Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 24, No. 1, 2012

Research Priorities in Science Education in Saudi Arabia/ Saeed Mohammed Alshamrani

The purpose of this study was to identify research priorities of science education in Saudi Arabia. The Delphi technique was usedto establish the aimed agreement level among the science educators in universities and related agencies to education in Saudi Arabia. Tocollect the data, the researcher developed an instrument encompassing 31 sub-topics falling under eight main research topics.The sample reached the aimed agreement level by the end of the second round. 31 experts participated in the first round; however, 24 ofthem participated in the second round. For the main research topics, the findings revealed that teacher preparation programs and professionaldevelopment and educational technology fall within very high priority; however, cultural, social, and gender diversity and history,philosophy, and nature of science fall within intermediate priority; while the four remaining main topics fall within high priority. For the sub-topics, the results indicated that 11 of these topics fall within very high priority, 15 fall within high priority, and five fall within intermediatepriority; however, neither main topics nor sub-topics fall within low or very low priority. At the end, the researcher provided a number ofsuggestions and recommendations based on the findings of this study.