An examination of the vocational education and training reform debate in Southern Africa

This paper explores the role that vocational education and training (VET) can play in Southern African responses to major socio‐economic challenges. It argues that this role will be most pronounced if it is articulated within a broader educational and economic vision that is shared by a range of stakeholders in society and supported by an adequate funding base, effective information systems and qualified and motivated planners and implementers. However, it cautions that it is also important to remember that VET reform will not in itself transform economies or societies. The paper argues that there is considerable convergence within Southern Africa around 10 themes of VET reform. It argues that there is much that is of merit in the current broad package for VET transformation but that it is essential that it is carefully critiqued and that elements are adapted to national circumstances and visions.     

Closing the Achievement Gap: Examining the Role of Cognitive Developmental Level in Academic Achievement

The achievement gap in mathematics between African American and Caucasian students has been observed for several decades, though previous research has been unable to fully explain why the gap exists. Using a sample of 56 kindergarten and first grade students, this study examined the role that cognitive developmental level plays in the achievement gap. Results indicated that African American students scored significantly lower than the Caucasian students on a test of mathematical achievement. Furthermore, proportionally more African American students remained in the preoperational stage of development as compared to their same-age Caucasian peers. Finally, after controlling for cognitive developmental level, the achievement gap between the two groups became statistically indistinguishable, suggesting that cognitive developmental level mediates the relationship between ethnicity and mathematic achievement.     

Self-report of reading comprehension strategies: What are we measuring?

Proficient readers engage in a wide range of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and both developmental and classroom intervention researchers are in need of high-quality measures of strategy use. Several researchers have recently called into question the validity of the most common type of measures of strategy use in reading, self-report or introspective measures (i.e., the participant must report on his or her cognitive activity while not actually engaged in the activity). We administered three parallel strategy use measures to a sample of 30 ninth-grade students: a prospective self-report measure, a concurrent multiple-choice measure which required students to apply the strategies to specific passages, and a text on which we asked students to think aloud. We also collected two measures of reading comprehension—a standardized measure and free recall scores. Consistent with Veenman’s (2005) conclusions based on a literature review, the concurrent multiple-choice and think-aloud data were both significantly correlated with both of the comprehension scores and with each other, whereas the prospective self-report data had non-significant correlations with all of the other measures. We conclude by recommending concurrent measures for researchers who wish to study strategy use in reading comprehension.     

A Combination of Hand-held Models and Computer Imaging Programs Helps Students Answer Oral Questions about Molecular Structure and Function: A Controlled Investigation of Student Learning

We conducted a controlled investigation to examine whether a combination of computer imagery and tactile tools helps introductory cell biology laboratory undergraduate students better learn about protein structure/function relationships as compared with computer imagery alone. In all five laboratory sections, students used the molecular imaging program, Protein Explorer (PE). In the three experimental sections, three-dimensional physical models were made available to the students, in addition to PE. Student learning was assessed via oral and written research summaries and videotaped interviews. Differences between the experimental and control group students were not found in our typical course assessments such as research papers, but rather were revealed during one-on-one interviews with students at the end of the semester. A subset of students in the experimental group produced superior answers to some higher-order interview questions as compared with students in the control group. During the interview, students in both groups preferred to use either the hand-held models alone or in combination with the PE imaging program. Students typically did not use any tools when answering knowledge (lower-level thinking) questions, but when challenged with higher-level thinking questions, students in both the control and experimental groups elected to use the models.     

Combining school attendance with home-based interventions for autism

Despite the increased parental involvement in interventions for autism over recent decades, and the wide variety of home-based interventions which now exist, little is known about how these fit in with school attendance. Families' use of one intensive home-based intervention, the Son-Rise Program, was examined through a one-year longitudinal questionnaire and interview study. Issues relating to school attendance were examined, including parents' decision-making processes regarding concurrent school attendance, issues of compatibility between home and school, and issues arising for those families who discontinued school attendance in order to run a full-time intervention at home. Rather than using the Program exclusively and intensively, it was found that many families used the recommended intervention techniques part-time in the home whilst continuing their child's school attendance, and found the two learning contexts to be compatible with each other. Parents also identified a number of ways in which compatibility could be further maximised.     

Peer rejection and social information-processing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1,259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2,585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social information-processing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.     

Class Size and Teacher Quality

The `Vinson Report' on Public Education in NSW has become received wisdom. The report's recommendation on class sizes has attracted more attention than any other. This is unfortunate because it is on this issue that the Report is weakest. A thorough appraisal of the research on class sizes reveals that many studies have methodological problems that make their application in a real world context doubtful; many studies have introduced other reforms such as curriculum changes at the same time as class size reduction, making their individual effects impossible to determine; the large majority of studies have found no significant effects of class size on student achievement, while the remainder have shown small benefits, usually only when classes have less than 20 students; class size has less effect when teachers are competent; and the single most important influence on student achievement is teacher quality. Research shows unequivocally that it is far more valuable, both in educational and fiscal terms, to have good teachers than lots of teachers. It must be ensured that the current and incoming teaching force is the best it can be, before seeking to expand it.Key Words: child development, class size, public education, student achievement, teacher quality, teaching methods     

Matthew effects in children with learning disabilities: Development of reading,IQ, and psychosocial problems from grade 2 to grade 8

Reading achievement, IQ, and behavior problems were assessed in second and eighth grade for a longitudinal sample of 57 children. Changes in these scores over time were compared for children with no learning disabilities versus children with math or reading disabilities (research-identified and/or school-identified). A widening of the group difference in IQ was seen between the math disabled and nondisabled groups, but otherwise the gaps between groups remained unchanged or narrowed over the six-year interval, indicating that hypothesized negative consequences of initial academic difficulties (“Matthew effects”) did not occur for most of the children with learning disabilities. Elevated rates of behavior problems were seen only for the group with math disabilities, suggesting that the type of learning disability needs to be taken into account in research on the association between academic and psychosocial problems.     

Deepening Understanding of Science and Mathematics Education Reform Principles: Novice Teachers Design Web-based Units Using Project 2061's Curriculum Analysis

Journal of Science Teacher Education -