Introducing group counselling into Nigerian secondary schools: Report of a three-year experience

This paper presents a progress of the efforts by a department in a Nigerian University to introduce group counselling into near-by secondary schools. First, it reviews the traditional concept of guidance and counselling in Nigeria and compares this with the western concept, with emphasis on providing guidance/counselling to one individual at a time. The paper then discusses at length the group counselling programme that is used in various schools, mentioning findings on problems that adolescents are faced with. In a section devoted to evaluation, it was shown that Nigerian schools do need guidance counsellors. The last section discusses counselling techniques. Here is emphasised that, as counselling goes into Nigerian schools, there is a need to devise culturally viable techniques of handling issues and problems that are culturally peculiar to Africans.University of Ilorin     

The effectiveness of laboratory photomicrography for studying microbiology in Nigerian secondary schools

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of using laboratory photomicrography as a motivational technique in the teaching-learning processes involved in the study of microbiology in Nigerian secondary schools. This was done by comparing the posttest scores and the questionnaire responses made by three equal groups of randomly sampled and assigned students taught the same microbiology content material by lectures and photomicrography used as an adjunct to the laboratory, lectures, and laboratory activities and lectures alone. Each group was taught by a different microbiology teacher. The results of this study, as shown in Tables I through V permitted the conclusion that students taught microbiology by lectures with photomicrography activities achieved the highest posttest mean score and expressed the opinion that they were highly motivated by this teaching method. Students taught microbiology by lectures with laboratory activities achieved lower mean posttest score and expressed the opinion that they were only fairly motivated by this teaching approach. Students taught microbiology by lectures alone achieved the lowest mean posttest score and expressed the opinion that they were least motivated by this teaching approach.     

关于中小学实验创新教育的思考

在中小学中实施创新教育，培养创新人才，既是知识经济时代赋予的崇高使命，也是学校改革发展的必然要求。中小学要充分挖掘学校的培养潜力和提高学生的创新能力，全面实施素质教育，努力培养出更多的能适应21世纪需要的创新型人才，必须要有正确的思路和采取科学的对策。     

中职学校德育创新的策略

中职学校要提高德育工作的针对性、实效性和主动性，应在德育观念、德育目标、德育内容、德育原则、德育方法、德育机制等方面进行创新。     

Teacher Identity and Curriculum Change: A comparative case-study analysis of small schools in England and Finland

The findings reported in this article form part of a wider comparative research project investigating the processes of curriculum change in primary schools in England and Finland. This comparison has a special interest because in many respects the current policies of the two countries are moving in opposite directions, with Finland dismantling its long-standing subject-based national curriculum and encouraging school-based curricula incorporating integrated topic work. Data are presented from qualitative research case studies of four schools-two in each country-in relation to three themes: teachers' values, curriculum and classroom organisation and curriculum planning. It is argued that teachers' self-identities are powerful mediators in terms of their interpretations of and responses to imposed changes and that the ethos of very small schools enables teachers to preserve their prior value systems more easily than their colleagues in other schools.     

百年中师优良传统:解析与承续

中师在一百多年的办学实践中,积累了培养小学教师的优良传统和宝贵经验,可以概括为特别注重师范生职业情意培养、教学技能训练、行为规范养成和师范文化建设等。反思当下小学教师培养中存在的问题,主要是对培养小学教师的院校把关不严格;师范生源总体状况不理想;一些院校培养小学教师的模式不恰当。因此,在小学教师教育高教化的背景下,应吸收和借鉴百年中师的优良办学传统和经验,积极探索小学教师培养的特点和规律,坚持综合培养、有所侧重,注重整体设置、一以贯之,重视知识教学、技能训练,加快体制创新、统筹规划,实行免费教育、定向培养,切实提高小学师资培养质量。     

Leading curriculum innovation in primary schools project: a final report

This article provides the final report on a research project that investigated the ways in which curriculum innovation can be led successfully in primary schools. Data gathering included 40 semi-structured interviews in 10 successful primary schools in England of varying sizes and types and in a range of geographical and social locations. Findings suggest that in order for curriculum innovation to be successful, school leaders need to create an ethos for change that empowers teachers to experiment with the curriculum through the adoption of distributed forms of leadership, and that in-school and between-school cooperation is a key mechanism for change.     

Impact of school-type and sex of the teacher on female students' attitudes toward mathematics in Nigerian secondary schools

The purpose of the study was to identify female students' attitudes toward mathematics when studying under four conditions and to assess the impact of school-type and sex of teacher on students' attitudes toward mathematics. An instrument to measure attitude toward mathematics was administered on a stratified random sample of 240 female students drawn from 5 co-educational and 6 all-girls' secondary schools in Plateau State, Nigeria. The findings suggest that the best environment under which females can learn mathematics is in all-girls' secondary schools where mathematics is taught by female teachers.     

Outcomes approaches to assessment: comparing non-government and government case-study schools in Western Australia

A key feature of recent curriculum reform in post-industrialised liberal economies has been the ascendancy of outcomes-based education policies. A 1995 review conducted in Western Australia (WA) recommended an outcomes-based approach, and in response, the Curriculum Framework (CF) was released in 1998. The same year, the WA State government mandated that all schools, both non-government and government, demonstrate compliance with the outcomes-based CF for Years K–10 by 2004. This article compares case-studies of non-government and government schools in analysing assessment and reporting issues in relation to the enactment of outcomes-based curriculum policy in the mid-2000s. With significantly different localised contexts, including different degrees of institutional autonomy and different approaches to curriculum, assessment and reporting, interesting contrasts and commonalities arose as each school engaged with the new policy. The research draws on a hybrid approach to policy analysis, incorporating both critical theory and post-structuralism with their different conceptualisations of power relationships. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine and analyse the views of participants at each site. Although there is no intention to generalise from individual case-studies, cross-case analysis reveals the emergence of meta-level themes – such as market choice, accountability and teacher professionalism – which are associated with ‘bigger picture’ issues of power and which may well provide insights for explorations of curriculum reform in other contexts.     

Revisiting a student-oriented curriculum in the Nigerian secondary school system

Abstract

The increasing gap between what students learn and what they remember has agitated the minds of educators in recent times. The apparent gap is that teaching tends to be more theoretical than practical. For instance an apparent absence of relevant instructional materials, skilled vocational education personnel and the current lack of awareness on the part of policy makers on the advantages of pragmatic education, constitute current obstacles to the actualisation of pragmatic student-oriented secondary school education curriculum in Nigeria. However, this paper therefore, describes methods by which secondary school education can be made more functional through the introduction of more practical learning schemes which shall ultimately equip graduates with revenue generating and life skills. Fifty teachers and 150 students were randomly selected for the study from formal and non-formal secondary schools in Calabar Metropolis and Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State of Nigeria. Ex-post facto design was adopted. A 16 item questionnaire constructed on a modified four-point Likert-type scale was used for data collection. The data was analysed using simple percentages, independent t-test and a One-way analysis of variance. The findings revealed that, the schools lack adequate instructional materials and adequately trained vocational education teachers. Based on this, it was recommended among others, that a student-oriented curriculum be implemented in line with the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education For All (EFA) and Universal Basic Education (UBE). Also more practical skills-oriented education and vocational education teachers should be employed to train the students on the development of functional literacy skills.