Capacity-building for educational managers in South Africa: a case study of the Mpumalanga Province

Wide-ranging changes in the education system have rendered many serving school principals ineffective in the management of their schools. Many of these serving principals lack basic management training prior to and after their entry into headship. Changes in education thus increase their problems and this causes untold harm to the education of the learners. This research deals with the quantitative data and qualitative analysis about the perceptions of 172 principals and 28 district/circuit managers in the Mpumalanga Province on their satisfaction with the programme and its effectiveness in facilitating learning.Questionnaires were used to gather the above data that was subsequently analysed using mean scores, frequencies and percentages. Responses from open-ended questions, in addition to the structured questionnaires, were recorded and categorised for the purpose of qualitative analysis.Results of the research show that principals and district/circuit managers were satisfied to very satisfied with the quality and adequacy of their training and agreed that the training was effective to very effective. A general tendency of higher mean scores among district/circuit managers than among principals was observed. Findings from the qualitative analysis supported and elaborated on the findings of the quantitative data.     

Digital portfolios in pre-service teacher education

With the pre-service student portfolio process and product well in hand in a paper-based format, in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) (B.Ed. Primary) at University of Western Sydney (UWS), new horizons have presented themselves. These new possibilities are facilitated but not driven by developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The impetus for this study comes from the changing context in which the students will work and from the rapidly evolving mediums of communication employed by the society these future teachers will serve. With new technologies being developed the use of digital portfolios could give an extra dimension to student learning as well as giving choice and variety to the reporting and presenting of that learning. This paper aims to report on the process of the development of digital portfolios as an alternative method of reporting and presenting student learning, as opposed to the current paper-based portfolios used in Pre-service Teacher Education at UWS. A study of the processes employed by nine students who elected to develop their portfolios digitally was carried out over a three-semester period. This resulted in a procedure that assisted students in using ICT to showcase their learning. The advantages and limitations of the use of such technology and the results of this process during its initial implementation are discussed.     

Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Establishing a positive, proactive approach to issues such as plagiarism requires that students are equipped with the skills and experience to act with integrity, and that educators are fully aware of the attitudes and ability of students, particularly when they start university. This project used a questionnaire-based methodology to probe the attitudes, ability and confidence of undergraduates newly enrolled at a university in the UK, with a focus on concepts relating to written assignments. New undergraduates were confident in their understanding of plagiarism, yet performed poorly on simple tests of referencing. Students were generally of the opinion that academic misconduct should be modestly penalised compared to the standard penalties imposed by the UK higher education sector. Positive correlations were found between confidence, performance and recommended penalties, suggesting that confident students did better on tests of simple tests of referencing, and recommended more severe penalties for transgressions of academic integrity. These correlations were supported by findings that new postgraduates were more confident than new undergraduates, recommended more severe penalties and performed better in the simple tests of referencing. Findings are discussed in the context of educational needs identified for students, educators and institutions.     

CILT2000: Ubiquitous Computing—Spanning the Digital Divide

This paper discusses the role of ubiquitous and handheld computers in education. CILT contributions in this area are summarized, the Ubiquitous Computing sessions at the CILT2000 Conference are described, and future directions are highlighted. It is posited that handheld computers have the potential to reduce the digital divide, while also providing for a wide array of learning activities that can benefit all students.     

The Effectiveness of a Large‐Scale Language and Preliteracy Intervention: The SPELL Randomized Controlled Trial in Denmark

The present article reports results of a real‐world effectiveness trial conducted in Denmark with six thousand four hundred eighty‐three 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds designed to improve children's language and preliteracy skills. Children in 144 child cares were assigned to a control condition or one of three planned variations of a 20‐week storybook‐based intervention: a base intervention and two enhanced versions featuring extended professional development for educators or a home‐based program for parents. Pre‐ to posttest comparisons revealed a significant impact of all three interventions for preliteracy skills (= .21–.27) but not language skills (d = .04–.16), with little differentiation among the three variations. Fidelity, indexed by number of lessons delivered, was a significant predictor of most outcomes. Implications for real‐world research and practice are considered.     

Introducing operation chemistry

This material is based upon work supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. TPE-8955230), the American Chemical Society (Contract No. ESI-9353374), and the Eisenhower Title II funds (Grant No. 524-2 and others). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting organizations.