夜的声音

The sound so beautiful
Yet cold inside
Cleela, Cleela,
The crckets chirp.     

Pasifika students: teachers and parents voice their perceptions of what provides supports and barriers to Pasifika students' achievement in literacy and learning

The changing ethnic population of schools in New Zealand challenges our educators to respond proactively in reviewing how students from minority groups develop effective literacy and learning skills. Pasifika students' achievement levels in literacy, particularly reading and writing literacy, has been an area of national focus for the Ministry of Education, teachers, teacher educators and the Pasifika community. For many students from a minority ethnic group, the interpretation of texts from a different culture provides challenges for teachers that require mediation in the construction of meaning. Our previous research accordingly asked Years 5–9 Pasifika students in mainstream schools in the South Island of New Zealand to tell us what they saw as supports and barriers to their literacy learning. The study that is the subject of this present article built on that research by asking the teachers and parents of Pasifika students in a cluster of schools to state what they thought supported or hindered literacy learning for these youngsters. Our particular aim was to enhance identification and understanding of pedagogical practices and family/community factors which influence literacy learning outcomes for Pasifika students during the primary school years. The research found that Pasifika students' literacy learning, and overall learning, was more likely to be enhanced when Pasifika values, language identities and cultural knowledge were made an implicit part of teaching and learning practices.     

Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development and Higher Education

This paper presents and analyses data gathered from a survey of teachers in a range of secondary school English departments. It seeks to establish the ways in which teachers perceive their subject knowledge Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs and the ways in which they would like to engage with Higher Education (HE) English as part of their CPD. It also explores teachers’ reasons for wishing to undertake such study, and the ways in which they believe such studies could contribute to their development. Finally, it goes on to consider some of the constraints on CPD and the possible implications of this for Higher Education Institutions. The interface between schools and HE has, historically, been limited. However, engagement in CPD is one of the most significant ways in which dialogue between secondary and HE teachers of English can be fruitfully established.     

Understanding change through a high school mathematics teacher’s journey to inquiry-based teaching

This article focuses on an experienced high school mathematics teacher who changed her practice without participating in planned interventions aimed at producing this change. It reports on the nature of the teacher’s change from her perspective and an interpretation and understanding of the change from the researcher’s perspective. It illustrates how meaningful change can occur when the process is initiated and rooted in the teacher’s experience based on a tension in self and/or practice that is personal and real to him or her. It discusses three types of change that are possible depending on the level of engagement of the teacher in professional development opportunities: instrumental change, conceptual change, and foundational change.     

Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches

The aim of this series of studies was to develop and initially validate an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches. In study one, a preliminary pool of 45 items was developed based on existing literature and an expert panel was employed to assess the content validity and applicability of these items. In study two, the 32 items that were retained after study one were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA). The resultant factorial structure comprised four components: environmental stressors, performance stressors, task-related stressors, and athlete stressors. These four components were made up of 26 items and, together, the components and items comprised the provisional Stressors in Sports Coaching Questionnaire (SSCQ). The results show that the SSCQ demonstrates acceptable internal consistency (.73–.89). The findings provide preliminary evidence that SSCQ is a valid tool to assess stressors among South African sports coaches.     

Youths in foster care with language delays: Prevalence,causes, and interventions

Children in the foster care system often face many educational challenges, including having an increased risk of language delays compared to the general population, with an estimated 35%–73% of the foster youth population experiencing language difficulties. Language delays are caused by many factors, but for children in foster care, one major antecedent is child abuse and neglect. Early delays greatly impact long‐term outcomes for children, including delays in their reading, writing, and social competence. This article explores possible causes of language delays for youths in foster care, describes the negative impact of language delays, and identifies evidence‐based practices for early intervention within the child welfare system and primary and secondary schools, specifically targeting practices for school psychologists, school counselors, school social workers, and speech pathologists.     

The effects of post-compulsory education and training systems on literacy and numeracy skills: A comparative analysis using PISA 2000 and the 2011 survey of adult skills

This article analyses the contribution of post-compulsory education and training systems to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries. While there is extensive cross-country comparative research on the effects of primary and lower secondary education systems on aggregate skills levels, there has been little comparative analysis of system effects after the end of lower secondary education. This article uses a quasi-cohort analysis of the tested literacy and numeracy skills of 15-year-olds in PISA 2000 and 27-year-olds in the 2011 OECD Survey of Adult Skills (SAS) to estimate the gains in different countries in mean levels of competence in literacy and numeracy. We found that Nordic countries (Norway and Sweden) with comprehensive upper secondary education and training systems and German-speaking countries (Austria and Germany) with dual systems of apprenticeship were particular effective, whilst countries with mixed systems (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Spain) showed a relative decline in both literacy and numeracy. The education system characteristics that account for these differences are (a) the inclusiveness – as proxied by high rates of participation at 17/18 and low social gradients of level 3 completion; (b) the esteem of vocational programmes; and (c) curriculum standardisation with regard to the study of maths and the national language.