Nanofibras y Microfibras de PLA obtenidas por electrospinning

Between November 2006 and March 2013, His Excellency Sheikh Nayhan Bin Mubarak was the UAE’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. In his previous role as the UAE’s Minister of Education he was responsible for both portfolios, and announced a re- structuring of the K-12 school system with a specific focus on teaching methods and

assessment procedures (Al Nowais, 2004).

The drive for change intensified as each year graduating students from government schools failed to meet the minimum entry requirements into government colleges and universities (Al Nowais, 2004). In the UAE, government schools fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The curriculum reflects Islamic beliefs and enforces single-gender secondary schools. Gender segregation has been adopted by all government colleges and universities, and government schools are required to enforce Islamic religious studies up to graduation (International Bureau of Studies, 2005). The curriculum reforms supported by the Minister of Education after his appointment related to implementing an advanced curriculum covering contemporary subjects relevant to the UAE, while also retaining studies on Islamic and Arabic heritage (Al Nowais, 2004).

In the restructure of the educational framework, the Minister set about establishing performance targets and implementing a system to measure, monitor and record progress in government schools (Al Nowais, 2004).Fullan (2001)stated this strategy by a government

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authority was a purposeful way to take responsibility and monitor progress so that a proper evaluation can be undertaken to assess success or failure.

Students’ cultural values form part of their approach to integrating into their learning

environment. Biggs and Moore (1993) referred to culture as the combined ways that humans live with each other in groups and how they pass this on from one generation to the next. Kennedy (2002) described culture as not just a matter of overt behaviour, but also the rules, beliefs, attitudes and values that govern how people act and define themselves. The research of Solas and Wilson (2015) focused on the way their students expressed themselves through drawing and sketching. They believed this was of particular value in Emirati social and religious culture where maturefemales are prevented from public displays of creative expression such as singing and dancing. As a facet of Emirati culture, art provided an opportunity for these students to create annotated representational drawings which encapsulated the content being taught in the classroom.

Research exploring the value students place on passive and active teaching processes emphasises the experiences they bring with them from high school. Despite no significant differences between the outcomes in active or passive learning environments (Haidet,

Morgan, O’Malley, Moran & Richards, 2004), the students themselves reported a preference for teachers who implement a more passive learning environment. The implications for teachers who endeavour to create learning situations conducive to critical thinking may therefore be problematic unless students understand the importance of changing their insights about learning. The experiences of those students who enter university from state-run schools have been characterised by a lack of using their initiative, not applying techniques of

discovery in their learning and not utilising any aspects of their creative and critical faculties (Madsen & Cook, 2010).

Other research by Solas and Wilson (2015) used strategies which they believed would stimulate critical thinking. They found that anthropomorphism, problem solving and the use of narrative to impart information did not actually stimulate or encourage students. Their findings showed that students failed to interpret language nuances or cues, and were unable to draw inferences from stimuli because they were unable to access contextual clues. Added frustration and the lack of critical thinking also affected their student’s retention and transferability, assessment results and comprehension.

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Institutions like universities expend considerable effort on meeting the ongoing needs of the communities within which they operate (Heath, Street & Mills, 2008). While

governments, families, judicial systems and religion affect the lives of people, institutions may fragment or reorganise themselves to reassure the public of their perpetuity. In the Emirates, His Highness, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan developed a blueprint for women’s education as part of his vision for women to join the working population. By 2000, 76.8% of female students were enrolled in UAE universities (Al Kassidi, 2000), the highest rate of women in higher education anywhere in the world (Fergany, 2005). The oil wealth of the Abu Dhabi Emirate was used for the benefit of the country’s citizens (The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 2004) and the ruler’s vision to establish education as a vehicle for national development subsequently became part of the constitution in Article 23.

The UAE has a very high rate of participation in higher education. Statistics show that 95% of all females who complete secondary school apply for admission to higher education (NationalMedia Council, 2009).In2008-2009 the UAE University admitted 3,355 new students, the Higher Colleges of Technology admitted 7,902 students, and Zayed University admitted 1,558 students (National Media Council,2009).These threefederal institutions operate under the Higher Education Council, and all three have pursued international accreditation, mainly from US accrediting bodies (Wilkins, 2010). The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) in the UAE is responsible for all aspects of Higher Education planning, policy development and implementation, ongoing quality management, data acquisition and analysis, as well as admissions to federal universities and the scholarship award program for nationals (Wilkins, 2010).