Everyday personal laptop usage in secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago

The e-Connect And Learn (eCAL) programme is a Trinidad and Tobago government-led initiative, launched in 2010, that grants personal laptop computers to students entering secondary school. The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of how students are using these government-issued personal laptops 3 years after the programme’s launch. This paper explores the fissure between what the policy recommends and what is actually enacted in the context of laptop usage in the classroom. Data were drawn from 1,451 students, from 32 secondary schools across Trinidad and Tobago. Responses indicate that students are falling short of the expectations for in-class laptop usage and in schools where usage is less often but on a regular basis, laptops are mainly used for technology-related subjects. These findings not only suggest that students’ everyday personal laptop usage in the classroom is not in alignment with the eCAL programme goals, but also highlight some of the issues to be considered by other countries when implementing large-scale laptop programmes.     

Denominational primary schooling: The case of Trinidad and Tobago

In developing countries, the trend has been for government to assume gradual control of schools run by religious organisations, while allowing them to retain their religious affiliation. In the Caribbean, the relationship between church and state educational systems has generally been cordial. This is particularly so in Trinidad and Tobago, where almost three quarters of the primary schools are denominational: Roman Catholic, other Christian, Hindu and Muslim. However, a significant proportion of pupils do not adhere to the host faith. Demographic trends and internal migration have disturbed the previous pattern of population, but the most important factor is the influence of the Common Entrance Examination, which controls entry to secondary education. Certain primary schools achieve high pass rates and attract large numbers of applicants from all sectors of society, while School Boards and principals accept over-population and set entry criteria other than religious affiliation. Variation in curricula is limited by recently drafted requirements, the government provides the bulk of school funds, and regularly inspects all schools. Such controls may enable the present government to fulfil its intention of deemphasising the Common Entrance Examination, but it thereby runs the risk of endangering the religious tolerance engendered by the present multidenominational nature of religious schools.

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Zusammenfassung In Entwicklungsländern ging das Bestreben der Regierung dahin, allmählich die Kontrolle über die von religiösen Organisationen geführten Schulen zu übernehmen und ihnen dabei ihre religiöse Bindung zu belassen. In der Karibik bestand bisher im allgemeinen ein herzliches Verhätnis zwischen Kirche und staatlichen Erziehungseinrichtungen. Dies gilt besonders für Trinidad und Tobago, wo fast drei Viertel der Grundschulen Konfessionsschulen sind: römisch-katholisch, anderweitig christlich, hinduistisch und moslemisch. Eine große Anzahl von Schülern gehört allerdings nicht der Glaubensrichtung der Schule an. Demografische Trends und Bevölkerungsfluktuation haben frühere Bevölkerungsmuster verändert, aber der wichtigste Punkt ist der Einfluß der allgemeinen Aufnahmeprüfung, die den Eintritt in die weiterführenden Schulen reguliert.Einige Grundschulen haben hohe Erfolgsraten und ziehen dadurch viele Bewerber aus allen Gesellschaftsschichten an, wobei Schulbehörden und Schulleiter eine Überbelegung akzeptieren und andere Aufnahmekriterien als religiöse Zugehörigkeit festsetzen. Änderungsmöglichkeiten im Curriculum sind durch kürzlich herausgegebene Anforderungsrichtlinien eingeschränkt; die Regierung zahlt den größten Teil der Schulmittel und inspiziert regelmäßig alle Schulen. Diese Kontrollen mögen es zwar der gegenwärtigen Regierung ermöglichen, ihre Absicht, die Bedeutung der allgemeinen Aufnahmeprüfung zu schwächen, zu verwirklichen, aber sie riskiert gleichzeitig, die durch die gegenwärtigen multikonfessionellen Religionsschulen ausgelöste religiöse Toleranz zu gefährden.

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Résumé Dans les pays en développement, le gouvernement assume habituellement le contrôle continu des écoles régies par les organisations religieuses, tout en leur permettant de conserver leur adhésion religieuse. Aux Caraïbes, la relation entre les systèmes éducatifs publics et religieux est généralement cordiale. C'est particulièrement le cas à Trinité-et-Tobago, où presque les trois quarts des écoles primaires sont des écoles confessionnelles: catholiques romaines, diverses écoles chrétiennes, écoles hindoues et musulmanes. Cependant, un nombre important d'élèves n'adhère pas à la religion de l'école. Les tendances démographiques et la migration interne ont changé l'ancienne structure de la population, mais le facteur majeur reste l'influence de l'Examen général d'entrée, qui réglemente l'entrée dans le secondaire. Certaines écoles primaires ont un taux de réussite élevé et attirent de nombreux candidats issus de tous les secteurs de la société, tandis que les conseils et les directeurs d'écoles acceptent une surpopulation et fixent d'autres critères d'admission que ceux d'appartenance religieuse. La diversité des programmes d'études est limitée par des contraintes mises en place récemment, le gouvernement octroie l'ensemble des crédits à l'éducation et inspecte régulièrement tous les établissements scolaires. Pareils contrôles peuvent permettre au présent gouvernement d'imposer sa volonté pour diminuer l'importance de l'Examen général d'entrée, mails ils risquent en même temps de mettre en danger la tolérance religieuse engendrée aujourd'hui par la nature multiconfessionnelle des écoles religieuses.

     

Supplementary tutoring in Trinidad and Tobago: Some implications for policy making

Globally, private supplementary tutoring is a huge business and the practice is expanding rapidly in many regions of the world where it never existed before. In some of these regions it is posing a novel set of challenges for education planners and policy makers. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which supplementary tutoring is impacting on the goals of the formal education system in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The participation rate in supplementary tutoring at primary school level in T&T was found to be high (88.2 per cent at Standard Five level), with the majority of the students being privately tutored by their regular school teachers. Their main motivation for taking private tutoring lessons was to try to secure a place in one of the few elite secondary schools in the country. The authors of this paper admit that there is no quick solution to the problem, especially if it is understood as a part of the process of cultural change. They contend that the key to breaking the elitist tradition lies in modifying public understanding about education and convincing parents and citizens at large that a wide range of options and opportunities exists outside the narrow confines of the old colonial economy and the old colonial schools.     

Decentralisation as and for Education Reform in Trinidad and Tobago

Centralisation is the traditional mode of decision‐making in the education system in Trinidad and Tobago, but proposals have now been put forward to decentralise. The purpose of decentralisation, as claimed in the recent Report of the National Task Force on Education, is to improve the quality of education that has been falling for some time, despite significant inputs since political independence about 30 years ago. The article reviews both the proposals made and the problems that are inherent in the concept of decentralisation, and against this background specifies what Trinidad and Tobago might do in order to make its plans for decentralisation work. Why the state has turned to decentralisation at this period in its educational development drive is also critically examined. Findings indicate that the political agenda, and not necessarily immediate concern for quality improvement, is the driving force behind the decentralisation move. The proposals, however, still have a good chance of successful implementation and of achieving the stated goal of quality improvement, but before these can be realised, inputs, among them factors relating to the core technology of teaching and learning as well as training of personnel to undertake implementation, are needed. Some suggestions as to how these might be accomplished are given.     

The role of educational choice in occupational gender segregation: Evidence from Trinidad and Tobago

We analyse the role of educational choice on the degree of occupational segregation in Trinidad and Tobago during a period in which educational policies intent on equating gender opportunities in education were implemented. To this end we utilize waves of the Trinidad and Tobago labour force survey over the period 1991–2004. Our results show that while educational segregation has fallen substantially over our sample period, this has not translated into less occupational segregation. This suggests that the educational policy has not been sufficient to combat occupational segregation. However, results at a more disaggregated level show that experiences have been heterogeneous across educational and occupational groups.     

Teacher Identity in an Era of Educational Reform: The case of Trinidad and Tobago

The pace of educational reform has been increasing significantly at the global level and teachers have significant roles to play in such reform movements. This paper compares the beginning teacher identity of primary teacher trainees in Trinidad and Tobago with the concept of the teacher that seems to underpin present reform initiatives. Beginning teacher identity, explored through the use of a questionnaire and interviews, is portrayed as images and metaphors. It seems to encapsulate the missionary ideology of teaching and the notion of child-centred pedagogy, with the classroom as the centre of interaction between pupil and teacher. The reforms, on the other hand, look to teachers to support, as well, the decentralisation effort that calls for collaboration with the community, and the promotion of continuous assessment practices that calls for collaboration across grade levels in the school. Both the community focus and the school focus are likely to pose problems for beginning teachers who maintain a classroom focus. The paper highlights the need for reform efforts to take into account the gaps between existing teacher identity images and those envisioned for the reformed system.     

Designing instructional television for concept learning in low-achieving pupils in Trinidad and Tobago

In Trinidad and Tobago, educational television is developed for the general secondary school population and is not generally designed to address specific learner needs. In this study, an instructional video production was developed and targeted to low-achieving students of the secondary school population, in the Junior Secondary sector. Content was drawn from the social studies curriculum and the focus of instruction was the acquisition of concepts and generalisations. There was sufficient evidence that the video production facilitated a moderate level of learning. It was also evident that there were areas of the production where instruction was not adequate. Two aspects were identified for further work. First, given the wide range of achievement levels noted in the current evaluation, there is need to identify more precisely the learning needs of the mainstream of the Junior Secondary population. Secondly, attention must also be paid to designing productions that could facilitate learner capability to link items of information and attain more complex levels of learning.     

教育质量、性别失业率与社会秩序--基于特立尼达和多巴哥的实证研究

利用特立尼达和多巴哥的数据研究教育质量、分性别失业率和社会秩序之间的关系,并建立相应计量模型。研究发现,教育质量总体改善并不能够降低犯罪率,反而会相应增加犯罪率进而破坏社会秩序。男性失业率和女性失业率对严重犯罪率、轻微犯罪率的影响存在明显不同,男性失业率主要影响轻微犯罪率,男性失业率越高,轻微犯罪率越高,女性失业率主要影响严重犯罪率,女性失业率越高,严重犯罪率越高。为最大限度降低犯罪率,政府应全力促进教育均衡化发展,避免因教育造成“贫困代际传递”;应尽可能地剥离影响就业的非本人能力因素,并创造更多就业岗位;应给女性和男性平等的就业机会,在失业救济、再就业培训和创业扶持等方面给女性以平等待遇。     

Self-Efficacy,Stress, and Academic Success in College

This paper investigates the joint effects of academic self-efficacy and stress on the academic performance of 107 nontraditional, largely immigrant and minority, college freshmen at a large urban commuter institution. We developed a survey instrument to measure the level of academic self-efficacy and perceived stress associated with 27 college-related tasks. Both scales have high reliability, and they are moderately negatively correlated. We estimated structural equation models to assess the relative importance of stress and self-efficacy in predicting three academic performance outcomes: first-year college GPA, the number of accumulated credits, and college retention after the first year. The results suggest that academic self-efficacy is a more robust and consistent predictor than stress of academic success.     

Evolving data use policy in Trinidad and Tobago: the search for actionable knowledge on educational improvement in a small island developing state

This paper presents a single-country case study of the use of large scale assessment (LSA) data to generate actionable knowledge at school and system levels. Actionable knowledge is data-informed insight into school and system processes that can be used to direct corrective action. The analysis is framed from the perspective of the country’s evolving national policy on data use for educational improvement between 1990 and 2013. Trinidad and Tobago first participated in international large scale assessments (ILSAs) in 1991 but also developed a centralized system of national large scale assessments (NLSAs) in 2004. Analyses of both datasets consistently pointed to low quality and high inequality as the main actionable issues in the education system. NLSA data also hinted at notable variation in performance across schools and education districts. Analyses for and of policy point to the need for multiple school performance measures to better inform site-based, formative action. Over the period, actionable knowledge appears to have had greater impact at school level, with evidence being used by some low-performing schools to improve. However, at the system level, the frequent non-use and misuse of actionable knowledge suggest the need to promote and strengthen structures and processes related to evidence-informed policy-making.     

Supporting Media Learning in Primary Classrooms: some outcomes of a case study

This paper seeks to inform the development of media education in primary schools through an analysis of classroom utterances. A rationale for the analysis based on concerns with scaffolding pupils’ media will be presented. The capacity of this approach to allow comparisons to be made between age groups, teaching arrangements and pedagogic priorities, focusing on distinctions between image making and image study, will be illustrated. The conclusions drawn include reference to the applicability of the method, and to effective media teaching in primary classrooms.     

Personal Constructs and Attribution for Academic Success and Failure in Dyslexia

Neil Humphrey published a previous article, on self–esteem and dyslexia, in BJSE . This paper, jointly authored by Dr Humphrey, recently appointed as a lecturer in the psychology of education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester, and Dr Patricia M. Mullins, senior lecturer in special educational needs at Liverpool John Moores University and the supervisor of Neil Humphrey's PhD thesis, explores the relationships between dyslexia and the ways in which pupils perceive themselves as learners. Making extensive links with other relevant research, the authors conclude by suggesting that 'the problems that children with dyslexia encounter have negative consequences for their self–development'. Humphrey and Mullins also propose that, while further research is needed, we already know enough about how to make schools more 'dyslexia friendly' to begin to tackle these difficulties at an early stage in children's education.     

The relation of personal and environmental variables to teacher burnout

The study investigates the relative contribution of personal and environmental variables to teacher burnout. On the basis of balance theories it was hypothesized that congruence between school climate — open/closed — and personal rigidity would explain the variance in burnout. Several measures (Rigidity Scale, Organizational climate Scale, School Perception by Teachers, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, were administered to 124 teachers. While the interaction between rigidity and closed school climate explained some of the variance in burnout, the other interactions did not. Rigidity, considered as an independent variable, not in interaction, did not explain burnout. A number of environmental variables were found to significantly predict burnout. Implications for the prevention of burnout are suggested.     

日本基础教育中的学业成就制约因素分析

自2002年以来,日本的一些研究人员开始对学业成就和社会阶层的关系进行调查研究。本文使用“日本教育纵向调查”的2003年数据考察影响儿童学业成就的诸因素以及这些因素的外延,主要分析结果为：1、某地方小城市的调查结果显示各社会阶层儿童的学业成就差距相对较小;2、位于首都圈的某中等城市的调查结果显示儿童的学业成就受到教育费支出、教育期待和家庭收入的影响。     

Learning and Teaching in Microcomputer Classrooms:

No abstract available for this article.     

Towards a model for research on the effects of school organizational health factors on primary school performance in Trinidad & Tobago

This article presents a model for research on the effects of school organizational heath factors on primary school academic achievement in Trinidad and Tobago. The model can be applicable for evaluating schools in other developing countries. As proposed, the model hypothesizes relationships between external factors (exogenous variables), school-level factors (endogenous variables), and school outcomes (student achievement and positive school climate). The endogenous variables are sub-scales of school organizational health. They include principal leadership, psycho-social environment, school–home–community relationships, teacher characteristics, curriculum quality, and school culture. These subscales are partially influenced by the Organizational Health Inventory OHI (Hoy and Feldman, 1987) and by school health indices set forth by the World Health Organization (1996). It is hoped that this school organizational health model can provide a conceptual tool for formulating a more comprehensive measure of healthy schools.     

Correction to: The Role of Family Support in Facilitating Academic Success of Low-Income Students

Research in Higher Education - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake in the acknowledgement section. Some of the vital information is missing in the published...     

美国导师指导与本科生学业成功研究述评

随着高等教育大众化进程中高等教育质量问题的凸显,近年来关于高校教师作为＂导师＂指导大学生,尤其是促进本科生学业成功的研究不断升温。理清美国关于导师指导研究的理论和实践框架,梳理近20年来美国发表的相关文献,从教育学、心理学和管理学的研究视角重构并更新有关导师指导的定义和特征,进而对导师指导的相关理论和实践进行批判性分析,可以发现,导师指导研究至今仍缺乏理论和实践上的可操作性定义及有效的导师指导模式,因此今后应进一步加大对导师指导的相关理论研究和实证研究。