School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

School closures impact children's attainment adversely, but understanding the effects of closures on children's attainment in lower-income countries is still limited. Addressing this deficit, this study examines how past school closures have impacted children's educational attainment in Ethiopia. The study uses individual student-level data from the Young Lives School Survey and standardised test scores in mathematics and language recorded at the start and end of the school year to model children's attainment. Multiple regression with propensity score matching is used to analyse how attainment over the school year is impacted by school closures for a matched sub-sample of 4842 students. The effectiveness of additional classes to make up for lost learning is also evaluated. Past school closures have had a detrimental effect on attainment in mathematics, but not literacy. Extra classes, specifically those that families do not pay for, have helped children in the past to recuperate lost learning and could serve this function post-Covid-19. Inequalities in learning outcomes, measured by Gini coefficients in educational attainment, are widened by school closures. Applying these results to the extensive school closures under Covid-19 furthers our understanding of the likely effects on academic attainment and can inform policy to mitigate the impact.     

Physical education students’ attitudes and self‐efficacy towards the participation of children with special needs in regular classes

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between personal variables of physical education students and their attitudes towards participation of children with disabilities and self‐efficacy (SE) in teaching students with disabilities in regular classes. A total 153 PE majors (95 females and 58 males) participated in the study. A 15‐item attitude instrument and a 15‐item SE instrument concerning dilemmas during educational tasks were administered as a part of the didactic assignments. Factor analysis revealed one challenge and two threat factors in the attitude instrument. The statistical analysis revealed significant effects on attitudes to gender (females higher than males) and years in college (advanced students higher than novices). Significant effects on SE were found in the coursework, previous experience and years in college variables. SE was inversely related to both threat factors of the attitude instrument (r?=???0.42 and ??0.43 respectively).     

Social orders and interactions among children in age-mixed classes in primary schools – new perspectives from a synthesis of ethnographic data

The article synthesises data from two ethnographic projects, which both explore interactions of children in age-mixed groups in primary schools. It illuminates critical perspectives on social orders and children's interactions in age-mixed classes by showing how pupils in age-mixed groups become involved in power relations and how the teacher's authority and institutional rules are intricately interwoven into the social orders of the peer culture. The article highlights children's complicity with the teacher and her expectations and accordingly questions the notion of an increase of children's autonomy in age-mixed groups.     

Are teacher effects larger in small classes?

Teachers spend most of their time in school in classrooms, and their instruction and teaching practices may be affected by classroom context such as class size. We examine whether teacher effects interact with classroom context such as class size. Specifically, we seek to determine whether teacher effects are more pronounced in small classes than in regular size classes in early grades. The results point to some evidence that teacher effects are more variable in small classes than in regular size classes. However, the pattern does not seem to be systematic.     

Students ’ perceptions of science classes in the Philippines

This study used a modified version of the Perception of Science Classes Survey (Kardash & Wallace, 2001) to survey 7,885 grade school and high school students in different provinces in the Philippines regarding their perceptions of their science classes. Factor analysis revealed five dimensions of the students ’ perceptions that relate to different aspects of the teacher ’s pedagogy and the learning environment created by the teachers: (a) Learner-Centered Pedagogy, (b) Science Inquiry Activities, (c) Positive Affect and Attitudes, (d) Grades as Feedback, and (e) Support for Self-Learning and Effort. Factor scores were compared across grade levels and genders. The results indicate a decrease in science inquiry activities and the use of grades as feedback in the higher grades, but an increase in support for self-learning and effort, and also positive affects and attitudes. These trends were discussed in relation to possible problems related to teacher practices that may contribute to low student achievement levels in science. This research was part of a research project commissioned by the Japan International Cooperation Agency-Philippines.     

MFV-Class: a multi-faceted visualization tool of object classes

INTRODUCTION The increasingly complex and large number ofsoftware products in today’s software industrymakes the tasks of software maintenance, softwarereuse and software restructuring more and moredifficult. With the popularity of the object-orientedprogramming paradigm, the ability to reverse en-gineer and understand object-oriented legacy sys-tems has become an important problem to be ad-dressed. In the object-oriented reverse engineering(OORE) research area, most researchers f…     

Does learning the alphabet in kindergarten give children a head start in the first year of school? A comparison of children’s reading progress in two first grade classes in state and Montessori schools in Switzerland

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine whether the age at which children start to learn to read affects their later progress. The study was conducted in Zürich, Switzerland, and compared a first grade class in a local school with two first grade classes in a Montessori school. It was found that although the Montessori children had an advantage over the local children in alphabet knowledge at entry to Grade 1, this was not translated into a significant advantage at the end of Grade 1 in either phonemic awareness or reading ability. Further analysis revealed that pretest alphabet knowledge for the whole group was significantly related to progress. In addition, scatterplots showed that some children started school with high levels of alphabet knowledge but did not make progress, indicating that alphabet knowledge is necessary for literacy progress but not sufficient.     

Deleuze’s children

Children, the image of the child, and the gendered figures of the girl and the boy are thematics that run through the work of Deleuze and feature prominently in his joint writing with Guattari. However, there are many different children in Deleuze’s writings. Various child figures do distinct things in Deleuze’s work. In this article, I argue that his work on children can be utilized to rethink popular, teleological notions of childhood and ‘growing up’.     

Why do final-year student teachers skip classes? A Chinese perspective

The lack of deep engagement in academic studies is strikingly noteworthy in current higher education; however, the problem of absenteeism has not yet received sufficient attention in the field of teacher education globally, in particular in the field of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education at tertiary education level. The reasons for student absenteeism have been left unattended, which may cause the underlying crucial issues to be overlooked. Therefore, this longitudinal study investigated a cohort of 300 final-year Chinese EFL student teachers’ perceptions for their reasons for skipping classes. Questionnaires, semi-structured group interviews and class observations were employed complementarily to gather data. The main reasons for absenteeism are students’ obsession with employment, a series of curricular and pedagogical shortcomings and students’ limited self-discipline and management. Programme-wide support is necessary to address final-year student teachers’ concerns about employment prospects, and, most importantly, enhance their learning motivation and self-regulation abilities.     

Transition classes: A viable alternative for the at-risk child?

Increased interest in the child “not ready” for reading has led to the use of a number of instructional options, of which the transition class is one. Efficacy of transition room programs is reviewed and importance of teacher attitudes is discussed. Educators will need to examine current educational practices in order to reduce the school failure rate.     

Restavèk children in context: Wellbeing compared to other Haitian children

In Haiti, large numbers of vulnerable children and the country's particular historical context has led to a unique phenomenon known as the “restavèk” system. An estimated 300,000 Haitian children are restavèks, living as unpaid domestic servants. Child-welfare advocates describe the restavèk system as modern slavery, but researchers and advocates lack information about restavèk children's circumstances, particularly vis-à-vis other children in Haiti. In a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample, we evaluated differences in well-being (school attendance, work responsibilities, physical abuse, and hunger) between restavèk children and: (a) all non-restavèk children; and (b) the poorest quintile of non-restavèk children. As compared to all Haitian children and the poorest Haitian children, restavèk children have statistically significantly lower school attendance rates and more labor responsibilities. However, restavèk children experience statistically significantly less physical abuse and less hunger than non-restavèk Haitian children. The restavèk system remains active in Haiti because poor families lack basic resources to support their children, and restavèk children are at risk for mistreatment due to their vulnerable social status. The surprising finding that restavèk children are better off in some respects than their non-restavèk peers highlights the desperate poverty in Haiti and suggests that structural changes for poverty reduction will be required before the restavèk system will end.     

A small-scale exploratory study of educator’s perceptions and expectations of summer-born children in the reception classes of three English primary academies and the strategies used to support them

This small-scale interpretative study, carried out in the reception classes of three English primary academies, examined educator perceptions of summer-born children, their expectations of children on entry to reception classes and whether those expectations were age differentiated. It also investigated the support and intervention strategies used for children in reception classes. The findings showed that the children were viewed in terms of a whole cohort and expectations of the children were not age differentiated, raising equity issues. Educators were pressurised by the ‘school readiness’ metanarrative so that although they spoke of a focus on children’s personal, emotional and social development in practice, their focus was on children’s acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills in whole-class activities and intervention groups, resulting in a conforming, instrumentalist pedagogy at odds with their assertions of a play-based curriculum.     

When a ＂modern＂ Chinese meets ＂traditional＂ American classes

While China has certainly taken a great stride in English teaching and learning since its opening up policy about 30 years ago, there＇s no denying the fact that a lot of concomitant problems occur during its development. This paper explores into two of the hot issues nowadays and presents the author＇s own experiences in two strikingly different classrooms in China and the United States, and hence some reflections on how to be rational in utilizing multi-media aids as well as research on basic theories.     

Letter writing instruction for children: Case-sensitive letter frequencies in children’s handwriting workbooks

Reading and Writing - Children’s ability to write letters automatically has been linked to academic achievement. Despite the importance of handwriting, handwriting instruction is often...     

Bystanders’ roles and children with special educational needs in bullying situations among preschool-aged children

Despite the growing body of evidence that the origins of bullying lie in early childhood, very little is known about the nature of the phenomenon in preschool groups. The current understanding among studies conducted in the school environment is that bullying prevention can only be effective if training with individual children takes place parallel to broader interventions in the classroom. The aim of this study was to examine how bullying prevention should be focused among under school-aged children. Since we know that children with special educational needs (SEN) have been found to be extremely vulnerable to bullying and victimization, we examined the role of three- to six-year olds with SEN in bullying situations. In addition, we examined whether the peripheral roles of other children in bullying situations can already be observed in preschool groups. The data were collected from a survey of day care staff in the city of Vantaa (n = 771). According to staff reports, 18% of bullying took place in situations in which children with SEN were present. Bullies with SEN used more physical forms of bullying and bullies without SEN used more psychological forms of bullying. The findings also showed that the multiple, peripheral roles of the bystanders in bullying situations are already occurring in preschool groups, especially among boys. It is important to target intervention programs in preschools both on individual children and at group level.     

How do the spellings of children with dyslexia compare with those of nondyslexic children?

Children with dyslexia are believed to have very poor phonological skills for which they compensate, to some extent, through relatively well-developed knowledge of letter patterns. We tested this view in Study 1 by comparing 25 dyslexic children and 25 younger normal children, chosen so that both groups performed, on average, at a second-grade spelling level. Phonological skill was assessed using phoneme counting and nonword spelling tasks. Knowledge of legal and illegal letter patterns was tested using a spelling choice task. The dyslexic children and the younger nondyslexic children performed similarly on all the tasks, and they had difficulty, for the most part, with the same linguistic structures. Supporting the idea that older dyslexics spellings are quite similar to those of typical beginners, we found in Study 2 that experienced teachers could not differentiate between the two groups based on their spellings.     

Expanding young children’s lifeworld

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The link between science education and early childhood education is still blurred. This is so because many science education researchers apparently, but...     

Interpreting students' and teachers' discourse in science classes: An underestimated problem?

This article deals with the problem of the proper interpretation of discourse between students and teachers in classrooms. First, several interpretations of a concrete classroom protocol dealing with the paradigmatic case of static forces are discussed: an “ordinary” teacher's analysis, an analysis in terms of misconceptions, and an analysis in terms of alternative conceptions. Though they represent common ideas from the literature, it is argued that those analyses all in some way misinterpret the discourse. By drawing on Davidson's principle of charity and by distinguishing between belief and meaning, we present an analysis that in our opinion interprets the discourse correctly. Its consequences for teaching are discussed, as well as its foundation in Davidson's philosophy. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.