Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video conferencing

Teachers in rural and remote schools face many challenges including those relating to distance, isolation and lack of professional development opportunities. This article examines a project where mathematics and science teachers were provided with professional development opportunities via video conferencing to help them use syllabus documents to develop their teaching programs. The study is qualitative and draws on teacher conversations and surveys using a community of inquiry theoretical framework to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that teacher professional development via video conferencing has both strengths and weaknesses but can support teachers through collaboration to develop their expertise in writing teaching programs.     

The relationship between task structure and collaborative group interactions in a synchronous peer interaction collaborative learning environment for a course of Physics

Although collaborative group work is used by many instructors as a useful educational tool, there is much room for research on how learning actually occurs within collaborative learning environments. This paper attempts to explore the relationship(if any) between task structure and collaborative group interactions in a synchronous peer interaction collaborative learning environment. For this reason, we used the Cmap during a Physics course for Grade 12 students. This paper compares two groups of students, one studying concept maps with single answer task, and the other studying concept maps with variable answer task. The aim of the study presented in this article is to also investigate the influence of task structure on students’ interactivity according to certain indicators and cognitive performance.     

浅谈农村初中差生产生的原因及解决办法

差生是农村初中的一个普遍现象,如何转化差生也是农村初中班主任面临的一项重要而迫切的课题,笔者扎根农村初中十年来,就这些方面的见解赘述成文,就教于方家.     

Exploring gender gap and school differential effects in mathematics in Chilean primary schools

ABSTRACT

Despite the systematic recognition of large gender gaps in favour of boys in mathematics performance in Chile, the role of schools in explaining this gap has been comparatively underresearched. This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset to explore within- and between-school variation of Chilean primary schools in promoting attainment and progress of girls and boys. In order to reflect the hierarchical nature of the educational data, multilevel modelling is used, with 163,044 students, nested within 3,355 schools, within 310 municipalities to fit raw, contextualised attainment, and value-added models. The weak evidence indicative of gender differential school effect in progress in Chilean primary schools was interpreted as non-substantive. However, differences in effectiveness played a significant role, as girls progressed more than boys in less effective schools, but the opposite was true in more effective schools. Finally, the study concludes that the Chilean gender gap needs to be addressed mainly beyond schools.     

黔南地区乡镇中小学数学教育探求

对黔南少数民族地区乡镇中小学数学教育进行比较研究,寻找乡镇中小学与县、市级中小学数学教育之间的差距,以及乡镇中小学学生、数学教师普遍存在的问题,最后提出对策.     

Exploring the social inclusion of deaf young people in mainstream schools,using their lived experience

Research suggests that children with hearing loss face a number of difficulties in the education system, including socially. Although there has been much research with the severe to profound deaf population there has been little research into the life experiences of children with moderate hearing loss who attend mainstream secondary schools. This research sought to examine the experiences of social inclusion for five young people with moderate hearing loss. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews in the young person’s school setting and were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Although each participant had distinctive experiences, there were a number of common themes that emerged indicating the factors that support social inclusion and those which create barriers for deaf children in schools. Implications for educational psychologists are considered and the limitations of the research are outlined.     

Developing,testing and refining of a model to understand the relationship between peer interaction and learning outcomes in computer‐mediated conferencing

Our pervasive adoption of CMC in higher education has far outpaced our understanding of the nature of CMC and, accordingly, how this medium should best be used to promote higher‐order learning (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7–23, 2001). Therefore, this study examined the relationship between peer interaction and learning outcomes by creating and testing through structural equation modeling a model of five variables—learner characteristics measured by self‐construal, perceived teaching style, task design, course requirements, and prior CMC experience—that influence self‐reported peer interaction and self‐reported learning outcomes. The results showed that perceived teaching style had a small direct effect (0.23) and prior CMC experience had a moderate direct effect (0.31) on self‐reported peer interaction; self‐reported peer interaction had a strong direct effect (0.66) on self‐reported learning outcomes.     

Teachers' understandings of curriculum adaptations for learners with learning difficulties in primary schools in Botswana: issues and challenges of inclusive education

This paper derives from research carried out in a number of Botswana primary schools on teachers' understanding of curriculum adaptations for learners who experience learning difficulties (LD) as part of implementing inclusive education. Teachers' understanding play a crucial role in how they make curriculum accessible for learners with LD during the teaching and learning processes. Interviews with 12 teachers and classroom observations were conducted in six primary schools in urban, semi‐urban and rural areas. The data was analysed using qualitative procedures, and results of the study revealed that teachers' understanding of curriculum adaptations seemed embedded within the concept of remedial education where learners with LD are assisted outside the scheduled time of the lesson. The results also showed that teachers' main focus on completing the set curriculum in preparation for examinations compromised curriculum access of learners with LD in general education classrooms.     

Power,agency and middle leadership in English primary schools

English primary schools are considered quasi‐collegial institutions within which staff communicate regularly and openly. The activities of staff, however, are bound by institutional norms and conditions and by societal expectations. Wider agendas of governmental control over the curriculum and external controls to ensure accountability and learning standards have influenced the development and purposes of middle leaders’ roles. This is a conceptual paper that explores issues around the agency of primary school middle leaders within a wider context of the political and educational agenda. Through a reconsideration of research conducted by one of the authors since the inception of the notion of ‘subject leaders’, we exemplify ways in which primary school middle leaders’ attitudes have developed and changed over the past 15 years. In this paper we identify attitudes to leadership, the influence of distributed leadership on primary school role‐holders and possible ways forward for middle leaders.     

Examining the relationship between teacher organizational commitment and school health in Turkish primary schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between teachers' perceptions of organizational commitment and school health in Turkish primary schools. The Organizational Commitment Scale and the Organizational Health Inventory were used to gather data from 323 randomly selected teachers employed in 20 primary schools in Ankara. Results indicated that teacher compliance commitment was negatively related to both identification and internalization. Three dimensions of school health, institutional integrity, principal professional leadership, and morale, negatively predicted teacher commitment based on compliance. However, teacher internalization commitment was positively predicted by these 3 health dimensions. Professional leadership was the only school health dimension that was significant in predicting identification commitment. Two other dimensions of school health, academic emphasis and resource support, were not significant predictors of the commitment factors. Results of the study are discussed in relation to developing the organizational health of schools and improving the organizational commitment of teachers.     

Explicit reasoning, creativity and co-construction in primary school children's collaborative activities

This paper describes research that explored the question of whether or not it is possible to characterise and teach a single type of educationally productive talk. We analysed and compared the quality of children's interactional strategies when jointly working on a reasoning task and a psycholinguistic task. The latter involved writing an integrated summary of three related texts. Sixth grade primary school children (11–12 years old) solved these two tasks as pre- and post-tests before and after training in the use of ‘Exploratory Talk’ (ET) to think together and argue as well as in strategies for producing summaries. After training, children improved substantially in the use of ET when solving the reasoning but not the psycholinguistic task. However, using ethnography of communication methods to analyse the talk further around the latter task revealed that both the number and quality of communicative events and acts increased importantly. These changes were accompanied by a significant improvement in the quality of the summaries produced. These findings suggest that the requirement for explicit reasoning in the definition and analysis of ET may be task dependent. To account for the common features of the educationally productive talk in the two settings, we propose the more inclusive concept of co-constructive talk to characterise the inter-subjective orientation, social ground rules and communicative actions that support effective collaboration, co-ordination and creativity.     

Politics,media and youth: understanding political socialization via video production in secondary schools

Research on the lack of civic and political engagement on the part of today’s youth has relied on traditional, often quantitative, measures of political knowledge that may miss important elements of the process. Using an ethnographic approach with a group of inner‐city high school students, our study reveals a richer construction of students’ awareness of political issues, or political socialization than previously documented by conventional survey measures. Notably present is a sophisticated awareness of and identification with non‐news television formats which suggests that sources such as TV talk and reality shows may be important sources of political discourse and even civic engagement. Our study also supports the value of hands‐on media production projects for understanding youth political knowledge and awareness, suggesting an additional tool for political communication and civic engagement research.     

Relationships between learning environments and self-efficacy in primary schools and differing perceptions of at-risk students

Learning Environments Research - Because students who are considered to be at-risk of academic failure are more likely to experience a range of serious outcomes both at school and later in life, it...     

城乡小学英语教师培训差异研究

小学英语教师培训由于面对城乡两大不同的培训群体,两者在诸多方面都存在差异。本文立足重庆,调查研究重庆市主城区及周边农村地区小学英语教师培训现状,剖析两种培训在参训对象、培训需求和培训内容等方面反映出的差别。     

Differences in construction,facilities, equipment and academic achievement among Ugandan primary schools

This study sets out to clarify two questions within the context of a non-industrial society's educational system: (1) In what areas would there be measurable variation in physical facilities between primary schools? (2) Is any of this variation statistically related to the academic performance of children on the national selection examination (PLE) used for entrance into senior secondary school? The discussion would support those who hold that, especially in environments of material poverty, school facilities can make a difference. But aside from reporting a number of significant correlations, the paper explores an additional theory relevant to other educational survey research efforts: that the physical existence of a piece of equipment in a school may not be as critical for understanding achievement as knowing how and by what means it got there.