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Maximizing English learners' success in higher education with differentiated instruction

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Maximizing English learners' success in higher education with differentiated instruction

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Content 1
Running Head: DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

MAXIMIZING ENGLISH LEARNERS’ SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION WITH
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

by

Muhammad K. Lakhani

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

August, 2018

Copyright 2018 Muhammad K. Lakhani

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DEDICATION
To my baby brother Rizwan, who departed for eternal life, during my final days of the doctoral
journey at the Rossier School. This dissertation will always remind me of the beautiful
memories of our childhood we spent together in the boarding school, our little silly arguments
and fights as teenagers, the birth of your first baby girl and most of all the love and respect you
had always for me and for our family. Someone said that “when a person you love becomes a
memory…that memory becomes a treasure”. Your memory is truly a treasure, you are loved
beyond words and missed beyond measure. I love you my brother and I am very proud to be
your older sibling. You will always remain in my heart and in my cherished memories.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Undertaking this Ed.D.-OCL has been an incredible, life-changing, experience. I wish to
express my deep appreciation to the many individuals who contributed along the way.
Sincere thanks to the Rossier School staff, faculty, and administration for their
commitment to providing an exceptional learning experience. I am particularly grateful for all
the needed support and timely feedback provided my Dr. Eugenia Mora-Flores, my dissertation
chair. You are not only a committed teacher and a talented mentor, but also a very considerate
human, who provided me all the support and care to complete my data analysis part when I was
emotionally down during my brother’s critical illness. To my committee member Dr. Kimberly
Ferrario, who inspired me through her own dissertation on the learning experiences and learning
needs of non-native speakers of English in California and helped me patiently revise my
interview questions. Your insight, encouragement, and feedback are so greatly appreciated. To
my committee member Dr. Roderick Maurice Castro, your experience in Differentiated
Instruction coupled with your insight and guidance have proven motivational. I am also thankful
to my academic advisor, Anna Chiang, who was always supportive during my doctoral journey
for helping me for early course registrations, my I-20 issuance and my other travel
documentation during my visits to the US for immersions and commencement ceremony as an
international student. Thank you all for your support along the way.
To USC Organizational Change and Leadership Spring 2016 Cohort-4, many thanks for
the support, encouragement, peer reviews, friendships, and fun we have had along the way.
Your expertise has granted me insight into other organizations, leadership styles, and viewpoints.
Each one of you have been so encouraging and giving of yourselves. I could not have asked for
a more wonderful group of friends to share this adventure with.
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A big thank you to my coworkers and senior management at my college including my
Department Chairs, Leisa Hassock and Dr.Yolande Smit for their support, my former colleague
and mentor Dr. Richard Croome, my dear family friend Ann Collins, Dr. Philip Quirke,
Executive Dean, Education, Dr. Christine Lampe, Senior Specialist-Instruction, Mr. Ahmed Al
Rahl, Senior Manager, Institutional Research and all faculty members, who helped me in
collecting data and provided valuable advice for my research. I realize how busy your day is and
appreciate the time for survey and interview responses. This work is impossible without your
knowledgeable insight.
And finally to my loving, supportive, encouraging, and patient wife Ekhlas, who has been
by my side throughout this program, living every single minute of it. Without you, I would not
have had the courage to embark on this journey in the first place. You always believe in me and
encourage me to follow my dreams. You have supported me in every way possible by
prioritizing my needs with a smile. Thank you is not enough for all you have done for me. I
love you dear, can’t wait to see our new-born expected this summer!

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TABLE OF CONTENT
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ 2
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. 3
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... 9
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 11
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 12
Introduction of the Problem of Practice .................................................................................... 12
Related Literature ...................................................................................................................... 13
The Importance of Addressing the Problem ............................................................................. 15
Purpose of the Project ............................................................................................................... 16
Methodological Framework ...................................................................................................... 17
Definitions ................................................................................................................................. 17
Organization of the Project ....................................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................................ 19
English Language Proficiency for Academic Success .............................................................. 19
English Skills for Higher Education.......................................................................................... 21
Standardized English Proficiency Tests .................................................................................... 22
Challenges Faced by English Learners in Higher Education .................................................... 22
Language Remedial and Delayed Degree Completion ............................................................. 23
Non-Academic Challenges Faced by English Learners ............................................................ 24
Instructional Practices for English Learners in Higher Education ............................................ 24
Differentiated Instruction for English Learners in Higher Education ....................................... 25
The Clark and Estes’ (2008) Gap Analytic Conceptual Framework ........................................ 26
Stakeholder Knowledge and Motivational Influences .............................................................. 27
Knowledge and Skills ............................................................................................................ 27
Knowledge influences. .......................................................................................................... 29
Motivation ............................................................................................................................. 33
Stakeholders’ Organizational Influences ............................................................................... 38
Cultural Models and Cultural Settings ...................................................................................... 41
Cultural model influence 1. ................................................................................................... 41
Cultural model influence 2 .................................................................................................... 42
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Cultural setting influence 1. ................................................................................................... 43
Cultural setting influence 2. ................................................................................................... 43
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 47
CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY ..................... 48
Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Stakeholders’ Knowledge and Motivation and the
Organizational Context ............................................................................................................. 48
Methodological Approach and Rationale .................................................................................. 55
Participating Stakeholders ......................................................................................................... 57
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale ............................................................................... 58
Survey Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale ....................................................... 60
Interview Sampling Criteria and Rationale ........................................................................... 60
Interview Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale ................................................... 62
Explanation for Choices ........................................................................................................ 63
Data Collection and Instrumentation......................................................................................... 64
Surveys .................................................................................................................................. 65
Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 66
Documents and Artifacts ....................................................................................................... 67
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 67
Credibility and Trustworthiness ................................................................................................ 68
Validity and Reliability ............................................................................................................. 69
Ethics ......................................................................................................................................... 71
Limitations and Delimitations ................................................................................................... 74
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS ........................................................................ 76
Participating Stakeholders ......................................................................................................... 77
Survey Participants ................................................................................................................ 77
Interview Participants ............................................................................................................ 79
Document Analysis................................................................................................................ 80
Knowledge Results .................................................................................................................... 81
Factual Knowledge: Linguistic Challenges of UAE Students in Higher Education ............. 82
UAE students' poor English reading and writing skills ......................................................... 86
Remedial intervention through Foundation Programs........................................................... 92
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Declarative Knowledge: Language Assessment and Support for English Learners ................. 95
Informal linguistic assessment by course teachers. ............................................................... 98
Teacher support for English Learners. ................................................................................ 100
Standardized assessment policy for courses. ....................................................................... 104
Conceptual Knowledge: Differentiated Instruction (DI). ....................................................... 105
Procedural Knowledge: Differentiated Instruction (DI). ........................................................ 109
Content differentiation. ........................................................................................................ 111
Process differentiation. ........................................................................................................ 113
Product differentiation. ........................................................................................................ 117
Differentiation through environment. .................................................................................. 118
Metacognitive Knowledge of Teachers................................................................................... 120
Motivation Results .................................................................................................................. 123
Expectancy Value for Adopting Differentiated Instruction. ............................................... 123
Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Teachers Adopting Differentiated Instruction .............................. 125
Organizational Results ............................................................................................................ 129
Organizational Support for Differentiated Instruction ........................................................ 130
Professional Development of Teachers and Strategic Plan ................................................. 135
Faculty Recruitment and Promotion Policy......................................................................... 137
Support for Subject Matter Teachers by English Language Teachers (ELTs) .................... 138
Collaboration of Faculty and Administration for Student Success ..................................... 139
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................... 144
Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 145
Knowledge Recommendations ............................................................................................ 150
Organization Recommendations.......................................................................................... 159
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan ..................................................................... 164
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators ............................................................................. 166
Level 3: Behavior ................................................................................................................ 168
Level 2: Learning ................................................................................................................. 172
Level 1: Reaction ................................................................................................................. 176
Evaluation Tools .................................................................................................................. 177
Data Analysis and Reporting ............................................................................................... 179
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Summary ................................................................................................................................. 181
References ................................................................................................................................... 184
APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 194
Faculty Survey (Consent Form) .............................................................................................. 194
APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 198
Interview Protocol ................................................................................................................... 198
Consent Form .......................................................................................................................... 198
Faculty Interview..................................................................................................................... 198
APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................. 201
APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................................. 202
APPENDIX E ............................................................................................................................. 204

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Knowledge Influences, Types, and Assessments for Knowledge Gap Analysis .............................. 32
Table 2: Motivational Influences and Assessments for Motivation Gap Analysis ........................................... 37
Table 3: Organizational Influences and Assessments for Organizational Gap Analysis ................................. 45
Table 4: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Response Rate ....................................................... 78
Table 5: Survey Result for Number of years of teaching experience in higher education of the UAE. ......... 79
Table 6: Academic Departments/Disciplines of Faculty Interviewed ................................................................ 80
Table 7: Survey Results of Teacher’s Views on Linguistically Challenging Undergraduate Courses .......... 83
Table 8: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice-Curriculum Matches Learners’ English Skills .... 83
Table 9: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Pre Assessment Activities .................................... 96
Table 10: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Do all students learn in the same way? ............. 96
Table 11: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice-Students’ Readiness and Learning Process ....... 97
Table 12: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Student Support based on English Competency
.................................................................................................................................................................................... 97
Table 13: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Conceptual Knowledge of
Differentiated Instruction pedagogy. .................................................................................................................... 106
Table 14: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Application of DI in Classrooms .................... 110
Table 15: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice: Content Differentiation based on English Skills
.................................................................................................................................................................................. 111
Table 16: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Use of Variety of Instructional Material ......... 112
Table 17: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Level of English Usage in Classroom Instruction
.................................................................................................................................................................................. 113
Table 18: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice -Use of Variety of Assessment Tools ............... 114
Table 19: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Scaffolding for Diverse Learner Needs .......... 114
Table 20: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Grouping Students based on English
Competency ............................................................................................................................................................ 115
Table 21: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Learners’ choice ................................................ 116
Table 22: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice – Students’ Learning Style ................................ 116
Table 23: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Choice of Multiple Modes of Assessment ..... 117
Table 24: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Assessment based on Learners’ English Skills
.................................................................................................................................................................................. 118
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Table 25: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Support Learning through Classroom
Environment ........................................................................................................................................................... 119
Table 26: Survey Results for Expectancy-Value of DI for improving success of English Learner students in
the UAE................................................................................................................................................................... 124
Table 27: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Confidence in implementing DI in
classroom instructions. ........................................................................................................................................... 126
Table 28: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Lack of Ability to Implement
Differentiation Instruction ..................................................................................................................................... 127
Table 29: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice: Teacher’s inability to individualize lesson plans
for English Learners ............................................................................................................................................... 127
Table 30: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice – Additional Resources for Teachers for
Successful Adoption of DI pedagogy. ................................................................................................................. 130
Table 31: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice –Differentiation Instruction is an extra mandate
for Course Instructors............................................................................................................................................. 131
Table 32: Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice – Incentives for Teachers to Adopt DI Pedagogy
.................................................................................................................................................................................. 132
Table 33: Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice – Professional Development of Teachers in DI
Pedagogy. ................................................................................................................................................................ 133
Table 34: Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations .......................................................... 151
Table 35: Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations ........................................................... 156
Table 36: Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations ........................................................ 160
Table 37: Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes .......................................... 166
Table 38: Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation ................................................. 169
Table 39: Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors ................................................................................ 170
Table 40: Components of Learning for the Program. ........................................................................................ 175
Table 41: Components to Measure Reactions to the Program. ......................................................................... 177

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project is to explore the potential of pre-K12 grade instructional practice of
Differentiated Instruction (DI) in higher education which can be adopted by college faculty to
improve the academic performance of English Learners in the UAE. The study utilizes the Clark
and Estes (2008) gap analysis framework to identify influences from knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences of the teacher support on UAE student success in undergraduate
studies. This study uses a mixed-methods design where the quantitative faculty survey was used
along with the qualitative interviews of teachers at a public college in the UAE to explore the
instructional practices of the teachers for UAE English Learners. Study finds that teachers in the
UAE higher education are mostly content experts without sufficient training in second-language
acquisition to address students’ language development needs. This project finds areas to address
in the teacher’s current pedagogical styles and recommends instructional practice of
Differentiated Instruction in providing effective learning experiences to the UAE students in the
public higher education setting that will support student success. Specifically, by enhancing
instructors’ skills to deliver course content as comprehensible input through training in DI
pedagogy. College faculty in the study is motivated and value adopting DI in classrooms for
success of English Learners. Support from the university administration on goals, culture, and
core values is indicated.
Keywords: Differentiated Instruction (DI), English Learners, instructional practice, content
experts, English proficiency, UAE higher education, pedagogical style.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Introduction of the Problem of Practice
Arabian Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) appear to be undergoing
a rapid shift from teaching English as a foreign language to using English as the Medium of
Instruction (EMI) for academic subjects (British Council Report, 2014). As a result, English
Language Proficiency (ELP) is key to the academic success of Arabic-speaking English
Language Learners (ELs) in UAE higher education. The International English Language Testing
System (IELTS) is the most widely accepted proficiency test for college admissions in the UAE
and other Gulf countries (Schoepp & Garinger, 2016). High school graduates who were taught
with a mixed English and Arabic curriculum face profound difficulties in achieving the
minimum acceptable IELTS score of 5.0 out of 9.0 for admissions to public universities in the
UAE (Rogier, 2012; Schoepp & Garinger, 2016; Gitsaky, Robby, & Bourini, 2014). Though a
score of 5.0 is relatively low compared to the international standard of 6.5 to 7.0, only 10% of
UAE high school graduates meet this requirement (UAE Year Book, 2010). The limited ELP of
UAE students, as demonstrated by their persistently low IELTS scores, has a direct impact on
their academic success in higher education. These students must often extend the standard four-
year degree time by attending a one-year remedial intervention program (called the Foundation
Program) after high school, and are significantly disadvantaged in linguistically demanding
undergraduate courses. Per state policy, all UAE public higher education organizations will
phase out the Foundation Program by 2018. This direct-entry route to college is intended to
reduce students’ degree completion time; however, high attrition rates in the first year, declining
GPAs in successive years, and course withdrawals are likely to impact the success of this
initiative. The poor linguistic skills of ELs results in pedagogical challenges and frustration, as
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most higher education faculty is recruited globally on the basis of their subject matter expertise,
rather than their skills in the instructional practice required for second language learners (Rogier,
2012). Students from the UAE who have limited English skills and no language support after
high school will struggle to learn in linguistically challenging courses. High dropout rates,
declining GPAs, and course withdrawals all result from their inadequate English language skills
and lead to extended degree completion times.
There is a pressing need for faculty in UAE higher education to pursue professional
development in Differentiated Instruction (DI) practice to address this problem. DI is a research-
based pedagogical style used largely in pre-K-12 grade for diverse groups of students. It has the
potential to help students with limited English skills successfully complete their degrees, and so
is increasingly necessary as higher education courses become more diverse (Pham, 2012). The
current study aims to discover how well higher education faculty in the UAE are prepared for the
challenges of differentiating the three components of DI: content, process, and product
(Tomlinson, 1989). The effective implementation of DI can improve students’ educational
outcomes and aid in the broader goal of ensuring that institutions graduate higher numbers of
students that can achieve upward mobility.
Related Literature
The importance of English proficiency tests for the academic success of English Learners,
as well as their use as admissions criteria for higher education, has been researched worldwide.
In one study conducted in Nigeria, Aina, Ogundele, and Olanipekun (2013) found a strong
correlation between English proficiency and the academic performance of college students in
scientific and technical disciplines. In the United States, Cho and Bridgeman (2012) showed that
international students with higher TOEFL scores tended to have higher GPAs in their graduate
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studies. Similarly, Kuo (2011) highlighted the linguistic challenges faced by international
graduate students in the United States due to low TOEFL scores. Schoepp and Garinger (2016)
reported that Arabic-speaking students in the UAE with high IELTS scores achieved higher
GPAs in their undergraduate studies. In Australia, Oliver, Vanderford, and Grote (2012) found
that international students with inadequate English skills required continued language support in
order to progress academically. As a result, colleges in the UK, the United States, Australia, and
Canada use standardized language proficiency tests in their admissions decisions for students
with English as a second language. These tests are also often employed by higher education
institutions offering English curricula in non-Anglophone countries. According to Ghamri
(2012), English proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL have become necessary benchmarks
in the admissions decisions of higher education institutions worldwide.
Various studies have explored teaching practices to improve the learning and success of
diverse students in higher education. Chickering and Gamson (1987) challenged traditional
college teaching methods that did not involve student engagement, and advocated for more
effective teaching methods. Since then, the literature has validated their principles of effective
teaching in higher education; research has consistently shown that student engagement has a
positive impact on educational outcomes. Differentiated learning pedagogy is one way to
encourage student engagement and improve learning (McCarty, Crow, Mims, Pothoff, &
Harvey, 2016). DI is a set of teaching practices intended to help students engage with or master
course materials. According to Tomlinson (1999), DI is a natural outgrowth of new insights into
student learning, as it aligns well with key research outcomes in neural science and cognitive
psychology. Morgan (2014) found that differentiated learning helped students from diverse
cultural and linguistic backgrounds better engage with and comprehend educational content.
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Similarly, a recent study conducted at a Midwestern college evaluated the professional
development program of college faculty in DI, and revealed that this experiential instructional
practice helped teachers improve engagement and learning for all students (McCarty et. al,
2016).
The Importance of Addressing the Problem
It is important to address the problem of students’ limited English proficiency in UAE
higher education for several reasons. Most pressingly, because of inadequate English language
skill development at the high school level, students’ transition to tertiary education in EMI is a
linguistic–rather than solely academic–challenge for Arabic-speaking English learners. Students
who intend to enroll in public higher education are required to pass a one-off language
proficiency exam after high school with a score that is lower than international standards. As
most UAE high school graduates lack the foundational skills in English writing, reading,
listening, and speaking required for success in higher education, their academic performance
begins to decline in the first year, resulting in high dropout rates early in their degrees. In
addition, many cannot attend college immediately after high school because they must spend a
significant amount of time in the Foundation Program.
UAE students’ weak English competence and its negative impacts on academic success
can be addressed via college instructors’ pedagogical style. Currently, many content-area
teachers in the UAE do not have sufficient training in second-language acquisition to address
their students’ language development needs or ensure that instruction is comprehensible to them.
Without appropriate teacher training, students with limited English skills will not master the
linguistically demanding academic content of undergraduate studies, and thus will often fail to
achieve academic success in higher education.
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Purpose of the Project
The purpose of this project is to explore the potential of differentiated instruction
pedagogy, which can be adopted by college faculty to help improve the academic performance of
English learners in the UAE. The analysis will focus on the assumed influences of instructors as
content experts in attempting to help ELs succeed academically by determining potential gaps in
the knowledge and skills of teachers in DI, their motivation to adopt DI, and the level of
organizational support. The analysis will begin by generating a list of possible or assumed
causes, and then examining these systematically to highlight actual or validated causes. While a
complete gap analysis would focus on all stakeholders, for practical purposes, this analysis will
be limited to instructors in public higher education in the UAE.
As students in the UAE are not equipped to handle their degree studies because of
inadequate English skills, and teachers are required to implement higher education policy
determined by the state, this study’s primary research question is: How can UAE instructors
most effectively help Arabic-speaking English learners successfully complete their
undergraduate degrees? In answering this question, a set of sub-questions must also be explored.
As such, the following questions guided this study:
1. What knowledge and skillsets must instructors acquire and implement to help their
students learn subjects through the medium of English?
2. What are teachers’ motivational aspects in their instructional approach that best facilitate
learning subject content through the medium of instruction?
3. What are the organizational factors that can support teachers in their goal of improving
student success in higher education?

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Methodological Framework
Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis methodology was utilized. This is a systematic
analytical method that helps to clarify organizational goals and identify the gap between actual
and preferred performance levels within an organization. Assumed interfering elements were
generated based on personal knowledge and related literature. These elements were validated
using surveys, interviews, document analysis, literature reviews, and content analysis.
Research-based solutions were recommended and comprehensively evaluated.
Definitions
English Language Proficiency (ELP): The formal academic learning of English by non-
native speakers, assessed by standardized tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. This level of
language learning is essential for English learners to succeed academically.
English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI): Education offered in English to non-native
speakers in their home countries. In the UAE, higher education instruction is offered in English,
though students’ native language is Arabic.
English Learners (ELs): Students whose first language (L1) is not English learning and
studying in EMI while living in their home country. UAE students’ L1 is Arabic, but they study
undergraduate courses in English.
International English Language Testing Service (IELTS): A test that measures the
language proficiency of adults who want to study in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the United
States, or Canada. Higher education institutions in non-Anglophone countries also require an
IELTS score for college admissions.
United Arab Emirates (UAE): One of the six Arabian Gulf countries in the Middle East,
where Arabic is the native language but higher education is offered in EMI.
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Organization of the Project
The presentation of this study has been organized into five chapters. This chapter details
key concepts around the need for differentiated instruction in UAE higher education, because of
the limited English proficiency of students and their resulting difficulties in completing degree
courses. Chapter Two provides a review of the relevant literature. Topics including English
language proficiency and IELTS, students’ academic failures, remedial intervention, extended
course completion times, and instructional practice for English learners are addressed. Chapter
Two also details the assumed interfering knowledge, motivation, and organizational elements.
Chapter Three outlines the conceptual framework of this study and details the methodology. In
Chapter Four, the data and results are assessed and analyzed. Chapter Five provides specific
recommendations for closing perceived gaps, and for the implementation and evaluation of
potential solutions.

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CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter will examine the literature that informs this study of the root causes of gaps
in the academic success of English learners in higher education and highlight the effective
instructional practices that can help narrow this gap. The review begins with general research on
the importance of English proficiency and the efficacy of standardized tests required by ELs
seeking to pursue undergraduate degrees. This is followed by an overview of the literature on
challenges faced by high school English learners, such as difficulty in gaining direct admissions
to colleges and comprehending linguistically demanding courses. The review then describes the
traditional remedial intervention provided to ELs to help them meet the challenges of
transitioning from high school to tertiary education, and presents an in-depth discussion of
differentiated pedagogical styles employed by college teachers to help ELs develop the language
skills required for subject content. This section includes current research on teacher preparation
and professional development practices in the United States, as well as in non-English speaking
countries. Following the general research literature, the review turns to Clark and Estes’
Analytical Conceptual Framework (2008) and, specifically, knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences on teachers’ ability to help students develop English proficiency and
succeed academically in higher education.
English Language Proficiency for Academic Success
Competency in English is critical for college admissions and success in higher education.
In his seminal work, Cummins (2002) identified two concepts of language proficiency: Basic
Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
(CALP). BICS refers to language that is used in social or conversational settings, which can be
learned by ELs in one to two years through the acquisition of simple sentence structures and high
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frequency words. Most UAE students are proficient in this basic linguistic skill, as English is the
lingua franca in UAE business and society. CALP, however, requires non-native English
speakers to understand content-specific vocabulary and linguistic rigor, which is a complex
process that may require three to five years of study (Cummins, 2002). The academic English
used in classrooms requires higher order cognitive linguistic skills, which is lacking in most
UAE students.
English proficiency, as measured by standardized tests such as IELTS, is used globally in
admissions decisions for students with English as secondary language (IELTS, 2016). The test
has four sections, and each measures one of the four main skill areas: listening, reading, writing,
and speaking. The scores, which range from one (lowest) to nine (highest), are reported in whole
and half bands for each of the tests and the overall score. Test bands and scores are used to make
high-stakes decisions about admissions into degree programs worldwide (IELTS Handbook,
2016). Research shows that, for non-English speaking students, IELTS is a better predictor of
academic success than any other language remedial measure (Oliver, Vanderfold, & Grote,
2012). Numerous studies have identified positive relationships between IELTS and academic
success (Bellingham, 1993; Feast, 2002; Hill, Storch, & Lynch, 1999; Kerstjens & Neary, 2000).
By contrast, some studies have found no link between the two (Cotton & Conrow, 1998; Dooey,
1999; Dooey & Oliver, 2002; Green, 2007; Picard, 2007). This suggests that, even though
research is inconclusive about the IELTS score as a reliable predictor of students’ academic
success, it does serve as a direct route to higher education for many English learners. Foregoing
foundation programs in favor of direct admission into colleges may result in students completing
their degrees more quickly. However, students admitted to undergraduate programs with a low
IELTS scores need additional language help to progress academically (Oliver, Vanderford, &
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Grote, 2012). Traditionally, English was learned as a second language in most Arabian Gulf
public schools, and was not employed as a medium of instruction; however, this is changing. At
the college level, when the medium of instruction is English, students’ comprehensive
understanding of the courses becomes a challenge (Sivaramana, Balushib, & Rao, 2014). As a
result, insufficient English language skills may result in academic failure.
English Skills for Higher Education

In countries where the primary language (L1) is not English but is key to success in
tertiary education, English is increasingly used as the medium of instruction. The overwhelming
dominance of English has instigated an unprecedented trend of teaching and learning English by
more than 750 million non-native speakers, compared to 375 million native speakers (Javid,
Farooq, & Gulzar, 2012). According to Dearden (2014), government support for EMI, private
sector participation in higher education, and globalization have encouraged the use of EMI in
universities and colleges in non-native English speaking countries despite opposition efforts to
preserve L1. However, a recent study in the UAE explored the effectiveness of English medium
in higher education and recommended bilingual curricula as a means to improve students’
mastery of English while preserving their national identity and indigenous culture (Belhiah &
Elhami, 2015). Though there remains debate around whether English or bilingual instruction
is preferable in the Arabian Gulf countries, English is currently taught as a medium of
instruction in higher education as state policy in Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Javid et al., 2012).
In an effort to increase the English proficiency of students preparing for higher education, UAE
public schools actively recruit native English-speaking teachers (Abu Dhabi Education Council,
2016). However, pedagogical guidelines for effective EMI teaching and learning are lacking
worldwide, including in Gulf countries (Dearden, 2014). Thus, English skills are necessary for
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students in tertiary programs in non-English speaking countries such as the UAE, but there is
little professional development of teachers for content-based teaching of English learners.
Standardized English Proficiency Tests

Scores on English proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL are used by higher
education institutions to make admissions decisions. According to Oliver et al. (2012), these
standardized tests are better predictors of the academic success of non-native speakers in higher
education than any other language remedial measures. In a study conducted in the UAE,
Schoepp and Garinger (2016) also found that students with high IELTS scores performed better
academically than their counterparts with low scores. By contrast, Al-Malki (2014) tested the
predictive validity of the IELTS as an indicator of the success of Arabic-speaking Omani
students in higher education and found only a moderate relationship between IELTS and GPA.
Research is, therefore, inconclusive about IELTS scores as a reliable predictor of students’
academic success in higher education. Still, these scores continue to have an outsize effect on
ELs’ chances of admission to colleges and universities. Students with limited English
proficiency face significant challenges and require additional language support to succeed
academically in higher education.
Challenges Faced by English Learners in Higher Education

Akasha (2013) identified six key challenges facing Arabic-speaking students and teachers
in U.S. middle school classrooms: time constraints, cultural awareness, cultural understanding,
language support, teacher education/guidance, and parent communication. Kuo (2011) also
highlighted the linguistic challenges faced by international graduate students in the United
States. Many international students with high TOEFL scores experienced an enormous amount
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of difficulty with oral and listening comprehension in graduate studies. Similarly, in a study on
Arab graduate students in Malaysia, Al-Zubaidi and Rechards (2010) reported that Arab students
faced problems with English academic writing, particularly in the area of vocabulary and
grammar. Despite the strong English proficiency they demonstrate on standardized tests, non-
native English speakers face various linguistic challenges in higher education, from listening to
academic writing. Like native English speakers, English learners have differing levels of
cognitive ability. Instructors should be aware that the academic hardships faced by these
students may be related to background knowledge rather than to intellectual ability (Short &
Echevarria, 2005). Traditionally, higher education organizations worldwide have offered
remedial intervention after high school to prepare ELs for higher education.
Language Remedial and Delayed Degree Completion

Remedial interventions developed by colleges to prepare students for college-level work
may actually result in negative consequences for ELs. Scott-Clayton and Rodriguez (2014)
cautioned that assignment to remediation does not sufficiently develop students’ skills or
improve their chances of college-level success. Moreover, when using standardized test scores
as the sole determinant of placement, there is a risk of misassigning prepared students to
remediation. Jaggars and Hodara (2011) also underscored that remedial courses were often
noncredit bearing, which slowed progress toward a degree. As remediation, by definition, forces
students to revisit subjects that were likely difficult for them in secondary school, many students
may become discouraged by these courses. Thus, enrolling high school ELs in language
remedial programs based on their low IELTS or TOEFL scores may create demotivation for
students and extend their degree completion time. Transition from high school to tertiary
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education by ELs necessitates institutional support as students face other, non-academic
challenges in this process.
Non-Academic Challenges Faced by English Learners

Higher education institutions must provide non-academic support to high school ELs in
their transition from secondary school to post-secondary education. According to Harrison and
Shi (2016), psychological challenges, a sense of belonging, and interactions with peers and
professors all influence students’ social integration and academic success. Limited academic
curricula or lack of special assistance available for learners in mainstream university classrooms
create challenges. Kwon (2009) emphasized the factors affecting students’ transition to higher
education, such as feelings of isolation, intimidation, homesickness, and loneliness. Thus, a
supportive university environment is needed to help ELs overcome the psychological challenges
associated with transitioning to the higher education environment. Teachers must adopt
instructional practice based on linguistic competence and the academic and cultural backgrounds
of non-native English speakers in higher education.
Instructional Practices for English Learners in Higher Education

Studies on pedagogical styles show that teachers can tailor their teaching methods for
subgroups of ELs with differing language skills. There is a positive correlation between
learners’ motivation and their perception of their teachers’ commitment and pedagogical style
(Matsumoto, 2011). English learners with a lower level of linguistic proficiency are more likely
to depend on non-verbal, communication-based factors, such as teachers’ personality, but as they
develop their proficiency, they may shift their focus to more teaching-specific elements.
According to the culturally responsive education perspective, when teachers recognize and
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incorporate the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of ELs into their pedagogy, students
experience greater success in school (Aronson & Laughter, 2016). Moreover, preparing teachers
to meet the needs of ELs is a social justice issue, even in majority English-speaking countries
such as the United States, where one in five students is a non-native English speaker (Shin &
Kominski, 2010). In non-English speaking countries such as the UAE, where English as the
medium of instruction is currently taking root at all educational levels, emphasis must be given
to teachers’ pedagogy to match students’ English language competence. Song and Samimy
(2015) stressed that instructional practices for ELs are based on teachers’ deep-seated beliefs
about factors such as individual personalities and prior learning experiences, which are derived
from multiple sources. Altering teachers’ beliefs through professional development in
pedagogical style is likely to result in improvements in classroom practices for the academic
success of ELs in subject content (Song & Samimy, 2015). As a result, content-area teachers can
provide rich, meaningful lessons that strengthen background information and promote the
literacy of these students (Short & Echevarria, 2005).
As educators worldwide grapple with issues such as what constitutes appropriate content,
instruction, and assessment for ELs, it has become clear that educational parity can only be
achieved if these students have an opportunity to learn the same rigorous academic content as
native English speakers (Ford, n.d.). The best way to achieve this goal is through Differentiated
Instruction (DI), which takes into account learners’ English proficiency, as well as the many
other factors that can impact learning (Fairbairn & Jones-Vo, 2010).
Differentiated Instruction for English Learners in Higher Education

Tomlinson and Imbeau (2010) describe differentiation as creating a balance between
academic content and students’ individual needs. They suggest that this balance can be achieved
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by modifying four specific elements related to curriculum: content, process, product, and affect.
Beloshitskii and Dushkin (2005) suggest that differentiated sets of learning tasks for different
subgroups of students are significantly more effective than the traditional style of teaching, in
terms of both the number and quality of tasks to be accomplished. Pham (2012) emphasized the
critical importance of DI in higher education, but cautioned that teachers’ differentiation
approach should be based on “student readiness” rather than matched to students’ “learning
style” (p. 15). According to Pham, the utility of differentiation based on learning style lacks
scientific evidence in educational practices. Baecher et al. (2012) highlighted the difference
between differentiated and sheltered instruction for English learners. Sheltering techniques
support teachers in making whole-class adaptations to their instruction, whereas differentiation is
generally tailored to specific subgroups of students. Therefore, teachers in higher education
should implement the differentiated approach in instruction based on scientific evidence and
research to enhance the learning drive of ELs, and thus help them enrich their learning
experience and improve academic success.
The Clark and Estes’ (2008) Gap Analytic Conceptual Framework

The gap analysis model developed by Clark and Estes (2008) helps to clarify
organizational and stakeholder performance goals, and identifies the gaps between actual
performance level and performance goals. In this model, three factors are considered to be the
root causes of performance gaps: lack of stakeholder knowledge and skills; lack of stakeholder
motivation to achieve the performance goal; and organizational barriers that inhibit the
achievement of goals. The purpose of the gap analysis is to identify whether stakeholders have
adequate knowledge, motivation, and organizational support to achieve performance goals.
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According to Clark and Estes (2008), all three of these critical elements must be in place and
aligned with each other for successful goal attainment.
Four types of knowledge and skills needed by the stakeholders to achieve the goal:
factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive (Anderson & Krathwol, 2001). Motivation is
an internal state that initiates and maintains goal-directed behavior (Mayer, 2001). Relevant
organizational influences on stakeholder performance include work processes, resources, and
workplace culture (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Drawing on Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analytic conceptual framework, this section
examines UAE teachers’ knowledge, motivation, and organizational support to meet their
performance goal of completing professional development in Differentiated Instruction (DI) and
integrating this pedagogical style by 2018. First, assumed knowledge influences on stakeholder
performance goals were be addressed. Second, assumed motivational influences of stakeholders
under various motivational constructs, such as self-efficacy (Bandura, 2000; Eccles, 2006;
Pajares, 2009) and expectancy value (Eccles et al., 1998), were explained. Third, assumed
influences on the attainment of stakeholder goals from the perspective of organizational culture
and support were explored. Finally, guided by the model’s emphasis on the evaluation of each
critical factor, teachers’ assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational performance were
examined for achievement of the effective application of DI for improving the academic success
of students.
Stakeholder Knowledge and Motivational Influences
Knowledge and Skills
Teachers need a combination of specific skills and knowledge to excel in the academic
profession, from K-12 to higher education. Proficient teachers require a variety of skillsets, such
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as communication, interpersonal, collaborative, creativity, presentation, and technological, in
addition to knowledge about subject matter (Freddie Silver, n.d.). According to Rueda (2011),
the science of instruction has shown that effective instructors are not only knowledgeable about
what learners must know, but also about how learners acquire knowledge and how instructors
help learners acquire knowledge. As such, instructors must adopt different pedagogical styles to
teach varied types of knowledge to meet the learning needs of different types of students under
various circumstances (Mayer, 2011). Therefore, for a teacher to provide an effective learning
experience to students, expertise in subject domain must be complemented by a variety of
teaching strategies adapted to students’ cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds (Cole, 2008).
For English Learners in UAE higher education, teachers’ knowledge of and skill in
preparing students for language proficiency tests such as IELTS can help them develop English
language proficiency, which has a direct impact on their tertiary admissions and academic
success at the college level (Gitaski, Robby, & Bourini, 2014). However, most UAE high school
graduates fail to be directly admitted to undergraduate studies, and instead spend substantial time
in language remedial programs (Ministry of Education, UAE). Students with low English
proficiency challenge the pedagogy employed by college faculty in the UAE, as these students
clearly need additional English language support throughout their undergraduate studies
(Schoepp & Garinger, 2016; Rogier, 2012). Therefore, to provide the necessary, continuous
English language development, higher education institutions teaching in a second language need
to coach and train subject/content teachers on what to expect in terms of their students’ language
ability (Rogier, 2012). Teachers must be trained in and continuously practice DI for
linguistically challenged students to help them achieve academic success in their undergraduate
studies.
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Knowledge influences. Knowledge is at the heart of learning, instruction, and
assessment, and it is worthwhile to distinguish among the types of knowledge that are most
relevant to academic learning (Mayer, 2011). Anderson and Krathwol (2001) specify four types
of knowledge that are needed for learning: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive.
Factual knowledge includes terminology or details one must know; conceptual knowledge relates
to principles, theories, and models; procedural knowledge is related to knowing how to do
something; and metacognitive knowledge allows one to know when and why to do something,
which is a key aspect of strategic behavior (Rueda, 2011).
While all teachers must possess all four knowledge types to improve instructional design
and pedagogy for student success, this study focused primarily on three knowledge influences: i)
conceptual knowledge of DI for ELs in higher education; ii) procedural knowledge of how to
apply DI pedagogy to teach ELs in higher education; and iii) metacognitive skills of reflection of
teaching effectiveness for Arab students based on cultural awareness. Focusing on these three
knowledge types is justified because, while international teachers in the UAE are highly
qualified in their academic fields and have substantial teaching experience at recognized
academic institutions in the United States, the UK, and Canada (Ministry of Higher Education,
2016), they lack the knowledge and skills to apply different pedagogical styles to meet the needs
of English learners in the UAE (Gitaski, Robby, & Bourini, 2014). In addition, expatriate
teachers in the UAE are not fully versed in the culture of UAE or its educational system. UAE
high school graduates cross a “cultural border” in their transfer from a teacher-centered, Arabic-
speaking environment to higher education settings that offer English curricula taught by mostly
international faculty (Hatherley-Greene, 2014). Therefore, teachers must learn what type of
teaching style is appropriate in the UAE’s unique sociocultural and educational context to help
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students cross this cultural border smoothly without being intimidated by new language
challenges and cultural differences (Hatherley-Greene, 2014). To achieve this, the professional
development of UAE faculty should be enhanced with training in these three knowledge types:
conceptual knowledge of DI, procedural knowledge of DI, and metacognitive skills of reflective
teaching. This may help teachers achieve the performance goal of UAE faculty members in
professional development, and will also lead to the achievement of the organizational goal of
public universities improving student academic success in higher education. The professional
development of teachers will not only improve their conceptual and procedural knowledge, but
will also enhance their metacognitive knowledge (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009; Anderson &
Krathwol, 2001).
Differentiated Instruction for English Learners. Teachers need to know that
differentiated learning is a pedagogical style to improve the learning of ELs. They must know
how to incorporate pedagogical strategies based on differentiation for diverse groups of students
into their lesson plans. DI is a teaching style that emphasizes modifying and adapting instruction
to meet the individual and diverse needs of ELs (Tomlinson, 1999). Applying a specialized set
of pedagogical styles is a type of procedural knowledge. Applying knowledge by carrying out a
procedure in a given situation is one of the six kinds of cognitive processes in instructional
objectives (Mayer, 2011). According to Mayer (2011), when learners experience extraneous
overload, instructional designers must seek ways to minimize extraneous processing so that
learners can free up cognitive capacity for essential and generative processing. In UAE higher
education, students’ inadequate English skills create extraneous load in traditional classroom
instruction; instructors can reduce this by applying DI for language intensive undergraduate
courses. Many UAE teachers employ traditional, textbook-based pedagogy and rarely use
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differentiation because they lack the skills to practice this teaching style (Bourini, 2015). By
developing skills in practicing differentiated learning, teachers in the UAE may be able to
diagnose student language proficiency levels, know how students learn, and proactively plan
what students need to learn (Bouroni, 2015).
Reflection of personal teaching style. Having the ability to reflect on knowledge, skills,
and learning processes helps teachers engage with their students in reaching their academic goals
(Baker, 2006). This type of cognitive reflection and cognitive process regulation is referred to as
metacognitive knowledge (Baker, 2006; Rueda, 2011). Metacognitive knowledge involves
“meta strategies for judging whether a particular solution plan is working or whether a particular
strategy is appropriate for a given task” (Mayer, 2011, p. 60). Teachers in the UAE, who are
largely expatriates, need to know how to reflect on their own effectiveness in the classroom by
deploying culturally appropriate learning strategies to help Arabic-speaking ELs succeed in
higher education (Hatherley-Greene, 2014).
As Table 1 indicates, three knowledge influences will be used to gain insight about
teachers’ skills in using differentiated learning practices in the UAE. These influences will be
used to fully understand how knowledge affects the teachers’ pedagogical styles for student
success.
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Table 1
Knowledge Influences, Types, and Assessments for Knowledge Gap Analysis
Stakeholder/Global Goal
By 2020, 100% of faculty will implement the effective instructional practice of Differentiated
Instruction for English Learners in classrooms to support academic success in higher education.
Knowledge Influence
Knowledge Type (i.e.,
declarative (factual or
conceptual), procedural,
or metacognitive)
Knowledge Influence Assessment
UAE teachers need to know
about Differentiated
Instruction (DI) as an effective
pedagogical style for ELs.
Conceptual Survey item:
“I know DI is a pedagogy style used to support
the learning of ELs.”
(Strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Semi-structured interview item:
“What is Differentiated Instruction?”
UAE teachers need to know
how to incorporate different
pedagogical strategies for
different groups of ELs into
their lesson plans.

Procedural Survey item:
“I know how to use Differentiated Instruction in
my classroom lessons.”
(Strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Semi-structured interview items:
“How do you apply Differentiated Instruction in
your teaching sessions?”
“Have you attended any training on
Differentiated Instruction? (If yes, how many?
Tell me about the content of training.)”
UAE expatriate teachers need
to know how to reflect on their
own effectiveness in the
classroom by implementing
culturally responsive learning
strategies that can help Arabic
speaking ELs to succeed in
higher education.
Metacognition Survey item:
“I use student faculty evaluation and reflect on
my teaching practices in classrooms.”
(Strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Semi-structured interview item:
“Do you participate in UAE culture courses as a
part of your professional development?”
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Motivation
Motivation is an internal state that instigates and maintains goal-directed behavior
(Mayer, 2011). According to Mayer (2011), motivation is personal, fosters persistence and
intensity, and is aimed at accomplishing a goal. Three common indicators of motivation are
active choice, persistence, and effort (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2009). Research suggests that
when a person actively chooses a task, remains persistent throughout, and expends the necessary
mental energy to succeed, one is truly motivated to achieve personal and organizational goals
(Clark & Estes, 2008; Grossman & Salas, 2011). According to Rueda (2011), motivation is
inherently cultural. We develop motivational beliefs from others with whom we interact in a
variety of social contexts (Clark & Estes, 2008; Rueda, 2011). In gap analysis, motivation is one
of the three core elements, alongside knowledge and organizational resources (Clark & Estes,
2008).
There is no single theory of motivation, though there is general agreement on the nature
of motivation (Rueda, 2011). Motivation can be defined with various constructs. Mayer (2011,
p. 41) summarized all popular cognitive theories of motivation as motivation based on interest
(Schraw & Lehman, 2009); motivation based on beliefs and self-efficacy (Bandura, 2000;
Eccles, 2006; Pajares, 2009); motivation based on attributions such as attainment or utility value,
as explained by expectancy value motivational theory (Eccles et al., 1998); motivation based on
mastery or performance goals (Pintrich, 2009); and motivation based on social partnership, as
drawn from Bandura’s social agency theory (Bandua, 2000). This section will examine the
motivation of teachers in the UAE under two motivational constructs: the utility value of DI as
explained by expectancy value theory, and the self-efficacy beliefs of teachers as explained by
self-efficacy theory.
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Expectancy value theory. Eccles and colleagues explained engagement in learning in
their classic expectancy value model through two fundamental motivational questions: “Can I do
the task?” and “Do I want to do the task?” (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998). The first
motivational question is related to confidence in one’s ability, which the psychologist Albert
Bandura termed “self-efficacy beliefs” in his landmark social cognitive theory (Pajares, 2006).
The second motivational question is determined through four constructs: intrinsic value,
attainment value, utility value, and perceived cost. According to Eccles (2006), learning depends
on learners’ affirmative answer to both of these motivational questions. Expectancy can be
measured by the amount of confidence an individual exudes about his or her own ability and
capability to achieve a goal (Clark & Estes, 2008). Value refers to the amount of importance an
individual assigns to any given task (Rueda, 2011).
Utility value perceived by EL teachers. Utility value is the value of the task for
facilitating one’s long-term goals, or in helping one obtain immediate or long-term external
rewards (Eccles, 2006). If a learner’s goal is primarily to compete with peers for extrinsic
rewards, this is a performance-based goal. By contrast, if the goal is based on developing
expertise in a certain area, then the goal is mastery-oriented. According to Pintrich (2003),
mastery goals are associated with positive cognitive and motivational outcomes, whereas
performance goals are linked to less adaptive outcomes.
Bouroni (2015) examined the views of secondary school teachers’ beliefs in the utility
and importance of DI for English learners in the UAE. Teachers acknowledged that ELs were
different in many ways and required a diverse array of practices. They also believed in the idea
of differentiation and the need to teach students differently and offer them a variety of learning
opportunities. The majority of teachers agreed that the implementation of DI is the way to
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improve the academic achievement of ELs in the UAE, their main performance goal. Similarly,
in a study by Ardasheva and Brown (2011), the authors highlighted the value aspect of
motivation for DI among EL teachers as the most prevalent and universally shared goal.
Teachers in higher education believe that differentiation addresses learners’ differences in
preparation, interests, and strengths by offering a variety of learning pathways to them within the
same classroom (Rutter, 2016). Teachers would differentiate instruction if they valued DI as a
method of helping students learn and enhancing their academic success (Kiley, 2011).
Self-efficacy theory. In his social cognitive theory, Bandura (2000) emphasized
personal efficacy as the core belief and foundation of human agency. According to Pajares
(2009), self-efficacy beliefs can be defined as judgements that individuals hold about their
capacity to learn or perform a course of action at designated levels. Pajares also argued that the
primary source of personal self-efficacy are beliefs based on one’s experience or mastery
experiences, but that it may also be driven by vicarious experiences of observing others perform
tasks such as peer modeling, social persuasion, and physiological reactions. Pintrich (2002)
emphasized that “adaptive self-efficacy and competence perceptions motivate students in
learning” (p. 671). Therefore, learners who believe that they are able, that they can and will do
well, are much more likely to be motivated in terms of effort, persistence, and behavior than
learners who believe they are less able and do not expect to succeed (Bandura, 1997; Eccles et
al., 1998; Mayer, 2011; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).
Self-efficacy beliefs of EL teachers. Huangfu (2012) evaluated the self-efficacy beliefs
of EL teachers and found a direct causal relationship between English teachers’ perceptions of
their self-efficacy and their adoption of motivational strategies. Among the three subscales of
teachers’ self-efficacy, their efficacy in implementing instructional strategies for ELs was rated
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as the most significant predictor of teachers’ motivational teaching behaviors. Eslami and Fatahi
(2008) also found that the teachers’ perceived efficacy was positively correlated with self-
reported English proficiency. Their findings revealed that the more efficacious the teachers felt,
the more inclined they were to use communicative-based strategies. In one UAE study, Hassan
(2012) found that years of teaching experience had no direct effect on teachers’ efficacy beliefs,
and emphasized the need for professional development programs for all teachers, regardless of
their teaching experience. According to McKinnon, Moussa-Inaty, and Braza (2012), the self-
efficacy of teachers working within a culturally different environment such as in the UAE is
relatively low compared to teachers in other countries. Cultural setting affects the self-efficacy
of foreign teachers in UAE and is an area worthy of future research.
Table 2 below identifies two motivational influences that focus on utility value and self-
efficacy beliefs. These influences will be used to more fully explore how motivation affects EL
teachers’ DI strategies in higher education.

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Table 2
Motivational Influences and Assessments for Motivation Gap Analysis
Stakeholder/Global Goal
By 2020, 100% of faculty will implement the effective instructional practice of Differentiated Instruction
for English Learners in classrooms to support academic success in higher education.
Assumed
Motivation
Influence
Motivation Influence
Assessment
Motivational Solution
Principle
Proposed Solution
Utility Value –
Teachers need to see
the value in
differentiating
instruction for
Arabic-speaking
English learners in
the UAE.
Survey item:
“The implementation of differentiated
instruction is the best way to improve
academic achievement of NUE
students.”
(Strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Semi-structured interview item:
“Do you believe that differentiated
instruction improves ELs’ learning?
How?”
Individuals are more
likely to engage in an
activity when it
provides value to them
(Eccles, 2006).

Peer modeling by content
experts practicing DI to
demonstrate the positive
impact of instructional
practice on learning of
students with limited
skills in English.
Self-Efficacy –
Teachers need to
believe they are
capable of
effectively
differentiating
instruction for
Arabic-speaking
ELs.
Survey item:
“I am a teacher who employs
differentiated instruction effectively.”
(Strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Semi-structured interview item:
“How confident do you feel about
differentiating instruction for ELs in
higher education?”

Learners who believe
that they are able, that
they can and will do
well, are much more
likely to be motivated
in terms of effort,
persistence, and
behavior than learners
who believe they are
less able and do not
expect to succeed
(Bandura, 1997;
Eccles et al., 1998;
Mayer, 2011; Pintrich
& Schunk, 2002).
Support to college
teachers in practicing
pedagogical styles for ELs
in classrooms through
training and feedback by
supervisors through
classroom observation.
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Stakeholders’ Organizational Influences
Teachers need efficient and effective organizational work processes, material resources,
and a culture of learning such as professional development to support the attainment of their
performance goals. According to Clark and Estes (2008), inadequate organizational support
often hinders the attainment of performance goals, even for people with high motivation and
exceptional knowledge and skills. The performance effectiveness of teachers is directly
influenced by the climate, culture, and leadership of the academic organization in question.
Culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that is learned by a social group, and leadership
and culture are two sides of the same coin (Schein, 2004). According to Schein (2004), leaders
create cultures when they create organizations; in turn, existing culture creates the criteria for
leadership. Thus, for an organizational change in a public higher learning institution to take root
and produce the intended results, leaders in public education must nurture a learning culture and
focus on the climate of their organizations (Schneider, Brief, & Guzzo, 1996). Decision makers
at public education institutions must understand the resources that teachers need to perform their
jobs effectively and confidently, look at what gets rewarded in the organization and the ways this
impacts how teachers carry out their work, and focus on interpersonal relationships by providing
opportunities for mutual sharing, cooperation across units, and socializing with new faculty.
For ELs in UAE higher education, the English language not only creates an academic
challenge in undergraduate studies that has a direct impact on their academic success, it also
presents a cultural challenge. According to UAE research into education reform, the global
spread of English as the medium instruction has raised cultural concerns in Arabic-speaking
countries, including the UAE (Tabari, 2014). The UAE government views English competence
as an essential skill for students that will allow them to keep up with global developments; this is
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why English is the principal language of instruction in UAE tertiary education. This poses a
challenge for curriculum developers and educators because Arabic is the dominant language in
government schools and the language of Islam. Islam in the UAE is a way of life for those who
follow it, and an integral part of the local culture and identity. According to Ahmed (2010), the
growing prevalence of English in the education system has left many feeling that the Arab-
Islamic identity of the country may be at risk. Khelifa (2010) examined this risk and found that
UAE female students in higher education felt that the curriculum did not affirm their Arab and
Islamic identity, but rather that it grounded them firmly in Western culture and thought. The
professional development of teachers in instructional practice in higher education must,
therefore, be reflective of the cultural norms of UAE society. Though proficiency in English is
widely considered by UAE learners to be a tool of academic success, it is also perceived as a
contributor to cultural erosion.
Public universities in the UAE develop their organizational goals of improving the
academic success and upward mobility of students by linking them with the professional
development goals of teachers, the key stakeholders of the current study. Higher education
policy is developed by the UAE government with the goal of increasing the number of UAE
graduates in the national workforce. Currently, this workforce is comprised of 80% foreign
migrant workers, with most graduates working in the public sector. Only 5% of UAE graduates
are employed in the private sector (Ministry of labor, UAE, 2016). Public universities have
taken a number of strategic initiatives for organizational change to improve the learning and
success of students for their upward mobility; however, English proficiency remains the key
barrier to lower degree completion time.
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Teachers at the UAE’s three public universities are responsible for implementing state
education policy and helping the state achieve its employment targets. However, most feel that
they are not engaged directly in policymaking, which fosters a sense of negativity and
demotivation. Hargreaves (2004) compared teachers’ emotional reactions to self-initiated
change with their reactions to mandated change. He found that teachers disliked mandates
because they were perceived as vague and forced upon them without their consent or approval,
or were implemented poorly, within a short timeframe, and often with insufficient resources and
support. Dinham and Scott (2004) similarly reported that teachers were most dissatisfied with
outside pressures stemming from governments, society, and employers. Their dissatisfaction
was exacerbated by the pace of educational change, increased pressures and responsibilities, and
the low level of support provided to facilitate change. UAE teachers feel that the leadership in
public universities creates a climate and culture of excessive faculty workload without adequate
intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. As a result, public universities in the UAE face a high turnover
of teachers, including the departure of many foreign instructors who served the higher education
sector for more than 20 years. In some public universities, faculty service contracts have not
been renewed, and some teachers have voluntarily resigned due to the rising cost of living in the
UAE in light of frozen salary packages through revised faculty employment contracts.
Kezar (2001) suggests various models and theories of change and organizational
leadership, yet advises that the guiding principle for any effective change lies with the
leadership’s intent to include all stakeholders, develop trust, and provide confidence and skills so
that a top-down plan of change is supported by bottom-up acceptance by the individuals
involved. Research demonstrates that highly engaged employees are far more productive and
much less likely to leave their organizations than their non-engaged counterparts (Berbarry &
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Malinchak, 2011). Thus, an effective change envisioned by the higher education leadership for
improving student academic success can be managed and implemented with the active
participation and engagement of faculty and its trust in leadership.
The following section will examine the organizational influences on the achievement of
stakeholders’ goal of professional development in instructional practice to support the learning
and academic success of UAE ELs in higher education under the cultural models and cultural
settings of the UAE.
Cultural Models and Cultural Settings
According to Gallimore and Goldenberg (2001), “cultural models” are shared mental
schema, or normative understandings of how the world works or ought to work. The concept
incorporates behavioral activity as well as cognitive and affective components, whereas cultural
settings are defined as occurring whenever two or more people come together, over time, to
accomplish something” (p. 47). Cultural models are shared ways of perceiving, thinking, and
storing possible responses to adaptive challenges. Cultural models are familiar and invisible; in
other words, they are assumptions that individuals take for granted. The authors suggest keeping
setting and model analytically distinct, even though they are manifestly interconnected and it is
difficult to establish the primacy of one over the other.
Cultural model influence 1. UAE faculty, who are mostly foreign teachers, resist
adopting DI for linguistically challenged Arabic-speaking English learners to support academic
success in higher education. As public universities set a target of 0% enrolment in the
Foundation Program by 2018, all high school graduates will enroll in undergraduate studies
without any English remedial intervention. Research conducted in the UAE shows that an
IELTS score of 5.0 is not sufficient for the language development of ELs, and thus students need
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continuous language support in various subjects (Schoepp & Garinger, 2016). The low IELTS
score is a state policy, and higher education faculty and administration have no control over it.
Therefore, students will need a pedagogical style that helps them understand course content and
develop their language skills. As teachers in the UAE lack procedural knowledge of DI and
professional development goals for teachers do not include any key performance indicator for
teachers adopting this pedagogical style, teachers do not intend to engage in this pedagogy
without incentives or recognition.
Cultural model influence 2. An emerging culture of mutual distrust between higher
education administration and faculty as a result of revised personnel policies of those below that
(such as salary freezes and non-renewal of contracts) is likely to hinder the organizational goal of
improving the academic success of students. Employees perceive a manager as more or less
trustworthy contingent upon the fairness level of organizational human resources policies
(Korsgaard, Brodt & Whitener, 2002). Faculty development is the strategic goal of public
universities, but when leadership is perceived as non-empathetic about the concerns of its staff
members and teachers fear the repercussions of negative feedback, a culture of organizational
silence develops. According to Morrison and Milliken (2000), organizational silence is where
employees withhold their opinions and concerns about organizational problems because of the
potential for negative repercussions. The organizational silence of faculty members is an
impediment to change at public universities. Therefore, to encourage effective organizational
change, public university leaders in the UAE must encourage dissent and open channels of
upward feedback without stifling the voices of those below. Leaders that create a culture of
receptivity to feedback, both negative and positive, help reduce organizational problems
(Morrison & Milliken, 2000).
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Cultural setting influence 1. Faculty face excessive institutional demands amidst
worsening time constraints, which results in increased workloads without fair compensation. In
turn, this results in teachers often adopting a strategy of doing what is possible as opposed to
doing what is desirable to achieve organizational goals. Public university leadership creates
annual performance indicators of faculty appraisal in terms of student advising, research,
professional development through continuous training, and voluntary assignment of system-wide
course leaders. Faculty believe that these are all time-consuming activities, and senior faculty
members such as department chairs feel that they are not being recognized for their past services.
Research shows that organizations that fail to distinguish between rewards and recognition also
fail to achieve organizational goals, as employees remain unhappy, unappreciative, and
unmotivated (Hansen, Smith, & Hansen, 2002). Though public universities set organizational
goals to improve employee satisfaction and happiness by distinguishing rewards from
recognition, most faculty in the UAE fail to see this distinction as a motivating factor. A culture
of 40-hour work weeks is developing at public universities to meet the time required by faculty
who have no intrinsic motivation to work beyond these hours, as there is no recognition or
reward for putting in extra time at work.
Cultural setting influence 2. A lack of support by leadership to train faculty in professional
development to implement DI in classrooms may hinder the organizational goal of improving
student success. Faculty training does not include professional certification in pedagogical styles
used by teachers globally for linguistically challenged learners, such as Sheltered Instruction
Operation Protocol (SIOP) or Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) in
the United States. University leaders must incorporate these research-based pedagogical styles
and encourage faculty to gain certification as part of their professional development to help ELs
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succeed in higher education. Merely increasing the target of faculty training without any
emphasis on teachers’ instructional practices to support students’ English proficiency will not
improve student success.
Table 3 below identifies two cultural models and two cultural settings in the
organizational worksheet. These organizational influences will be used to understand how
organizational factors affect the teachers in adopting DI strategies at UAE public universities.

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Table 3
Organizational Influences and Assessments for Organizational Gap Analysis
Global/Stakeholder Goal
By 2020, 100% of faculty will implement the effective instructional practice of Differentiated
Instruction for English Learners in classrooms to support academic success in higher education.
Assumed
Organizational
Influence
Organizational Influence
Assessment
Research-Based
Recommendation or
Solution Principle
Proposed Solution
Cultural Model
Influence 1:
Faculty resist adopting
DI for linguistically
challenged Arabic-
speaking English
learners in the UAE to
support learning and
help in academic
success.
i) Survey or interview questions to
identify factors associated with
faculty resistance to adopting DI.

ii) Classroom observations to see if
faculty pedagogical style has
changed to match student learning.

iii) Reviewing student feedback
about teachers to see how students
feel about change in faculty
teaching style to help in learning.
Organizational
performance increases
when processes and
resources are aligned
with goals established
collaboratively (Clark
& Estes, 2008).

Administration
discuss and set
annual professional
development goals
for teachers to
include DI
Pedagogy as KPI for
incentives or
recognition.
Cultural Model
Influence 2:
Emerging culture of
mutual distrust between
university leadership
and faculty as a result of
revised human resource
policies such as salary
freezes and non-renewal
of contracts is likely to
hinder the
organizational goal of
improving the academic
success of students.

i) Survey questions:
“Do faculty trust university
leadership?”
(Strongly agree to strongly
disagree)
ii) Focus group interviews:
i) “What are the reasons of
dwindling trust between faculty
and leadership?”
ii) “How trust can be revived and
strengthened between faculty and
leadership to achieve
organizational goal?”
Organizational
performance
increases and trust is
promoted when
individuals and leaders
communicate
openly and constantly
about
plans and progress
(Clark & Estes,
Administration
openly communicate
with teachers their
plans, progress, and
provide support to
foster an
environment of trust.
Administration
ensures that faculty
paycheck be
commensurate with
the rising cost of
living in the UAE.

Cultural Setting
Influence 1:
Survey or interview questions: Organizational
effectiveness
Review the current
faculty workload
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Faculty face excessive
and constant
institutional demands
amidst time constraints,
resulting in increased
faculty workloads
without fair
compensation and the
adoption of a strategy of
doing what is possible
as opposed to doing
what is desirable to
achieve the
organizational goal.
i) “Do you feel overwhelmed by
your workload?”
Yes – No
ii) “Do you feel that non- academic
tasks undermine your goal of
adopting effective teaching style
and lesson preparations?”
(Strongly agree to strongly
disagree)
decreases if the
workload increases
more than 10%
when adopting change
(Sirkin, Keenan, &
Jackson, 2005).

and resources to
collaboratively
develop a plan to
redesign the work
process, which takes
into account the
organizational goals
and additional time
teachers will need to
be trained in DI and
adopt new
instructional
practices for
effective student
learning.
Cultural Setting
Influence 2:
Lack of support by
leadership to train
faculty in professional
development programs
to implement DI in
classroom instruction
may hinder the
organizational goal of
improving student
success.
Survey or interview question:
“How much professional
development support you in
implementing DI pedagogy style in
classroom instruction?”

Organizational
effectiveness
increases when leaders
ensure that employees
have the resources
needed to achieve the
organization’s
goals (Clark &
Estes, 2008).

Administration
allocates resources
for training of
faculty in
instructional
practices and
supports teachers
(content experts)
with English
language teachers to
assist them support
learning and success
of English Learners.
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Conclusion
The trend of using English as the medium of instruction in higher education in non-
English speaking countries requires teachers to use an effective pedagogical style to meet the
learning needs of ELs. Most teachers make few proactive modifications based on learner
variance in academically diverse classrooms (Tomlinson et al., 2003). Thus, teachers need clear
pedagogical guidelines, skills, and training to effectively teach and learn through professional
development (Dearden, 2014). To succeed academically, English proficiency is a requirement
for ELs in higher education in both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries,
including the UAE (Schoep & Garinger, 2014). Research is inconclusive about the effectiveness
of high-stakes admissions tests such as IELTS and TOEFL for the academic success of students
in higher education in terms of GPA, retention, and degree completion time (Al Maliki, 2014).
Moreover, remedial interventions for high school ELs with low IELTS scores extend degree
completion time and demotivate students (Jaggars & Hodara, 2011).
Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis model identifies the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational resources of teachers as requirements for students’ academic success. First,
teachers need conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive skills in adopting DI for ELs (Mayer,
2011; Rueda, 2011; Tomlinson, 1999). Second, teachers’ beliefs in the value of differential
instruction for ELs and high self-efficacy in their capacity to effectively apply this pedagogical
style are key motivational factors (Ardasheva & Brown, 2011; Bouroni, 2015; Huangfu, 2012).
Finally, teachers’ professional development in DI, the long-term commitment of leadership to
DI, and teachers’ recognition for adopting DI pedagogy are needed as organizational support.
All three factors identified in the literature were used in developing the methodology and data
analysis section in Chapter Three.
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CHAPTER THREE: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study is to improve the academic success of Arabic-speaking English
learners in UAE higher education through a promising instructional practice of differentiated
instruction. As high school graduates in the UAE cannot directly enroll in colleges due to their
low proficiency in academic English, and limited English skills affect their academic
performance in undergraduate courses, this study attempts to explore teachers’ knowledge and
motivation in DI. This chapter describes the conceptual and methodological framework of the
study, the instruments used to collect data and highlight selection criteria for the recruitment of
participants, and observations based on the conceptual framework. The present study was
guided by the following research questions:
1. What knowledge and skillsets must instructors acquire and implement to help their
students learn subjects through the medium of English?
2. What are teachers’ motivational aspects in their instructional approach that best facilitate
learning subject content through the medium of instruction?
3. What are the organizational factors that can support teachers in their goal of improving
student success in higher education?
Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Stakeholders’ Knowledge and Motivation and
the Organizational Context
Conceptual framework is essentially a conception or model of a researcher’s planned
study expressed visually as a diagram or in narrative form (Maxwell, 2013). The pictorial model
informs readers about the researcher’s beliefs, assumptions, supporting theories, concepts or
variables, and presumed relationships among these variables. According to Merriam and Tisdell
(2016), a conceptual framework and the subsequent research approach is based on the
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researcher’s philosophical perspectives. These perspectives that underlie conceptual frameworks
and research methodology form multiple research paradigms: positivist/post-positivist,
interpretivist/constructivist, critical, and postmodern (Creswell, 2013; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Based on their unique perspectives, researchers can use four sources to develop a conceptual
framework: personal experiential knowledge; existing theory and research; pilot and exploratory
research; and thought experiments (Maxwell, 2013). However, researchers must ensure that all
components of the conceptual model are integrated with one another and are aligned with the
research questions and goals of the intended study.
The academic success of UAE undergraduate students is influenced by the learning
experience through the knowledge and motivation of teachers and organizational support.
Despite achieving the acceptable IELTS score for direct college entrance or attending English
remedial interventions after high school, English learners face profound linguistic challenges
during their undergraduate studies. These learners need teachers with knowledge of and
motivation to practice a pedagogical style that will help them understand linguistically rich
course content and continuously develop their English skills for academic success and upward
mobility in the job market. As such, I developed my conceptual framework, as shown in Figure
A below, based on the two principal sources suggested by Maxwell (2013): first, my more than
10 years of experiential knowledge as a teacher in UAE higher education, and second, the
existing research on UAE students’ limited English competence (Schoepp and Garringer, 2016)
and the promise of DI to improve the academic success of English learners in the UAE (Bourini,
2015; Tomlinson, 1999). This conceptual framework is based on my philosophical worldview of
pragmatism, which is not confined to one system of philosophy, as the world according to
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pragmatists is not an absolute unity (Bourini, 2015). According to Creswell (2003), “pragmatism
opens the door to multiple methods, different worldviews, and different assumptions” (p. 12).
Figure A: Teachers’ knowledge, motivation, and organizational support for the academic
success of English Learners in UAE Higher Education

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Research shows that English proficiency has a direct impact on the academic success of
the English learners of UAE in higher education. (Gitsaki, Robby, & Bourini, 2014; Schoepp &
Garinger, 2016). High school leavers face multiple challenges in their transition from high
school to tertiary education. First, most of these ELs fail to secure direct admissions to colleges,
and spend more than a year in the Foundation Program. Second, once enrolled in degree
programs, students face linguistic challenges in learning undergraduate curricula offered only in
English. The primary reason for the weak English skills of UAE students is their early
education, mostly in public schools at the primary and secondary levels. State public schools
offer a mixed curriculum of Arabic and English, while private schools offer mostly British and
American curricula. Most of the ELs in the UAE move to higher education from state-owned
free public high schools that fail to equip students with the English skills necessary for tertiary
education. Though the new public school reform initiative has emphasized the inclusion of
English curricula and native English speakers have been recruited as teachers at public schools,
there is an ongoing debate about whether the early education of UAE children should be
bilingual or exclusively offered in Arabic (Federal National Council, UAE, 2016).
In a study conducted with Hispanic students, Ferrario (2009) observed that though ELs’
language of display in classrooms and on coursework was mostly English, the language of social
engagement was their primary language. Arabic-speaking UAE students exhibit similar
linguistic behavior. Most interact in English with teachers in classrooms but communicate only
in Arabic with peers inside and outside classrooms, as well as at home and at social gatherings.
Though English is the lingua franca in the UAE and also the language of business (Rogier,
2102), UAE graduates are reluctant to seek employment in the private sector chiefly because of
their limited English proficiency. According to the UAE Ministry of Labor and Emiratization,
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only 5% of UAE citizens including college graduates are employed in the private sector and one
of the major reasons for UAE nationals not being taken so easily by the private sector is the
inability of young Emiratis (UAE nationals) to express themselves in good English. Thus, ELP
is not only related to academic success, but has a direct impact on the upward mobility of UAE
graduates. The low IELTS score of 5.0 required for admission to UAE public universities is a
deliberate state policy to increase the literacy of UAE adults and to increase the number of
graduates in the domestic workforce, which is currently comprised of 80% English-speaking
foreign migrant workers (Ministry of Labor, UAE). This low score does help UAE ELs secure
admission to public colleges, but is not sufficient to ensure they understand the curricula studied
by native English speakers. In addition, the IELTS score necessary for entrance into degree
programs at UAE public universities is lower than international standards as well as the score of
6.0 required by private universities in UAE. Only 10% of UAE high school graduates can obtain
this minimum score and commence higher studies. Hence, remedial interventions at public
universities currently serve as bridge programs to help EL high school graduates transition into
degree courses offered in English. However, by 2018, the Foundation was planned to be phased
out at all three public universities to reflect a change in public higher education policy (Ministry
of Higher Education, UAE). As a result, all high school students in the UAE must be prepared
for IELTS or its domestic equivalent, Emirates Standardized Test (EmSAT), and will only be
admitted directly to public colleges. Admission to undergraduate programs after 2018 would
only be offered to high school graduates with a minimum score of 1100 on the EmSAT-English
or the equivalent IELTS score of 5.0. Therefore, 0% enrolment in the Foundation Program is a
government policy factor shaping the future admissions policies of public colleges in UAE. Will
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this help improve the degree completion time of UAE students? It is too soon to know, as
limited English proficiency is still a major challenge for UAE students in higher education.
Studies show that ELs globally face various linguistic challenges in higher education,
from listening to academic writing, despite the strong English proficiency they demonstrate on
standardized tests (Al-Zubaidi & Rechards, 2010; Kuo, 2011). Therefore, teachers’ skills in
preparing students through the conceptual and procedural knowledge of DI may have a direct
impact on ELs’ academic success. DI is a teaching and learning philosophy that strongly
emphasizes modifying and adapting instruction to meet the unique and diverse needs of students
in mixed-ability ordinary classrooms (Tomlinson, 1999). According to Mayer (2011), instructors
must adopt different pedagogical styles to teach varied types of knowledge to meet the learning
needs of different types of students learning in diverse circumstances. As such, public
universities in the UAE should train teachers in differentiated learning pedagogy through
professional development programs. Training in differentiated learning must be integrated as a
key performance indicator in the annual faculty appraisal to motivate teachers to adopt this
instructional practice. Teachers with the procedural knowledge to incorporate DI into lesson
plans will help English learners of UAE understand subject content and develop their language
proficiency. Research has shown that when ELs study under well-designed and competently
implemented programs of instruction, they successfully acquire English language skills and may
reach satisfactory levels of competence in academic areas (Genzuk, 2011). These pedagogical
approaches help provide comprehensible subject matter input and English language acquisition
in classes for learners (Peregoy & Boyle, 2008). Expatriate teachers in UAE higher education
must develop metacognitive skills to know how to reflect on their own effectiveness in the
classroom by deploying culturally sensitive learning strategies that can help Arabic-speaking
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ELs succeed in higher education at NUE (Hatherley-Greene, 2014). Teachers must know what
type of teaching style is appropriate in the UAE’s sociocultural setting to help student cross the
cultural border smoothly into higher education without being intimidated by language challenges
(Hatherley-Greene, 2014).
Knowledge without teacher motivation and organizational support is insufficient to
achieve the organizational goal (Clark & Estes, 2008). There are various motivational
constructs; however, utility value and teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs have been identified as the
key motivational constructs in the conceptual framework based on Bandura’s (2000) social
cognitive theory. Utility value is the value of the task for facilitating one’s long-term goals or in
helping one obtain immediate or long-term external rewards (Eccles, 2006). Kiley (2011) found
that teachers would differentiate instruction if they believed DI would help them achieve their
goals. When teachers have the opportunity to learn and grow professionally, to test research-
validated instructional practices with the potential to help students succeed academically, it can
be immensely rewarding. Hence, higher education faculty must believe in the value of DI to
improve the academic achievement of UAE students. Self-efficacy beliefs can be defined as
judgements that individuals hold about their own capabilities to perform a course of action at
designated levels (Pajares, 2009). Teachers need to believe that they are capable of effectively
differentiating instruction for English learners. Finally, organizational support through
professional development programs in differentiated learning will help teachers become self-
efficacious and appreciate the utility of applying an appropriate pedagogical style for the
academic success of these learners, thereby helping them succeed in higher education.
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Methodological Approach and Rationale
The study adopted a mixed-methods approach that combined elements of both
quantitative and qualitative research methods. According to Creswell (2013), people consider
quantitative and qualitative approaches as dichotomous categories, though both represent
different ends of a continuum with a mixed approach somewhere in the middle. Selecting a
particular research approach is often based on the researcher’s philosophical perspectives
(Creswell, 2013; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). These perspectives underlie research methodology
and form multiple research paradigms: positivist/post-positivist, interpretivist/constructivist,
critical, and postmodern (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). While post-positivism is generally
identified with quantitative methods of research, interpretivism/constructivism is linked to
qualitative approaches (Hall, 2013). In this dichotomy, each research approach has its
proponents. However, both research approaches have their strengths and weakness, and no
approach can provide all solutions or answers (Duke & Martin, 2011).
According to McEwan and McEwan (2003), quantitative research uses statistical
methods to show causal relationships between variables, whereas qualitative research relies on
observation and written description. The former approach helps researchers answer the causal
question “Does it work?” and, later, “How does it work?” The strength of quantitative
approaches lies in the scientific analysis of data, which allows the researcher to make
generalizations about an entire population. Quantitative research often uses surveys and
experiments to collect data that is easy to analyze statistically. However, critics find quantitative
methods weaker in providing sufficient explanations of many social and educational issues, as
these methods may not be able to provide in-depth descriptions (McEwan & McEwan, 2003).
On the other hand, qualitative research approaches are used to better understand a social issue
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from the participants’ perspective (Maxwell, 2013). Qualitative research provides the “thick
descriptions” necessary to understand process (McEwan & McEwan, 2003, p. 3). Skeptics of
qualitative approaches doubt their utility and scientific rigor, and note that they are more subject
to researcher biases than quantitative methods.
The present study on teachers’ pedagogy in differentiated instruction to assist in the
academic success of Arabic-speaking students in undergraduate studies benefits from merging
the qualities of both methods by avoiding the weaknesses and capitalizing on the strengths of
each. As mixed-methods approaches incorporate elements from both quantitative and qualitative
research, this research approach followed a pragmatic worldview. According to Creswell
(2013), “pragmatism applies to mixed methods research in that inquirers draw liberally from
both quantitative and qualitative assumptions” (p. 11). This study, therefore, partially adhered to
the quantitative post-interventionist paradigm by conducting faculty surveys to discover trends,
attitudes, and opinions about the instruction mechanisms they adopt. Following the qualitative
constructivist paradigm, the study also employed interviews of teachers to better understand the
linguistic challenges that affect student learning, and observations of faculty pedagogical style in
classrooms. While quantitative research helped the researcher test established EL learning
theories in the context of the UAE, qualitative research facilitated an in-depth understanding of
complicated domains such as the emotional, psychological, social, and cultural aspects of the
linguistic challenges faced by ELs in the UAE higher education. Thus, the rationale of using a
mixed-methods approach was to yield deeper insights into the research questions related to
exploring UAE students’ linguistic challenges in undergraduate courses and evaluating teaching
practices adopted by higher education faculty.
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The mixed-methods approach offered an opportunity to develop a convergent, parallel
research design by adopting a triangulation research approach. In this methodological approach,
a researcher combines both quantitative and qualitative data to validate research findings
(Creswell, 2013). Denzin (2000) maintains that “by combining multiple observers, theories,
methods, and data sources, researchers can hope to overcome the intrinsic bias that comes from
single-methods, single-observer, and single theory studies” (p. 307). This study employed the
triangulation of data collected from all instruments (surveys, interviews, and document analysis)
analyzed under the established learning theories to validate the findings and minimize intrinsic
bias.
Participating Stakeholders
Stakeholders selected for the academic success of English learners in the UAE public
higher education were the teachers, whose knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences
would be explored in the instructional practice of differentiated learning. Faculty is the key
stakeholder responsible for students’ academic success because of its direct engagement with
students who have limited English language proficiency. Public universities in the UAE offer
undergraduate and graduate degrees in various disciplines, such as IT, business, engineering,
electronics, media sciences, health sciences, education, and aviation (Ministry of Higher
Education, UAE). These undergraduate and graduate majors are offered at various campuses
and colleges of the three public universities in the seven emirates (states/provinces, in Arabic) of
UAE. This study was based on the population of teachers at one of the public colleges in Abu
Dhabi that offers undergraduate programs in an urban setting as an affiliate of the UAE’s largest
public university. The sampling frame included full-time faculty members employed at this
college. A mixed sampling design including both explanatory and exploratory approaches was
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employed concurrently across the various academic departments of the selected college to
implement a parallel concurrent design for data collection (Johnson & Christensen, 2015). The
parallel design of the data collection methodology was used for the purposes of effective time
management, as the target population was a large pool of stakeholders. As such, faculty surveys
as part of the explanatory component of the mixed research design was used concurrently
causality and correlational purposes alongside interviews as exploratory research for
understanding the process and phenomena, as well as the interpretation of the survey data
(Creswell, 2014; Johnson & Christensen, 2015). According to Johnson and Christensen (2015),
survey research is a nonexperimental research method based on questionnaires. Fink (2013)
suggested that for a survey to obtain accurate, reliable, and valid data, researchers must
determine an appropriate sample size based on certain characteristics; use a sampling method
and include appropriate technology for online surveys; determine survey frequency (cross-
sectional or longitudinal); conduct a pilot test to improve response rate; deploy the survey across
a wide geographic range; and ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the participants. The
faculty survey for this study was designed based on the characteristics suggested by Fink (2013),
including the sampling criteria and rationale described below.
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Gender-based selection of teachers. A representative sample comprising both male and
female teachers at the college in Abu Dhabi was selected from multiple academic departments.
The college employs about 161 teachers, both male and female, out of a total 1,275 teachers in
16 gender segregated colleges (NUE Fact book, 2016-17). Both male and female teachers are
assigned to these colleges based on their content expertise. In a conservative society like the
UAE, gender plays an important role, as student learning experiences with male and female,
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culturally distinct expatriate teachers are unique. Survey responses collected from teachers of
both genders helped me analyze the knowledge and skills, motivation, and organizational factors
necessary to adopt DI pedagogy in classrooms to improve the academic success of ELs. The
data also provided information about teachers’ challenges in teaching undergraduate courses in
EMI to students with weak English competence.
Academic discipline affiliations. College teachers from six core disciplines:
Engineering, Business, Computer and Information Sciences, Applied Media, Education and
Health Sciences as well as academic support divisions such as Foundation Program, General
Studies Division and Vocational Education Department were randomly selected for the survey.
This would provide maximal variation in views from faculty about the pedagogical skills, teacher
motivation, and organizational influences that affect the academic success of ELs because of
their weak proficiency in English.
Academic year. Teachers at the college are assigned courses for students from year one
to year four. Students in year one are enrolled in general education courses, which are similar
across most of the academic disciplines. However, from year two, students start learning degree
courses based on their selected concentration (NUE Catalogue, 2016-17). As such, the English
proficiency of students and the linguistic challenges they face vary in each successive academic
year, resulting in teachers’ differential experiences with students in each year. The course
content of the final year is more linguistically demanding than in the initial years. Therefore,
gathering data about the experiences of teachers’ instructional practice in each academic year is
essential to examining their knowledge, skills, and motivation.
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Survey Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale
A sample size of 161 teachers was selected for the survey. This sample size is about 13%
of the total faculty population; the university employs 1,257 teachers (NUE Fact book, 2017),
but 100% of college population. A sample size of 161 was desirable for a large public
university, as it would allow for a representative response. Moreover, a random selection of
faculty members from both genders, all academic disciplines, and various academic years helped
the researcher collect responses from a rich pool of stakeholders. Random selection means each
faculty member had an equal chance of being selected (Fink, 2013). For this study, each
academic department was randomly selected for a cross-sectional survey through stratified
sampling (Johnson & Christensen, 2015). Each individual academic discipline was identified as
a stratum, and faculty was randomly selected from each. A pilot test of the survey was initially
conducted at the business department of the college, where I am employed, to ascertain whether
participants understood the directions, the language was clear, and participants could answer the
survey questions easily to improve the response rate (Fink, 2013). To ensure the privacy and
confidentiality of all participants, faculty survey items were first approved by the college ethics
committee, per the code of ethics for faculty research (NUE Code of Ethics for Research, 2016).
Approval from the college ethics committee helped raise the response rate of the participants, as
it would ensure the teachers’ institutional support for research and management assurance of
their privacy (Creswell, 2014). The researcher’s method of aggregating responses also helped
alleviate teachers’ fear of negative repercussions by management for their candid opinions.
Interview Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Academic discipline affiliation. Full time subject matter teachers from six academic
disciplines of the college were randomly selected for the interview, on average two teachers from
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each academic discipline. This provided a detailed overview of the pedagogical skills,
motivation, and organizational influences employed by teachers in core degree courses to
differentiate instructions for learners with limited English skills to improve their chances of
academic success.
Teaching experience. Teachers were interviewed based on their experience in teaching
in higher education in general, and particularly in the UAE. Most teachers in the UAE are
expatriates, hired from mostly English-speaking countries based on their expertise in course
content. Exploring teachers’ pedagogical styles in higher education would help us understand
how appropriate their instructional practices are for ELs. Some teachers had served in higher
education for more than 20 years, and some had recently joined UAE higher education with a
very different cultural context. Interviewing professors, assistant professors, and lecturers would
help in gathering rich data about their teaching experiences and views about their teaching styles.
Interviewing both experienced and new teachers in varied academic disciplines would help
explore opinions and assisted in finding the common themes in teachers’ experiences and
instructional practices.
Teachers from academic support divisions. College employs English language and
general education instructors in both General Studies (GS) Division and Foundation Divion.
Both these divisions are called academic support divisions. GS instructors teach non-core
degree courses such as general English courses, Math, courses in natural sciences, life skills
courses etc. GS courses contribute on average 33 credit hours to student’s undergraduate degree
at NUE colleges. Therefore, it was important to interview these teachers to learn about their
instructional practices for English learners. Similarly, Foundation program teachers help UAE
high school graduates through remedial intervention in English for IELTS and basic Math to join
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undergraduate programs. Therefore, it was also important to explore their challenges with high
school graduates with limited proficiency in English and their instructional practices.
Interview Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale
According to Johnson and Christensen (2015), in qualitative research, the researcher
employs “purposeful sampling” that is based on a set of criteria that the population to be studied
must possess (p. 269). This criterion-based sampling strategy selects individuals that provide the
information needed to address the purpose of the research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). There are
many variations of purposeful sampling, but for this study, I identified maximum variation
sampling type as the most effective approach (Creswell, 2014; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The
strength of maximum variation sampling is that all types of cases are included, which helps the
researcher search for a central theme or pattern within the cases (Johnson & Christensen, 2015;
Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). For this reason, the present study employed interviews of teachers
from various academic disciplines and experience levels for maximum variation. When teachers
were encouraged to express their opinions through interviews about their knowledge, skills,
motivation, and organizational barriers to implementing differentiated learning, researcher could
identify common themes. These themes helped in the interpretation of previously obtained
quantitative results from the faculty survey (Johnson & Christensen, 2015).
According to Maxwell (2013), using multiple data collection methods serves the
purpose of “triangulation” of data, and thereby reduces the risk that researchers’ conclusions will
reflect the biases of a specific method. In addition, the mixed-methods approach provides
“complementarity,” as it broadens the range of aspects or phenomena, rather than simply
strengthening particular conclusions about some phenomenon (p. 102).
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Explanation for Choices
Surveys, interviews, and observations are all data collection methods, and each has
distinct advantages and limitations. According to Johnson and Christensen (2015), surveys
provide data in real time, save time, and help in testing a hypothesis or finding causal links or
correlations between variables. Yet, surveys suffer from weak validity and reliability, as they are
mostly self-administered questionnaires. On the other hand, interviews and focus groups are
time-consuming modes of data collection. Interviews and focus groups allow the interviewer to
probe and prompt the interviewee for more details, but data obtained from interviews is less
systematic, and data analysis is relatively difficult (Johnson & Christensen, 2015). Likewise,
observation is a very effective way to examine a process or social phenomenon, but it takes a
significant amount of time and personal engagement of the researcher as an observer or,
sometimes, as a participant-observer.
This study relied on a mixed-methods approach with a pragmatic perspective; for this
reason, surveys and interviews were more appropriate for exploring the knowledge and skills of
teachers, as well as their motivation and organizational support to adopt the promising practice
of differentiated instruction for English learners of UAE in higher education. As this pedagogy
style is mostly used in pre K-12 schools and college teachers, being content experts, are not
familiar with the conceptual meaning of this promising practice, therefore observing teachers in
classrooms would not serve the purpose of the study. According to McEwan and McEwan
(2003), the questions a researcher must ask about the utility of any research include: “Is it
worthwhile?” (Cost) and “Will it work for me?” (Usability). Therefore, I used surveys to seek
opinions of most of the full time instructor’s teachers in the college and conducted interview of
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teachers. Finally, secondary data is one of the key sources that can be integrated with primary
data for triangulation.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
The present mixed-methods study aimed to contribute to the literature on teachers’
knowledge, motivation, and organizational resources to improve student success through the
promising practice of DI in UAE higher education. The mixed-methods approach was expected
to yield deeper insights into the research questions related to exploring teachers’ conceptual and
procedural knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy related to differentiated instruction for ELs in
UAE public higher education. In this study, I used multiple methods of data collection from
various sources to answer the research questions. In addition to eliciting the beliefs and
experiences of teachers through a survey, the study collected data through semi-structured
interviews with teachers and a detailed analysis of college documents. According to Merriam
and Tisdell (2016), interviews allow researchers to collect a rich variety of data through direct
quotes from people about their experiences, opinions, feelings, and knowledge; detailed
descriptions of people’s activities, behaviors, and actions through observations; and excerpts,
quotations, or entire passages extracted from various types of documents. This study
emphasized direct data collection based on surveys, interviews, as well as analysis of documents
to provide more in-depth answers to the research questions. Collection of data through multiple
methods helped the researcher in the triangulation of data (Maxwell, 2012). Thus, the study
adopted a methodological triangulation approach that combined quantitative and qualitative
methods to respond to the research questions pertinent to the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational support teachers need to implement effective pedagogy for ELs in UAE higher
education.
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Surveys
Survey is a procedure in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey
to a sample or to the entire population in order to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or
characteristics of the population (Creswell, 2014). The target population for my survey were the
teachers at a public college in UAE. According to Pazzaglia, Stafford, and Rodriguez (2016),
researchers planning to use surveys must develop a detailed analysis plan. The plan should map
each survey item to the research construct or question, must contain the scale of measurement
(nominal, interval, ordinal, or ratio), and propose the type of analysis and presentation in the
form of a table or graph (Pazzaglia, Stafford, & Rodriguez, 2016). For my survey, I first
developed an analysis plan by ensuring that each survey question (item) was mapped to a
research question. Then, I developed the scales of measurement, which are mostly ordinal and
based on Likert scales, to ensure the collection of sufficient data for analysis. Survey data was
analyzed using percentages tables, as well as descriptive statistics such as frequency tables.
These were presented as tables in the research report.
The survey contained three sections that explored the participants’ demographic
backgrounds, collected data about their pedagogical styles, and sought their opinions about DI in
terms of knowledge, motivation, and organizational factors. The first section of the survey, on
participants’ demographic background, helped the researcher analyze teachers’ unique
pedagogical styles based on their gender, teaching experience in UAE higher education and
respective academic subjects. The survey attempted to collect data about the conceptual, and
procedural knowledge of teachers’ pedagogy related to the first research question. The survey
also included items about teacher’s motivation, particularly their beliefs and self-efficacy in
employing DI as a pedagogy to help students succeed academically in their undergraduate
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studies. Finally, several items focused on the organizational factors that might help the teachers
implement DI for student success. The survey items were developed by reviewing the survey
questionnaires of two studies on the pedagogy styles of teachers to help ELs succeed
academically (Bourini, 2015; Whipple, 2012).
Faculty surveys were administered using SurveyMonkey, an online survey development
cloud-based software. The final version of the online survey was sent to all the college faculty
members after the pilot test in the business department of the college. As online surveys are
cost-effective and provide data quickly, a link to the survey questionnaire was sent through email
to all teachers along with a survey protocol. The protocol informed potential participants that
their participation in the study was voluntary and, to protect their privacy, they did not need to
provide their names or any other personal details. Even a conservative target response rate of
50% of the 161 teachers was expected to provide sufficient data for analysis. The survey can be
viewed in full in Appendix A.
Interviews
For the interviewing part of the study, 13 college teachers (both male and female) from a
college in Abu Dhabi were purposefully selected for interviews. Semi-structured interviews
were used as a major instrument for collecting qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews are
those in which “the researcher asks some questions that are closed ended and some that are open
ended” (Creswell, 2013, p. 598). The researcher believed that a mix of teachers from varied
academic disciplines and colleges in urban and rural settings would help in exploring the diverse
experiences of teachers in dealing with the linguistic challenges of students with diverse cultural,
social, and academic backgrounds in the UAE. However, due to time and financial constraints,
the busy academic schedules of teachers, and researcher’s own teaching workload, a practical
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approach was to interview teachers from one urban college of the largest public university in the
UAE. Moreover, the researcher would also ensure that a balanced mixed of participants were
interviewed from various academic disciplines and years to understand in depth the linguistic
challenges of students at various academic levels in different academic disciplines. Each
interview lasted a minimum of one hour to obtain rich descriptions of teachers’ experiences in
dealing with ELs in the UAE, and to learn about the pedagogical styles they used to help UAE
students succeed. The interview protocol attached as Appendix B was used for the study; it
included the informed consent form and the interview questions based on Clark & Estes’ (2008)
gap analysis model.
Documents and Artifacts
A number of published NUE documents available on the university website were
collected and analyzed, including the strategic plans, high school graduates’ admission criteria
for college entry based on English proficiency, university fact books, student handbooks, and
course catalogues. The researcher also reviewed the professional development plans for teachers
to assess the effectiveness of their training in helping students succeed academically. Policies
related to teachers’ assessment, instructional practices and curriculum development were also
reviewed for secondary data. Finally, the administration’s policies related to faculty recruitment,
incentives and promotion were also analyzed.
Data Analysis
Frequencies were calculated for survey responses and presented as tables. Percentages of
stakeholders who strongly agreed or agreed were presented in relation to those who strongly
disagreed or disagreed. For interviews, data analysis began during data collection. I wrote
analytic memos after each interview and each observation. I documented my concerns and
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initial thoughts about the data in relation to my conceptual framework and research questions.
Once I left the field, interviews were transcribed and coded. In the first phase of analysis, I used
open coding by searching the data for empirical codes and applying a priori codes drawn from
the conceptual framework. The second phase of analysis was conducted where empirical and a
priori codes were aggregated into analytic/axial codes. In the third phase of data analysis, I
identified pattern codes and themes that emerged in relation to the conceptual framework and
study questions. I analyzed documents for evidence consistent with the concepts in the
conceptual framework.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Researchers believe that employing multiple sources in data collection in a mixed-
methods study enhance the validity and reliability of the study (Maxwell, 2013; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). In the present study, triangulation of data collected through multiple methods
was used to validate research findings. Triangulation of data is widely used in the social
sciences for increasing the credibility and reliability of the research findings (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). As such, data collected from the faculty survey and semi-structured interviews was
triangulated to ensure that the findings were credible.
Qualitative researchers also assume that data validity is achieved through trustworthiness.
To ensure the trustworthiness of the study, the researcher arranged for member check or
respondent validation. Most of the interviews transcribed were sent to participants for their
feedback and revisions were made as per their comments. Member checking was carried out
during the interview process.
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Validity and Reliability
According to Salkind (2016), the reliability of a survey instrument is the degree to which
it consistently measures constructs of interest. As reliability is a measure of consistency as well
as a function of the error in self-reported data (Salkind, 2016), I first conducted a pilot test of the
survey with selected teachers in the business department, and then conducted cognitive
interviews to get their feedback. According to Pazzaglia, Stafford, and Rodriguez (2016),
accruing feedback on survey instruments with cognitive interviewing with the same respondents
helps the investigator ensure the consistency of interpretation of the survey items, as it informs
how the participants understand the survey items when they actually respond to the survey.
Based on the feedback, I removed all unclear items, increased or decreased the number of survey
items, used more simple language without jargon, avoided double-barreled questions, and
minimized the effects of any potential external events (Fink, 2012; Salkind, 2016). Faculty
feedback with cognitive interviewing helped me improve the reliability of quantitative data
collected before the actual survey instrument was administered to all faculty members at the
college.
Validity is the capacity of the measurement tool to measure the construct that it is
intended to measure. A researcher must test the survey instrument for three types of validity:
content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity (Salkind, 2016). Content validity is
established when “a sample of survey items truly reflects an entire universe of items in a certain
topic” (Salkind, 2016, p. 169). To ensure the content validity of the instrument, I requested
feedback on my survey items from English language and subject teachers at the college. This
critical feedback from language experts and content masters would help incorporate all the
essential items related to the relationship between the instructional practice of differentiated
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learning and the academic success of students with limited English proficiency, and thus would
improve the content validity of the measurement tool. Criterion validity requires that multiple
criteria are used to assess both concurrent validity for the current setting and predictive validity
for the future setting; both are not necessarily essential for all studies (Salkind, 2016). Finally,
construct validity can be ensured when a correlation is identified between the expected outcome
and a theorized outcome. According to Salkind (2016), construct validity is relatively difficult to
establish; therefore, an attempt was made to correlate the teachers’ knowledge, motivation, and
experience of dealing with ELs in UAE higher education with other non-native speakers of
English in higher education, such as students of other Arabic-speaking Gulf countries.
The survey responses supplemented the qualitative component of this mixed study,
including interviewing and document analysis through methodological triangulation (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2015). Empirical data obtained from survey and triangulated with the qualitative data
obtained from the teachers’ interviews was expected to further strengthen the validity and
reliability of the results. However, a researcher must also acknowledge the constraints of the
quantitative data collection and analysis, such as personal bias, lack of generalizability, failure in
collection of data due to tight time frame, and low response rates. I understood that my role as a
teacher at the college could influence the research outcome, and that it was also possible that I
would not be able to survey all faculty members. Nonetheless, I believed taking peer feedback,
conducting research in one of the colleges of the largest public universities in the UAE, targeting
a wide spectrum of faculty as respondents, and gaining approval from the college ethics
committee for research would help overcome the challenges of personal bias, generalization of
research outcomes to other public colleges in the UAE, and improve the survey response rate.
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Ethics
As an investigator carrying out research involving human participants at a college within
a public university, I had certain ethical responsibilities. Those included obtaining informed
consent from participants, protecting participants’ identities, minimizing risks to them, and
ensuring that the risks of research are proportional to the expected benefits (Glesne, 2011;
Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Rubin & Rubin, 2012). It is ethically essential that the participants
are assured that they are not exploited for my personal or professional gain, are not lured into
promises that could not be kept, and are given full respect in terms of their time and
contributions (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). As a researcher, I was ethically responsible for ensuring
that faculty members of the college, the participants of my study, provided written informed
consent, remained unharmed for their honest opinions, felt respected for their candid views, and
were under no pressure to participate (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Rubin & Rubin, 2012). I would
first obtain the informed consent of all participating faculty members. The consent form notified
the instructors that their participation was voluntary, that they were protected, and that they
might opt out at any point during the data collection process (Glesne, 2011; Krueger & Casey,
2009). A signed informed consent form also helped me comply with the ethical guidelines
prescribed by the Institutional Review Board (Glesne, 2011; Rubin & Rubin, 2012).
I was also ethically responsible for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the
participants (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). This would help me build mutual trust with the participants,
and I would assure them that their individual responses and identities would never be revealed to
college administration, as I was aware this might affect their annual performance appraisal and
employment contracts. Participants were informed that their responses would be presented as
aggregated findings to protect individual identity (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Conversational
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participants such as teachers were assured that all their conversations would be recorded by
concealing their real names. To protect interviewees’ identities in both recorded conversations
and in written notes, only pseudonyms would be used (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). All interview
transcripts were secured through encryption, and all interview notes, when taken, were stored
safely with me and discarded once the research was complete. This would help address any
faculty concerns about being reprimanded by the college administration. Interviewing can
present the researcher with various ethical dilemmas, such as protecting confidentiality versus
reporting dangerous information to protect other members of the organization and the broader
society (Glesne, 2011; Rubin & Rubin, 2012). Therefore, as a precaution, I reminded the
conversational participants that if any illegal information was shared, I would not be able to keep
confidentiality (Rubin & Rubin, 2012). In other ethical dilemmas, I might seek the help of
experts and support groups such as the dissertation committee (Glesne, 2011).
I ensured that participants in my research were informed about the true purpose of the
research, my role as a researcher, and the potential benefits to teachers from the findings of the
study, as reciprocity is one of the researcher’s ethical responsibilities (Glesne, 2011). The
objectives of the inquiry were clearly explained to faculty members. They were informed that
the primary objective was to help the university improve the professional development of
teachers in instructional pedagogy in a way that would positively impact the academic success of
ELs. As the study would provide information about the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational resources teachers need to improve academic success, it would benefit all
teachers. The study involved faculty surveys and interviews with teachers; therefore, faculty
members would have an equal opportunity to express their views. Interviewing also provided an
occasion for reciprocity. By seriously and carefully listening to the teachers, I would reciprocate
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participants’ contribution with a sense of importance (Glesne, 2011). According to Merriam and
Tisdell (2016), “the validity of the research is an ethical consideration such as the extent to
which research allows all voices to be heard and the extent of reciprocity in research
relationship” (p. 261). Further, I explicitly informed the participants about my role in the study
as a researcher, not as a coworker or a faculty member. As faculty members are ranked from
lecturers to professors in the university, it might create an asymmetrical power structure between
me as a lecturer and senior faculty (Glesne, 2011). I balanced this asymmetrical relationship by
informing my coworkers that they should not feel any pressure to participate in the research. By
making it clear that participation was voluntary, I helped eliminate the coercive aspect of data
collection. Voluntary participation might have sacrificed the views of some teachers; however,
the benefits overweighed the risks, as it improved the ethical adherence of the study.
As a faculty member at the university as well as a researcher, I understood that I had
personal interest in the outcome of the study and my personal bias might affect the research
outcomes. My personal interest as a teacher was aligned with the interests of all the teachers at
the college. It would help me and other teachers reflect upon our knowledge and motivation to
help ELs at the college succeed academically. My personal stake in the study would help the
organization and its core stakeholders: students and teachers. However, I was aware of my
personal bias in the study as an internal stakeholder of the organization during data collection
and analysis. Additionally, as a faculty member, I had developed preconceived notions about the
stakeholders of the university, including teachers, students, management, and corporate partners,
as well as the cultural and social context of the study. These biases must be checked to ensure
the validity, reliability, and ethical adherence of the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I avoided
these personal biases by reporting the data as accurately as it was provided. According to Patton
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(2002), the foremost job of a researcher is to gather and present data without value judgments. I
minimized my personal bias by sharing my findings with the participants, and by following the
guidelines of the university ethics committee to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.
Merriam and Tisdell (2016) stressed that the critical ethical aspect of any research lies with the
integrity of the researcher, which goes beyond the prescribed code of ethics. Therefore, in order
to be truly ethical, I ensured that my personal interest and subjectivity, which could not be
completely eliminated, minimally affected the research process and outcomes.
Limitations and Delimitations
Study limitations are potential weaknesses that are mostly out of the researcher’s control,
such as non-random sampling, limited funding, time constraints, choice of research design, and
the constraints of the statistical model. In this study, responses to the faculty survey might not
be based on a truly random selection of teachers. As the college selected for the study is the
largest unit of a public higher education institution, where the teachers targeted were engaged in
multiple academic disciplines, not all teachers might be willing or able to participate. As such,
the response rate might be lower than expected and the sample might not be truly
random. Moreover, as the study was limited to a certain amount of time, such as six to eight
weeks, data collection methods such as interviews of faculty members might be affected by
faculty engagement during the assessment week, faculty breaks, or public holidays. Further, in
quantitative research, correlation might be positively significant between the variables in the
absence of causality. The university’s research ethics committee might also not approve the
scope of my research and ask to remove certain items from data collection instruments, or restrict
the use of sensitive data from college documents, which may have an impact on research
findings.
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Delimitations are set by a researcher so that the goals of the study do not become
impossible to achieve. Examples of delimitations include objectives set, research questions
developed, variables defined, conceptual frameworks adopted, and population chosen as the
target of study. I chose to conduct this study at a public college based on my experience as a
teacher in UAE public higher education and engaging with ELs in this setting directly. I
believed that the college in Abu Dhabi, as part of the largest public university in the UAE, would
provide me with a platform to achieve my study objectives and help me answer my research
questions. The conceptual framework adapted from Clark & Estes (2008) guided the research
questions and was developed to include all three critical elements of gap analysis: knowledge,
motivation, and organizational factors. A further delimitation in my data collection instruments
was the inclusion of only closed-ended Likert scale responses in the survey instrument, rather
than open-ended responses, which might make survey participants more willing to participate
and complete the survey. Finally, the aim of this study was to make a measurable difference in
the academic success of UAE students with low English language proficiency, and to help
teachers adopt the pedagogy that could effectively achieve this goal.

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CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
This section reports the results of the survey, the findings of the interviews, and the
findings of the document analysis as they pertain to the current instructional practices of subject
matter teachers for Arabic-speaking English learners in UAE higher education. It also explores
the potential of adopting Differentiated Instruction by content experts for student success. The
study adopts the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis analytical framework for performance
solutions. This framework is focused on three critical factors: knowledge, motivation, and
organizational factors. As such, the present mixed-methods study on instructors’ knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences benefits from merging the qualities of the two major
research paradigms: post-positivist (quantitative) and interpretive/constructivist
(qualitative). Each paradigm has its own strengths and weaknesses (Creswell, 2013; Maxwell,
2013). The present study adopts a pragmatic approach and thereby benefits from the qualities of
both paradigms by avoiding the weaknesses and capitalizing on the strengths of each. This study
employs faculty survey as a primary quantitative research instrument (post-positivist) and faculty
interview as a primary qualitative research tool (interpretive/constructivist), in addition to
document analysis as secondary data to answer the following research questions:
1. What knowledge and skillsets must instructors implement to help their students learn
subjects through the medium of English?
2. What are the motivational factors that teachers can employ in their instructional approach to
best facilitate learning subject content through the medium of instruction?
3. What are the organizational factors that can support teachers in their goal of improving
student success in higher education?

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Participating Stakeholders
This study was conducted at one of the women’s colleges of the NUE, the largest public
university in the UAE. The 16 colleges under its umbrella are spread across both urban and rural
areas. Stakeholders who participated in the study are full-time subject matter teachers who serve
as content experts in the college's six core divisions that offer majors: Engineering, Business,
Applied Media, Health sciences, Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), and Education.
They were also selected from the support divisions that contribute to the core divisions’ course
offerings, such as General Studies (33 credits of each major must be from General Studies and
not the core subject), Foundation Program (that prepare students for entry into the core
divisions), and Vocational Education (that deliver the Technical Studies Certificate Program as
well as additional industry certifications and qualification that are embedded within each major).
The survey (see Chapter 3 and Appendix A) was administered to every college teacher; however,
interviews were largely conducted with subject matter teachers in the undergraduate degree
program. This section presents the faculty responses pertinent to demographic data, including
gender, the experience of teaching in UAE higher education, and the teachers' respective
academic disciplines for survey and interview participants.
Survey Participants
The survey was administered to subject matter teachers through the Department Chairs of
all six academic disciplines, as well as teachers from the three academic support divisions as
detailed above. The researcher purposefully excluded teachers from the Arabic & Emirati
Studies (AES) Division, as they do not engage in any English teaching. Out of the 161 teachers
at the college (NUE Fact Book, 2017), 74 responded to the faculty survey, 61% of whom were
female and 39% of whom were male. This is roughly equivalent to a response rate of 48%,
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excluding seven teachers from the AES. The proportionality of respondents by academic
division is shown in Table 4 below. Majority of the participants about 45%, both male and
female instructors, who participated in the survey belong to the Business Division of the college,
the largest division with 34 teachers, followed by almost 18% teachers from the Foundation
Division, 15% from the General Studies Department, 9.5% from CIS, and very low faculty
participation from the Engineering, Education, and Health Sciences Divisions. Finally, the low
response rate of the Technical Studies Program (TSP) was self-explanatory, as there are only six
instructors in this new vocational education program. TSP was initiated by the university at each
college in 2017 for high school graduates who could not gain admission to undergraduate studies
due to very low proficiency in English and prior weak academic record in high school.
Table 4
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Response Rate
Department Survey Responses Percentage
Engineering 1 1.35%
CIS 7 9.46%
Business 33 44.59%
Health Sciences 1 1.35%
Applied Media 3 4.05%
Education 3 4.05%
General Studies 11 14.86%
Foundation 13 17.57%
Technical Studies Program 2 2.70%
Total 74 100%
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The results also showed that more than 30% of the subject matter teacher respondents at
the college have teaching experience of five to ten years in UAE higher education, while about
16% of them had over twenty years of experience as shown in Table 5 below.
Table 5
Survey Result for Number of years of teaching experience in higher education of the UAE.
Years Percent Responded
0-5 22.97%
5-10 33.78%
11-15 12.16%
15-20 14.86%
Above 20 16.22%

Interview Participants
A convenient sample of 13 subject matter teachers out of the 161, both male and female,
were interviewed for qualitative data analysis as shown in Table 6 below. As mentioned above,
participants were selected from all six academic disciplines at the college and from the General
Sciences Division. The researcher did not interview teachers from the Vocational Education
Division, as they were not directly engaged in teaching undergraduate courses; however, they
were included in the faculty survey. In addition, a few course teachers interviewed also served in
the Foundation Division in the course of their academic career at the NUE College. Most of the
faculty members interviewed had taught in the UAE higher education for 10 years or more.

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Table 6
Academic Departments/Disciplines of Faculty Interviewed
Department No. of Interviewees
Engineering 1
CIS 2
Business 3
Health Sciences 1
Applied Media 2
Education 1
General Studies 2
Foundation 1
Technical Studies Program 0
Total 13

Document Analysis
Documents utilized in this qualitative study included only material that is relevant to the
study in a written or visual form. A number of published NUE documents available on the
university website were collected and analyzed, including the last three five-year strategic plans
(2008-12, 2012-16 and 2017-21), NUE Fact Books, NUE Student Handbooks, and course
catalogues for the last five years (2013-17). Moreover, the Vice Chancellor’s past three years of
key directives and memos related to the current strategic plan (2017-21) were analyzed, which
expands upon the modified vision, mission, organizational goals, and strategic initiatives by
NUE leadership/administration in line with the 2021 UAE vision. Key outcomes of NUE
strategic plan are student academic success (retention, degree completion), upward mobility
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(graduate employability), and faculty development. The proceedings of the bi-annual
conferences related to current HR policies for faculty ranking, promotion, and future faculty
hiring policies were also analyzed. However, the main challenge faced was in collecting
organized data on the training and professional development courses offered to faculty in the
area of instructional practices. In this regard, online meetings were held with the Professional
Development (PD) department of the university to collect the teachers’ training data, scattered
across the 16 colleges since NUE colleges were established in phases from 1998, until the setup
of the last college in 2009.
The findings from the surveys, interviews and document analysis inform the results
detailed in the following sections as they relate to knowledge, motivation and organization and
these will in turn influence the specific recommendations for closing perceived gaps, and for the
implementation and evaluation of potential solutions presented in Chapter Five.
Knowledge Results
Course teachers require factual and procedural knowledge about students' English skills,
course content, and instructional practices, such as Differentiated Instruction (DI) for English
Learners, in order to help UAE English learners understand course content. The basic
knowledge of a specific course discipline or a particular pedagogy style is called factual
knowledge (Krathwohl, 2002; Rueda, 2011). According to Rueda (2011), procedural knowledge
is the knowledge of how to do something, or of the processes needed to accomplish a task. The
survey included items concerning teachers’ factual knowledge about learners’ limited English
skills, declarative knowledge about linguistic assessments, conceptual and procedural knowledge
of the promising instructional practice of DI, and metacognition skills. Likewise, the interview
process focused on questions surrounding how teachers interact with students in classrooms,
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their views about International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores, and the
Foundation Program. The questions sought to determine the process for assessing the linguistic
ability of Arabic-speaking ELs in the UAE, commonalities among teachers facing the linguistic
challenges of non-native speakers of English learning course content through an English
medium, teaching styles used to make content comprehensible to students, teachers’ reflections
of their learning styles, the proximity of the teaching styles to DI pedagogy for student success,
and key challenges course teachers face in delivering course contents due to students’ limited
English proficiency. Finally, documents reviewed included training provided to teachers in
instructional practices through the PD department of university, policies of college remedial
intervention programs for students with poor skills, administration policies related to
organizational goals for student success, assessment policies, UAE students’ persistent low
proficiency demonstrated through low IELTS scores, and remedial intervention.
Factual Knowledge: Linguistic Challenges of UAE Students in Higher Education
Subject teachers from all six academic divisions, the Foundation Program, and
Vocational Education were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that some
degree courses were more linguistically challenging for English Learners in the UAE than others.
Respondents selected one of the options on a five-point Likert scale. As Table 7 shows below,
an overwhelming majority of faculty members either agreed or strongly agreed (almost 46% and
45%, respectively) with the statement. Only about 1.4% did not agree with it.

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Table 7
Survey Results of Teacher’s Views on Linguistically Challenging Undergraduate Courses
Survey Response
Percent
Responded
Frequency
Strongly Agree 45.83% 33
Agree 44.84% 32
Disagree 1.39% 1
Strongly
Disagree
0.00% 0
N/A 8.45% 6
Total 100% 72

Further respondents were asked whether the current course content in UAE higher
education matches Arabic-speaking learners' English skills. Two respondents chose not to
answer this question, resulting in a 99% response rate. As shown in Table 8 below, almost half
(50%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. By contrast, 47% either agreed or
strongly agreed that course curricula in higher education matched UAE students’ English skills.
Table 8
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice-Curriculum Matches Learners’ English Skills
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 8.33% 6
Agree 38.89% 28
Disagree 45.83% 33
Strongly Disagree 4.17% 3
N/A 2.78% 2
Total 100% 72
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These two results demonstrate that the faculty across the divisions are aware of the
linguistic challenges their students face and how the students struggle with the demands of
English language in their content areas.
Similarly, interview participants were questioned on the linguistic challenges of UAE
students in undergraduate courses. With the exception of 2 faculty members, all conversational
participants from various academic departments responded affirmatively that the limited English
skills of UAE students creates challenges for teachers in delivering course content, and for
students in learning and comprehending it. One teacher from the Business Division stated that
“English proficiency is the main barrier in learning.” She further noted that:
Probably the language. I do think the language is a massive issue. A lot of our students, I
don't know what their IELTS level is, but we get them to write or talk to them even at
their desk… email they're sending you, the grammar is wrong, they haven't got the right
words, they can't articulate or explain things… But I do think language is probably the
biggest issue there, the biggest barrier to everything in the college.
A teacher from the Applied Media Division commented on the poor English writing
skills of his students when he stated the following:
When they critique an image, a photo, there's a lot of spelling mistakes, grammar errors,
which made it very difficult to mark the assessment, to get their true observation of the
image. I think this comes down to, they're not reading as much as... they should be in
English.
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Two teachers felt that the English language was not a major hindrance to student learning
in higher education. One course instructor from the General Sciences Division did not feel that
the English skills of UAE students was a major issue in his course and he compared this to his
experience of teaching English to non-native speakers in another Asian country. He said, “I felt
that the linguistic thing wasn't an issue at all in the classroom, to be honest, compared to Korea.
In Korea, it was a big problem.” However, he accepted that some undergraduate courses are
more linguistically challenging:
When I compare it to some of the stuff that you guys [reference to the interviewer, who
belongs to the Business Division] hand over in business and things like that, I do see that
your stuff is a lot harder to get their head around. I do wonder to myself whether the
students really get it. They must have to spend a lot of time trying to get their head
around some of the stuff that you're trying to give them.
Similarly, a faculty member from the Engineering Division felt that language was not a major
issue in his subjects, except for the verbal problem statements in the Statistics course. He stated
that “with most of the courses I don't think so.” He further shared his indifference to linguistic
challenges for both native and non-speakers of English in his course when he said the following:
I have been teaching mathematics for about 14 years to the Emiratis (UAE students),
from the foundations up to Calculus 3 courses. And basically, it was not different from
my experience teaching Canadian students in Canada, which have English as their mother
tongues. Well, usually with the higher-level courses, I did not feel that… Basically I
think the math language is not that dependent on the student's English proficiency.
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Finally, two bilingual (Arabic and English) teachers from the Applied Media and CIS Divisions
noted that weak English skills are an impediment to learning for Arabic-speaking English
learners. These teachers were non-native English speakers themselves and they used their
Arabic language skills to overcome this challenge by making the content understandable to their
students when the need arose.
UAE students' poor English reading and writing skills. One of the most common
observations made by course teachers during the interviews was the lack of interest UAE
students showed toward reading, resulting in poor development of English vocabulary and
writing skills. This has a negative impact on students’ comprehension of course content.
Instructor interviewed from the Education department agreed that UAE students’ writing skills in
English is one of the key problems they face and reasoned that this was connected to their poor
reading skills. For instance, one teacher, who was both an English language teacher and
professor of Education, opined that the “biggest linguistic challenges, I still feel to this day, are
probably vocabulary based, and that comes, I would suggest, from a lack of reading. It is
reading, vocab, and that then rolls on to production, writing, “These views were echoed by
another teacher with more than 20 years of teaching experience, both at the foundation and
degree level, “The biggest problem that we would have with all the students, I won't say all, but
the vast majority of students, would be the fact that they don't read.” She further stated that:
They don't read, their writing is affected, because they don't read, their vocabulary is
affected; because their vocabulary is affected, their understanding and the pace at which
you move forward in the class is also affected.
Another teacher from Applied Media said that “I think this comes down to, they're not reading as
much as what they should be in English.” He added:
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I find a lot of them don't read a lot. I did ask them what books do they read and a lot of
them are more engaged on TV or watching YouTube clips, and I do try to encourage
them to read more or more lengthy books, rather than just Twitter feeds or whatever. So
that's what I try to encourage them. […] They don't take notes or anything like that. So
the thing is, every time I speak, they're not noting down anything. There are slides on the
board but maybe it's just a method of learning. They're not used to taking out the
notebooks.
One instructor suggested that the poor writing skills of UAE students was a cultural issue:
They seem much better orally, but when you put them down to writing, it changes; you
can see the difference. They're a very oral culture. We understand this is a strength for
them, and that's good. Their weakness is the fact that they don't read, and because of that,
their writing is also affected.
The results indicate that the teachers in most divisions are aware that the lack of reading impacts
the language skills development of the students, which in turn has a resultant effect on their
IELTS scores.
IELTS score and student learning and success. During the faculty interviews,
participants were also asked about their opinions on the state/university policy of using aggregate
IELTS scores of 5.0 for direct entry to UAE public colleges. 12 out of 13 teachers interviewed
expressed their lack of satisfaction with current IELTS score for higher education. One Business
instructor said that “even with IELTS level of 5.0 you still need support, still need English
support, so I think maybe if we don't have the support systems in place here to help the students
it [the IELTS score] should maybe be higher.” She further added that the low IELTS standard is
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necessary to allow access for more UAE students with limited English skills in higher education,
yet it is a barrier to learning:
I think it is there because they [state and public universities] need to make education
accessible to people, which not everybody can get their level six, so we need our people
[faculty] to be educated, which is good and they [public universities] are making it
accessible to people with lower levels, maybe below five as well. But if somebody
doesn't have the right level of English, they're not going to be able to understand the
concept.
Both teachers from the Applied Media Division interviewed were of the opinion that the
IELTS scores needed to study degree courses in the UAE should be raised. One teacher believed
that “they should either change the school system or increase the level at school, at least 6.5.”
Another echoed this sentiment: “This is a tertiary level institute. I think they [university/state]
should raise the bar a little bit more in order for standards to increase… I still do notice students
struggling with writing and reading.” He also compared his experience with ELs in the UAE at
another public vocational institute and suggested that “students with IELTS levels of 4.5/5.0
should be going to vocational college, whereas at NUE, if they [the university/state] want to
graduate students with bachelors, I think the bar should be raised a bit higher.”
A faculty member from the CIS department with over 20 years of experience highlighted
the various IELTS policies adopted by NUE at different points of time since 1988, when NUE
was set up as a vocational institute offering only diploma courses:
Initially, there was no IELTS entry requirement, yet graduating student had to achieve an
IELTS score of 6.0 to exit. Then, over the years, NUE decreased the IELTS score
requirement to 5.5 to current 5.0 for direct entry to college.
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He also expressed disappointment with students' current English proficiency:
It's stupid. It's a joke. It's terrible. After four years, almost sometimes, five years, students
should be at 6.0. That's a minimum that they should be at for graduating. I can see okay,
5.0 to enter, or even 4.5, I would say, to enter… We don't have any exit requirement per
se. It should be much, much higher than that within four years. They should get rid of
some of these social courses and bring back English. We're not teaching nearly as much
English as we used to… I remember even though, the students were coming in at a lower
level than 5.0 into first-year university or diploma, when they would graduate, their
English was always much superior than it is today, much more superior… English level
compared to 15, 20 years ago of our students, our graduating students has actually gone
down. It hasn't gone up.
A similarly experienced teacher of Health Sciences echoed these views about the quality
of student output when IELTS 6 was either the required entry or exit score. He further stated
that IELTS scores for college entry were reduced by NUE over time, in four phases: “First phase
was 6 for bachelor's programs and then second was entry 5.5 and exit 6.0... and then later on it
was, again, back to 5.5 entrance and exit, and now it's 5 for entry only.”
Two faculty members from the Education department stated that only the Education
Division of the college is still following an older IELTS policy for college entry and exit levels.
The degree courses in other academic disciplines, such as Business, Engineering, CIS, Applied
Media, and Health Sciences require IELTS 5.0 for entry. According to them, UAE high school
graduates who intend to pursue bachelor’s degrees in Education for an academic career in public
schools must obtain a minimum score of IELTS 5.0 and must exit the program with an IELTS
score of at least 6.0. One of these teachers said:
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I think 5.0 is okay. For what we have here, it's fine. However, the program that I work in,
they cannot graduate until they have a 6.0. So, when they go into their final year, they
need to have a band 6. Now, the difference is big, and we can see it, because their
intellectual capacity has seriously grown. They're able to take on a reading load… what
they've read, they can talk about it. They've done it, and they can annotate... they are not
perfect at it, but I'll tell you it is far better than a band 5.
The other teacher, who is an expert on IELTS score interpretation and analysis, elaborated:
Because every student now has a band 5 coming in, but a band 5 can mean a reading
comprehension as low as 3. Well, if a student is coming in with a 3, 3.5 for reading skill,
how are they passing any course in year one? If they can't read the material, that's one of
the first questions I always say, "How are we not having, since the entry to foundation
was changed... exit from foundation was changed, from a band 5 minimum 4.5 to just any
band 5, how come we haven't seen, in comparison a higher failure rate in level one
courses, in year one courses?"
Similar views on raising the standard of aggregate IELTS scores were shared by a Business
teacher with a number of years of experience teaching pre-K-12 students in China and the UAE
before entering higher education:
Well, yes. I think we need to raise the standard. I think that we let people in here whose
English is not good enough to be in a higher education institution… we let them enroll
with an IELTS 5, and IELTS 5 is not good, and it's an IELTS 5 average, it's not an IELTS
5 for reading, writing, speaking; it's an average over the four [these are the skills tested
by IELTS: reading, writing, listening, and speaking].
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This shows that most of the course instructors who participated in the interviews felt that
even if a high school graduate secured the minimum IELTS aggregate score of 5.0 to secure
college admission in the UAE, their English reading and writing skills would not be up to par to
study course material in academic English. Therefore, either a minimum IELTS aggregate score
of 6.0 is a more appropriate criteria for studying degree courses after high school, or the
aggregate current score of 5.0 might be appropriate if coupled with a minimum IELTS score of
5.0 in each component of IELTS: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. This is worthy of
further research.
Documents analyzed show that high school graduates in the UAE are only required to
take one sitting of an English language proficiency test, as per state policy for admissions into
higher education. According to the UAE Ministry of Education website, “All applicants to
federal universities and colleges and national scholarship must take the EmSAT (Emirates
Standardized Test) in English, Math, and Physics exams as part of the admissions process.”
Similarly, the NUE Catalogue from 2017-18 describes the English proficiency requirement for
admission: “To enter a Bachelors, students must have achieved an EmSAT English score of at
least 1100 or an equivalent score IELTS (academic module) overall band 5.0, CEPA English
Test Score 180, TOEFL iBT 61, TOEFL PBT 500 or TOEFL CBT 173” (p.29). EmSAT is a
domestically prepared placement test conducted by the NAPO (National Admissions Placement
Office) for admissions into public colleges. EmSAT is conducted for successful UAE high
school graduates at various test centers in public colleges in the UAE, including the college at
which this study was conducted. However, IELTS is the widely prevalent English proficiency
exam in Arabian Gulf countries (Schoepp & Garinger, 2016); therefore, IELTS band scores are
used in the research largely as a metric for UAE students’ English skills.
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Remedial intervention through Foundation Programs. During interviews with the
college faculty, participants were asked to share their opinions about the Foundation Program
and its probable phasing out in the future. Most of the participants believed that the Foundation
Program was necessary for English learners in the UAE, as their language skills are limited, and
should not be phased out. One interviewee firmly believed that the Foundation Program would
remain operational at the college level in the foreseeable future, as the English skills of current
students at public schools are insufficient to allow them to study linguistically intensive
undergraduate courses: “I'm not worried about the phasing out, because that will never happen.
I'm not at all worried about it.” She further explained her conviction that remedial intervention
would continue at the college level:
When I see what's going on now in the primary and secondary, what's changing there,
foundations is going to be alive and kicking for a very long time. What we need to do is
to make it more robust; it's ideal if we could improve the language level further down in
the primary and secondary, but I'm afraid so far, the success from the situation we work
in, we're not seeing it. We still need our foundations program here, and at other
universities they still have it, and I don't think we would be getting rid of it. If we did, I'd
be very, very surprised.
Another teacher agreed and explained that the Foundation Program will continue in the
foreseeable future, as with the recent curriculum reform in primary and secondary schools (with
more English-based curricula) it will take a number of years before UAE students can join the
college directly with sufficient English proficiency:
Lots of the changes are happening that will see the standard of language come up. But
we're still a long way from even seeing... I mean the new Emirates curriculum is only just
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coming in place now. We have to wait, let's say bringing it in grade 9 last year, so it's
going to be three years before we truly see the kind of quality coming out. And it's going
to be 12 years until we see the real picture for a student that has gone the whole way
through the new curriculum.
Documents also show that a significant number of UAE high school graduates, mostly
coming from public schools, cannot directly enter undergraduate courses even with low expected
IELTS aggregate scores of 5.0, and thus spend a minimum of one year in the college Foundation
Program. According to the NUE strategic plan (2017-21), enrolment rate at the Foundation level
in 2016 was 76%, which means that only 24% of high school graduates in 2016 met the
minimum English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirement. Further, most UAE learners enter
public colleges after attending K-12 public schools, which follow a state prescribed, mostly
Arabic curriculum. Private schools have largely English curricula. According to the NUE Fact
Book (2017-18), of the 4,290 students enrolled for the academic year 2017-18, only 733 high
school graduates (17%) joined from private schools and 83% of high school leavers studied in
state-funded public schools.
Documents further show that one of the KPIs in the NUE strategic plan (2017-21) is to
reduce enrolment into Foundation Programs to 0% by 2021. This is likely in line with the
government’s 2014 plan to phase out Foundation Programs at federal universities by 2018, as
decided by the UAE Federal National Council in 2014 (The National, 2014). English language
pre-entry Foundation Programs at each of the three federal universities were often blamed for
using up vast resources needed for other areas of higher education (Rogier, 2012). According to
the UAE Ministry of Higher Education report, remedial intervention after high school has, in the
past, accounted for 30% of federal resources used for higher education in the UAE (MOHESR,
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2007). One participant who had taught in the UAE for over 30 years stated that this figure had
remained consistent since he started teaching. For fiscal year 2018, the UAE government
allocated about 17% of the federal budget to general and higher education (Ministry of Finance,
UAE, 2017). Preparatory programs at the public universities was considered a drain on the
federal budget by most education experts (Hatherley-Greene, 2014). However, until 2018,
Foundation Programs are fully functional at three UAE public universities, including NUE.
The NUE Fact Book 2018 shows that student enrolment in the Foundation Division as a
percentage of total annual enrolment at NUE declined in the last five years, from 32% in 2013-
14 to 12% in 2017-18. However, this significant decline in enrolment in the last year cannot be
attributed to any drastic improvement in students' ELP. Rather, it should be viewed in light of
the transition of Foundation students to newly offered Technical Services Programs (TSP), as
well as the university’s own Intensive Foundation Program (IFP) in 2015. TSP is an alternative
vocational education opportunity for those who are not eligible for undergraduate studies. This
vocational program is targeted to the struggling students in the Foundation Program, as well as to
academically and linguistically weak high school graduates in 2017. IFP caps the Foundation
Program for linguistically challenged learners to one year to obtain minimum IELTS score for
undergraduate studies. Moreover, according to the new catalogue of undergraduate courses
introduced in AY 2016-17, UAE students have multiple exit points from the four-year degree
program. According to the NUE Vice Chancellor, a number of strategic initiatives target student
success and employment. These include academic advising, optional summer semester
enrolment, multiple exits from four-year undergraduate programs with diplomas after two years
and higher diplomas after three years, a maximum duration of one year in the Foundation
Program, and the transition of linguistically and academically challenged students to vocational
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programs. These will help more students graduate successfully and join the UAE workforce as
per the state Emiratization target and UAE Vision 2021. These are all commendable initiatives
by the NUE administration; however, most of the course teachers in the survey and interviews
believed that the poor ELP of UAE students is still a critical barrier to academic success in
higher education, based on students’ weak linguistic development at pre-K12 level and the low
entry requirement of IELTS 5.0 for higher education.
The findings of faculty surveys, interviews, and document analysis of UAE students’
limited English proficiency are supported by UAE-based research that shows that the English
proficiency required of UAE students for admission into public colleges, as measured by IELTS,
is lower than international standards and lower than the admissions criteria in other UAE private
universities (Schoepp & Garinger, 2016). For an English learner, comprehensive understanding
of the courses in higher education becomes a challenge when the medium of instruction is
English (Sivaramana, Balushib, & Rao, 2014). Thus, students admitted to undergraduate
programs with limited English proficiency need additional language help to progress
academically (Oliver, Vanderford, & Grote, 2012). For faculty in UAE higher education, the
limited English skills of students becomes frustrating, as university teachers are hired as subject
matter experts, and not for their ability to deal with second language learners (Rogier, 2012).
Declarative Knowledge: Language Assessment and Support for English Learners
NUE teachers were asked to share their thoughts about any language assessment needed
each semester to gauge the English proficiency of the students. Course instructors were also
asked about student how they support the learning of students with limited English skills. On
average, 71 respondents answered this section. Three participants skipped these items. As
shown in Table 9 below, almost 70% (n=57) of survey participants agreed or strongly agreed that
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it is practical to do pre-assessments of students’ linguistic ability at the beginning of the semester
to make instructional decisions about their abilities. Almost 13% (n=9) disagreed or strongly
disagreed with the statement and 7% (n=5) neither agreed nor disagreed.
Table 9
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Pre Assessment Activities
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 28.17% 20
Agree 52.11% 37
Disagree 11.27% 8
Strongly Disagree 1.41% 1
N/A 7.04% 5
Total 100% 71
Table 10 below shows that the majority of instructors, about 72 (n=51) strongly
disagreed that all students learn the same way, almost 24% disagreed (n=17).
Table 10
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Do all students learn in the same way?
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 1.41% 1
Agree 1.41% 1
Disagree 23.94% 17
Strongly Disagree 71.83% 51
N/A 1.41% 1
Total 100% 71

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Table 11 below shows that about 97% (n=69) of teachers believed that adjusting the
pacing to students’ readiness and needs is integral to the learning process.
Table 11
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice-Students’ Readiness and Learning Process
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 38.03% 27
Agree 59.15% 42
Disagree 2.82% 2
Strongly Disagree 0.00% 0
N/A 0.00% 0
Total 100% 71
Finally, about 78% (n=55) were of the opinion that they provided varying levels of
support to each student based on their English competency, as shown in Table 12.
Table 12
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Student Support based on English Competency
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 25.71% 18
Agree 52.86% 37
Disagree 14.29% 10
Strongly Disagree 4.29% 3
N/A 2.86% 2
Total 100% 70

These results indicate teachers at the college across all the divisions were aware of the
need to pre-assess their students, the different learning styles their students bring to the course,
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the need to adjust pacing and provide differing levels of support. All of these responses
indicated that the majority of faculty would be predisposed to working with Differentiated
Instruction if professional development were provided.
Informal linguistic assessment by course teachers. When course instructors were
interviewed to express their views about the formal and informal linguistic assessments
employed by teachers in their courses, all respondents indicated that they did not use any formal
linguistic assessment method, as most of the course assessments were standardized by the
university administration. One teacher said that “these days, the assessments and things like that
are kind of taken out of our hands, right? It's not something that we have much control over.”
Course instructors also expressed their views on the lack of freedom in the assessment process to
meet learners’ needs in the open-ended section of the faculty survey. One participant stated that
“teachers should have more freedom in their decisions about coursework assessment—namely,
what to assess, when, and how often.” Another instructor also spoke negatively on the lack of
freedom for instructors by criticizing the standardized university assessments:
Teachers are losing autonomy and the opportunity to adapt to learners' needs, as there is
now a drive for everyone to use exactly the same materials and assessments. Creativity
and the opportunity to individualize instruction to suit learners’ needs is getting lost in
this process of robotic instruction and assessment.
Another teacher addressed the minimal importance assigned to linguistic assessment in the
current grading rubrics of courses in his department:
All my courses in education have been education pedagogically based, rather than
language based. Be that curriculum design, teaching theories, teaching methodologies…
the marking rubric are content based, not language based. I've just had a big discussion
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with some of the teachers on the curriculum design course, where out of 11 criterion on
the marketing rubric, only three are language based.
Course instructors, however, use their own, informal methods to gauge students'
linguistic skills and support their learning. One instructor in the Business Division described the
informal method of assessment by saying that “informally, I'd get to do this working in groups.”
She went on to say the following:
I would be going around the groups, so I'd be talking to them or I'd appoint a leader each
time for the group, a spokesperson, so I can gauge then if they can explain things back.
Because normally I find that if they are put into groups… going to be the strong person in
the group, the friend and she's going to explain everything back for everybody. I usually
appoint them a leader… I can see how the understanding of concepts improve… That's
more in a classroom based.
A seasoned teacher in the Education department explained his informal method of English
assessment by using student academic profiles in the first week of the course:
I tend to rely on the previous assessment, if I'm in a language course. Every single class
I've ever taught I get their profile and the areas I don't delete are the IELTS scores.
Profiles on the system. So, I build my students' spreadsheet off the student roster
download, and then of course, that's got 65 different columns… and what I do then is I
just delete the columns I don't want… Basically I end up with first name, surname, ID
number, and then GPA I leave, IELTS scores I leave... Sometimes I leave the high school
score and the high school writing as well, but that depends as well. If it's a first-year
group I do that, but if it's further in, I may not... So that's kind of my assessment.
Obviously, I will tend to see them, so I would probably do in the first week.
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A teacher in the Education department shared her practice of informal language assessment using
students’ IELTS score:
First of all, I will look at their IELTS scores, individual scores. Then, when I'm in the
classroom, the students will do the baseline writing assessment… Now, I have a general
idea of how my students are, because of course they can't enter the degree programs
unless they have an IELTS of five… but their reading and writing could be a 4.5. So, we
know generally, we have that in our heads. When you go into the classroom then, you
talk to the students… about their likes, about their interests, about their hopes and their
dreams for the future… the more you know about the students, the more you can make
the material relevant to them and their lives and what they do.
These results indicate that those faculty with knowledge of IELTS tend to use these
scores from the student profiles, and this would perhaps indicate that subject matter teachers
should also be given professional development on accessing these scores and interpreting them.
Teacher support for English Learners. Teacher support for students with varying
English competence was mentioned by 12 out of 13 participants that were interviewed. One
business teacher noted how difficult it is for some students to understand course content in
English:
Well, first, their written English is usually not good enough to be able to put all their
ideas together, so there'll be a lot of grammar problems. They don't understand how to
paraphrase and things like that. It takes them longer to do things and to get concepts.
Further elaborating on her approach, she stated:
Usually, if I'm introducing a new concept, I'd usually nearly do it three times, so I
explain, first of all we discuss it before I put any slides up, so it's a general discussion… I
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try and personalize it or nearly like storytelling, because I find the students relate to
things if I give an experience of when I used to work and this happened and this is how I
dealt with it… tell them a story about the person I worked with, I give them a name.
Some of it, it might be made up… but I find if I put a little story to it and pretend it's
something that I actually did, that they remember things.
A number of teachers mentioned the use of a vocabulary list for the course content as an
effective tool to support learning. Most of the teachers agreed that their students used Google
Translator to help them understand the difficult course jargon and concepts. Therefore,
providing an Arabic-English vocabulary list at the beginning of the course helped them absorb
course content more effectively. As one teacher from the Education department noted:
I often get them to start what they call developing their own professional dictionary. I
show them… students develop their own little websites, like a professional glossary
website. But the idea is they have a site where they're taking professional terminology
and developing their own definition over time.
Another teacher from the Health Sciences Division said the following:
For a medical terminology course, yes, we provide them the list of vocab. It's not only the
list. There's a book and a software program where they can get all those lists, which helps
a lot with the students… English and Arabic. Yes.
One Business teacher mentioned her strategy:
I have the vocabulary in both Arabic and English. Whenever I have a slide there that has
a word that I know is quite complex, but they have to learn it because that terminology is
required in that course. We discuss in Arabic whether or not it's actually correct and what
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does it mean in English and is there any differences in the English language, even though
I don't speak Arabic at all.
She added that simply telling students the meaning of the words is not adequate to explain the
concept unless teachers relate the words to the social and cultural context of UAE students:
Even for them to understand the concept of child labor, you have to break it right down
into basic things that they can understand. If you don't do that and if you just assume that
they understand that concept, there's no way that they would understand it… Use their
critical thinking throughout out the process of interpreting what I think I'm saying to
them and what they think that I'm saying to them.
These results indicate faculty use a variety of strategies to support students with their
recording of vocabulary using glossaries and vocabulary lists, but there appeared to be little
awareness on the need to constantly recycle the professional lexis students require. This would
again suggest an area for professional development for subject matter teachers.
Assessment of General English courses. Documents reveal that NUE colleges offer a
number of General English courses as part of their undergraduate degrees through the General
Studies Division. These are formally assessed by English Language Teachers (ELTs) to support
students’ English skills in undergraduate studies. There are about 10 general English courses
offered by the General Studies Division in the new academic curriculum (Course Catalogue
2016-17). However, students choose a maximum of three to four courses covering 12 credits out
of the total 33 general credits required for an undergraduate degree, for an average of 120 credit
hours. Thus, UAE learners take few credit courses in English writing, reading, and speaking as a
part of their degree requirement. These standalone general English courses seem to be
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insufficient for students' language development, as they do not significantly help UAE English
learners develop the vocabulary, reading, or writing skills needed for studying contents from
linguistically rich textbooks used in the core degree courses. These documents, upon analysis,
support the claims of the course instructors that there is no formal linguistic assessment of
English learners in the six core undergraduate disciplines. Therefore, in the absence of any
formal linguistic assessment by the course instructor, UAE learners studying linguistically rich
curricula can be supported through strong collaboration between the language experts in the
General Studies Division and content experts (course instructors) in the core disciplines of
business, engineering, health, applied media, education, and CIS.
Documents show that the NUE administration established the new General Academic
Requirements Dept. (GARD) in 2017 by merging the Foundation department, General Studies
Division, Emirati and Arabic Studies Division, and Academic Success Center—collectively
known as GARD—at each college (VC Directive, 2017, Course Catalogue 2017-18). The
mission of GARD is to support student learning and success through a number of measures,
including the development of English skills for studying degree courses in core disciplines.
Moreover, the maximum period to achieve English proficiency (IELTS score/band 5.0) for
beginning undergraduate studies in the new Intensive Foundation Program is now capped at a
maximum of one year (Course Catalogue, 2017-18). This policy change is in line with the
probable state policy of phasing out the Foundation Program in the future to reduce the 30%
budgetary drain and change in the curriculum to English Medium Instruction for years 9-12 at
the public school level. This also seems consistent with NUE’s target of 0% enrolment in the
Foundation Program by 2021 (NUE Strategic Plan, 2017-21). However, many teachers believe
that it will take a number of years before reform in the school curriculum at secondary level will
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improve the English proficiency of UAE students. Thus, the Foundation Program will remain
functional at public higher education organizations for now.
Standardized assessment policy for courses. NUE administration’s vision is to
standardize all the formative and summative assessments for the academic courses they offer.
To this end, NUE created a centralized Assessment Unit (AU) supervised by the Academic
Assessment Committee at the university (VC Directive, 2018). AU focuses on improving and
standardizing course assessments for all undergraduate courses across all 16 colleges. As a
matter of policy, all course assessments must be structured as per the guidelines provided by the
AU, including preparation of formative and summative assessments by the course teachers.
Needs-based professional development workshops will be provided to the course teachers in
coordination with the PD department of the university. Analysis of documents, however, shows
that the common standardized assessment policy currently implemented is different from the
decentralized assessment policy followed by NUE a decade ago. According to the Assessment
Administration Handbook (2006-7):
Assessment administration is now a mature process, it is no longer necessary to produce
documents, which attempt to centrally control each step of the assessment process. The
approach is this document has been to develop standards. [...] How each required
standard is achieved is left to each college. (p.5)
This implies that the new administration’s view of centralized assessment is not only a deviation
from the past practice of non-standardized assessment policy, but is also not aligned with the
course instructors’ view of assessing students based on their individual learning needs. Thus,
course instructors are now faced with a new phase of quality assurance criteria in assessment
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administration and have little or no room to incorporate any formal linguistic assessment in their
courses that follow the guidelines set forth by the newly established AU.
Teachers’ strong opinions on the importance of pre-assessment of linguistic skills of
English learners is supported by research that shows that the linguistic assessment of ELs, either
by local or state tests, in-class diagnostics, or one-on-one conferencing, is the first step in
delivering course content effectively (Baecher, Artigliere, Patterson, & Spatzer, 2012). Though
IELTS is a state prescribed English proficiency test necessary for college admissions, there is no
in-class diagnostics required by course teachers in higher education. Baecher and colleagues
(2012) warned that teachers are often misled by students’ oral proficiency, assuming a
corresponding level of reading and writing proficiency. This is especially problematic for
English learners in the UAE, who are often highly proficient in spoken English, but very poor in
reading and writing skills, as observed by most of the course instructors who participated in this
study. As such, linguistic assessment for undergraduate courses is not an integral component of
the instructional practice by course teachers. Moreover, over-reliance on English assessment
tests such as IELTS or TOEFL as the measure of academic success is not desirable, as research is
inconclusive about the positive impact of such tests on the academic success of English learners.
Conceptual Knowledge: Differentiated Instruction (DI).
In Part C of the faculty survey, teachers were asked about their conceptual and theoretical
understanding of the DI pedagogy, which is used for diverse groups of students (Tomlinson,
1998) such as UAE students with different cultural, social, and linguistic backgrounds than
native English speakers studying undergraduate courses through English Medium Instruction
(EMI). Survey findings in Table 13 below show that 22% (n=16)of teachers strongly agreed
with the statement that course teachers are familiar with DI pedagogy, almost 60% (n=43)
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agreed, and only 12.5% (n=9) disagreed. The remaining 3% (n=2) strongly disagreed. Seventy-
two participants answered this question based on a brief definition of DI pedagogy provided in
the beginning of this section of the survey.
Table 13
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Conceptual Knowledge of
Differentiated Instruction pedagogy.
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 22.22% 16
Agree 59.72% 43
Disagree 12.50% 9
Strongly Disagree 2.78% 2
N/A 2.78% 2
Total 100% 72
The participants' common response that they were very familiar with DI is questionably
accurate, however; during the faculty interviews, very few of them seemed to fully understand
this instructional practice. Therefore, this self-reported claim of teachers’ conceptual
understanding about DI was evaluated further through triangulation of data from both the survey
and interviews.
The interview process included a question intended to probe the conceptual knowledge of
instructional practice of DI the college teachers had. Only three teachers out of 13 faculty
members at the college interviewed were familiar with this pedagogy style, and most of the
participants were not. However, in discussions with the interviewees, when the definition was
provided about this novel practice, all of the teachers except one in the Engineering department
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expressed a belief that they should be provided training in DI. Most of them felt that, as content
experts, they were not trained to teach English Learners. One participant described the situation
this way:
Absolutely. Anything that we can do that helps us teach them better will help the
students. As I said, I'm constantly trying to get feedback from the students. But if
somebody comes in, a professor from another university that's always lectured and never
had any educational background with UAE students, they will just continue to lecture to
those students. It'll end up being just a one-way conversation. The students will just
keep nodding and saying back whatever they feel that the lecturer wants. Nothing will
happen. No learning. Yes, I think it's important.
A second participant from the Business Division echoed the sentiment:
Well, it might give me a few more ways to approach teaching. The thing is, here we're
not teaching English, we're teaching like finance or economics to people with various
levels of English. And so whilst English language is something that you need to
differentiate, you also need to differentiate again for different learning styles […] And,
you know, some people have got gaps in their learning from coming through school that
you may need to differentiate for that as well. So you really need all those, like an
individual plan for everyone.
A third participant made similar claims:
Definitely. It's very much needed. Initially, we teachers used to say, well, this particular
group of students, they’re poor, they don’t get it, they have some kind of deficiencies, not
realizing that some people, they need special ways of passing the message on to them. I
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feel this is where we’re lacking, and we should really pay attention to that and work with
students to succeed.
The claim strongly self-reported by the teachers in the survey about their conceptual
knowledge of the DI seemed contracditory to the views shared by interviewees that very few of
them were actually aware of this instructional practice, except for the Education and Foundation
department teachers. As such, the conceptual knowledge of course teachers in Business,
Engineering, Health, CIS, and Applied Media Divisions seems to be highly superficial on the
topic of DI. The supposed familiarity with DI reported by the respondents in the survey is
somewhat misleading, either due to their misunderstanding of the term or their experience of
informally practicing some components of this pedagogical style. As such, there is no definitive
evidence that most course instructors at the college are fully aware of the conceptual
understanding and purpose of DI for improving the learning and academic success of learners
with limited English skills as recommended by Tomlinson (2008). Interviews further revealed
that there is also a difference in the conceptual understanding of DI between the English
language teachers in the Foundation department and the Education faculty. As one experienced
faculty member from the Education department reported about his approach to DI:
In education, now my differentiation in the group was nothing to do with languages, the
fact that half the class were Early Childhood, and the other half were Primary, so they
were working off different curricular documents. Within that, the idea was the group, I
tried to have within each group a strong linguist, a medium... I'd try and make sure I had
an A, B, C in each group, that's the way. And A in this case, correlated with the IELTS
band 7.5 A, the B was... and the C was a student who had at least one skill significantly
lower, like band 5, in one case band 4.5.
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He further elaborated:
Yes, in English Language teaching very often our students are already streamed. Over the
years, I've done many different classes with mixed ability. The lower level student isn't
there just to learn from the other students 'cause they're weak. It's getting that balance and
showing the students how they can learn off one another. So their language levels might
be different, but they're bringing something else to the group.
The results clearly indicated that the faculty did not have a clear idea of Differentiated
Instruction and would welcome professional development on the approach to add to their
classroom instructional skills.
Procedural Knowledge: Differentiated Instruction (DI).
In the faculty survey, teachers were asked to report their level of agreement or
disagreement with the statement that they practice DI in classrooms. Surprisingly, about 75%
(n= 54) of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they employed DI in the classroom for
students with linguistic challenges as shown in Table 14 below. Only about 11% (n= 12)
disagreed and about 6% (n=4) strongly disagreed and about 8% (n=6) neither agreed nor
disagreed with the statement. 2 participants skipped the question.

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Table 14
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Application of DI in Classrooms
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 13.89% 10
Agree 61.11% 44
Disagree 11.11% 8
Strongly Disagree 5.56% 4
N/A 8.33% 6
Total 100% 72

The teachers’ frequent claim that they had adopted DI pedagogy in the classroom is also
not very convincing, for two reasons: The finding earlier in the faculty interview about the
limited conceptual understanding of most of the course instructors in DI pedagogy, and the
researcher’s personal experience and observations. Most of the college teachers were not well
versed with the fundamental understanding of this instructional practice, so the suggestion that
they were versed in the procedural knowledge of DI is contradictory. This is one of the
weaknesses of surveys that allow the respondents to make self-reported claims; such claims are
difficult for the enquirer to verify (Creswell, 2016).
It was assumed by this researcher that most of the course instructors in Business,
Engineering, Health, Applied Media, and CIS Divisions at the college might not be familiar with
the term “Differentiated Instruction” pedagogy, yet they might have been engaging in some of
the tasks under the four tiers of DI: content, product, process, and environment (Tomlinson,
2001) in their instructional practices. As such, the faculty survey included statements to explore
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the instructional practices of the instructors under the framework to assess procedural knowledge
of course instructors in DI for ELs in the UAE.
Content differentiation. Course instructors were given a statement to show their level
of agreement with the statement that course materials are varied to adjust to learners' English
skills. Out of the 74 respondents 4 skipped the item. Almost 60% (n=42) of the 70 teachers who
responded either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, while 27% (n=19) disagreed and
about 6% (n=4) strongly disagreed as shown in Table 15 below.
Table 15
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice: Content Differentiation based on English
Skills
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 18.57% 13
Agree 41.43% 29
Disagree 27.14% 19
Strongly Disagree 7.14% 5
N/A 5.71% 4
Total 100% 70
Teachers were also asked to express agreement or disagreement with the statement that
they use a variety of materials other than the standard textbook for each course prescribed in the
curriculum. Table 16 shows below that out of the 74 respondents, two skipped this item, but
89% of participants (n=61) either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. Only 5.5%
(n=4) disagreed or strongly disagreed.

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Table 16
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Use of Variety of Instructional Material
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 44.44% 32
Agree 40.28% 29
Disagree 4.17% 3
Strongly Disagree 1.39% 1
N/A 9.72% 7
Total 100% 72
A significant number of faculty members at the college at which the study was conducted
are from foreign countries. Instructors were, therefore, asked about their opinions related to the
level of English they used to deliver course content to English learners in the UAE. Table 17
below shows that almost 97% (n=70) of them agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that
teachers use suitable English ability levels in classroom instruction. Only 3% (n=2) either
disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. No one either agreed or disagreed with the
statement and 2 respondents skipped the question.

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Table 17
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Level of English Usage in Classroom
Instruction
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 48.61% 35
Agree 48.61% 35
Disagree 1.39% 1
Strongly Disagree 1.39% 1
N/A 0.00% 0
Total 100% 72

Process differentiation. In regards to differentiating the processes of instruction, course
instructors were initially asked about the variety of assessments they used in light of the fact that
most of the college instructors now follow the centralized course assessment strategies approved
by the Curricular Chairs. As noted earlier, NUE’s administrative strategy is to standardize all
formative and summative assessments for all courses across all academic disciplines. As such,
teachers were asked to show their level of agreement or disagreement with the statement that
teachers use different types of assessment tools according to students’ learning needs. Survey
findings revealed that 27% (n=19) of the respondents strongly agreed with the statement, 53%
(n=37) agreed, 11% disagreed (n=8) , 3% (n=2) strongly disagreed, and 6% (n=4) neither
agreed nor disagreed as showed by Table 18 below. 4 partocipants skipped the survey item.

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Table 18
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice -Use of Variety of Assessment Tools
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 27.14% 19
Agree 52.86% 37
Disagree 11.43% 8
Strongly Disagree 2.86% 2
N/A 5.71% 4
Total 100% 70

Course instructors were further probed to express their views about the instructional
strategy of delivering new course concepts based on the learners' prior knowledge through
scaffolding. As shown by Table 19 below, almost 23% (n=16) of the respondents strongly
agreed with the assessment that they adjust to students’ learning needs with scaffolding, 53%
(n=38) agreed, 11% (n=8) disagreed, 1.4% (n=1) strongly disagreed, and 11% were not sure.
Table 19
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice- Scaffolding for Diverse Learner Needs
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 22.54% 16
Agree 53.52% 38
Disagree 11.27% 8
Strongly Disagree 1.41% 1
N/A 11.27% 8
Total 100% 71

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Process differentiation involves grouping students in classrooms for peer learning, as
students enrolled in courses at the college vary in English proficiency level. Very few high
school graduates join the college directly, as the majority of students attend a pre-degree
remedial intervention program. Thus, teachers were asked whether they grouped English
learners in the classroom for learning activities based on their level of English proficiency.
Survey findings reveal that almost half (49%, n= 34) of the instructors disagreed with the
statement, only 10% (n=7) strongly agreed, and 21% (n=15) agreed as shown in Table 20
below.
Table 20
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Grouping Students based on English
Competency
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 10.00% 7
Agree 21.43% 15
Disagree 48.57% 34
Strongly Disagree 11.43% 8
N/A 8.57% 6
Total 100% 70
Teachers were further probed about the process of learning adopted in the classroom.
Table 21 below shows that almost 89% (n=62) either agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement that instructors provide the learners with the choice to work independently, in pairs or
in small groups. Only 7% (n=5) disagreed, no one strongly disagreed, and 4% (n=3) neither
agreed nor disagreed with the statement. 4 respondents skipped the survey item.
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Table 21
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Learners’ choice
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 34.29% 24
Agree 54.29% 38
Disagree 7.14% 5
Strongly Disagree 0.00% 0
N/A 4.29% 3
Total 100% 70
Student’s learning style is one of the components of DI pedagogy. Instructional science
does not support that learning styles play a significant role in teaching (Howard-Jones, 2014).
The survey sought the opinion of participants through a statement on whether they determine
students’ learning styles. Table 22 below shows that 21% strongly agreed with the statement,
57% agreed, 18% disagreed, 2% strongly disagreed, and 1% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Table 22
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice – Students’ Learning Style
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 20.59% 14
Agree 57.35% 39
Disagree 17.65% 12
Strongly Disagree 2.94% 2
N/A 1.47% 1
Total 100% 68
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The results of this section would indicate that the majority of faculty do indeed adjust
their teaching methods in terms of materials, teacher language, scaffolding and student grouping
dependent on their awareness of the students’ learning styles. This would suggest that the
faculty would benefit from professional development introducing them to Differentiated
Instruction targeting the strengths in the current practice.
Product differentiation. In DI, product refers to the multiple ways learners express their
learnt concepts, such as written assignments, project reports, oral presentations, and visuals,
based on their preferences and strengths in various areas (DI Educator’s Guide, 2016;
Tomlinson, 1999). Course teachers were asked to express their agreement or disagreement with
the statement that they provide multiple modes of expression in various assignments. Table 23
below shows that almost 62% (n=44) agreed with the statement, 14% (n=10) strongly agreed,
and only 18% (n=13) either disagreed or strongly disagreed. About 6% (n=4) of respondents
neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement. 3 respondents skipped the item.
Table 23
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Choice of Multiple Modes of Assessment
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 14.08% 10
Agree 61.97% 44
Disagree 16.90% 12
Strongly Disagree 1.41% 1
N/A 5.63% 4
Total 100% 71

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Respondents were also asked whether they provide a variety of assessment tasks based on
the English proficiency of learners. As shown by Table 24 below, almost 47% (n=34) of
teachers either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, while about 42% (n=30) disagreed
or strongly disagreed. 11% of respondents (n=8) neither agreed nor disagreed with the
statement. 2 respondents skipped the survey item.
Table 24
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Assessment based on Learners’ English Skills
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 5.56% 4
Agree 41.67% 30
Disagree 36.11% 26
Strongly Disagree 5.56% 4
N/A 11.11% 8
Total 100% 72

The results here indicate that the faculty were less confident of their ability to provide a
variety of assessment based on students’ language skills, and this would indicate that assessment
writers from the core divisions should have access to support from English language teaching
experts.
Differentiation through environment. Finally, course instructors were asked to express
their level of agreement or disagreement with the statement on learning environment in the
classrooms for English learners. Findings reveal that almost 48% (n=35) of the respondents
disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that classroom environment is structured at
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the college to support the learning of students with limited English skills. Nearly 7% strongly
agreed (n=5) and 35% (n=25) agreed with the statement. Almost 10% (n=7) of teachers neither
agreed nor disagreed as shown in Table 25 below. 2 participants skipped the item.
Table 25
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Support Learning through Classroom
Environment
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 6.94% 5
Agree 34.72% 25
Disagree 41.67% 30
Strongly Disagree 6.94% 5
N/A 9.72% 7
Total 100% 72

The key findings of the survey items related to tasks for DI show that even though course
teachers are not very familiar with its underlying concepts, they agreed to adopt the practices
used in various components of DI. However, when course instructors were interviewed about
their instructional practices in classrooms, some of the teachers stated that they did not employ
any specific practice for English learners. One Engineering member said, “No, I don't think we
felt any need for that kind of requirements, and we didn't use it... It's not just me; as far as I
know, anybody in the math department didn't have anything related to that.” A business teacher
expressed a similar sentiment:
I don't know if the ones I know are specific for the English learners. With student
centered learning and blended learning, I don't know if they're just for general education
or specifically for English learners. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure.
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Most of the course instructors also stated that they had no prior training or qualifications
to teach non-native speakers of English in higher education. One teacher said, “I have never
gone through any training for students who have English as a second language.” Similarly,
another instructor said, “no. I did not have any training.”
These results indicate that the faculty are aware of the limits of their knowledge as far as
teaching strategies for students whose English is a second language, and this raises the need for
an orientation course for new faculty on teaching the Emirati learner in English medium
instruction.
Metacognitive Knowledge of Teachers
Teachers were asked during interviews how effective they believe their own teaching
style is in supporting the learning and success of UAE students. One Business teacher defined
her teaching effectiveness based on evaluation of student assessments:
Right now, marking, the final marks of this, I'm looking at where they didn't understand
it. You can see very clearly. For instance, right now, there's a final question in the exam,
and most of them got it right. I know, "Okay, I've either taught that probably or it's been
simple enough to understand it." [...] You can see another section where they all got it
completely wrong. I then have to think, "If I'm going to teach this subject again, I have to
focus on a different way of teaching that and something that's going to more effective
than it has been in the past.
Another teacher noted that reflective writing helps him teach subjects in the Education
department:
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My reflection is driven normally by my publications, or maybe my publications are
driven by what I'm writing, which is how I'm reflecting. So, at the moment, I've got a
book on reflective writing coming out, I've just done one on adult education and voices
from the classroom, which covered a range of areas. A lot of my reflective work goes on
within my professional writing.
Many teachers answered this question related to the cultural context of the UAE. As one
Engineering teacher said, “I don't have any specific style geared to the culture... We basically try
to use ways to do things, making sure that it doesn't offend the culture of the students.” Another
teacher from the General Sciences department shared comparable thoughts on this:
It's intercultural studies, so we're talking about cultural difference and things like that,
which sometimes does involve maybe looking in on a few home truths and a bit of self-
reflection in how you view the world and what your worldview actually is… I guess I use
a form of probing, I suppose. I see what the girls are comfortable with... I very much take
into account the students' cultural background in every subject or in every topic that I
teach.
One teacher from the Business department shared her experience of being conscious of the
cultural context of the UAE as a Muslim society:
I don't want to offend somebody. Even if you're using alcohol companies as a case study,
which I try not to do… sometimes there might be words that are offensive in a YouTube
video. It may not be a bad word, but it could be something that one person in the class
might take offense with and you always have to be very mindful of that, I think, whereas
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you may get away with maybe other things in a different context, so I do spend a bit more
time filtering through things.
Some teachers expressed disagreement with the claims of effectiveness and utility of the
Students’ Faculty Evaluations (SFEs) as a guide to reflect instructors' teaching style. SFEs are
conducted each semester by all department Chairs; they are a key metric of faculty annual
performance. One experienced engineering faculty member expressed his lack of trust in SFEs
by saying, “well, the student-faculty evaluations, I don't trust them that much, to be honest with
you.” He further elaborated:
Because I just found during the 14 years of teaching here that students basically see that
as a revenge for teachers who could not get good marks, not because the teacher didn't
give it to them, because they could not... they didn't perform well to get the mark that
they were expecting.
Participants varied in their answers on how reflective metacognitive knowledge helped
them teach students in a foreign country with different cultural and societal norms. Some
teachers at NUE developed their teaching style based on analyzing students’ assessment results
in a particular course and by recording their experiences in writing. Many, however, relayed
their experiences as a foreign teacher in light of the social and cultural norms of the UAE as a
Muslim conservative society. Few, but not many, were helped in their teaching goals by the
student evaluations of faculty members during each semester. According to Baker (2006),
teachers’ ability to reflect on knowledge, skills, and learning processes helps them engage with
their students and enable them to reach their academic goals. The cultural awareness of
instructors correlates with research that shows that foreign teachers in the UAE must know how
to reflect on their own effectiveness in the classroom by deploying culturally appropriate
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learning strategies that help Arabic-speaking ELs succeed in higher education (Hatherley-
Greene, 2014).
Motivation Results
The survey included questions regarding the motivations of the teachers at the college
under NUE. Motivation is defined as the belief in one's ability to learn and achieve goal-directed
behavior, and provides the momentum needed to successfully perform a task (Clark & Estes,
2008; Mayer, 2011; Rueda, 2011). This survey focuses on the expectancy-value and self-
efficacy of the faculty members adopting the practice of DI in higher education to support the
learning of UAE students with limited English competency. The interview process included
statements assessing teachers’ reasons for adopting DI as a pedagogical style for English learners
in the UAE. Conversational participants, mostly content experts with little or no experience
addressing the linguistic challenges of UAE students in English, were asked to self-report their
effectiveness at adopting DI for delivering course content as comprehensible input to UAE
students.
Expectancy Value for Adopting Differentiated Instruction.
According to Pintrich (2003), value is linked to persistence and achievement in task
completion. The survey results indicated strong motivation among the course teachers to adopt
DI in classrooms to provide an effective learning experience to UAE English learners in higher
education. The findings summarized in Table 26 show that more than half of the survey
participants (68%, n=48) either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that DI is the best
way to improve the success of English learners in the UAE. Almost half of the survey
respondents (48%, n=35) also disagreed or strongly disagreed with the misconception that DI is
more effective for pre-K-12 level than in higher education.
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Table 26
Survey Results for Expectancy-Value of DI for improving success of English Learner students in
the UAE

Survey Statement
Strongly Disagree
(Count)
Disagree
(Count)
Neither Agree or
Disagree (Count)
Agree
(Count)
Strongly Agree
(Count)
DI is the best way to
improve academic
success of the UAE
learners.
1.43%
(1)
15.71%
(11)
14.29%
(10)
51.43%
(36)
17.14%
(12)
DI is a more
effective pedagogy
for primary and
secondary school
learners than for the
students of higher
education.
12.5%
(9)
36.11%
(26)
15.28%
(11)
23.61%
(17)
12.50%
(9)

Likewise, all the course instructors who participated in the interview process found value
in adopting this pre-K-12 instructional practice in higher education, though it is most commonly
associated with elementary and secondary schools in the UAE. A common sentiment from
multiple academic staff members at the college was: “I like to be trained in this instructional
practice as I have no training or certification in English teaching or dealing with the linguistic
challenges of non-native speakers of English.” One business teacher said, “Yeah, how to teach
content to English learners, I don't necessarily need to know how to teach English.” A faculty
member in Health Sciences stated, “It would be great to have training on this.” A participant
from Applied Media Sciences said, “Well, I haven't done any courses in English as a second
language courses or anything like that, so yes, I am very much interested.” A faculty member
from the Education department, who is also an English language teacher with extensive
experience with UAE students’ linguistic challenges, noted how important it is for a college
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teacher, as a content expert with no experience in teaching non-native English speakers in the
UAE, to learn a new pedagogical style:
I was hired because I was a trained language teacher, so I have my certificate in English
Language Teaching to Adults, my master's is in TESOL, but I think it's very difficult to
see what we can do for the business, engineering, health science, and IT specialist
[teachers] to build awareness… what it means to teach Emirati [UAE] students who do
not have great language awareness. I think it's really important that we do something for
them [course teachers].
He further emphasized the value of differentiating instruction for the college faculty:
I think the idea of differentiating with an instruction is a really interesting, like
accounting faculty, what's the best way you can differentiate your courses, math ability?
Engineer? [...] So the concept of Differentiated Instruction, I think, is wonderful… The
whole idea of asking faculty how would you differentiate, I think that opens up a really
interesting area for professional development, and pedagogical discussion within a
faculty.
These findings are consistent with the research on the personal values and beliefs of
individuals on the topic of motivation. Research shows that better performance occurs when a
team member has strong motivation to execute a task (Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, &
Davis-Kean, 2006).
Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Teachers Adopting Differentiated Instruction
Research suggests that positive views of self-efficacy influence one’s efforts when
completing a task (Bandura, 2000). The survey results indicate strong self-efficacy among the
group of participants, as demonstrated when they were asked about their level of agreement or
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disagreement with the statement that college teachers feel confident in their ability to implement
DI in classrooms. Results show that about 19% (n=14) strongly agreed with the statement, 54%
(n=39) agreed, 18% (n=13) disagreed, and 1.4% (n=1) strongly disagreed. About 7% (n=5)
neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement as shown in Table 27 below. 2 participants
skipped the survey item.
Table 27
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Confidence in implementing DI in
classroom instructions.
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 19.44% 14
Agree 54.17% 39
Disagree 18.06% 13
Strongly Disagree 1.39% 1
N/A 6.94% 5
Total 100% 72
Another statement concerning participants’ views about teachers’ inability to implement
DI in classrooms indicates positive views of self-efficacy: 60% (n=43) either disagreed or
strongly disagreed with the statement that course teachers didn’t know how to implement this
instructional practice in the classroom, 33% (n= 24) strongly agreed or agreed, 7% (n= 5)
neither agreed or disagreed as shown in Table 28 below. 2 partciapnts skipped the item.

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Table 28
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice- Teacher’s Lack of Ability to Implement
Differentiation Instruction
Survey Response
Percent Responded
Frequency
Strongly Agree 2.78% 2
Agree 30.56% 22
Disagree 50.00% 36
Strongly Disagree 9.72% 7
N/A 6.94% 5
Total 100% 72

Instructors were further asked about their confidence to individualize lessons plans to
meet the linguistic needs of Arabic-speaking ELs in undergraduate courses. More than half of
the 72 respondents, almost 51% (n=37), either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that
it is not possible to individualize lesson plans for ELs. 44% (n=32) either disagreed or strongly
disagreed, while 4% (n=3) of respondents neither agreed nor disagreed as shown in Table 29.
Table 29
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice: Teacher’s inability to individualize lesson
plans for English Learners
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 9.72% 7
Agree 41.67% 30
Disagree 33.33% 24
Strongly Disagree 11.11% 8
N/A 4.17% 3
Total 100% 72
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The teachers who were interviewed reported varying levels of confidence in their ability
to practice DI in their classrooms. Except for the teachers interviewed from the Education
Division, all teachers felt less confident in practicing a particular instructional practice like DI.
One participant from the Health Sciences Division said, “I don't think it is at a stage where I'm
very confident now. It's my own initiatives, so confidence, okay, I'm confident, but not very
confident.” Another participant from the CIS division said that she learned about DI during her
postgraduate studies in the US: “In my subject, I feel like I do,” without any firm confidence.
However, the faculty from the Education Division reported strong confidence in their ability to
differentiate instruction in the classroom. One Education teacher described herself as “pretty
confident.” Another from the Education Division felt confident that Education teachers have a
special interest in DI, and he described the importance of this instructional practice:
We are preparing teachers, so the most important thing again is to make sure students
understand how you differentiate. So, differentiation is something we talk about with our
students, because when they get into the class, they are not differentiated by language
necessarily.
Bandura (2000) emphasized personal efficacy as the core belief and foundation of human
agency. According to Pajares (2009), self-efficacy beliefs can be defined as judgments that
individuals hold about their capacity to learn or perform a course of action at designated levels.
Faculty survey findings indicate the strong self-efficacy of the participants adopting DI in
classrooms. It is questionable that, if the course instructors’ conceptual and procedural
knowledge is limited in DI, they could experience high levels of self-efficacy in this instructional
practice. However, the low confidence shown by interviews for adopting a special pedagogy
style for English learners can be attributed to the training of teachers as content experts, with no
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prior training or certifications in teaching second language learners. Thus, teachers' limited
conceptual and procedural knowledge about DI, as found earlier, contributes to their lack of
mastery in this special teaching skill. According to Bandura (1994), a person’s belief in their
efficacy is developed by four main sources: mastery experiences, peer modeling, social
persuasion and emotional states indicative of personal strengths and vulnerabilities. As course
teachers lack skills and knowledge about DI, and rarely get opportunities to work in
collaboration with English teachers, they lack mastery due to no peer learning and little social
persuasion. This also implies that most of the course teachers in other college disciplines, such
as the Business, Engineering, Health, CIS, and Applied Media Divisions, are overly confident in
their ability to adopt and practice DI. As such, faculty survey findings expose the weakness of
this quantitative approach based on the self-reported claims of teachers (Creswell, 2016), which
can be analyzed in triangulation with the qualitative data from faculty interviews.
Organizational Results
Equally important to the knowledge and motivational influences that affect instructors’
ability to achieve stated goals are the organizational systems and policies created to support the
instructors in their endeavors. According to Clark and Estes (2008), inadequate organizational
support often hinders the attainment of performance goals, even for people with high motivation,
knowledge, and skills. Knowledge and motivational gaps are oftentimes reflective of a lack of
communication and alignment of goals with available resources on behalf of leadership. Hence,
the performance effectiveness of teachers is directly influenced by the climate, culture, and
leadership of the academic organization in question. Schein (2004) defined culture as a pattern
of shared basic assumptions that is taught by a social group. Organizational culture is the
general beliefs, ideas, and ways of thinking within an organization. As such, instructor-based
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surveys and interviews included questions about the influence of the organization specifically
reviewing cultural settings and cultural models. The faculty survey was designed to probe
instructors’ perceptions on the level of support that exists within the college and university for
content teachers facing the linguistic challenges of UAE students.
Organizational Support for Differentiated Instruction
Course instructors at the college were asked if they needed additional resources from the
university to practice and implement DI in classrooms. Table 30 below shows that out of the 74
respondents, two skipped the question, almost 21% (n=15) of instructors strongly agreed, 63%
(n=45) agreed, only 11% (n=8) disagreed and 6% (n=4) were unsure. No teacher strongly
disagreed with the statement. This shows that course teachers need institutional support in terms
of resources to implement an innovative instructional practice for improved learning and
maximizing the academic success of UAE students in higher education.
Table 30
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice – Additional Resources for Teachers for
Successful Adoption of DI pedagogy.
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 20.83% 15
Agree 62.50% 45
Disagree 11.11% 8
Strongly Disagree 0.00% 0
N/A 5.56% 4
Total 100% 72

Course teachers follow a 16-week semester for four-year undergraduate degrees, so they
are required to complete the course content within the semester, including conducting at least
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one summative and three formative assessments. As a result, most of them felt time-pressed, and
introducing a new instructional practice was considered a fresh mandate. As such teachers were
further probed on whether they feel that DI is another mandate that puts pressure on the current
faculty workload. Of the 74 respondents, five skipped the question, resulting in a response rate
of 93%. Table 31 below shows that almost 62% (n= 43) either agreed or strongly agreed with
the statement, while 29% strongly disagreed or disagreed (n=20), and about 9% (n=6) neither
agreed nor disagreed.
Table 31
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice –Differentiation Instruction is an extra mandate
for Course Instructors
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 13.04% 9
Agree 49.28% 34
Disagree 27.54% 19
Strongly Disagree 1.45% 1
N/A 8.70% 6
Total 100% 69

Foreign teachers in NUE colleges are always concerned about the cost of living in the
UAE. Most expatriate course instructors join UAE public colleges in part because of the tax-free
salary packages, living allowances, annual free airfare for family dependents, and other benefits.
However, the rising cost of living in UAE cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, coupled with
state budgetary cuts to federal universities triggered by the current low global hydrocarbon
(crude oil) prices (the main export revenue earnings of the UAE), monetary incentives offered by
UAE public universities lag behind teachers’ expectations. To address this, the survey asked
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participants whether they felt that NUE must provide incentives to teachers to incorporate DI as
an instructional practice in class, due to their feeling that it is an additional task/mandate in the
current faculty workload. Of the 74 respondents, two skipped the question, almost 18% (n=13)
strongly agreed, 58% (n=42) agreed, 15% (n=11) disagreed, only 4% (n=3) strongly disagreed,
and only 4% (n=3) were unsure with the statement as shown in Table 32 below. This shows that
teachers are of the opinion that additional incentives must be provided to the content experts to
adopt DI in the classrooms.
Table 32
Survey Result for Faculty-Instructional Practice – Incentives for Teachers to Adopt DI Pedagogy
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 18.06% 13
Agree 58.33% 42
Disagree 15.28% 11
Strongly Disagree 4.17% 3
N/A 4.17% 3
Total 100% 72

Course teachers were asked if they agreed with the statement that if instructors were
provided training in the area of DI pedagogy it would improve student success. An
overwhelming number of participants expressed their interest in professional development
through DI. Findings in Table 33 below shows that of the 74 respondents, two skipped the
question, and almost 80% (n=58) either agreed or strongly agreed with the idea of professional
development in this novel instructional practice in higher education. By contrast, only 11%
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(n=8) disagreed, no one strongly disagreed, and 8% (n=6) neither agreed nor disagreed with the
idea of DI training.
Table 33
Survey Result for Faculty Instructional Practice – Professional Development of Teachers in DI
Pedagogy.
Survey Response Percent Responded Frequency
Strongly Agree 18.06% 13
Agree 62.50% 45
Disagree 11.11% 8
Strongly Disagree 0.00% 0
N/A 8.33% 6
Total 100% 72

In the open-ended question in the faculty survey, instructors also expressed opinions
about the critical importance of instructional practices and training of teachers in pedagogical
styles for ELs. One participant wrote that “applying a variety of teaching/learning methods, as
well as understanding our students' individual needs, are absolutely critical in effective learning.”
Another participant stated that “PD [Professional Development] on approaches to Differential
Instruction will build confidence.” However, teachers also expressed that training alone would
not help the instructors unless teachers were provided with additional time, as one participant
noted:
To introduce Differentiated Instruction into our teaching, we need to be trained and be
given the tools for it. Having no training, 20 hours of teaching a week, a series of
administrative duties... does not allow for any time to dedicate into improving the class
material or the delivery.
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Another instructor echoed this sentiment: “Differentiation should be a part of a teacher's
professional repertoire and not an 'add-on.’ However, quality instruction takes considerable
preparation—time that we are not afforded at this institution.”
Some participants also expressed that teachers should be given more intellectual freedom
to develop their own assessments. One of the participants said that “teachers should have more
freedom in their decisions about coursework assessment, namely what to assess, when, and how
often.” Another instructor also expressed negative feelings about the lack of freedom instructors
have by criticizing the standardized university assessments:
Teachers are losing autonomy and the opportunity to adapt to learners' needs, as there is
now a drive for everyone to use exactly the same materials and assessments. Creativity
and the opportunity to individualize instruction to suit learners’ needs is getting lost in
this process of robotic instruction and assessment.

Some teachers also felt that technology should be employed to differentiate instruction. One
participant responded:
This (DI) can be achieved by simply having an adaptive learning scheme through a good
computer program which can learn from the mistakes made by students and adapt the
lessons offered. I cannot see how the DI can be different from the previous adaptive
approach.
The results indicate that faculty believe Differentiated Instruction and professional
development on incorporating the approach into their teaching would positively impact student
success but also believe that additional resources must also be provided as well as ensuring that
the approach is not mandated and that the professional development is incentivized.
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Professional Development of Teachers and Strategic Plan
Documents show that university leadership developed a five-year strategic plan (2016-
17) in which the professional development of teachers was considered as the key enabler of
achieving organizational goal of improving student success in terms of in-time degree
completion within four years from 61% currently to 90% by 2021 (Strategic plan 2017-21).
According to the plan, the desired strategic outcome of professional development was a “highly
qualified and pedagogically and technologically skilled faculty” (Goal 2, Strategic plan 2017-
21). This outcome was benchmarked against the KPI of increases in faculty development from
8% in 2016 to 100% by 2021. Documents reviewed show that Professional Development (PD)
opportunities for faculty include multiple resources such as PD-Instruction, teaching with
technology, webinars and workshops on getting fellowship of Higher Education Academy
(HEA) of UK etc. Faculty can register for training through two training platforms at the
university- PD-Instruction Division (PID) and Education Technology (Ed-Tech) Division.
Trainings offered by PID are aligned with key dimensions of Professional Standards Framework
of UK (UKPSF). Training specialist at PID support faculty to gain fellowship at HEA, UK and
for this a roadmap has been developed by the PD- Instruction team for increasing the number of
associate fellows at the university. Senior fellows of HEA are employed in the PID as
professional development specialists to help faculty obtain associate fellowship at HEA as a
priority by the administration. According to PD instructors, HEA fellowship would help the
course teachers to be certified as curriculum developers, assessment specialists and instructional
experts. On the other hand, Educational Technology (Ed-Tech) Division has provided a PD
dashboard in Blackboard on university portal to each faculty member to enroll for courses during
PD week usually during spring and fall semesters. Ed-Tech senior specialists provide online
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training to faculty registered for courses. In addition, Ed-Tech teams are located at each college
to deliver needs-based short trainings to teachers during semesters at campus level in addition to
supporting students in education technology.
PD instructors informed that NUE provides plenty of training opportunities to teachers,
however, teachers at the college only enrolled for the PD courses announced by administration as
mandatory rather than considered necessary by teachers to overcome any deficiency. As such,
most instructors registered for training sessions which provided them maximum credits to meet
the target for PD hours set in the faculty annual appraisal. According to PD instructors, this
tendency of teachers to meet training targets set by administration is probably due to the
mandatory nature of those training as faculty’s teaching and administrative workload limited
their time for completing PD courses actually needed for skill development. Training
documents show that neither Differentiated Instruction nor any particular PD course in
instructional practices for English learners is a part of the current training offerings, though HEA
fellowship courses emphasize effectiveness of teaching practices. For instance, core values of
UKPSF framework adopted by PID for supporting teachers’ fellowship at HEA showed the
critical importance of teaching effectiveness for learners, effective learning environments for
learners, respect for individual learners and how students learn etc. This implies that HEA
fellowship obtained by teachers may improve their pedagogical skills based on the core values of
UKPSF to support learning of UAE students. However, HEA fellowship is a fairly new
initiative by NUE and only few faculty members have so far successfully obtained the
fellowship. Thus, it is necessary that PID specialists at the university emphasize skill
development of teachers in instructional practices with the support of technology experts at Ed-
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Tech Division to support teachers to help them deliver course contents through differentiated
learning.
Faculty Recruitment and Promotion Policy
During the academic year 2017-18, key initiatives were taken by the administration
related to human resource and recruitment policies. Foremost amongst these were changes in
faculty recruitment and issuance of new (amended) faculty contracts to the existing faculty. The
hiring policy now requires that new course instructors joining NUE must possess a doctorate in a
relevant academic discipline. For existing faculty without doctoral degrees, a pre-condition of
enrolment into doctoral programs or certification through industry-recognized professional
qualifications was set for the renewal of their employment contracts. A faculty mapping system
was implemented, and a task force was set up to rank the faculty as lecturers, assistant and
associate professors, and full professors from 2017. As a result, new employment contracts for
faculty were issued as per faculty rankings. Further, in the annual fall faculty conference 2017,
VC announced the academic year 2017-18 as the “Faculty Year.” Professional development of
faculty, innovation, and academic research were emphasized as the key indicators of faculty
promotion in the new “faculty promotion policy.” Course instructors were required to teach a
minimum of 20 hours, with 40 hours of on-campus presence enforced through an electronic
check-in and check-out system (VC Directive, 2016). In 2018, however, the 40 hours on-campus
presence requirement for teachers was reduced to 30 hours by the administration. These
initiatives were enforced across all 16 colleges, including the college at which this study was
conducted, which resulted in the turnover of faculty both voluntarily and involuntarily mostly
due to non-renewal of faculty employment contracts.
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The faculty workload combined with uncertainty regarding the renewal of employment
contracts created a sense of fear and anxiety, resulting in dwindling trust between teachers and
the administration. As a result, most of the teachers are performing their jobs as what is possible
instead of what is desirable. The emerging culture of mutual distrust between faculty and
administration as a result of revised personnel policies is likely to hinder the organizational goal
of improving the academic success of students. According to Korsgaard, Brodt, and Whitener
(2002), employees perceive a manager as more or less trustworthy depending on the fairness
level of organizational human resources policies. Faculty development is the strategic goal of
NUE, but when leadership is perceived by teachers as non-empathetic about their concerns and
they fear the repercussions of negative feedback, a culture of organizational silence develops
(Morrison & Milliken, 2000).
Support for Subject Matter Teachers by English Language Teachers (ELTs)
As course teachers are content experts, with no formal training in instructional practices
for English learners, a number of faculty members expressed a desire to be provided support by
English language teachers. One Business teacher shared her opinion on this and the existing lack
of collaboration between Business teachers and ELTs:
If we had more support maybe from ELTs... A lot of time they [students] have to do
academic reading and writing, they have to do their general studies classes, but we should
really link what's been done in those classes… But we have no coordination with general
studies, what is taught in those classes. They design their courses, we design ours and
they hope that it covers what we need. That's something that could easily happen through
coordination.
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Another teacher shared her idea of collaborative teaching by course teachers and ELTs in the
classrooms:
With the team teaching when you've got an English specialist in the classroom
with you, or an English second language specialist, when you move into that
group work or a problem-solving activity, the content teacher is moving around
talking to them about the content, the English teacher is moving around talking to
them about what didn't they understand in the words... It does help that learning
and make it more effective.
This understanding of the benefits of collaborative efforts between content teachers and
ELTs toward more effectively teaching students is supported by the research on DI in pre-K-12
schools for ELs in the United States. Research shows that in the absence of collaboration, ELTs
may provide push-in or pull-out services in an often disconnected and sporadic manner (Baecher
et al., 2012). The authors suggested that content teachers can effectively support the learning of
ELs within their own lessons by developing greater expertise in DI through collaborative
professional development with ELTs.
Collaboration of Faculty and Administration for Student Success
Teachers were also asked during interviews how faculty and administration could
collaborate to work for student success. A teacher from the Education Division with substantial
experience at the college shared her disappointment in the decline of collaboration:
Well, we used to do it. We used to collaborate quite a bit… We used to talk about
students, and there was a shared understanding of student ability, their levels, and their
personal circumstances were taken into consideration… So now, we don't have those
conversations anymore, we can't, and because you don't see that we have the best
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interests of our students at heart, and we know what they need to succeed, we don't take
that into consideration anymore... Where are we going? It's really quite sad, because we
did have those conversations, we did have those understandings.
Another instructor from the Applied Media Division suggested a reduction in lecturing
hours and felt that the administration should emphasize the role of teachers as mentors for
students in capstone projects rather than class tutors spending hours lecturing:
Just giving the students a mentorship environment rather than saying "Let's do a lecture
four hours a week and show me your designs," because sometimes, especially in media,
you can't restrict them [students] to design here, design not. It's really about getting them
into the right mood to design.
Another teacher from the same division shared a similar sentiment:
We're trying to help the students learn and hands on, different ways, not just lecturing all
day in a language, I will say, the student will hear for two hours… So, more assessments,
more projects, more interactivity. Interactivity meaning not an iPad. Interactivity
meaning more fun in the class, more humor.
Another instructor from the Business faculty felt that administration should provide more
training opportunities to teachers: “When it comes to administration helping, I think just offering
more PDs… I think the teachers are only going to benefit from more professional development.”
One teacher from CIS suggested that “department chairs, program coordinators, and faculty
should have the same goal: student success." She further added that “academic advising [would]
help students.”
One instructor from the Education department emphasized the importance of building
awareness of content experts by the administration for teaching students with limited English
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skills: “I think this combination of awareness building, something like a BB Learn course so that
they [teachers] can move in, every faculty shows that they've done that before they go into
classroom.” He felt that it was unfair to content experts with no linguistic teaching background to
become experts for ELs. He further elaborated:
It is one of the worst things that we can ever do, one of the most unfair things we can
ever do is to expect our content language faculty to become English language instructors.
The most pedagogically aware faculty we have are the Education, but they're not
linguists. Most of them are Early Childhood, Primary, Math, Science specialists. There
are a number, we've got at least one in every campus, two in some campuses who are
trained ELTs, but not the others. And the others [course teachers] struggle as much as any
Math, Physics, Engineering, Business, IT, because it's a completely different area.
The results clearly indicate a willingness for subject matter teachers and English language
teaching experts to collaborate, and it would suggest a need for the organization to support the
faculty in doing this. The launch of the new General Academic Requirements Division (GARD)
Division and its Academic Success Programs department (ASP) should provide a potential
avenue for this collaborative drive to be established in the coming year.
Documents reviewed show that the new five-year strategic plan emphasizes student
success and graduate employability as the key goals of NUE, the largest publicly funded higher
education organization in the UAE. The new leadership since 2015 revised the vision and
mission of NUE in consultation with selected internal stakeholders and an external consultant.
As a result, various policy changes resulted in the faculty recruitment and promotion policy,
faculty assignments including academic advising and engagement in research, target of faculty
development, etc. In addition, leadership emphasized innovation and entrepreneurship as the
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way forward to increase the number of UAE graduates in the domestic workforce, in line with
state Emiratization policy and the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda. The five key strategic
goals in the strategic plan and 20 strategic initiatives include faculty as key stakeholders.
However, there seems to be a widening gap between the visions of the faculty and the
administration. It is to be noted here that NUE administration is comprised mostly of UAE
citizens, in contrast to academic staff, who are mostly foreign teachers in the UAE higher
education system. Faculty feel that, being expatriates, their ideas and goals misalign with the
leadership’s goals. Both stakeholders agree on the strategic goals of student success, but both
need closer collaboration, open communication, and a culture of mutual trust. According to
Schein (2004), leadership and culture are the two sides of the coin. Leaders create the culture
and culture nurtures the leadership. The current organizational culture of NUE demands that
leadership create channels of open communication, allow faculty to express their views without
fear of negative repercussions, provide support in their professional goals, set challenging but
reasonable faculty targets, inspire and engage teachers to be key stakeholders in the organization,
and review elements of human resources and compensation policies to alleviate university staff
members’ anxieties about increasing costs of living in a foreign country. These multiple
initiatives by leadership would develop a positive organizational climate, create mutual trust
between administration and the academic staff, improve the sense of pride among teachers by
making them feel more respected, and narrow the misalignment of faculty efforts with the
leadership goals around student success.
Overall, these results indicate faculty across the six divisions in the college have the
awareness, current practice and willingness to take on professional development in Differentiated
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Instruction, and that such a professional development program would make a positive impact on
the academic success of the students.

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CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the instructional practices of teachers in
higher education for supporting the academic success of UAE students with limited English
language proficiency. Most of the UAE high school graduates fail to get direct enrolment into
the degree courses and spend substantial time in remedial intervention courses. English Learners
of the UAE join higher education, offered through English medium instruction, after completing
K-12 education at public schools, offered mostly in Arabic curriculum. As a result, students face
linguistic challenges in studying course content and often withdraw or repeat the courses which
extend their degree completion time. This study recommends teachers’ adopt promising pre K-
12 grade instructional practice of Differentiated Instruction in the UAE higher education to
maximize the academic success of English learners of UAE. Clark and Estes (1998) conceptual
framework was used to guide the following research questions:
1. What knowledge and skillsets must instructors acquire and implement to help their
students learn subjects through the medium of English?
2. What are teachers’ motivational aspects in their instructional approach that best facilitate
learning subject content through the medium of instruction?
3. What are the organizational factors that can support teachers in their goal of improving
student success in higher education?

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Discussion
The instructors in the study identified various factors as impactful when facilitating the
learning and academic success of English learners of UAE in higher education. College
instructors in the UAE are mostly subject matter experts without experience and training of
second language acquisition, therefore, they continue to struggle with the persistent English
language challenges faced by UAE students in degree courses. Most of the teachers informed
that English language deficit of students is the key barrier in academic success as higher
education curriculum does not match UAE student’s English skills. A number of teachers
identified lack of reading habits of UAE students as the key reason of their limited vocabulary
and poor writing skills. Teachers expressed their dissatisfaction with the state and university
policy of low aggregate IELTS band/score 5.0 for college entrance. Research in the UAE public
education also showed that current aggregate IELTS score 5.0 for college admission in the UAE
is below international standards and higher IELTS score is correlated with academic success
(Schoepp & Garinger, 2016). Most instructors felt that the current IELTS score should be
increased to match the English language demands of course curriculum in tertiary education. A
number of teachers also informed that aggregate level of IELTS score of high school graduates
does not truly reflect the actual poor English writing and reading skills of UAE students, which
are not sufficient for English learners to grapple with the linguistic rigor of degree courses. In
contrast, few teachers supported the state policy of current low IELTS score for college
admission to maintain equity in education. According to these instructors, low IELTS score
provides access to majority of UAE learners to higher education, because UAE public education
at pre-K-12 level fails to develop high school graduates’ linguistic skills to join college directly.
Teachers also felt that remedial intervention provided through Foundation Program after high
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school is needed and should not be phased out as mentioned in NUE’s strategic plan. In fact,
some teachers were highly skeptical that Foundation program at public colleges in the UAE
would be phased out soon reasoning it on past failed attempts due to lack of effective curriculum
reforms at public schools in the UAE.
Most of the course instructors agreed that it is beneficial for student learning needs and
success to introduce an effective pedagogical style at higher education level in the UAE and full
time instructors must be trained in this instructional practice for English learners. They also
acknowledged that as higher education instructors are mostly content experts, training in
effective instructional practice would help them deliver the course content as comprehensible
input to English learners. Majority of respondents in faculty survey and interviews showed lack
of training in teaching non-native speakers of English and expressed keen interest in learning a
pedagogy style which could help them support student learning and success. Teachers informed
that they do not formally test the linguistic ability of their students before commencing course
instruction as linguistic assessment to guide instruction is not the practice and part of the course
curriculum. Yet, some teachers use their own informal methods in classrooms to assess the
ability of students such as analyzing IELTS score or using informal writing tasks in the
commencement of the course to assess the linguistic ability of English learners. Teachers
informed that current drive by administration to centralize course assessments limit their ability
to adopt effective instructional practice for students with limited English competence. This one-
size fits all assessment strategy is turning the university into an assessment- driven organization,
rather than an organization of higher learning. A number of teachers informed that they provide
Arabic- English glossary to students as a learning tool and observed that UAE students
frequently use Google translator in classrooms to comprehend the terms and vocabulary of the
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course in primary Arabic language. Bilingual teachers (Arabic and English) informed that they
engage with their students in Arabic occasionally to make students’ comprehend the concepts.
Similarly, non-Arabic speaking mostly western teachers also expressed interest in learning
Arabic language to improve student-interaction and engagement. Almost every teacher
understood the cultural and societal norms of the UAE as a conservative Muslim country. As a
result of the cultural knowledge of a foreign country, many teachers took care in using the
instructional language and avoided any illustrations in classrooms, which might be offensive to
the cultural norms of the female Muslim students at the college. It was not clear to understand
teacher’s metacognitive knowledge to reflect on their instructional practice for English learners.
Most attributed this knowledge to the cultural understanding of the UAE society. A very few
instructors mentioned analyzing reports of faculty evaluations by the students or classroom
observations by the superiors. Only one instructor mentioned reflective writing and the other
analyzing students’ poor performance in the formative and summative assessments as a guide to
instruction for the next cohort.
The study sought the views of full time instructors in higher education on Differentiated
Instruction in general, and on the various components of Diffentuated Instruction such as
content, product, process and environment (Tomlinson, 1999) in particular to gain insight on the
knowledge, motivation and organizational support to teachers to adopt this novel instructional
practice in classrooms. Instructor’s views can provide benefits of creating professional
development programs for teachers that emphasize learning needs of English learners. Most of
the teachers in the survey claimed to know and practice DI in classrooms, however, interviewees
informed otherwise. There was no conclusive evidence found in the study about the firm
conceptual understanding and procedural knowledge of teachers in Differentiated Instruction
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(DI). Nonetheless, all instructors mirrored some components of DI in their classroom
instructions. Most instructors noted the importance of being trained in a pedagogy style such as
DI, which can become fruitful for student learning needs and a contributing factor for student
success.
Data indicated that teachers showed motivation to adopt DI in classrooms as they see value
in learning an instructional practice, which would help them enrich their teaching skills and
could help them transform from mere content experts to instructional experts for English
learners. Teachers suggested that training in this novel instructional practice should become
integral component of the annual professional development plan for faculty rather an additional
mandate by the administration. Chiefly, the instructors felt that training in DI should be
incentivized for faculty in terms of annual faculty appraisal for recognition, promotion and
monetary compensation. It is therefore recommended that the organizational goal set in the five-
year strategic plan of student success be aligned with the stakeholder goal identified in the study
for content teachers - adoption of the instructional practice of Differentiated Instruction for
English Learners for maximizing student success. As Professional Development (PD) of faculty
is the key focus of the NUE administration as an enabler of student success and twenty hours of
annual PD is a key performance indicator of teacher’s performance in the annual faculty
appraisal report. Therefore, PD hours in instructional practices could be integrated as a faculty
goal in the faculty annual development plan. As a result, teachers will be motivated to
participate in DI training, without considering PD in instructional practice as an additional
mandate, because learning the novel instructional practice will contribute to their annual PD
hours as stipulated by the administration.

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In the education setting, curriculum, instruction and assessment go hand in hand for the
success of student achievement (Baxter, 2012; Henson, 2015). According to the interconnected
relationship between these three components, curriculum can be defined as the planned actions
for instruction, teacher’s instruction as a method to deliver the course content as per the
curriculum and finally assessment is the measure of whether or not students have learnt what has
been taught in the curriculum. Therefore, training specialists at PD-Instruction Division (PID) of
the university should see the need for PD in instructional practices for teachers based on the
interconnectivity between instruction and assessment. PD specialists at PID are currently
engaged in offering a number of training opportunities to the teachers in developing and
conducting assessments, these training specialists may integrate training in DI pedagogy in their
annual offerings of PD courses for faculty. As a result, administration’s current focus on needs-
based assessment training of teachers by PD specialists supplemented by needs-based training in
instructional practice of subject matters teachers will ensure successful outcomes for English
learners in the UAE higher education.
Teachers also expressed their needs of organizational support to achieve organizational
goal of student success through fair human resource policies in terms of reasonable faculty
workload, renewal of employment contracts in time, monetary compensation commensurate with
the cost of living in UAE. Teachers also indicated to have voice in organizational policies, open
communication with administration without fear and negative repercussions for dissent and
emphasized close collaboration between faculty and administration.
In all, the instructors in this study expressed a belief in their enhanced ability and
confidence to influence student success in higher education through effective professional
development in instructional practices, supported by the administration. Teachers noted that the
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organizational goal of academic success of students depends on the active collaboration of both
the key stakeholders of the organization: faculty and administration. Therefore, open
communication and mutual trust between teachers and faculty are the key ingredients. Currently,
faculty perceives that the administration focuses primarily on the academic success of students as
strategic goals without active engagement of faculty members, resulting in misalignment of
organizational goal with the stakeholder goal. Thus, to ensure teacher’s instructional practice of
Differentiated Instruction support academic success of students, it is important that knowledge
and motivation of teachers must be supplemented by the organizational support as advised by
Clark & Estes (2008) gap analysis framework. Following recommendations serve as a guide for
achieving the stakeholder goal of professional development of teachers by 2020, which will
contribute to the organizational goal of student success in terms of improving the degree
completion time by 2021.
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences
Knowledge Recommendations
The knowledge influences in Table 34 represent the complete list of assumed knowledge
influences and their probability of being validated based on the most frequently mentioned
knowledge influences to achieving the stakeholders’ goal during informal interviews with faculty
and supported by the literature review. Anderson et.al (2001) suggest that four types of
knowledge and skills are needed by the stakeholders to achieve the goal: factual, conceptual,
procedural, and metacognitive. While all teachers must possess all four knowledge types to
improve instructional design and pedagogy for student success, this study will focus primarily on
three knowledge influences: i) conceptual knowledge of teachers in Differentiated Instruction
(DI) for English Learners (ELs); ii) procedural knowledge of how to apply DI pedagogy to
teach ELs in higher education; and iii) metacognitive skills of teachers. As such, as indicated in
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Table 34, it is anticipated that these influences have a high probability of being validated and
have a high priority for achieving the stakeholders’ goal. Table 34 also shows the
recommendations for these highly probable influences based on theoretical principles.
Table 34
Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations
Assumed
Knowledge
Influence: Cause,
Need, or Asset*
Validated
Yes, High
Probability, or No
(V, HP, N)
Priorit
y
Yes, No
(Y, N)
Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
UAE teachers don’t
know about
Differentiated
Instruction (DI) as an
effective pedagogical
style for English
learners. (D)
V Y DI is a teaching style that
emphasizes modifying and
adapting instruction to
meet the individual and
diverse needs of learners
(Tomlinson, 1999).

Procedural knowledge
increases when declarative
knowledge required to
perform the skill is
available or known. (Clark
et al., 2008).
Educate teachers (content
experts) in the conceptual and
theoretical understanding of the
novel instructional practices for
English learners in the higher
education such as the promising
instructional practice of
Differentiated Instruction, which
can help teachers adopt this
pedagogical style to improve
the learning and academic
success of UAE students.
UAE teachers do not
understand how to
incorporate different
pedagogical
strategies for
different groups of
ELs into their lesson
plans. (P)
HP Y Learners need guidance as
they practice a new task,
including coaching,
scaffolding, modelling,
questioning, and feedback
(Mayer, 2011).

To develop mastery,
individuals must acquire
component skills, practice
integrating them, and know
when to apply what they
have learned (Schraw &
McCrudden, 2006).
Training of teachers (content
experts) in instructional
practices to effectively deliver
subject contents by
incorporating Differentiated
Instruction in classrooms to
improve learning of UAE
English learners. Job aids such
as provision of Arabic-English
Lexicons and improvement of
English skills of students in
collaboration with the EFL
teachers at the college.
UAE expatriate
teachers need to
know how to reflect
on their own
effectiveness in the
classroom by
implementing
culturally responsive
learning strategies
that can help Arabic
speaking ELs to
succeed in higher
education. (M)
HP Y The use of metacognitive
strategies facilitates
Learning (Baker, 2006).

Having the ability to
reflect on knowledge,
skills, and learning
processes helps teachers
engage with their students
in reaching their academic
goals (Baker, 2006).
Cultural orientation of new
expatriate faculty before
commencement of formal
teaching assignments. Basic
Arabic language classes for non-
Arabic speaking foreign teachers
to facilitate instruction and
engagement of foreign non-
Arabic speaking teachers with
the culturally different Arabic
speaking UAE students.
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Declarative knowledge solutions, or description of needs or assets. Teachers need to
know that Differentiated Instruction (DI) is a pedagogical style to improve the learning of
English learners (ELs). According to Tomlinson (1999), DI is a teaching style that emphasizes
modifying and adapting instruction to meet the individual and diverse needs of learners
(Tomlinson, 1999). Procedural knowledge increases when declarative knowledge required to
perform the skill is available or known. (Clark et al., 2008). Therefore, it is recommended
NUE educate teachers (content experts) in the conceptual and theoretical understanding of the
novel instructional practices for English learners in the higher education such as the promising
instructional practice of Differentiated Instruction, which can help teachers adopt this
pedagogical style to improve the learning and academic success of UAE students.
Research in the UAE higher education shows that foreign teachers in the UAE higher
education are mostly content experts and lack the knowledge and skills to apply different
pedagogical styles to meet the needs of ELs of the UAE (Gitaski, Robby, & Bourini, 2014).
According to Bourini (2015), many UAE teachers employ traditional, textbook-based pedagogy
and rarely use differentiation because they lack the knowledge and skills to practice this teaching
style. As such gaps in declarative knowledge about specialized instructional practices for non-
native speakers of English will likely continue until teachers learn about this novel instructional
practice. Clark & Estes (2008) recommend that learners must be educated for any novel task.
From a theoretical perspective it would appear that the UAE teachers in higher education should
be initially provided with the theoretical and conceptual understanding of DI to improve their
understanding of this promising instructional practice to support learning and success of UAE
students in higher education.
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Procedural knowledge solutions, or description of needs or assets. UAE teachers need
to understand how to incorporate different pedagogical strategies for different groups of ELs into
their lesson plans. Mayer (2011) suggests that learners need guidance as they practice a new
task, including coaching, scaffolding, modelling, questioning, and feedback. According to
Schraw and McCrudden (2006), to develop mastery, individuals must acquire component skills,
practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. Therefore, it is
recommended NUE provides training to teachers (content experts) in instructional practices to
effectively deliver subject contents by incorporating Differentiated Instruction in classrooms to
improve learning of the UAE English learners. Teachers may be provided job aids such as
provision of Arabic-English Lexicons and opportunities of collaboration with EFL teachers at the
college to support improvement of English skills of students.
Research shows that compelling students to undertake their tertiary studies in an L2 quite
obviously places an additional cognitive and learning burden on learners (Belhiah & Elhami,
2015; McLaren, 2011; Troudi, 2009). In the UAE higher education, students’ inadequate
English skills create extraneous load in traditional classroom instruction. According to Mayer
(2011), when learners experience extraneous overload, instructional designers must seek ways to
minimize extraneous processing so that learners can free up cognitive capacity for essential and
generative processing. According to Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), applying a specialized set
of pedagogical styles is a type of procedural knowledge. From a theoretical perspective it would
appear that training teachers by specialists in DI pedagogy through professional development
courses may help teachers learn to apply DI skills through mentoring, coaching and timely
feedback. UAE instructors can reduce this load by applying DI for language intensive
undergraduate courses. Teachers can also be provided job aids such as provision of Arabic-
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English Lexicons and improvement of English skills of students in collaboration with the EFL
teachers at the college. Thus, NUE teachers must know how to incorporate pedagogical
strategies based on differentiation for ELs in higher education for effective learning.
Metacognitive knowledge solutions, or description of needs or assets. UAE expatriate
teachers need to know how to reflect on their own effectiveness in the classroom by
implementing culturally responsive learning strategies that can help ELs of the UAE to succeed
in higher education. Teachers must have the ability to reflect on knowledge, skills, and learning
processes, which can help them engage with their students in reaching their academic goals
(Baker, 2006). This type of cognitive reflection and cognitive process regulation is referred to as
metacognitive knowledge (Baker, 2006; Rueda, 2011). Metacognitive knowledge involves
“meta strategies for judging whether a particular solution plan is working or whether a particular
strategy is appropriate for a given task” (Mayer, 2011, p. 60). Expatriate teachers in the UAE are
not fully versed in the culture of UAE or its educational system. Therefore it is recommended
that new expatriate faculty is provided cultural orientation before the commencement of the
formal teaching assignments. NUE may provide basic Arabic language and cultural classes to
non-Arabic speaking foreign teachers to facilitate instruction and engagement with the culturally
different Arabic speaking UAE students.
According to Hatherley-Greene (2014), UAE high school graduates cross a “cultural
border” in their transfer from a teacher-centered, Arabic-speaking environment to higher
education settings that offer English curricula taught by mostly international faculty. Teachers in
the UAE, who are largely expatriates, need to know how to reflect on their own effectiveness in
the classroom by deploying culturally appropriate learning strategies to help Arabic-speaking
ELs succeed in higher education (Hatherley-Greene, 2014). Thus, cultural orientation and
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linguistic awareness of teachers may help improve student engagement, learning and high school
graduates’ transition to higher education.
Motivation Recommendations
The motivation influences in Table 35 represent the complete list of assumed motivation
influences and their probability of being validated based on the most frequently mentioned
motivation influences to achieving the stakeholders’ goal during informal interviews and
supported by the literature review and the review of motivation theory. Motivation is an internal
state that instigates and maintains goal-directed behavior (Mayer, 2011). According to Mayer
(2011), motivation is personal, fosters persistence and intensity, and is aimed at accomplishing a
goal. Three common indicators of motivation are active choice, persistence, and effort (Schunk,
Pintrich, & Meece, 2008). Research suggests that when a person actively chooses a task,
remains persistent throughout, and expends the necessary mental energy to succeed, one is truly
motivated to achieve personal and organizational goals (Clark & Estes, 2008; Grossman & Salas,
2011). As most of NUE teachers have chosen to join the UAE higher education as content
experts, with little or no experience in dealing with the linguistic challenges of English learners
of the UAE, the assumed causes appear to suggest persistence and mental effort may be lacking
for the adoption of an effective instructional practice to support learning and success of non-
native speakers of English. As such, as indicated in Table 35, some motivational influences have
a high probability of being validated and have a high priority for achieving the stakeholders’
goal. Table 35 also shows the recommendations for these influences based on theoretical
principles.

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Table 35
Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Motivation
Influence: Cause, Need,
or Asset*

Validated
Yes, High
Probability,
No
(V, HP, N)
Priority
Yes, No
(Y, N)
Principle and Citation Context-Specific
Recommendation
Teachers need to see the
value in differentiating
instruction for Arabic-
speaking English learners
in the UAE to support
learning and academic
success. (Expectancy
Value Theory)
HP Y Individuals are more likely
to engage in an activity
when it provides value to
them (Eccles, 2006).

Models who are credible
and similar (e.g., gender,
culturally appropriate) can
foster positive values
(Pajares, 2006).

NUE provides teachers with
widely recognized and
respected peer models such as
content experts practicing DI,
during teacher’s training
sessions, to demonstrate the
positive impact of the
application of DI in
classrooms, resulting in the
effective delivery of
comprehensible input required
for the meaningful learning and
success of English Learners.
Teachers need to believe
they are capable of
effectively differentiating
instruction for Arabic-
speaking English Learners.
(Self-Efficacy)
V Y Learners who believe that
they are able, that they can
and will do well, are much
more likely to be
motivated in terms of
effort, persistence, and
behavior than learners who
believe they are less able
and do not expect to
succeed (Bandura, 1997;
Eccles et al., 1998; Mayer,
2011; Pintrich & Schunk,
2002).
Provide training in
which expert in DI (instructor)
models application of this
novel instructional practice in
classrooms, next assists NUE
teachers (learners) in practicing
this pedagogical style in
classrooms,
and finally supervises and
provides feedback through
classroom observation.
NUE teachers see no
incentives for adopting a
novel instructional practice
for English learners.
HP Y Task performance is
increased when rewarded
(Skinner, 1957; Clark &
Estes, 2008).

Behavior that is reinforced
is strengthened (Daly,
2009)
Provide incentives to teachers
for effective implementation of
DI in classrooms by
incorporating application of DI
by teachers as a key
component of faculty
performance appraisal report,
a metric of annual performance
salary bonus and a measure of
periodic faculty recognition
award in innovative teaching.
NUE teachers hired as
content experts believe that
they are not responsible for
the linguistic challenges of
the UAE students in
undergraduate courses.

N N
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NUE teachers feel
frustrated with the low
English proficiency of
students in UAE higher
education due to low
English skills requirement
for college entry.
HP Y Individuals who do not
perceive any support in
their environment “tend to
be hopeless” (Ambrose,
2010).
Provide opportunities
to teachers (content experts) to
collaborate with English
language teachers. Peers in the
education department can also
support NUE teachers
developing collaborative
strategies for engaging with
students with limited English
skills.

Expectancy Value. NUE teachers need to see the value in differentiating instruction for
Arabic-speaking English learners in the UAE to support learning and academic success. Eccles
(1999) suggests individuals are more likely to engage in an activity when it provides value to
them. According to Pajares (2006), models who are credible and similar (e.g., gender, culturally
appropriate) can foster positive values. This would suggest that providing teachers with
evidence that their efforts were successful and made a difference in student’s academic careers
would increase their expectancy value. Therefore, it is recommended that NUE provides
teachers with widely recognized and respected peer models such as content experts practicing
DI, during teacher’s training sessions, to demonstrate the positive impact of the application of DI
in classrooms, resulting in the effective delivery of comprehensible input required for the
meaningful learning and success of English Learners. Findings show that teachers of the
Education and Foundation divisions have relatively better conceptual understanding and
procedural knowledge of Differentiated Instruction. Therefore one recommended solution is to
engage instructors from these two college divisions as peer models during training sessions.
Further the interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty from core disciplines and English
language specialists in Foundation and General Studies Division will also help subject matter
teachers overcome the linguistic challenges faced by the Englsih Learners in comprehending the
course contents.
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According to Eccles (2006), a principle of the expectancy value theory suggests when
individuals are capable of doing a task and they enjoy doing the task they are more motivated to
a complete the task. Kiley (2011) suggests teachers would differentiate instruction if they valued
DI as a method of helping students learn and enhancing their academic success. Bouroni (2015)
examined the views of the UAE secondary school teachers’ beliefs in the utility and importance
of DI for ELs and found that teachers practicing DI in classrooms believed in the idea of
differentiation for the success of ELs. Rutter (2016) found that teachers in higher education
believe that differentiation addresses learners’ differences in preparation, interests, and strengths
by offering a variety of learning pathways to them within the same classroom. From a
theoretical perspective, it would appear that increasing expectancy value of DI in higher
education teachers of the UAE would increase teachers’ motivation to adopt this promising
instructional practice; as such, it is recommended that peer modeling using Education and
Foundation teachers as peers during training be used to provide teachers with examples about
how teacher’s pedagogical style would help support ELs overcoming their linguistic barriers
in learning and mastering the course contents.
Self-Efficacy. Teachers need to believe they are capable of effectively differentiating
instruction for Arabic-speaking ELs. Learners. Learners who believe that they are able, that they
can and will do well, are much more likely to be motivated in terms of effort, persistence, and
behavior than learners who believe they are less able and do not expect to succeed (Bandura,
1997; Eccles et al., 1998; Mayer, 2011; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). This would suggest that
providing teachers with training and modeling by experts, the ability to observe their colleagues
and feedback would increase teachers’ self-efficacy. Therefore, it is recommended that NUE
provide training to content experts in which expert in DI (instructor) models application of this
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novel instructional practice in classrooms, next assists NUE teachers (learners) in practicing this
pedagogical style in classrooms, and finally observes and provides corrective feedback through
classroom observation.
Huangfu (2012) in a study evaluated the self-efficacy beliefs of ELL teachers and found
that there is a direct between English teachers’ perceptions of their self-efficacy and their
adoption of motivational strategies. McKinnon, Mousa-Inatty & Barza (2014) in a study in the
UAE suggested that self-efficacy of culturally different foreign teachers can be enhanced by the
cultural induction programs, including high quality mentoring, that focus on culturally
responsive teaching and differentiation. Though the study was conducted at the secondary
school level for the science teachers, yet significantly related to the culturally different
background of majority of the foreign teachers in the UAE higher education. From a theoretical
perspective, it would appear that providing teachers with training, mentoring, cultural induction,
peer modeling and corrective feedback would increase their confidence and motivation to apply
DI as promising instructional practice in their subjects to make the content comprehensible for
UAE students with low proficiency in English.
Organization Recommendations
The organizational influences in Table 36 represent all assumed organizational influences
and their probability of being validated. The organizational influences used to achieve the
teachers’ goal will be validated based on the most frequently mentioned organizational
influences during semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and supported by faculty
surveys, and the literature review. Clark and Estes (2008) suggest that inadequate organizational
support often hinders the attainment of performance goals, even for people with high motivation
and exceptional knowledge and skills. They further warn that a lack of effective organizational
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resources, policies and procedures, and cultural settings/models may prevent stakeholders from
achieving their performance goals. According to Gallimore and Goldenberg (2001), “cultural
models are shared mental schema, or normative understandings of how the world works or ought
to work, whereas cultural settings are defined as occurring whenever two or more people come
together, over time, to accomplish something” (p. 47). Thus, both resources and policies as well
as cultural models and settings must align throughout the organization’s structure to achieve the
mission and goals. As such, as indicated in Table 36, most of the organizational influences have
a high probability of being validated and have a high priority for achieving the stakeholders’
goal. Table 36 also shows the recommendations for these influences based on theoretical
principles.
Table 36
Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Organization
Influence: Cause, Need, or
Asset*

Validated
Yes, High
Probabilit
y, No
(V, HP,
N)
Priorit
y
Yes,
No
(Y, N)
Principle and Citation

Context-Specific
Recommendation
Cultural Model Influence 1:
The organization needs to
provide an environment that
supports change in
instructional practices of
teachers and encourage them
to adopt DI pedagogy in
classrooms for effective
learning of ELs.

HP Y Organizational performance
increases when processes and
resources are aligned with goals
established collaboratively
(Clark & Estes, 2008).

Guiding principle for any
effective change lies with the
leadership’s intent to include all
stakeholders, so that a top-down
plan of change is supported by
bottom-up acceptance by the
individuals involved (Kezar,
2001).
NUE administration team conduct
meetings with new and
experienced faculty to discuss and
establish faculty goal of adopting
novel instructional practice of DI
for English Learners of UAE,
aligned with the key organization
goal of student success such as
improvement in degree completion
time as per the NUE’s strategic
plan of 2017-21.

Cultural Model Influence 2:
Teachers need an
academic environment
grounded on mutual trust
and fair human resource
policies to support the
organizational goal of
HP Y Organizational performance
increases and trust is promoted
when individuals and leaders
communicate openly and
constantly about plans and
progress (Clark & Estes,
Time is set aside in regularly
scheduled faculty meetings to
allow teachers and
administration the opportunity to
openly communicate their
views, plans, progress, and
support for one another to foster an
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improving the academic
success of UAE students in
higher education.

2008).

Employees perceive a manager
as more or less trustworthy
contingent upon the fairness
level of organizational human
resources policies (Korsgaard,
Brodt & Whitener, 2002).

environment of trust.
Administration must ensure that
faculty paycheck be commensurate
with the rising cost of living in the
UAE and employment contracts of
tenured faculty are revised based
on mutually agreed goals and set
targets.

Cultural Setting Influence I:
Faculty face excessive
institutional demands amidst
time constraints, resulting in
increased faculty workloads,
prompting teachers’
adoption of a strategy of
doing what is possible as
opposed to doing what is
desirable to achieve the
organizational goal.

HP Y Organizational effectiveness
decreases if the workload
increases more than 10%
when adopting change (Sirkin,
Keenan, &
Jackson, 2005).

Review the current faculty
workload and resources to
collaboratively develop a plan to
redesign the work process, which
takes into account the
organizational goals and additional
time teachers will need to be
trained in DI and adopt new
instructional practices for effective
student learning.

Cultural Setting Influence II:
Higher education teachers,
mostly content experts, need
organizational support and
resources to improve
pedagogy for improving the
success of English Learners
of UAE.

HP Y Organizational effectiveness
increases when leaders ensure
that employees have the
resources needed to
achieve the organization’s
goals (Clark &
Estes, 2008).

NUE allocate budget for training
and professional development
courses in instructional practices
for teachers. NUE must provide
content experts with dedicated
English language experts and
appropriate learning technology in
classrooms to assist them
overcome the linguistic challenges
of Emirati students in
undergraduate courses.
There is a culture of
organizational silence as
administration does not
encourage negative feedback
and dissent.
HP Y Leaders that create a culture of
receptivity to feedback, both
negative and positive, help
reduce organizational problems
(Morrison & Milliken, 2000).
Use private list-serves’ and other
internal social media to reinforce
communication outside of faculty
and staff meetings. Cultivate a
culture of participation with all
stakeholders in achieving
organization goals by encouraging
feedback and communication by
all stakeholders.
Many teachers at NUE have
low job satisfaction.
HP Y Job satisfaction increases when
all organization stakeholders
agree on culture, mission, goals,
and resources required to
achieve goals (Clark & Estes,
2008).
Conduct whole organization
meetings to communicate the
vision, mission and goals, and
individual and team
accomplishments.

Cultural models. This influence was chosen because the teachers will be unable to work
as a team if stakeholders’ goals are not aligned with organizational goals, if there is a perceived
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element of mistrust between the faculty and the administration, and if human resource policies
are not considered fair by the employees. Teachers need an environment of collaborative goal
setting, open communications and trust to assist the university administration in adopting the best
instructional practices for English learners of UAE to support student learning and success.
Clark and Estes (2008) suggest that organizational performance increases when processes and
resources are aligned with goals established collaboratively (Clark & Estes, 2008). They further
recommend that organizational performance increases and trust is promoted when individuals
and leaders communicate openly and constantly about plans and progress. According to
Korsgaard, Brodt and Whitener (2002), employees perceive a manager as more or less
trustworthy contingent upon the fairness level of organizational human resources policies. This
would suggest that allowing stakeholders to communicate openly and fair compensation policies
would build trust which in turn would improve organizational effectiveness. Therefore, it is
recommended that time is set aside in regularly scheduled faculty meetings to allow teachers
and administration to openly communicate their views, plans, progress, and support for one
another to foster an environment of trust. Teachers at the UAE’s public universities feel that
they are not engaged directly in policymaking, which fosters a sense of negativity and
demotivation. Hargreaves (2004) compared teachers’ emotional reactions to self-initiated
change and found that teachers disliked mandates because these mandates were perceived as
vague and forced upon teachers without their consent or approval. Dinham and Scott (2004)
similarly reported that teachers were most dissatisfied with outside pressures stemming from
governments, society, and employers. Lack of open communication creates an organizational
silence in the public universities in the UAE. Morrison and Milliken (2000) warned that
organizational silence was created when employees withhold their opinions and concerns about
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organizational problems because of the potential for negative repercussions. According to the
authors, leaders that create a culture of receptivity to feedback, both negative and positive, help
reduce organizational problems. Kezar (2001) advised that the guiding principle for any
effective change lies with the leadership’s intent to include all stakeholders, develop trust, and
provide confidence and skills so that a top-down plan of change is supported by bottom-up
acceptance by the individuals involved. According to Strebel (1996), individuals will be more
committed to the organization when they have feelings of trust through the psychological
dimension of personal compact between the employers and employees. Further, organizations
that fail to distinguish between rewards and recognition also fail to achieve organizational goals,
as employees remain unhappy, unappreciative, and unmotivated (Hansen, Smith, & Hansen,
2002). From a theoretical perspective it would appear that by encouraging open communication
and adopting fair compensation policy, teachers would increase their feelings of trust for their
leaders and as such is it recommended that teachers meet regularly with NUE administration to
share their concerns, progress and requests for support.
Cultural settings. Teachers need enough time and resources to adopt the novel
instructional practice of DI to help English Learners of UAE comprehend the course contents
and overcome their linguistic challenges to succeed in undergraduate courses. Faculty in higher
education in the UAE face excessive institutional demands amidst time constraints, resulting in
increased faculty workloads, compelling teachers to adopt a strategy of doing what is possible as
opposed to doing what is desirable to achieve the organizational goal. According to Sirkin et.al
(2005), organizational effectiveness decreases if the workload increases more than 10% when
adopting change. Clark & Estes (2008) recommends that organizational effectiveness increases
when leaders ensure that employees have the resources needed to achieve the organization’s
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goals. This would suggest, when change is implemented resources need to be provided to
support the stakeholders. Therefore, it is recommended that a review of the current workload
and resources be completed to collaboratively develop a plan to redesign the work process,
which will take into account the organization’s goal of student success and additional time
teachers will need to adopt the Differentiated Instruction practice in classrooms to achieve this
goal.
Teachers in the UAE higher education as mere content experts need additional time to
adopt a novel instructional practice for English Learners, need resources and support to
implement DI in the classrooms. Many expatriate teachers in the UAE higher education have
low job satisfaction level due to excessive teaching, advising and research workload, resulting in
higher teacher turnover at NUE. Research demonstrates that highly engaged employees are far
more productive and much less likely to leave their organizations than their non-engaged
counterparts (Berbarry & Malinchak, 2011). From a theoretical perspective it would appear that
by redesigning the work processes currently followed by teachers and providing resources, the
organization would increase its effectiveness as such it is recommended that a review of the
current workload be completed and a plan developed to accommodate the additional effort
needed for the adopting the new instructional practice by the teachers.
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
The model that informed this implementation and evaluation plan is the New World
Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016), based on the original Kirkpatrick Four
Level Model of Evaluation (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006). This model suggests that
evaluation plans start with the goals of the organization and work backwards and that, by doing
so, the “leading indicators” that bridge recommended solutions to the organization’s goals are
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both easier to identify and more closely aligned with organizational goals. Further, this “reverse
order” of the New World Kirkpatrick Model allows for a sequence of three other actions: a) first,
the development of solution outcomes that focus on assessing work behaviors, b) next, the
identification of indicators that learning occurred during implementation, and c) finally, the
emergence of indicators that organizational members are satisfied with implementation
strategies. Designing the implementation and evaluation plan in this manner forces connections
between the immediate solutions and the larger goal and solicits proximal “buy in” to ensure
success (Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick, 2016).
Organizational Purpose, Need and Expectations
The mission of NUE is to provide higher education in English medium instruction to
Arabic speaking non-native speakers of English to prepare them as skilled and work ready
graduates to join the UAE workforce. NUE’s goal is to increase the percentage of the on-time
graduation rate of its bachelor level students within 4 years of study from 61% in 2016 to 90% in
2021. How successfully the students complete their degree depends on various factors such as
direct entry to college, time spent by high school graduates in the college foundation
program(bridge program) before commencing the degree courses due to weak proficiency in
English language, linguistically challenging degree course contents, student motivation, societal
and cultural factors etc. However, one of the key factors which could impede student success is
the traditional pedagogy styles of expatriate teachers in the UAE higher education, which is more
suitable for the native speakers of English than for the English Learners (ELs) of the UAE. NUE
teachers are mostly content experts with limited experience and training of teaching ELs in the
UAE higher education. This project examines the knowledge and skills, motivational, and
organizational barriers that prevent teachers from adopting the promising instructional practice
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of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in classrooms to improve learning and success of English
Learners of UAE. The proposed solution, a comprehensive training program in DI, related on-
the-job supports to teachers, and a shift in the incentive system for the teachers to adopt DI in
classrooms, should produce the desired outcome – an increase in the number of students’
retention and graduation in a year from NUE and a decrease in the number of students’ course
withdrawals and failures that cause delay in degree completion time.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
Table 37 shows the proposed Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators in the form of
outcomes, metrics and methods for both external and internal outcomes for student success at
NUE. If the internal outcomes are met as expected as a result of the training and organizational
support for teachers adopting DI as an effective instructional practice, then the external outcomes
should also be realized.
Table 37
Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
External Outcomes
1. Increase in the number of
graduates completing degree in
standard four-your time.
The number of graduates complete
degree in a given academic year.

Solicit data, i.e., time to degree
completion, from the NUE Office of
the Registrar.
2. No English language related
adverse impacts on student
grades.

The number of course failures related
to English language proficiency
reported to Academic services or
Department Chair.

Solicit semester results/GPA statistics
from Academic services or from
faculty services portal of NUE.

3. Improve student ability to
overcome linguistic challenges.
3a. The number of student feedbacks
provided by course instructors during
the semester to Department Chairs
about student language skills to
comprehend the contents.
Quarterly check in by Academic Dean
with Department Chairs and teachers
on student language feedbacks and
comments on student success related
to linguistic issues.

3b. The length of time required by
students to attend newly established
Academic support center at college to
improve English proficiency.

Comparison of the length of time it
takes to help students overcome
linguistic challenges in a particular
course with other public colleges in
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the UAE or relative to previous
semesters..
3b. The increase in funding and budget
allocation by NUE administration to
train teachers as content experts in
dealing with the linguistic challenges
of the English learners in higher
education.

Compare funding levels on
professional development of teachers
related to teaching English learners in
FY18 against the previous 5 fiscal
years.

Internal Outcomes
4. Increase course teachers’
knowledge about how to
assess students’ English
proficiency and linguistic
support needed by the learner
for the undergraduate courses.
One to two Positive/Negative
examples, per course teacher, of
current linguistic assessment and
support and student semester course
grades in linguistically challenging
courses.
Compare student grades in
linguistically challenging courses and
teachers’ adoption of linguistic
assessment and support for each
course taught during the semester.
5. Increase professional
development of teachers in
Differentiated Instructional
pedagogy.

The number of days allocated to
training of teachers in instructional
practices during annual professional
development plan.

Aggregate data on faculty training in
DI and instructional practices from
Head, PD department and Department
Chairs as supervisors (supervisor
confirmation collected via faculty
performance appraisals and faculty
survey)

6. Increase teacher confidence
in employing DI in classrooms.

6a. Faculty observations by peers and
supervisors.
5a. Compare faculty classroom
observations and feedback in mid-
year and annual performance appraisal
reports.
6b. Positive/negative feedback from
faculty.

5b. Set aside regular times for 1:1
conversations between supervisor and
faculty.

7. Increase instructors’
awareness of their teaching
effectiveness of English
learners for success.

The frequency of self- reflection by
course on instructional effectiveness.
Solicit weekly data on teachers’
effectiveness.

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Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. The stakeholders of focus are the course teachers in the higher
education as mere content experts adopting and implementing the Differentiated Instruction (DI)
pedagogy for the Arabic speaking English Learners of the UAE to maximize their academic
success in higher education. The first critical behavior is that course teachers must correctly
assess the English skills and linguistic challenges of the English Learners for respective
undergraduate courses. The second critical behavior is that they must identify the learners with
“very low proficiency” in English for linguistically challenging courses. The third critical
behavior is that they must apply the instructional practice of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in the
classrooms through content, process, product and environment for effective learning. Fourth,
peers and supervisors must observe teachers during instructional sessions that include feedback
on the teacher’s ability to deliver course content through Differentiated Instruction. Finally,
teachers must reflect and journalize knowledge and accuracy in classroom sessions on, how well
they support the linguistic needs of ELs in their courses, and how well they deliver the course
contents based on learners’ needs through differentiated instruction pedagogy.
The specific metrics, methods, and timing for each of these outcome behaviors appears in
Table 38.

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Table 38
Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical Behavior Metric(s)
Method(s)
Timing
1. Correctly assess the English
proficiency and linguistic
challenges of the students for each
undergraduate course.
The number of
linguistic
assessments of
students conducted
by the course
teacher for each
course taught during
the semester.
1 a. Student Academic
Advisor will discuss and
document student linguistic
needs for each course and
compare it with course
teachers’ reported linguistic
assessments and provide
feedback to the course teacher,
ELT and Department Chair.
1a. During first two
weeks of students’
enrolment into the course,
thereafter, at the end of
the midterm assessment
(8 weeks into the course).

1b. Department Chair shall
assign a Course Team Leader
(CTL) or ELT to spot check
students’ linguistic progress
through classroom
observations looking for any
additional need.
CTL or ELT report to the
faculty and Chair-
monthly.
2. Identify the learners with “very
low proficiency” in English for
linguistically challenging courses.
The number of
students referred to
English Language
Teachers (ELTs) for
linguistic support at
the Academic
Support Centre
(ASC) of the
college.
ASC will prepare the list of
the students refereed by the
course teachers and allocate
ELTs to the learners with poor
skills to understand the
content.
2 hours per week of
linguistic support to
learners by ELTs, so long
as each course teacher is
satisfied to deliver the
course contents as
comprehensible input to
these students with
linguistic challenges.

3. Apply the instructional practice
of DI through content, process,
product and environment for
effective learning.
Types of contents
used, teaching
methods employed,
and variation in
assessments
conducted and
modes of student’s
assignments
adopted by course
teachers based on
the needs of the
English Learners.
Department Chair will appoint
a team of DI experts from the
Education and Foundation
division of the college to
observe the instructional
practices of the content
teachers under the four
parameters of DI.
Once a semester to gauge
the adoption level of DI
in classrooms by the
course instructors and
recommend areas of
improvement in
instructional practices
through professional
development courses.
4. Conduct observations by Peers
and Supervisors
of instructional sessions that include
feedback on the teacher’s ability to
deliver course content through
Differentiated Instruction.
The number of
linguistic issues
observed while
assessing classroom
instructional
sessions.

The Supervisors and
Peers will provide feedback
during classroom
observations.
Monthly for a semester,
thereafter, once per
semester as long as
successful.
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5. Reflect and journalize knowledge
and accuracy in classroom sessions
on, how well teachers support the
linguistic needs of ELs in their
courses, and how well they deliver
the course contents based on
learners’ needs through
differentiated instruction pedagogy.
The number of
reflections about
teaching
effectiveness in
journal entry.
Monthly the supervisor will
read journals and provide
feedback in 1:1 meetings.
Journal Entries are
done weekly. Feedback
from supervisors will be
provided monthly.

Required drivers. Course instructors as content experts require the support of their
direct supervisors and the organization to reinforce what they learn in the training and to
encourage them to apply what they have learned to deliver course contents to English learners of
UAE for meaningful learning and success in higher education. Rewards should be established
for achievement of performance goals to enhance the organizational support of course teachers
adopting this novel instructional practice. Table 39 shows the recommended drivers to support
critical behaviors of teachers adopting DI pedagogy.
Table 39
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing
Critical Behaviors Supported
1, 2, 3 Etc.
Reinforcing
Create Job aids such as a common
platform for developing strong
collaboration between the course
teachers and ELTs at the college to
help improve the poor English skills
of students.

Ongoing 1,2,3
Educate course teachers (content
experts) in the conceptual
understanding of Differentiated
Instruction for the success of ELs of
the UAE in higher education.
Ongoing online Professional
Development (PD) courses offered
by Learning and Education
Department and EdTech.
1,2,3
Train course teachers on how to
practice instructional practices such
as Differentiated Instruction in the
classrooms to improve learning of
the UAE English learners.
Faculty PD week during Spring, Fall
& Summer semesters as well as
online courses by EdTech.
1,2,3
Provide job aids such as Arabic-
English Lexicons and basic Arabic
Ongoing 1,2,3
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classes to foreign teachers to help
them engage with the students.
Administration conduct meetings
with faculty to establish faculty goal
of adopting DI for English Learners
of UAE, aligned with the key
organization goal of student
success.
Goal setting beginning of academic
year, midyear evaluation and final
evaluation by supervisors.
1,2,3
Encouraging

Peer modeling by experts in
Differentiated Instruction during
faculty professional development
sessions to allow course teachers to
practice “how to” effectively deliver
comprehensible input required for
the meaningful learning and success
of English Learners.
Faculty PD week during January,
April &August each year.
1,2,3
Rewarding
Provide incentives to teachers for
effective implementation of DI in
classrooms through annual
performance salary bonus.
Annual performance-based
monetary award end of academic
year.
1,2,3
Public acknowledgment such as
Teacher’s Award in best
instructional practices or innovative
pedagogy award during annual
innovation week.
During spring & fall annual
academic conferences.
1,2,3
Monitoring

Teachers will journal weekly to
self-reflect on their pedagogy
style for delivering the course
content as comprehensible input to
learners based on students’ learning
needs and linguistic skills.
Weekly 1,2,3
Supervisors, DI experts and peer
teachers will sit in with the course
teachers during class sessions for
observation, appraisal and feedback.
Twice per semester. 1,2,3

Organizational support. To ensure that the required drivers are implemented the
organization will provide the following support. First, review the current faculty workload and
resources to collaboratively develop a plan to redesign the work process, which takes into
account the organizational goals and additional time teachers will need to be trained and adopt
Differentiated Instruction (DI) in classrooms. Second, administration will conduct meetings with
faculty to discuss and establish faculty goal of adopting novel instructional practice of DI for
English Learners of UAE, aligned with the key organization goal of student success such as
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improvement in degree completion time as per the NUE’s strategic plan of 2017-21. Third,
administration will allocate budgetary resources for the professional development of course
teachers in instructional practices and provide them support by English language experts along
with provision of appropriate learning technology in classrooms to assist instructors overcome
the linguistic challenges of students in undergraduate courses. Fourth, time will be set aside in
regularly scheduled faculty meetings to allow teachers and administration the opportunity to
openly communicate their views, plans, progress, and support for one another to foster an
environment of trust. In these meetings, faculty concerns on HR policies related to contracts and
compensation will be addressed. Finally, annually the organization will review the percentage
rates of graduating students to determine if innovative instructional practice of DI adopted by
course instructors is impacting students’ degree completion time.
Level 2: Learning
According to the new Kirkpatrick model, Level 2- Learning is the degree to which
participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment based
on their participation in the training.” Most training professionals are familiar with the first parts
of the Level 2 of imparting knowledge and skills and double check the attitude that participants
using the knowledge as skills on the job. But the new additions of confidence and commitment
take the training evaluators to the door of Level 3 –behavior. As such trainers must incorporate
in their instructional design the component that gauges confidence of trainees to apply the new
knowledge and skills learnt in their job. Finally, trainers must assure that trainees commit to
apply the new skills learnt through training on their job with confidence.
Learning goals. Upon completion of the recommended solutions the course teachers
will be able to:
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1. Understand the theoretical concept of the promising instructional practice of
Differentiated Instruction for non-native speakers of English with Limited English
Proficiency in higher education. (C)
2. Apply different pedagogical strategies for different groups of English Learners into their
lesson plans. (P)
3. Demonstrate the Differentiated Instruction pedagogy skills learnt through professional
development in classrooms to deliver comprehensible input to support student learning
and success. (P)
4. Monitor and reflect their teaching effectiveness through journaling and peer feedback.
(M)
5. See the value in differentiating instruction for Arabic-speaking English learners in the
UAE to support learning and academic success. (Value)
6. Demonstrate self-confidence that they can deliver effectively the linguistically
challenging course contents through differentiation. (Self- Efficacy)
7. Show self-efficacy that they can provide effective support to English learners of UAE
students in their degree completion in time by recommending learning strategies in
collaboration with English language teachers and Academic Success Centre (ASC) at the
college (Confidence)
8. Value peer learning and open communication with their colleagues. (Attitude).
Program. The learning goals provided in the previous section will be achieved through
professional development of faculty in instructional practices that will increase the knowledge
and motivation of the learners, course teachers in UAE higher education, to help students in
academic success. To develop teachers’ knowledge and skills in instructional practice for
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English learners, they will be provided with training, develop job aids, journal and participate in
peer observations. Since full time academic staff member stay in their roles for a minimum of
three years as per the standard faculty employment contract, the program will be ongoing.
First, each semester beginning teachers will work together with academic advisors where
students’ linguistic needs will be assessed. This will allow the course teachers to incorporate
teaching strategy and provide supportive classroom environment and provide personalized
support to learners with linguistic challenges in the course. Next, teachers will go through
professional certified trainings in Differentiated Instruction (DI) pedagogy for English learners
provided by instructional experts during faculty professional development weeks in spring and
fall semesters. After the first certifications, refresher training for current and new teachers will
take place every year. After the DI training through a guided practice and on a regular basis
course teachers will participate in mock teaching sessions and receive feedback. Furthermore,
the teachers will be asked to reflect on their teaching effectiveness and requested to journal their
reflections weekly. Finally, monthly, these reflections will be used, by the supervisor, to assess
how often and well the course teacher is delivering the course content to ELs for meaningful
learning of the student.
The teachers, on an ongoing basis, will also learn topics that will increase their
motivation to incorporate DI in classrooms to support degree completion time of English
Learners. To increase course teachers’ motivation they will participate in instructional
observations and provide data on their value of incorporating DI in classrooms for ELs as mere
content experts. First, teachers will participate in observations once a week for two hours over a
six month period. After that observations will take place annually for one week during four
Differential Instruction sessions, as long as the course teachers are demonstrating the necessary
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motivation and skills. During each instructional session the supervisor or peer will complete a
checklist to evaluate the teacher's effectiveness. Following each instructional session the
supervisor/peer will provide corrective feedback and provide positive encouragement, from the
checklist, about the teacher’s ability to provide the student with comprehensible input. In
addition, each academic year, students will be asked to nominate course teachers who have made
a positive impact on their academic success.
Components of learning. To apply what is learned to solve problems and meet
performance goals course teachers must have the knowledge and skills and motivation to achieve
their goals. Therefore, it is important to assess learning for both the conceptual and procedural
knowledge being taught. It is also important that the teachers value training in Differentiated
Instruction, are committed, and confident so that they can apply what they have learned on a
daily basis. As such, Table 40 lists the evaluation methods and timing for these learning
components.
Table 40
Components of Learning for the Program.
Method(s) or Activity(ies) Timing
Declarative Knowledge “I know it.”
Knowledge checks through discussion in
departmental faculty meetings
Periodically in the fall and spring semesters
period and documented via job aid chart.
Report out on discussion during faculty
meetings.
Throughout the training tracking to ensure that
all teachers are participating and reporting out.
Procedural Skills “I can do it right now.”
Feedback from peers during mock
teaching/instructional session.
After the learning event.
Use real scenarios in faculty meeting and role
play an instructional/teaching session.

During the learning event.
Attitude “I believe this is worthwhile.”
Pre- and Post-test assessment survey to
determine if the value has increased to deliver
course content effectively to English Learners.
At the end of the professional development.
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Brainstorm the positive and negative outcomes
of open communication.
During the learning event.

Confidence “I think I can do it on the job.”
Feedback from peer and supervisor during
observations.

After the learning event.
Dedicated time to discuss the course teachers’
concerns about delivering course content
through differentiated instruction.
During the learning event.
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
1:1 discussions following observations. After the learning event.
Ask the course participants (teachers) to write
down and share how they will implement what
they have learned on the job.
After the learning event.

Level 1: Reaction
Most of the trainings in the world are evaluated at Level 1. The original definition of
Level 1 evaluation of training was merely “customer satisfaction”. The new Kirkpatrick model
informs us that that customer satisfaction is not a sufficient metric of training evaluation in Level
1. Thus, in addition to customer satisfaction, the definition of Level 1 evaluation must be
expanded to include training relevance and engagement of trainees to make training more
meaningful for the participants. The new Level 1 –Reaction is defined as the degree to which
participants find the training favorable, engaging, and relevant to their jobs. As such, Table 41
lists the reactions of the course teachers to the learning event being favorable, engaging, and
relevant.

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Table 41
Components to Measure Reactions to the Program.
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing Timing
Engagement
Checklist rating observation completed by
peers and supervisor.
Ongoing after training event.
Professional Development (PD) evaluation. Two weeks after the PD.
Relevance
Pulse Check with the course teachers via
1:1 discussion.
After every observation.
PD Evaluation. Two weeks after the PD.
Customer Satisfaction
Pulse check with teachers via satisfaction
survey
After each PD course.
PD Evaluation Two weeks after the PD.

Evaluation Tools
Immediately following the program implementation. Following the learning event the
participants will complete a survey (see Appendix C for the survey questions). During the
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observations the supervisor or peer will fill out a checklist (see Appendix D for the checklist).
The survey will indicate relevance of the material to the job, participant satisfaction,
commitment, attitude, and confidence in applying what has been learned.
For Level 1 and Level 2, during the observations, the supervisor will fill out a checklist
that rates the effectiveness of the teachers in several areas and then will provide feedback.
During in person learning events the PD instructor will conduct pulse checks by asking the
participants if the content is relevant to their work and addressing realistic issues. The instructor
will ask about the environment and if it is creating any barriers to the participants’ learning.
Level 2 will include checks for understanding what is being presented. Level 2 will also use
group discussions and reporting out on the topics being discussed to gauge participant
understanding.
Delayed for a period after the program implementation. Approximately 90 days after
the PD on instructional practices, the learning and training team at NUE will administer a
survey (see Appendix E for survey questions) containing open and scaled items using the
blended evaluation approach to measure, from the teacher's perspective, satisfaction and
relevance of the training to the teachers’ ability to deliver course contents through Differentiated
Instruction pedagogy to support student learning and academic success (Level 1), knowledge,
skills, confidence, attitude, commitment and value of applying their training (Level 2),
application of the learning event to the assess course teachers’ ability to assess student
linguistic needs and support to deliver the course contents through differentiation (Level 3),
and the extent to which they are able to practice instructional practices for English learners on a
regular basis (Level 4).
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Data Analysis and Reporting
The Level 4 goal for course teachers is measured by how learning of English learners is
supported by course teachers during their undergraduate courses resulting in improving the degree
completion time. The course teachers must have the knowledge and skills and motivation to
provide differentiated learning experience to support degree completion of English learners in
standard four-year time. Each semester, the reviewer will compile the data from faculty
nominations and track the number of nominations course teachers receive for supporting the
students in a way that has made an impact on the students’ academic success. Annually, the
reviewer will track the graduation data to see if there has been an improvement in student
graduation time. To monitor the progress and hold the participants accountable, PD instructors
will create Teachers’ Instructional Practices Evaluation System (TIPES), based on Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) matched against the established Performance Standards (PS).
Similar performance metrics will be created on NUE faculty PD dashboard to monitor Levels 1,
2, and 3.

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TIPES

KPI
Academic Year
2018-19
KPI
Academic Year
2019-20
2019-2020
Annual Totals
PS-1: Course teachers are knowledgeable about
how to assess students’ English proficiency and to
support linguistic needs for the courses.
100% XX XX XX
PS-2: Faculty complete professional development
in Differentiated Instruction pedagogy.
100% XX XX XX
PS-3: Course instructors are aware of their
teaching effectiveness for supporting academic
success of English learners in the UAE higher
education.
100% XX XX XX
PS-4: NUE students complete undergraduate
degrees in 4-Year time.
91% XX XX XX
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Summary
The New World Kirkpatrick Model informs the implementation and evaluation plan of
this study (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The four levels of training and evaluation are used
to ensure that course teachers in higher education have the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational support to assess linguistic challenges of English learners in higher education and
deliver the course contents through Differentiated Instruction. As with this model, this training
program starts with the identification of the outcomes, metrics and method to measure the results
of the targeted outcomes that are integrated with the organization’s goal of student success.
Next, the program establishes the critical behaviors to assess if the participants are using what
they have learned once they are back on the job. Furthermore, learning outcomes are identified
and the participants are evaluated on their learning and knowledge, attitude, commitment, and
confidence during the Professional Development (PD). Finally, methods to assess how the
participants are reacting to PD were developed to determine the participants’ satisfaction,
engagement, and the relevance of the training. To implement change and maximize the program
results it is important to evaluate and analyze data collection during program implementation.
For the levels of training evaluation this section will answer the questions: “Does the level of …
meet expectations? If so, then why? And If not, then why not?” (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick,
2016).
During PD sessions when the level of reaction and learning does not meet expectations,
then the PD specialist/trainer needs to identify the issue and changes need to be made to the
program? If the course teachers are not learning or reacting as expected, it is recommended that
the PD specialist/trainer do a pulse check to and ask the course participants what thoughts they
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have and address the issues that are raised (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). When the level of
reaction and learning meets expectations the trainer may want to stop and do a pulse check to
discuss what increased engagement (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016).
After training when the level of behavior and results does not meet expectations then it is
important to communicate with the participants to find out what are the issues with the required
drivers and critical behaviors, for level 3 that are not being applied. As well as, asking why the
leading indicators and desired results, for level 4, are not moving forward (Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2016). The trainer can solicit feedback through surveys or interviews and ask the
participants what behaviors would allow them to move forward to achieve their performance
goals. When the levels of behavior and results meet expectations it is recommended that
participants that are high performing course instructors be recruited to identify what they are
doing to increase their performance and share with the organization (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick,
2016).
This plan allows for ongoing feedback regarding each stage of the teachers’ training and
the evaluation feedback will assist trainers and PD instructors with adjusting the training plan as
participants (course teachers) learn, practice, and apply their skills in Differentiated Instruction.
As the four levels are determined before the training begins, the outcome goals (Level 4) serves
as the compass with the learning and behavioral component designed to fulfill the Level 4
outcome expectations (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The levels are created beginning with
Level 4 and ending with Level 1, but the actual implementation will necessitate training and
Level 1 evaluation first, with the Levels 2 through 4 evaluation at intervals after the training to
assess knowledge transfer and organizational goal attainment (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016).
Finally, it is important to provide a final report on the PD outcomes to the faculty
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members as participants and university administration. Organizational support is a component
that also determines the success of any training program (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). To
drive performance and results Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) recommend providing reports
and creating touch points throughout the implementation process. To engage administration in
topics that are important to them for evaluation, the reports should address the relevance,
credibility, compelling, and efficiency of the program (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016).

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APPENDIX A
Faculty Survey (Consent Form)

Part A: Background Demographics Data
Part B: Teacher’s Instructional Practice
Part C: Teacher Survey on Differentiated Instruction

Dear teacher,

This survey is the main instrument for a study on instructional practices in the UAE public higher education.
It has been developed as a part of my doctoral research study at University of Southern California. The
purpose of the present mixed methods research is two-fold: first to explore teachers’ current pedagogy style
in tertiary education for English Learners of UAE, who face linguistic challenges in degree courses, which
has a direct impact on their academic success. Second to learn about teacher’s knowledge, motivation and
organizational factors to adopt “differentiated instruction” pedagogy for improving the academic success
of these students. Survey data will help the administration of UAE public universities understand what
professional development of teachers is needed in the area of differentiated instruction. As such the study
will be conducted in a public higher education organization in the UAE. Expectedly, the output of the study
will provide more knowledge and clarification on effective pedagogy style, which might be helpful for the
higher educational systems planning to carry out the required reforms in teaching strategies for achieving
better learning outcomes of students.
The questionnaire is completely anonymous, and all information provided will be treated with strict
confidentiality.
Please tick (√) the following boxes to indicate your agreement:
□ I have read the information provided about the purpose of the study.
□ I understand that the data collected will be completely anonymous and that my privacy and
confidentiality will be respected.
□ I understand that I have the right to withdraw from this study at any time without prejudice.
□ I understand that any reports that will result from the data collection will not identify any individual
participant.
Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________
Thank you for your cooperation.
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PART A: DEMOGRAPHIC/BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1) Gender Male  Female 
2) Number of years of teaching experience in higher
education of UAE.

3) Academic Department Engineering  CIS  Business  Technical Studies 
Health Sciences  Applied Media  Education 
Foundation  General Studies  Other 
Part B: Teacher’s Instructional Practice
Please tick ( ✓) the best answer that reflects your opinion regarding the statement.
Language Assessment of Students

Strongly
Agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
N/A
1) I pre-assess my students’ English proficiency
before commencing a new course.

2) It is practical to do pre-assessment activities for
students at the beginning to make instructional
decisions about their levels.

3) I adjust the class lessons to match students’ English
skills.

4) I assess students’ linguistic challenges in the course
content to gauge understanding.

5) I assess at the end of the lesson to determine
knowledge acquisition.

6) In my classroom, I use different types of
assessment tools according the students’ needs.

7) I determine students’ learning styles.
8) In my opinion, all students learn in the same way.
9) Adjusting the pacing to my students’ readiness and
needs is integral to the learning process.

10) I provide varying levels of support for each
student based on their English competency.

Lesson Planning
11) Course materials are varied to adjust to learners’
English skills.

12) Individualizing lesson plans takes the
responsibility for learning away from the student.

13) Learners play a role in designing/selecting
learning activities.

14) I adjust for diverse learner needs with scaffolding.
15) It is not possible to design lessons to meet the
linguistic needs of individual students as those needs
are diverse.

16) I provide tasks that require students to apply and
extend understanding.

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Strongly
Agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
N/A
Course Content
17)The curriculum matches learners’ English skills.
18) I explain the course contents to students using
English easily understood by them.

19) I use variety of materials other than the standard
English course textbook.

20) I provide linguistic support to students
understanding the complex concepts.

21) I sometimes use Arabic vocabulary to help
students’ understand complex course contents

22) I believe teachers using UAE examples relevant to
course content help students’ learning.

23) Some degree courses are more linguistically
challenging for students than others.

24) It is not the responsibility of course teachers to
help students with linguistic challenges.

Process
25) The pace of my instruction varies based on
individual learner’s English skills.

26)I provide students with the choice to work alone, in
pairs or small group

27) I group students for learning activities based on
their English competency.

28) The classroom environment is structured to
support learning of students with limited English
skills

Product
29) I provide multiple modes of expression in various
assignments.

30) The class assignments and assessments connects
with student English skills

31) I provide variety of assessment tasks to students
based on English skills

B: Differentiated Instruction Pedagogy
Differentiated Instruction is a pedagogy style which takes into account the unique learning needs of students based on their
background such as English proficiency skills, learning styles, interest and culture to adopt the course contents for better learning
outcomes and academic success.
Please tick ( ✓) the best answer that reflects your opinion regarding the statement

Strongly
Agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
N/A
1) I am familiar with the differentiated instruction
pedagogy.

2) I employ differentiated instruction in my lesson
plans for students with linguistic challenges.

3) Differentiated instruction is the best way to
improve the academic success of English learners.

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4) I think differentiated instruction is a more effective
pedagogy for primary and secondary school English
learners than for students of higher education.

5)Adapting teaching to students’ differences
(differentiation) is possible only in theory but not
in practice

6)Technology should be used to enhance
differentiated
instruction

7)It is effective to differentiate according to the
English proficiency levels than to interests and
learning styles.

8) I feel confident in my ability to implement
differentiated instruction in my classrooms.

9) I believe in the idea of differentiation but do not
Know how exactly to implement it.

10) If teachers are provided professional development
in differentiated instruction, English learners’
academic success will improve.

11) To differentiate successfully I need to have
additional resources.

12) I rely on my teaching experience to identify the
effective differentiation strategies

13) Administration must provide teachers with
incentives to incorporate differentiated instruction in
classrooms.

14) Differentiated instruction is another mandate that
puts pressure on the teacher.

15) Please provide any additional comments to improve the academic success of UAE students in Higher Education (optional).
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
APPENDIX B
Interview Protocol
Consent Form
Faculty Interview

Please tick (√) the following boxes to indicate your agreement:

 I have read the information provided about the purpose of the study.
 I understand that the data collected through interview will be completely anonymous and
that my privacy and confidentiality will be respected.
 I understand that I have the right to withdraw from this study at any time without
prejudice.
 I understand that any reports that will result from the data collection through interview
will not identify any individual participants.

 I am willing to participate in the interview which will last for 60 minutes.

Signature: ______________
Date: __________________

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DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
Interview Questions
A. Introductory Questions
1) Describe your experience of teaching Arabic speaking English Learners in the UAE.
a. How long have you taught in the higher education t NUE and what subjects?
b. What type of linguistic challenges faced by students in your subjects (if any)?
B. Knowledge Questions
2) What is your pedagogy style for the students with limited English proficiency? Please
elaborate
3) What formal and informal methods of assessments you employ for gauging the English
proficiency of students in your course? Does it help in your instruction?
4) Describe how do you differentiate instruction for students with varying English skills in your
class?
3) What do you know about Differentiated Instruction (DI) as a pedagogy style for the English
Learners?
a. Are you familiar with DI or any special pedagogy used to teach English learners?
b. Did you get any training or do you have any certification to teach English learners? If
(yes) what and when?
5) How do you reflect upon your teaching style under the cultural and social context of UAE?
Please elaborate.
6) In your opinion what type of knowledge and skills should a teacher must possess to support
the learning of English learners in higher education?

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DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
C. Motivation Questions
8) How do you believe that differentiating instruction improves learning of English learners?
9) How confident do you feel about differentiating instruction for English learners in your
subject?
D. Organization Questions
10) What are your opinions about the university/state policy of IELTS score of 5.0 for
admission into higher education?
11) How do you see the impact of phasing out of Foundation program on the students success in
higher education?
12) What are your opinions about administration’s efforts in helping student overcome
linguistic challenges?
13) How do you think that administration can support teachers in differentiating instruction in
linguistically challenging subjects?
14) Please walk me through how administration and faculty collaborate to help students in
academic success.
15) How professional development of faculty in instructional practices for English learners can
help students’ understanding of course contents?

201
DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
APPENDIX C
For each of the questions below, please circle the response that best characterized how you feel
about the statement.
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
1. Professional Development (PD) course
in Differentiated Instruction (DI) held my
interest.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. During PD course we discussed how to
apply what was learned.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3. I will recommend this PD course to the
other course instructors.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4. I believe it will be worthwhile for me
to deliver course contents through DI
when I return to my class sessions.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. The feedback has given me the
confidence to apply what I learned during
my discussions.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6. I am committed to apply what I learned
during my discussions.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7. I found the feedback during the mock
session valuable for implementing DI
pedagogy in classrooms.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8. I was satisfied with the PD course for
helping me support student success.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Please provide feedback for the following questions:
1. What part of the PD did you find irrelevant for your instructional needs?
2. What were the major concepts of Differentiated Instruction you learned today?

202
DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
APPENDIX D
Context: This is a checklist that supervisor and/or peers will use when observing course teachers
during classroom sessions to rate the skills and ability of the instructors to support learning of
students by delivering course contents through effective instructional practices for English
learners.
Rating Scale
1 = Effective use of targeted behavior
2 = Moderate effective use of targeted behavior
3 = Ineffective use of targeted behavior
Feedback comment may include specific observations that will support the rating, as well
as feedback to help the course teacher be more effective when assessing students’ English
proficiency levels, linguistic needs and support for the course curriculum, and delivering the
course content as comprehensible input by adopting Differentiated Instruction pedagogy.
Target Behavior Rating Feedback Comments
Course instructor engaged with the
English learners by listening and
validating the student’s feeling about the
linguistic challenges of the course
contents.

Course teacher diagnosed the linguistic
needs of students through assessment
before the commencement of the course.

Course instructor clarified with follow-
up questions about the student’s English
needs in collaboration with the English
Language Teacher (ELT).

Course instructor recommended the
appropriate English support offered to
students with limited English skills by

203
DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
the ELTs at the academic success center
of the college.
Course instructor differentiated the
course for English learners through
content effectively in classroom
instruction.

Course instructor differentiated the
course for English learners through
process effectively in classroom
instruction.

Course instructor differentiated the
course for English learners through
product effectively in classroom
instruction.

Course instructor differentiated the
course for English learners through
classroom environment effectively.

Instructor was able to resolve the
linguistic challenges of English learners
for retention and success in the course.

204
DIFFERENTATED INSTRUCTION
APPENDIX E
For each of the questions below, please circle the response that best characterized how you feel
about the statement.
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
1. I have had the opportunity to apply in
classroom what I learned in the PD
course.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. Reflecting back on the PD I believe
that skills acquired in instructional
practices for English learners was a
good use of my time.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3.I have successfully adopted
Differentiated Instruction in my courses
learnt through PD.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4. I have received support from my
supervisor to apply what I have learned
on the PD.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. I am seeing positive results from the
PD in Differentiated Instruction
pedagogy.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6. This program has positively impacted
instructional practices of higher-Ed
teachers for supporting success of
English Learners.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Please provide feedback for the following questions:
1. Describe any challenges you are facing implementing what you learned and possible solutions
to overcome the challenges.

2. Reflecting on this program how could it have been improved?

Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Lakhani, Muhammad Kamran (author)

Core Title Maximizing English learners' success in higher education with differentiated instruction

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Publication Date 08/01/2018

Defense Date 06/07/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag differentiated instruction (DI),English learners,English proficiency,instructional practice, content experts,OAI-PMH Harvest,pedagogical style,UAE higher education

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Mora-Flores, Eugenia R. (committee chair), Castro, Roderick Maurice (committee member), Ferrario, Kimberly (committee member)

Creator Email mkamran.lakhani@gmail.com,mlakhani@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-45002

Unique identifier UC11670741

Identifier etd-LakhaniMuh-6535.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-45002 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-LakhaniMuh-6535.pdf

Dmrecord 45002

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Lakhani, Muhammad Kamran

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA