There is little research which explores middle school teachers’ response to school closures in developing countries in times of crisis. This article presents a case study of Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine as developing countries which have suffered from violence for many years prior to the Covid-19 crisis. It focuses on how teachers in middle school responded to school closure to fight the spread of Covid-19. Twenty-two teachers from these countries participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews and three diverse focus group sessions were used to collect data and evidence. The study found that teachers developed their skills to use emerging technologies and design suitable digital content. Moreover, they built strong relationships with the local community to assume their responsibility in emergency remote learning (ERL) by establishing community centres for students from poor families. Assessing and engaging students were crucial issues in ERL which need more research in different contexts.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a comprehensive approach that integrates those disciplines into a cohesive learning paradigm. Applying this approach is very important to modernize teaching strategies in order to provide the current competitive and skill-based job market. This study aims to investigate the impact of using STEM- based activities on students’ thinking skills. The researchers used an experimental approach, where two groups of students were chosen; an experimental and control one. The control group was taught by using the traditional strategies, while the experimental group was taught using STEM-based activities through collaborative working groups based on CCTST and TAM. The main findings revealed that the experimental group students’ attitudes were positively changed towards learning science, technology and maths. Students were able to solve real-life problems, learn complex concepts and apply them. It was recommended to use STEM-based activities in schools in a more systematic way.

Background: For youth in geopolitically at-risk environments, such as Palestine, the issues related to Internet overuse and addictions are complex. Youth residing in the occupied territories of Palestine as in other highly militarized zones have high levels of environmental stressors (e.g., militarization, poverty, lack of employment opportunities, cultural pressures, etc.) and few chemical or social outlets such as alcohol, intoxicants, and leisure activities. As such, the easily accessible and unrestricted opportunities for stress-reducing social contact of social media can lead easily to excessive and maladaptive Internet use. Therefore, interventions directly aimed at awareness and education on how to manage Internet use are critical for addressing these issues in high risk populations. Aims: The purpose of the current study was to test the efficacy of a time-limited group training program aimed at improving social skills and reducing addictive Internet behaviors among university students. Methods and results: The sample consisted of 30 university students who self-reported high scores on an Internet addiction scale. Participants were randomly assigned to either wait list or treatment group (15 in each condition). Results demonstrated that using a social skills training program over an 8-week period improved the level of social skills and reduced addictive Internet behaviors significantly in those who experienced the intervention when compared with a wait list control group. Conclusions: These findings support the implementation of time limited training programs targeting social skills and addictive patterns of Internet use with university students identified with high levels of Internet addictive behaviors.

The purpose of the study is to explore students’ and faculty members’ responses to universities’ migration from face-to-face to online instruction as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. To this extent, a qualitative approach was used for data collection and involved a number of qualitative methods: an open-ended question survey, focus group discussion, social media data, and university reports. Additionally, a thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that students and faculty members were overwhelmed and stressed at the beginning, but as they started to acclimate to it, faculty members were satisfied. However, students seemed to be dissatisfied with this new approach to learning. Furthermore, faculty members and students both mentioned different challenges they had faced. The study reports on the technological tools used to mitigate the emerging challenges of both students and faculty members. Evaluating and assessing students was a main challenge for faculty members as the study analyzes the assessment and evaluation tools that they use in their online teaching. Comparative studies from Palestine and other countries are suggested for future research.

Textbooks are essential components in the learning process. They assist in achieving educational learning outcomes and developing social and cultural values. However, limited studies provide comprehensive frameworks for comparing textbooks. Most have focused on a specific textbook perspective within a particular discipline. Therefore, this study used a triangulation method to develop a comprehensive framework for textbook comparison. Through a systematic literature review and a two-round Fuzzy Delphi method with 155 textbook experts, a textbook comparison framework with four indicators (structure, content, expectations, and language) was developed. Additionally, some of the developed framework indicators and sub-indicators could be relevant for comparing textbooks in a particular discipline. For example, the page count sub-indicator was proven to be useful for comparing humanities and social science textbooks but not natural science textbooks. The findings of this study could facilitate the process of comparing textbooks, hence promoting the understanding of knowledge design and acquisition in different contexts, such as when comparing textbooks from different countries.