Curriculum and Instruction Research Trends ‎Published in Refereed Arabic Journals and their ‎Research Gaps

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying curriculum and instruction research trends published ‎in referred Arabic journals and their research gaps during the period between (2010 – 2019). ‎The descriptive and analytical method to achieve the research objectives through the content ‎analysis form was utilized.  The research sample was selected in a simple random manner, ‎and consisted of (1278) research in six refereed journals from six Arab countries. The ‎research results revealed that the research trends were represented in two main domains: ‎curriculum components and academic achievement. Besides, there are other seven sub-‎domains: teaching strategies, cognitive objectives, thinking theories, psychomotor ‎objectives, teaching techniques, content, and instructional programs‎‏.‏‎ In addition, the results ‎showed that there are four research gaps in the main domains out of six, and they are: ‎curricula and education, teacher, programs, and theories‏.‏‎ There are also differences in the ‎trends of curriculum and instruction research due to the  journal and the publication year ‎variables. The percentage of its publication to the total publication of the educational ‎research was (29.27%), and most of the curriculum and instruction studies are carried out by ‎one researcher with a percentage of (54.90%). The results also showed that there were (21) ‎research gaps in the sub-areas in ascending order as follows: curriculum theories, ‎curriculum types, curriculum foundations, curriculum organizations, objectives, curriculum ‎development, learning theories, enrichment programs, knowledge theories, educational ‎environment, quality of education, instructional activities, teacher education, curriculum ‎evaluation, affective achievement, education problems, student assessment, intelligence