Teaching Practices of Arabic Language Teachers in Saudi Arabia in the Light of PIRLS Indicators from the Educational Supervisors point of view

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the reality of teaching practices of grade four Arabic class teachers in order to develop student’s reading abilities according to the PIRLS indicators from the standpoint of the educational supervisors. The study implemented the descriptive method, and the instrument was a survey that was prepared by the researcher based on the PIRLS indicators. After examining the validity and reliability of the instrument, it was distributed to a sample of 255 male and female supervisors from all the regions of Saudi Arabia. The study found that according to the educational supervisors point of view, the level of teaching practices of Arabic language that was implemented to develop student’s reading abilities is considered to be high. In Addition, it found that there are significant statistical differences between males and females samples in favor of females while there are no significant differences attributed to the variable of years of experience. As for the levels of the teaching practices, the study found a positive relationship between teaching practices levels. The result of the study is inconsistent with the low scores by Saudi Arabia Students when they participated in 2011 and 2016 International testing contests, which in turn recall examining other reasons for these low results. The researcher proposed conducting another study to compare the levels of Saudi students and those whom achieved high scores in PIRLS test to explore the factors that influence the performance of each category and to search other factors that might have an effect on students performance such as family support, society’s awareness, teachers’ job satisfaction, economic and cultural diversity, etc