Factors influencing early adolescents’ mathematics achievement: High-quality teaching rather than relationships

This study used data from the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning project, which involved data on the academic performance of more than 90,000 New Zealand students in six subjects (i.e. reading, writing and mathematics in two languages). Two sub-samples of this dataset were included for detailed re-analysis to test the general applicability of the Australian model of Quality of School Life (Ainley et al. 1986) in the New Zealand context. The first sample comprised 336 year 8 students from elementary schools and the second sample consisted of 272 year 10 students from high schools. Furthermore, two structural equation models were developed and tested, expressing relationships between students’ quality of school life perceptions, students’ attitudes to mathematics, and their effects on mathematics achievement. The quality of school life questionnaires scales [Ainley and Bourke, in Res Pap Educ 7(2):107–128, 1992] were used as indicators of students’ perceptions regarding learning, teachers and peer relationships. The model proposed that perceived quality of school life would affect students’ attitudes of liking and confidence in mathematics, which would in turn affect their academic performance. After controlling for other variables in the model, students’ perception about their self-efficacy to learn mathematics was more directly related to outcomes than to perceptions of teacher quality or peer involvement. Data analyses revealed no apparent relationships of these factors to mathematics achievement. Moreover, results for both samples led to the conclusion that the perceived quality of learning is connected with ‘confidence in’ and ‘liking mathematics’, which in turn predict students’ mathematics achievement.     

Circles and Communities,Sharing Practices and Learning: Looking at New Extension Education Approaches

Abstract

Purpose

Information technology (IT) has tremendous potential for fostering grassroots development and the Indian government has created various capital-intensive computer networks to promote agricultural development. However, research studies have shown that information technology investments are not always translated into productivity gains due to poor computer use by employees. In this context, a research investigation was conducted to develop a Computer Utilization Model that explains how individual and organizational factors influence computer utilization in extension organizations in India.     

Factors associated with middle school students' perceptions of the quality of school-based sexual health education

This paper examines factors associated with middle school students' perceptions of the quality of the sexual health education (SHE) they received at school. Participants were 478 predominately White young people (256 girls, 222 boys) in grades 6–8 who completed a survey assessing their demographic characteristics; dating and sexual experience; and perceptions of the content, delivery and quality of the SHE they had received. Boys and students in a lower grade and with less sexual experience rated the quality of their SHE more positively. After accounting for student characteristics, students who more strongly agreed that their SHE matched their interests and covered sexual health topics more adequately, as well as who viewed their teacher as being more comfortable talking about sexual topics and doing a better job answering questions, reported higher quality SHE. Students' perceptions of the adequacy of coverage of 10 sexual health topics were also positively correlated with their reports of higher quality SHE, although only two topics (correct names for genitals and puberty/physical development) contributed uniquely to the prediction of this variable. These results reinforce the need for a comprehensive SHE curriculum as well as adequate preparation of teachers if SHE is to be engaging to students.     

民族聚居区双语师资队伍存在的问题及对策——以和田地区教育学院双语师资为例

百年大计,教育为本。在全国教育优先发展战略的影响下,自治区"双语"教育改革日益推进,取得了很大的成绩,和田地区教育学院根据自己的实际情况,形成了以一年制培训,学历班,学前教育,职业类等为一体的模式,本文旨在研究这一模式形成的现状,这一模式之下的"双语"教育教学存在的问题并提出相应的对策。     

关于校园网络组建的研究

网络应用涉及到社会的各个方面,已对人们的经济和文化生活产生重大影响。通过校园网络的组建,将实现办公、公文处理、日程安排、会议管理、档案管理、财务管理与报销、信息发布等方面实现信息共享和各种类型的无纸化办公等需求。网络组建设计要尽量简单化、结构化、模块化,这样既能节省资金投入,又能便于网络的管理与升级。本文对校园网络的组建采用自顶向下的设计方法进行研究和探索。     

Early education teachers’ conceptualizations and strategies for managing closeness with the class in child care

This study investigated teachers’ experiences of closeness during interactions with the group of children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their perceptions of closeness with the group of children in the class. Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed a group solidarity domain of teacher–group relationships composed of three dimensions which comprise emotional solidarity, consensual solidarity, and functional solidarity, with emotional solidarity most dominant in the teachers’ perceptions. This group solidarity domain was interpreted as being consistent with qualities found in Grusec and Davidov’s group participation domain. The findings that, teachers’ closeness with the group of children in the class were dominated by the emotional dimension is similar to previous research results which report the predominance of personal and intimate interactions in relational closeness between teachers and individual children. Teachers described intentional strategies for managing close group relationships that made use of interactional histories between the teachers and children in the class. These discoveries provide a new perspective on teacher closeness with groups, an area of research not often investigated. It also provides insights into the importance teachers place on connecting emotionally with children when they are with the collective group in the classroom.     

From the disjunction between passive and active instruction approaches towards their integration as an alternative for the significant learning of sustainable development / De la disyuntiva entre los enfoques de instrucción pasiva y activa hacia su integración como alternativa para un aprendizaje significativo del desarrollo sostenible

Abstract

This study aims to show how the integration of passive and active learning approaches contributes towards the significant understanding of problems associated with sustainable development. To do this, a case study from the municipality of San Miguel de Achiutla in Oaxaca, Mexico, is used as a general method, with the specific procedure including an instrument based on secondary sources representing the passive learning phase, as well as an instrument created on the basis of primary sources, designed in relation to the active learning component. The passive learning phase enabled us to identify variables pertaining to the highly vulnerable dimensions of sustainable development, and to also detect areas in which there is a deficit of information, since not all data are available, while the active learning phase revealed the causes of vulnerability from the perspective of different agents, including those who experienced the issues directly. In view of the above, we conclude that rather than being exclusive, these two different approaches should in fact be complementary.     

¿Usos cotidianos o usos enlatados? Enseñar y evaluar la lectoescritura a sujetos reales y mentes flexibles

En el campo del lenguaje y la lectoescritura, la renovación educativa parece estar situándose en la batalla por el diseño abierto y la evaluación informal. En este artículo se propone un modelo teórico para la lectoescritura flexible que pueda soportar las posibilidades que se abren y evitar los inconvenientes que amenazan a los actuales métodos informales de renovación a los que está dedicado el tema central de este número.     

The reality of virtual worlds: pros and cons of their application to foreign language teaching

This article presents our experience of testing the OpenSim platform as a tool in teaching French to 108 tourism students at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain). The article begins with some theoretical reflections on the behaviour of the student when using a virtual platform by means of an avatar, and with our observations of how this doubling of identity is actually the greatest asset of virtual worlds when we intend to apply them to teaching (1. Introduction). Then we move on to present our goals and method of work (2. Aims and methodology) and to analyse the development of the virtual space or sim, setting out the teaching strategies that were employed in each of the islands we created, and which correspond to reading comprehension, listening comprehension and written expression (3. Metaverse design). In order to assess the language learning results, we also devised tests throughout the experiment, which were repeated one month later. The assessment shows that the process of language acquisition is positive (4. Results analysis). Finally, we demonstrate that the rise of virtual worlds has been backed up by psycholinguistic factors, but at the same time their applicability and sustainability depend on technical aspects and very especially on theoretical and pedagogical tenets which are still to be drawn up (5. Conclusions).