Children-at-risk for poor nutrition: expanding the approach of future professionals in educational institutions

Objectives

To examine how the subject of nutrition is being addressed in the work with children at risk of poor nutrition in educational institutions and what the barriers are which may hinder inclusion of this subject.

Methods

A structured questionnaire was constructed for the purpose of this study and was implemented with 111 students in Israel who are working in their internships in educational institutions with children who are exposed to risk factors of poor nutrition (e.g., parental neglect, lack of knowledge, poverty).

Results

Participants attributed a high level of importance to integrating nutrition-related components in their work. However, the findings indicate less emphasis on nutrition-related components than on psycho-social-educational components, as well as a low level of collaboration with specialists in the area of nutrition. In addition, it was found that knowledge-based barriers and institutional-related systemic barriers may hinder future teachers’ capabilities to incorporate those components despite their favorable approach towards this subject.

Conclusions

The findings illuminate the need to reduce barriers hampering the individual work with children at risk of poor nutrition in educational institutions.

Practice implications

In the training of future teachers, there is a need to advance a bio-psycho-social educational approach incorporating a knowledge base about assessing situations of poor nutrition, including how to advance an interdisciplinary collaboration with specialists in the area of nutrition.     

Educational leadership: an Islamic perspective

Ethnocentric concepts, theories and practices in education, predominantly embedded in western philosophy and values, tend to ignore the growing multicultural nature of educational institutions. This article draws attention to the knowledge gap in mainstream literature regarding diverse perspectives of educational leadership—an issue which is foreseen as gaining higher significance with the fast‐changing societal structures in Britain. Having worked as a Muslim woman educational leader/manager in higher education in an Islamic state for more than two decades, and now working at a British university, positioned as a non‐White woman Muslim, the author endorses the need to move beyond ethnocentrisms and to work towards developing complex theoretical constructs to reconceptualise educational leadership, drawing from perspectives held by diverse ethnic groups—students and communities. How learners from diverse philosophical and ethnic backgrounds conceive and perceive educational leadership, and how they receive it, is bound to interact with their learning experience and performance. This article briefly introduces leadership as a concept formulated in context. It presents philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of these conceptualisations from an Islamic perspective, and highlights the interplay between knowledge and leadership. The article deliberates how these discourses interact to formulate ‘educational leadership’ in Muslim societies, and explores the implications of these constructions with a focus on the British context, where Muslims are in a minority, pointing to the significance of understanding philosophical diversity for embracing population diversity.     

“Brothers Gonna Work It Out:” Understanding the Pedagogic Performance of African American Male Teachers Working with African American Male Students

Drawing from ethnographic data, this paper explores how African American male teachers working with African American male students performed their pedagogy. This paper highlights how teachers’ understanding of African American males social and educational needs shaped their pedagogical performance. Interestingly however, teachers’ performance was contingent on the diverse ways they imagined African American males should engage within their social and political worlds. These findings suggest then that African American male teachers’ pedagogic performances were both complex and multifaceted.     

School choice as ‘motherwork’: valuing African‐American women’s educational advocacy and resistance

This study draws on in‐depth interview data to discuss the school choices and educational advocacy roles of 14 African‐American mothers. The narratives of the study’s participants, who have low‐income or working‐class status, show how race, class and gender factors influence their school choice‐making and their value of education. The author asserts that the mothers’ school choice‐making constitutes an important act of cultural resistance and empowerment called motherwork. Analysis of the study’s findings challenges conventional notions of parent involvement and counters prevalent stereotypes that portray African‐American mothers as uncaring. Attention is given to the inequities that the mothers face in the educational marketplace and how they seek agency. Educators are urged to consider how the mothers perceive themselves and construct their educational involvement roles in order to engage parents in empowering and meaningful ways.     

Towards learning analytics adoption: A mixed methods study of data-related practices and policies in Latin American universities

In Latin American universities, Learning Analytics (LA) has been perceived as a promising opportunity to leverage data to meet the needs of a diverse student cohort. Although universities have been collecting educational data for years, the adoption of LA in this region is still limited due to the lack of expertise and policies for processing and using educational data. In order to get a better picture of how existing data-related practices and policies might affect the incorporation of LA in Latin American institutions, we conducted a mixed methods study in four Latin American universities (two Chilean and two Ecuadorian). In this paper, the qualitative data were based on 37 interviews with managers and 16 focus groups with 51 teaching staff and 45 students; the quantitative data were collected through two surveys answered by 1884 students and 368 teachers, respectively. The findings reveal opportunities to incorporate LA services into existing data practices in the four case studies. However, the lack of reliable information systems and policies to regulate the use of data imposes challenges that need to be overcome for future LA adoption.     

The Influence of Additional Educational Support on Poverty-Stricken Adolescents’ Resilience and Academic Performance

Abstract

Resilience can be viewed as successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances (e.g. poverty). This article reports on an investigation of which the primary aim was to establish how additional educational support enhances adolescents’ resilience and academic performance. A quantitative approach was followed using two schools. One was a poverty-stricken school where additional educational support was officially offered, while the other school offered normal required tuition and was located in a middle class suburb. In total, 117 Grade 9 and 10 learners participated in the research. The results indicated that resilience related positively to academic performance and to other factors which are associated with academic performance such as teacher-learner relationships, parental involvement and study methods. Additional educational support to poverty-stricken learners resulted in higher resilience and academic achievement. Amongst the variables used in the investigation, additional educational support explained the largest proportion of the variance in academic achievement, followed by resilience and cognitive development.     

Enhancing teaching effectiveness by using the Six-Sigma DMAIC model

As the competition increases in higher education, how to improve teaching quality to promote educational performance becomes a significant issue. Many higher educational institutions (HEIs) make efforts to establish a feedback system to monitor and reflect the outcomes of teaching evaluations. This study aimed to describe the use of the Six-Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control) procedures and the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method to implement a feedback system step by step. The study proposed some useful instruments to illustrate how evaluations of teaching can be simple and objective by using a questionnaire, how to detect the disadvantages on teaching, and the decision strategy to prioritise disadvantages that are in need of corrective action. HEIs may use these instruments to establish an effective feedback system.     

“Ain't nobody gonna get me down”: An Examination of the Educational Experiences of Four African American Women Labeled With Disabilities

This study used qualitative research methods to explore the educational experiences of four African American women with disabilities, revealing how each participant developed a critical consciousness in response to the dominant ideology surrounding the discourses of African American, woman, and disabled. The development of a critical consciousness led participants to counter the oppressive nature of their educational experiences by engaging in acts of resistance. Recommendations are made with regard to how K-18 educators might support and capitalize upon students' critical consciousness to facilitate equitable classroom communities.     

Self-efficacy and achievement behaviors

In this article self-efficacy research is reviewed in domains relevant to education. Research addressing cognitive skills, social skills, motor skills, and career choices has shown that self-efficacy is an important construct that helps to explain students' learning and performance of achievement-related behaviors. Research also has identified variables that are associated with educational contexts and that signal to students how well they are achieving or making progress in learning. These task-engagement variables include models/social comparative information, goal setting, attributional and performance feedback, strategy instruction, cognitive processing, and reward contingencies. A suggested future self-efficacy research agenda might include maintenance and generalization of changes in self-efficacy, the identification of additional task-engagement variables, instrument development and validation, integration of efficacy information from diverse sources, developmental influences on self-efficacy, and teachers' sense of efficacy.     

Teachers’ perspective on institutional barriers to academic entrepreneurship – a case of Uttarakhand state,India

The study explores the institutional factors which influence the impact of education in building academic entrepreneurship in higher educational institutes of Uttarakhand state, India. In order to understand the institutional barriers, the author interviewed 68 senior-level educationists, who were working in the capacity of Director General, Professor, Head, or Director in three different universities or their affiliated institutions. Based on the qualitative data obtained from interviews, we identified five major and four minor factors which were influencing the impact of education in building academic entrepreneurship in the state. The major barriers identified were – poor entrepreneurial ecosystem, poor entrepreneurial orientation, and inclination of universities and institutes to prepare students for jobs, inadequate content of the subject, need for training of entrepreneurship faculty, or specialized entrepreneurship faculty and ineffective teaching methodology. The results so obtained were further reviewed and validated on the basis of past research. The study also takes into account the institutional problems in developing academic entrepreneurship in other developing countries and compares the results. The study will help policy-makers, teachers, and educational institutions to recognize the possible shortfalls in the education system, which eventually result in poor academic entrepreneurship. Suggestions for improvements are included.     

Manipulation of M demand of chemistry problems and its effect on student performance: A neo-piagetian study

It has been shown that student performance in chemistry problems decreases as the M demand of the problem increases, thus emphasizing the role of information processing in problem solving. It was hypothesized that manipulation (increase or decrease) of the M demand of a problem can affect student performance. Increasing the M demand of a problem would affect more the performance of subjects with a limited functional M capacity. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of manipulation (increase) of the M demand of chemistry problems, having the same logical structure, on performance of students having different functional M capacity, cognitive style, and formal operational reasoning patterns. As predicted the performance of one group of students was lower after the manipulation (increase) in the M demand of the problem. This shows how even small changes in the amount of information required for processing can lead to working memory overload, as a consequence of a poor capacity for mobilization of M power.     

Educational leadership: Producing docile bodies? A Foucauldian perspective on Higher Education

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a long‐standing critical tradition in the educational leadership literature through an analytical examination of the idiosyncrasies of leadership in Higher Education institutions (based on the UK example). It applies a postmodern way of thinking to the educational leadership phenomenon to problematise and challenge the traditional views on the trajectories of power in Higher Education institutions, utilising Foucault’s key theoretical units of discipline, governmentality and biopolitics as a toolbox for dissecting the implications of neoliberal ideology on the leadership praxes. Significantly, the paper demonstrates how the engagement with Foucault’s three modes of objectification—dividing practices, scientific classification and self‐subjection—can expose the ways, in which the roles of educational leaders become re‐configured into economic‐rational individuals or subjects, who are compliant with the imposed requisites of the government’s neoliberal agendas. The paper concludes that Foucault’s theoretical perspectives could be used as a methodological template for a deeper critical analysis of leadership practices, equipping academics with additional tools for critiquing the existing boundaries of neoliberalism and intervening in the transformation of the social order by undertaking an investigation into the practices of governmentality, as suggested by Foucault.     

Home‐based Parental Involvement in Young Children’s Education: Examining the effects of maternal education across U.S. ethnic groups

This study investigated the contributions of maternal education and ethnicity to three dimensions of home‐based parental involvement in young children’s education and development: parental expectations about educational attainment, children’s activities at home and outside the home, and family routines. Controlling for family background variables such as family size and structure, household income, and neighbourhood safety, we examined these relations in a nationally representative U.S. sample of 9,864 Asian American, African American, Latino American, and European American five‐year‐old children. Multiple regression models suggested that maternal education explained small to moderate amounts of variation in parental home‐based involvement, and was more strongly associated with these outcome variables than was income. Ethnicity significantly predicted additional variation in only two outcome variables: parental educational expectations and family discussions. Maternal education plays a unique role in explaining U.S. ethnic group variations in parental involvement in young children’s education.     

Teachers’ perspective on upward evaluation in basic education departments in Metro Manila

Evaluation is essential in assessing different areas of performance especially in educational institutions. Conversely, upward evaluation is emerging in the Philippine educational institutions. However, issues concerning upward evaluations hinder its regular implementation. This study ascertained the impact between and among instructional supervisory behavior, teachers’ trust to instructional supervisors, teachers’ emotional exhaustion, need to evaluate and teachers’ want to have an upward evaluation. This also found teachers’ viewpoint of a bottom-up design of evaluation. With 278 teacher respondents, the multi-aspect survey questionnaires were utilized. This study employed structural equation modelling. Path analysis was also conducted to examine simultaneous relationships and direct effect among latent variables at 0.05 level of significance. This study provides implications to implementation of evaluations in educational institutions.     

Current status of educational technologies at Omani higher education institutions and their future prospective

The purpose of this research was to address the current and prospective views on educational technology (ET) in order to discover the difficulties and develop its utilization in Omani higher education. The main instruments used to carry out this research were two questionnaires: the faculty members’ questionnaire, and the technical/administrative staff questionnaire. One hundred and fifty-nine participants were involved in the study. They represented all educational technologists who have been with the public and private Omani higher education institutions. The findings show a tendency for future expansion with less expensive technologies and the need for training. Some impediments of ET use were also found. Important recommendations from this study include: the need to support Omani higher education institutions with technical and human resources to increase and activate the use/number of new instructional media and equipment.     

Organizational Practices Enhancing the Influence of Student Assessment Information in Academic Decisions

Student assessment should not be undertaken as an end in itself but as a means to educational and institutional improvement. The purpose of our study is to provide systematic empirical evidence of how postsecondary institutions support and promote the use of student assessment information in academic decision making. We use linear regression to determine which institutional variables are related to whether student assessment data is influential in academic decisions. Our conclusion is that student assessment data has only a marginal influence on academic decision making. Our data show there is slightly more influence on educationally related decisions than on faculty-related decisions, but in neither case is student assessment data very influential. Nonetheless, we did find several significant predictor variables in our model, including: the number of institutional studies relating students' performance to their interactions with the institution; conducting student assessment to improve internal institutional performance; involving student affairs personnel in student assessment; the extent of student assessment conducted; and the extent of professional development related to student assessment that is offered to faculty, staff, and administrators. These findings vary by institutional type.     

Is Education Getting Lost in University Mergers?

Mergers are common phenomena in higher education institutions. Improving educational quality is typically one of the stated goals of university mergers. Yet, little information exists about how merging institutions approach this goal. This paper presents results from a study of planning documents created prior to four mergers in the Finnish higher education system. These documents show that there was little concrete attention given to the educational issues related to the mergers. Most attention was placed on administrative issues and issues related to research. When educational issues were mentioned, it was almost always in the form of vague goals with few details provided about how the goals were to be reached. We conclude that this lack of attention to the educational aspect of mergers is a significant weakness of the planning process in these mergers.     

Is Education Getting Lost in University Mergers?

Mergers are common phenomena in higher education institutions. Improving educational quality is typically one of the stated goals of university mergers. Yet, little information exists about how merging institutions approach this goal. This paper presents results from a study of planning documents created prior to four mergers in the Finnish higher education system. These documents show that there was little concrete attention given to the educational issues related to the mergers. Most attention was placed on administrative issues and issues related to research. When educational issues were mentioned, it was almost always in the form of vague goals with few details provided about how the goals were to be reached. We conclude that this lack of attention to the educational aspect of mergers is a significant weakness of the planning process in these mergers.

     

Examining the relationships among academic self-concept,instrumental motivation,and TIMSS 2007 science scores: a cross-cultural comparison of five East Asian countries/regions and the United States

Many American authors expressed their concern that US competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is losing ground. Using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007 data, this study investigated how academic self-concept and instrumental motivation influence science test performance among East Asian and American students. Jackknife regression modelling indicated that in East Asia science competency is not tied to enjoying science or estimated ability while in the US both variables are negatively correlated with performance. Additionally, the test performance of the East Asian students does not seem to be boosted by the perception of the role of science in career advancement, but this perception could significantly predict the test performance of their American counterparts. It is the conviction of the author that these findings related to student-level factors could lead to practical implications for educational policies and pedagogical strategies, such as placing emphasis on daily applications of science.