Background
The Validation is designed to gather evidence from across Saudi Arabia that reflects the views and aspirations of classroom teachers and key education stakeholders. Significantly, the construct of building the standards is established empirically by taking into account teacher perceptions, experiences and accounts of their own development and of the nature of their work.
The research design involves a developmental approach using tools and techniques designed to be contextually relevant to Saudi Arabia and the needs of its teachers. The result of this process is a robust, psychometrically sound and contextually relevant final set of national professional standards that have been built in collaboration and cooperation with the profession.
The research consists of a number of related studies. These share quantitative and qualitative methodologies built around a series of national surveys and data collection activities undertaken in regional workshops conducted across the country. The data collection activities are scheduled at critical periods throughout the validation process. Advanced statistical techniques that have been used by SiMERR in previous large-scale international research on teacher professional standards are employed. Overall, 10,376 educators directly participated in the validation and in total, over 27,000 educators contributed to the development of the teacher standards.