210
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.21
How to Cite:
Alnabulsi, M.M. (2022). Al-Jouf educational supervisors perceptions about handheld devices’ importance in health education
concepts’ acquisition to students. Amazonia Investiga, 11(56), 210-223. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.21
Al-Jouf educational supervisors perceptions about handheld devices’
importance in health education concepts’ acquisition to students

Received: August 23, 2022 Accepted: October 27, 2022
Written by:
Mishal Mohammed Alnabulsi90
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6413-3476
Abstract
The study aimed to find out the educational
supervisors' perceptions about the importance of
handheld devices in acquiring health education
concepts by school students in Al-Jouf region,
KSA. A descriptive approach and a questionnaire
were applied on random educational supervisors
sample. The study’s results concluded that the
school students’ most important health concepts
are "health" and "diet", that the handheld devices
are of great importance in acquiring health
education concepts, the students’ great
challenges and absence of statistically significant
differences in the questionnaire both dimensions
at (α≤0.05) attributed to the study variables
(gender, educational administration,
experiences).
Keywords: Handheld devices, Health concepts,
Educational supervisors.
Introduction
KSA 2030 Vision’s technology leap increased
students’ use of handheld devices in education.
KSA rushed to transformto digital remote
education during COVID-19 pandemic period, to
protect students from contracting diseases and
maintain their health. Ottawa Declaration
stressed that health is a daily resource that meets
individual’s needs, helps them realizing their
ambitions, and is a positive concept emphasizing
social and personal resources and physical
capacities (WHO, 2012, p. 6). Health is
indispensable human right, hence the states are
responsible for caring for health education of all
society’s classes, spreading health awareness,
and making use of handheld devices in that
90
Dr. Assistant Professor of Education Techniques, Department of Curriculum and Teaching Techniques Faculty of Education and
Literature, Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia.
(Al-Kinani & Al-Dujaili, 2018, p. 13).
Technology and digital skills intervened in all
life’s activities, through developing many
suitable digital applications. The importance of
learning health education concepts is attributed
to its being as important means for improving
human life and health, changing individuals’
unhealthy trends and behaviors, improving
health level, increasing health awareness’s and
improving life’ quality (Al-Kinani & Al-Dujaili,
2018).
The scientific problem is to study the importance
of handheld devices in acquiring school students
with health education concepts, and the most
Alnabulsi, M.M. / Volume 11 - Issue 56: 210-223 / August, 2022
Volume 11 - Issue 56
/ August 2022
211
https://www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
important health concepts for students, and the
challenges facing students' use of hand devices in
acquiring health concepts. The research
highlights about handheld devices’ importance in
health education concepts acquisition to
students from educational supervisors' point of
view, and statistically differences of sample
responses about each reality challenges
according to gender, educational administration,
and experience. Therefore, the priority tasks of
schools in the present time is to develop student's
ability to use handheld devices in acquiring
health education concepts according to their
needs.
Statistics of “Communication and Information
Technology Commission 2020” indicate that the
average data consumption per capita in KSA is
920 megabytes, equivalent approximately to
triple global average. Some studies indicate to
shortcomings in health concepts in KSA different
educational stages curricula, Abu-Hula &
Al-Balawi, (2006). Ben-Amrouche & Saker,
(2020) recommends the necessity of developing
health awareness methods through applying and
spreading of new media and handheld devices.
Al-Qaisi et al., (2021) points to the internet
cultural content diversity. (Ben-Amrouche &
Saker (2020) said that 50% of internet users
believe in the internet significant impact on their
health problems’ understanding and 44% have
improved their relationship with doctors thanks
to internet. Bin-Safi (2019) showed that handheld
devices-internet changed individuals' tastes of
home-cooked meals, and opinions on fast-food-
obesity relationship Educating students about
health concepts makes them aware of their health
and healthy behaviors, which enhance their
school excellence, Al-Zakari, (2007), and urge
them to adhere to sound health practices to
reduce diseases’ spread. The WHO strives to
raise health education level worldwide, Badah, et
al., (2014)
School students’ engagement with handheld
devices, passion for digital world, long hours
spent on internet are obvious. Students’ acquired
distance learning experience during Covid-19
pandemic contributed in that. The author noted
through his observations at schools' student's
strong attachment with handheld devices,
integration with virtual world, reluctance to
engage in collective dynamic activities, and
scarcity of direct discussions. Hence the
importance of health education concepts for
students, and their role in reaching health and
physical fitness indicators, Al-Ameen, (2020),
motivated the author to benefit from this
phenomenon for defining its important role in
providing students with health education’
concepts.
The main question of study problem is: What are
the educational supervisors’ perceptions in
Al-Jouf region in KSA about handheld devices
importance in acquiring school students with
health education concepts
Accordingly, four subquestions emerged from it
1. What are the public education student’s most
important health concepts acquirable
through handheld devices from educational
supervisors’ opinions
2. What are the educational supervisors’ real
perceptions about handheld devices’
importance in school students’ real
acquiring health education concepts
3. What are school students’ challenges in
using handheld devices in acquiring health
education’ concepts from educational
supervisors’ opinions?
4. What are the statistically differences of
sample responses about each reality
challenges in respect to study variables
(gender, educational administration,
experience)?
The study aimed to know the educational
supervisors’ perceptions about handheld devices’
importance in acquiring health education
concepts by school students.
It stems from the school student’s dependence on
handheld devices to get desired information.
The study theoretical importance comes from its
handling this present and future important topic.
While its practical importance comes from its
contribution in enriching knowledge relevant to
the curricula, and becoming more compatible
with digital age to realize KSA 2030 vision.
Objective limitations are defined by handheld
devices importance in school students’
acquisition of health education concepts. Human
limits are education departments’ educational
supervisors. Spatial limits are Al-Jouf region,
KSA, (Sakakah, Dumat Al-Jandal, Tabarjal and
Sweir).
Research Terminology
Handheld devices: “Portable electronic devices
usable in education (mobiles, internet-accessed
iPads, using an accredited operating system”
(Al-Omari & Al-Momni, 2010, p. 2).
212
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
Health Concepts: “information set, facts and
ideas relevant to positive state of physical,
psychological, mental, social, personal,
environmental, and preventive safety and
adequacy included in the curriculum, and
suitable for students’ age and contemporary
developments” (Saleh et al., 2016, p. 1215).
The author defines procedurally health culture
concepts as information and facts that deal with
healthy learning experiences significant to
students and aim to prevent them from
contracting diseases and enhance their voluntary
commitment to healthy behavior that limits the
infection’s spread
Theoretical framework and previous studies
The research triggered off the "social
responsibility" theory, which focused on media
social responsibility, entrusted roles and ability
to influence the public (Murad, 2014). The
theory’ intellectual principles are based on their
meeting the public rapid needs and self-
adherence to the society moral codes. It emerged
in the American society through the Hutchins
Committee, 1947" report titled “Free and
Responsible Press”, which referred to media
trespasses’ damages to society. The author chose
this theory to support his research, due to its
relation to his topic; since awareness and
education of the society’s rights is a social media
responsibility, as traditional and modern media
became effective tools in influencing societies
and individuals’ life
All governments including KSA’s, paid great
attention to health. KSA 2030 vision focused on
strengthening health education of society
members, upgrading health services, and using
all modern means to spread health awareness.
The modern media impact on individuals
behavior is known (Najmi, 2020), as modern
technology plays important role in societies and
individuals’ life, which increased in parallel to
sophisticated handheld electronic devices spread
among students, after transition to e-learning
during COVID-19 pandemic. This spread
increased students’ internet spent time making
handheld devices an essential element in
educational process and an integral part of the
societies and individuals’ life (Al-Zayoud, 2020).
Electronic content has helped increase student
achievement joyfully and making learning more
interactive (Kapilas & Sreedevi, 2022)
Some studies pointed to social media networks’
role in exchanging instant conversations, videos
and audios (Al-Hawari & Maarouf, 2021),
interaction using handheld devices, such as
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Al-Awfi,
2012) limitless geographically, and to develop
students' healthy medical education (Jadoun &
Ghadban, 2022). Modern health awareness
policies rely on integrating social media
networks electronic platforms, to facilitate health
organizations to digitally manage educational
materials, interact their with users and keep them
attached to their handhelds devices due to
increasing attraction and importance to health
sectors in educational programs (Al-Faram,
2016)
Handheld devices have some advantages, such as
instant interaction, discussion and exchanging
views on health issues, displaying images and
video clips, strengthening individual’s
particularity, high storage and archiving
capacity, rapid information retrieval, mass
influence (Jadoun & Ghadban, 2022), meeting
educational and cultural students’ needs and
increasing their knowledge (How & Hung,
2019).
Al-Zayoud (2020) mentioned some
disadvantages of using handheld devices such
social isolation, weak personal skills and learning
undesirable things. Al-Nabulsi (2021) mentioned
internet addiction, electronic bullying, and
intellectual property violation, lack of physical
activity and sleep disturbances
WHO used “Health Awareness” as a
synonymous for “health education” which
defines as “educational processes, through which
health concepts, trends and behavior of
individuals are changed to prevent diseases,
preserve and improve health” (Al-Hefnawy,
2014, p. 134). “Health culturing” is used as
synonym for “health education”, for
communicating information and skills process
necessary for individuals to practice their life,
and enhance some of their behaviors, which are
reflected on society’s and own health (Ben-
Amrouche & Saker, 2020), by using medical
posters, video clips, awareness lectures, and
electronic health information exchange through
internet-accessable and navigable handheld
devices, playing an important role in creating and
changing behaviors and values (Zawi, 2020)
Health education is reflected on individual's
health awareness level, as a behavior’s drive
through intended practicing healthy behaviors,
then practicing is transformed into
unconscious habits (Najmi, 2020). Health
culturing occurs slowly and gradually (Qaim,
2016). Current health care industry age has
Volume 11 - Issue 56
/ August 2022
213
https://www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
witnessed great progress in line with artificial
intelligence and robotics, helping hospitals to
gain competitive advantages, in remotely
following up patients, answering their inquiries,
and satisfying their medical needs by automating
medical processes, and transforming to
intelligent robotic hospital, preserving
punctuality and speed (Pavithra & Afza, 2022).
Literatures studies can be divided in two
domains
First: Studies dealt with health concepts.
(Al-Sulaimani, 2008) aimed to identify health
concepts to be incorporated in KSA elementary
schools' curricula while (Eslim, 2010) identified
health concepts in secondary schools and
(Al-Shehri, 2018) exposed health education
standards in first intermediate grade. (Al-Tweissi
& Al-Shawish, 2013) reveal the health concepts
in Jordan sixth and seventh grades while
(Al-Fakir et al., 2014) dealt with health culture
concepts in geography curricula and (Saleh et al.,
2016) uncover health concepts in
vocational education and (Al-Khazaali, 2018)
tackled health concepts lower basic stage
curriculum. (Taabali et al., 2017) revealed health
concepts in primary school curricula in Algeria.
Second: Studies dealt with electronic devices and
health education: (Al-Sulaiman, 2016) identified
the effectiveness of a suggested computer
program in providing fourth-grade students with
health education concepts. (Bin-Safi, 2019)
culture comparative study discussed health
anthropology and its impact on disease and
health care. (Zawi, 2020) examined the
relationship between modern media and creating
individuals’ cultural and social awareness. (Bin
Amrouch & Saker, 2020) identified the media
role in spreading health. (Al-Suhail, 2021)
tackled sports media role in raising individuals
healthy culture level during COVID-19
pandemic in Kuwait. (Al-Qaisi et al, 2021)
examined media role in spreading health
education among students and how to deal with
epidemiological crises. (Jadoun & Ghadban,
2022) handled Facebook’s contribution to
awareness health during COVID-19 pandemic
through analyzing Algerian Health Ministry
webpage. (Ghaffary et al., 2022) inspected the
viewpoint of a doctor using wireless devices in
intensive care units IP, Phone, Pager and wireless
monitoring, and the possibility of assessing an
intensive care unit patient’s condition without
visiting him, and accessing to patient's file via
internet
Current study tackled the importance of handheld
devices in acquiring school students 'health
education concepts while none of the reviewed
studies did that, giving the current study a
distinctive scientific importance, and
distinguishes itself from them. It differentiated
from previous studies in subject, study sample,
and tool in order to bridge this research gap, and
to stress the importance of its execution
Methodology and Procedures
The study used the descriptive approach to deal
with a study population consisted of all
educational supervisors in Al-Jouf region
(Sakakah, Dumat Al-Jandal, Tabarjal, Sweir
administrations), table (1).
Table 1.
Study population
Population
Phras /Administration
%
Total
Female
Male
41.57
106
63
43
Sakakah
24.31
62
35
27
Dumat Al-Jandal
20.79
53
24
29
Tabarjal
13.33
34
16
18
Sweir
100.00
255
138
117
Total
Source: Al-Jouf region education department’s statistics, 2022
To calculate the sample size, (Thompson, 2012)
equation was used, where the sample was (153)
individuals. The researcher obtained (157)
responses, with a (61.57%) of the (255)
population study chosen randomly, using an
electronic link to perform the questionnaire in the
period (4/9-30/9/2022)
Questionnaire
It based on five-point Likert scale, (5) fully
agree, (4) agree, (3) to somewhat, (2) disagree,
(1) absolutely disagree
214
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
Questionnaire Validity
The questionnaire's structural validity was
computed, by calculating the Internal
Consistency Coefficients between the score of
each phrase in each dimension and the total score
of the dimension measured, table (2).
Table 2.
Internal Correlation Coefficients (R)
Dimension (3)
Dimension (2)
Dimension (1)
R.
No.
R.
No.
R.
No.
R.
No.
R.
No
R.
No.
0.576**
46
0.286**
37
0.478**
28
0.426**
19
0.615**
10
0.579**
1
0.388**
47
0.655**
38
0.485**
29
0.440**
20
0.527**
11
0.597**
2
0.541**
48
0.511**
39
0.452**
30
0.335**
21
0.604**
12
0.622**
3
0.483**
49
0.570**
40
0.464**
31
0.468**
22
0.542**
13
0.635**
4
0.572**
50
0.511**
41
0.467**
32
0.462**
23
0.609**
14
0.540**
5
0.435**
51
0.527**
42
0.388**
33
0.394**
24
0.525**
15
0.611**
6
0.435**
52
0.549**
43
0.434**
34
0.379**
25
0.471**
16
0.601**
7
0.345**
53
0.612**
44
0.469**
35
0.568**
26
0.418**
17
0.567**
8
-
-
0.504**
45
0.339**
36
0.419**
27
0.464**
18
0.608**
9
(**significance at 0.01)
Table (3) shows the internal correlation coefficients of each dimension and the total score of the
questionnaire.
Table 3.
Internal Correlation Coefficients (R)
R.
Dimensions
0.680**
Most important health concepts of interest to school students
0.722**
Importance of handheld devices in school students' acquisition of health education
concepts
0.709**
Challenges of school students' use of handheld devices in acquisition of health
education concepts
(**significance at 0.01)
Questionnaire Reliability
It was calculated using Cronbach's alpha
coefficient, and the split-half equation of
Spearman-Brown. Table (4) shows stability
parameter values.
Table 4.
Reliability Coefficients
Split-half reliability
Cronbach's alpha
Dimensions
0.77
0.87
Most important health concepts of interest to school
students
0.85
0.75
Importance of handheld devices in school students'
acquisition of health education concepts
0.81
0.82
Challenges of school students' use of handheld
devices in acquisition of health education concepts
0.69
0.86
Total questionnaire
Results and Discussion
The researcher converted the responses obtained
into numbers alternativeslimits according to the
questionnaire responses, table (5) limits of
questionnaire alternatives:
Volume 11 - Issue 56
/ August 2022
215
https://www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
Table 5.
Limits of questionnaire alternatives
Score
Limits
Score
Category
To less than
from
very large
5.00
4.20
5
fully agree
large
4.20
3.40
4
agree
medium
3.40
2.60
3
to some extent
little
2.60
1.80
2
don't agree
very little
1.80
1.00
1
absolutely disagree
Table (6) shows the distribution of the
educational supervisor's sample according to the variables (Gender, Administration &
Experiences).
Table 6.
Sample Variables & Categories
Total
%
Sample
Category
Variable
157
50.32
79
Male
Gender
49.68
78
Female
157
27.39
43
Sakakah
Administration
26.75
42
Dumat Al-Jandal
25.48
40
Tabarjal
20.38
32
Sweir
157
19.75
31
5
Experiences
19.11
30
5 >10
28.02
44
10 >15
33.12
52
15
Table (6) shows that the percentage of male is
higher than that of females, respondents from
Sakakah administration is the highest, and the
respondents with more than 15 years' experience is
the highest Perhaps this is due to the influence of
the experience factor on the response, and their
desire to benefit from their expertise in scientific
research
The author answered the study four subquestions as
follows:
First subquestion: What are the public education
student’s most important health concepts acquirable
through handheld devices from educational
supervisors’ opinions? Table (7) shows the means
and ranking of the of the most important health
concepts of school students according to
educational supervisors' perceptions:
Table 7.
Means and Ranking of Most Important Health Concepts
Ranking
Means
Health Concepts
1
4.26
Health Care
8
3.86
Psychological health
3
4.04
Disease protection
5
3.98
Medical Examination
4
4.03
Medical treatment
5
3.98
Healthy behavior
2
4.08
Healthy diet
7
3.92
Vaccination against diseases
5
3.98
Fitness
10
3.75
Immunity
12
3.70
Delusion of illness
9
3.80
Affliction
6
3.95
Infection
11
3.73
Obesity