Staff profile

Abdullah is a doctoral student at the School of Education at Durham University, funded by the Saudi Ministry of Education. He is supervised by Professor Nadin Beckmann and Professor Julie Rattray. Prior to his PhD, Abdullah completed his undergraduate degree in Islamic law at Qassim University and his master's in Education (Psychology) at the University of Dundee. He worked as a teacher from 2011-2013 and as a headteacher from 2014-2018.

His PhD research aims to longitudinally investigate the impact of non-intellective factors on learning outcomes in secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. In particular, he is interested in how personality changes over time and how these changes affect student wellbeing and achievement over time. He is particularly interested in psychological wellbeing and how it affects student learning outcomes. He hopes to develop a better understanding of how these non-intellective factors influence student performance and to explore how interventions such as mindfulness and psychological interventions can help improve student wellbeing and academic achievement.

• Advanced Quantitative Methods
• Child and Adolescent Development
• Emotional Intelligence
• Youth Psychology