Mira M Alameddine

When it comes to business ethics, views diverge and conflict. There are those who believe that ethics can’t be taught but is rather a development, such as Aristotle; and there are those who like Socrates, believe that ethics is knowing what we ought to do, and therefore this knowledge can be learned. In the Lebanese society that faces ethical crises, ethical education becomes important. When business students are taught that “business is business” and business deals are “not a matter of ethics, but of business” in class, it becomes difficult to show them that “good ethics, is good business”. In such conditions ethical education becomes imperative. Teaching ethics means that one believes that people can change, that ethical behavior can be taught. However, is this applicable? Can we teach Hitler or Bernard Madoff ethics or as Orwin (2009) implies “Can we teach pigs to fly?” This paper investigated the effects of learning business ethics on various Lebanese university students who have successfully completed the course’s objectives. The participants were the researcher’s students in two local universities, which caused limitations of the results for they couldn’t be generalized. The results revealed that ethics course(s) did positively affect the students’ behavior.

Teaching Business English (L2) for target learners whose L1 is Arabic requires certain procedures. Instructors must address problems that their Arabic learners will probably face in acquiring Business communication in L2. This paper will discuss the major problems that learners whose L1 is Arabic face in learning Business English which is L2 and what the role of the instructor is in guiding the learners to overcome these obstacles and acquire the desired skills. Instructors need to address the four problems that their Arab learners are probably going to encounter. These problems are: 1) negative transfer; 2) the difference in writing strategies; 3) prepositional knowledge; and 4) collocational patterns. Thus, instructors have to teach the learners to overcome negative transfer, include practices that guide the learners to overcome the differences in strategies of business communication that exist between L1 and L2 and address the cultural differences between the two main languages.

The diversity of the 21st-century classroom creates several difficulties for teachers who most probably did not encounter such multiplicity as students. The practice of differentiating instruction helps teachers address the required standards, yet be able to respond to their learners' needs. Differentiation permits teachers to focus on important skills in each content area while at the same time be attentive to their learners' individual differences. It also helps them integrate assessment into their instruction, and provide their learners with multiple opportunities to learning. The result is a classroom where all learners acquire knowledge. Differentiated Instruction "is a model of instruction that revolves around the belief that students learn in many different ways" (Verde, 2004). It "provides materials and tasks at varied levels of difficulty with varying degrees of scaffolding, through multiple instructional groups; encourages student success by varying ways in which students work alone or collaboratively, in auditory or visual modes, or through practical or creative means" (Tomlinson, 2000). At CiS, we differentiate our instruction because we can maximize our learners' growth by meeting them at the level they are and helping them progress. In our classes we use technology since we believe that it helps us meet the needs of our learners in every lesson we give since technology assists us in pacing lessons for each of our student's learning level. However, it's important to know how to successfully assimilate technology into our instruction. The most vital principle of technology integration is that we need to focus on the outcome of the instruction, and not technology itself (Gibson, 1977). We only use technology to help facilitate our students' learning process for it allows changes in the lessons in terms of content, channels of input and the means of output. Moreover, through technology, our classes become a great stage for cooperative learning. Tools such as Comic Creator, Character Trading Cards, Acrostic Poems, Cube Creator and sites such as Podcasts, Webcams, Discovery School and iLearn are used in most classes at CiS to enhance learners' experiences. In this paper I will share the LWIS-CiS-DT's experience in using technology to advance learning using differentiated instruction.

Lebanon is one of the smallest countries in the world where programs for the gifted and talented (GT) do not officially exist. There are some attempts to accommodate for the GT in various private schools that cater for learners from high socioeconomic status. These schools offer some enrichment programs and differentiated instruction/activities to high-achieving learners. The programs presented are attempts to nurture the talent and ability of learners with total grade average above 85/100 by providing these learners with a variety of enhancement activities (Sarouphim, 2009). The major cause for this lack of proper education for the GT in Lebanon is that the educational body lacks the basic understanding of what GT is. Moreover, the procedures for identifying, referring and assessing GT learners are not well-known nor easily available. Hence, it becomes imperative to come up with such tools and prepare the educational body for such a task. The aim of this paper is to share LWIS-City International School-DT (LWIS-CiS) experience in designing and developing a comprehensive system for the GT. Based on the findings of the literature review and LWIS-CiS personal experience, this paper describes the 3 phases of developing and implementing the GT program. Phase 1: the creation and administration of the Activity Hour, in which all leaners (gifted or not) participate in activities that would build their critical thinking skills and creativity. Phase 2: the training of teachers to identify and refer gifted learners for formal assessment. This phase also prepares and endows teachers with skills and strategies they can use in their regular classrooms. Phase 3: developing personalized action plans for the identified gifted learners. This program can later be adopted in all Lebanese schools-private and public.

English language has become a cosmopolitan language. It is the lingua franca of the 21st century. This fact has turned learning the language to a must since it is the international language of communication. As teachers of English for more than 20 years, we have come to realize that to be successful in class, we need to learn and use English as a tool that helps us access information from other cultures and be able to transfer this knowledge and skill to our learners. We also need to provide our learners with enough exposure to English as used in context. However, this is not enough to turn our learners into 21st century citizens of the world. We need to help them become critical thinkers. This has become even harder with the move to online learning due to COVID 19 pandemic. This paper aims at exploring the perceptions of English language instructors in four local Lebanese universities regarding 21st-century critical thinking skills and the instructors' abilities to promote such skills in their classes. Twenty-seven teachers filled a questionnaire, and five participants were interviewed. Descriptive data were analyzed. The data revealed the perceptions and practices of these instructors. The study concludes with recommendations.

Bullying is a dangerous phenomenon because it is a continuous act that causes problems at school, university and even at work. Bullying comes in different forms; and one way of addressing this phenomenon has been through mediation programs that aim for student-peer mediation and that create a safe environments at schools. This present study investigated teachers’ perceptions of teachers being bullied by their superiors or having witnessing other teachers being bullied. It also investigates whether teachers believed measures against bullying were taken on the part of management. 154 professionals participated in the study. According to the surveyed teachers, their superiors don’t bully them. The data gathered indicated that these superiors do not humiliate them in public nor in private. Very few teachers admitted to being humiliated by their superiors (between 6% and 24%). Moreover, some teachers in Lebanon experience bullying and that female superiors were more prone to ...

Bullying is a dangerous phenomenon because it is a continuous act that causes problems at school, university and even at work. Bullying comes in different forms; and one way of addressing this phenomenon has been through mediation programs that aim for student-peer mediation and that create a safe environments at schools. This present study investigated teachers' perceptions of teachers being bullied by their superiors or having witnessing other teachers being bullied. It also investigates whether teachers believed measures against bullying were taken on the part of management. 154 professionals participated in the study. According to the surveyed teachers, their superiors don't bully them. The data gathered indicated that these superiors do not humiliate them in public nor in private. Very few teachers admitted to being humiliated by their superiors (between 6% and 24%). Moreover, some teachers in Lebanon experience bullying and that female superiors were more prone to be the bullies and not much is being done regarding addressing the issue of bullying. An alarming finding is the fact that one teacher admitted to solving bullying incidents through beating the bully. The study reveals that mediation should be implemented in Lebanese schools to teachers as well.

When it comes to business ethics, views diverge and conflict. There are those who believe that ethics can’t be taught but is rather a development, such as Aristotle; and there are those who like Socrates, believe that ethics is knowing what we ought to do, and therefore this knowledge can be learned. In the Lebanese society that faces ethical crises, ethical education becomes important. When business students are taught that “business is business” and business deals are “not a matter of ethics, but of business” in class, it becomes difficult to show them that “good ethics, is good business”. In such conditions ethical education becomes imperative. Teaching ethics means that one believes that people can change, that ethical behavior can be taught. However, is this applicable? Can we teach Hitler or Bernard Madoff ethics or as Orwin (2009) implies “Can we teach pigs to fly?” This paper investigated the effects of learning business ethics on various Lebanese university students who have successfully completed the course’s objectives. The participants were the researcher’s students in two local universities, which caused limitations of the results for they couldn’t be generalized. The results revealed that ethics course(s) did positively affect the students’ behavior.

Lebanon is one of the smallest countries in the world where programs for the gifted and talented (GT) do not officially exist. There are some attempts to accommodate for the GT in various private schools that cater for learners from high socioeconomic status. These schools offer some enrichment programs and differentiated instruction/activities to high-achieving learners. The programs presented are attempts to nurture the talent and ability of learners with total grade average above 85/100 by providing these learners with a variety of enhancement activities (Sarouphim, 2009). The major cause for this lack of proper education for the GT in Lebanon is that the educational body lacks the basic understanding of what GT is. Moreover, the procedures for identifying, referring and assessing GT learners are not well-known nor easily available. Hence, it becomes imperative to come up with such tools and prepare the educational body for such a task. The aim of this paper is to share LWIS-City International School-DT (LWIS-CiS) experience in designing and developing a comprehensive system for the GT. Based on the findings of the literature review and LWIS-CiS personal experience, this paper describes the 3 phases of developing and implementing the GT program. Phase 1: the creation and administration of the Activity Hour, in which all leaners (gifted or not) participate in activities that would build their critical thinking skills and creativity. Phase 2: the training of teachers to identify and refer gifted learners for formal assessment. This phase also prepares and endows teachers with skills and strategies they can use in their regular classrooms. Phase 3: developing personalized action plans for the identified gifted learners. This program can later be adopted in all Lebanese schools-private and public.

Recent research has indicated that people can learn ethics and that in their 20s & 30s develop new ethical values and utilize them in their basic problem-solving (Rest as summarized by Velasquez, Andre, Shanks & Mayer, 2012). Yet, concern with ethical behavior in business at the undergraduate and graduate level has grown sharply and has been a point of discussion in the past few years. Although some universities have tried to integrate business ethics courses in the curriculum, but they were not able to implement and empower this issue in an effective way. However, some people argue that trying to teach ethics at the college level comes far too late because ethics are taught through one's upbringing under the influence of one's family and peers. The case of Lebanon is not an exception. The purpose of this paper is to establish functional administrative management reforms in favor of teaching ethics and moral responsibilities in students and their communities. This reform should be based on international standards and cultural considerations. This paper argues that fostering ethics education at universities starts with re-establishing course content, instructional method and to question what is and what is not, what practices have to be developed, and what skills have to be acquired. The main intent of this particular intervention program is to determine if ethics education and discussion had a measurable impact on people's perceptions and whether teaching what is acceptable and what is not acceptable can be combined with preventive measures to create a positive environment encouraging collaborative partnership with constructive ramification towards management of ethical behavior in appropriate and innovative way in the community

This study investigates the attitude of the engineering students towards learning technical English for academic purposes and workplace. The paper analyzes the students' motivation for learning technical English and explores if academic standard and academic level have a role in motivating students to learn. The study particularly analyzes the source of their motivation: did the students put effort to learn technical English to maintain a high GPA or are they powered by their personal motivation? The study sample consisted of the technical writing engineering students in Summer I & II 2013 and Summer II 2014 in a local Lebanese university. A questionnaire to test their attitudes and motivation was developed, and used after piloting, as the instrument for data collection. Focused group interviews with each group to triangulate the findings were also conducted. Findings reveal that the participants of high academic standard have positive attitude towards technical English and believe it will further their s...

Current research on gifted and talented defines giftedness based on Gardner’s (1993) and Gangne’s (1985) and Sternberg and Davidson’s (1986) multiple qualities, since IQ scores are no longer seen as the sole measurement of gifted qualities. Moreover, this research has revealed that gifted and talented children are very diverse. There are some who have an ability in just one domain while others in more than one. There are those who have advanced leadership skills while others are at a more psychological risk than their peers and might suffer from social isolation. No matter what their abilities are, these learners require special needs at schools, such as “instructional curriculum and teacher behaviors” (Reis & Renzulli, 2004, p 119). A learner is considered gifted when s/he “performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment" (The Texas Education Code, 1997 as cited b...

Teaching Business English (L2) for target learners whose L1 is Arabic requires certain procedures. Instructors must address problems that their Arabic learners will probably face in acquiring Business communication in L2. This paper will discuss the major problems that learners whose L1 is Arabic face in learning Business English which is L2 and what the role of the instructor is in guiding the learners to overcome these obstacles and acquire the desired skills. Instructors need to address the four problems that their Arab learners are probably going to encounter. These problems are: 1) negative transfer; 2) the difference in writing strategies; 3) prepositional knowledge; and 4) collocational patterns. Thus, instructors have to teach the learners to overcome negative transfer, include practices that guide the learners to overcome the differences in strategies of business communication that exist between L1 and L2 and address the cultural differences between the two main languages.

Lebanon is one of the smallest countries in the world where programs for the gifted and talented (GT) do not officially exist. There are some attempts to accommodate for the GT in various private schools that cater for learners from high socioeconomic status. These schools offer some enrichment programs and differentiated instruction/activities to high-achieving learners. The programs presented are attempts to nurture the talent and ability of learners with total grade average above 85/100 by providing these learners with a variety of enhancement activities (Sarouphim, 2009). The major cause for this lack of proper education for the GT in Lebanon is that the educational body lacks the basic understanding of what GT is. Moreover, the procedures for identifying, referring and assessing GT learners are not well-known nor easily available. Hence, it becomes imperative to come up with such tools and prepare the educational body for such a task. The aim of this paper is to share LWIS-City International School-DT (LWIS-CiS) experience in designing and developing a comprehensive system for the GT. Based on the findings of the literature review and LWIS-CiS personal experience, this paper describes the 3 phases of developing and implementing the GT program. Phase 1: the creation and administration of the Activity Hour, in which all leaners (gifted or not) participate in activities that would build their critical thinking skills and creativity. Phase 2: the training of teachers to identify and refer gifted learners for formal assessment. This phase also prepares and endows teachers with skills and strategies they can use in their regular classrooms. Phase 3: developing personalized action plans for the identified gifted learners. This program can later be adopted in all Lebanese schools-private and public.

The diversity of the 21st-century classroom creates several difficulties for teachers who most probably did not encounter such multiplicity as students. The practice of differentiating instruction helps teachers address the required standards, yet be able to respond to their learners' needs. Differentiation permits teachers to focus on important skills in each content area while at the same time be attentive to their learners' individual differences. It also helps them integrate assessment into their instruction, and provide their learners with multiple opportunities to learning. The result is a classroom where all learners acquire knowledge. Differentiated Instruction "is a model of instruction that revolves around the belief that students learn in many different ways" (Verde, 2004). It "provides materials and tasks at varied levels of difficulty with varying degrees of scaffolding, through multiple instructional groups; encourages student success by varying ways in which students work alone or collaboratively, in auditory or visual modes, or through practical or creative means" (Tomlinson, 2000). At CiS, we differentiate our instruction because we can maximize our learners' growth by meeting them at the level they are and helping them progress. In our classes we use technology since we believe that it helps us meet the needs of our learners in every lesson we give since technology assists us in pacing lessons for each of our student's learning level. However, it's important to know how to successfully assimilate technology into our instruction. The most vital principle of technology integration is that we need to focus on the outcome of the instruction, and not technology itself (Gibson, 1977). We only use technology to help facilitate our students' learning process for it allows changes in the lessons in terms of content, channels of input and the means of output. Moreover, through technology, our classes become a great stage for cooperative learning. Tools such as Comic Creator, Character Trading Cards, Acrostic Poems, Cube Creator and sites such as Podcasts, Webcams, Discovery School and iLearn are used in most classes at CiS to enhance learners' experiences. In this paper I will share the LWIS-CiS-DT's experience in using technology to advance learning using differentiated instruction.

Current research on gifted and talented defines giftedness based on Gardner's (1993) and Gangne's (1985) and Sternberg and Davidson's (1986) multiple qualities, since IQ scores are no longer seen as the sole measurement of gifted qualities. Moreover, this research has revealed that gifted and talented children are very diverse. There are some who have an ability in just one domain while others in more than one. There are those who have advanced leadership skills while others are at a more psychological risk than their peers and might suffer from social isolation. No matter what their abilities are, these learners require special needs at schools, such as ―instructional curriculum and teacher behaviors‖ (Reis & Renzulli, 2004, p 119). A learner is considered gifted when s/he ―performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment" (The Texas Education Code, 1997 as cited by TAGT, 2016). There have been some attempts of catering for gifted learners in Lebanon by some private schools; yet, there are no official records of these programs nor have these programs been evaluated for their efficiency. One of the major causes for this lack of efficient education for the gifted population in Lebanon is that most of the educational body lacks the basic understanding of what gifted is. Furthermore, the procedures for identifying, referring and assessing gifted learners are not well-known nor easily available. How can teachers cater for their gifted learners when these teachers might not know that their learners are gifted? The aim of this paper is threefold it is to share: 1. LWIS-City International School-DT (LWIS-CiS) experience in training and preparing teachers to accommodate their classes for gifted learners.  Characteristics of gifted children  Differentiated Instruction  Individualized Plans 2. The program for the gifted and talented that was developed during the scholastic year 2015-2016. The program was based on theoretical grounds stemmed from the literature. Through this program, teachers are more able to identify gifted learners and refer them for formal assessment. 3. The assessment procedure and tools

Nowadays, education is no longer to provide information to students, but rather to prepare learners to become active 21st Century critical thinkers (UNESCO, 1998). The need to communicate is instinctive (Stegmaier, 2011) and from this instinctive need, language developed (Pinker, 1996). Language supports and enhances our thinking and understanding for it permeates the world in which we live. It also plays a vital role in the construction of meaning. Language empowers learners and provides them with an intellectual framework to support their conceptual development and critical thinking. To acquire language, learning through inquiry has emerged as a means that allows for smoother and more effective communication. Teaching language through inquiry is becoming more prevalent. More specifically, teaching English as a second language, language or literature, using inquiry based method facilitates the learners' ability of acquiring the new language. To carry out this ongoing research, data have been collected from language and literature tests that learners sat for after having followed strategies that incorporate inquiry-based techniques. The tests have been designed by the teachers and were carried out during the scholastic year to assess the learners' acquisition of material. The participants are the learners of Grades 10-levels 1 and 5 in the school where the researchers teach. The researchers hypothesized that the participants' performances and their critical thinking skills will improve. The results proved the hypothesis. The researchers recommend that the method be incorporated in literature classrooms.

This study investigates the attitude of the engineering students towards learning technical English
for academic purposes and workplace. The paper analyzes the students’ motivation for learning
technical English and explores if academic standard and academic level have a role in motivating
students to learn. The study particularly analyzes the source of their motivation: did the students put
effort to learn technical English to maintain a high GPA or are they powered by their personal
motivation? The study sample consisted of the technical writing engineering students in Summer I & II
2013 and Summer II 2014 in a local Lebanese university. A questionnaire to test their attitudes and
motivation was developed, and used after piloting, as the instrument for data collection. Focused
group interviews with each group to triangulate the findings were also conducted. Findings reveal
that the participants of high academic standard have positive attitude towards technical English and
believe it will further their status and employment chances while students of weak academic standard
would rather learn English only as a means for communication (ELF). This becomes possible since
ELF focuses on the function of the language- i.e. communicating the message across instead of
stressing on accurate structure (Cogo, 2010). In this manner, students become users of the English
language, not learners of the language. Proponents of ELF consider ELF speakers as users of English
rather than learners (Bjo¨rkman, 2011). Moreover, results reveal that there was a minor difference of
attitude among the participants with respect to academic level.

When it comes to business ethics, views diverge and conflict. There are those who believe that ethics can’t be taught but is rather a development, such as Aristotle; and there are those who like Socrates, believe that ethics is knowing what we ought to do, and therefore this knowledge can be learned. In the Lebanese society that faces ethical crises, ethical education becomes important. When business students are taught that “business is business” and business deals are “not a matter of ethics, but of business” in class, it becomes difficult to show them that “good ethics, is good business”. In such conditions ethical education becomes imperative. Teaching ethics means that one believes that people can change, that ethical behavior can be taught. However, is this applicable? Can we teach Hitler or Bernard Madoff ethics or as Orwin (2009) implies “Can we teach pigs to fly?” This paper investigated the effects of learning business ethics on various Lebanese university students who have successfully completed the course’s objectives. The participants were the researcher’s students in two local universities, which caused limitations of the results for they couldn’t be generalized. The results revealed that ethics course(s) did positively affect the students’ behavior. 

Key Words:  business, ethics, education, influence, university students, attitude.

Pursuing a PhD at the Lebanese University (LU) is very demanding and as a candidate, the researcher is facing a lot of obstacles due to the program’s lack of clear criteria and transparent process which constitute two of the criteria of a good program. To investigate if a PhD program follows internationally acceptable standards, assessors should look into several other factors such as research skilled courses, core courses, qualified faculty and facilities and research methods provided for the candidates (Sanders, 2012; Pre-Grad program, 2013).
This study investigated the PhD program at the Doctorate School of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lebanese University from the perspective of the PhD candidates and highlighted the problems the program faces due to the lack of definite criteria and program assessment. A questionnaire was distributed to the PhD candidates and informal interviews were conducted to collect the data. The researcher used the analysis of literature review to base her evaluation of the program. The study reveals that the PhD program lacks clear criteria and faces problems such as preparing adequate researchers and providing research related courses. Recommendations were provided in the end.

Keywords: Graduate Program, Evaluation, Lebanese University, Doctorate School of Literature, Humanities & Social Sciences, Criteria, Degree Requirements