Science education research in Oman: Opportunities, trends, and challenges

The aim of the current chapter is to give the reader an overview of the opportunities, trends, and challenges related to science education research in Oman. The chapter starts by describing the contextual background focusing on the Omani educational system, the field of science education in the country, and the research activities and related funding systems. The chapter admits that science education research in Oman has a short history. It gained momentum in 2000 with the establishment of the first postgraduate program at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). On the other hand, there are different opportunities for science education research to prosper. Among these are the different funding systems by The Research Council (TRC) and SQU; and the establishment of a new SQU Ph.D. program in science education. Also, the diverse nature of the country provides a considerable number of underresearched issues related to science learning. The main trends in science education research in Oman are its tendency toward the quantitative school of research, its focus on exploring and implementing modern science teaching methodologies, and its equal engagement of male and female students as research participants. However, there is limited focus on lower school grade levels, private schools, and sociocultural factors. There are a number of challenges facing science education research in Oman. The main one is the limited number of science education researchers in the country. Also, the number of female researchers is very low. The author proposes that some of the pitfalls and challenges that face science education research in Oman could be resolved by establishing a national science education research center that coordinates the research efforts and directs them toward the most pressing issues related to science teaching and learning. In addition, providing more scholarships to science education researchers to complete their PhDs and founding a national professional science education research association could help in increasing the number of science education researchers and foster the research activities in the country.