scale (HIS) is the first intelligence scale that has been developed and normed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study aimed to examine the refinement, validity, and reliability of HIS in upper elementary grades using the Rasch model. A total of 4,301 students (34.3% Male; 65.7% Female) from grade 4 to 6 (32.1% grade 4; 33.7% grade 5; 34.2% grade 6) were administered to the HIS. The confirmatory factor analysis was first conducted to verify the fitness of the one-factor model of the HIS. The results of validity showed strong correlation coefficients between the HIS and the Aurora-g battery (0.83) and the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM; 0.86). Moreover, the results of the developmental trends demonstrated that raw scores of the HIS increase with age and grade relatively constantly across composite scores. Unidimensionality was confirmed through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Principal Component Analysis of Residuals (PCAR). The low eigenvalues of the first contrast were below 2, and additionally, the infit and outfit mean squares ranged from 0.88 to 1.14 and 0.84 to 1.14. Rasch’s person reliability result of 0.62 was acceptable reliability. The results provided strong support for the validity and reliability of using the Hamdan Intelligence Scale in the UAE environment.

Abstract Background Emotional intelligence (EI) is a predictive factor of academic success in undergraduate Doctor of Medicine (MD) programs. Although some research suggests a positive association between EI and academic success in MD programs, other research reports neither an association nor a negative correlation between the two variables. The current study aimed to resolve these contradictory findings by conducting a systematic review and a meta-analysis using research from 2005 to 2022. Methods Data were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach to (a) estimate the overall relationship between EI and academic success in MD programs and (b) determine whether the mean effect size varies according to country (United States vs. non-United States countries), age, EI test, EI task nature (ability-based vs. trait-based), EI subscales, and academic performance criteria (grade point average vs. examinations). Results Findings from 20 studies (m = 105; N = 4,227) indicated a positive correlation between EI and academic success (r = .13, 95% CI [.08, – .27], p

This study examined domain specificity among 306 high-school students using the Creative Activity and Accomplishment Checklist (CAAC). The CAAC provides both the quantity of activity and quality of accomplishment scores, allowing an empirical test of possible polymathy among students, some of whom were gifted. Polymathy occurs when an individual performs creatively in more than one domain. This investigation’s two objectives were to replicate domain specificity studies with the newest version of the CAAC, which included new domains (i.e., technological and everyday creativity) and quality and quantity scores, and to use it to test for polymathy among students. Previous work with adults suggested that polymaths are creative in multiple domains. They often invest in creative avocations that support their professional creativity. Some evidence of polymathy was uncovered; however, it was not common in this sample. Support for domain specificity was reasonably clear in the present results, yet it was not all-or-nothing but rather a matter of degree. Domains overlapped to varying amount. The amount of overlap varied with the level of talent and from domain to domain. The clearest support for polymathy came from regression analyses which revealed a significant relationship between the quantity of activity in some domains and the quality of creative accomplishment in others. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Abstract This systematic review aimed to study caffeine's effect on the cardiometabolic markers of the metabolic syndrome and to evaluate caffeine’s application as a potential therapeutic agent in rat models. The systematic review was structured and synthesized according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the Population, Intervention, comparator, outcome (PICO) framework. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect to identify studies that used caffeine as an intervention in the rat model of the metabolic syndrome or any of its components compared with no treatment or controls. Studies that did not mention the disease manifestations from the experimental model used, without rat subjects, and which induced renovascular hypertension were excluded. The risk of bias in the included studies was assessed using the Systematic Review Center for Laboratory Animal Experimentation risk-of-bias tool. The main outcomes assessed were caffeine’s effect on obesity, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, hepatic dysfunction, insulin resistance, and hypertension. Out of 228 studies retrieved from the search, 18 met our inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Caffeine was found to favorably reduce obesity and insulin resistance in the rat model of the metabolic syndrome. The effects of caffeine on dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, hepatic dysfunction, and hypertension remain inconclusive. The main limitations of this study are the heterogeneity of the included studies in terms of the disease model used, experimental duration, methods to assess outcomes, including studies that were only published in English, measurement units used, and graphical data without and numerical mention in the results section. As a result, quantitative synthesis was unfeasible, and a qualitative descriptive synthesis was conducted; this might have led to the under characterization of caffeine’s effect on metabolic syndrome and its potential as an adjuvant therapy in metabolic syndrome. Caffeine has favorable effects on the metabolic syndrome, chiefly reducing obesity and insulin resistance. Future research is encouraged to delve into caffeine’s effect on dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, hepatic dysfunction, and hypertension, which is necessary if caffeine is to be used as a potential clinical adjuvant therapy to treat the metabolic syndrome.

Over the past two decades, researchers in the medical field have attempted to predict academic success in undergraduate medical programs. Existing literature indicates that factors such as metacognitive awareness, motivation, and emotional intelligence predict academic success among Doctor of Medicine (MD) students. However, the impact of divergent thinking (DT) and convergent thinking (CT) on MD students’ academic success remains uncertain. Moreover, most definitions and theories of giftedness focus on K-12 education, leaving a knowledge gap regarding gifted post-secondary learners, particularly in specialized fields like medicine. The present study aimed to bridge this gap by investigating the role of DT and CT in predicting academic success among 84 gifted post-secondary MD learners. Three assessments were administered: (a) Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Test, (b) the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WG-III), and (c) the Alternative Uses Test. Cluster analysis revealed a distinct three-cluster solution. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that the originality dimension of DT and the Drawing Conclusions and Recognizing Assumptions subscales of the WG-III were significantly associated with and predictive of the academic success of gifted undergraduate MD students. Notably, IQ was not significantly correlated with students’ grade point average. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The interest in the education of gifted students in Egypt began since 1962, when the first school for the gifted was established. In 2005, a clear decline was observed in the number of students enrolled in the high school science section due to some practical and economic reasons. Consequently, the Egyptian Ministry of Education launched STEM schools for gifted students in math and science in 2011, to support gifted students and provide them with varied opportunities to develop their skills and abilities. Moreover, the Ministry of Higher Education established many specialized centers for gifted students. This study aimed to explore the real situation of gifted education in Egypt, from the learning-resource perspective. The researchers contacted and collated reports from many institutions in Egypt, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education, and the Centers for Gifted students. Moreover, some tools were developed to collect data about the real situation of gifted students in Egypt. Our analysis showed a tangible progress in gifted education; examining the exogenous and endogenous learning resources revealed the strengths and weaknesses of gifted education in Egypt. We recommend the need for more efforts to provide this exceptional student category with proper opportunities.

One of the most important questions that educators try to answer is how to prepare new generations of students for an unpredictable future. Students need to learn several skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication (the 4 Cs). Creativity, especially, is an essential skill in a complex and unforeseeable world/era, and an important step in any effort to enhance creativity is to identify students’ creative strengths and relative weaknesses. This review aims to offer school psychologists and other educators such as teachers, policymakers, and curriculum designers a comprehensive and practical guide to one of the most well-known creativity assessments—the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) that was developed by E. Paul Torrance in the 1960s. The paper discusses the history, components, training, psychometric properties, and uses of the TTCT. Contrary to the notion that the TTCT is only a measure of divergent thinking skills, the current article presents its other uses. It is the authors’ hope that teachers, school psychologists, and other educators will find the information reported in this article useful to better understand the TTCT and use it most effectively.

Previous research suggests that environment can play an important role in encouraging or discouraging creative expression and productivity. Additional research has uncovered a discrepancy between the creativity students express at school and the creativity they express outside of school. The fact that, in previous research, students expressed more creativity outside of school than when in school implies that school discourages creativity. So far, the creativity gap has only been studied with nongifted students. One objective of the present investigation was to check for a similar discrepancy among gifted learners. Four hundred and eighty-seven middle school and high school students from the State of Kuwait (240 gifted and 247 nongifted) were recruited. The "Creativity Activities and Accomplishment Checklist" (CAAC) was administered to compare students' creative activities at home and school. The primary finding of this investigation was that the strength of the relationship between creativity at home and creativity at school differed in gifted and nongifted students. What was called a creativity "gap" existed in both groups, but it was smaller in the gifted group. A second finding was that gifted students expressed more creativity at school compared with the nongifted group, in particular CAAC domains. There were no differences between the gifted and the nongifted groups in the creativity expressed at home, except for one subscale, namely everyday creativity. Although gifted students expressed more creativity at school, compared with their nongifted peers, they were nonetheless more creative at home compared with school. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that measure of personality significantly moderated the relationship between creativity at home and creativity at school. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

The current study investigated correlations among gifted students’ academic performance; emotional, social, analytical, creative, and practical intelligence; and their implicit theories of intelligence. Furthermore, it studied the effect of gender and grade on these variables. The participants included 174 gifted fifth (41.4%) and sixth (58.6%) grade students, comprising 53.4% male and 46.6% female. The following analytical, creative, and practical intelligence tests were administered: Aurora Battery, the emotional intelligence scale, the implicit theories of intelligence scale, and an assessment scale of students’ performances. The results revealed significant correlations among academic performance, kinds of intelligence, and implicit theories of intelligence. There were no significant differences between the male and female students in these measures. There were, however, significant differences between the fifth and sixth grade students, with the sixth-grade students showing higher levels of all kinds of intelligence, except emotional intelligence. Moreover, the results indicated that the intelligence measures were non-significantly affected by either gender or gender–grade interaction. Overall, our results showed that most types of intelligence are related to giftedness, and that there were no gender differences among gifted students on measures of intelligence.

Problem finding (PF) and divergent thinking (DT) are considered to be indicators of creative potential. Previous studies, with different goals, suggest a positive correlation between PF and DT. However, none of these works have explicitly examined which index of DT is more associated with PF. The current investigation examined the association between PF and three main indexes of DT: fluency, flexibility, and originality. It also tested whether such a relation differs based on task nature (verbal vs. figural). The sample consisted of 90 sixth graders who completed three tests: (a) a verbal DT test, (b) a figural DT test, and (c) a PF test. Correlational analysis showed that flexibility was highly correlated with PF in the verbal DT test, whereas originality was significantly correlated with PF in the figural test. Results of the path analysis confirmed the results from correlational analyses and showed that verbal flexibility strongly predicted PF fluency, flexibility, and originality more than any other variable. Likelihood ratio test showed that using 1 or 3% cutoff for scoring originality did not significantly altered the results in both figural and verbal DT (vs. PF), while the likelihood ratio test showed significant differences between the figural and verbal DT. Finally, predictor variables in the verbal DT accounted for 40–58% of the variance in PF skills, whereas predictor variables in the figural DT accounted for 28–37% of the variance in PF skills. As suggested by experts in the field of PF, the role of flexibility in PF is a fertile area to be considered in future studies.

This empirical investigation examined the cross-cultural usefulness of a measure of creative potential, namely the short form of the Runco Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS). The RIBS has been used in several investigations and existing data show it to be a reliable criterion measure, usually with a two-factor structure. Scores from the RIBS correlated with tests of divergent thinking (DT); however, the RIBS is much easier to administer. Both DT and the RIBS focus on ideation. College students whose native language is Arabic (N = 383) completed the 25-item, short version of the RIBS. We tested the factor structure with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and discriminant validity evidence with Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and found a stronger support for the two-factor solution than the one-factor solution. Reliability evidence was also strong in the present sample. The first factor ("specific ideation") had weak correlation with Raven's SPM test whereas the second factor ("broad ideation") was not significantly related. The results are discussed in terms of the relevant literature.

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are sometimes used to select students for gifted programs. Studies on these tests, mostly conducted on non-gifted students, suggest that performance is influenced by the type of instruction given (standard vs. hybrid "be fluent AND original") and time-on-task. The current study aimed to examine the effect of instructions and time-on-task on divergent thinking performance in gifted and non-gifted students in a 2 [gifted versus non-gifted] × 2 [standard versus hybrid instructions] design. The results showed that gifted students outperformed non-gifted students in fluency, while no significant difference was found between the two groups in originality. Creativity instructions improved both originality and fluency scores in verbal but not figural tests. As for time-on-task, gifted students took more time when completing DT tests as well as when they were given explicit instructions to "be creative." Implications for gifted identification are discussed.