Mapping the Landscape of Writing Instruction in New Zealand Primary School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parr, Judy M.; Jesson, Rebecca

2016-01-01

Writing instruction in New Zealand occurs in a context with potential for variability in curriculum and delivery. The national curriculum is broad; self governing schools are to interpret and apply as appropriate to their local context. There are no mandated tests, nor external examinations until the last three years of school. Schools report to…

The School Food Plan and the Social Context of Food in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart, Caroline Sarojini

2016-01-01

This paper explores the social context of food practices in primary schools in England based on research conducted in 2013-2014 as part of the Sheffield School Food Project. Drawing on the capability approach, and social quality theory, the theoretical framework informed a research methodology enabling exploration of ways in which food practices…

Primary School Leadership in England: Performativity and Matters of Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keddie, Amanda

2017-01-01

This article presents interview data from a study involving nine primary school leaders. Five are leaders of local authority schools while four are leaders of schools within a large academy chain. The article examines their perspectives about the current regimes of performativity in the English education context and, in particular, the…

Factors Influencing the Academic Achievement of the Turkish Urban Poor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engin-Demir, Cennet

2009-01-01

This study estimates the individual and combined effects of selected family, student and school characteristics on the academic achievement of poor, urban primary-school students in the Turkish context. Participants of the study consisted of 719 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade primary-school students from 23 schools in inner and outer city…

Primary Pupils' Use of Information and Communication Technologies at School and Home

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selwyn, Neil; Potter, John; Cranmer, Sue

2009-01-01

Based on survey data from 612 pupils in five English primary schools, this paper investigates children's engagement with information and communication technologies (ICTs) inside and outside the school context. Analysis of the data shows pupils' engagements with ICTs to be often perfunctory and unspectacular, especially within the school setting,…

The Directive Communication of Australian Primary School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Nobile, John

2015-01-01

Directive communication is a key leadership practise in schools. However, very little direct attention has been given to this important feature of the school communication system. The purpose of the research reported here was to produce a richer description of directive communication in the context of Australian primary schools, and in so doing,…

Augmenting Learning in an Out-of-School Context: The Cognitive and Affective Impact of Two Cryogenics-Based Enrichment Programmes on Upper Primary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caleon, Imelda S.; Subramaniam, R.

2007-01-01

Concepts learned in the classroom were reinforced and augmented by presenting them in a different context using cryogenics-based enrichment programmes (CBEPs) held in an out-of-school setting. The effectiveness of two CBEPs, which involve the use of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, was explored. Using a sample of 265 upper primary students, it…

Headteachers' Readings of and Responses to Disadvantaged Contexts: Evidence from English Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lupton, Ruth; Thrupp, Martin

2013-01-01

Existing research demonstrates the impact of context on school organisation and management, curriculum and pedagogy and on student peer relations. New developments in English education policy will devolve more responsibility for dealing with these issues to headteachers. Headteachers' readings of their contexts and the responses that they make are…

Moral and Democratic Education in Public Primary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veugelers, W.; Kat, E. De

In primary and secondary education in the Netherlands, 30% of the schools are public, and 70% are private. Both private and public schools are state funded and must follow the national curriculum. Within this context, schools can develop their own identities and teaching methods. With regard to the identity of public education in the Netherlands,…

Leading in Disadvantaged Zimbabwean School Contexts: Female School Heads' Experiences of Emotional Labour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zikhali, Joyce; Perumal, Juliet

2016-01-01

This qualitative multiple case study explored the sources of emotional stress experienced by 12 female Zimbabwean primary heads leading in socio-economic disadvantaged schools in Masvingo District and their attempts to alleviate the challenges that the children from these disadvantaged contexts presented them with. Data was generated through…

Mindfulness in Practice: Considerations for Implementation of Mindfulness-Based Programming for Adolescents in School Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawlor, Molly Steward

2014-01-01

Schools are considered one of the primary settings in which prevention and intervention initiatives can be implemented successfully, reaching a large number of young people. Especially when promoting social and emotional learning (SEL), many adolescents benefit from universal programs implemented in the school context. This chapter embeds…

The Challenges of Distributing Leadership in Irish Post-Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Donovan, Margaret

2015-01-01

This study explores the challenges and opportunities in relation to developing distributed leadership practice in Irish post-primary schools. It considers school leadership within the context of contemporary distributed leadership theory. Associated concepts such as distributed cognition and activity theory are used to frame the study. The study…

Teaching Physics to In-Service Primary School Teachers in the Context of the History of Science: The Case of Falling Bodies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kokkotas, Panos; Piliouras, Panagiotis; Malamitsa, Katerina; Stamoulis, Efthymios

2009-01-01

Our paper presents an in-service primary school teachers' training program which is based on the idea that the history of science can play a vital role in promoting the learning of physics. This training program has been developed in the context of Comenius 2.1 which is a European Union program. This program that we have developed in the…

"Girls Hit!" Constructing and Negotiating Violent African Femininities in a Working-Class Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhana, Deevia

2008-01-01

Whenever gender violence and schooling have been the topic of South African research, the investigations focus on African boys in secondary schools. In contrast, this paper focuses on the ways in which violence is mobilized by African schoolgirls in a working-class primary school context. By drawing on selected elements of an ethnographic study of…

Informality of Teaching and Learning in Nonformal Schools: Socio-Cultural Processes as Mesosystems of Student Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shohel, M. Mahruf C.; Howes, Andrew J.

2008-01-01

The flexible environment of nonformal primary schools in a community context in Bangladesh facilitates the individual development of young people who would otherwise be excluded from the school system. This paper aims to explore the features of institutional and wider context which support this nonformal learning environment, as well as…

Musical Behaviours of Primary School Children in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lum, Chee-Hoo

2009-01-01

In this ethnographic study, the musical behaviours of 28 primary school children in Singapore were examined for their meaning and diversity as they engaged in the school day. A large part of these children's musical behaviours stemmed from their exposure to the mass media. Children's musical inventions emerged in the context of play, occasionally…

Guidance Counselling as a Whole School Responsibility in the Irish Post Primary Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hearne, Lucy; Geary, Tom; Martin, Noelle

2017-01-01

This paper will deliberate upon the relevance of guidance counselling as a "whole school" responsibility in the context of recent policy and practice changes in the Irish post primary sector since the Government of Ireland Budget 2012. Pertinent issues including the complexities of delivering a whole school approach to guidance…

Conducting Museum Education Activities within the Context of Developing a Nature Culture in Primary School Students: MTA Natural History Museum Example

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dilli, Rukiye

2016-01-01

The present study, aiming to develop nature culture in primary school students and to help them to become acquainted with their close environment, is a quasi-experimental study. Museum education activities were conducted with the study group which consisted of 128 fourth-grade primary school students. At the end of the study, the students gained…

The Testimony of Neoliberal Contradiction in Education Choice and Privatisation in a Poor Country: The Case of a Private, Undocumented Rural Primary School in Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayengo, Nathaniel; Namusoke, Jane; Dennis, Barbara

2015-01-01

With international momentum to achieve "Education for All" by 2015, global attention is being paid to those parts of the world where mass formal primary schooling is relatively new. Uganda is such a place. In the context of ethnographic fieldwork at a poor, undocumented, private primary school in rural Uganda, parents were interviewed in…

Key Performance Indicators for Primary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strand, Steve

Focusing mostly on their application for primary schools, this document describes the educational key performance indicators (KPI) employed by the Wendsworth, England, Local Educational Authority (LEA). Indicators are divided into 3 areas, educational context, resource development, and outcomes. Contextual indicators include pupil mobility, home…

Immediacy and Distance in Teacher Talk--A Comparative Case Study in German Elementary- and Outdoor School-Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahrakhiz, Sarah

2017-01-01

This case study examines authentic speech acts by a German primary school teacher in the classroom context and the outdoor learning location of a forest. The study will compare the degree of linguistic immediacy or distance in these two contexts, respectively. Once a week, the class is doing "outdoor school" ["Draußenschule"]…

Writing in Context: Reluctant Writers and Their Writing at Home and at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Paul

2013-01-01

This study investigated the engagement with writing of reluctant writers in the contexts of home and school. A structured and semi-structured survey method was used to capture responses from 106 reluctant writers in 9 primary schools (age range 6--9 year olds) in the UK. Findings show that although these students were deemed to be reluctant…

Infrastructure Availability in the Public Sector Schools: A Case Study of Sindh Province

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mujahid, Nooreen; Noman, Muhammad

2015-01-01

This focus of this study is confined to primary and secondary education in Sindh province. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the facilities available at the primary and secondary schools especially within the context of rural and urban areas. This study investigates 48,865 Government schools in terms of efficient and well-organized…

A Deluge of Directives: Conflict between Collegiality and Managerialism in the Post-ERA Primary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Rosemary; Vulliamy, Graham

1996-01-01

Examines the impact of innovations associated with the Education Reform Act (England) on the management of school change in primary schools. Documents growing tensions between collegial and top-down managerial styles based on quantitative data. Discusses ways to reconcile the emphasis on cooperative working within the context of increased…

The Social, Physical and Temporal Characteristics of Primary School Dining Halls and Their Implications for Children's Eating Behaviours

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Sue N.; Murphy, Simon; Tapper, Katy; Moore, Laurence

2010-01-01

Purpose: Social, physical and temporal characteristics are known to influence the eating experience and the effectiveness of nutritional policies. As the school meal service features prominently in UK nutritional and health promotion policy, the paper's aim is to investigate the characteristics of the primary school dining context and their…

Considerations of Dance Transmission Processes: Adapting Bharata Natyam in a Singapore Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lum, Chee Hoo; Gonda, Donn Emmanuel

2014-01-01

This qualitative case study has, for its purpose, an examination of the pedagogies and practices of a master Bharata Natyam dance instructor working within a Singapore primary school context. It explores the instructor's adaptation within an after-school weekly activity of the South Indian traditional classical dance form. Considerations of dance…

Principals' Attitudes towards Risky Internet Use of Primary School Students: The Role of Occupational Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Touloupis, Thanos; Athanasiades, Christina

2018-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate primary school principals' attitudes towards risky internet use of school-aged students and how occupational factors, such as work self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and burnout, may affect these attitudes especially in a context of economic crisis, which has adversely affected working conditions and duties of…

Partnership Working in Small Rural Primary Schools: The Best of Both Worlds. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Robert

2014-01-01

The aim of the research was to investigate the most effective ways for small rural primary schools to work together in order to improve provision and raise standards. The project sought to examine the circumstances and context of small rural schools in Lincolnshire and evaluate their different leadership models (such as collaborations,…

Possibility Thinking and Social Change in Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craft, Anna Rachel; Chappell, Kerry Anne

2016-01-01

This paper reviews the nature of possibility thinking (PT) (transformation from what is to what might be, in everyday contexts for children and teachers) and reports on how PT manifested in two English primary schools engaged in social change. It identifies shared characteristics across the schools as well as unique ways in which PT manifested.…

How are Leaders Integrating the Ideology of Globalisation in Primary School Contexts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mistry, Malini; Sood, Krishan

2013-01-01

This study carried out research focusing on diverse learners, such as pupils who have English as additional language (EAL) in primary schools in the Midlands, England. Essentially, we wanted to know how they are supported to become global learners. Therefore, questions were posed to school leaders on their understanding of the concept of…

Understanding Middle Leaders: A Closer Look at Middle Leadership in Primary Schools in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heng, Mary Anne; Marsh, Colin J.

2009-01-01

What is the nature of middle leadership in primary schools? What are middle leaders' understanding and experiences in leading learning and teaching? Set against the policy context of decentralised centralism in Singapore and an emerging worldwide trend of decentralisation as a means to encourage school-based development and innovation, this study…

Children's Socialisation into Schools' Learning Contexts: Ability Grouping in the UK Primary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallam, Susan; Ireson, Judith; Mortimore, Peter; Davies, Jane

As the incidence of ability grouping at the primary level increases in the United Kingdom, questions remain regarding the effect of various grouping arrangements on students' personal and social development and the role of the school ethos in adopting particular ability grouping structures. This research explored the rationale given by primary…

Parents, Quality, and School Choice: Why Parents in Nairobi Choose Low-Cost Private Schools over Public Schools in Kenya's Free Primary Education Era

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons; Piper, Benjamin; Ong'ele, Salome; Kiminza, Onesmus

2018-01-01

Low-cost private schools (LCPS) are widespread in Kenya, particularly in urban areas. This study examines the reasons that parents send children to fee-charging schools in a context of free public primary education. Drawing on parent survey and interview data, as well as interviews with national policy makers, we found that parents who chose LCPS…

Enhancing Children's Success in Science Learning: An Experience of Science Teaching in Teacher Primary School Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferreira, Maria Eduarda; Porteiro, Ana Cláudia; Pitarma, Rui

2015-01-01

The Environmental Studies curricular area, taught at primary school level in Portugal, is a challenging context for curricular interdisciplinarity and the achievement of small-scale research and creative and innovative experiences, inside and outside the classroom. From that assumption, we present, under the master course of primary teacher…

School in a Box in Low Resource Primary School in Mozambique: Practical Application of Zone of Proximal Development in Teacher Training with Mobile Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Sullivan, Linda; Seabra, N. Miguel

2016-01-01

The new Sustainable Development Goals call for quality education for all. This study aims to examine the role of mobile educational technology, through the School in a Box intervention, particularly in supporting teachers skills in achieving quality education, in the context of a public primary school in Mozambique. Quality education is examined…

Predictive Value of Social Skills in Living Together at Primary School. Analysis in a Cultural Diversity Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrera Torres, Lucía; Bravo Antonio, Iván

2012-01-01

Coexistence at school stands out as one of the main goals in today's education (Carretero, 2008; Ortega, 2007). The aim of this study developed within a cultural diversity context is to identify the specific dimensions of social skills through which the different elements favouring or hindering coexistence at school can be predicted. A total of…

Rumour Has It: The Impact of Maternal Talk on Primary School Choice for Children Diagnosed with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lilley, Rozanna

2015-01-01

This article explores the pivotal role of rumour in shaping primary school choice decisions for parents of children diagnosed with autism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 22 mothers conducted in Sydney, Australia, this study points to the varied functions of grapevine knowledge about schools gleaned in diverse contexts, including early…

Formulaic Sequences Used by Native English Speaking Teachers in a Thai Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steyn, Sunee; Jaroongkhongdach, Woravut

2016-01-01

The use of formulaic sequences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lessons plays an integral role in language teaching and learning, but it seems still widely neglected in the Thai school context. To call attention to this issue, this study aims at identifying formulaic sequences used in a Thai primary school. The data were taken from three…

Partnership Working in Small Rural Primary Schools: The Best of Both Worlds. Supporting Report and Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Robert

2014-01-01

The aim of the research presented in this report was to investigate the most effective ways for small rural primary schools to work together in order to improve provision and raise standards. The project sought to examine the circumstances and context of small rural schools in Lincolnshire and evaluate their different leadership models (such as…

Crossing the Primary and Secondary School Divide in Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knipe, Sally

2012-01-01

Teacher education courses at universities qualify graduates to teach in age-related contexts of primary/early childhood/secondary that reflect the organisational structure of schools. In terms of teacher employment, for some considerable time, these longstanding organisational divisions have been by-passed whereby a shortage of teachers in…

Looking Back into Trans Persons' Experiences in Heteronormative Secondary Physical Education Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devís-Devís, José; Pereira-García, Sofía; López-Cañada, Elena; Pérez-Samaniego, Víctor; Fuentes-Miguel, Jorge

2018-01-01

Background: School is one of the primary settings where non-gender conformer children and adolescents emerge as vulnerable groups at high risk of suffering violence and harassment. Within schooling contexts, embodied experiences in physical education (PE) may become particularly problematic for trans students. However, there is little research…

Small, Multigrade Schools and Increasing Access to Primary Education in India: National Context and NGO Initiatives. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 17

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blum, Nicole; Diwan, Rashmi

2007-01-01

Small schools are a significant feature of the educational landscape in India, with approximately 78% of primary schools having three or fewer teachers to attend to all grade levels, and more than 55% with 100 or fewer students in 2005. These schools are commonly found in impoverished rural communities, where they are often characterised by the…

Mobile Technologies in the Service of Students' Learning of Mathematics: The Example of Game Application A.L.E.X. in the Context of a Primary School in Cyprus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kyriakides, Andreas O.; Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Maria; Prodromou, Theodosia

2016-01-01

This article reports on the main experiences gained from a 2-year study which incorporated A.L.E.X., an educational puzzle game available on iPad or Android tablet devices, within the primary school mathematics curriculum. The study took place in a public primary school, located in a rural area of Cyprus. The majority of its students come from low…

Hares, Tortoises and the Social Construction of the Pupil: Differentiated Learning in French and English Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raveaud, Maroussia

2005-01-01

This article examines differentiation by task as it is used and perceived in French and English primary schools. It highlights the influence of national context on teaching and learning. The study rests on classroom observations in 12 Key Stage 1 classes located in socially disadvantaged areas. The first section sets the mission of schooling in a…

Exploring Musical Expectations: Understanding the Impact of a Year-Long Primary School Music Project in the Context of School, Home and Prior Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitts, Stephanie E.

2014-01-01

This article reports on a year-long project carried out in three UK primary schools, which aimed to understand the expectations and experiences of children participating in a series of workshops delivered by the chamber music organisation, Music in the Round. Through drawings, discussions, questionnaires and observations, the children's developing…

The Village School Context and Principalship in Hong Kong: What Do They Contribute to Leadership Studies?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Ping-Man

2011-01-01

To enhance the cost effectiveness of primary schools, the government of Hong Kong imposed a regulation for operating primary one classes up to a minimum enrolment rate in 2003. This policy has forced a number of village schools to cease operation. During 2005-2006, 36 of them were involved in this enforcement, accounting for two-thirds of the…

Becoming and Being DLP: Designated Liaison Persons' Experience of the Role in the Irish Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nohilly, Margaret

2018-01-01

This paper reviews the role of the Designated Liaison Person (DLP) for Child Protection in the Irish primary school context. This is a role assigned by the Board of Management to a person in the school who oversees all matters pertaining to child protection including reporting abuse, liaising with staff and outside agencies in relation to child…

Literacy Infrastructure, Access to Books, and the Implementation of the School Literacy Movement in Primary Schools in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laksono, K.; Retnaningdyah, P.

2018-01-01

Literacy Infrastructure and access to books are the foundation of literacy activity. Indonesia has regulations from the Ministry of Education and Culture requiring that 15 minutes should be used each day before the learning begins to read books other than textbooks. However, many schools are not yet obeying this requirement. The purposes of this study are to describe the literacy infrastructure in primary schools in Indonesia, to analyze access to books in primary schools, to explain the School Literacy Movement implementation, and to identify issues around the implementation of reading strategies in a context in which there is limited access to books. The questionnaire and interview study were conducted in 30 primary schools in East Java, Indonesia. The study concluded that the literacy infrastructure and access to books in 30 primary schools are below standard, but the school community enthusiastically implements the objectives of the School Literacy Movement. Many primary schools are already implementing good many reading strategies although there are some problems related to teacher competence.

The Teacher as Co-Creator of Drama: A Phenomenological Study of the Experiences and Reflections of Irish Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonagh, Fiona; Finneran, Michael

2017-01-01

Classroom drama in the Irish primary school context remains a relatively new endeavour and is largely under-researched. The knowledge base for all aspects of teacher education should be informed by rigorous reflection on teachers' experiences in the classroom. This paper reports on a phenomenological study conducted with seven Irish primary school…

Designing Tasks to Promote and Assess Mathematical Transfer in Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Julie; Page, Shaileigh; Thornton, Steve

2013-01-01

This study aims to design learning situations and tasks that promote and assess the capacity of primary school children to transfer mathematical knowledge to new contexts. We discuss previous studies investigating mathematical transfer, and particularly the strengths and limitations of tasks used to assess transfer in these studies. We describe…

"Content without Context Is Noise": Looking for Curriculum Harmony in Primary Arts Education in Western Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Sian; Wright, Peter; Pascoe, Robin

2018-01-01

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools' capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy…

Professional Insiders/Outsiders? Teacher Professionalism and the Primary School Physical Education Specialist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Caroline; DinanThompson, Maree

2013-01-01

This paper provides a context for exploring the positioning of Physical Education specialist teachers (PE specialist teachers) in primary schools in Queensland in the discourses of teacher professionalism. A critical analysis of literature on the history and status of the subject and its practitioners aims to contextualize discourses in and about…

Changes in Grouping Practices over Primary and Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baines, Ed; Blatchford, Peter; Kutnick, Peter

2003-01-01

The research detailed in this paper provides a systematic description and analysis of classroom grouping practices in primary and secondary schools in England. Practices are compared to main findings in developmental and educational literature with regard to effective contexts for learning and recent ideas about pedagogy. The research is based on…

Gender and Behavioural Differences in Kuwait Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almurtaji, Yousuf; Everatt, John; Almenaye, Nasser S.; Alazemi, Ahmad S.; Alradaan, Dalal Abdul Hadi

2018-01-01

Previous studies have found significant differences between the classroom behaviour of boys and girls. Most are within a single broad cultural context and little work has been done within an Arabic/Kuwaiti one. The main aim was to investigate the differences in behaviour between boys and girls in Kuwait primary schools. Data were collected that…

Experienced Primary School Teachers' Thoughts on Effective Teachers of Literacy and Numeracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Md-Ali, Ruzlan; Karim, Hamida Bee Bi Abdul; Yusof, Fahainis Mohd

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper presents the characteristics of effective literacy and numeracy teachers within the current context of teaching in Malaysia from the viewpoints of a sample of trained and experienced primary school teachers of literacy and numeracy. The characteristics were established based on what the teachers perceived as important in…

The Urban Primary School. Education in an Urbanised Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maguire, Meg; Wooldridge, Tim; Pratt-Adams, Simon

2006-01-01

This book offers an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges and contributions of urban primary schools. The authors set urban education in the wider social context of structural disadvantage, poverty, oppression and exclusion, and reassert some critical urban educational concerns. Recognizing that practice needs to be informed by theory,…

Supporting and Encouraging Young Adolescents in New Zealand to Be Effective Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Jo

2018-01-01

Young adolescents are at a critical age in their schooling as they transition from primary schooling into secondary education. The reading development of these young adolescents in New Zealand occurs within a variety of contexts. Reading is not only a complex skill to achieve, but it is also contextual. Therefore, understanding the context and the…

Enhancing Primary Science: An Exploration of Teachers' Own Ideas of Solutions to Challenges in Inquiry- and Context-Based Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walan, Susanne; Mc Ewen, Birgitta; Gericke, Niklas

2016-01-01

Studies of inquiry- and context-based science education (IC-BaSE) have shown that teachers find these approaches problematic. In this study, 12 primary school teachers' reflections on challenges related to IC-BaSE are explored. The aim of the study was to investigate which challenges primary teachers experience when working with IC-BaSE and how…

A Rising Tide of Primary School Standards--The Role of Data Systems in Improving Equitable Access for All to Quality Education in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Attfield, Ian; Vu, Binh Thanh

2013-01-01

The approach taken over the past decade to introduce minimum primary school standards in Vietnam is reviewed, with annual school audits that measured both input (quality) and output indicators. It describes a successful, context specific approach in which flexible data systems were used to support the evolution and adoption of a new set of…

School Choice in Colorado Springs: The Relationship between Parental Decisions, Location and Neighbourhood Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theobald, Rebecca

2005-01-01

The influence of location as exemplified by neighbourhood factors and school characteristics on primary education is examined in the context of the school choice movement of the last two decades. The analysis incorporates statistical information about schools and population data from Census 2000 describing neighbourhoods and schools in one…

"We Get To Learn!": Building Urban Children's Sense of Future in an Elementary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinney, David A.

Students' experiences of daily classroom activities and the larger school context were studied at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School, Baltimore (Maryland). Coleman is an inner-city school serving about 500 African American children in prekindergarten through grade 5. The school is organized into three campuses--primary, "Coleman"…

First-grade retention in the Flemish educational context: Effects on children's academic growth, psychosocial growth, and school career throughout primary education.

PubMed

Goos, Mieke; Van Damme, Jan; Onghena, Patrick; Petry, Katja; de Bilde, Jerissa

2013-06-01

This study examined the effects of first-grade retention on children's academic growth, psychosocial growth, and future school career by following a cohort of first graders until the start of secondary school. The study took place in the Flemish educational context where primary school students are taught in uniform curricular year groups; the same curricular goals are set for all students, irrespective of ability; and grade retention is used as the main way to cater for students not reaching these goals. Propensity score stratification was used to deal with selection bias. Three-level curvilinear growth curve models, encompassing both grade and age comparisons, were used to model children's growth in math skills, reading fluency skills, and psychosocial skills. Two-level logistic regression models were used to model children's likelihood of repeating any grade between Grades 2 and 6, transitioning to a special education primary school, moving to another primary school, and transitioning to the A (versus B) track in secondary education. Overall, results showed that first-grade retention was less helpful for struggling students than generally thought by parents and educators. Limitations of the study and further research suggestions are provided, and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

What Educational Contexts Should Teachers Consider for Their Puberty Education Programmes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collier-Harris, Christine A.; Goldman, Juliette D. G.

2017-01-01

This paper analyses some contemporary educational contexts that teachers should consider for their puberty education programmes and/or curricula, for primary and secondary school students. The educational contexts addressed here include significant international puberty education framework documents, socio-biological factors including earlier…

Changes in Primary School Pupils' Conceptions of Water in the Context of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havu-Nuutinen, Sari; Kärkkäinen, Sirpa; Keinonen, Tuula

2018-01-01

Pupils' conceptual change processes that have led to long-term changes in learning processes can be very challenging and interwoven with several issues. Meanwhile, school learning is often determined as fragmented, without providing connections to pupils' different life and societal contexts. In this study, Science, Technology, and Society (STS)…

Singing in Primary Schools: Case Studies of Good Practice in Whole Class Vocal Tuition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamont, Alexandra; Daubney, Alison; Spruce, Gary

2012-01-01

Within the context of British initiatives in music education such as the Wider Opportunities programme in England and the recommendations of the Music Manifesto emphasising the importance of singing in primary schools, the current paper explores examples of good practice in whole-class vocal tuition. The research included seven different primary…

The Self-Efficacy of Primary Teachers in Supporting the Inclusion of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anglim, Johanna; Prendeville, Paula; Kinsella, William

2018-01-01

In the context of a trend towards inclusive practice in Irish primary schools, many teachers feel ill-equipped to cope with this new challenge. Scope exists within the Irish education system to transform mainstream schools into autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) friendly environments. Research into teacher perceptions of inclusion has found that…

Supporting School Teachers: Primary Teachers' Conceptions of Their Responses to Diverse Sexualities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Leent, Lisa

2017-01-01

Teachers experience a range of situations in the primary school context where students talk about, share ideas and use words and actions that might be described as non-heteronormative in character. This article reports on teachers' experiences of the ways in which they respond to actions and events they see as non-heteronormative. It identifies…

Discussing Sexual Identities with Pre-Service Primary School English-Language Teachers from a Spanish Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barozzi, Stefano; Guijarro Ojeda, Juan Ramon

2014-01-01

This article is based on a discussion with seven voluntary Spanish pre-service primary school English-language teachers on queer issues. The focus group followed a questionnaire on their knowledge and understanding of sexual identity issues in education. The facilitated discussion enabled the participants to be better prepared on the subject. At…

Principals' and Teachers' Views of Spirituality in Principal Leadership in Three Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Alaster

2014-01-01

This article discusses key findings from my doctoral research involving a qualitative case study inquiring into the lived experiences of spirituality in principal leadership and its influence on teachers and their teaching within three public primary school contexts in New Zealand. Spirituality is understood in this article as a complex and…

Building Secure Attachments for Primary School Children: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ubha, Neerose; Cahill, Sharon

2014-01-01

Despite the wide implications of attachment theory there remains a lack of research exploring interventions which encapsulate the principles of an attachment-based framework in the school context. The aim of this research was to address this gap by implementing an intervention for a group of five primary-aged pupils with identified insecure…

Exploring Primary School CLIL Perceptions in Catalonia: Students', Teachers' and Parents' Opinions and Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pladevall-Ballester, Elisabet

2015-01-01

Analysing participants' perceptions of a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) experience is essential in order to provide a clear picture of whether CLIL is effectively implemented. This becomes extremely relevant in primary school contexts, where the way the different groups involved in an educational experience feel tends to be highly…

Effects of a "Learn to Think" Intervention Programme on Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Weiping; Adey, Philip; Jia, Xiaojuan; Liu, Jia; Zhang, Lei; Li, Jing; Dong, Xiaomei

2011-01-01

Background: Methods for teaching thinking may be described as out-of-context or infusion. Both approaches have potential to raise students' general cognitive processing ability and so raise academic achievement, but each has disadvantages. Aims: To describe and evaluate a theory-based learn to think (LTT) curriculum for primary school students,…

Co-Teaching as an Approach to Enhance Science Learning and Teaching in Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Colette; Beggs, Jim

2006-01-01

In this article, we explore some of the experiences of student teachers, classroom teachers, science teacher educators, and children in co-teaching contexts in primary schools. The model of co-teaching adopted enabled student teachers (science specialist), classroom teachers, and university tutors to share expertise and work as equals, without…

ASE and Primary School Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlen, Wynne

2013-01-01

This article focuses on the role of the Association for Science Education (ASE) in supporting and developing policy and practice in primary school science. It first sets the events after the formation of ASE in 1963 in the context of what went before. It then takes a mainly chronological view of some, but by no means all, of ASE's activities…

Development of Population-Based Resilience Measures in the Primary School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Jing; Stewart, Donald

2007-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the population-based study in the paper is to report on progress in formulating instruments to measure children's resilience and associated protective factors in family, primary school and community contexts. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper a total of 2,794 students, 1,558 parents/caregivers, and 465 staff were…

"So You Can't Blame Us Then?": Gendered Discourses of Masculine Irresponsibility as Biologically Determined and Peer-Pressured in Upper-Primary School Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wardman, Natasha Penelope

2017-01-01

In a global climate increasingly shaped by neoliberal agendas that privilege meritocratic individualism, it is apparent that society as a whole and educational policy-makers and practitioners in particular expect students to take more "responsibility" for their own learning and behaviour at school. In the Australian context, as…

Training in Parent Consultation Skills for Primary Care Practitioners in Early Intervention in the Pre-School Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crisante, Lea

2003-01-01

Describes the implementation of a brief behavioral intervention, based on the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program, by 13 pre-school practitioners with 39 parents. The results point to the role of primary care practitioners in providing services in settings that are easily accessed by parents, thus increasing the availability of support to parents…

Engaging Primary Children and Pre-Service Teachers in a Whole School "Design and Make Day": The Evaluation of a Creative Science and Technology Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pressick-Kilborn, Kimberley; Prescott, Anne

2017-01-01

A pedagogical innovation was collaboratively designed, implemented and evaluated in the context of a school-university partnership. The innovation had a dual purpose: 1) to provide an opportunity for primary pre-service teachers to develop their understanding and experience of teaching "design and produce" processes (working…

Experimental Activities in Primary School to Learn about Microbes in an Oral Health Education Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mafra, Paulo; Lima, Nelson; Carvalho, Graça S.

2015-01-01

Experimental science activities in primary school enable important cross-curricular learning. In this study, experimental activities on microbiology were carried out by 16 pupils in a Portuguese grade-4 classroom (9-10?years old) and were focused on two problem-questions related to microbiology and health: (1) do your teeth carry microbes? (2) why…

Generalizability Theory Research on Developing a Scoring Rubric to Assess Primary School Students' Problem Posing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cankoy, Osman; Özder, Hasan

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to develop a scoring rubric to assess primary school students' problem posing skills. The rubric including five dimensions namely solvability, reasonability, mathematical structure, context and language was used. The raters scored the students' problem posing skills both with and without the scoring rubric to test the…

Habitus and Flow in Primary School Musical Practice: Relations between Family Musical Cultural Capital, Optimal Experience and Music Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valenzuela, Rafael; Codina, Nuria

2014-01-01

Based on Bourdieu's idea that cultural capital is strongly related to family context, we describe the relations between family musical cultural capital and optimal experience during compulsory primary school musical practice. We analyse whether children from families with higher levels of musical cultural capital, and specifically with regard to…

Perceptions of Special Educational Practices in Malawi: Voices from Primary Schools and Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lubeski, Nancy J.

2011-01-01

This doctoral research work explores the quality of educational experiences and access to opportunities for girls with disabilities in selected rural primary schools in Malawi. The context for this study lies within four of the six goals contained within the World Declaration on Education for All doctrine, a document which lays out a framework for…

School Readiness: The Views of Pre-Service Preschool Teachers and Pre-Service Primary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin Sak, Ikbal Tuba

2016-01-01

This study compares the views of the concept of school readiness held by 50 pre-service preschool teachers and 50 pre-service primary teachers. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview protocol, and the word-list and key-words-in-context techniques were used for qualitative data analysis. Findings show that pre-service preschool…

Playing Music, Playing with Music: A Proposal for Music Coding in Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baratè, Adriano; Ludovico, Luca Andrea; Mangione, Giuseppina Rita; Rosa, Alessia

2015-01-01

In this work we will introduce the concept of "music coding," namely a new discipline that employs basic music activities and simplified languages to teach the computational way of thinking to musically-untrained children who attend the primary school. In this context, music represents both a mean and a goal: in fact, from one side…

Increasing the Uptake of Peer Feedback in Primary School Writing: Findings from an Action Research Enquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boon, Stuart Ian

2016-01-01

This article reports on how an action research strategy was used to increase children's uptake of feedback during peer assessment in primary school writing. Several different strategies were used in the study that had been successful in increasing students' uptake of peer feedback in contexts such as higher education. In order to evaluate how…

The SENCO Role in Post-Primary Schools in Ireland: Victims or Agents of Change?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Johanna; Radford, Julie

2017-01-01

This paper considers the role of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in mainstream post-primary schools (12-18 years) in Ireland. Little is known of the role in the Irish context and it is hoped that this research will inform policy. The Irish educational landscape has witnessed seismic change recently with further transformation…

Two Preferences in Question-Answer Sequences in Language Classroom Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hosoda, Yuri; Aline, David

2013-01-01

Discussing two preferences associated with question-answer sequences, this study examines student responses to teacher questions in primary school English-as-a-foreign-language classes. The paper starts out with a reconsideration of institutional context, with a focus on classroom context from a conversation analysis perspective. We then introduce…

School-Based Professional Development in a Developing Context: Lessons Learnt from a Case Study in Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haßler, Björn; Hennessy, Sara; Cross, Andrew; Chileshe, Eness; Machiko, Brian

2015-01-01

This paper reports on the development and outcomes of the second phase of OER4Schools, a school-based professional development programme supporting interactive forms of subject teaching in conjunction with Open Educational Resources (OER) and technology in Zambian primary schools. We worked with partners to identify the needs of school-based…

Teacher Perceptions of School Culture and Their Organizational Commitment and Well-Being in a Chinese School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Chang; Devos, Geert; Li, Yifei

2011-01-01

This study aims to analyze and validate the dimensions and specific features of a school culture in a Chinese context. A sample of 181 teachers from a Chinese primary and secondary school in Beijing participated in a survey that measures school organizational cultural characteristics and teacher organizational commitment and well-being as outcomes…

Context Matters in Programme Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Aleisha M.; O'Sullivan, Maeve; Barry, Margaret M.

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper seeks to report on the evaluation of Zippy's Friends, an international emotional wellbeing programme, for primary school children in disadvantaged schools in Ireland. The paper aims to present case studies of the profile and ethos of two specific schools participating in the programme, their links with the local community, the…

Sustainable Leadership in Small Rural Schools: Selected Australian Vignettes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Simon; Stevens, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

According to Hargreaves and Fink (The seven principles of sustainable leadership, 2003; Sustainable leadership, 2006), sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts, and is fundamental to enduring and widespread school improvement. This observation is especially germane to the context of leading small primary schools in rural locations, where…

The Abolition of Secondary School Fees in Kenya: Responses by the Poor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohba, Asayo

2011-01-01

Following the 2007 presidential election, the Government of Kenya abolished secondary school fees in 2008. In the context of this significant change in policy, this study examines the effect of fees on transition to secondary schooling by following 109 primary school leavers in rural Kenya after the fee abolition, starting in 2007. The study draws…

Evaluating the Impact of Forest Schools: A Collaboration between a University and a Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slade, Melanie; Lowery, Claire; Bland, Ken

2013-01-01

The Forest School movement, an important part of education in Scandinavia, has gained momentum in the UK in recent years. Within the context of declining access to, and engagement with, the natural environment Forest Schools can provide invaluable life experiences for our children. In 2012 the University of Northampton investigated opportunities…

Hymns, Prayers and Bible Stories: The Role of Religious Literacy Practices in Children's Literacy Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papen, Uta

2018-01-01

This paper examines the role of religious literacy practices such as hymns, prayers and Bible stories in the context of literacy teaching in primary schools in England. Drawing on data collected through a classroom ethnography of a year 1 class (five and six-year-olds) conducted in a Catholic primary school in 2013 and 2014, I suggest that…

A Policy Analysis of the Delivery of Primary and Secondary School Mathematics and Science in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohandhas, Pratheepa

2015-01-01

This paper offers an analysis of the development and implementation of the policy to teach Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) in Malaysian primary schools, commencing in 2003, in the context of the 2009 reversal of the policy. The original study focused particularly on the impact of the policy on the children of the Federal Land…

The Use of Magnets for Introducing Primary School Students to Some Properties of Forces through Small-Group Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carruthers, Rebecca; de Berg, Kevin

2010-01-01

Seventeen Grade Six students were divided into small groups to study the concept of forces in the context of magnets and their properties. The researcher, a pre-service primary school teacher, encouraged the students into conversation about magnets and it was found that, without hesitation, they talked about their prior experience of magnets. The…

The "Generacion Diez" after-school program and Latino parent involvement with schools.

PubMed

Riggs, Nathaniel R; Medina, Carmen

2005-11-01

The current study examines associations between participation in after-school programs and change in Latino parent involvement with schools. Hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that parents of children who had higher after-school program attendance rates were significantly more likely to report increases in the quality of relationships with their children's teachers, frequency of parent-teacher contact, and engagement with their children's schooling over a two-year period. However, greater home educator contacts were related to decreases in quality and quantity of parent-school involvement. A primary implication is that attendance in school-based after-school programs may draw parents into children's regular-day school context. Editors' Strategic Implications The authors illustrate the promising practice of using after-school programs to promote parent involvement and to help integrate the often disparate family and school contexts for Latino children.

Standardization of Primary Education in Great Britain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yarovaya, Yelena B.

2015-01-01

The article examines the standardization of primary education as one of the development trends of the British school at the present moment in the context of improving its efficiency and quality. It analyses the positive results of the standard-based reforms (modernization of primary education content, improvement of younger students' outcomes,…

Reorganizing Primary Classroom Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hastings, Nigel; Wood, Karen Chantrey

This book addresses the issue of classroom organization in primary education, explaining evidence that it asserts should prompt primary schools to re-think the contexts in which children are expected to concentrate and learn. New ways of arranging classrooms are illustrated through case studies of teachers who take a flexible and strategic…

Primary Teachers' Reflections on Inquiry- and Context-Based Science Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walan, Susanne; Mc Ewen, Birgitta

2017-04-01

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students' interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after using them in primary schools. The teachers participated in a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. During the programme, they were also introduced to a teaching model from a European project, where inquiry- and context-based education (IC-BaSE) strategies were fused. The research question related to teachers' reflections on these teaching strategies, and whether they found the model to be useful in primary schools after testing it with their students. Data collection was performed during the CPD programme and consisted of audio-recorded group discussions, individual portfolios and field notes collected by researchers. Results showed that compared with using only one instructional strategy, teachers found the new teaching model to be a useful complement. However, their discussions also showed that they did not reflect on choices of strategies or purposes and aims relating to students' understanding, or the content to be taught. Before the CPD programme, teachers discussed the use of inquiry mainly from the aspect that students enjoy practical work. After the programme, they identified additional reasons for using inquiry and discussed the importance of knowing why inquiry is performed. However, to develop teachers' knowledge of instructional strategies as well as purposes for using certain strategies, there is need for further investigations among primary school teachers.

Educator Discourses on ICT in Education: A Critical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bladergroen, Moira; Chigona, Wallace; Bytheway, Andy; Cox, Sanet; Dumas, Chris; van Zyl, Izak

2012-01-01

This paper presents a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Primary School Educators' dialogue on the use of ICT in an under-resourced schooling context. Educators play a pivotal role in the education system. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions in schools will be effective only if educators are willing and able to…

School Improvement from a European Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vandenberghe, Roland

Three research questions are addressed in this paper: (1) What does school improvement mean in relation to the context of a research project? (2) Given particular developments in European society and the nature of primary research data, what should schools be like in the year 2001? (3) What steps are being taken in research and development to…

Bullying: What Do Students Say?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll-Lind, Janis; Kearney, Alison

2004-01-01

Bullying occurs in most schools and happens to students no matter how capable, popular and well-adjusted they are. This paper reports on a study that examines the nature and extent of bullying and explores the context of bullying and school violence in New Zealand schools. Approximately 1370 students from seven primary and three secondary schools…

Adaptive Leadership in School Boards in Australia: An Emergent Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell-Evans, Glenda; Gray, Jan; Leggett, Bridget

2014-01-01

When school boards are confronted with the challenge of unfamiliar, changing contexts, opportunities and governance responsibilities, they have to be able to respond appropriately. The research reported in this paper investigated the response of five Western Australian primary school boards to such situations. It analyses interview data from 49…

Factors that Promote Progression in Schools Functioning as Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leclerc, Martine; Moreau, Andre C.; Dumouchel, Catherine; Sallafranque-St-Louis, Francois

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research is to identify factors that influence the functioning of a school working as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and to analyze the links between these factors and the school's progression. This research was developed within the context of an interpretative research paradigm. The primary data collection tool…

Church Schools, Educational Markets and the Rural Idyll

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemming, Peter J.; Roberts, Christopher

2018-01-01

Researchers have begun to explore the role that faith schools play in contemporary educational markets but the emphasis to date has been on urban rather than rural contexts. This article approaches the issue of marketisation through a qualitative case-study comparison of two Anglican primary schools in contrasting rural localities in England and…

"Education at Our School Is Not Free": The Hidden Costs of Fee-Free Schooling in Rwanda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Timothy P.; Abbott, Pamela; Mupenzi, Alfred

2015-01-01

As primary school enrolment rates in Rwanda near ubiquity, completion rates remain low and repetition rates remain high. This study investigates the impact of the "hidden costs" of schooling in the context of Rwanda's fee-free education policy. Using a social-science case study, focus groups and interviews were undertaken with 200…

The Impact of Institutional Context, Education and Labour Market Policies on Early School Leaving: A Comparative Analysis of EU Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Witte, Kristof; Nicaise, Ides; Lavrijsen, Jeroen; Van Landeghem, Georges; Lamote, Carl; Van Damme, Jan

2013-01-01

This article presents a comparative analysis of the determinants of early school leaving (ESL) at the country level. We decompose ESL rates into two components: a "primary" rate reflecting unqualified school leaving from initial education, and a second component accounting for early school leavers who participate in training programmes.…

Teachers' and Students' Perceptions of Motivational Teaching Strategies in an Indonesian High School Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Astuti, Sri Puji

2013-01-01

The primary purpose of this multiple case study is to explore teachers' and learners' perceptions of motivational teaching strategies. The data were obtained from two schools in a small town in West Sumatra, Indonesia; one is from an international standard high school and the other is from a local high school. This study is underpinned by…

English Language Education in Formal and Cram School Contexts: An Analysis of Listening Strategy and Learning Style

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-hsuan

2017-01-01

Formal English language education in Taiwan now starts at Year 3 in primary school, with an emphasis on communicative proficiency. In addition to formal education, attending English cram schools after regular school has become a common phenomenon for Taiwanese students. The main purpose of gaining additional reinforcement in English cram schools…

School-Context Videos in Janus-Faced Online Publicity: Learner-Generated Digital Video Production Going Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmgren-Neuvonen, Laura; Jaakkola, Maarit; Korkeamäki, Riitta-Liisa

2015-01-01

This article reports a case study on sChOOLtv, an online television for primary and secondary schools that aims to bridge the media gap between in-school and out-of-school learning environments. Contrary to its creators' expectations, the number of published videos has not increased since its establishment. Furthermore, the videos were mostly…

Choice of Scottish Gaelic-Medium and Welsh-Medium Education at the Primary and Secondary School Stages: Parent and Pupil Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hanlon, Fiona

2015-01-01

Results are presented of a comparative study of the reasons for parental choice of Scottish Gaelic-medium and Welsh-medium primary education in the year 2000 and of the reasons for pupils' decisions to continue with Gaelic or Welsh-medium education at secondary school in 2007. Parents in both contexts cited the quality of Celtic-medium education…

The Reconstruction of the Past through Images: An Iconographic Analysis on the Historical Imagination Usage Skills of Primary School Pupils

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dilek, Dursun

2009-01-01

The aim of this research is to understand how sixth grade students use their imagination skills in the historical thinking process and, by doing so, how they construct the past. In this respect, first, an exhibition/museum was visited in the context of social studies during history lessons in a primary school in Kadikoy district in Istanbul. Then,…

Training Music Teachers through Distance Learning: The Case of Teaching Practice Mentoring at One Primary School Teacher Training College in Zimbabwe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bhebhe, Sithulisiwe; Runhare, Tawanda; Monobe, Ratau John

2015-01-01

This study sought to examine the quality of teaching practice (TP) mentoring in the teaching of music at primary school level through the distance mode of training at one college of education in Zimbabwe. The study examined the experiences and perceptions of lecturers and student teachers on TP mentoring in music within the context of a distance…

A Multilingual Approach to Analysing Standardized Test Results: Immigrant Primary School Children and the Role of Languages Spoken in a Bi-/Multilingual Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Angelis, Gessica

2014-01-01

The present study adopts a multilingual approach to analysing the standardized test results of primary school immigrant children living in the bi-/multilingual context of South Tyrol, Italy. The standardized test results are from the Invalsi test administered across Italy in 2009/2010. In South Tyrol, several languages are spoken on a daily basis…

Indigenous Sky Stories: Reframing How We Introduce Primary School Students to Astronomy--A Type II Case Study of Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruddell, Nicholas; Danaia, Lena; McKinnon, David

2016-01-01

The Indigenous Sky Stories Program may have the potential to deliver significant and long-lasting changes to the way science is taught to Year 5 and 6 primary school students. The context for this article is informed by research that shows that educational outcomes can be strengthened when Indigenous knowledge is given the space to co-exist with…

Inquiry-Based Learning in Teacher Education: A Primary Humanities Example

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preston, Lou; Harvie, Kate; Wallace, Heather

2015-01-01

Inquiry-based learning features strongly in the new Australian Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum and increasingly in primary school practice. Yet, there is little research into, and few exemplars of, inquiry approaches in the primary humanities context. In this article, we outline and explain the implementation of a place-based simulation…

The effects of community factors on school participation in Turkey: A multilevel analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gumus, Sedat

2014-05-01

Turkey, like many developing countries, is facing considerable problems in terms of low school attendance rates, late enrolment and early dropout of girls in particular. Numerous studies have already been conducted, both in Turkey and elsewhere, to determine the factors affecting school enrolment of boys and girls. Existing studies in Turkey, however, have focused extensively on the association between household-level factors and school participation, ignoring the role of the broader environment in which children live. Using a recent, large-scale and nationally representative data set, this paper investigates school participation at both primary and secondary levels in Turkey, giving specific attention to community- level factors. In taking into account socioeconomic context variables using the multilevel modelling method, this study contributes significantly to current school participation literature in Turkey. The author's findings highlight the importance of community/context factors in explaining low school enrolment in Turkey. The results of the study can help policy makers develop a systematic understanding of the relationship between socioeconomic context and school participation, and enable them to make more appropriate decisions for improving school participation across the country.

Layers of Oppression and Exclusion in the Context of HIV and AIDS: The Case of Adult and Child Learners in the Richmond District, Province of Kwazulu-Natal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muthukrishna, Nithi; Ramsuran, Anitha

2007-01-01

This paper emerges out of a larger qualitative study that aimed at mapping barriers to basic education experienced by children and adults in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The study was undertaken in Richmond district and involved a range of centres of learning (formal and informal) including three high schools, five primary schools,…

On the Success of Failure: A Reassessment of the Effects of Retention in the Primary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Karl L.; And Others

This book describes the context of school retention and evaluates its effects by tracking the experiences of a large representative sample of Baltimore (Maryland) school children from first grade through middle school. The first chapter is a discussion of major issues of retention such as: (1) why the topic is often pushed aside in schools; (2)…

"Children's Science"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milne, Ian

2007-01-01

The revamped New Zealand curriculum emphasises "scientific literacy for all students" and provides teachers with an opportunity to promote science as an integral element of the primary school curriculum. Exploring and explaining the natural world in primary science can provide authentic contexts for the development of knowledge, skills,…

The Rewards of Professional Change: Two Primary School Teachers' Experiences of Transforming Outdoor Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosgriff, Marg

2017-01-01

Embarking on and sustaining professional change is often a challenging process for educators. This is particularly so within a broader context of rapid (r)evolution in curriculum, pedagogical and assessment-related developments in the compulsory school sector in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past decade. Teachers' and school leaders' accounts of…

A Critical Approach to School Mathematical Knowledge: The Case of "Realistic" Problems in Greek Primary School Textbooks for Seven-Year-Old Pupils

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zacharos, Konstantinos; Koustourakis, Gerassimos

2011-01-01

The reference contexts that accompany the "realistic" problems chosen for teaching mathematical concepts in the first school grades play a major educational role. However, choosing "realistic" problems in teaching is a complex process that must take into account various pedagogical, sociological and psychological parameters.…

Positioning Oneself for Leadership: Feelings of Vulnerability among Aspirant School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gronn, Peter; Lacey, Kathy

2004-01-01

The research context for this article is the difficulty being experienced by a number of school systems, especially in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, in recruiting principals. In our discussion we draw on preliminary findings from ongoing research into the experiences of a cohort of aspiring primary and secondary school principals. Our data…

Primary School Autonomy in the Context of the Expanding Academies Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyask, Ruth

2018-01-01

The transnational trend towards school autonomy has been enacted in England through the academies programme. The programme is poised to enter its third phase of expansion in light of government commitment to the conversion of all state-funded schools to academies. This article considers the moral implications of the expansion of the programme that…

Screen Design Principles of Computer-Aided Instructional Software for Elementary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berrin, Atiker; Turan, Bülent Onur

2017-01-01

This study aims to present primary school students' views about current educational software interfaces, and to propose principles for educational software screens. The study was carried out with a general screening model. Sample group of the study consisted of sixth grade students in Sehit Ögretmen Hasan Akan Elementary School. In this context,…

Responses to Positive Results from Suspicionless Random Drug Tests in US Public School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ringwalt, Chris; Vincus, Amy A.; Ennett, Susan T.; Hanley, Sean; Bowling, J. Michael; Yacoubian, George S., Jr.; Rohrbach, Louise A.

2009-01-01

Background: Little is known about the context in which school-based suspicionless random drug testing (SRDT) occurs. The primary purpose of the current study was to describe school districts' responses to students' first positive result in districts with SRDT programs. Methods: Data were collected in spring 2005 from 1612 drug prevention…

A Theoretically Grounded Exploration of the Social and Emotional Outcomes of Transition to Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waters, Stacey K.; Lester, Leanne; Wenden, Elizabeth; Cross, Donna

2012-01-01

Adolescent development involves a complex interplay between genetics, biology, and social and emotional relationships within multiple contexts of home, school and the broader community. The transition from primary to secondary school, coupled with the onset of puberty, can therefore be a difficult period for young people to negotiate at a critical…

Coping Successfully with Dyslexia: An Initial Study of an Inclusive School-Based Resilience Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Firth, Nola; Frydenberg, Erica; Steeg, Charlotte; Bond, Lyndal

2013-01-01

A dyslexia coping programme entitled "Success and Dyslexia" was implemented in two primary schools within a whole-class coping programme and whole-school dyslexia professional development context. One hundred and two year 6 students, 23 of whom had dyslexia, undertook surveys pretest, post-test and at 1-year follow-up. Effectiveness of…

Learning to Teach Primary Geography in the Context of School Placement: Lessons from an All-Ireland Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolan, Anne M.; Waldron, Fionnuala; Pike, Susan; Greenwood, Richard

2016-01-01

Teaching education is Ireland is currently undergoing significant structural and conceptual changes. School placement is at the centre of these reforms. This article reports the findings of an all-Ireland study which investigates student teachers' experiences of teaching geography during their school placements. Based on data collected from…

Typologies of family functioning and children's adjustment during the early school years.

PubMed

Sturge-Apple, Melissa L; Davies, Patrick T; Cummings, E Mark

2010-01-01

Guided by family systems theory, the present study sought to identify patterns of family functioning from observational assessments of interparental, parent-child, and triadic contexts. In addition, it charted the implications for patterns of family functioning for children's developmental trajectories of adjustment in the school context across the early school years. Two-hundred thirty-four kindergarten children (129 girls and 105 boys; mean age = 6.0 years, SD = 0.50 at Wave 1) and their parents participated in this multimethod, 3-year longitudinal investigation. As expected, latent class analyses extracted 3 primary typologies of functioning including: (a) cohesive, (b) enmeshed, and (c) disengaged families. Furthermore, family patterns were differentially associated with children's maladaptive adjustment trajectories in the school context. The findings highlight the developmental utility of incorporating pattern-based approaches to family functioning.

Maternal Reading Skills and Child Mortality in Nigeria: A Reassessment of Why Education Matters

PubMed Central

Smith-Greenaway, Emily

2013-01-01

Mother’s formal schooling—even at the primary level—is associated with lower risk of child mortality. It remains unclear why this is the case. This study examines whether mother’s reading skills help to explain the association in the context of Nigeria. Using data from the Demographic and Health Survey, the analysis demonstrates that women’s reading skills increase linearly with years of primary school; however many women with several years of formal school are unable to read at all. The results further show that mother’s reading skills help to explain the relationship between mother’s formal schooling and child mortality, and that mother’s reading skills are highly associated with child mortality. The study highlights the need for more data on literacy and for more research on whether and how mother’s reading skills lower child mortality in additional contexts. PMID:23592326

Investigating Primary School Mathematics Teachers’ Deductive Reasoning Ability through Varignon’s Theorem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jupri, A.

2017-09-01

The responsibility to promote the growth of deductive reasoning ability of school students through learning mathematics is in the hand of mathematics teachers and particularly primary school mathematics teachers. However, how we can make sure whether teachers are able to do so. To investigate this issue, we conducted a three-step of an exploratory survey study. First, we designed tasks from the Varignon’s theorem. Second, we administered an individual written test involving twenty master students of primary education program, in which they are prospective of and primary school mathematics teachers. Finally, we address the results in the light of Van Hiele theory. The results showed that participated students lack of deductive reasoning ability in the context of geometry. For further research, we wonder whether the designed tasks are also applicable to assess student deductive reasoning ability if the students have acquired appropriate teaching.

Teacher Education in Scandinavia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wasser, Henry

The trend in Scandinavia is to broaden teacher education and training for academic secondary school teachers in order to overcome excessive specialization. The context of apprenticeship of pre-school, primary teachers is changing toward a more academically oriented program. However, the affective part of the learning/teaching process is becoming…

Structural Dynamics of Education Reforms and Quality of Primary Education in Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nyenje, Aida

2016-01-01

This paper examines Uganda's recent undertaking to reform her Primary School education System with a focus on the effect of structural dynamics of education reforms and the quality of primary education. Structural dynamics in the context of this study is in reference to the organizational composition of the education system at the government,…

Diversified Professionalism of Physical Education Teachers in the Asian Context of Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sum, Raymond Kim Wai; Dimmock, Clive

2014-01-01

This study investigates the socialization and professional experiences of primary school physical education teachers (PSPETs) in the Asian context of Hong Kong. A qualitative research design is adopted. The researcher used semi-structured interviews, supplemented by documentary sources (diaries) for conducting data collection. Eleven PSPETs…

Nostalgia, Transition and the School: An Innovative Approach of Using Photographic Images as a Visual Method in Educational Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shohel, M. Mahruf C.

2012-01-01

The context of the study reported in this paper is the difficulties of transition from nonformal primary schools to formal secondary schools in Bangladesh. The difficulties affecting a smooth school transition relate not only to the making of new relationships and adapting to new norms in a new environment, but also to a very different approach to…

Including Migrant Worker Children in the Learning and Social Context of the Rural Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Paula

2013-01-01

Many of the larger towns and cities within the UK have long experienced a cosmopolitan mix of cultures, resulting in ethnically and linguistically diverse schools. However, the wider expansion of the European Union in 2004 has brought about significant changes and challenges for many schools, particularly for those in more rural areas. This…

Professional and Organisational Socialisation during Leadership Succession of a School Principal: A Narrative Inquiry Using Visual Ethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steyn, Trudie

2013-01-01

Leadership studies on principal succession show that new principals are required to address numerous challenges when adapting to a new school context. This paper, on a study that used a qualitative research design, reports on the professional and organisational socialisation of a new principal in a South African primary school during the first…

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: The Effects of Structures, Ethos and Understandings on Provision in Irish Post-Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mc Keon, David

2017-01-01

Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in mainstream schools in Ireland attract much attention and significant resources, yet little research has been conducted in the Irish context about how this concept is understood by practitioners, what influences that understanding nor how that influences provision in schools. This paper is based on…

Organizational Challenges for Schools in Rural Municipalities: Cross-National Comparisons in a Nordic Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lind, Tommy; Stjernström, Olof

2015-01-01

In this study, the spatial structure of primary schools and alternative organizational frameworks are studied in a number of rural municipalities in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The aim of the study is to investigate how the spatial structure of schools has changed between the years 2008 and 2013 in these municipalities, what…

Teacher Leaders' Perceptions and Practice of Student Assessment Reform in Hong Kong: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Wai-Ming

2015-01-01

This paper reports a case study of four project schools in the primary school context of Hong Kong. It has investigated how teachers who were assigned subject panel head's and curriculum leader's roles perceived the student assessment reform and how they experimented with new assessment strategies in the school policy and classroom practice. The…

Finding the Best Fit: The Adaptation and Translation of the Performance Indicators for Primary Schools for the South African Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archer, Elizabeth; Scherman, Vanessa; Coe, Robert; Howie, Sarah J.

2010-01-01

Reform and improvement are imperative in the current South African education system. Monitoring of school and learner achievement is an essential for establishing praxis for school improvement. Diversity of culture and South Africa's 11 official languages make it difficult to develop valid monitoring systems. Limited resources, time constraints…

Primary Education in Ireland, 1897-1990. Rethinking Education. Volume 12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Thomas

2012-01-01

This book critically examines the context, origins, development and implementation of successive primary school curricula in Ireland between 1897 and 1990. It focuses on three particular policy changes during the period: the "Revised Programme of Instruction" introduced in 1900, the curricular provisions implemented following the…

Primary Teachers, Policy, and Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petrie, Kirsten; lisahunter,

2011-01-01

This article focuses on the challenges arising for primary school teachers who have responsibility for teaching physical education (PE) and who are working in particularly complex and contestable policy contexts. In New Zealand provision of physical education is identified as occurring amidst multiple, and not necessarily compatible, sets of…

The discourse of causal explanations in school science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Tammy Jayne Anne

Researchers and educators working from a systemic functional linguistic perspective have provided a body of work on science discourse which offers an excellent starting point for examining the linguistic aspects of the development of causal discourse in school science, discourse which Derewianka (1995) claimed is critical to success in secondary school. No work has yet described the development of causal language by identifying the linguistic features present in oral discourse or by comparing the causal discourse of native and non-native (ESL) speakers of English. The current research responds to this gap by examining the oral discourse collected from ESL and non-ESL students at the primary and high school grades. Specifically, it asks the following questions: (1) How do the teachers and students in these four contexts develop causal explanations and their relevant taxonomies through classroom interactions? (2) What are the causal discourse features being used by the students in these four contexts to construct oral causal explanations? The findings of the social practice analysis showed that the teachers in the four contexts differed in their approaches to teaching, with the primary school mainstream teacher focusing largely on the hands-on practice , the primary school ESL teacher moving from practice to theory, the high school mainstream teacher moving from theory to practice, and the high school ESL teacher relying primarily on theory. The findings from the quantitative, small corpus approach suggest that the developmental path of cause which has been identified in the writing of experts shows up not only in written texts but also in the oral texts which learners construct. Moreover, this move appears when the discourse of high school ESL and non-ESL students is compared, suggesting a developmental progression in the acquisition of these features by these students. The findings also reveal that the knowledge constructed, as shown by the concept maps created from the discourse, follows a developmental path similar to the linguistic causal path, from the concrete, hands-on, observable items to more abstract, theoretical concepts. This study is the first systemic functional comparison of the oral discourse of primary and secondary learners as well as the first to compare ESL and non-ESL speakers in this way, and as such it helps map general trends in causal discourse development. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

A Synthesis of International Rural Education Issues and Responses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stelmach, Bonnie L.

2011-01-01

This article synthesizes problems impacting rural primary and secondary schools and describes how schools and relevant organizations have responded to the challenges. Given the context of a globally-compressed world, the focus of the literature review is on international rural education research and strategies. The exploration took the path of…

Human Capital or Human Connections? The Cultural Meanings of Education in Brazil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartlett, Lesley

2007-01-01

Background/Context: In the field of educational research, conventional wisdom holds that primary-level schooling, specifically literacy acquisition, promotes economic mobility for individuals and economic development for the nation. This belief is rooted in human capital theory, the causal argument claiming that state investment in schooling or…

A Multidimensional Assessment of Children in Conflictual Contexts: The Case of Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okech, Jane E. Atieno

2012-01-01

Children in Kenya's Kisumu District Primary Schools (N = 430) completed three measures of trauma. Respondents completed the "My Worst Experience Scale" (MWES; Hyman and Snook 2002) and its supplement, the "School Alienation and Trauma Survey" (SATS; Hyman and Snook 2002), sharing their worst experiences overall and specifically…

The Impact of Perceptions on Conflict Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longaretti, Lynette; Wilson, Jeni

2006-01-01

This article describes research that explored student and teacher perceptions and management of conflict within the primary school context. It was found that both teachers and students shared similarities in their views of conflict and in their management of interpersonal problems at school. Conflict was generally perceived to be a negative…

Optics outreach in Irish context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McHugh, Emer; Smith, Arlene

2009-06-01

The Applied Optics Group, National University of Ireland Galway is a research centre involved in programmes that cover a wide variety of topics in applied optics and imaging science, including smart optics, adaptive optics, optical scattering and propagation, and engineering optics. The Group have also developed significant outreach programmes both in Primary and Post-Primary schools. It is recognised that there is a need for innovation in Science Education in Ireland and we are committed to working extensively with schools. The main aim of these outreach programmes is to increase awareness and interest in science with students and enhance the communication skills of the researchers working in the Group. The education outreach team works closely with the relevant teachers in both Primary and Post-Primary schools to design and develop learning initiatives to match the needs of the target group of students. The learning programmes are usually delivered in the participating schools during normal class time by a team of Applied Optics specialists. We are involved in running these programmes in both Primary and Post-Primary schools where the programmes are tailored to the curriculum and concentrating on optics and light. The students may also visit the Groups research centre where presentations and laboratory tours are arranged.

Emotion Understanding, Social Competence and School Achievement in Children from Primary School in Portugal

PubMed Central

Franco, Maria da Glória; Beja, Maria J.; Candeias, Adelinda; Santos, Natalie

2017-01-01

This study analyzes the relationship between emotion understanding and school achievement in children of primary school, considering age, gender, fluid intelligence, mother’s educational level and social competence. In this study participated 406 children of primary school. The instruments used were the Test of Emotion Comprehension, Colored Progressive Matrices of Raven, Socially Action and Interpersonal Problem Solving Scale. The structural equation model showed the relationship between the emotion understanding and school performance depends on a mediator variable that in the context of the study was designated social competence. Age appear as an explanatory factor of the differences found, the mother’s educational level only predicts significantly social emotional competence, fluid intelligence is a predictor of emotion understanding, school achievement and social emotional competence. Regarding the influence of sex, emotional understanding does not emerge as a significant predictor of social emotional competence in girls or boys. Multiple relationships between the various factors associated with school achievement and social emotional competence are discussed as well as their implications in promoting child development and school success. PMID:28861014

Online Resource-Based Learning Environment: Case Studies in Primary Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

So, Winnie Wing Mui; Ching, Fiona Ngai Ying

2012-01-01

This paper discusses the creation of learning environments with online resources by three primary school teachers for pupil's learning of science-related topics with reference to the resource-based e-learning environments (RBeLEs) framework. Teachers' choice of contexts, resources, tools, and scaffolds in designing the learning environments are…

Parental Involvement in Primary Children's Homework in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tam, Vicky C.; Chan, Raymond M.

2009-01-01

This study draws upon an ecological perspective to examine parental involvement in homework and its relationship with primary school children's educational outcomes within the Chinese sociocultural context of Hong Kong. Data were collected using homework diaries and questionnaires administered to 1,309 pairs of students and parents spanning all…

Interactivity and ICT in the Primary School: Categories of Learner Interactions with and without ICT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beauchamp, Gary

2011-01-01

This article will analyse primary teachers' views on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the broader context of pedagogy in the classroom. It uses data collected from primary teacher interviews in the early stages of a funded research project (which analysed interactivity and ICT in learning and teaching) to explore and…

A Cross-Grade Comparison to Examine the Context Effect on the Relationships among Family Resources, School Climate, Learning Participation, Science Attitude, and Science Achievement Based on TIMSS 2003 in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Shin-Feng; Lin, Chien-Yu; Wang, Jing-Ru; Lin, Sheau-Wen; Kao, Huey-Lien

2012-01-01

This study aimed to examine whether the relationships among family resources, school climate, learning participation, science attitude, and science achievement are different between primary school students and junior high school students within one educational system. The subjects included 4,181 Grade 4 students and 5,074 Grade 8 students who…

Between 'Enrichment' and 'Endangerment': 'Cultural Diversity' and the Politics of Belonging in the Berlin School Choice Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roch, Anna; Dean, Isabel; Breidenstein, Georg

2018-01-01

Even though choice is not officially a feature in the German primary school system, some parents intervene in determining which school their child attends. Especially in urban contexts, the informal school market is growing. This demand is based on promises with respect to a certain quality of education as well as on issues that prevail in certain…

Pedagogical Practices: The Case of Multi-Class Teaching in Fiji Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lingam, Govinda I.

2007-01-01

Multi-class teaching is a common phenomenon in small schools not only in Fiji, but also in many countries. The aim of the present study was to determine the teaching styles adopted by teachers in the context of multi-class teaching. A qualitative case study research design was adopted. This included a school with multi-class teaching as the norm.…

Teachers' Stages of Concern for Media Literacy Education and the Integration of MLE in Chinese Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hui; Zhu, Chang; Sang, Guoyuan

2014-01-01

Media literacy is an essential skill for living in the twenty-first century. School-based instruction is a critical part of media literacy education (MLE), while research on teachers' concerns and integration of MLE is not sufficient. The objective of this study is to investigate teachers' stages of concern (SoC), perceived need, school context,…

Social-Emotional Needs: A School-Based Approach to Preventing Suicide among Students with Gifts and Talents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Tracy L.

2012-01-01

This article provides a succinct primer on some of the basic constructs that adults need to know to help keep students with gifts and talents from completing suicide. It focuses on the school as the primary context to look out for potentially suicidal gifted students. This makes sense, as students spend a considerable amount of time in school,…

Mindful Learning: A Case Study of Langerian Mindfulness in Schools.

PubMed

Davenport, Chase; Pagnini, Francesco

2016-01-01

The K-12 classroom applications of mindfulness as developed by Ellen Langer are discussed in a case study of a first-year charter school. Langerian Mindfulness, which is the act of drawing distinctions and noticing novelty, is deeply related to well-being and creativity, yet its impact has yet to be tested at the primary or secondary school level. The objective of the article is to display how Langerian Mindfulness strategies could increase 21st century skills and Social-Emotional Learning in primary classrooms. The New School San Francisco, an inquiry-based, socioeconomically and racially integrated charter school, serves as a model for mindful teaching and learning strategies. It is concluded that when mindful strategies are implemented, students have significant opportunities to exercise the 21st century skills of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Langerian Mindfulness is also considered as a tool for increasing Social-Emotional Learning in integrated classrooms. It is recommended that mindful interventions be further investigated in the primary and secondary school context.

Homework Emotion Management at the Secondary School Level: Antecedents and Homework Completion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Jianzhong

2011-01-01

Background/Context: For many children, doing homework becomes an emotionally charged event and one of the most disappointing aspects of school life. It is surprising to note, however, that homework emotion management is noticeably absent from much contemporary homework literature. Purpose: The primary propose of the present study was to propose…

Making Waves: Towards a Pedagogy of Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler-Singh, Lorraine; Robertson, Leena Helavaara

2016-01-01

This article re-examines the classroom discourse context in early years settings and primary schools. It seeks to understand why such slow progress has been made in developing talk for learning in recent years. The article acknowledges that children are already expert language users by the time they start school and offers practitioners practical…

Primary School Leadership: Understanding Preparation in the Tóraíocht Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuinness, Sam; Cunningham, Verena

2015-01-01

In the context of an impending global educational recruitment crisis, together with the recognition of the critical impact of effective leadership on educational outcomes, leadership preparation has become a focus of educational reform worldwide. The design and delivery of pre-appointment programmes for school leadership has significance for…

An Exploration of Planning for English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) Academic Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Elizabeth

2012-01-01

This paper arises from a concern that in English-as-foreign-language (EFL) curricula there are apparently unsystematic and linguistically under-theorized approaches to language development. The paper explores EFL unit plans across upper primary and lower secondary schooling, in a context where secondary school graduates need English mainly for…

Exploring Intercultural Awareness in the Primary Modern Language Classroom: The Potential of the New Model of European Language Portfolio Developed by the Irish Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rantz, Frederique; Horan, Pascaline

2005-01-01

This paper reflects a key concern for teacher trainers: how can primary language teachers promote the development of intercultural awareness among their pupils? It addresses the concept of intercultural awareness as it applies to young learners and refers more specifically to the context of the Irish primary classroom and its curriculum. It argues…

"Give Me a Lesson and I'll Deliver It": Teaching Assistants' Experiences of Leading Primary Mathematics Lessons in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houssart, Jenny

2013-01-01

Teaching Assistants (TAs) in primary schools in England have a growing pedagogic role. For some, this sometimes includes responsibility for the whole class instead of the teacher. This article draws on 24 interview transcripts to examine the practice in the context of primary mathematics lessons and from TAs' viewpoints. Emergency cover is often…

Educational Policy and Children's Experience: Running Records in the Lower Primary Singaporean English Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Sally Ann

2011-01-01

In this article, I report on a small project involving the use of guided reading groups, levelled texts and running records in a multilingual primary school in Singapore. I focus on running records and ask whether their use is suitable pedagogically and practically for the Singaporean context. The analysis of 22 records of primary one and primary…

Science and Technology Education in the STES Context in Primary Schools: What Should It Take?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoller, Uri

2011-10-01

Striving for sustainability requires a paradigm shift in conceptualization, thinking, research and education, particularly concerning the science-technology-environment-society (STES) interfaces. Consequently, `STES literacy' requires the development of students' question asking, critical, evaluative system thinking, decision making and problem solving capabilities, in this context, via innovative implementable higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)-promoting teaching, assessment and learning strategies. The corresponding paradigms shift in science and technology education, such as from algorithmic teaching to HOCS-promoting learning is unavoidable, since it reflects the social pressure, worldwide, towards more accountable socially- and environmentally-responsible sustainable development. Since most of the STES- and, recently STEM (science-technology-engineering-mathematics)-related research in science education has been focused on secondary and tertiary education, it is vital to demonstrate the relevance of this multifaceted research to the science and technology teaching in primary schools. Our longitudinal STES education-related research and curriculum development point to the very little contribution, if any, of the traditional science teaching to "know", to the development of students' HOCS capabilities. On the other hand, there appears to be a `general agreement', that the contemporary dominant lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) teaching and assessment strategies applied in science and technology education are, in fact, restraining the natural curiosity and creativity of primary school (and younger?) pupils/children. Since creative thinking as well as evaluative system thinking, decision making, problem solving and … transfer constitute an integral part of the HOCS conceptual framework, the appropriateness of "HOCS promoting" teaching, and the relevance of science and technology, to elementary education in the STES context, is apparent. Therefore, our overriding guiding purpose was to provide any evidence-based research to the vital LOCS-to-HOCS paradigm shift in STES education. The findings of, and conclusions derived from our longitudinal research on HOCS development within STES-oriented and traditional education, suggest that both—science and technology education (STE) and STES education—are relevant to primary school education. Based on this, what it should take to insure success in this context, is thoroughly discussed.

The Story of an Educational Innovation: The MA in Catholic School Leadership at St. Mary's University College, Twickenham, 1997-2013. Principles, Pedagogy and Research Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, John; Murphy, Alan; Fincham, David

2015-01-01

Within the context of a national shortage of high quality applicants for senior leadership posts, there is a need to nurture future leaders in Catholic primary and secondary schools and to promote their professional development and formation. If they are to be fully effective, teachers in Catholic schools need continually to develop their…

The Role of the University Tutor in School-Based Work in Primary Schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ievers, Michael; Wylie, Ken; Gray, Colette; Ni Aingleis, Bernadette; Cummins, Brian

2013-01-01

There has been much international debate on the role of the university tutor in the supervision of student teachers during school-based work. This study focuses upon the Irish context, where there has been little research. It involves a comparative study of the views and attitudes of university staff, student teachers and class teachers from the…

Participatory Literacy Learning in an African Context: Perspectives from the Ombaderuku Primary School in the Arua District, Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngaka, Willy; Masaazi, Fred Masagazi

2015-01-01

This study documents the experiences of volunteer teacher research assistants in relation to pupils' interaction with parents, texts, and informal literacy practices in the community, and considers how these practices may enhance literacy instruction and production of local reading materials. The research site was located in the context of…

The Indonesian's Road Transportations as the Contexts to Support Primary School Students Learning Number Operation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kairuddin; Darmawijoyo

2011-01-01

This paper highlights the Indonesian's road transportation contexts, namely, angkot, that used in learning and teaching of addition and subtraction in first grade and second grade MIN-2 Palembang. PMRI approach that adopt from RME [Realistic Mathematics Education] was used in this design research. From teaching experiment was founded that the…

Family Context and Five-Year-Old Children's Attitudes toward Literacy When They Are Learning to Read

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Gulsah; Hill, Susan; Yates, Gregory

2016-01-01

This study explored associations in the family context, conceptualized as comprising parent-child practices and parental expectations, and five-year-old children's attitudes toward literacy. A total of 94 children from four primary schools and their parents participated in the study. Each child completed an individually administered Literacy…

Design and Implementation Issues in Surveying the Views of Young Children in Ethnolinguistically Diverse Developing Country Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Hilary A.; Haslett, Stephen J.

2016-01-01

This paper discusses issues in the development of a methodology appropriate for eliciting sound quantitative data from primary school children in the complex contexts of ethnolinguistically diverse developing countries. Although these issues often occur in field-based surveys, the large extent and compound effects of their occurrence in…

The Design of a Mathematics Problem Using Real-Life Context for Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Lu Pien

2013-01-01

In this paper the teachers' learning journey on designing a mathematics problem that involves a real-life context is reported. This is part of a larger project undertaken in a primary school in Singapore where the teachers were engaged in planning, observing and critiquing mathematics lessons to investigate teaching and learning. These unique…

Reading Linear Texts on Paper versus Computer Screen: Effects on Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mangen, Anne; Walgermo, Bente R.; Bronnick, Kolbjorn

2013-01-01

Objective: To explore effects of the technological interface on reading comprehension in a Norwegian school context. Participants: 72 tenth graders from two different primary schools in Norway. Method: The students were randomized into two groups, where the first group read two texts (1400-2000 words) in print, and the other group read the same…

A Climate for Self-Efficacy: The Relationship between School Climate and Teacher Efficacy for Inclusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hosford, Susan; O'Sullivan, Siobhán

2016-01-01

Teacher efficacy represents a key construct in exploring successful implementation of inclusive policy. Teachers' impression of school climate is shown to relate to teacher efficacy; however, few studies pay due deference to its context/specific conceptualisation, with a particular lacuna in research noted in an Irish mainstream primary school…

Language Ideologies and Schooled Education in Rural Tanzania: The Case of Karagwe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wedin, Asa

2005-01-01

In this paper I argue that language policies for education have effects on pupils' educational possibilities. With the case of the Karagwe district in Tanzania the research suggests that the policy of "Swahili only" in primary school education favours the small minority of the children that live in a context where Swahili is used. This…

National Efforts to Bring Reform to Scale in High-Poverty Schools: Outcomes and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borman, Geoffrey D.

2005-01-01

Education in the United States is a decentralized system composed of highly variable practices, programs, and school contexts. The primary technology of education, teaching, is highly complex and is typically designed and implemented by teachers who have traditionally enjoyed a great deal of autonomy and independence from regular inspection. The…

Exploring Singapore Primary School Students' Perceptions of Chinese Asynchronous Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chin, Wong Wan; Sum, Cheung Wing; Foon, Hew Khe

2008-01-01

Background: Asynchronous online discussion (AOD) has found widespread use in tertiary education and adult learning environment; however, there has been little research on its use in elementary school, especially in the context of the teaching of the Chinese Language. This study explores the use of AOD in a Chinese Language class in a primary…

Parent Decision-Making When Selecting Schools: The Case of Nepal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, Priyadarshani

2014-01-01

This paper analyzes the parent decision-making processes underlying school selection in Nepal. The analysis is based on primary survey and focus group data collected from parent meetings in diverse local education markets in two districts of Nepal in 2011. It highlights three main arguments that are less frequently discussed in the context of…

Finding "Mathematics": Parents Questioning School-Centered Approaches to Involvement in Children's Mathematics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jay, Tim; Rose, Jo; Simmons, Ben

2017-01-01

This paper reports on a study of parental involvement in children's mathematics learning in the context of a series of workshops carried out in four primary schools in the United Kingdom. Previous research suggests that, while there are high correlations between parental involvement and positive student outcomes, it can be difficult to raise…

Experiencing and Responding to Private Competition: The Importance of Subjectivity and Intermediate Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, Priyadarshani

2016-01-01

Despite substantial growth in private schooling in developing countries, there has been little attention paid to the question of how public schools are experiencing and responding to competition in these contexts. To address this research gap, I collected primary survey data from two districts in Nepal and used descriptive and logistic regression…

Finnish Primary School as a Learning Environment for Six-Year-Old Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havu-Nuutinen, Sari; Niikko, Anneli

2014-01-01

The aim of this qualitative case study is to explore how the teachers, parents and children describe the advantages and disadvantages of preschool education when it is located in the comprehensive school context. In addition, the study aims to clarify which dimensions of the learning environment occur in preschool? The learning environment is…

Children, Extracurricular Activities, and Digital Media: The Process of Displacement and School Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mourgela, Vasiliki; Pacurar, Ecaterina

2018-01-01

This work, situated in the Greek sociocultural context, attempts to analyze the time spent by primary school students on digital and traditional extracurricular activities and the impact of these activities on the educational outcome. The first objective was to determine, by means of a quantitative survey, if the children as "digital…

Capacity Building of a District Education System: Insights from Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datta, Dipankar; Phillip, Serene; Verma, Prashant Kumar

2009-01-01

Both (a) in-school factors such as over-focus on academic performance, absence of uniform, and corporal punishment, and (b) out-of school factors such as caring for ailing parents, child labor, etc., hinder participation of orphan and vulnerable children (PVC) in Free Primary Education (FOE) system in Nyasa Province, Kenya. In this context Concern…

Community Strikes Back? Belonging and Exclusion in Rural English Villages in Networked Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hillyard, Sam; Bagley, Carl

2015-01-01

The paper draws upon ethnographic research of two contrasting English primary schools and their villages to explore the themes of belonging and exclusion in contemporary rural contexts. The paper first describes the schools and the villages. A second, conceptual section explores the meaning of rurality in relation to the themes of class, belonging…

Using Student Voice to Examine Teacher Practices at a Cyber Charter High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borup, Jered; Stevens, Mark A.

2017-01-01

Efforts to identify K-12 online instructional best practices and standards have been limited because they largely ignored students' voice--the primary stakeholder in any educational context. In this case study, we conducted 20 interviews among 10 students enrolled in a cyber charter high school. Qualitative analysis of interviews found that…

School Choice with Education Vouchers: An Empirical Case Study from Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Amelia N. Y.; Bagley, Carl

2016-01-01

This paper seeks to question what impact education vouchers have on the process of school choice. The context examined in the paper is the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme ("Voucher Scheme") introduced in 2007 in Hong Kong. Using a Straussian grounded theory method, data collected from 40 parent interviews are coded, analysed and…

The Challenges of Advancing Fiscal Equity in a Resource-Strained Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malen, Betty; Dayhoff, Justin; Egan, Laura; Croninger, Robert G.

2017-01-01

Weighted student funding (WSF) is a multifaceted school finance, management, and governance reform that is gaining attention. While WSF has a number of goals, its primary objective is to redress intra-district funding inequities. This article draws on a mixed-methods study of WSF in Prince George's County Public Schools to examine the initiative's…

Child Conduct Problems across Home and School Contexts: A Person-Centered Approach

PubMed Central

Sulik, Michael J.; Blair, Clancy; Greenberg, Mark

2018-01-01

To examine patterns of conduct problems across the home and school context, we used latent class analysis to analyze primary caregivers' and teachers' ratings on the conduct problems subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (R. Goodman, 1997) in the Family Life Project (N = 1,292), a prospective study of child development in rural and small town contexts. We found a similar four-class solution at five and seven years of age. In decreasing prevalence, the following classes were identified: (1) low symptoms reported by both informants (low cross-context); (2) high parent-reported symptoms, low teacher-reported symptoms (home context); (3) low parent-reported symptoms, moderate teacher-reported symptoms (school context); and (4) high symptoms reported by both informants (high cross-context). Classes exhibited stability from age five to age seven: children were more likely to remain in the same class than to transition to a different class, and longitudinal stability was especially high for children in the low cross-context class at age 5. A number of child and family characteristics measured in early childhood (executive function, verbal ability, poverty-related risk, sensitive parenting, and parental depressive symptoms) were associated with class membership at age five and age seven, but were generally not associated with longitudinal transitions between classes. PMID:29720784

The Cost of Public Primary Education in Indonesia: Do Schools Need More Money?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Blane D.; Pattinasarany, Daan; Sahn, David E.

2011-01-01

In the international context, the quality of public primary education in Indonesia is sub-standard. The assumption of officials at all levels of government is that a significant increase in funding will be required to improve education performance. The analysis in this paper shows that money does indeed matter for the attainment of primary…

Primary School Teachers' Use of Digital Resources with Interactive Whiteboards: The Australian Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Damian; Phelps, Renata; Urane, Nikkita; Lee, Mal

2012-01-01

As interactive whiteboards appear in increasing numbers in primary classrooms, questions will continue to be asked about the effectiveness of these devices in supporting teaching and learning. It is not the board itself, however, which is likely to make a difference to student learning outcomes, but the resources which teachers choose to use in…

"I Didn't Always Perceive Myself as a "Science Person"": Examining Efficacy for Primary Science Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mansfield, Caroline F.; Woods-McConney, Amanda

2012-01-01

Teacher efficacy has become an important field of research especially in subjects teachers may find challenging, such as science. This study investigates the sources of teachers' efficacy for teaching science in primary schools in the context of authentic teaching situations with a view to better understanding sources of teachers' efficacy…

Singapore Primary Students' Pursuit of Multiple Achievement Goals: A Latent Profile Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ning, Hoi Kwan

2018-01-01

Based on measures of approach and avoidance mastery and performance goals delineated in the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework, this study utilized a person-centered approach to examine Singapore primary students' (N = 819) multiple goals pursuit in the general school context. Latent profile analysis identified six types of students with distinct…

What Does the Eye See? Reading Online Primary Source Photographs in History

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levesque, Stephane; Ng-A-Fook, Nicholas; Corrigan, Julie

2014-01-01

This exploratory study looks at how a sample of preservice teachers and historians read visuals in the context of school history. The participants used eye tracking technology and think-aloud protocol, as they examined a series of online primary source photographs from a virtual exhibit. Voluntary participants (6 students and 2 professional…

Challenges for a New Bilingual Program: Implementing the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme in Four Colombian Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lochmiller, Chad R.; Lucero, Audrey; Lester, Jessica Nina

2016-01-01

The International Baccalaureate (IB) has expanded in Latin America. Drawing from a larger multi-sited qualitative case study, we examined the challenges associated with the implementation of the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) in a Colombian and bilingual context. Findings highlight (1) the intersecting nature of challenges associated with the…

Defining Primary Geography from Teachers' Expertise: What Chilean Teachers Mean by Geography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salinas-Silva, Victor; Perez-Gallardo, Patricio; Arenas-Martija, Andoni

2015-01-01

This article examines teachers' subject expertise in a context where geography could be considered a neglected school subject. Using an empirical approach to the problem, the article aims to provide a view on the dynamics of teaching primary geography in Chile, through considering teachers' narratives on curriculum making and their associated…

Attitudes to School Science Held by Primary Children in Pakistan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iqbal, Hafiz Muhammad; Nageen, Tabassum; Pell, Anthony William

2008-01-01

Attitudes to science scales developed earlier in England have been used in and around a Pakistan city with children in Primary/Elementary Grades 4-8. The limitations of a "transferred scale" in a culturally different context are apparent in a failure to reproduce the English factor patterns, but items are identified to serve as a base…

Knowing in Primary Physical Education in the UK: Negotiating Movement Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Gavin; Quennerstedt, Mikael

2015-01-01

This paper aims to understand how pupils and teachers actions-in-context constitute being-a-pupil and being-a-teacher within a primary school physical education (PE) movement culture. Dewey and Bentley's theory of transaction, which views organism-in-environment-as-a-whole, enables the researcher to explore how actions-in-ongoing activities…

Perceptions of Multigrade Teaching: A Narrative Inquiry into the Voices of Stakeholders in Multigrade Contexts in Rural Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kivunja, Charles; Sims, Margaret

2015-01-01

Multigrade teaching is used widely in primary schools throughout the Majority World. This study reports the findings of a narrative inquiry undertaken to answer the question: what are the perceptions of stakeholders in rural Zambian multigrade contexts about multigrade teaching as an education strategy? We were interested in exploring the reality…

Effect of Language Context on Ratings of Shy and Unsociable Behaviors in English Language Learner Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ash, Andrea C.; Rice, Mabel L.; Redmond, Sean M.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to explore the effect of language context on the socially withdrawn behaviors of school-age-children who are English language learners (ELLs) from middle- to high-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. This is one of the 1st studies to address the frequently confused concepts of shyness and…

Professionalism and the Post-Performative Teacher: New Teachers Reflect on Autonomy and Accountability in the English School System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkins, Chris

2011-01-01

This paper explores the impact of the increasingly performative nature of the assessment of teachers' performance in England leading to the introduction of "Professional Standards for Teachers" in 2007. It reports the findings of a small-scale study of newly-qualified primary school teachers in the context of literature on teacher…

Foreign Language Teachers Organising Learning during Their First Year of Teaching Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stelma, Juup; Onat-Stelma, Zeynep

2010-01-01

This paper explores the experience of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers moving from teaching older learners to teaching younger learners. The context of the study is the Turkish private primary school sector. In response to a 1997 educational reform, many schools in this sector introduced English as a subject in the first year of…

The Formation of Interpersonal and Learning Relationships in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School: Students, Teachers and School Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tobbell, Jane; O'Donnell, Victoria L.

2013-01-01

The importance of relationships in education has been well established in the literature. However, the nature of relationship is seldom defined and as a result interpersonal and learning relationships are conflated and so implicitly treated as synonymous. Here we argue that learning relationships are different from interpersonal relationships, but…

Literacy Coaching Roles in Diverse Contexts of Teaching and Learning: New Ways of Working

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Leent, Lisa J.; Exley, Beryl

2013-01-01

As the demands placed on the literacy coach have evolved, so too have the roles of these educational providers who are often responsible for working with school teams to turn around student performance on standardized literacy tests. One literacy coach based in a Queensland primary school recounts her experiences via open-ended interview over a…

Pedagogic Change by Zambian Primary School Teachers Participating in the OER4Schools Professional Development Programme for One Year

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hennessy, S.; Haßler, B.; Hofmann, R.

2016-01-01

Supporting and upskilling teachers are essential to enhancing the quality of learning in developing contexts -- the focus of Education For All -- yet little evidence exists concerning what kinds of teacher education are actually most effective and what changes in "quality" are desired and feasible. This paper illustrates how a concrete,…

"Emboldened Bodies": Social Class, School Health Policy and Obesity Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Pian, Laura

2012-01-01

This paper examines the multiple ways in which health policy relating to obesity, diet and exercise is recontextualised and mediated by teachers and pupils in the context of social class in the UK. Drawing on a case study of a middle-class primary school in central England, the paper documents the complexity of the policy process, its uncertainty,…

Unveiling the Promise of Community Cultural Wealth to Sustaining Latina/o Students' College-Going Information Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liou, Daniel D.; Antrop-Gonzalez, Rene; Cooper, Robert

2009-01-01

This article examines the norms of school failure and illuminates ways in which low-income students of color respond to their needs for educational advancement when conditions to support their college-going identities are severely limited in the school context. This study's primary finding confirms the value of a grassroots approach to improving…

Search for Trustful Leadership in Secondary Schools: Is Empowerment the Solution?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freire, Carla; Fernandes, António

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the access to structures of empowerment by teachers in primary and secondary education impacts on their trust of the headmaster of the school management board. Using the theoretical framework of empowerment and trust in the context of companies, one adapted the constructs of these scales to the reality…

An Examination of Current Adapted Physical Activity Provision in Primary and Special Schools in Ireland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Susan

2011-01-01

The Disability in Sport Taskforce report examining adapted physical activity (APA) in the Irish context (Department of Education and Science, 1999) found that teachers involved in primary mainstream and specialist settings expressed a grave lack of self-confidence, due to lack of training, in the delivery of APA programmes to children with special…

Teaching the "Big Ideas" of Electricity at Primary Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Steven

2014-01-01

Electricity can be a fun topic in a primary school class. It includes many practical experiments and links to real life contexts. However, teachers can feel daunted by the subject as they think they do not know enough about the science behind it to answer off-topic questions. The reason for the difficulty is that much of the science takes place…

Primary Teachers' Understanding of Four Chemical Phenomena: Effect of an In-Service Training Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papageorgiou, George; Stamovlasis, Dimitrios; Johnson, Philip

2013-01-01

One hundred and thirty Greek primary school teachers participated in a study, where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention on chemical changes was tested. The study took place in the wider context of an in-service training course where the key feature was an innovative approach based on the concept of a substance and its…

Teacher Change during Induction: Development of Beginning Primary Teachers' Knowledge, Beliefs and Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blömeke, Sigrid; Hoth, Jessica; Döhrmann, Martina; Busse, Andreas; Kaiser, Gabriele; König, Johannes

2015-01-01

Beginning primary teachers' knowledge and beliefs were assessed at the end of teacher education and 4 years later. In addition, they reported about their school context and job satisfaction and took a video-based assessment on their perception, interpretation, and decision-making skills. Research questions were (1) whether we have to deal with a…

Supporting Scientific Conceptual Consciousness or Learning in "A Roundabout Way" in Play-Based Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleer, Marilyn

2009-01-01

Little change has been noted over 10 years of research into teacher knowledge and confidence to teach science in the early and primary years of schooling. There is a significant body of research demonstrating that early childhood and primary teachers lack confidence and competence in teaching science. However, much of this research blames the…

Values in the Curricula of Religious Education and Social Studies in Primary Schools in the Context of Local-Universal Dilemma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaymakcan, Recep; Meydan, Hasan

2012-01-01

This study aims to identify the approach of teaching curricula of primary courses of religious education and social studies values and to determine the weight of values found in these programs with regard to various aspects such as being open to novelty-conservatism, individualism-being social, nationalism-universalism, self-expansion-self…

Seasonality and Access to Education: The Case of Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Research Monograph No. 31

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadley, Sierd

2010-01-01

This paper draws together research on seasonality, child labour and education in the context of primary education in sub-Saharan Africa. It describes how income poverty and demand for labour can fluctuate within and between years, affecting participation and progression through school systems. It highlights how analysis of the private and public…

An Effective Introduction to Technology and Design in Norwegian Primary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirkeby, Pal J.

2010-01-01

How can young pupils get "An effective introduction" to technology and design at the primary level in the Norwegian context? This question is highlighted with examples based on case studies at five classes in two schools doing their first technology and design project at grades 1 or 2 (age 6-8 years). The project was about air rockets.…

The Views of Nigerian Teachers in Public and Private Primary Schools on the Teaching of Early Literacy in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okebukola, Foluso

2012-01-01

Drawing on the bilingual policies and biliteracy programmes of African nations, this paper discusses the context of literacy education in Nigeria and examines Nigerian early literacy teachers' attitudes to teaching literacy and literacy teaching practices as informed by the National Policy on Education, Primary English Language Curriculum and the…

Measuring Primary Students' Graph Interpretation Skills via a Performance Assessment: A Case Study in Instrument Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterman, Karen; Cranston, Kayla A.; Pryor, Marie; Kermish-Allen, Ruth

2015-01-01

This case study was conducted within the context of a place-based education project that was implemented with primary school students in the USA. The authors and participating teachers created a performance assessment of standards-aligned tasks to examine 6-10-year-old students' graph interpretation skills as part of an exploratory research…

Big Data with Small Cases: A Method for Discovering Students Centered Contexts for Physics Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bülbül, M. S.

2015-01-01

This article proposes a methodology that could assist teachers in understanding their students' primary needs or interests to decide on the kind of examples or contexts to be used in the classroom. The methodology was tested on 100 volunteers from university (N = 50) and high school (N = 50) in Ankara, Turkey. The participants were asked to write…

Design-Driven Education in Primary and Secondary School Contexts. A Qualitative Study on Teachers' Conceptions on Designing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heikkilä, Anni-Sofia; Vuopala, Essi; Leinonen, Teemu

2017-01-01

Design in educational contexts is a relatively new topic. The basic idea of design and design-driven education is that students and teachers participate together in the planning, implementation and evaluation of learning projects. However, how design-driven education should be carried out in practice is yet to be established. Therefore, the aim of…

Unspoken Playground Rules Discourage Adolescent Physical Activity in School: A Focus Group Study of Constructs in the Prototype Willingness Model.

PubMed

Wheatley, Catherine M; Davies, Emma L; Dawes, Helen

2018-03-01

The health benefits of exercise in school are recognized, yet physical activity continues to decline during early adolescence despite numerous interventions. In this study, we investigated whether the prototype willingness model, an account of adolescent decision making that includes both reasoned behavioral choices and unplanned responses to social environments, might improve understanding of physical activity in school. We conducted focus groups with British pupils aged 12 to 13 years and used deductive thematic analysis to search for themes relating to the model. Participants described reasoned decisions about physical activity outside school and unplanned choices to be inactive during break, in response to social contexts described as more "judgmental" than in primary school. Social contexts appeared characterized by anxiety about competence, negative peer evaluation, and inactive playground norms. The prototype willingness model might more fully explain physical activity in school than reasoned behavioral models alone, indicating potential for interventions targeting anxieties about playground social environments.

Social Persuasions by Teachers as a Source of Student Self-Efficacy: The Moderating Role of Perceived Teacher Credibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Won, Sungjun; Lee, Sun-Young; Bong, Mimi

2017-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the degree to which Korean middle school students perceived their teachers to be credible made a difference in the effectiveness of teachers' persuasion as a source of students' academic self-efficacy. In the contexts of both general school learning and a specific subject of Korean…

Supporting Early Oral Language Skills for Preschool ELL in an EFL Context, Mauritius: Possibilities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auleear Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah

2015-01-01

In Mauritius, Kreol is the home language of the majority of school children, while English is the main language of literacy and the main written medium of instruction as from the first year of primary schooling. This has had a backwash effect on the preschool sector, where English is introduced. A cross-sectional study of local preschools revealed…

Free Education and Social Inequality in Ugandan Primary Schools: A Step Backward or a Step in the Right Direction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuze, Tia L.; Leibbrandt, Murray

2011-01-01

The intent of this study is to understand both direct and indirect resource effects in the context of a mass education system in Uganda. We find that under certain conditions, policies that promote physical resource availability can lead to substantial equity gains. A school's social composition appears to improve educational quality but it is…

Student Teachers' Perceptions of the Effects of Poverty on Learners' Educational Attainment and Well-Being: Perspectives from England and Scotland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Sue; Thompson, Ian; McNicholl, Jane; Thomson, Jane

2016-01-01

This article reports on two UK initial teacher education studies from two contrasting contexts: a secondary school course in Oxford, England and a primary school course in Strathclyde, Scotland. The questions of how student teachers understand the effect of poverty on pupils' educational achievement, and what they as prospective teachers can do to…

The contribution of schools to supporting the well being of children affected by HIV in eastern Zimbabwe.

PubMed

Pufall, Erica L; Gregson, Simon; Eaton, Jeffrey W; Masoka, Tidings; Mpandaguta, Edith; Andersen, Louise; Skovdal, Morten; Nyamukapa, Constance; Campbell, Catherine

2014-07-01

Schools are often cited as a source of support for orphans and children affected by HIV/AIDS in populations experiencing generalized HIV epidemics and severe poverty. Here we investigate the success of schools at including and supporting the well being of vulnerable children in rural Zimbabwe. Data from a cross-sectional household survey of 4577 children (aged 6-17 years), conducted between 2009 and 2011, were linked to data on the characteristics of 28 primary schools and 18 secondary schools from a parallel monitoring and evaluation facility survey. We construct two measures of school quality (one general and one HIV-specific) and use multivariable regression to test whether these were associated with improved educational outcomes and well being for vulnerable children. School quality was not associated with primary or secondary school attendance, but was associated with children's being in the correct grade for age [adjusted odds ratio 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-3.5, P = 0.01]. General and HIV-specific school quality had significant positive effects on well being in the primary school-age children (coefficient 5.1, 95% CI 2.4-7.7, P < 0.01 and coefficient 3.0, 95% CI 0.4-5.6, P = 0.02, respectively), but not in the secondary school-age children (P > 0.2). There was no evidence that school quality provided an additional benefit to the well being of vulnerable children. Community HIV prevalence was negatively associated with well being in the secondary school-age children (coefficient -0.7, 95% CI -1.3 to -0.1, P = 0.03). General and HIV-specific school quality may enhance the well being of primary school-age children in eastern Zimbabwe. Local community context also plays an important role in child well being.

Teachers' Beliefs and Self-Reported Use of Inquiry in Science Education in Public Primary Schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucero, Maria; Valcke, Martin; Schellens, Tammy

2013-06-01

This paper describes Ecuadorian in-service teachers and their science teaching practices in public primary schools. We wanted to find out to what extent teachers implement inquiry activities in science teaching, the level of support they provide, and what type of inquiry they implement. Four questionnaires applied to 173 teachers resulted in the identification of high context beliefs and moderately high self-efficacy beliefs. Teachers declared to implement activities mostly to develop understanding of the material, as contrast to actual manipulation of data and/or coming to conclusions. They adopt rather a strictly guided approach in contrast to giving autonomy to learners to work on their own. Finally, teachers keep control with regard to question formulation and choice in solution procedures, which constrains the development of real inquiry. When comparing teacher beliefs, we found that teachers' context beliefs make a difference in the level of support that teachers provide to their students. Teachers with lower context beliefs ask students to perform inquiry activities on their own to a lesser extent when compared with teachers with higher context beliefs. This implies that further research on the implementation of inquiry in science teaching should take into account teachers' differences in their context beliefs. We also found out that the use of high or low support in inquiry activities remained the same for teachers with either higher or lower self-efficacy beliefs.

Teacher and Child Talk in Active Learning and Whole-Class Contexts: Some Implications for Children from Economically Less Advantaged Home Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martlew, Joan; Ellis, Sue; Stephen, Christine; Ellis, Jennifer

2010-01-01

This paper reports the experiences of 150 children and six primary teachers when active learning pedagogies were introduced into the first year of primary schools. Although active learning increased the amount of talk between children, those from socio-economically advantaged homes talked more than those from less advantaged homes. Also,…

Do schools differ in suicide risk? The influence of school and neighbourhood on attempted suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm among secondary school pupils.

PubMed

Young, Robert; Sweeting, Helen; Ellaway, Anne

2011-11-17

Rates of suicide and poor mental health are high in environments (neighbourhoods and institutions) where individuals have only weak social ties, feel socially disconnected and experience anomie - a mismatch between individual and community norms and values. Young people spend much of their time within the school environment, but the influence of school context (school connectedness, ethos and contextual factors such as school size or denomination) on suicide-risk is understudied. Our aim is to explore if school context is associated with rates of attempted suicide and suicide-risk at age 15 and self-harm at age 19, adjusting for confounders. A longitudinal school-based survey of 1698 young people surveyed when aged 11, (primary school), 15 (secondary school) and in early adulthood (age 19). Participants provided data about attempted suicide and suicide-risk at age 15 and deliberate self-harm at 19. In addition, data were collected about mental health at age 11, social background (gender, religion, etc.), and at age 15, perception of local area (e.g. neighbourhood cohesion, safety/civility and facilities), school connectedness (school engagement, involvement, etc.) and school context (size, denomination, etc.). A dummy variable was created indicating a religious 'mismatch', where pupils held a different faith from their school denomination. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic regression. After adjustment for confounders, pupils attempted suicide, suicide-risk and self-harm were all more likely among pupils with low school engagement (15-18% increase in odds for each SD change in engagement). While holding Catholic religious beliefs was protective, attending a Catholic school was a risk factor for suicidal behaviours. This pattern was explained by religious 'mismatch': pupils of a different religion from their school were approximately 2-4 times more likely to attempt suicide, be a suicide-risk or self-harm. With several caveats, we found support for the importance of school context for suicidality and self-harm. School policies promoting school connectedness are uncontroversial. Devising a policy to reduce risks to pupils holding a different faith from that of their school may be more problematic.

Do schools differ in suicide risk? the influence of school and neighbourhood on attempted suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm among secondary school pupils

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Rates of suicide and poor mental health are high in environments (neighbourhoods and institutions) where individuals have only weak social ties, feel socially disconnected and experience anomie - a mismatch between individual and community norms and values. Young people spend much of their time within the school environment, but the influence of school context (school connectedness, ethos and contextual factors such as school size or denomination) on suicide-risk is understudied. Our aim is to explore if school context is associated with rates of attempted suicide and suicide-risk at age 15 and self-harm at age 19, adjusting for confounders. Methods A longitudinal school-based survey of 1698 young people surveyed when aged 11, (primary school), 15 (secondary school) and in early adulthood (age 19). Participants provided data about attempted suicide and suicide-risk at age 15 and deliberate self-harm at 19. In addition, data were collected about mental health at age 11, social background (gender, religion, etc.), and at age 15, perception of local area (e.g. neighbourhood cohesion, safety/civility and facilities), school connectedness (school engagement, involvement, etc.) and school context (size, denomination, etc.). A dummy variable was created indicating a religious 'mismatch', where pupils held a different faith from their school denomination. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic regression. Results After adjustment for confounders, pupils attempted suicide, suicide-risk and self-harm were all more likely among pupils with low school engagement (15-18% increase in odds for each SD change in engagement). While holding Catholic religious beliefs was protective, attending a Catholic school was a risk factor for suicidal behaviours. This pattern was explained by religious 'mismatch': pupils of a different religion from their school were approximately 2-4 times more likely to attempt suicide, be a suicide-risk or self-harm. Conclusions With several caveats, we found support for the importance of school context for suicidality and self-harm. School policies promoting school connectedness are uncontroversial. Devising a policy to reduce risks to pupils holding a different faith from that of their school may be more problematic. PMID:22093491

Permeating the Social Justice Ideals of Equality and Equity within the Context of Early Years: Challenges for Leadership in Multi-Cultural and Mono-Cultural Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mistry, Malini; Sood, Krishan

2015-01-01

This paper explores the ideology of social justice through links between equality and equity within Early Years and what remain the challenges for leadership. Questionnaires and interviews in English multi-cultural and mono-cultural schools with Early Years age phases were conducted. The findings showed that the ideology of social justice,…

Transition of Children from Preschool and Home Contexts to Grade 1 in Two Township Primary Schools in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Margetts, Kay; Phatudi, Nkidi Caroline

2013-01-01

In South Africa, the development of the 2001 White Paper No. 5 on Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been an instrumental policy in the development of changes to assist in preparing children for formal schooling, along with a strong focus on early childhood education. However the extent to which these are being enacted is relatively unknown.…

Analysis of Students’ Incorrect Answers on the Topic of Roman Numerals in The Fourth-Grade of Primary School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selvianiresa, D.; Jupri, Al

2017-02-01

Mathematics has an important role in solving problems related to mathematical symbols. Mathematics topics are related to the daily life of students, as well as mathematics in the primary school level. In this paper, we report the results of research that aims to understand the difficulties of primary school students towards mathematics, especially on the topic of Roman numerals. The subject of this research included 38 students of fourth grade students from a primary school in the city of Bandung. The results showed that the teacher is more likely do the learning to deliver topic directly to students, rather than having to relatethe learning with a real context. In addition, after the teacher gave some exercises to students, we observed that there are some students’ answers that are unpredictable and made errors. Unexpected answers are caused by student’s unconscientious, misunderstanding, or inability to memorize in seven Roman numeral in general. The results of this analysis can be used to develop teacher competence in the teaching and learning process in the future. In this way, we expect the teacher can prepare various student responses to the given problems in the learning process.

TEDS-M Encyclopedia: A Guide to Teacher Education Context, Structure, and Quality Assurance in 17 Countries. Findings from the IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwille, John, Ed.; Ingvarson, Lawrence, Ed.; Holdgreve-Resendez, Richard, Ed.

2013-01-01

The IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) is the first large-scale international study of the preparation of primary and lower-secondary teachers. The study investigated the pedagogical and subject-specific knowledge that future primary and lower secondary school teachers acquire during their mathematics teacher…

Developing Reading Comprehension through Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rojas-Drummond, Sylvia; Mazón, Nancy; Littleton, Karen; Vélez, Maricela

2014-01-01

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called "Learning Together" (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in…

Unlocking Mathematics Teaching. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koshy, Valsa, Ed.; Murray, Jean, Ed.

2011-01-01

Now in a fully updated second edition, "Unlocking Mathematics Teaching" is a comprehensive guide to teaching mathematics in the primary school. Combining theory and practice, selected experts outline the current context of mathematics education. They suggest strategies, activities and examples to help develop readers understanding and confidence…

Recreating History with Archimedes and Pi

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santucci, Lora C.

2011-01-01

Using modern technology to examine classical mathematics problems at the high school level can reduce difficult computations and encourage generalizations. When teachers combine historical context with access to technology, they challenge advanced students to think deeply, spark interest in students whose primary interest is not mathematics, and…

Realizing the Cognitive Potential of Children 5-7 with a Mathematics Focus: Post-Test and Long-Term Effects of a 2-Year Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shayer, Michael; Adhami, Mundher

2010-01-01

Background: In the context of the British Government's policy directed on improving standards in schools, this paper presents research on the effects of a programme intended to promote the cognitive development of children in the first 2 years of primary school (Y1 & 2, aged 5-7 years). The programme is based on earlier work dealing with…

Origins: an outreach project towards children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moutou, C.

2010-12-01

We have developed and realised an outreach project about Origins, from the universe formation to the present epoch, in the context of the International Year of Astronomy. The aimed public is primary school, from 8 years age. Various media have been used, from the creation of a theater play to a pedagogical exhibition. The project was shown as a whole ten times during 2009, and the pedagogical elements are still used for school events.

Children exposure to atmospheric particles in indoor of Lisbon primary schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almeida, Susana Marta; Canha, Nuno; Silva, Ana; Freitas, Maria do Carmo; Pegas, Priscilla; Alves, Célia; Evtyugina, Margarita; Pio, Casimiro Adrião

2011-12-01

Evidence continues to emerge showing that poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can cause illness requiring absence from schools, and can cause acute health symptoms that decrease students' performance. Since children spend on average 7-11 h per weekday at school, the IAQ in classrooms is expected to play a key role in the assessment of the effects of their personal exposure to air pollution. Within this context the present study was conducted in order to fulfill three primary objectives 1) to measure the levels and the element composition of PM 2.5 and PM 2.5-10, in three primary schools placed in Lisbon, in order to assess the children exposure to these pollutants; 2) to study the relationship between indoor and outdoor atmospheric particles concentrations and 3) to investigate the sources of high aerosols concentrations in classrooms. In the studied classrooms, the concentrations of coarse particles significantly exceeded the ambient levels. Element concentrations suggested that the physical activity of students highly contributed to the re-suspension of sedimented particles. The high levels of CO 2 indicated that in these schools the ventilation was inadequate. This fact contributed to the establishment of poor IAQ.

Cost, price and profit: what influences students' decisions about fundraising?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sawatzki, Carly; Goos, Merrilyn

2018-02-01

This article examines some of the complexities associated with developing financially literate, enterprising young Australians through school education. We aimed to explore what seems to influence students in pricing goods for sale within their school community. Data were collected from more than 300 years 5 and 6 students (10-12 years of age) in four government primary schools in urban Darwin. Students were asked to respond to problem contexts involving fundraising as an example of an enterprise activity. The findings reveal that familiarity with fundraising initiatives, personal values, and language and literacy skills shaped the responses students gave. Students who gave loss-making and break-even responses were price conscious, but also tended to confuse terminology influencing mathematisation—i.e., "cost", "price" and "profit". Students who gave profit-making responses applied reasoning that was mathematical, financial and entrepreneurial, giving explanations that distinguished between these terms. We argue that these insights contribute to our understanding how upper primary school students interpret and respond to financial problems, with useful implications for schools and teachers.

Knowledge Development at the Time of Use: A Problem-Based Approach to Lesson Planning in Primary Teacher Training in a Low Knowledge, Low Skill Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newton, Douglas P.; Newton, Lynn D.

2009-01-01

Primary school teachers generally have to teach several subjects. Their training, however, is often fairly short and it is tempting to force-feed them with everything they need to know to teach these subjects. It is more realistic to accept that a short course cannot do everything. Instead, it would be better to equip these students with skills…

How to Teach Controversial Constitutional Issues Facing Women.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Mary Frances

1988-01-01

Explains that teaching the historical context of women's legal issues allows future voters to make informed decisions. Suggests ways of including the Equal Rights Amendment, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, and abortion in the high school curriculum. Recommends several anthologies of primary materials for teaching these issues. (LS)

Innovation in Course Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knipe, Sally

2016-01-01

Initial teacher education programs offered at Australian universities tend to qualify graduates to teach in the age-related contexts of early childhood/primary or secondary, a model that has reflected the organisational evolution of schools. Greater flexibility is required in the design of teacher preparation courses in order to produce graduates…

Science and Technology Education in the STES Context in Primary Schools: What Should It Take?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zoller, Uri

2011-01-01

Striving for sustainability requires a paradigm shift in conceptualization, thinking, research and education, particularly concerning the science-technology-environment-society (STES) interfaces. Consequently, "STES literacy" requires the development of students' question asking, critical, evaluative system thinking, decision making and problem…

Project-Based Learning: A Review of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kokotsaki, Dimitra; Menzies, Victoria; Wiggins, Andy

2016-01-01

Project-based learning (PBL) is an active student-centred form of instruction which is characterised by students' autonomy, constructive investigations, goal-setting, collaboration, communication and reflection within real-world practices. It has been explored in various contexts and in different phases of schooling, from primary to higher…

Shaping the future: a primary care research and development strategy for Scotland.

PubMed

Hannaford, P; Hunt, J; Sullivan, F; Wyke, S

1999-09-01

Primary care is at the centre of the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland; however, its R & D capacity is insufficiently developed. R&D is a potentially powerful way of improving the health and well-being of the population, and of securing high quality care for those who need it. In order to achieve this, any Scottish strategy for primary care R&D should aim to develop both a knowledge-based service and a research culture in primary care. In this way, decisions will be made based upon best available evidence, whatever the context. Building on existing practice and resources within primary care research, this strategy for achieving a thriving research culture in Scottish primary care has three key components: A Scottish School of Primary Care which will stimulate and co-ordinate a cohesive programme of research and training. A comprehensive system of funding for training and career development which will ensure access to a range of research training which will ensure that Scotland secures effective leadership for its primary care R&D. Designated research and development practices (DRDPs) which will build on the work of existing research practices, in the context of Local Health Care Co-operatives (LHCCs) and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), to create a co-operative environment in which a range of primary care professionals can work together to improve their personal and teams' research skills, and to support research development in their areas. A modest investment will create substantial increases in both the quality and quantity of research being undertaken in primary care. This investment should be targeted at both existing primary care professionals working in service settings in primary care, LHCCs and PCTs, and at centres of excellence (including University departments). A dual approach will foster collaboration and will allow existing centres of excellence both to undertake more primary care research and to support the development of service based primary care professionals in their research. Resources should be distributed equitably, taking into account demography, geography and the health needs of patients in Scotland. The strategy and its components must be seen as a whole. The Scottish School of Primary Care will stimulate and co-ordinate both research and training programmes. DRDPs will become research active and will participate in School-led training and research, and will contribute to research programmes. Comprehensive funding for training and career development will ensure that staff have the skills to participate in both DRDPs and in the School's activities. Thus, inadequate commitment to any one component of the strategy will mean that other components will be less successful. Commitment to all three components will maximise the chances of success.

Contextual Teaching and Learning Approach of Mathematics in Primary Schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selvianiresa, D.; Prabawanto, S.

2017-09-01

The Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) approach is an approach involving active students in the learning process to discover the concepts learned through to knowledge and experience of the students. Similar to Piaget’s opinion that learning gives students an actives trying to do new things by relating their experiences and building their own minds. When students to connecting mathematics with real life, then students can looking between a conceptual to be learned with a concept that has been studied. So that, students can developing of mathematical connection ability. This research is quasi experiment with a primary school in the city of Kuningan. The result showed that CTL learning can be successful, when learning used a collaborative interaction with students, a high level of activity in the lesson, a connection to real-world contexts, and an integration of science content with other content and skill areas. Therefore, CTL learning can be applied by techer to mathematics learning in primary schools.

The contribution of schools to supporting the well being of children affected by HIV in eastern Zimbabwe

PubMed Central

Pufall, Erica L.; Gregson, Simon; Eaton, Jeffrey W.; Masoka, Tidings; Mpandaguta, Edith; Andersen, Louise; Skovdal, Morten; Nyamukapa, Constance; Campbell, Catherine

2016-01-01

Objectives Schools are often cited as a source of support for orphans and children affected by HIV/AIDS in populations experiencing generalized HIV epidemics and severe poverty. Here we investigate the success of schools at including and supporting the well being of vulnerable children in rural Zimbabwe. Design Data from a cross-sectional household survey of 4577 children (aged 6–17 years), conducted between 2009 and 2011, were linked to data on the characteristics of 28 primary schools and 18 secondary schools from a parallel monitoring and evaluation facility survey. Methods We construct two measures of school quality (one general and one HIV-specific) and use multivariable regression to test whether these were associated with improved educational outcomes and well being for vulnerable children. Results School quality was not associated with primary or secondary school attendance, but was associated with children’s being in the correct grade for age [adjusted odds ratio 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–3.5, P = 0.01]. General and HIV-specific school quality had significant positive effects on well being in the primary school-age children (coefficient 5.1, 95% CI 2.4–7.7, P < 0.01 and coefficient 3.0, 95% CI 0.4–5.6, P = 0.02, respectively), but not in the secondary school-age children (P > 0.2). There was no evidence that school quality provided an additional benefit to the well being of vulnerable children. Community HIV prevalence was negatively associated with well being in the secondary school-age children (coefficient −0.7, 95% CI −1.3 to −0.1, P = 0.03). Conclusions General and HIV-specific school quality may enhance the well being of primary school-age children in eastern Zimbabwe. Local community context also plays an important role in child well being. PMID:24991911

Early mathematics development and later achievement: Further evidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aubrey, Carol; Godfrey, Ray; Dahl, Sarah

2006-05-01

There is a growing international recognition of the importance of the early years of schooling as well as an interest being shown in the relationship of early education to later achievement. This article focuses on a cohort of English pupils who have been tracked through primary school during the first five years of the new National Numeracy Strategy. It reports a limited longitudinal study of young children's early mathematical development, initially within three testing cycles: at the mid-point and towards the end of their reception year (at five years-of-age) and again at the mid-point of Year 1 (at six years-ofage). These cycles were located within the broader context of progress through to the end of Key Stage 1 (at seven years) and Key Stage 2 (at eleven years) on the basis of national standardised assessment tests (SATs). Results showed that children who bring into school early mathematical knowledge do appear to be advantaged in terms of their mathematical progress through primary school. Numerical attainment increases in importance across the primary years and practical problem solving remains an important element of this. This finding is significant given the current emphasis on numerical calculation in the English curriculum. It is concluded that without active intervention, it is likely that children with little mathematical knowledge at the beginning of formal schooling will remain low achievers throughout their primary years and, probably, beyond.

Forging Professional Learning Communities: The Role of External Agency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sperandio, Jill; Kong, Peggy A.

2018-01-01

This article explored the effects of external agency on the establishment of professional learning communities (PLCs). The research was undertaken in the context of schools that have chosen to adopt the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) worldwide. The study employed a two-stage qualitative sequential design…

Pragmatic Language Assessment: A Pragmatics-as-Social Practice Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyter, Yvette D.

2007-01-01

Pragmatic language skills are important for developing relationships with others, and for communicating with a range of interlocutors in a variety of contexts, including preschool and elementary school classrooms. Pragmatic language difficulties frequently are a primary area of disability for children diagnosed with autism, Asperger's syndrome,…

A Learner-Centred Game-Design Approach: Impacts on Teachers' Creativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frossard, Frederique; Barajas, Mario; Trifonova, Anna

2012-01-01

This study presents an innovative pedagogical approach where teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices. Within co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers have developed their own Game-Based Learning (GBL) scenarios, especially tailored to their teaching contexts and students…

Models of Change: The Future of Design Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baynes, Ken; Baynes, Brochocka

2010-01-01

This paper discusses design and design education in the context of four major social and environmental concerns identified by Bruce Archer in 1973: overpopulation; pollution; depletion of natural resources; control. It argues for the social and economic importance of design education in primary and secondary schools. It identifies "designerly…

Home-School Relationships: A Qualitative Study with Diverse Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardona, Betty; Jain, Sachin; Canfield-Davis, Kathy

2012-01-01

This qualitative case study explored how families from diverse cultural backgrounds understood family involvement in the context of early childhood care and educational settings. Participants in the study included nine members from six families who had children enrolled in three early childhood care and education programs. The primary method of…

Some Academic Correlates of Ambiguity Detection in Primary School Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cameron, Catherine Ann; And Others

This longitudinal research examines the development of literacy skills in the context of an educational microcomputer implementation conducted to evaluate word processors and LOGO as tools for cognitive enrichment. Three classes including 87 children in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada are being followed from first- through third-grade. One…

Stories and Statistics: Describing a Mixed Methods Study of Effective Classroom Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kington, Alison; Sammons, Pam; Day, Christopher; Regan, Elaine

2011-01-01

The Effective Classroom Practice project aimed to identify key factors that contribute to effective teaching in primary and secondary phases of schooling in different socioeconomic contexts. This article addresses the ways in which qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined within an integrated design to provide a comprehensive…

Teacher Deployment of "Oh" in Known-Answer Question Sequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hosoda, Yuri

2016-01-01

This conversation analytic study describes some specific interactional contexts in which native English-speaking teachers produce "oh" in known-answer question sequences in English language classes. The data for this study come from 10 video-recorded Japanese primary school English language class sessions. The analysis identified three…

Goldilocks and the Three Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Graham

2006-01-01

When carrying out investigative work in the primary school, one often considers how familiar the children are with the context. This usually means considering the practical and life experiences the children have already had. However, it is also valuable to consider the children's literary experiences. Think about all the stories, novels, folk…

Extensive Air Showers in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Badala, A.; Blanco, F.; La Rocca, P.; Pappalardo, G. S.; Pulvirenti, A.; Riggi, F.

2007-01-01

The basic properties of extensive air showers of particles produced in the interaction of a high-energy primary cosmic ray in the Earth's atmosphere are discussed in the context of educational cosmic ray projects involving undergraduate students and high-school teams. Simulation results produced by an air shower development code were made…

Re-Using of the Historical Buildings in the Context of Sustainablity: AN Architectural Design Studio Study on Old Girls Teacher Training School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulusoy, M.; Erdogan, E.; Erdogan, H. A.; Oral, M.

2013-07-01

Refunctioning is a widely used method for protecting historical structures. However, throughout architectural education, functioning historical structures and producing new designs in terms of historical pattern do not attract great attention within the framework of design studios. It is a fact that in such schools that abovementioned items are more popular, the connection between protection oriented studio and design studio is pretty weak. In this study refunctioning was discussed as a design studio topic in relation to the old girls' teacher training school and its immediate surroundings. The primary objective of this design studio is to increase architecture students' awareness in terms of visual and perceptual levels of project designs in historical patterns. Within the context of this manuscript, the experiences gained during design studio process were transferred and discussed.

From Students to Teachers: Investigating the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs and Experiences of Graduate Primary Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deehan, James; Danaia, Lena; McKinnon, David H.

2018-03-01

The science achievement of primary students, both in Australia and abroad, has been the subject of intensive research in recent decades. Consequently, much research has been conducted to investigate primary science education. Within this literature, there is a striking juxtaposition between tertiary science teaching preparation programs and the experiences and outcomes of both teachers and students alike. Whilst many tertiary science teaching programs covary with positive outcomes for preservice teachers, reports of science at the primary school level continue to be problematic. This paper begins to explore this apparent contradiction by investigating the science teaching efficacy beliefs and experiences of a cohort of graduate primary teachers who had recently transitioned from preservice to inservice status. An opportunity sample of 82 primary teachers responded to the science teaching efficacy belief instrument A (STEBI-A), and 10 graduate teachers provided semi-structured interview data. The results showed that participants' prior science teaching efficacy belief growth, which occurred during their tertiary science education, had remained durable after they had completed their teaching degrees and began their careers. Qualitative data showed that their undergraduate science education had had a positive influence on their science teaching experiences. The participants' school science culture, however, had mixed influences on their science teaching. The findings presented within this paper have implications for the direction of research in primary science education, the design and assessment of preservice primary science curriculum subjects and the role of school contexts in the development of primary science teachers.

Schools as social complex adaptive systems: a new way to understand the challenges of introducing the health promoting schools concept.

PubMed

Keshavarz, Nastaran; Nutbeam, Don; Rowling, Louise; Khavarpour, Freidoon

2010-05-01

Achieving system-wide implementation of health promotion programs in schools and sustaining both the program and its health related benefits have proved challenging. This paper reports on a qualitative study examining the implementation of health promoting schools programs in primary schools in Sydney, Australia. It draw upon insights from systems science to examine the relevance and usefulness of the concept of "complex adaptive systems" as a framework to better understand ways in which health promoting school interventions could be introduced and sustained. The primary data for the study were collected by semi-structured interviews with 26 school principals and teachers. Additional information was extracted from publicly available school management plans and annual reports. We examined the data from these sources to determine whether schools exhibit characteristics of complex adaptive systems. The results confirmed that schools do exhibit most, but not all of the characteristics of social complex adaptive systems, and exhibit significant differences with artificial and natural systems. Understanding schools as social complex adaptive systems may help to explain some of the challenges of introducing and sustaining change in schools. These insights may, in turn, lead us to adopt more sophisticated approaches to the diffusion of new programs in school systems that account for the diverse, complex and context specific nature of individual school systems. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Arts, the Common Core, and English Language Development in the Primary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenfader, Christa Mulker; Brouillette, Liane

2017-01-01

Background/Context: Throughout schooling, English learners (ELs) perform well below their monolingual English-speaking peers on literacy assessments, and Hispanics make up the majority of EL students in the United States. There is a strong consensus about the importance of early English oral language skills for ELs' literacy development, yet…

Twentieth-Century American Education Reform in the Global Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeBoer, Jennifer

2012-01-01

As detailed in the articles throughout this issue, the U.S. education system experienced a number of structural developments throughout the 20th century. These changes served to shift the landscape of decision-making authority in multiple areas of primary and secondary schooling. This article provides an international perspective on the changes…

A Mathematics and Science Trail

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kathy Horak; Fuentes, Sarah Quebec

2012-01-01

In an attempt to engage primary-school students in a hands-on, real-world problem-solving context, a large urban district, a mathematics and science institute housed in a college of education, and a corporate sponsor in the southwest United States, joined forces to create a mathematics and science trail for fourth- and fifth-grade students. A…

Attitudes of Primary School Teachers in Three Western Countries toward Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cornoldi, Cesare; Capodieci, Agnese; Colomer Diago, Carla; Miranda, Ana; Shepherd, Katharine G.

2018-01-01

In recent years, teachers in Western countries have developed beliefs and attitudes related to working with students with specific learning disabilities (LD) that may be critical in shaping their educational practices with them; however, their beliefs and attitudes differ across political and geographical contexts and may be influenced by specific…

Social Reproduction and College Access: Current Evidence, Context, and Potential Alternatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serna, Gabriel R.; Woulfe, Rebecca

2017-01-01

Social reproduction theory identifies schooling as a primary means for the perpetuation of the dominant class's ideologies, values, and power. The ability to access college is so closely tied to these constructs that it contributes to this dominance and marginalization. Social stratification is not only mirrored in higher education, but the…

Young Children Learning Languages in a Multilingual Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirsch, Claudine

2006-01-01

Luxembourg is a trilingual country where residents communicate in Luxembourgish, French and German concurrently. Children therefore study these languages at primary school. In this paper I explore how six eight-year-old Luxembourgish children use and learn German, French and English in formal and informal settings over a period of one year. Their…

Community Members' Perceptions of Teacher Candidates during Panel Employment Interviews: Does Personality Mean More than Competence?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delli, Dane A.; Vera, Elizabeth M.

2008-01-01

The context for this study involves the intersection between a community's increasing expectation for hiring highly qualified classroom teachers and its increasing expectation for access and involvement in public schools. The current investigation attempted to identify community members' perceptions of the primary factors that influence their…

Do We Expect Too Much of Bilingual Teachers? Bilingual Teaching in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Carol

2004-01-01

Given the unique character of bilingual students and the programmes that support them, primary bilingual teaching is a challenging job in any country. However, bilingual teachers in developing contexts are especially challenged; they are often undertrained and underpaid, and must function in under-resourced schools with undernourished students.…

Context, Content, and Teacher Education: Six Language Teachers in a New Zealand Primary School Setting Discuss Their Language Teaching Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daly, Nicola

2011-01-01

Researchers have identified the importance of understanding language teacher identity in order to understand more about language teacher education (Johnson, Pawan, & Mahan-Taylor, 2005; Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005). This paper reports on themes from semistructured interviews conducted individually with six inservice…

"We Understand Better Because We Have Been Mothers": Teaching, Maternalism, and Gender Equality in Bolivian Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Julie A.; Miller, Amy Chasteen

2014-01-01

This article explores Bolivian schoolteachers' attitudes and practices surrounding gender in the context of a national educational reform law that mandated gender equity. Teacher interviews and primary school classroom observations indicate teachers' discourses and practices reflect a sometimes paradoxical blend of advocacy for gender equality and…

Formative Feedback in a Malaysian Primary School ESL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sardareh, Sedigheh Abbasnasab

2016-01-01

The idea of providing students with formative feedback is a crucial part of formative assessment. Teachers need to provide students with feedback that improves their learning. In other words, formative feedback should provide learners with information that help them bridge their learning gap. As formative assessment itself is a newly introduced…

Procedural versus Content-Related Hints for Word Problem Solving: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kock, W. D.; Harskamp, E. G.

2016-01-01

For primary school students, mathematical word problems are often more difficult to solve than straightforward number problems. Word problems require reading and analysis skills, and in order to explain their situational contexts, the proper mathematical knowledge and number operations have to be selected. To improve students' ability in solving…

Tensions and Dilemmas of Teachers in Creativity Reform in a Chinese Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Vivian M. Y.

2010-01-01

This study aimed at revealing the problems experienced by primary teachers of Hong Kong SAR, China, in their initial school-based creativity teaching, through reviewing the teacher reflections in 75 action research reports. A number of teacher tensions and dilemmas emerged. Lack of teaching time and undesirable student performance in creative…

Criteria for Evaluating an AIDS Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Coalition of Advocates for Students, Boston, MA.

This booklet notes that adolescents and young adults are a primary risk group for contracting Acquired Immune Defficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and asserts that public schools must assume a key role in giving students the information they need to avoid contracting AIDS. It recommends that teaching about AIDS take place within the context of a…

Computers and the Primary Curriculum 3-13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crompton, Rob, Ed.

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of computers across a wide age range. Extensive use is made of photographs, illustrations, cartoons, and samples of children's work to demonstrate the versatility of computer use in schools. An introduction by Rob Crompton placing computer use within the educational context of the United…

Using Qualitative Research Strategies in Cross-National Projects: The English-Finnish Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vulliamy, Graham; Webb, Rosemary

2009-01-01

Some methodological issues are discussed that arise from our comparative research conducted since the early 1990s into primary schooling in Finland and England. This research has been identified as part of a "new" comparative education that uses qualitative research strategies and which prioritises sensitivity to cultural context in data…

How Can Teachers' Entrepreneurial Competences Be Developed? A Collaborative Learning Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peltonen, Katariina

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of collaborative learning in the development of teachers' entrepreneurial competences in the school context at primary, secondary and vocational levels of education. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on an interpretative and collaborative learning approach to teachers'…

Deconstructing Evolution Education: The Relationship between Micro- and Macroevolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novick, Laura R.; Schreiber, Emily G.; Catley, Kefyn M.

2014-01-01

With applications of Tree of Life data becoming ever more prevalent in everyday contexts, tree thinking has emerged as a vital component of scientific literacy. This article reports a study testing the hypothesis that instruction in natural selection, which is the primary focus of US evolution education at the high school and introductory college…

Teachers' Perceptions of Students' Additional Support Needs: In the Eye of the Beholder?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruggink, Marjon; Goei, Sui L.; Koot, Hans M.

2016-01-01

Nowadays, teachers are regarded as key players in the process of identifying and catering to students' additional support needs within mainstream primary classrooms. However, teachers' professional judgements regarding students with special needs have been found to be contextually influenced (e.g. by school context, student population, level of…

Moral Education in a Multicultural Context: The Malaysian Primary Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banks, Ellen C.

In Malaysia, the national moral education curriculums are designed to develop the values that Malaysians of diverse cultures share or that the government wishes to develop as shared values to bring about religious and ethnic harmony. Moral education for Muslims is incorporated into in-school religious education, while a separate, essentially…

Grammar Errors Made by ESL Tertiary Students in Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Charanjit Kaur Swaran; Singh, Amreet Kaur Jageer; Razak, Nur Qistina Abd; Ravinthar, Thilaga

2017-01-01

The educational context in Malaysia demands students to be equipped with sound grammar so that they can produce good essays in the examination. However, despite having learnt English in primary and secondary schools, students in the higher learning institutions tend to make some grammatical errors in their writing. This study presents the…

CLIL in Galicia: Repercussions on Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

González Gándara, David

2015-01-01

There is a concern in Galicia (Spain) about possible negative effects on academic performance caused by the introduction of CLIL (content and language integrated learning) in schools. It has been said that when three languages coexist in the same context as vehicles of education, it is too much for the students, especially in primary education. In…

A Teacher's Identity Trajectory within a Context of Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oswald, Marietjie; Perold, Mariechen

2015-01-01

This article examines the effects of political, socio-economic and educational change on a South African teacher's identity trajectory. Our research was conducted at a primary school in a historically disadvantaged community in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. We applied a cultural-historical activity theoretical (CHAT) lens to explore the…

Teacher Feedback during Active Learning: Current Practices in Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van den Bergh, Linda; Ros, Anje; Beijaard, Douwe

2013-01-01

Background: Feedback is one of the most powerful tools, which teachers can use to enhance student learning. It appears dif?cult for teachers to give qualitatively good feedback, especially during active learning. In this context, teachers should provide facilitative feedback that is focused on the development of meta-cognition and social learning.…

The Impact of Task Difficulty and Performance Scores on Student Engagement and Progression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynch, Raymond; Patten, James Vincent; Hennessy, Jennifer

2013-01-01

Background: This article considers the impact of differential task difficulty on student engagement and progression within an Irish primary school context. Gaining and maintaining student engagement during learning tasks such as homework is a significant and understandable on-going challenge for teachers. The findings of this study hold the…

Interdisciplinarity in United States Schools: Past, Present, and Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boix Mansilla, Veronica; Lenoir, Yves

2010-01-01

This article examines the historical evolution of the concepts of interdisciplinarity and integration in American education. We first focus on United States education in the 20th century to review the rationales for integrated and interdisciplinary primary and secondary education. We place such rationales in the context of the larger purposes…

Interactive Syllable-Based English Vocabulary Learning in a Context-Aware Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wen-Yen; Huang, Yueh-Min

2017-01-01

English is one of the most important second languages in nonnative English-speaking countries, where learning English usually begins in primary school. To this end, vocabulary learning is regarded as the most fundamental and crucial stage in developing the student's English language capability. While some studies have explored strategies of…

Researching Classroom Communications and Relations in the Light of Social Justice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montesano Montessori, Nicolina; Ponte, Petra

2012-01-01

This article discusses participative action research performed by a network consisting of researchers and student-teachers of a University of Applied Sciences and teachers and pupils of four primary schools in the Netherlands. The research took place in the context of the research group "Behaviour and Research in the Educational Praxis".…

Teaching Physics to In-Service Primary School Teachers in the Context of the History of Science: The Case of Falling Bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kokkotas, Panos; Piliouras, Panagiotis; Malamitsa, Katerina; Stamoulis, Efthymios

2009-05-01

Our paper presents an in-service primary school teachers’ training program which is based on the idea that the history of science can play a vital role in promoting the learning of physics. This training program has been developed in the context of Comenius 2.1 which is a European Union program. This program that we have developed in the University of Athens is based on socioconstructivist and sociocultural learning principles with the intention of helping teachers to appropriate the basic knowledge on the issue of falling bodies. Moreover, it has the aim to make explicit through the exploitation of authentic historical science events, on the above topic (Aristotle’s, Galileo’s and Newton’s theories on falling bodies) the Nature of Science (NoS), the Nature of Learning (NoL) and the Nature of Teaching (NoT). During the implementation of the program we have used a variety of teaching strategies (e.g. group work, making of posters, making of concept maps, simulations) that utilize historical scientific materials on the issue of falling bodies.

Higher-order thinking skill problem on data representation in primary school: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Putri, R. I. I.; Zulkardi, Z.

2018-01-01

This article aimed at reporting research result on a case study of a lesson using a HOTS problem. The task was about data representation using baby growth context. The study used a design research method consisting of three stages: preparing for an experiment, experiment in the classroom (pilot and teaching), and retrospective analysis. Participants were sixth grade students who were learning data representations in a Primary School in Palembang Indonesia. A set of instructional activities were designed using Indonesian version of Realistic Mathematics Education (PMRI) approach. The result showed that students were able to solve the problem and present their solution in front of the classroom. The conclusion indicated that that HOTS problem using the growth of a child as the context could lead students to use their mathematical thinking. During the learning activities along with teacher orchestra’s guidance, and discussion, students were able to solve the problem using line graph although some of them used a bar graph. In the future, teachers are necessary to focus on the role of real-world figure in mathematics learning.

“One man one job”: the marriage ban and the employment of women teachers in Irish primary schools.

PubMed

Redmond, Jennifer; Harford, Judith

2010-01-01

In 1932, the Irish government, facing an economic downturn, introduced a marriage ban which required that female primary school teachers were required to resign on marriage. This followed a series of restrictive legislative measures adopted by Irish governments throughout the 1920s which sought to limit women's participation in public life and the public sector. Such a requirement emerged in several countries in response to high unemployment and applied principally to women's white-collar occupations, leading some commentators to argue that it stemmed from a social consensus rather than an economic rationale. Despite opposition to the ban from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) on the basis that it was unconstitutional, would lead to fewer marriages and that married women were in fact more suited to teaching children, it remained in place until 1958. Although the ban is much referred to as part of the gender ideology that informed legislation in the early years of independent Ireland, the particular history of married women teachers has been little researched in the academic context. Over 50 years since the rescinding of the ban, this article examines its impact through an analysis of primary sources, including government cabinet minutes and the public commentary of the INTO and positions this history within the international context.

Leadership and organisational effectiveness--lessons to be drawn from education?

PubMed

Joyce, Pauline

2009-05-01

The aim of this paper is to present findings of a case study on organisational effectiveness in an education setting and draw similarities with a healthcare setting, focusing on the school principal and nurse leader. The study was carried out in a primary school setting and focuses on a principal (as leader). The school, which will be named St Senan's for the case study, is a typical tall structure, has a staff of 30 (teachers and special needs' assistants) and a student number of 117. A case study methodology was used. Data was collected by interviewing the principal, two teachers, two students and a parent, in this order. In addition, a Parents' Council meeting was observed and document analysis was carried out on measurements which reflected some critical success factors for the school. Interviews from students and teachers in addition to observation notes indicate that the principal's leadership impacts on organisational effectiveness in the school. The findings are located in the context of education with similarities being drawn from nursing. It is how the leader leads in the context of the organisation setting which is paramount. In other words it is not possible to take a set of general critical success factors for a school or healthcare setting and apply these widely. The paper concludes by proposing the use of a quality framework to contextualise the findings of the case and promote further discussion in the context of nurse leaders. The paper suggests that comparisons can be made between school principals and nurse leaders.

Hamburg's Family Literacy project (FLY) in the context of international trends and recent evaluation findings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabkin, Gabriele; Geffers, Stefanie; Hanemann, Ulrike; Heckt, Meike; Pietsch, Marcus

2018-05-01

The authors of this article begin with an introduction to the holistic concept of family literacy and learning and its implementation in various international contexts, paying special attention to the key role played by the notions of lifelong learning and intergenerational learning. The international trends and experiences they outline inspired and underpinned the concept of a prize-winning Family Literacy project called FLY, which was piloted in 2004 in Hamburg, Germany. FLY aims to build bridges between preschools, schools and families by actively involving parents and other family members in children's literacy education. Its three main pillars are: (1) parents' participation in their children's classes; (2) special sessions for parents (without their children); and (3) joint out-of-school activities for teachers, parents and children. These three pillars help families from migrant backgrounds, in particular, to develop a better understanding of German schools and to play a more active role in school life. To illustrate how the FLY concept is integrated into everyday school life, the authors showcase one participating Hamburg school before presenting their own recent study on the impact of FLY in a group of Hamburg primary schools with several years of FLY experience. The results of the evaluation clearly indicate that the project's main objectives have been achieved: (1) parents of children in FLY schools feel more involved in their children's learning and are offered more opportunities to take part in school activities; (2) the quality of teaching in these schools has improved, with instruction developing a more skills-based focus due to markedly better classroom management und a more supportive learning environment; and (3) children in FLY schools are more likely to have opportunities to accumulate experience in out-of-school contexts and to be exposed to environments that stimulate and enhance their literacy skills in a tangible way.

The International School Nurse Asthma Project: Barriers Related to Asthma Management in Schools

PubMed Central

Svavarsdottir, Erla Kolbrun; Garwick, Ann W.; Anderson, Lori S.; Looman, Wendy S.; Seppelt, Ann; Orlygsdottir, Brynja

2014-01-01

Aim This paper is a report of an international study of barriers to asthma care from the perspectives of school nurses in Reykjavik, Iceland and St. Paul, Minnesota, in the context of their schools, communities and countries. Background Globally, asthma affects the health and school performance of many adolescents. School nurses play a key role by providing care to adolescents with asthma in school settings. Understanding universal barriers to asthma management in schools is important for developing interventions that are effective in multiple societal contexts. Design Exploratory, descriptive study. Methods Parallel studies were conducted from September 2008 - January 2009, through six focus groups among school nurses (N=32, in Reykjavik n=17 and St. Paul n=15) who were managing asthma in adolescents. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim in English or Icelandic. The Icelandic transcripts were translated into English. Descriptive content analytic techniques were used to systematically identify and categorize types of barriers to asthma care. Results School nurses in both countries identified common barriers such as time constraints, communication challenges and school staff barriers. The primary difference was that St. Paul school nurses identified more socioeconomic and health access barriers than school nurses in Reykjavik. Conclusion Greater cultural and linguistic diversity and socioeconomic differences in the student population in St. Paul and lack of universal health care coverage in the U.S. contributed to school nurses’ need to focus more on asthma management than school nurses in Reykjavik, who were able to focus more on asthma prevention and education. PMID:22897444

The international school nurse asthma project: barriers related to asthma management in schools.

PubMed

Svavarsdottir, Erla Kolbrun; Garwick, Ann W; Anderson, Lori S; Looman, Wendy S; Seppelt, Ann; Orlygsdottir, Brynja

2013-05-01

This article is a report of an international study of barriers to asthma care from the perspectives of school nurses in Reykjavik, Iceland and St. Paul, Minnesota, in the context of their schools, communities and countries. Globally, asthma affects the health and school performance of many adolescents. School nurses play a key role by providing care to adolescents with asthma in school settings. Understanding universal barriers to asthma management in schools is important for developing interventions that are effective in multiple societal contexts. Exploratory, descriptive study. Parallel studies were conducted from September 2008-January 2009, through six focus groups among school nurses (n = 32, in Reykjavik n = 17 and St. Paul n = 15) who were managing asthma in adolescents. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim in English or Icelandic. The Icelandic transcripts were translated into English. Descriptive content analytic techniques were used to systematically identify and categorize types of barriers to asthma care. School nurses in both countries identified common barriers, such as time constraints, communication challenges and school staff barriers. The primary difference was that St. Paul school nurses identified more socio-economic and health access barriers than school nurses in Reykjavik. Greater cultural and linguistic diversity and socio-economic differences in the student population in St. Paul and lack of universal healthcare coverage in the US contributed to school nurses' need to focus more on asthma management than school nurses in Reykjavik, who were able to focus more on asthma prevention and education. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Student Background and Teacher Effects on Achievement and Attainment in Mathematics: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muijs, Daniel; Reynolds, David

2003-01-01

In this article, we have studied the effect of student social background, classroom social context, classroom organisation, and teacher behaviours on mathematics achievement and attainment in English and Welsh primary schools. Data were collected over 2 years as part of a programme evaluation, for which we observed 138 teachers and tested and…

Classes of Psychotic Experiences in Kenyan Children and Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mamah, Daniel; Owoso, Akinkunle; Mbwayo, Anne W.; Mutiso, Victoria N.; Muriungi, Susan K.; Khasakhala, Lincoln I.; Barch, Deanna M.; Ndetei, David M.

2013-01-01

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) have been observed worldwide in both adults and children outside the context of a clinical disorder. In the current study, we investigate the prevalence and patterns of PLEs among children and adolescents in Kenya. Among 1,971 students from primary and secondary schools around Nairobi (aged 8-19), 22.1 % reported…

Gamification and Smart Feedback: Experiences with a Primary School Level Math App

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kickmeier-Rust, Michael D.; Hillemann, Eva-C.; Albert, Dietrich

2014-01-01

Gamification is a recent trend in the field of game-based learning that accounts for development effort, costs, and effectiveness concerns of games. Another trend in educational technology is learning analytics and formative feedback. In the context of a European project the developed a light weight tool for learning and practicing divisions named…

Content and Language Integrated Learning through an Online Game in Primary School: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dourda, Kyriaki; Bratitsis, Tharrenos; Griva, Eleni; Papadopoulou, Penelope

2014-01-01

In this paper an educational design proposal is presented which combines two well established teaching approaches, that of Game-based Learning (GBL) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The context of the proposal was the design of an educational geography computer game, utilizing QR Codes and Google Earth for teaching English…

More than Just a Punctuation Mark: How Boys and Young Men Learn about Menstruation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Katherine R.; Kaestle, Christine E.; Goldberg, Abbie E.

2011-01-01

Parents, peers, schools, and the media are the primary contexts for educating young people about sexuality. Yet girls receive more sex education than boys, particularly in terms of menstruation. Lack of attention to how and what boys learn about menstruation has consequences for their private understanding about the biology of reproduction and…

Internet Parenting Styles and the Impact on Internet Use of Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valcke, M.; Bonte, S.; De Wever, B.; Rots, I.

2010-01-01

Next to available data about actual Internet use of young children at home, most research especially focuses on the threats and opportunities about active Internet usage. Limited empirical research focuses on the role and impact of parents in this context. In the present study, Internet parenting styles are defined and operationalized to study the…

UNESCO's Guidance on Puberty and Sexual Health Education for Students Aged 9-12 Years Compared to an Upper Primary School Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldman, Juliette D. G.

2015-01-01

Background: Children and young adolescents are reaching puberty earlier. Providing information about such changes before puberty can help them develop in a more competent and informed manner. Context and Objective: UNESCO's "International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education" forms a comprehensive, evidence-based, authoritative…

Managing Systemic Curriculum Change: A Critical Analysis of Hong Kong's Target-Oriented Curriculum Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carless, David

1997-01-01

Describes Hong Kong's Target-Oriented Curriculum (TOC), a major curriculum renewal initiative designed to improve the quality of learning in local primary schools. Discusses the context in which it was introduced and factors that proved problematic in managing change. Focuses on five elements in the change process: practicality, ownership, teacher…

Primary Discourse and Expressive Oral Language in a Kindergarten Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiano, Darcy A.

2014-01-01

This seven-month ethnographic case study elucidated a kindergarten student's navigation through her first formal schooling experience with relation to expressive oral language. Gee's theory of Discourses and methodology of discourse analysis were used to examine expressive oral language in use. Two discursive contexts germane to…

Logo Experiences with Young Children: Describing Performance, Problem-Solving and Social Contexts of Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yelland, Nicola

1995-01-01

Explored the performance of primary school children in Logo programming tasks while they worked in one of three gender pairs (girl, boy, or boy-girl). Found no considerable differences in performance based on gender. Results suggest that what distinguished performance was the application of metastrategic processes--the most effective solutions…

Values and Actions: An Exploratory Study of School Principals in the Mainland of China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pisapia, John R.; Lin, Ying

2011-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between leader values and actions in the Chinese context. The Chinese Value Instrument (CVI) and the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) were used as the primary data collection tools. The CVI was used to measure the presence of ten values: (1) social harmony, (2) benevolence and honesty, (3) initiative…

Minding the Gap. Proposing a Teacher Learning-Training Framework for the Integration of Robotics in Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camilleri, Patrick

2017-01-01

Notwithstanding the hype surrounding the enthusiasm and rush that characterises the employment of robotics in formal educational contexts, their use is described as nothing less than fragmented. In the circumstances that processes of adoption and application of digital tools are clearly outpacing their accommodation and enactment in formal…

A Remaking Pedagogy: Adaptation and Archetypes in the Child's Multimodal Reading and Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berger, Richard; Zezulkova, Marketa

2018-01-01

This paper proposes combining theories about, and practices of, using archetypes and adaptation in education for the purposes of multimodal literacy learning. Within such contexts, children of primary school age act as readers, performers and researchers, exploring and analysing existing adaptations of archetypal stories and images across time,…

Teachers' Views on Recognising and Using Home Languages in Predominantly Monolingual Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Elizabeth G.; Marsden, Emma

2017-01-01

The use of home languages has previously been advocated in highly multilingual UK classrooms. However, drawing on the home languages and cultural insight of children who use English as an Additional Language (EAL) may also have important social and academic benefits in contexts where monolingualism is the norm. Conducted in a small local authority…

Developmental Differences in Relational Reasoning among Primary and Secondary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jablansky, Sophie; Alexander, Patricia A.; Dumas, Denis; Compton, Vicki

2016-01-01

Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within a stream of information, is considered a critical capacity for students. However, little is known about how this ability is demonstrated by children of different ages in the context of discourse with a more knowledgeable other. Thus, this study sought to investigate the ways…

Relationships of Social Context and Identity to Problem Behavior among High-Risk Hispanic Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Seth J.; Mason, Craig A.; Pantin, Hilda; Wang, Wei; Brown, C. Hendricks; Campo, Ana E.; Szapocznik, Jose

2009-01-01

The present study was designed to examine (a) family and school functioning and (b) personal and ethnic identity are associated with conduct problems, drug use, and sexual risk taking in a sample of 227 high-risk Hispanic adolescents. Adolescents participated in the study with their primary parents, who were mostly mothers. Adolescents completed…

Game Changers? Multilingual Learners in a Cape Town Primary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerfoot, Caroline; Bello-Nonjengele, Basirat Olayemi

2016-01-01

This article engages with Bourdieu's notion of field as a "space of play" to explore what happens to the educational field and the linguistic regimes operating within it in a site in which new discourses and practices of identity, language, "race", and ethnicity become entangled with local economies of meaning. The context is a…

The Role of Individual Writing in Fostering Scientific Conceptualization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bigozzi, Lucia; Vezzani, Claudio; Tarchi, Christian; Fiorentini, Carlo

2011-01-01

This paper aims to evaluate a teaching methodology for the learning of scientific concepts in a primary school context. The focus is on the role played by individual writing, associated to a collective observation of an experiment and a classroom discussion. The hypothesis is that this methodology shows its effect both, on the scientific quality…

Spies, Surveillance and Stakeouts: Monitoring Muslim Moves in British State Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sian, Katy Pal

2015-01-01

This article will provide a critique of the PVE initiative and its implementation within the context of primary education following the events of 9/11, the 2001 riots and 7/7. Drawing upon empirical data I will argue that the monitoring of young Muslims and "extremism" is problematic and reinforces the logics of Islamophobia through…

Teacher Educators' Practice and Vision of Good Teaching in Teacher Education Reform Context in Ghana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akyeampong, Kwame

2017-01-01

Teacher education in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) has been criticized for the lack of attention to learning to teach in real classrooms, which limits the opportunity for pre-service teachers to successfully introduce learner-centered pedagogy in African primary school classrooms. To address this problem, Ghana has implemented a teacher education reform…

Insider Views of the Emotional Climate of the Classroom: What New Zealand Children Tell Us about Their Teachers' Feelings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersen, Rachel J.; Evans, Ian M.; Harvey, Shane T.

2012-01-01

To explore children's perceptions of their teachers' feelings in everyday classroom contexts, the authors conducted focus groups with New Zealand primary (elementary) school children to discuss what they observed about positive classroom teachers' interactional style and emotional behavior. Seventy-nine students between age 8 and 12 years, from…

Women Teachers in Hong Kong: Stories of Changing Gendered Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luk-Fong, Yuk Yee Pattie; Brennan, Marie

2010-01-01

In a time of mass schooling in most parts of the world, the discourse of the "woman primary teacher" is often the subject of discourse. Yet most stories of these women teachers emerge from other (Western) contexts, with little known about how changing education processes affect the gendered identities of women in other cultural settings.…

Teachers' Ideas about Multicultural Education in a Changing Society: The Case of the Czech Republic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moree, Dana; Klaassen, Cees; Veugelers, Wiel

2008-01-01

This article draws on Czech teachers' ideas about multicultural education at a time when the teaching of multicultural education has become obligatory for primary and secondary schools. After describing the broader context within which this reform has taken place--specifically, the transformation of the educational system and the changing ethnic…

Insights from a Financial Literacy Task Designer: The Curious Case of Problem Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawatzki, Carly

2016-01-01

As part of ongoing design-based research exploring financial literacy teaching and learning, ten tasks termed "financial dilemmas" were trialled by 14 teachers and more than 300 Year 5 and 6 students in 4 government primary schools in urban Darwin. Drawing on data related to two tasks--"Catching the bus" and "Buying…

Developing a Local Instruction Theory for Learning the Concept of Angle through Visual Field Activities and Spatial Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bustang, B.; Zulkardi, Z.; Darmawijoyo, H.; Dolk, Maarten; van Eerde, Dolly

2013-01-01

This paper reports a study on designing and testing an instructional sequence for the teaching and learning of the concept of angle in Indonesian primary schools. The study's context is employing the current reform movement adopting "Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia" (an Indonesian version of Realistic Mathematics Education).…

Providing Better Education Services to the Poor: Accountability and Context in the Case of Guatemalan Decentralization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gershberg, Alec Ian; Meade, Ben; Andersson, Sven

2009-01-01

We explore how two community-based reform models align with the World Bank's "World Development Report 2004" accountability framework. Using a qualitative case study of rural Guatemalan primary schools, we examine local governance through interviews with a range of stakeholders. While both reforms appear appropriate according to the…

Investigating Mediations in Student Activities in an English Immersion Context in Mainland China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liang, Xiaohua

2009-01-01

This study aims to investigate the role of mediation in the learning process from a sociocultural perspective, activity theory in particular. This study was carried out in a primary English immersion school within the CCUEI Programs in Mainland China. Data were collected mainly through observations and interviews, which were then supplemented by…

How Does the Neighborhood "Come through the Door?" Concentrated Disadvantage, Residential Instability, and the Home Environment for Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

May, Emily M.; Azar, Sandra T.; Matthews, Stephen A.

2018-01-01

Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with heightened risk for poor school readiness and health outcomes in early childhood, and the home environment is thought to be a primary mechanism by which neighborhood context impacts preschoolers. This study examined the effects of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and neighborhood…

Receptive English Vocabulary in a Foreign Language Context: A Case Study of Preschoolers in Mauritius

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auleear Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah

2014-01-01

In Mauritius, English, the least socially used language, is the main language of literacy and the main written medium of instruction throughout the education system, starting from the first year of compulsory primary education. The importance of English as a school language is reflected in the 2003 Preschool Curriculum Guidelines, which mention…

Predicting ICT Integration into Classroom Teaching in Chinese Primary Schools: Exploring the Complex Interplay of Teacher-Related Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sang, Guoyuan; Valcke, Martin; van Braak, Johan; Tondeur, Jo; Zhu, Chang

2011-01-01

Available research has explored a wide variety of factors influencing information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption and integration in classroom teaching; however, existing research seldom centre on the combined impact of these variables. In addition, the little research available is set up in the Chinese context. The latter is…

Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners in Aotearoa New Zealand Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kitchen, Margaret; Gray, Susan

2013-01-01

This case study of New Zealand teachers' thinking and learning focuses on the relationship between theory and practice for teachers who become agents of change in their contexts, improving teaching and learning for students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. We rewrote an assignment for the primary and secondary teachers who taught…

The Role of Extracurricular Activities in Active Citizenship Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keser, Filiz; Akar, Hanife; Yildirim, Ali

2011-01-01

There have been multiple trends of building democratic citizens through formal education, and in the European context the trials have been dramatically increased with the Europeanization process since the 1980s. In line with this trend, an in-depth qualitative case study was carried out in a private primary school in Turkey to shed light on the…

Impact of iPads on Break-Time in Primary Schools--A Danish Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schilhab, Theresa

2017-01-01

Today, technology in the form of tablet computers (e.g. iPads) is crucial as a tool for learning and education. Tablets support educational activities such as archiving, word processing, and generation of academic products. They also connect with the Internet, providing access to news, encyclopaedic entries, and e-books. In addition, tablets have…

Improving Doctoral Degrees in Education: Focus on Mission, Coherence, and Sustainability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Karen Symms

2013-01-01

This article is a retrospective description of the decisions, strategies, and context of program changes made at the USC Rossier School of Education, related specifically to the education doctorate. The primary purpose is to highlight the change process from the perspective of the academic dean. Drawing on work in systems change and strategic…

Linguistic Capital: Continuity and Change in Educational Language Polices for South Asians in Hong Kong Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fang, Gao

2011-01-01

Language-in-education policies within post-colonization, nationalism, and globalization are currently key concerns of the sociology of language as they impact language teaching and learning in multilingual contexts. Despite these concerns, studies of educational language policies for ethnic minorities, in this case, those of South Asians in Hong…

How Schoolchildren Choose Their Friends, How Teachers Think about These Relationships and What Influence They Have

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dopplinger, Ursula

2014-01-01

This study explores the personal student attributes which influence a student being accepted by their peers and teachers, within a primary school context. The literature surrounding this construct outlines the important roles of peer groups in socialization. Being part of the relations to classmates, pupils classify each other automatically or…

Discourses in Conflict: The Relationship between Gen Y Pre-Service Teachers, Digital Technologies and Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donnison, Sharn

2009-01-01

This paper analyses Gen Y pre-service primary school teachers' conceptualisations of lifelong learning. It is situated within a context of improving the provision and delivery of pre-service teacher education. This paper argues that Gen Y's understanding of lifelong learning has been influenced by their engagements with digital technologies and…

Reflections of Young Language Learners on Diversity Dimensions in EFL Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozdogan, Derya

2016-01-01

Despite the proclaimed mono-cultural and mono-linguistic profile, in reality, diversity lies at the core of classrooms. This paper outlines the literature on diversity in young learners' classrooms followed by student and teacher reflections on diversity issues in the EFL context. Sixty-two primary school students studying at the 4th and 5th grade…

The Digital Board in a University Setting: Two Real Cases in Europe and East Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertarelli, Fabio; Corradini, Matteo; Guaraldi, Giacomo; Genovese, Elisabetta; Kilwake, Juma; Mutua, Stephen

Usually the digital board is thought of as a tool that can only be used beneficially in the context of primary school, secondary school or in a situation of learning handicap. In this case study we want to highlight how the new tools can be used in more broad settings such as teaching in scientific and technical universities. The easy adoption of all useful software on the market to the use of these tools makes them an innovative element in the teaching techniques of the future.

Sex education and family planning messages in Greek school books.

PubMed

Frisiras, S; Lagiou, A; Sourtzi, P; Vidalaki, M

1991-05-01

The Greek Family Planning Association (GFPA) completed in march 1990 a 3-year effort to evaluate whether sex education was an integral part of the school curricula. It was reported by a representative of the Pedagogical Institute in the Ministry of Education and Religion that important efforts have been made. The findings were presented at the 2nd Sex Education and Health seminar in March, 1990. Greek primary schools have 1 teacher for all lessons; but specialists in various fields of the secondary school curricula. Primary school books have various references and pictures on human reproduction. Equality of the sexes socially and culturally is represented, as well as good health messages on nutrition and hygiene. Noticeably absent, however, is any reference to human sexuality, nude human body or sex organ pictures, or other non-traditional family models. Family planning and contraception are also missing; teacher training or special courses are needed. Secondary school books have clear but limited messages. For example, there is a whole page on the philosophy and aims of family planning, but parenthood is only presented in the context of traditional marriage without contraception. It is recommended that legislative support be engaged to insure that sex education programs are systematic, age-specific, and a continuous activity from the primary level. Another important role in the implementation and curriculum development of sex education is one played by teachers and health professionals, those in touch with young people. GFPA needs to compile basic guidelines for those teaching sex education.

How Should Energy Be Defined Throughout Schooling?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bächtold, Manuel

2017-02-01

The question of how to teach energy has been renewed by recent studies focusing on the learning and teaching progressions for this concept. In this context, one question has been, for the most part, overlooked: how should energy be defined throughout schooling? This paper addresses this question in three steps. We first identify and discuss two main approaches in physics concerning the definition of energy, one claiming there is no satisfactory definition and taking conservation as a fundamental property, and the other based on Rankine's definition of energy as the capacity of a system to produce changes. We then present a study concerning how energy is actually defined throughout schooling in the case of France by analyzing national programs, physics textbooks, and the answers of teachers to a questionnaire. This study brings to light a consistency problem in the way energy is defined across school years: in primary school, an adapted version of Rankine's definition is introduced and conservation is ignored; in high school, conservation is introduced and Rankine's definition is ignored. Finally, we address this consistency problem by discussing possible teaching progressions. We argue in favor of the use of Rankine's definition throughout schooling: at primary school, it is a possible substitute to students' erroneous conceptions; at secondary school, it might help students become aware of the unifying role of energy and thereby overcome the compartmentalization problem.

Growing STEM Education on the Playground: A Case Study of the Factors That Influence Teachers' Use of School Gardens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poole, Megan

School gardens can have a profound, positive influence on a student's academic achievement, social skills, and attitudinal orientation. Despite these clear benefits, the use of school gardens as an instructional medium is not as prevalent as would be expected. There are several types of obstacles that can prevent teachers from using school gardens, including facets of time, support, and knowledge-based challenges. This multiple case study employs a mixed methods design to uncover factors that influence primary school teachers' decisions to utilize a school garden in their STEM curriculum. The goals of this study were to determine the types of benefits and barriers primary school teachers encountered in the study school district. All of the teacher participants worked within the same school district, had access to established school gardens on their campus, and were supported in their instruction and use of materials by the district's Science and Technology Center (STC). Quantitative data was collected from garden resource and teacher self-efficacy surveys; qualitative data about teacher rationales was extracted from in-depth teacher interviews. Overall analyses determined that aspects of instruction and logistics were the most important factors for a teacher to have in her decision to utilize her school garden. These data are presented and discussed in the context of identifying trends in teachers' use of school gardens as instructional tools so that actions might be taken to remove barriers and increase curriculum opportunities.

Increasing physical activity levels in primary school physical education: The SHARP Principles Model.

PubMed

Powell, Emma; Woodfield, Lorayne A; Nevill, Alan M

2016-06-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of a one-year teaching intervention to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during primary school physical education (PE). A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent group design involving four classes from two primary schools in the West Midlands, UK. In March 2014 schools were selected through purposive sampling to match schools in terms of size and demographics (baseline, n = 111: post-intervention, n = 95); data were collected from children in school years 3 and 4 (aged 7 to 9 years). The intervention involved developing teacher effectiveness through the SHARP Principles Model which was grounded in the Self Determination Theory (SDT), the Social Ecological Model (SEM) and three key ingredients from the Behaviour Change Taxonomy (BCT). MVPA was assessed at baseline and four weeks post-intervention using the System for Observing Fitness and Instruction Time (SOFIT). Four individual teacher interviews were conducted with the intervention school, to explore teachers' perceptions of the intervention. A two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) indicated large interaction effect sizes for time spent in MVPA (F(1, 27) = 11.07, p = 0.003, ηp (2) = .316) and vigorous activity (VPA) (F = (1,27) = 8.557, p = .007, ηp (2) = .263). PA in the intervention school increased significantly whereas in the control school MVPA remained relatively constant and VPA decreased. The qualitative findings revealed two main emergent themes: a paradigm shift and teacher's developing pedagogy. The intervention was effective in increasing MVPA in PE. Recommendations based on this evaluation would be for the SHARP Principles Model to be replicated and evaluated on a wider scale across a variety of contexts.

Increasing physical activity levels in primary school physical education: The SHARP Principles Model

PubMed Central

Powell, Emma; Woodfield, Lorayne A.; Nevill, Alan M.

2015-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a one-year teaching intervention to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during primary school physical education (PE). Methods: A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent group design involving four classes from two primary schools in the West Midlands, UK. In March 2014 schools were selected through purposive sampling to match schools in terms of size and demographics (baseline, n = 111: post-intervention, n = 95); data were collected from children in school years 3 and 4 (aged 7 to 9 years). The intervention involved developing teacher effectiveness through the SHARP Principles Model which was grounded in the Self Determination Theory (SDT), the Social Ecological Model (SEM) and three key ingredients from the Behaviour Change Taxonomy (BCT). MVPA was assessed at baseline and four weeks post-intervention using the System for Observing Fitness and Instruction Time (SOFIT). Four individual teacher interviews were conducted with the intervention school, to explore teachers' perceptions of the intervention. Results: A two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) indicated large interaction effect sizes for time spent in MVPA (F(1, 27) = 11.07, p = 0.003, ηp2 = .316) and vigorous activity (VPA) (F = (1,27) = 8.557, p = .007, ηp2 = .263). PA in the intervention school increased significantly whereas in the control school MVPA remained relatively constant and VPA decreased. The qualitative findings revealed two main emergent themes: a paradigm shift and teacher's developing pedagogy. Conclusions: The intervention was effective in increasing MVPA in PE. Recommendations based on this evaluation would be for the SHARP Principles Model to be replicated and evaluated on a wider scale across a variety of contexts. PMID:26844179

Educational attainment and adult literacy: A descriptive account of 31 Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

PubMed

Smith-Greenaway, Emily

2015-11-11

More than 60 years ago the international community declared literacy a basic human right. Recognition of its intrinsic value and evidence of its social and economic benefits have motivated an expansive international effort to estimate the percentage of adults that can read, especially in low-income countries where educational opportunities are limited. Population data on adults' educational attainment is commonly used to approximate adult literacy rates. Though increasing evidence from school-based studies of pupils confirm literacy achievement is not universal - even at advanced grades - it remains unclear whether adults' educational attainment is reflective of their literacy. This study leverages population-based data that include direct assessments of adults' literacy skills to provide a descriptive account of the proportion of adults that can read at each level of educational attainment. The study focuses on the Sub-Saharan African context, a world region where school participation has expanded rapidly in the last three decades. Because many African adults have discontinued their education at the primary level, the study focuses on basic reading skills at each level of primary school. The study focuses specifically on women, whose literacy has garnered extensive international interest. Demographic and Health Survey data from 31 African countries confirm that there are many instances in which women have several years of primary school but cannot read. In fact, in some countries, large proportions of African women who never went to school can read, even as some of their peers who have completed primary school cannot. The weak correlation between educational attainment and literacy is not specific to older cohorts of women, but is also observed among younger women. The findings demonstrate that educational attainment is generally a poor proxy for literacy, highlighting the need to measure, theorize, and study literacy as empirically distinct from education.

Burnout in Special Needs Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School: Investigating the Role of Personal Resources and Work Wellbeing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Stasio, Simona; Fiorilli, Caterina; Benevene, Paula; Uusitalo-Malmivaara, Lotta; Di Chiacchio, Carlo

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine, within an integrative predictive model, the relative contributions of sociodemographic variables, personal resources, and work wellbeing to teacher burnout. The research was conducted with special education teachers at Italian preschools--a context in which few previous studies have been carried…

Application of Information and Communication Technologies by the Future Primary School Teachers in the Context of Inclusive Education in the Republic of Kazakhstan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oralbekova, Aliya K.; Arzymbetova, Sholpan Zh.; Begalieva, Saule B.; Ospanbekova, Meirgul N.; Mussabekova, Gulvira A.; Dauletova, Ainash S.

2016-01-01

Many children with disabilities in the Republic of Kazakhstan face up to physiological difficulties in moving, communicating, learning, along with problems related to learning various computer programs. Computer technologies are of particular importance for children with disabilities. By using information and computer technologies, these children…

Classroom Testing in Canada. Proceedings of the Canadian Conference on Classroom Testing (2nd, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 1-2, 1990).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bateson, David J., Ed.

This document provides the following 13 conference papers: (1) "Introduction: Where Do We Go From Here?" (D. J. Bateson); (2) "The Context of Classroom Procedures in Evaluating Students" (R. J. Wilson); (3) "Student Evaluation in the Ungraded Primary School: The SCRP (Systematic Cumulative Record of Performance)…

Collaborative Teaching and Self-Study: Engaging Student Teachers in Sociological Theory in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hogan, Vivienne; Daniell, Linda

2015-01-01

This article presents some of the findings of a three-year project researching the impact of changes made to teaching and learning in a first-year sociology paper for primary and early childhood education (ece) student teachers. The context of the research is an undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme situated in the School of…

ComPLuS Model: A New Insight in Pupils' Collaborative Talk, Actions and Balance during a Computer-Mediated Music Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikolaidou, Georgia N.

2012-01-01

This exploratory work describes and analyses the collaborative interactions that emerge during computer-based music composition in the primary school. The study draws on socio-cultural theories of learning, originated within Vygotsky's theoretical context, and proposes a new model, namely Computer-mediated Praxis and Logos under Synergy (ComPLuS).…

"I'll Take Care of the Flowers!" Researching Agency through Initiatives across Different Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kangas, Marjaana; Kopisto, Kaisa; Löfman, Krista; Salo, Laura; Krokfors, Leena

2017-01-01

This case study examined how the agency of a fifth-grade pupil appeared across different learning environments in the primary school context. In this study, agency is defined as the initiatives taken by an individual in interactive situations. The research question is: how does a pupil's agency manifest and vary through taking initiatives across…

The Teaching of English Idioms in Kenyan Secondary Schools: Difficulties and Effective Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gathigia, Moses Gatambuki; Njoroge, Martin C.

2016-01-01

The acquisition of idiomatic expressions is one of the primary challenges to learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in multilingual contexts such as Kenya; yet, the learners are expected to use these expressions in their writing. The study on which this paper is based sought to assess the teaching of English idiomatic expressions in Kenyan…

Understanding Factors Affecting Primary School Teachers' Use of ICT for Student-Centered Education in Mongolia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Shengru; Yamaguchi, Shinobu; Takada, Jun-ichi

2018-01-01

The past two decades witnessed continuous uptake of ICT in education, and the importance of teachers' beliefs for adopting ICT in education was revealed in the context of educational change. In recent years, the Mongolian educational system has placed more emphasis on student-centered education and the use of ICT in teaching and learning. Teacher…

Effectiveness of Video Modeling to Teach "iPod" Use to Students with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hammond, Diana L.; Whatley, Abigail D.; Ayres, Kevin M.; Gast, David L.

2010-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of video modeling delivered via computer on accurate and independent use of an iPod by three participants with moderate intellectual disabilities. In the context of combined multiple probes across participants and replicated across tasks, three female middle school students learned to…

Incorporating Beliefs, Values and Local Wisdom of Betawi Culture in a Character-Based Education through a Design-Based Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suswandari

2017-01-01

This design-based research is part of three-year national projects examining the incorporation of local wisdom in a character-based education in primary school contexts. Specifically, the present study addresses two research questions: 1) what are local wisdoms of Betawi ethnic feasible to be incorporated in character based curriculum in primary…

Primary and Secondary Teachers' Ideas on School Visits to Science Centres in the Basque Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morentin, Maite; Guisasola, Jenaro

2015-01-01

In recent decades, research has shown the challenge posed to teachers by science education in informal contexts such as science museums or centres. In addition, there is consensus that in the case of pupils visiting a science centre, learning improves when the visit is connected to the classroom curriculum, so the teachers' involvement in…

"Otherness" as Threat: Social and Educational Exclusion of Roma People in Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parthenis, Christos; Fragoulis, George

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on aspects of the social and educational exclusion that Roma people face in the Greek context. It argues that diversity has been constructed as a threat for the security, the social cohesion, and the well-being of western societies. Drawing from two case studies of primary schools conducted in a highly deprived suburb of Athens,…

Promoting Argumentation in Primary Science Contexts: An Analysis of Students' Interactions in Formal and Informal Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simon, S.; Johnson, S; Cavell, S.; Parsons, T.

2012-01-01

The paper reports on the outcomes of a study that utilized a graphical tool, Digalo, to stimulate argumentative interactions in both school and informal learning settings. Digalo was developed in a European study to explore argumentation in a range of learning environments. The focus here is on the potential for using Digalo in promoting…

Writing Class: How Class-Based Culture Influences Community College Student Experience in College Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Myla

2016-01-01

This study was designed to build on the existing research on teaching and learning in community college contexts and the literature of college writing in two-year schools. The work of Pierre Bourdieu formed the primary theoretical framework and composition theory was used to position this study in the literature of the college writing discipline.…

The School and Promotion of Children's Health-Enhancing Physical Activity: Perspectives from the United Kingdom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Kenneth R.; Cooper, Ashley; McKenna, Jim

2004-01-01

The purpose of this article is to summarize the developing role and the challenges facing the British primary and secondary education sector in the promotion of children's health-enhancing physical activity. This is in the context of a public agenda on physical activity for health that grew steadily in stature throughout the 1990s and has…

Supporting Extensive Reading in a University Where English Is Used as a Second Language and a Medium of Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Hazel

2015-01-01

Extensive reading has long been considered as a potent means for facilitating language acquisition for second language learners, especially in the contexts of primary and secondary schools where students are elementary or intermediate learners. In one of the universities in Hong Kong where English is used as a medium of instruction, the…

Introducing E-Portfolio Use to Primary School Pupils: Response, Benefits and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theodosiadou, Dimitra; Konstantinidis, Angelos

2015-01-01

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) have a positive impact on the learning process in a broad range of educational sectors and on learners of all ages. Yet because most e-portfolio-related studies are about their implementation in higher education, this type of research is less usual in the early childhood context, and there is no available…

The Arithmetical Machine Zero + 1 in Mathematics Laboratory: Instrumental Genesis and Semiotic Mediation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maschietto, Michela

2015-01-01

This paper presents the analysis of two teaching experiments carried out in the context of the mathematics laboratory in a primary school (grades 3 and 4) with the use of the pascaline Zero + 1, an arithmetical machine. The teaching experiments are analysed by coordinating two theoretical frameworks, i.e. the instrumental approach and the Theory…

Use of the K-ABC with Children in Zaire, Africa: An Evaluation of the Sequential-Simultaneous Processing Distinction within an Intercultural Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giordani, Bruno; And Others

1996-01-01

Evaluation of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) with 130 primary school children in Zaire revealed three findings: (1) the distinction between sequential processing and simultaneous processing was valid; (2) the K-ABC discriminated effectively among grade levels, health and family environment variables, and tribal membership; and…

Support to Teachers in a Context of Educational Change and Poverty: A Case Study from South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olsen, Sissel-Tove

2013-01-01

This article presents a case study aimed at describing and exploring the needs for--and provision of--formal support in South African primary schools, examining, in particular, the significance of organisational development in addressing the needs of teachers. Educational projects are often focused on the needs of learners and learner well-being…

The Effects of School-Based Discrimination on Adolescents of Color Sexual Health Outcomes: A Social Determinants Approach.

PubMed

Respress, Brandon N; Amutah-Onukagha, Ndidiamaka N; Opara, Ijeoma

2018-01-01

Social inequalities are at the heart of disparities in sexual health outcomes among African American and Latino/a adolescents living in the United States. Schools are typically the largest and primary context in youth development. School characteristics such as peer and teacher discrimination and school performance were examined to determine whether such characteristics predict sexual behavior in adolescents of color. This study utilized a representative sample of high school age students to assess sexual risk behavior. Findings indicate that there was a clear disparity in sexually transmitted infection diagnoses. School characteristics such as teacher discrimination and Grade Point Average were significant predictors to sexual risky behaviors among adolescents of color. The study adds to the literature in examining contextual factors that are associated with adolescent sexual risk behavior, and findings provide implications for future prevention work.

Social Context and Problem Factors among Youth with Juvenile Justice Involvement Histories.

PubMed

Voisin, Dexter R; Sales, Jessica M; Hong, Jun Sung; Jackson, Jerrold M; Rose, Eve S; DiClemente, Ralph J

2017-01-01

Youth with juvenile justice histories often reside in poorly resourced communities and report high rates of depression, gang involved networks, and STI-sexual related risk behaviors, compared to their counterparts. The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social context (ie, a combined index score comprised of living in public housing, being a recipient of free school lunch, and witnessing community violence) and risk factors that are disproportionately worse for juvenile justice youth such as depression, gang involved networks and STI sexual risk behaviors. Data were collected from a sample of detained youth ages 14 to 16 (N = 489). Questions assessed demographics, social context, depression, gang-involved networks, and STI risk behaviors. Multiple logistic regression models, controlling for age, gender, race, school enrollment, and family social support, indicated that participants who reported poorer social context had double the odds of reporting being depressed; three times higher odds of being in a gang; three times higher odds of personally knowing a gang member; and double the odds of having engaged in STI-risk behaviors. These results provide significant information that can help service providers target certain profiles of youth with juvenile justice histories for early intervention initiatives.

[Old age in primary school readers: a journey through the end of the 19th century to the start of the 21st century in Argentina].

PubMed

Oddone, María Julieta

2013-04-01

This article presents the content (discourse) analysis of messages transmitted by primary school readers in the period between 1880 to 2012. This study allowed us to explore the image of old age and aging that society has and passes on to new generations as well as the role assigned to this generational group. The historical periods that provide the context for the data were defined according to the continuity of or the turning points in the social values transmitted in the reading materials. The role assigned to elderly people and the image of old age that the Argentine society passed on and continues to pass on to younger generations demonstrate that each period described has its own model of aging.

e-Science Partnerships: Towards a Sustainable Framework for School-Scientist Engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falloon, Garry

2013-08-01

In late 2006, the New Zealand Government embarked on a series of initiatives to explore how the resources and expertise of eight, small, state-owned science research institutes could be combined efficiently to support science teaching in schools. Programmes were developed to enable students and teachers to access and become involved in local science research and innovation, with the aim being to broaden their awareness of New Zealand science research contexts, adding authenticity and relevance to their school studies. One of these initiatives, known as Science-for-Life, partnered scientists with teachers and students in primary and secondary schools (K-12). A key output from the trial phase of Science-for-Life was the generation of a framework for guiding and coordinating the activities of the eight institutes within the education sector, to improve efficiency, effectiveness and promote sustainability. The framework, based on data gathered from a series of interviews with each institute's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), an online questionnaire, and informed by findings from trial partnership case studies published as institute technical reports and published articles, is presented in this paper. While the framework is developed from New Zealand data, it is suggested that it may be useful for coordinating interactions between multiple small science organisations and the school sector in other small-nation or state contexts.

Non-suicidal self-injury within the school context: Multilevel analysis of teachers' support and peer climate.

PubMed

Madjar, N; Ben Shabat, S; Elia, R; Fellner, N; Rehavi, M; Rubin, S E; Segal, N; Shoval, G

2017-03-01

Recent studies regarding non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents have focused primarily on individual characteristics (e.g., depressive symptoms) and background factors (e.g., parental relationship), whereas less emphasis has been given to the role of school-related factors in NSSI. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the relationships between teachers' support, peer climate, and NSSI within the school context. The sample consisted of 594 high school students nested within 27 regular classes (54.4% boys; mean age 14.96, SD=1.33 years). The students were evaluated for NSSI behaviors, perception of teacher support, peer climate, relationships with mothers, and depressive symptoms using validated scales. The primary analysis used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), controlling for gender and age. The main findings indicated that teacher support was positively associated with NSSI at the classroom-level (OR=6.15, 95% CI=2.05-18.5) but negatively associated at the student-level (OR=0.66, 95% CI=0.49-0.89). There was a trend toward an association between positive peer climate and NSSI at the classroom-level (OR=0.43, 95% CI=0.18-1.05), while negative peer climate was associated with NSSI at the student-level (OR=1.37, 95% CI=1.00-1.87). School-related factors are associated with NSSI behaviors among students. Teachers and educators should focus on both individual-level and classroom-level perceptions of school context. Students who feel supported by their teachers and who are exposed to a positive peer climate are less likely to engage in NSSI. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Introducing Vi polysaccharide typhoid fever vaccine to primary school children in North Jakarta, Indonesia, via an existent school-based vaccination platform.

PubMed

Agtini, M D; Ochiai, R L; Soeharno, R; Lee, H J; Sundoro, J; Hadinegoro, S R; Han, O P; Tana, L; Halim, F X S; Ghani, L; Delima; Lestari, W; Sintawati, F X; Kusumawardani, N; Malik, R; Santoso, T S; Nadjib, M; Soeroso, S; Wangsasaputra, F; Ali, M; Ivanoff, B; Galindo, C M; Pang, T; Clemens, J D; Suwandono, A; Acosta, C J

2006-11-01

To report results on coverage, safety and logistics of a large-scale, school-based Vi polysaccharide immunization campaign in North Jakarta. Of 443 primary schools in North Jakarta, Indonesia, 18 public schools were randomly selected for this study. Exclusion criteria were fever 37.5 degrees C or higher at the time of vaccination or a known history of hypersensitivity to any vaccine. Adverse events were monitored and recorded for 1 month after immunization. Because this was a pilot programme, resource use was tracked in detail. During the February 2004 vaccination campaign, 4828 students were immunized (91% of the target population); another 394 students (7%) were vaccinated during mop-up programmes. Informed consent was obtained for 98% of the target population. In all, 34 adverse events were reported, corresponding to seven events per 1000 doses injected; none was serious. The manufacturer recommended cold chain was maintained throughout the programme. This demonstration project in two sub-districts of North Jakarta shows that a large-scale, school-based typhoid fever Vi polysaccharide vaccination campaign is logistically feasible, safe and minimally disruptive to regular school activities, when used in the context of an existing successful immunization platform. The project had high parental acceptance. Nonetheless, policy-relevant questions still need to be answered before implementing a widespread Vi polysaccharide vaccine programme in Indonesia.

Developing a lifelong learning system in Ethiopia: Contextual considerations and propositions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abiy, Dessalegn Samuel; Kabeta, Genet Gelana; Mihiretie, Dawit Mekonnen

2014-10-01

Initiated by a "Pilot workshop on developing capacity for establishing lifelong learning systems in UNESCO Member States" held at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, the purpose of this study was to develop a Lifelong Learning system in Ethiopia. Preparations for its conceptualisation included the review of relevant national policy documents and an analysis of the Ethiopian educational, economic and social context. Focused group and one-to-one interviews were conducted with policy researchers, experts from the Ministry of Education, adult educators and coordinators at different levels. It emerged that some of the existing policy provisions and contexts reflecting the highly formalised and structured educational opportunities available to Ethiopian youth and adults require re-conceptualisation. Despite the enormous progress made in increasing children's access to primary school, more than two million children remain out of school and adult literacy rates are still far from reaching the targets set both by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and by national educational programmes. Moreover, as many youth drop out after completing primary education, and as the quality of learning appears to have suffered due to efforts of expansion, it is necessary to revisit the responsiveness of Ethiopia's formal educational provisions in the face of these challenges. Based on the opportunities and challenges identified, the authors explore some major considerations believed to be fundamental in creating a platform for the conceptualisation of Lifelong Learning in the Ethiopian context and conclude with some suggestions for the way forward.

Evaluation of health promotion in schools: a realistic evaluation approach using mixed methods.

PubMed

Pommier, Jeanine; Guével, Marie-Renée; Jourdan, Didier

2010-01-28

Schools are key settings for health promotion (HP) but the development of suitable approaches for evaluating HP in schools is still a major topic of discussion. This article presents a research protocol of a program developed to evaluate HP. After reviewing HP evaluation issues, the various possible approaches are analyzed and the importance of a realistic evaluation framework and a mixed methods (MM) design are demonstrated. The design is based on a systemic approach to evaluation, taking into account the mechanisms, context and outcomes, as defined in realistic evaluation, adjusted to our own French context using an MM approach. The characteristics of the design are illustrated through the evaluation of a nationwide HP program in French primary schools designed to enhance children's social, emotional and physical health by improving teachers' HP practices and promoting a healthy school environment. An embedded MM design is used in which a qualitative data set plays a supportive, secondary role in a study based primarily on a different quantitative data set. The way the qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined through the entire evaluation framework is detailed. This study is a contribution towards the development of suitable approaches for evaluating HP programs in schools. The systemic approach of the evaluation carried out in this research is appropriate since it takes account of the limitations of traditional evaluation approaches and considers suggestions made by the HP research community.

'Opening Up' a Science Task: An Exploration of Shifting Embodied Participation of a Multilingual Primary Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gómez Fernández, Roberto; Siry, Christina

2018-01-01

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students have different home languages and cultures from many of their peers, In our context, these students suffer from higher school drop-out rates than their peers and are far behind their peers in sciences. This study investigates the interactions of a nine-year-old child whose home language is…

Didactical Designs for Students' Proportional Reasoning: An "Open Approach" Lesson and a "Fundamental Situation"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miyakawa, Takeshi; Winslow, Carl

2009-01-01

In this paper, we analyze and compare two didactical designs for introducing primary school pupils to proportional reasoning in the context of plane polygons. One of them is well-documented in the literature; the other one is based on our own data and is accordingly presented and discussed in more detail in this paper. The two designs come from…

Language, Education and Identities in Plural Mauritius: A Study of the Kreol, Hindi and Urdu Standard 1 Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah Auleear

2014-01-01

The present study was carried out in the context of the recent (2012) introduction of Kreol in the primary school curriculum in Mauritius. The time-tabling of Kreol as an optional subject offered at the same time as the other existing ancestral languages, institutionalised Kreol as an ancestral language, despite its status as a national language.…

Climate Change and Everyday Life: Repertoires Children Use to Negotiate a Socio-Scientific Issue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrne, Jenny; Ideland, Malin; Malmberg, Claes; Grace, Marcus

2014-01-01

There are only a few studies about how primary school students engage in socio-scientific discussions. This study aims to add to this field of research by focusing on how 9-10-year-olds in Sweden and England handle climate change as a complex environmental socio-scientific issue (SSI), within the context of their own lives and in relation to…

The Quadratic Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Learning Performance in China by Multilevel Analysis: Implications for Policies to Foster Education Equity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Ningning; Valcke, Martin; Desoete, Annemie; Verhaeghe, JeanPierre

2012-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between family socioeconomic status and mathematics performance on the base of a multi-level analysis involving a large sample of Chinese primary school students. A weak relationship is found between socioeconomic status and performance in the Chinese context. The relationship does…

Mediating Creativity and Performativity Policy Tensions in Dance Education-Based Action Research Partnerships: Insights from a Mentor's Self-Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chappell, Kerry

2008-01-01

This paper will present and critique the mediation of tensions arising as a result of the collision of creativity and performativity policies in English primary education, in the context of the three-way model of creative partnership being used for professional development in certain English schools. The paper will consider these partnerships from…

Corporal punishment and children's externalizing problems: a cross-sectional study of Tanzanian primary school aged children.

PubMed

Hecker, Tobias; Hermenau, Katharin; Isele, Dorothea; Elbert, Thomas

2014-05-01

The adverse effect of harsh corporal punishment on mental health and psychosocial functioning in children has been repeatedly suggested by studies in industrialized countries. Nevertheless, corporal punishment has remained common practice not only in many homes, but is also regularly practiced in schools, particularly in low-income countries, as a measure to maintain discipline. Proponents of corporal punishment have argued that the differences in culture and industrial development might also be reflected in a positive relationship between the use of corporal punishment and improving behavioral problems in low-income nations. In the present study we assessed the occurrence of corporal punishment at home and in school in Tanzanian primary school students. We also examined the association between corporal punishment and externalizing problems. The 409 children (52% boys) from grade 2 to 7 had a mean age of 10.49 (SD=1.89) years. Nearly all children had experienced corporal punishment at some point during their lifetime both in family and school contexts. Half of the respondents reported having experienced corporal punishment within the last year from a family member. A multiple sequential regression analysis revealed that corporal punishment by parents or by caregivers was positively related to children's externalizing problems. The present study provides evidence that Tanzanian children of primary school age are frequently exposed to extreme levels of corporal punishment, with detrimental consequences for externalizing behavior. Our findings emphasize the need to inform parents, teachers and governmental organizations, especially in low-income countries, about the adverse consequences of using corporal punishment be it at home or at school. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sluggish cognitive tempo and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattention in the home and school contexts: Parent and teacher invariance and cross-setting validity.

PubMed

Burns, G Leonard; Becker, Stephen P; Servera, Mateu; Bernad, Maria Del Mar; García-Banda, Gloria

2017-02-01

This study examined whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattention (IN) symptoms demonstrated cross-setting invariance and unique associations with symptom and impairment dimensions across settings (i.e., home SCT and ADHD-IN uniquely predicting school symptom and impairment dimensions, and vice versa). Mothers, fathers, primary teachers, and secondary teachers rated SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), anxiety, depression, academic impairment, social impairment, and peer rejection dimensions for 585 Spanish 3rd-grade children (53% boys). Within-setting (i.e., mothers, fathers; primary, secondary teachers) and cross-settings (i.e., home, school) invariance was found for both SCT and ADHD-IN. From home to school, higher levels of home SCT predicted lower levels of school ADHD-HI and higher levels of school academic impairment after controlling for home ADHD-IN, whereas higher levels of home ADHD-IN predicted higher levels of school ADHD-HI, ODD, anxiety, depression, academic impairment, and peer rejection after controlling for home SCT. From school to home, higher levels of school SCT predicted lower levels of home ADHD-HI and ODD and higher levels of home anxiety, depression, academic impairment, and social impairment after controlling for school ADHD-IN, whereas higher levels of school ADHD-IN predicted higher levels of home ADHD-HI, ODD, and academic impairment after controlling for school SCT. Although SCT at home and school was able to uniquely predict symptom and impairment dimensions in the other setting, SCT at school was a better predictor than ADHD-IN at school of psychopathology and impairment at home. Findings provide additional support for SCT's validity relative to ADHD-IN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Influence of School Health Education Programmes on the Knowledge and Behaviour of School Children towards Nutrition and Health

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keirle, Kathleen; Thomas, Malcolm

2000-02-01

A comparative investigation was conducted involving two school situations; one identified as being health promoting and having a comprehensive policy and a defined programme of health education, and the other not health promoting, having no policy and an unstructured programme of health education. A total of 367 students from two secondary and four primary schools participated in the study. The factors used to categorise schools are highlighted. A self-completion questionnaire was employed to assess students' knowledge and behaviour with regard to nutrition and health. Students' dietary intake was monitored by employing a frequency of consumption tick sheet. The results revealed that students from the more health promoting secondary school (School 1(H)) were more knowledgeable of what constitutes a healthy diet and the benefits and risks to health. The implications of these results are considered within the context of the many factors that could influence students' knowledge and behaviour.

The school as a health promoter for children with asthma: The purpose of an education programme.

PubMed

Urrutia-Pereira, M; To, T; Cruz, Á A; Solé, D

Not only is asthma one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in children under 15 years and one of the main reasons for primary care outpatient visits, it also accounts for 13 million lost days of school annually, which can affect children's learning, integration at school and overall academic achievements. This review article highlights the important role of the school in helping children and adolescents to control and manage their asthma through integrated and coordinated actions of health professionals, school staff, family, and the community. We recommended key elements for a multidisciplinary team asthma school programme that can be replicated and implemented especially in developing countries where children and adolescents are in a more disadvantaged environment. This multidisciplinary asthma school intervention when demonstrated with efficacy can be applied in the context of the real world, where many children and families who need care the most currently do not receive it. Copyright © 2016 SEICAP. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Individual and school environment factors associated with overweight in adolescents of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

PubMed

Cardoso, Letícia de Oliveira; de Castro, Inês Rugani Ribeiro; Gomes, Fabio da Silva; Leite, Iuri da Costa

2011-05-01

To identify the association of individual and school environment factors with overweight among adolescents. Cross-sectional study. Sociodemographic and behavioural information was collected using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Indicators on human and physical resources of the schools were based on information collected in interviews with school principals. Overweight was defined based on the BMI Z-score for age and sex recommended by WHO. Logistic regression models were used for statistical analysis. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. By means of a two-stage (classrooms and students) probabilistic sampling, subjects comprised 1632 students enrolled in the last year of primary education of the municipal public school network, stratified by city region. The mean prevalence of overweight at schools was 17·2%, ranging from 0% to 50%. Adolescents more likely to be overweight were those who attended schools without knives and forks or ceramic/glass plates for students in the school refectory (prevalence odds ratio (POR) = 1·40; P = 0·04), those whose head of household had completed between 8 and 10 years of schooling (POR = 1·46; P = 0·03), those who did not live with both parents (POR = 1·24; P = 0·06) and those who had not practised physical activity outside school on at least 1 d in the 7 d before the study (POR = 1·56; P = 0·04). Sociodemographic and behavioural variables of adolescents and school characteristics were associated with overweight, confirming individual and context effects on this health disorder. Studies such as the present one, identifying variables in context, may support actions to prevent overweight among adolescents.

Beyond the physical examination: the nurse practitioner's role in adolescent risk reduction and resiliency building in a school-based health center.

PubMed

Davis, Teresa K

2005-12-01

School-based health centers in high schools provide a unique setting in which to deliver risk-reduction and resilience-building services to adolescents. The traditional health care system operating in the United States focuses on the treatment of illness and disease rather than on preventing problems originating from health risk behaviors. Nurse practitioners can promote healthy behavior in adolescents through linkages to parents, schools, and community organizations; by conducting individual risk assessments; and by providing health education and access to creative health programs that build resilience and promote protective factors. With a focus on wellness, nurse practitioners as advanced practice nurses and specialists in disease prevention and health promotion can establish students' health priorities in the context of the primary health care they deliver on a daily basis.

Plow, town, and gown: the politics of family practice in 1960s America.

PubMed

Tobbell, Dominique

2013-01-01

In the 1960s, general practitioners organized themselves into a state-based nationwide political movement that lobbied state legislators and state-funded medical schools to create departments of family practice. They framed their calls in the context of the national shortages of primary care physicians by arguing that those medical schools that received state funding had an obligation to the state to train sufficient numbers of primary care physicians to ensure the health care needs of the state's residents would be met. As this article reveals, two defining features of this activism were rural politics and the politics of town and gown. The history of family practice thus introduces a new dimension to the familiar dyad of town and gown relations: the plow-rural physicians who brought to the medical politics of the post-World War II United States a distinctive and powerful set of political, social, and economic interests.

An Analysis of Teacher Education Context, Structure, and Quality-Assurance Arrangements in TEDS-M Countries: Findings from the IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingvarson, Lawrence; Schwille, John; Tatto, Maria Teresa; Rowley, Glenn; Peck, Ray; Senk, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

The Teacher Education and Development Study (TEDS-M) is the first crossnational study to examine the mathematics preparation of future teachers for both primary and secondary school levels. The study, conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), collected data from…

The Parental Perspective over the Use of iPads in Primary and Middle Years of Schooling: Issues for Pedagogical and Policy Debates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ismail, Abdullah; Cashin, Anthony

2017-01-01

Apple's iPad and other forms of tablet are reportedly gaining increasing popularity within the academic premises. Most of the published research on this topic has highly admired the positive role and impact of iPads on teaching and learning practices, as if an exogenous technological induction in any local context would essentially revolutionize…

I See, I Think I Wonder: An Evaluation of Journaling as a Critical Reflective Practice Tool for Aiding Teachers in Challenging or Confronting Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Geoffrey M.; Prout, Peter; Murcia, Karen

2013-01-01

In October 2011, five selected Western Australian teachers took part in a teacher mentoring project in Tanzania. The teachers spent a month embedded in local primary and secondary schools, working collaboratively with their Tanzanian counterparts. As a strategy for making sense of their experiences, each teacher was asked to maintain a reflective…

Neighborhoods and Schools as Competing and Reinforcing Contexts for Educational Attainment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owens, Ann

2010-01-01

Scholars hypothesize that both neighborhood and school contexts influence educational attainment, but few have considered both contexts simultaneously. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author analyzes how school and neighborhood contexts are jointly related to high school and college graduation. She finds…

Initiating change locally in bullying and aggression through the school environment (INCLUSIVE): a pilot randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Bonell, Chris; Fletcher, Adam; Fitzgerald-Yau, Natasha; Hale, Daniel; Allen, Elizabeth; Elbourne, Diana; Jones, Rebecca; Bond, Lyndal; Wiggins, Meg; Miners, Alec; Legood, Rosa; Scott, Stephen; Christie, Deborah; Viner, Russell

2015-07-01

Youth bullying and other aggressive behaviours are a major public health concern owing to their impact on adolescent physical and mental health and well-being. Whole-school restorative approaches have been identified as a promising method of addressing aggressive behaviour but there have been no randomised trials undertaken to examine their effects. To examine the feasibility and acceptability of implementing and trialling the INCLUSIVE (initiating change locally in bullying and aggression through the school environment) intervention in English secondary schools. Cluster randomised controlled pilot trial in eight schools (1 : 1 computer-generated random allocation post baseline by a statistician blind to the identity of clusters) and process evaluation. Secondary schools in England (purposively sampled to ensure diversity). Year 8 students (aged 12-13 years), teachers, other school staff and intervention providers. Whole-school restorative approach to address bullying and aggression, involving the following standard processes: school action group formation and external facilitation to review needs assessment data, identify priorities, and plan and monitor school-level actions; staff training in restorative practices; and a new social and emotional skills curriculum. Standard practice. (1) The primary outcome of interest was the feasibility and acceptability of delivering and trialling the intervention according to prespecified criteria; (2) process data were analysed to explore participants' experiences of implementing and trialling the intervention and how these varied according to school context; and (3) indicative primary outcomes (aggressive behaviour measures), secondary outcomes, intermediate outcomes and economic evaluation methods were piloted. Students (n = 1144 baseline; n = 1114 follow-up) and teachers (n = 387 baseline; n = 336 follow-up) were surveyed at the start and end of the 2011-12 academic year (baseline September 2011; follow-up June-July 2012). A total of 1017 students surveyed at baseline remained in the study at follow-up (89%). Other quantitative data were collected via intervention provider checklists (n = 4) and action group surveys (n = 44); qualitative data were collected via interviews (n = 34), focus groups (n = 20) and observations of action group meetings (n = 16). (1) All prespecified feasibility and acceptability criteria were met. (2) Qualitative data indicated that all intervention components and the trial design were feasible and acceptable to students and staff, including in more disadvantaged school contexts. Qualitative data also suggested that student participation may be a core component in improving relationships and engagement across the school. The later-than-planned project start (July) and the timing of the baseline surveys (September), which needed to be completed pre allocation, caused delays in launching the intervention, staff training and other intervention outputs. (3) Three pilot primary outcomes were examined (completion rate at follow-up range: 91.7-94.2%) and the Gatehouse Bullying Scale and the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime school misbehaviour subscale were acceptable, discriminating and reliable measures of bullying and aggression in this context. Our pilot economic analyses support the use of the Child Health Utility 9D scale with this population and the feasibility of cost-utility analysis, although this should be supplemented with a cost-consequence analysis. There was no evidence of harm. It is feasible and acceptable to implement and trial the INCLUSIVE intervention in English secondary schools, although a longer lead-in time is required to enable timely intervention outputs to occur. A Phase III cluster randomised controlled trial is required to examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness over a 3-year period of implementation for reducing aggressive behaviours, promoting mental health and well-being, and reducing health inequalities. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN88527078. The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme (research), the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Big Lottery Fund and the Coutts Charitable Trust (intervention). The report will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 19, No. 53. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

Psychopathic Personality Traits and Environmental Contexts: Differential Correlates, Gender Differences, and Genetic Mediation

PubMed Central

Hicks, Brian M.; Carlson, Marie D.; Blonigen, Daniel M.; Patrick, Christopher J.; Iacono, William G.; MGue, Matt

2011-01-01

Theorists have speculated that primary psychopathy (or Factor 1 affective-interpersonal features) is prominently heritable whereas secondary psychopathy (or Factor 2 social deviance) is more environmentally determined. We tested this differential heritability hypothesis using a large adolescent twin sample. Trait-based proxies of primary and secondary psychopathic tendencies were assessed using Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen & Waller, 2008) estimates of Fearless Dominance and Impulsive Antisociality, respectively (Benning et al., 2005). The environmental contexts of family, school, peers, and stressful life events were assessed using multiple raters and methods. Consistent with prior research, MPQ Impulsive Antisociality was robustly associated with each environmental risk factor, and these associations were significantly greater than those for MPQ Fearless Dominance. However, MPQ Fearless Dominance and Impulsive Antisociality exhibited similar heritability, and genetic effects mediated the associations between MPQ Impulsive Antisociality and the environmental measures. Results were largely consistent across male and female twins. We conclude that gene-environment correlations rather than main effects of genes and environments account for the differential environmental correlates of primary and secondary psychopathy. PMID:22452762

Explore the concept of “light” and its interaction with matter: an inquiry-based science education project in primary school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varela, P.; Costa, M. F.

2015-04-01

The exploration process leading to the understanding of physical phenomena, such as light and its interaction with matter, raises great interest and curiosity in children. However, in most primary schools, children rarely have the opportunity to conduct science activities in which they can engage in an enquiry process even if by the action of the teacher. In this context, we have organised several in-service teacher training courses and carried out several pedagogic interventions in Portuguese primary schools, with the aim of promoting inquiry- based science education. This article describes one of those projects, developed with a class of the third grade, which explored the curricular topic “Light Experiments”. Various activities were planned and implemented, during a total of ten hours spread over five lessons. The specific objectives of this paper are: to illustrate and analyse the teaching and learning process promoted in the classroom during the exploration of one of these lessons, and to assess children's learning three weeks after the lessons. The results suggest that children made significant learning which persisted. We conclude discussing some processes that stimulated children’ learning, including the importance of teacher questioning in scaffolding children's learning and some didactic implications for teacher training.

Services for children with autism spectrum disorder in three, large urban school districts: Perspectives of parents and educators

PubMed Central

Iadarola, Suzannah; Hetherington, Susan; Clinton, Christopher; Dean, Michelle; Reisinger, Erica; Huynh, Linh; Locke, Jill; Conn, Kelly; Heinert, Sara; Kataoka, Sheryl; Harwood, Robin; Smith, Tristram; Mandell, David S; Kasari, Connie

2015-01-01

This study used qualitative methods to evaluate the perceptions of parents, educators, and school administrators in three large, urban school districts (Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Rochester) regarding services for children with autism spectrum disorder within the context of limited district resources. Facilitators followed a standard discussion guide that contained open-ended questions regarding participants’ views on strengths and limitations of existing services and contextual factors that would facilitate or inhibit the process of introducing new interventions. Three primary themes were identified: (1) tension between participant groups (teachers and paraprofessionals, staff and administration, teachers and parents, special education and general education teachers), (2) necessity of autism spectrum disorder–specific and behavioral training for school personnel, and (3) desire for a school culture of accepting difference. These themes highlight the importance of developing trainings that are feasible to deliver on a large scale, that focus on practical interventions, and that enhance communication and relationships of school personnel with one another and with families. PMID:25192859

Teachers' work ability: a study of relationships between collective efficacy and self-efficacy beliefs.

PubMed

Guidetti, Gloria; Viotti, Sara; Bruno, Andreina; Converso, Daniela

2018-01-01

Work ability constitutes one of the most studied well-being indicators related to work. Past research highlighted the relationship with work-related resources and demands, and personal resources. However, no studies highlight the role of collective and self-efficacy beliefs in sustaining work ability. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and by which mechanism work ability is linked with individual and collective efficacies in a sample of primary and middle school teachers. Using a dataset consisting of 415 primary and middle school Italian teachers, the analysis tested for the mediating role of self-efficacy between collective efficacy and work ability. Mediational analysis highlights that teachers' self-efficacy totally mediates the relationship between collective efficacy and perceived work ability. Results of this study enhance the theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence regarding the link between teachers' collective efficacy and self-efficacy, giving further emphasis to the concept of collective efficacy in school contexts. Moreover, the results contribute to the study of well-being in the teaching profession, highlighting a process that sustains and promotes levels of work ability through both collective and personal resources.

Evaluation of health promotion in schools: a realistic evaluation approach using mixed methods

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Schools are key settings for health promotion (HP) but the development of suitable approaches for evaluating HP in schools is still a major topic of discussion. This article presents a research protocol of a program developed to evaluate HP. After reviewing HP evaluation issues, the various possible approaches are analyzed and the importance of a realistic evaluation framework and a mixed methods (MM) design are demonstrated. Methods/Design The design is based on a systemic approach to evaluation, taking into account the mechanisms, context and outcomes, as defined in realistic evaluation, adjusted to our own French context using an MM approach. The characteristics of the design are illustrated through the evaluation of a nationwide HP program in French primary schools designed to enhance children's social, emotional and physical health by improving teachers' HP practices and promoting a healthy school environment. An embedded MM design is used in which a qualitative data set plays a supportive, secondary role in a study based primarily on a different quantitative data set. The way the qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined through the entire evaluation framework is detailed. Discussion This study is a contribution towards the development of suitable approaches for evaluating HP programs in schools. The systemic approach of the evaluation carried out in this research is appropriate since it takes account of the limitations of traditional evaluation approaches and considers suggestions made by the HP research community. PMID:20109202

From favours to entitlements: community voice and action and health service quality in Zambia.

PubMed

Schaaf, Marta; Topp, Stephanie M; Ngulube, Moses

2017-07-01

Social accountability is increasingly invoked as a way of improving health services. This article presents a theory-driven qualitative study of the context, mechanisms and outcomes of a social accountability program, Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), implemented by World Vision (WV) in Zambia. Primary data were collected between November 2013 and January 2014. It included in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with program stakeholders. Secondary data were used iteratively-to inform the process for primary data collection, to guide primary data analysis and to contextualize findings from the primary data. CVA positively impacted the state, society, state-society relations and development coordination at the local level. Specifically, sustained improvements in some aspects of health system responsiveness, empowered citizens, the improved provision of public goods (health services) and increased consensus on development issues appeared to flow from CVA. The central challenge described by interviewees and FGD participants was the inability of CVA to address problems that required central level input. The mechanisms that generated these outcomes included productive state-society communication, enhanced trust, and state-society co-production of priorities and the provision of services. These mechanisms were activated in the context of existing structures for state-society interaction, willing political leaders, buy-in by traditional leaders, and WV's strong reputation and access to resources. Prospective observational research in multiple contexts would shed more light on the context, mechanisms and outcomes of CVA programs. In addition to findings that are intuitive and well supported in the literature we identified new areas that are promising areas for future research. These include (1) the context of organizational reputation by the organization(s) spearheading social accountability efforts; (2) the potential relationship between social accountability efforts and making ambitious national programs operational at the frontlines of the health system and (3) the feasibility of scale up for certain types of local level responsiveness. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

[Resilience, social relations, and pedagogic intervention five years after the earthquake occurred in L'Aquila (Central Italy) in 2009: an action-research in the primary schools].

PubMed

Vaccarelli, Alessandro; Ciccozzi, Chiara; Fiorenza, Arianna

2016-01-01

the action-research "Outdoor training and citizenship between children from L'Aquila", carried out from 2014 to 2015 in some schools situated in the municipality of L'Aquila, aimed to answer to the needs emerged in reference to the social and psychological problems among children during the period after the L'Aquila earthquake occurred in 2009. In particular, the article provides documentary evidence about the results regarding the parts related to the study of resilience (cognitive objective) and of social relations (objective tied to the educational intervention), five years after the earthquake. the pedagogical research team, in close cooperation with the Cartography Laboratory of the University of L'Aquila and with the Grupo de Innovación Educativa Areté de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, has worked according to the research-action methodology, collecting secondary data and useful data to check the effectiveness of the educational actions put in place in order to promote resilient behaviours and to activate positive group dynamics. the study has been developed in 4 primary schools of the L'Aquila and has involved 83 children from 8 to 12 years. A control group made by 55 subjects, homogeneous for sex and age, has been identified in the primary schools of Borgorose, a little town near Rieti (Central Italy). data about the abilities of resilience and about the response to the stress have been collected in the first phase of the study with the purpose to outline the initial situation and develop an appropriate educational intervention. The comparison with the control group made by 55 subjects who were not from L'Aquila allowed to check that, 5 years after the disaster, the context of life produces a meaningful discrepancy in terms of responses to the stress and to the ability of resilience, and this fact is definitely negative for children from L'Aquila. On the other hand, data related to social relations allowed to verify how the educational intervention, according to the outdoor techniques, can activate social relation dynamics and foster open attitudes towards individual or group problem-solving technique in a post-disaster context. in post-disaster contexts, the pedagogical work of educational and cultural reconstruction is necessary to face the development of the resilience abilities in the youngest generations and to reactivate useful social relation dynamics in order to build active citizenship attitudes and behaviours.

Medical education in China for the 21st century: the context for change.

PubMed

Kaufman, A; Hamilton, J D; Peabody, J W

1988-07-01

A national conference on Medical Education in China for the 21st Century was convened in Beijing in November 1986. Over 6 days, leading medical educators and Ministry of Public Health officials from across China presented China's future health service needs and debated opportunities and constraints in meeting those needs by various innovations in medical education. Recent political upheavals have left many educators wary of innovation. There are major, conflicting demands between the needs of rural primary care service and the needs of medical schools to replenish medical school professional ranks depleted by the Cultural Revolution. Multiple and varied experiments in medical education will be encouraged among China's medical schools. China will probably amalgamate indigenous and foreign education experiments, offering the world community new and important innovations in medical education.

Parent Engagement in Youth Drug Prevention in Chinese Families: Advancement in Program Development and Evaluation

PubMed Central

Tsang, Sandra K. M.

2011-01-01

The escalating youth drug abuse problem in Hong Kong has attracted intense attention from the government, schools, and youth service professionals. Most preventive efforts have focused directly on positive youth development, very often through school programs delivered to secondary school students. There have been limited efforts to engage parents even though it is obvious that the family is actually the primary context of children and youth development. This paper will assert the importance of parental engagement in youth drug-prevention work, discuss some barriers in such parental involvement, present some promising local attempts and their strengths and limitations, and propose that sustained efforts are needed to build up theory-driven and evidence-based resources for Chinese communities on the subject. PMID:22194665

Stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness among primary school children in Kenya.

PubMed

Ndetei, David M; Mutiso, Victoria; Maraj, Anika; Anderson, Kelly K; Musyimi, Christine; McKenzie, Kwame

2016-01-01

Literature describing stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness by children in the developing world is lacking. Children's mental health issues in the Kenyan context are especially pertinent due to the increased likelihood of exposure to risk factors and the high prevalence of mental disorders. The objective of the current study was to examine socio-demographic factors associated with the endorsement of stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness among Kenyan school children. We analyzed cross-sectional survey data from 4585 primary school-aged children in standards one through seven in the Eastern Province of Kenya. We examined relationships between the endorsement of stigmatizing attitudes and age, gender, district, religion, being in the standard appropriate for one's age, and parental employment status. Stigma scores decreased with increasing age (β = -0.83; 95 % CI = -0.99 to -0.67). Boys had higher stigma scores compared to girls (β = 1.55; 95 % CI = 0.86-2.24). Students from the rural district had higher average stigma scores as compared to those from the peri-urban district (β = 1.14; 95 % CI = 0.44-1.84). Students who were not in the standard appropriate for their age had lower stigma scores than those who were in the standard typical for their age (β = -1.60; 95 % CI = -2.43 to -0.77). Stigmatizing attitudes toward the mentally ill exist among primary school children in Kenya; thus, anti-stigma interventions are needed, and our findings highlight particular subgroups that could be targeted.

Mobile technologies in the service of students' learning of mathematics: the example of game application A.L.E.X. in the context of a primary school in Cyprus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kyriakides, Andreas O.; Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Maria; Prodromou, Theodosia

2016-03-01

This article reports on the main experiences gained from a 2-year study which incorporated A.L.E.X., an educational puzzle game available on iPad or Android tablet devices, within the primary school mathematics curriculum. The study took place in a public primary school, located in a rural area of Cyprus. The majority of its students come from low socioeconomic status families. Among the school community, a group of 15 pupils (eight boys and seven girls), aged 10-11 years old, was randomly selected to comprise the sample. The same group of students was visited twice within a period of 2 years, and a teaching intervention was organized. In both interventions, the application A.L.E.X. accompanied by a student worksheet constituted the main means of instruction. The worksheets were designed to integrate a technology with core mathematical ideas embedded in the national mathematics curriculum. Findings gained from the teaching intervention suggest that game apps hold a lot of promise as a tool for reforming mathematics education. While working with A.L.E.X., the children identified and processed mathematical themes that emerged spontaneously. They experienced unique emotions of surprise and enthusiasm regarding the existence of games with mathematical content that led them to acknowledge the pedagogical role that tablet devices could play. This helped them to broaden their fundamentally narrow viewpoint of mathematics as being primarily computation and arithmetic.

Influence of income, hours worked, and loan repayment on medical students' decision to pursue a primary care career.

PubMed

Rosenthal, M P; Diamond, J J; Rabinowitz, H K; Bauer, L C; Jones, R L; Kearl, G W; Kelly, R B; Sheets, K J; Jaffe, A; Jonas, A P

To assess the specialty plans of current fourth-year medical students and, for those not choosing primary care specialties, to investigate the potential effect that changes in key economic or lifestyle factors could have in attracting such students to primary care. A survey study was sent to 901 fourth-year medical students in the 1993 graduating classes of six US medical schools. Comparisons were made between students choosing and not choosing primary care specialties. For the non-primary care students, we also evaluated whether alteration of income, hours worked, or loan repayment could attract them to primary care careers. Of the 688 responses (76% response rate), primary care specialties were chosen by 27% of the students and non-primary care specialties by 73%. One quarter (25%) of the non-primary care students indicated they would change to primary care for one of the following factors: income (10%), hours worked (11%), or loan repayment (4%). For students whose debt was $50,000 or greater, the loan repayment option became much more important than for students with lesser debt. In all, a total of 45% (n = 313) of the students indicated either they were planning to enter primary care (n = 188) or they would change to a primary care specialty (n = 125) with appropriate adjustments in income, hours worked, or loan repayment. Significant changes in economic and lifestyle factors could have a direct effect on the ability to attract students to primary care. Including such changes as part of health system reform, especially within the context of a supportive medical school environment, could enable the United States to approach a goal of graduating 50% generalist physicians.

The Effects of Social Context on Youth Outcomes: Studying Neighborhoods and Schools Simultaneously

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brazil, Noli

2016-01-01

Background/Context: A long line of research has empirically examined the effects of social context on child and adolescent well-being. Scholars have paid particular attention to two specific levels of social context: the school and neighborhood. Although youths occupy these social contexts simultaneously, empirical research on schools and…

Mars mission program for primary students: Building student and teacher skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathers, Naomi; Pakakis, Michael; Christie, Ian

2011-09-01

The Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSEC) scenario-based programs, including the Mission to Mars and Mission to the Orbiting Space Laboratory, utilize methodologies such as hands-on applications, immersive learning, integrated technologies, critical thinking and mentoring. The use of a scenario provides a real-life context and purpose to what students might otherwise consider disjointed information. These programs engage students in the areas of maths and science, and highlight potential career paths in science and engineering. The introduction of a scenario-based program for primary students engages students in maths and science at a younger age, addressing the issues of basic numeracy and science literacy, thus laying the foundation for stronger senior science initiatives. Primary students absorb more information within the context of the scenario, and presenting information they can see, hear, touch and smell creates a memorable learning and sensory experience. The mission also supports development of teacher skills in the delivery of hands-on science and helps build their confidence to teach science. The Primary Mission to the Mars Base gives primary school students access to an environment and equipment not available in schools. Students wear flight suits for the duration of the program to immerse them in the experience of being an astronaut. Astronauts work in the VSSEC Space Laboratory, which is transformed into a Mars base for the primary program, to conduct experiments in areas such as robotics, human physiology, microbiology, nanotechnology and environmental science. Specialist mission control software has been developed by La Trobe University Centre for Games Technology to provide age appropriate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based problem solving and support the concept of a mission. Students in Mission Control observe the astronauts working in the space laboratory and talk to them via the AV system. This interactive environment promotes high order thinking skills such as problem solving, team work, communication skills and leadership. To promote the teaching of science in the classroom, and prepare the students for their mission, the program includes a pre-visit program. These classroom-based lessons model best practice in effective science teaching and learning to support the development of confident primary science teachers.

Promoting Social Nurturance and Positive Social Environments to Reduce Obesity in High Risk Youth

PubMed Central

Wilson, Dawn K.; Sweeney, Allison M.; Kitzman-Ulrich, Heather; Gause, Haylee; St. George, Sara M.

2017-01-01

Nurturing environments within the context of families, schools, and communities all play an important role in enhancing youth’s behavioral choices and health outcomes. The increasing prevalence rates of obesity among youth, especially among low income and ethnic minorities, highlight the need to develop effective and innovative intervention approaches that promote positive supportive environments across different contexts for at risk youth. We propose that the integration of Social Cognitive Theory, Family Systems Theory, and Self-Determination Theory offers a useful framework for understanding how individual, family and social-environmental level factors contribute to the development of nurturing environments. In this paper, we summarize evidence-based randomized controlled trials that integrate positive parenting, motivational, and behavioral skills strategies in different contexts, including primary care, home, community, and school-based settings. Taken together, these studies suggest that youth and parents are most likely to benefit when youth receive individual-level behavioral skills, family-level support and communication, and autonomous motivational support from the broader social environment. Future investigators and health care providers should consider integrating these evidence-based approaches that support the effects of positive social climate-based interventions on promoting healthy eating, physical activity, and weight management in youth. PMID:28229248

Promoting Social Nurturance and Positive Social Environments to Reduce Obesity in High-Risk Youth.

PubMed

Wilson, Dawn K; Sweeney, Allison M; Kitzman-Ulrich, Heather; Gause, Haylee; St George, Sara M

2017-03-01

Nurturing environments within the context of families, schools, and communities all play an important role in enhancing youth's behavioral choices and health outcomes. The increasing prevalence rates of obesity among youth, especially among low income and ethnic minorities, highlight the need to develop effective and innovative intervention approaches that promote positive supportive environments across different contexts for at-risk youth. We propose that the integration of Social Cognitive Theory, Family Systems Theory, and Self-Determination Theory offers a useful framework for understanding how individual, family, and social-environmental-level factors contribute to the development of nurturing environments. In this paper, we summarize evidence-based randomized controlled trials that integrate positive parenting, motivational, and behavioral skills strategies in different contexts, including primary care, home, community, and school-based settings. Taken together, these studies suggest that youth and parents are most likely to benefit when youth receive individual-level behavioral skills, family-level support and communication, and autonomous motivational support from the broader social environment. Future investigators and healthcare providers should consider integrating these evidence-based approaches that support the effects of positive social climate-based interventions on promoting healthy eating, physical activity, and weight management in youth.

Teacher Work Context and Parent Involvement in Urban High Schools of Choice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauch, Patricia A.; Goldring, Ellen B.

2000-01-01

Uses findings from previous studies of teacher work context to hypothesize that some features of the school workplace may contribute to greater parent involvement in urban high schools, especially home-school communication and parent volunteering. Discusses the roles of communal school organization and a context of caring. (SLD)

School Organizational Contexts, Teacher Turnover, and Student Achievement: Evidence from Panel Data. Working Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kraft, Matthew A.; Marinell, William H.; Yee, Darrick

2016-01-01

We study the relationship between school organizational contexts, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City (NYC) middle schools. Using factor analysis, we construct measures of four distinct dimensions of school contexts captured on the annual NYC School Survey. We identify credible estimates by isolating variation in…

Matching services with local preferences: managing primary education services in a rural district of India.

PubMed

Subrahmanian, R

1999-02-01

India's poorest households have particularly little access to education. Urgent reforms are therefore needed to improve the universal availability of quality basic services and universal access to those services. At least 32 million children in India are estimated to not be enrolled and attending school. These children must be brought into schools in order to meet the goal of Universal Elementary Education (UEE). Widespread support exists for the decentralization of public services due to the equity and efficiency benefits associated with it. In particular, decentralization is seen to facilitate the matching of services with local preferences, increasing the chances of meeting policy goals. This approach is explored in the context of research conducted in a village of Raichur district, where poor households' preferences with regard to school timing are analyzed. Sections consider the equity and efficiency merits of decentralization, the agenda for improving education service delivery in India, users' relationship to the education system in Raichur district, how preferences are revealed, whose preferences are important in the conflict between local and policy perspectives, preference heterogeneity in the village context, and whether aspects of education services can be selectively decentralized.

"We must cooperate with one another against the Enemy": Agency and activism in school-aged children as protective factors against ongoing war trauma and political violence in the Gaza Strip.

PubMed

Veronese, Guido; Pepe, Alessandro; Jaradah, Alaa; Murannak, Feda; Hamdouna, Housam

2017-08-01

This exploratory qualitative study investigated self-perceived risk and protection factors that may reinforce the ability of children living in refugee camps on the Gaza Strip to adjust to a traumatic and risky life context characterized by loss and dispossession. The sample comprised 200 Palestinian children recruited at primary schools in four refugee camps in the Gaza Strip following the Israeli military operation "Pillar of Defence" in 2012. Thematic content analysis was applied to written materials and narratives produced by the children. Environment, friends, emotions, family, play, self, sociality, health, school, and spirituality were the dimensions that emerged from the narrative texts. Palestinian children's psychological adaptability and ability to reposition themselves along the continuum between ease and disease is underpinned by constant political agency and activism - a dimension that guides sense-making activities in a traumatizing environment marked by continuous uncertainty, loss and bereavement. We therefore recommend a politically-informed focus, both when assessing children and when designing intervention for them in contexts of chronic political violence and war. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determinants of cognitive function in childhood: A cohort study in a middle income context

PubMed Central

Santos, Darci N; Assis, Ana Marlúcia O; Bastos, Ana Cecília S; Santos, Letícia M; Santos, Carlos Antonio ST; Strina, Agostino; Prado, Matildes S; Almeida-Filho, Naomar M; Rodrigues, Laura C; Barreto, Mauricio L

2008-01-01

Background There is evidence that poverty, health and nutrition affect children's cognitive development. This study aimed to examine the relative contributions of both proximal and distal risk factors on child cognitive development, by breaking down the possible causal pathways through which poverty affects cognition. Methods This cohort study collected data on family socioeconomic status, household and neighbourhood environmental conditions, child health and nutritional status, psychosocial stimulation and nursery school attendance. The effect of these on Wechsler Pre-School and Primary Scale of Intelligence scores at five years of age was investigated using a multivariable hierarchical analysis, guided by the proposed conceptual framework. Results Unfavourable socioeconomic conditions, poorly educated mother, absent father, poor sanitary conditions at home and in the neighbourhood and low birth weight were negatively associated with cognitive performance at five years of age, while strong positive associations were found with high levels of domestic stimulation and nursery school attendance. Conclusion Children's cognitive development in urban contexts in developing countries could be substantially increased by interventions promoting early psychosocial stimulation and preschool experience, together with efforts to prevent low birth weight and promote adequate nutritional status. PMID:18534035

Self-regulation, motivation, and math achievement in middle school: variations across grade level and math context.

PubMed

Cleary, Timothy J; Chen, Peggy P

2009-10-01

The current study examined grade level, achievement group, and math-course-type differences in student self-regulation and motivation in a sample of 880 suburban middle-school students. Analysis of variance was utilized to assess group differences in student self-regulation and motivation, and linear regression analysis was used to identify variables that best predicted students' use of regulatory strategies. A key finding was that although seventh graders exhibited a more maladaptive self-regulation and motivation profile than sixth graders, achievement groups in seventh grade (high, moderate, low) were more clearly differentiated across both self-regulation and motivation than achievement groups in sixth grade. The pattern of achievement group differences also varied across math course type, as self-regulation and motivation processes more consistently differentiated achievement groups in advanced classes than regular math courses. Finally, task interest was shown to be the primary motivational predictor of students' use of regulatory strategies during math learning. The study highlights the importance of identifying shifting student motivation and self-regulation during the early middle school years and the potential role that context may have on these processes.

World Health Organization approaches for surveys of health behaviour among schoolchildren and for health-promoting schools.

PubMed

Honkala, Sisko

2014-01-01

Adolescents make up about one-sixth of the world's population. Most of the healthy and detrimental habits are adopted during childhood and adolescence. In the mid 1980s, a cross-national Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey was created to increase information about the well-being, health behaviours and social context of young people by using standard school-based questionnaires adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) European office. The European Network of Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) was commenced in 1992, followed by the establishment of the WHO Global School Health Initiative in 1995. The initiative aims to improve the health of students, school personnel, families and other members of the community through schools by mobilizing and strengthening health promotion and educational activities at local, national, regional and global levels. The HBSC and HPS programmes have been accepted as activity areas for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Primary Oral Health Care in Kuwait. This article describes the HBSC and the HPS programmes and discusses the importance of establishing these programmes in Kuwait. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

World Health Organization Approaches for Surveys of Health Behaviour among Schoolchildren and for Health-Promoting Schools

PubMed Central

Honkala, Sisko

2014-01-01

Adolescents make up about one-sixth of the world's population. Most of the healthy and detrimental habits are adopted during childhood and adolescence. In the mid 1980s, a cross-national Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey was created to increase information about the well-being, health behaviours and social context of young people by using standard school-based questionnaires adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) European office. The European Network of Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) was commenced in 1992, followed by the establishment of the WHO Global School Health Initiative in 1995. The initiative aims to improve the health of students, school personnel, families and other members of the community through schools by mobilizing and strengthening health promotion and educational activities at local, national, regional and global levels. The HBSC and HPS programmes have been accepted as activity areas for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Primary Oral Health Care in Kuwait. This article describes the HBSC and the HPS programmes and discusses the importance of establishing these programmes in Kuwait. PMID:23949020

Lessons in financial literacy task design: authentic, imaginable, useful

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sawatzki, Carly

2017-03-01

As part of ongoing design-based research exploring financial literacy teaching and learning, 10 tasks termed "financial dilemmas" were trialled by 14 teachers and more than 300 year 5 and 6 students in four government primary schools in urban Darwin. Drawing on data related to three tasks— Catching the bus, Laser Tag and Buying bread—this article explores insights into problem context and task design principles. The findings highlight that fit to circumstance, challenge yet accessibility and pedagogical architecture are important task design principles. Further, tasks involving unfamiliar, novel and imaginable problem contexts, while pedagogically demanding for teachers, can be considered useful by students and have the potential to broaden their horizons.

Peer Contexts in Schools: Avenues Toward Behavioral Health in Early Adolescence.

PubMed

Cappella, Elise; Hwang, Sophia H J

2015-01-01

Peer contexts play an important role in the behavioral health of early adolescents in schools. Behavioral health involves the observable academic and social behaviors that relate to and influence youths' subsequent health and development. Setting-level research on peer networks and social norms indicates these aspects of peer contexts vary by peer group, classroom, and school and dynamically relate to individual students' academic and social behaviors. Yet, although peer contexts are both influential and potentially malleable, little research examines the effects of school and classroom interventions on the development and maintenance of positive and productive peer contexts in schools. The current article identifies school structures and classroom processes theorized to directly or indirectly shift peer networks and social norms-and thereby increase the behavioral health of early adolescents in schools. We discuss the need for more rigorous and relevant research to better understand the role of schools and classrooms in strengthening these peer contexts and promoting behavioral health in early adolescence.

Identity Formation among Learners at a South African High School: Assessing the Interaction between Context and Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, Marcelle C.

2007-01-01

In this article the relationship between identity and context is examined at a high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, which has, since 1995, been racially desegregated. Findings suggest that the identities of the learners are influenced not only by the immediate context of the school, but also by the past context of schooling in South Africa…

Peer Victimization within the Ethnic Context of High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felix, Erika D.; You, Sukkyung

2011-01-01

Risk for peer victimization varies by ethnicity, but few studies explore how the ethnic context of the school can affect this. Using a large sample of schools and high school students, we used hierarchical linear modeling to explore victimization risk by ethnicity within the ethnic context of the school. Models predicted total, physical, verbal,…

School meals and policy on promoting healthy eating in schools in Poland.

PubMed

Woynarowska, Barbara; Małkowska-Szkutnik, Agnieszka; Mazur, Joanna; Kowalewska, Anna; Komosińska, Krystyna

2011-01-01

to diagnose the situation regarding the infrastructure, organization of school meals, the kind of products available for students at school and the school policy on the promotion of healthy eating in the context of the increasing frequency of obesity among children and young people. The research tool was the questionnaire "School environment and health", including a section on the facilities, organization of meals and the school's policy on healthy eating. It made use of the questions from the international HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children) school questionnaire. The anonymous questionnaire was sent out by post and was returned by 520 head masters of primary, lower-secondary and cluster schools. This means that 74.3% of the randomly chosen sample of schools responded. Almost 2/3 of the schools had a canteen and a school store. Hot meals were served in 84% of the schools but only in 28% of them to more than 50% of the students. School breakfast was organized by half of the schools of which 23% had it in all the classes. Almost all the schools served free meals for students with special needs. Most schools, particularly lower-secondary provided access to sweets, sweet drinks and salty snacks. Only 7-25% of schools have a written policy on limiting such products and increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk and whole-grain bread products. In on going national programmes: "A Glass of Milk" had a 74% participation rate (only 25% of the lower-secondary schools) and "Fruits in School" 38% (6% lower-secondary schools). The "Keep Fit" educational programme was implemented in 28% of primary schools and in 72% of lower-secondary schools. The majority of schools in Poland still do not appreciate the need for all students to eat a meal in school and have not become involved in prophylactic activities designed to prevent obesity. The undertaken activities are incoherent. There is a need to create a policy on healthy nutrition at school at the national, regional, local and school level.

Empowering students to respond to alcohol advertisements: results from a pilot study of an Australian media literacy intervention.

PubMed

Gordon, Chloe S; Jones, Sandra C; Kervin, Lisa; Lee, Jeong Kyu

2016-06-01

Alcohol media literacy programs in the United States have increased students' media literacy skills and lowered pre-drinking behaviour. In Australia, no such programs have yet been implemented or evaluated. This pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility and potential impact of an alcohol media literacy program for Australian upper-primary school children. Thirty-seven Year 5 and 6 students (aged 10-12) from one school in the Sydney region participated in 10 one-hour media lessons. Teacher interviews, student exit slips, teacher observations and a researcher reflective journal were analysed to examine the implementation process, while a pre- and post-questionnaire was analysed to measure outcome. Key factors in implementation were the importance of school context; attainment of English and PDHPE learning outcomes to differing extents; program's useability provided flexibility; perceived complexity and achievability of the lessons and program's engagement and relevance for the students. The program significantly increased media literacy skills and understanding of persuasive intent; decreased interest in alcohol branded merchandise; and lowered perception of drinking norms. An Australian alcohol media literacy program for upper-primary school children appears feasible, and has potential to lead to measurable outcomes. © 2015 Public Health Association of Australia.

Balancing Teacher Quality and Quantity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bond, Helen

The world is facing a shortage of trained teachers. According to the 2010 Global Monitoring Report approximately 10.3 million teachers will be needed globally to staff classrooms from Bangkok to Canada. The situation is worse in Sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates suggest that approximately 1.2 million new teachers will be needed in Sub-Saharan Africa alone to achieve universal primary education goals by 2015. Increases in primary school enrollments, drought, and HIV-AIDS have exacerbated the need for well trained teachers. Despite the need, the focus is on balancing quality with quantity. An effective teacher is deemed a critical element, although not the only one, in a student's success in the classroom. This paper focuses on the dilemma of meeting universal primary education goals in Sub-Saharan Africa, while maintaining teacher quality in fragile contexts.

Frequency and Efficacy of Talk-Related Tasks in Primary Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braund, Martin; Leigh, Joanne

2013-04-01

Pupil talk and discussion are seen as having important social and cognitive outcomes. In science classes, pupils' collaborative talk supports the construction of meaning and helps examine the status of evidence, theory and knowledge. However, pupil interactive talk in groups is rare in science lessons. The research reported is part of a project to increase the amount of pupil-pupil talk in primary schools through a programme of teaching and professional development. Pupils' self-reports of the frequency and learning efficacies of talk related activities in science lessons were collected before and after a programme of teaching in 24 schools in one of the most socially and educationally deprived areas of England. Findings showed pupils valued talking about their ideas over listening to those of other pupils. Science talk frequency (STF) was closely correlated with science talk efficacy (STE) and both were positively correlated with pupils' attitudes to school science. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of the correlation of STF with STE showed values were independent of gender and ability but that school experience was a significant factor. After the teaching programme and, contrary to expectations, the frequency of talk activities in science lessons appeared to have decreased but varied according to class grades. The degree of correlation between STF and STE was stronger after the teaching in over half of the schools. Schools where STF/STE strengthened most as a result of teaching were those involved in an additional initiative to use modelled talk related to industrial contexts.

Social Context Effects on School Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallinger, Philip; Murphy, Joseph

In this two-part paper, an attempt is made to examine the relationship between social contexts and effective schools and specifically to contribute to the development of a conceptual model for understanding how social contexts influence the operation of effective schools and student learning. In the first part, school effects research is drawn…

Conducting Research in Schools: A Practical Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alibali, Martha W.; Nathan, Mitchell J.

2010-01-01

Cognitive development unfolds in many contexts, and one of the most important of these contexts is school. Thus, understanding the school context is critical for understanding development. This article discusses some of the reasons why cognitive developmental researchers might wish to conduct research in schools, describes how to get started…

Time allocated to mathematics in post-primary schools in Ireland: are we in double trouble?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Meara, Niamh; Prendergast, Mark

2018-05-01

Mathematics educators and legislators worldwide have begun placing a greater emphasis on teaching mathematics for understanding and through the use of real-life applications. Revised curricula have led to the time allocated to mathematics in effected countries being scrutinised. This has resulted in policy-makers and educationalists worldwide calling for the inclusion of double class periods on the mathematics timetable. Research from the United States suggests that the introduction of double or block periods allow for the objectives of revised curricula to be realized. The aim of this study, which is set in the school context, is first to ascertain if schools in Ireland are scheduling double periods for mathematics at both lower post-primary level (Junior Cycle) and upper post-primary level (Senior Cycle). It also seeks to determine if there is a link between teachers' levels of satisfaction with the time allocated to mathematics and the provision of double periods and to get insights from teachers in relation to their opinions on what can be achieved through the introduction of such classes. Questionnaires were sent to 400 post-primary schools (approximately 1600 teachers) which were selected using stratified sampling techniques. It was found that 8.7% of mathematics teachers reported the provision of double periods at Junior Cycle while 55% reported that double periods were included on their timetable at Senior Cycle. The study also identified a link between teachers' levels of satisfaction with the time allocated to mathematics and the provision of double periods. Finally, teachers felt that double periods allowed for new teaching methodologies, which were promoted by the revised curricula, to be implemented and teaching for understanding was also more feasible. In essence, it was found that double periods have an influence on the mathematical experience of post-primary students as well as the teaching approaches employed.

Challenges in designing, conducting, and reporting oral health behavioral intervention studies in primary school age children: methodological issues

PubMed Central

Cooper, Anna Mary; Coffey, Margaret; Dugdill, Lindsey

2014-01-01

Often within oral health, clinical outcome measures dominate trial design rather than behavioral outcome measures, and often there is a reliance on proxy self-reporting of children’s behavior with no corroboration through triangulation of measures. The complexity of the interventions involved in oral health intervention is often overlooked in trial design, and more flexible pragmatic designs that take account of the research context may be more appropriate. Some of the limitations in oral health behavioral intervention studies (trials) in primary school age children were reported in a recently published Cochrane review. This paper aims to critically discuss the findings of a recent Cochrane review in terms of the methodological implications that arise for future design, development, measurement, and reporting of oral health trials in primary school age children. Key components of the UK Medical Research Council’s framework for the design and evaluation of complex interventions are discussed in relation to using taxonomies of behavior change. This paper is not designed to be a definitive guide but aims to bring learning from other areas of public health and health promotion into dental public health. Ultimately, the aim is to aid the design of more successful interventions that produce long-term behavioral changes in children in relation to toothbrushing and nighttime sugar snacking. PMID:27774028

Understanding and addressing the Schoolies phenomenon.

PubMed

Pettigrew, Simone; Biagioni, Nicole; Daube, Mike; Jones, Sandra C; Chikritzhs, Tanya; Kirby, Gary

2015-04-01

This study qualitatively explored Western Australian school leavers' alcohol-related experiences during the Schoolies period to generate insights for the purpose of intervention design. This is in the context of an impending change in the age of Western Australian students completing secondary school which, for the first time, will see around half being of legal age to purchase alcohol. Fifty-four 18-21-year-olds provided reflections via an emailed introspection on their experiences in the immediate post-school period. This provided access to the views of those who chose to attend events and consume large amounts of alcohol, those who attended events but refrained from excessive alcohol consumption, and those who elected to either avoid Schoolies events or engage in alternative celebrations. The data were coded and analysed using NVivo10. Three primary themes were identified that related to the perceived role of alcohol during Schoolies, the range of associated rite-of-passage rituals, and the strategies used by some Leavers to avoid alcohol and its consequences during the Schoolies period. Students and parents constitute important target groups for interventions designed to address alcohol-related harms during Schoolies. In the WA context, legislation on secondary supply and controlled purchase, as recommended by health and police authorities, could reduce harms that are likely to result from the change in the age of school leavers. Suggestions for alternative pastimes to promote to school leavers are provided. © 2015 Public Health Association of Australia.

Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning.

PubMed

Baxter, Paul; Ashurst, Emily; Read, Robin; Kennedy, James; Belpaeme, Tony

2017-01-01

The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects. Results suggest that while children in both personalised and non-personalised conditions learned, there was increased child learning of a novel subject exhibited when interacting with a robot that personalised its behaviours, with indications that this benefit extended to other class-based performance. Additional evidence was obtained suggesting that there is increased acceptance of the personalised robot peer over a non-personalised version. These results provide the first evidence in support of peer-robot behavioural personalisation having a positive influence on learning when embedded in a learning environment for an extended period of time.

Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning

PubMed Central

Ashurst, Emily; Read, Robin; Kennedy, James; Belpaeme, Tony

2017-01-01

The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects. Results suggest that while children in both personalised and non-personalised conditions learned, there was increased child learning of a novel subject exhibited when interacting with a robot that personalised its behaviours, with indications that this benefit extended to other class-based performance. Additional evidence was obtained suggesting that there is increased acceptance of the personalised robot peer over a non-personalised version. These results provide the first evidence in support of peer-robot behavioural personalisation having a positive influence on learning when embedded in a learning environment for an extended period of time. PMID:28542648

Teachers’ work ability: a study of relationships between collective efficacy and self-efficacy beliefs

PubMed Central

Guidetti, Gloria; Viotti, Sara; Bruno, Andreina; Converso, Daniela

2018-01-01

Introduction Work ability constitutes one of the most studied well-being indicators related to work. Past research highlighted the relationship with work-related resources and demands, and personal resources. However, no studies highlight the role of collective and self-efficacy beliefs in sustaining work ability. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine whether and by which mechanism work ability is linked with individual and collective efficacies in a sample of primary and middle school teachers. Materials and methods Using a dataset consisting of 415 primary and middle school Italian teachers, the analysis tested for the mediating role of self-efficacy between collective efficacy and work ability. Results Mediational analysis highlights that teachers’ self-efficacy totally mediates the relationship between collective efficacy and perceived work ability. Conclusion Results of this study enhance the theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence regarding the link between teachers’ collective efficacy and self-efficacy, giving further emphasis to the concept of collective efficacy in school contexts. Moreover, the results contribute to the study of well-being in the teaching profession, highlighting a process that sustains and promotes levels of work ability through both collective and personal resources. PMID:29861646

Construction and psychometric characteristics of the self-concept scale of interaction in the classroom.

PubMed

Lobos Peña, Karla; Díaz Mújica, Alejandro; Bustos Navarrete, Claudio; Pérez Villalobos, María Victoria

2015-01-01

Both construction and psychometric characteristics of a self-concept scale associated with observable behaviors by students and teacher, useful to guide a pedagogic intervention in the classroom are presented. A total of 1,385 primary school students, aged between 8 and 12 years, from 24 high-social vulnerability schools of the Province of Concepción, Chile, participated in the study. The scale was constructed, including a theoretical review of the construct, pilot application with students and interjudge reliability. For the study of psychometric characteristics, exploratory factorial analysis (EFA), confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA), factorial invariance and recurrent validity were performed. A self-report instrument with 22 items shows a three-factor structure, with an explained variance of 44.71% and a high level of fi t for the model. CFA in two different samples showed fi t indicators for configural invariance. It also has concurrent validity. The scale has good psychometric properties to assess the academic self-concept in the dimensions of Capacity, Work Procedure, and Participation in class. This can be useful to guide an educational intervention in the context of the teacher-student interaction in the classroom, in primary schools with high socio-economic vulnerability.

Health promotion in primary and secondary schools in Denmark: time trends and associations with schools' and students' characteristics.

PubMed

Nabe-Nielsen, Kirsten; Krølner, Rikke; Mortensen, Laust Hvas; Jørgensen, Marie Birk; Diderichsen, Finn

2015-02-07

Schools are important arenas for interventions among children as health promoting initiatives in childhood is expected to have substantial influence on health and well-being in adulthood. In countries with compulsory school attention, all children could potentially benefit from health promotion at the school level regardless of socioeconomic status or other background factors. The first aim was to elucidate time trends in the number and types of school health promoting activities by describing the number and type of health promoting activities in primary and secondary schools in Denmark. The second aim was to investigate which characteristics of schools and students that are associated with participation in many (≥3) versus few (0-2) health promoting activities during the preceding 2-3 years. We used cross-sectional data from the 2006- and 2010-survey of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. The headmasters answered questions about the school's participation in health promoting activities and about school size, proportion of ethnic minorities, school facilities available for health promoting activities, competing problems and resources at the school and in the neighborhood. Students provided information about their health-related behavior and exposure to bullying which was aggregated to the school level. A total of 74 schools were available for analyses in 2006 and 69 in 2010. We used chi-square test, t-test, and binary logistic regression to analyze time trends and differences between schools engaging in many versus few health promoting activities. The percentage of schools participating in ≥3 health promoting activities was 63% in 2006 and 61% in 2010. Also the mean number of health promoting activities was similar (3.14 vs. 3.07). The activities most frequently targeted physical activity (73% and 85%) and bullying (78% and 67%). Schools' participation in anti-smoking activities was significantly higher in 2006 compared with 2010 (46% vs. 29%). None of the investigated variables were associated with schools' participation in health promoting activities. In a Danish context, schools' participation in health promotion was rather stable from 2006 to 2010 and unrelated to the measured characteristics of the schools and their students.

Developmental dynamics between mathematical performance, task motivation, and teachers' goals during the transition to primary school.

PubMed

Aunola, Kaisa; Leskinen, Esko; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2006-03-01

It has been suggested that children's learning motivation and interest in a particular subject play an important role in their school performance, particularly in mathematics. However, few cross-lagged longitudinal studies have been carried out to investigate the prospective relationships between academic achievement and task motivation. Moreover, the role that the classroom context plays in this development is largely unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental dynamics of maths-related motivation and mathematical performance during children's transition to primary school. The role of teachers' pedagogical goals and classroom characteristics on this development was also investigated. A total of 196 Finnish children were examined four times: (0) in October during their preschool year; (1) in October and (2) April during their first grade of primary school; and (3) in October during their second grade. Children's mathematical performance was tested at each measurement point. Task motivation was examined at measurement points 2, 3, and 4 using the Task-value scale for children. First-grade teachers were interviewed in November about their pedagogical goals and classroom characteristics. The results showed that children's mathematical performance and related task motivation formed a cumulative developmental cycle: a high level of maths performance at the beginning of the first grade increased subsequent task motivation towards mathematics, which further predicted a high level of maths performance at the beginning of the second grade. The level of maths-related task motivation increased in those classrooms where the teachers emphasized motivation or self-concept development as their most important pedagogical goal.

Factors Contributing to the Current Academic Performance of Both Private Primary Schools and Public Primary Schools: A Case of Kitale Municipality, Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catherine, Ochenje

2015-01-01

There have been current controversial discussions concerning the performance of private primary schools versus public primary schools in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (K.C.P.E.). Lately, the private primary schools appear to be performing better than public primary schools. For example; in the 2003 K.C.P.E. results, more than 31% of…

The Modernity of Sociocultural Context: Its Influence on the Functioning of the Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephenson, Robert S.

This paper reviews a number of studies which indicated that the sociocultural context wherein the schools function influences a great many school characteristics. The study was based on the general hypothesis that the structure and functioning of the public schools is influenced by the modernity of the sociocultural context which they serve.…

Autonomy and job satisfaction for a sample of Greek teachers.

PubMed

Koustelios, Athanasios D; Karabatzaki, Despina; Kousteliou, Ioanna

2004-12-01

Analysing the relation between Job Satisfaction and Autonomy in a sample of 300 Greek teachers (114 men and 186 women, 28 to 59 years old) from primary and secondary schools, showed statistically significant positive correlations between Job Satisfaction and Autonomy. Particularly, Autonomy was correlated with Job Itself (.21), Supervision (.22), and the Organizational as a Whole (.27), aspects of Job Satisfaction. Findings are in line with previous studies conducted in different cultural contexts. Percent common variance accounted for is small.

Effects of Language Context on Ratings of Shy and Unsociable Behaviors in English Language Learning Children

PubMed Central

Ash, Andrea C.; Rice, Mabel L.; Redmond, Sean M.

2014-01-01

Purpose The primary goal of this study was to explore the effect of the language context on the socially withdrawn behaviors of school aged-children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) from middle to high SES backgrounds. This is one of the first studies to address the frequently confused concepts of shyness and unsociability as independent constructs within the ELL population. This study also investigated the feasibility of an experimental parent and child questionnaire that examines shyness and unsociability across native and English speaking contexts. Method Children and parents (34 ELL and 37 native English speaking) were administered an experimental questionnaire examining shy and unsociable behavior in native language and English-speaking contexts. Results Parents and children from the ELL group reported significantly higher ratings of shy behavior in English versus native language contexts, whereas unsociable ratings did not differ across language contexts. Conclusions Shyness and unsociability are distinguishable behaviors in ELL children and these constructs should be considered when examining withdrawal. Additionally, examining ELL children’s behavior across language contexts provides a valuable method for investigating language influenced behavioral problems. This study demonstrates the need for service providers to evaluate behavior across subtype and language context before pathologizing withdrawal in ELL children. PMID:24687767

Primary care practices' perceived constraints to engaging in research: the importance of context and 'Flow'.

PubMed

Michalec, Barret; Fagan, Heather Bittner; Rahmer, Brian

2014-01-01

The primary purpose of this study is to understand primary care practices' perceived constraints to engaging in research from micro-, meso-, and macro-level perspectives. Past research has spotlighted various barriers and hurdles that primary care practices face when attempting to engage in research efforts; yet a majority of this research has focused exclusively on micro- (physician-specific) and meso-level (practice-specific) factors. Minimal attention has been paid to the context - the more macro-level issues such as how these barriers relate to primary care practices' role within the dominant payment/reimbursement model of U.S. health-care system. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted in five U.S. practices, all owned by an independent academic medical center. Each had participated in at least one research study but were not part of a practice-based research network or affiliated with a medical school. Data were analyzed using NVIVO-9 by using a multistep coding process. Findings The perceived constraints offered by the participants echoed those featured in previous studies. Secondary analyses of the interconnected nature of these factors highlighted a valuable and sensitive 'Flow' that is evident at the individual, interaction, and organizational levels of primary care practice. Engaging in research appears to pose a significant threat to the outcomes of Flow (i.e., revenue, patient health outcomes, and the overall well-being of the practice). It is posited that the risk of not meeting expected productivity-based outcomes, which appear to be dictated by current dominant reimbursement models, frames the overall process of research-related decision making in primary care. Within the funding/reimbursement models of the US health-care system, engaging in research does not appear to be advantageous for primary care practices.

Instant Messaging in a Context of Virtual Schooling: Balancing the Affordances and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Elizabeth; Manzanares, Maria A. Rodriguez

2008-01-01

This article reports on a case study of Instant Messaging (IM) in a context of high-school virtual schooling. Data collection relied on interviews conducted with 20 participants in a context of high-school web-based instruction in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The participants included e-teachers as well as other distance education personnel.…

Profiles of Kindergarten Classroom and Elementary School Contexts: Associations with the First-Grade Outcomes of Children Transitioning from Head Start

PubMed Central

Lee, Phyllis; Bierman, Karen L.

2018-01-01

Poor quality classroom and school contexts may impede the academic and behavioral adjustment of low-income students when they transition into kindergarten. Several studies have examined the impact of teacher-student interactions on student progress, whereas others have explored the impact of school-level adversity (e.g., student poverty, school achievement levels). Expanding on prior findings, this study used latent profile analysis to characterize kindergarten contexts in terms of both classroom teacher-student interaction quality and school-level adversity. Following 164 children longitudinally and accounting for functioning in Head Start prior to kindergarten entry, associations between kindergarten context profiles and first grade outcomes revealed that children who experienced dual-risk contexts in kindergarten (classrooms with poor quality teacher-student interactions in schools with high levels of adversity) demonstrated the greatest aggression and social difficulties in first grade. Associations between kindergarten context profiles and first grade academic outcomes were less clear. PMID:29731516

Understanding primary school science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: The case of teaching global warming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chordnork, Boonliang; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

This aim of this research was to investigate primary school science teachers understanding and teaching practice as well as the influence on teaching and learning a topic like global warming. The participants were four primary science teachers, who were not graduated in science education. Methodology was the case study method, which was under the qualitative research regarded from interpretive paradigm. Data were collected by openended questionnaire, semi-structure interview, and document colleting. The questionnaire examined teachers' background, teachers' understanding of problems and threats of science teaching, desiring of development their PCK, sharing the teaching approaches, and their ideas of strength and weakness. a semi-structured interview was conducted based on the approach for capturing PCK of Loughran [23] content representation (CoRe). And, the document was collected to clarify what evidence which was invented to effect on students' learning. These document included lesson plan, students' task, and painting about global warming, science projects, the picture of activities of science learning, the exercise and test. Data analysis employed multiple approach of evidence looking an issue from each primary science teachers and used triangulation method to analyze the data with aiming to make meaning of teachers' representation of teaching practice. These included descriptive statistics, CoRe interpretation, and document analysis. The results show that teachers had misunderstanding of science teaching practice and they has articulated the pedagogical content knowledge in terms of assessment, goal of teaching and linking to the context of socio cultural. In contrast, knowledge and belief of curriculum, students' understanding of content global warming, and strategies of teaching were articulated indistinct by non-graduate science teacher. Constructing opportunities for personal development, the curiosity of the student learning center, and linking context of socio-culture were the creative factor in the teaching global warming. On the other hand, the teachers had an idea that lack of technology and the defect of child's intelligence were hinder factors teaching global warming.

Configurations of Site-Based Financial Leadership Practice within School Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tegano, Sylvia

2009-01-01

This study employed an ethnographic perspective to generate a grounded theory that contributes to the understanding of financial leadership practice in four elementary school contexts: Non Title I School, Title I School, Empowerment School and Charter School. The literature, interviews, observations, document analysis, and review of relevant…

School Identity in the Context of Alberta Charter Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Merlin; Gereluk, Dianne; Kowch, Eugene

2016-01-01

The central tenet of this investigation is that educational institutions possess their own school identity. Acknowledging that school identity is influenced by institutional mechanisms and personal dynamics, we examine school identity in the context of 13 Alberta charter schools. Narratives of 73 educational stakeholders across the network of…

Assessment of water consumptions in small mediterranean islands' primary schools by means of a long-term online monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferraris, Marco; De Gisi, Sabino; Farina, Roberto

2017-10-01

A key challenge of our society is improving schools through the sustainable use of resources especially in countries at risk of desertification. The estimation of water consumption is the starting point for the correct dimensioning of water recovery systems. To date, unlike the energy sector, there is a lack of scientific information regarding water consumption in school buildings. Available data refer roughly to indirect estimates by means of utility bills and therefore no information on the role of water leakage in the internal network of the school is provided. In this context, the aim of the work was to define and implement an on-line monitoring system for the assessment of water consumptions in a small Mediterranean island primary school to achieve the following sub-goals: (1) definition of water consumption profile considering teaching activities and secretarial work; (2) direct assessment of water consumptions and leakages and, (3) quantification of the behaviour parameters. The installed monitoring system consisted of 33 water metres (3.24 persons per water metre) equipped with sensors set on 1-L impulse signal and connected to a data logging system. Results showed consumptions in the range 13.6-14.2 L/student/day and leakage equal to 54.8 % of the total water consumptions. Considering the behavioural parameters, the consumptions related to toilet flushing, personal, and building cleaning were, respectively, 54, 43 and 3 % of the total water ones. Finally, the obtained results could be used for dimensioning the most suitable water recovery strategies at school level such as grey water or rainwater recovery systems.

Review of the Bangladesh Female Secondary School Stipend Project Using a Social Exclusion Framework

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

The Female Secondary School Stipend Project in Bangladesh was established to increase the enrollment of girls in secondary schools, thereby delaying marriage and childbearing. This analysis examined the existing data using the social exclusion framework to clarify the primary exclusionary factors that have kept girls from education: harassment, poverty, and the primacy of marriage and childbirth and explored the extent to which the project has diminished such barriers. While causality is difficult to establish, data suggest that the stipend programme has contributed to the rise in enrollment of girls in secondary schools. Questions remain as to the impact of the stipend programme on delaying marriage, empowerment of girls and women, and enhancing employment opportunities. A thorough assessment of the impact is required. The case study suggests that, if the programme design had focused on the quality and content of education and the broader economic and social context, more opportunities would have been created for social and economic participation of girls. PMID:19761084

Coping successfully with dyslexia: an initial study of an inclusive school-based resilience programme.

PubMed

Firth, Nola; Frydenberg, Erica; Steeg, Charlotte; Bond, Lyndal

2013-05-01

A dyslexia coping programme entitled Success and Dyslexia was implemented in two primary schools within a whole-class coping programme and whole-school dyslexia professional development context. One hundred and two year 6 students, 23 of whom had dyslexia, undertook surveys pretest, post-test and at 1-year follow-up. Effectiveness of the coping programme and maintenance of effects for the students after transition to secondary school were investigated. Inclusion of contrast group data in the follow-up year suggested significant positive changes at first and second follow-ups in locus of control and nonproductive coping may also be associated with increase in age. Most trends were in the expected direction, especially for students with dyslexia. At follow-up, students with dyslexia reported similar perceived control and adaptive coping to students without dyslexia rather than a decrease in these areas as is usually the case. A larger sample and an ongoing control group are needed to confirm these results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Statut familial et inégalités face à la scolarisation à Madagascar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delaunay, Valérie; Gastineau, Bénédicte; Andriamaro, Frédérique

2013-12-01

The impact of family status in Madagascar on inequalities in schooling - In this article, in the context of generalised access to primary education and parity between girls and boys, we analyse data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2009 in Madagascar to examine inequalities in schooling related to children's status in the family. The results confirm the protective benefit for children of living with their biological parents. Fostered children are disadvantaged, especially and increasingly so depending on whether they live with an uncle or aunt, with a distant relative or a non-relative. Conversely, children who reside in the home of a brother or sister are not disadvantaged, a result which reflects the role of elder children in family education strategies. Grandparents play a moderately positive role in schooling. The death of the father is an important factor in dropping out. Finally, children whose parent or parents are not household heads are disadvantaged in terms of schooling compared to children of household heads.

Understanding the Correlates of Face-to-Face and Cyberbullying Victimization Among U.S. Adolescents: A Social-Ecological Analysis.

PubMed

Hong, Jun Sung; Lee, Jungup; Espelage, Dorothy L; Hunter, Simon C; Patton, Desmond Upton; Rivers, Tyrone

2016-01-01

Using a national sample of 7,533 U.S. adolescents in grades 6-10, this study compares the social-ecological correlates of face-to-face and cyberbullying victimization. Results indicate that younger age, male sex, hours spent on social media, family socioeconomic status (SES; individual context), parental monitoring (family context), positive feelings about school, and perceived peer support in school (school context) were negatively associated with both forms of victimization. European American race, Hispanic/Latino race (individual), and family satisfaction (family context) were all significantly associated with less face-to-face victimization only, and school pressure (school context) was significantly associated with more face-to-face bullying. Peer groups accepted by parents (family context) were related to less cyberbullying victimization, and calling/texting friends were related to more cyberbullying victimization. Research and practice implications are discussed.

`Opening up' a science task: an exploration of shifting embodied participation of a multilingual primary student

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez Fernández, Roberto; Siry, Christina

2018-05-01

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students have different home languages and cultures from many of their peers, In our context, these students suffer from higher school drop-out rates than their peers and are far behind their peers in sciences. This study investigates the interactions of a nine-year-old child whose home language is Portuguese and who learns science in this specific case in a diglossic environment in the Luxembourgish school system, in which his teacher used German for written tasks and Luxembourgish for oral communication. We examine, moment-by-moment, the interactions around a task regarding environmental protection. The role of this Lusoburguês (Luxembourgish and Portuguese identities and nationalities combined) student and his embodiment and participation changes when his group is confronted with an activity that requires an increased amount of manipulation. His identity evolves in interaction, as he becomes the leader in his group, and through a playful stance, manages to open the task so that his peers can further explore. Implications include the value of including more open-ended investigations in the teaching and learning of science as well as implications for further study concerning practice-based approaches in science classrooms with CLD students, particularly in increasingly multilingual/cultural and/or diglossic or heteroglossic school contexts.

Randomised controlled trial of site specific advice on school travel patterns.

PubMed

Rowland, D; DiGuiseppi, C; Gross, M; Afolabi, E; Roberts, I

2003-01-01

To evaluate the effect of site specific advice from a school travel coordinator on school travel patterns. Cluster randomised controlled trial of children attending 21 primary schools in the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. A post-intervention survey measured the proportion of children walking, cycling, or using public transport for travel to school, and the proportion of parents/carers very or quite worried about traffic and abduction. The proportion of schools that developed and implemented travel plans was assessed. One year post-intervention, nine of 11 intervention schools and none of 10 control schools had travel plans. Proportions of children walking, cycling, or using public transport on the school journey were similar in intervention and control schools. The proportion of parents who were very or quite worried about traffic danger was similar in the intervention (85%) and control groups (87%). However, after adjusting for baseline and other potential confounding factors we could not exclude the possibility of a modest reduction in parental concern about traffic danger as a result of the intervention. Having a school travel coordinator increased the production of school travel plans but there was no evidence that this changed travel patterns or reduced parental fears. Given the uncertainty about effectiveness, the policy of providing school travel coordinators should only be implemented within the context of a randomised controlled trial.

Foreign-grammar acquisition while watching subtitled television programmes.

PubMed

Van Lommel, Sven; Laenen, Annouschka; d'Ydewalle, Géry

2006-06-01

Past research has shown that watching a subtitled foreign movie (i.e. foreign language in the soundtrack and native language in the subtitles) leads to considerable foreign-language vocabulary acquisition; however, acquisition of the grammatical rules has failed to emerge. The aim of this study was to obtain evidence for the acquisition of grammatical rules in watching subtitled foreign movies. Given an informal context, younger children were predicted to outperform older children in acquiring a foreign language; however, older children will take more advantage of explicit instruction compared with younger children. In Experiment 1, 62 sixth-graders from a primary school and 47 sixth-graders from a secondary school volunteered to participate. The participants in Experiment 2 were 94 sixth-graders from primary schools and 84 sixth-graders from secondary schools. The two experiments manipulated the instructions (incidental- vs. intentional-language learning). Moreover, before the experiments began, some participants explicitly received some of the foreign grammatical rules (presented rules), while the movie contained cases of presented rules as well as cases of rules which had to be inferred (not-presented rules). Rule acquisition through the movie only was not obtained; there was a strong effect of advance rule presentation but only on the items of presented rules, particularly among the older participants. Contrary to vocabulary, grammar may be too complicated to acquire from a rather short movie presentation.

A matter of interpretation: developing primary pupils' enquiry skills using position-linked datalogging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Daniel John; Collier, Christopher; Howe, Alan

2012-11-01

Background: This article reports on an evaluation study of a project seeking to develop the use of position-linked datalogging with primary pupils in environmental science contexts. Purpose: The study sought to find out the extent to which the project had developed: (1) participant teachers' confidence in using datalogging as an everyday part of their science teaching; (2) pupils' abilities to collect and interpret relevant environmental monitoring data; and (3) the use of scientific data within environmental education in the project schools. Programme description: The project used software which integrates data from Global Positioning System (GPS) with sensor data collected outdoors to produce Google Earth visualisations of environmental quality in each school's locality. Sample: Phase 1 involved 10 primary schools in the South West of England (2008-9), and phase 2 was implemented in six primary schools in Greater London during 2010. All pupils in the 9-10-year-old age range participated to some extent (N ≈ 450) and each school identified a focus group of between two and four pupils (n = 38) together with two members of staff (n = 32) to be more closely involved in the project. Design and methods: The evaluation adopted a multi-method approach, drawing upon documentary sources (n = 40); observations of continuing professional development (CPD) cluster days (n = 8) and dissemination events (June 2009 and January 2011): baseline pupil assessment tasks (n = 291) and teachers' baseline questionnaire (n = 25) in September 2008 and March 2010; classroom observations; samples of pupil work (n = 31); end-of-project pupil assessment (n = 38) and teachers' and pupils' responses to the project (n ≈ 180) in June 2009 and December 2010; and a longitudinal evaluation in February 2012. Results: Datalogging had become a regular feature of practical science in nearly all project schools up to 30 months after the end of the project, but the use of position-linked logging had not been sustained. While there is evidence of pupils developing a range of scientific enquiry skills through the project, the extent to which their interpretation of data improved is unclear. All participating schools made greater use of scientific data than before the project to develop their environmental education. Conclusions: The project has demonstrated the potential of combining datalogging with GPS technology to support challenging, motivating and relevant scientific enquiry. Primary teachers require targeted technical and pedagogical support to maximise learning benefits for pupils.

School Business Administration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jordan, K. Forbis; And Others

This textbook reviews the principal concerns within each of 13 major responsibility areas in school business administration. The first chapter assesses the political, social, and economic context in which schools function and school administrators work. The role and function of the school business administrator within this context is addressed in…

Developmentally inspired drug prevention: middle school outcomes in a school-based randomized prevention trial.

PubMed

Furr-Holden, C Debra M; Ialongo, Nicholas S; Anthony, James C; Petras, Hanno; Kellam, Sheppard G

2004-02-07

Prior investigations have linked behavioral competencies in primary school to a reduced risk of later drug involvement. In this randomized prevention trial, we sought to quantify the potential early impact of two developmentally inspired universal preventive interventions on the risk of early-onset alcohol, inhalant, tobacco, and illegal drug use through early adolescence. Participants were recruited as they entered first grade within nine schools of an urban public school system. Approximately, 80% of the sample was followed from first to eighth grades. Two theory-based preventive interventions, (1) a family-school partnership (FSP) intervention and (2) a classroom-centered (CC) intervention, were developed to improve early risk behaviors in primary school. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) multivariate response profile regressions were used to estimate the relative profiles of drug involvement for intervention youths versus controls, i.e. youth in the standard educational setting. Relative to control youths, intervention youths were less likely to use tobacco, with modestly stronger evidence of protection associated with the CC intervention (RR=0.5; P=0.008) as compared to protection associated with the FSP intervention (RR=0.6; P=0.042). Intervention status was not associated with risk of starting alcohol, inhalants, or marijuana use, but assignment to the CC intervention was associated with reduced risk of starting to use other illegal drugs by early adolescence, i.e. heroin, crack, and cocaine powder (RR=0.32, P=0.042). This study adds new evidence on intervention-associated reduced risk of starting illegal drug use. In the context of 'gateway' models, the null evidence on marijuana is intriguing and merits attention in future investigations.

Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for school students in Fiji.

PubMed

Hopf, Suzanne C; McLeod, Sharynne; McDonagh, Sarah H

2017-01-01

Fiji is a multilingual nation with few assessment tools addressing children's communication. This article describes the validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Fiji English, Standard Fijian, and Fiji Hindi. Informants were caregivers of 65 typically developing multilingual children (aged 5;3-10;5) attending a Fiji primary school. The students spoke an average of 2.9 languages (range = 1-5). Their main language was Standard Fijian (41.5%), Fiji Hindi (23.1%), Fiji English (20.0%), or Fijian dialect (15.4%). An ICS mean score of 4.6 was obtained for main language (ICS-ML) and 4.4 for Fiji English (ICS-FE) indicating that students were usually to always intelligible. There were no significant differences between main language, number of languages spoken, gender, age, or socio-economic status. Both scales had good internal consistency, but were not correlated with speech accuracy measures possibly due to ceiling effects. Further validation with younger children is recommended. The ICS may be a useful tool for Fiji with comparative results to other international studies.

Harnessing complexity: taking advantage of context and relationships in dissemination of school-based interventions.

PubMed

Butler, Helen; Bowes, Glenn; Drew, Sarah; Glover, Sara; Godfrey, Celia; Patton, George; Trafford, Lea; Bond, Lyndal

2010-03-01

Schools and school systems are increasingly asked to use evidence-based strategies to promote the health and well-being of students. The dissemination of school-based health promotion research, however, offers particular challenges to conventional approaches to dissemination. Schools and education systems are multifaceted organizations that sit within constantly shifting broader contexts. This article argues that health promotion dissemination needs to be rethought for school communities as complex systems and that this requires understanding and harnessing the dynamic ecology of the sociopolitical context. In developing this argument, the authors draw on their experience of the dissemination process of a multilevel school-based intervention in a complex educational context. Building on this experience, they argue for the need to move beyond conventional dissemination strategies to a focus on active partnerships between developers and users of school-based intervention research and offer a conceptual tool for planning dissemination.

Understanding decisions Latino students make regarding persistence in the science and math pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munro, Janet Lynn

This qualitative study focused on the knowledge and perceptions of Latino high school students, as well those of their parents and school personnel, at a southwestern, suburban high school regarding persistence in the math/science pipeline. In the context of the unique school and community setting these students experience, the decision-making process was examined with particular focus on characterizing the relationships that influence the process. While the theoretical framework that informs this study was that of social capital, its primary purpose was to inform the school's processes and policy in support of increased Latino participation in the math and science pipeline. Since course selection may be the most powerful factor affecting school achievement and college-preparedness, and since course selection is influenced by school policy, school personnel, students, parents, and teachers alike, it is important to understand the beliefs and perceptions that characterize the relationships among them. The qualitative research design involved a phenomenological study of nine Latino students, their parents, their teachers and counselors, and certain support personnel from the high school. The school's and community's environment in support of academic intensity served as context for the portrait that developed. Given rapidly changing demographics that bring more and more Latino students to suburban high schools, the persistent achievement gap experienced by Latino students, and the growing dependence of the world economy on a citizenry versed in the math- and science-related fields, a deeper understanding of the decision-making processes Latino 12 students experience can inform school policy as educators struggle to influence those decisions. This study revealed a striking lack of knowledge concerning the college-entrance ramifications of continued course work in math and science beyond that required for graduation, relationships among peers, parents, and school personnel that were markedly lacking in influence over the decision a student makes to continue, or not, course work beyond that required for graduation, and a general dismissal of the value of math- and science-related careers. Also lacking was any evidence of social capital within parental networks that reflected intergenerational closure.

The 2014 Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spalding, Audrey

2014-01-01

The 2014 Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card is the Mackinac Center's second effort to measure high school performance. The first high school assessment was published in 2012, followed by the Center's 2013 elementary and middle school report card, which used a similar methodology to evaluate school performance. The…

Smuggling Authentic Learning into the School Context: Transitioning from an Innovative Elementary to a Conventional High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DePalma, Renee; Matusov, Eugene; Smith, Mark

2009-01-01

Context: What Varenne and McDermott described as "conventional schooling" is characterized by underlying values of competition and credentialism implicit in an unconscious, cultural framework for U.S. institutional schooling. Schools that define themselves in opposition to this cultural heritage consider themselves innovative schools and…

An early start to STEM education among year 1 primary students through project-based inquiry learning in the context of a magnet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safiee, N.; Jusoh, Z. M.; Noor, A. M. H. M.; Tek, O. E.; Salleh, S. M.

2018-01-01

For the needs of the 21st century, the Government of Malaysia has conceptualized the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 which embodies 11 strategic and operational shifts. In Shift 1, it is emphasized that the quality of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education will be enhanced. This study employed the mixed-method approach using the “one-group pre-test and post-test design”. Accordingly, this paper describes the pedagogical practice of Project-based Inquiry Learning (PIL) which promotes STEM Education among Year 1 students in the move to progress in tandem with Shift 1. Specifically, using the context of a magnet which has been stipulated in the Primary School Standard Curriculum, Year 1 students experienced the STEM Education through the STEM Pedagogy in which they raised questions upon the presentation of a relevant stimulus (Inquiry Phase), explored the ways in which a train carriage or coach could be assembled by means of recycled materials and magnets (Exploration Phase), designed a train carriage (Design Phase), and ultimately reflected on their inventions (Reflection Phase). The cognitive and affective impacts through the use of this Project-based Inquiry Learning are presented. Implications for the teaching and learning of science are discussed within the context of STEM Education.

Linking urban families to community resources in the context of pediatric primary care.

PubMed

Garg, Arvin; Sarkar, Sonia; Marino, Mark; Onie, Rebecca; Solomon, Barry S

2010-05-01

Pediatric guidelines emphasize the importance for healthcare providers to view children in the context of family and community, and promote community resources at visits. In 2006, a Family Help Desk (FHD) was established in an urban academic-based clinic in Baltimore, MD to assist healthcare providers in educating families about available community-based resources. A longitudinal cohort pilot study was conducted during a 6-week period in 2007 to evaluate the impact of the FHD in connecting at-risk families to community resources. Overall, 6% of parents (n=59) who brought their child for a scheduled clinic visit accessed the FHD. Parents had a mean of 1.7 social needs, including after-school programs and childcare (29%), employment (13%), housing (12%), and food (11%). Most parents who utilized the FHD (64%) contacted a community resource or service within 6 months of their clinic visit. Nineteen parents (32%) who utilized the FHD enrolled in community programs. A clinic-based multi-disciplinary model can empower families to connect with community-based resources for basic social needs. The Family Help Desk model has great potential for addressing family psychosocial needs, and educating families about community resources within the context of pediatric primary care. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigation of the Work Motivation Levels of Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ates, Hatice Kadioglu; Yilmaz, Perihan

2018-01-01

This study was conducted to examine the work motivation levels of primary school teachers working in primary school institutions located in Istanbul province, Kucukcekmece district. The descriptive survey model was used in this study. The population of the study consists of primary school teachers and primary school administrators working in state…

Reflecting on the use of photo elicitation with children.

PubMed

Whiting, Lisa S

2015-01-01

To reflect on the use of photo elicitation as a data collection method when conducting research with primary school age children (nine to 11 years). There is recognition that children feel an affinity with the visual medium; as a result, visual methods can be useful when conducting research with children. Photo elicitation is one such method, but there has been little discussion of its use with primary school children within a health context. This paper considers the main issues that researchers should consider. This paper draws on a research study conducted by the author that used an ethnographic approach and photo elicitation to identify the assets underpinning children's wellbeing. A reflective discussion is used to highlight issues relating to the use of photo elicitation to collect data from primary school children. Photo elicitation is not without its challenges: it creates additional ethical considerations, and can be more time-consuming and expensive. However, children value the opportunity to be involved in research and have their opinions sought, and photo elicitation provides a method of collecting data that is appropriate for children's developmental and cognitive maturational stages. Photo elicitation can be a positive experience for children, and one that is not only fun and engaging, but that is also empowering and valuing of their contributions. Research that uses photo elicitation needs to be carefully planned to ensure that the study is supported appropriately. The visual process can offer a unique insight into children's lives that allows health professionals to deepen their understanding of children's experiences.

Climate Change and Everyday Life: Repertoires children use to negotiate a socio-scientific issue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byrne, Jenny; Ideland, Malin; Malmberg, Claes; Grace, Marcus

2014-06-01

There are only a few studies about how primary school students engage in socio-scientific discussions. This study aims to add to this field of research by focusing on how 9-10-year-olds in Sweden and England handle climate change as a complex environmental socio-scientific issue (SSI), within the context of their own lives and in relation to society at large. It focuses on how different interpretative repertoires were used by the students in discussions to legitimise or question their everyday lifestyles. They discussed four possible options that a government might consider to help reduce carbon dioxide production. Six main repertoires were identified: Everyday life, Self-Interest, Environment, Science and Technology, Society and Justice. The Everyday life repertoire was used when students related their discussion to their everyday lifestyles. Science and technology-related solutions were offered to maintain or improve things, but these were sometimes rather unrealistic. Arguments related to environment and health frequently appeared to have a superior status compared to the others. Findings also highlighted how conflicts between the students were actually productive by bringing in several perspectives to negotiate the solutions. These primary school students were, therefore, able to discuss and negotiate a complex real-world SSI. Students positioned themselves as active contributors to society, using their life experiences and limited knowledge to understand the problems that affected their everyday lives. Honing these skills within a school science community of practice could facilitate primary students' engagement with SSIs and empower them as citizens.

Management of School Infrastructure in the Context of a No-Fee Schools Policy in Rural South African Schools: Lessons from the Field

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marishane, Ramodikoe Nylon

2013-01-01

This study examines the management of school infrastructure in the context of the "no-fee schools" policy introduced in the South African education delivery system. Focusing on four rural schools, the study applied a qualitative method, which involved observation of infrastructure conditions prevailing at four selected schools and…

School Burnout and Engagement in the Context of Demands-Resources Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salmela-Aro, Katariina; Upadyaya, Katja

2014-01-01

Background: A four-wave longitudinal study tested the demands-resources model in the school context. Aim: To examine the applicability of the demands-resources to the school context. Method: Data of 1,709 adolescents were gathered, once during the transition from comprehensive to post-comprehensive education, twice during post-comprehensive…

The Rural Context and Post-Secondary School Enrollment: An Ecological Systems Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demi, Mary Ann; Coleman-Jensen, Alisha; Snyder, Anastasia R.

2010-01-01

This study uses an ecological systems framework to examine how indicators of individual, family, and school contexts are associated with post-secondary educational enrollment among a sample of rural youth. Structural equation modeling allows us to examine both direct and indirect effects of these contexts on school enrollment. Unique elements of…

The Harvard Medical School Academic Innovations Collaborative: transforming primary care practice and education.

PubMed

Bitton, Asaf; Ellner, Andrew; Pabo, Erika; Stout, Somava; Sugarman, Jonathan R; Sevin, Cory; Goodell, Kristen; Bassett, Jill S; Phillips, Russell S

2014-09-01

Academic medical centers (AMCs) need new approaches to delivering higher-quality care at lower costs, and engaging trainees in the work of high-functioning primary care practices. In 2012, the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, in partnership with with local AMCs, established an Academic Innovations Collaborative (AIC) with the goal of transforming primary care education and practice. This novel two-year learning collaborative consisted of hospital- and community-based primary care teaching practices, committed to building highly functional teams, managing populations, and engaging patients. The AIC built on models developed by Qualis Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, optimized for the local AMC context. Foundational elements included leadership engagement and development, application of rapid-cycle process improvement, and the creation of teams to care for defined patient populations. Nineteen practices across six AMCs participated, with nearly 260,000 patients and 450 resident learners. The collaborative offered three 1.5-day learning sessions each year featuring shared learning, practice coaches, and improvement measures, along with monthly data reporting, webinars, and site visits. Validated self-reports by transformation teams showed that practices made substantial improvement across all areas of change. Important factors for success included leadership development, practice-level resources, and engaging patients and trainees. The AIC model shows promise as a path for AMCs to catalyze health system transformation through primary care improvement. In addition to further evaluating the impact of practice transformation, expansion will require support from AMCs and payers, and the application of similar approaches on a broader scale.

Mixed tenure communities as a policy instrument for educational outcomes in a deprived urban context?

PubMed

Robison, Oonagh; Kearns, Ade; Gray, Linsay; Bond, Lyndal; Henderson, Marion

2016-05-03

This article considers mixed community strategies, enacted through planning and regeneration policies, as a policy approach to the improvement of educational outcomes in schools. Analysis is undertaken of educational outcomes across secondary schools in Glasgow. The level of owner occupation in the catchment is positively associated with both examination results at S4 and positive destinations post-school, particularly at the more deprived end of the school spectrum. The results suggest that tenure mix may be both directly and indirectly related to school performance, with neighbourhood context effects not being entirely mediated through the school context.

A Multi-Method Inquiry of the Practice and Context of Rural School Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goforth, Anisa N.; Yosai, Erin R.; Brown, Jacqueline A.; Shindorf, Zachary R.

2017-01-01

This multi-method inquiry used (1) quantitative examination of context, characteristics, roles, and responsibilities of rural school psychologists compared to their suburban and urban counterparts and (2) qualitative examination of two focus groups of rural school psychologists. Results showed that rural school psychologists served more schools,…

Leadership and Context Connectivity: Merging Two Forces for Sustainable School Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marishane, Nylon Ramodikoe

2016-01-01

School improvement is admittedly the main business of school leadership. However, while there is agreement on the importance of school improvement, sustaining this improvement remains a challenge. The challenge seems to lie in the disconnection between the leader and the context in which the school operates. This chapter presents contextual…

School Organizational Contexts, Teacher Turnover, and Student Achievement: Evidence From Panel Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kraft, Matthew A.; Marinell, William H.; Shen-Wei Yee, Darrick

2016-01-01

We study the relationship between school organizational contexts, teacher turnover, and student achievement in New York City (NYC) middle schools. Using factor analysis, we construct measures of four distinct dimensions of school climate captured on the annual NYC School Survey. We identify credible estimates by isolating variation in…

Teacher Job Satisfaction and Motivation to Leave the Teaching Profession: Relations with School Context, Feeling of Belonging, and Emotional Exhaustion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skaalvik, Einar M.; Skaalvik, Sidsel

2011-01-01

This study examines the relations between school context variables and teachers' feeling of belonging, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. Six aspects of the school context were measured: value consonance, supervisory support, relations with colleagues, relations with parents, time pressure, and…

Effects of Multiple Context and Cumulative Stress on Urban Children's Adjustment in Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morales, Julie R.; Guerra, Nancy G.

2006-01-01

Using longitudinal data collected over 2 years on a sample of 2,745 urban elementary school children (1st-6th graders, ages 6-11 years) from economically disadvantaged communities, effects of stressful experiences within 3 contexts (school, family, neighborhood), cumulative stress, and multiple context stress on 3 indices of children's adjustment…

The Relationship among School Safety, School Liking, and Students' Self-Esteem: Based on a Multilevel Mediation Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Xinghui; Xuan, Xin; Chen, Fumei; Zhang, Cai; Luo, Yuhan; Wang, Yun

2016-01-01

Background: Perceptions of school safety have an important effect on students' development. Based on the model of "context-process-outcomes," we examined school safety as a context variable to explore how school safety at the school level affected students' self-esteem. Methods: We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the link…

Non-completion of upper secondary school among female and male young adults in an Arctic sociocultural context; the NAAHS study.

PubMed

Bania, Elisabeth Valmyr; Lydersen, Stian; Kvernmo, Siv

2016-09-13

Education is closely associated with health. Non-completion of upper secondary school influences academic achievement, employment, income and personal well-being. The purpose of the study is to explore predictors of non-completion of upper secondary school among female and male young adults in relation to mental health and educational factors in a socio-cultural, Arctic context. The Norwegian Arctic Adolescent Health Study (NAAHS) is a cross-sectional, school-based survey that was conducted in 2003-2005. Eighty-three percent of the population of 5,877 10th graders participated; 49.1%females, 450 reported indigenous Sami ethnicity, and 304 reported Laestadian affiliation. Data from NAAHS were merged with registry data from the National Education Database (NUDB) Norway for 3,987 adolescents who gave their consent for follow-up studies. Non-completion of upper secondary school was 36.9 % among females and 36.6 % among males. Among females, predictors for non-completion were related to mental health symptoms, and among males, to residency in the northernmost and remote areas and self-reported functional difficulties at school, home and in leisure activities due to mental health problems. There was marginal significance between ethnicity and non-completion of upper secondary school, measured at 41.3 % for Sami and 36.8 % for non-Sami, respectively. The gender differences found in this study emphasize the need for gender-specific interventions in preventing non-completion of upper secondary school. There is a need to recognize and treat extensive pro-social behaviour and social problems in young females. Young males from remote areas and those who in early adolescence struggle with functional impairment due to mental health problems need early interventions in lower secondary school. Enhancing parents' and teachers' ability to detect symptoms and problems as well as low-threshold health services starting in primary school can be effective means. Education, mental health and social inclusion are prominent factors for future employment, income and independent living for young people. Future research should focus more on gender-specific patterns of risk and protective factors for completion of upper secondary school.

Using modular psychotherapy in school mental health: Provider perspectives on intervention-setting fit

PubMed Central

Lyon, Aaron R.; Ludwig, Kristy; Romano, Evalynn; Koltracht, Jane; Stoep, Ann Vander; McCauley, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

Objective The “fit” or appropriateness of well-researched interventions within usual care contexts is among the most commonly-cited, but infrequently researched, factors in the successful implementation of new practices. The current study was initiated to address two exploratory research questions: (1) How do clinicians describe their current school mental health service delivery context? and (2) How do clinicians describe the fit between modular psychotherapy and multiple levels of the school mental health service delivery context? Method Following a year-long training and consultation program in an evidence-based, modular approach to psychotherapy, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seventeen school-based mental health providers to evaluate their perspectives on the appropriateness of implementing the approach within a system of school-based health centers. Interviews were transcribed and coded for themes using conventional and directed content analysis. Results Findings identified key elements of the school mental health context including characteristics of the clinicians, their practices, the school context, and the service recipients. Specific evaluation of intervention-setting appropriateness elicited many comments about both practical and value-based (e.g., cultural considerations) aspects at the clinician and client levels, but fewer comments at the school or organizational levels. Conclusions Results suggest that a modular approach may fit well with the school mental health service context, especially along practical aspects of appropriateness. Future research focused on the development of methods for routinely assessing appropriateness at different stages of the implementation process is recommended. PMID:24134063

[A comparative study on depression symptoms in Cracow primary school kids in years 1984 and 2001].

PubMed

Modrzejewska, Renata; Bomba, Jacek

2009-01-01

The study aims to find out whether or not the image of depression in children has remained related to the changing social context within a period of fifteen years. For the depression study, version AO "B1" of the Kraków Depression Inventory (KID) was used. The subject group included 10-year-old fourth-form Kraków primary school students selected in 1984 and 2001 by two-stage draw. The analysis included subjects with a screening diagnosis of depression. In 1984, this was a group of 160, and in 2001-200 persons. Statistical analysis showed significant differences between the groups of pupils under study in 1984 and 2001 as far as the scale of mood disorder is concerned (a reduction in the intensity of symptoms in girls and an increase in boys) and somatic symptoms (increase of symptoms in girls and a reduction in the intensity of symptoms in boys). On other scales, no differences of statistical significance were found between the groups. CONCLUSIONS. The changing social conditions have a relatively low effect on the symptomatic depression image in preadolescent children.