First Year Of Secondary School Research Articles

Strategies to reduce the gap between the current and desired status of sexual education of high school students from the perspective of teachers

Background and Aim: Sexual education is one of the important aspects of education that is necessary to pay attention to in the adolescent period, despite significant studies in this field, so far no comprehensive and efficient solutions have been provided to improve the situation of adolescent sexual education. The main goal of this research was to identify the appropriate solutions to reduce the gap between the current and desired sex education in the first year of secondary school, from the teachers' point of view. Methods: The research method is practical in terms of its purpose, descriptive-survey in terms of its nature and method, and the tool for collecting information is a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the content of the questionnaire has been checked and confirmed by calculating the Laushe coefficient and the reliability of the questionnaire by testing it and calculating the bisection method. The statistical population of the research was all the teachers and executive staff of the first secondary schools of Hamedan province in 1400, of which 380 people were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling. T and FREDMAN statistical tests were used in the data analysis in the SPSS22 software environment. Results: 15 strategies were identified to improve the status of sex education in schools. Placing content related to sexual education in textbooks makes all schools obliged to present those topics to students and already with educational design, consider various educational elements and comprehensive and efficient education in this have context The participation of parents and teachers in the sexual education of students and the preparation of parents in terms of motivational factors, knowledge and ability in the sexual education of adolescents makes the education more effective in this field. The inclusion of an extra-curricular lesson with the title of "deserving boys and girls" in schools will provide opportunities for education related to sexual education to students jointly at the level of all schools. The attractive title of the lesson makes students more interested in these topics. Conclusion: Considering that the modesty of a number of students prevents them from asking confidential questions in the field of sexual issues, the use of indirect education tools such as question boxes and non-present communication channels can be effective in the sexual education of students.

Representations of culture, race and gender in English language textbooks

In order to investigate and understand the relations between different social groups participating in copious Anglophone settings, this paper sets out to present and discuss the findings of a quantitative analysis of culture, race and gender in nine English language textbooks for first-year secondary school students in Croatia. The first section of the paper offers a theoretical background of the three previously mentioned social phenomena in the light of the importance of English in modern education, frequently associated with various systems of social inequality. What follows are the results of the content analysis of sampled English language textbooks. The results of the study indicated significant differences regarding the representation of specific social groups as well as the intersections between gender and employment status. Thus, an inherent partisanship towards specific social groups was revealed, indicating a subliminal reproduction of social power through education. Such results align with numerous other studies on the topic, both in the Croatian and the foreign contexts.

Validation of the Strategy for Determining the Numerical Rating of the Cognitive Complexity of Exam Items in the Field of Chemical Kinetics

The main goal of this study was to validate the strategy for the assessment of the cognitive complexity of chemical kinetics exam items. The strategy included three steps: 1) assessment of the difficulty of concepts, 2) assessment of distractor value. and 3) assessment of concepts’ interactivity. One of the tasks was to determine whether there were misconceptions by students that might have influenced their achievement. Eighty-seven students in the first year of secondary school participated in the study. A knowledge test was used as a research instrument to assess the performance, and a five-point Likert-type scale was used to evaluate the perceived mental effort. The strategy was validated using regression analysis from which significant correlation coefficients were obtained between selected variables: students’ achievement and invested mental effort (dependent variables) and a numerical rating of cognitive complexity (independent variable).

Effectiveness of a Proposed Program based on Robinson's Strategy to Develop Creative Expression Skills among First-Year Secondary School Students in Amanat Alasema

The study aimed to identify the effectiveness of a proposed program based on Robinson's Strategy for developing creative expression skills among the first year secondary school students in Amanat Alasema. To achieve this, the researcher used the experimental method with a sample of (140) male and female students. They were selected by the purposive sampling method. The sample was divided into two experimental groups, one male and the other female, who were taught using the proposed program by employing Robinson’s strategy, and two control groups, one male and the other female, who were taught in a traditional way.Two research tools were used: a list of creative expression skills, and the creative expression skills test. The study results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference at (0.05) between the mean scores of the experimental group students and the average scores of the control group students in the post test for creative expression skills, in favor of the experimental group. There was a statistically significant difference at (0.05) between the mean scores of males and females of the experimental group in the post test of creative expression skills, in favor of females.

Lexical characteristics of young L2 English learners’ narrative writing at the start of formal instruction

Studies investigating L2 English receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in young learners have shown that English can be picked up through exposure outside the classroom. In this study I looked into lexical characteristics of young learners’ writing at the start of formal English lessons in the first year of secondary school (n = 3168). The texts were given a holistic score and several lexical measures were calculated. The results showed large individual differences between learners’ writing. Regression analysis was used to investigate which lexical characteristics predicted proficiency scores. The final model explained 50% of the variance. Similar to what was found in previous research investigating young L2 English learners’ writing I found that a number of broad predictors impacted the proficiency score. These were lexical diversity, word count, total number of spelling errors and percentage of English words used. Additionally, four fine-grained variables predicted the proficiency score: word frequency, trigram frequency, age of acquisition and imageability. The results show the added value of investigating a wide range of variables to shed light on the lexical factors that might impact writing scores, even in beginner and pre-intermediate level L2 writing.

Empowerment of Saudi Women in Secondary School English Language Books: An Analytical Study

The current research aimed to investigate the degree to which women’s empowerment dimensions (social, economic, political, and women’s issues) are addressed through English language books in Saudi secondary education. It raised a question on the extent to which women’s empowerment dimensions are addressed in secondary English language books. The authors followed the descriptive analytical research design. The research utilized a checklist of (19) indicators describing women’s empowerment dimensions (social, economic, political, and women’s issues). The checklist was designed to measure women’s empowerment dimensions in the content and activities in English language books by inferring them from the units of analysis considered in the current research – paragraphs and pictures. Results showed that in the first year of secondary school, political empowerment was ranked first, whereas economic empowerment was ranked last. Additionally, in the second year, women’s issues were ranked first, followed by political empowerment, then economic empowerment was ranked last. In the third year, social empowerment came in the first rank meanwhile political empowerment came in the last rank. The study concluded a need to re-evaluate and update the curricula and textbooks regarding women in line with the national goals for women. It is a significant study because it addresses empowering Saudi women in EFL textbooks. It recommends including basic issues, especially woman-related ones, in EFL textbooks.

Factors Related to Adolescents’ Participation in Organized Sports

Participation in organized sports has important health benefits in adolescence, yet participation rates are concerning. A better understanding of factors influencing adolescents' participation in organized sports offers opportunities to improve participation rates. The aim of this study was to examine to what extent motives, perceived competence, encouragement and motor skills were associated with participation in organized sports in a sample of first-year secondary school students. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 386 Dutch adolescents (11-14 years) in October and November 2020. A series of multilevel logistic regression models estimated the likelihood of adolescents' participating in organized sports. First, we examined whether motives, perceived competence, encouragement and motor skills were independently associated with the likelihood of participation. Second, we examined whether these factors were concurrently associated with the likelihood of participation. When considered individually, motives, perceived competence, encouragement and motor skills were significantly associated with participation. When considered together, only motives were significantly associated with participation and the associations of all other factors with sport disappeared. These findings show the importance of motivation for participation in sports over other factors. These findings inform the development of interventions aimed at improving adolescents' participation rates.

Teacher Talk Time as a Means to Develop Learners Communicative Skills in an EFL Class

The English curriculum in the Democratic Republic of Congo forecasts for the teaching of English from the first year of secondary school. Most students who finish high school are unable to speak English correctly, even to engage in a ten-minute conversation with friends. My experience as an English teacher for several years in high school shows that there are many factors that hinder the learner to assimilate the English language: the lack of motivation on the part of pupils, lack of appropriate textbooks, inadequacy of the national curriculum, laziness and fear on the part of pupils, monopolization of speech by the teacher model and use of French to teach English. This teacher model leads to the teacher’s share of monopolizing speech during classroom instruction. In this study, I want to show that the Teacher Talk Time during the transmission of his lesson should decrease because this affects the learner time to develop communicative skills. The suggested model for teaching English as a second language provides 25% of the time for the teacher and 75% for the learner so that the teacher is the facilitator, coach, guide, moderator, a helper. English must be taught as a language but not as a subject.
 The difficulties that learners have to express themselves fluently in English come greatly due the teacher who does not give a lot of time to learners to practice the English language because he talks too much. Therefore, this work shows that ‘Teacher Talking too Much’ in the class does not give opportunities to the learner to develop oral skill and master English as a Foreign Language for our secondary schools in Bandundu town in particular and those of the Democratic Republic of Congo in general.

Is transition an (adult) problem? – experiences of autistic students during the transition from primary to secondary school

Recent research indicates that the transition from primary to secondary school is an important step in students' lives. Although this step is often expected to be even more challenging for autistic students, there are new hints that the transition could also be an opportunity and not necessarily a negative period. Sixteen autistic students in France were interviewed three times during their first year of secondary school (6th grade) regarding their transition to secondary school. They presented a positive self‐image and preferred secondary school over primary school for various reasons. They focused on their everyday life in secondary school rather than problematising the transition, which in most cases had been planned and prepared by the adults in their life. Their positive experiences and unique views on the transition and the first year of secondary school could contribute to a more optimistic and inclusive transition planning. Therefore, the study provides original accounts from a group of participants who are often neither involved in transition planning nor in transition research.

Archaeological Narratives in Greek History Textbooks

Abstract Building on previous research concerning the archaeological narratives of Greek history textbooks, this study investigates the impact of these studies on schoolchildren's historical ideas. In the context of these narratives, the article addresses two significant landmarks of Greek antiquity, namely the Mycenaean civilization and the Acropolis of Athens. It is a small scale sample survey that draws its data from a set of 120 twelve-year-old individuals who were asked to complete the survey at the beginning and end of the first year of secondary school. The results relativize the implicit or explicit assumption that history textbooks have a decisive influence on or even shape students’ historical ideas and interpretations. Rather, history textbooks primarily facilitate the acquisition of specific information.

Trajectories of scholastic well-being: The effect of achievement emotions and instructional quality in the first year of secondary school (fifth grade)

Due to their connections with positive educational outcomes, the maintenance of good health and scholastic well-being are highly relevant topics. However, to date, no studies have investigated developmental changes in scholastic well-being in the light of achievement emotions and instructional quality—although these predictors offer good approaches for intervention. A sample of N = 667 (age: M = 10.16; SD = 0.46; 81.7% female) students was questioned three times over one year, from the beginning of their fifth grade into sixth grade, using reliable questionnaires. The results of multilevel linear growth curve modelling calculations show that a decrease in scholastic well-being during the fifth grade was induced by changes in the predictors (achievement emotions and instructional quality). Since the highest effects are evident regarding achievement emotions, support programs should focus on facilitating these aspects in secondary school children.

The impact of anxiety and life quality on the mathematical performance of dyscalculic middle school children

Dyscalculia is a specific difficulty in learning mathematics that strongly influences activities of daily living that require skills such as counting and simple mathematical operations. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of negative emotions on mathematical performance in children with and without developmental dyscalculia using psychosocial tests, a quality of life test, an anxiety test and the Zareki-R mathematical performance test. This pilot study was realized on a sample of 20 children in the first year of secondary school (a group of 10 dyscalculic children and another group of 10 control children with an average age of 12.65 years). Descriptive statistics showed that dyscalculic children had low scores on all Zareki-R subtests. The Mann Whitney analysis revealed a significant difference between dyscalculic children and typically developing children on the Zareki-R subtests and the quality of life test, but no significance was found for the anxiety test. Analysis of the ANOVA by gender revealed no significant differences for the three tests, and the opposite for the ANOVA by age (F = 3.86, dll = 2, p ˂ 0.05). Using multiple linear regression, the subtests of physical quality of life, emotional quality of life and academic quality of life were significantly different for the two groups. In conclusion, the psychosocial quality of life and the high level of anxiety in dyscalculic children strongly influence their performance in mathematics.

Development of writing abilities across languages and school-levels: Room descriptions produced in three languages at primary and secondary school

AbstractThis partially longitudinal study focussed on the ability of pupils to write descriptive texts in English and French as foreign languages and German as language of schooling. The teaching of two foreign languages from primary school onwards is compulsory in Switzerland, where this study is situated. The study responds to the urgent need for empirical research on cross-linguistic and cross-level development as a foundation for the improvement of language teaching. Current curricula do provide for the coherent fostering of the plurilingual repertoires of learners, across languages and school levels. But this still stands in sharp contrast to the multiple compartmentalisations and discontinuities induced by the educational system. Letters with spatial descriptions were collected in a quasi-experimental design in the canton of St. Gallen at the end of primary school (Year 6, N=185) and in the first year of secondary school (Year 7, N=218). The texts were analysed in terms of spatial organisation and text length. Moderate but statistically significant correlations between languages were found for both variables. The analysis revealed continuity of the development in the foreign languages, but stagnation in the language of schooling. The benefits of fostering transversally accessible textual patterns through a genre-based approach, in particular for the second foreign language (L3), are discussed.

Bi-directional associations between depressive symptoms and eating disorder symptoms in early adolescence

Despite frequently co-occurring, the temporal relationship between depression and eating disorder symptoms remains poorly understood. This exploratory study sought to investigate the reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and (1) shape and weight dissatisfaction, (2) shape and weight overvaluation, (3) preoccupation with shape or weight, (4) preoccupation with food, (5) dietary restraint and (6) binge eating in early adolescence. Adolescents (N = 1393) aged between 11.4 and 13.9 years (M = 12.50, SD = 0.38) completed the Centre for Epidemiological Depression Scale-Revised and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire-Adolescent version at the beginning of secondary school (T1) and 12-months later (T2). Cross-lagged models were created to assess the reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and ED symptoms. Depressive symptoms at T1 predicted shape and weight dissatisfaction, shape and weight overvaluation, preoccupation with shape or weight, preoccupation with food, dietary restraint and binge eating at T2. Shape and weight dissatisfaction and binge eating were the only ED symptoms at T1 to predict depressive symptoms at T2. Findings suggest young adolescents who experience depressive symptoms in their first year of secondary school are at-risk of developing ED symptoms over the subsequent 12-month period.

Promoting Quality, Equality and Inclusion through Rethinking Mediums of Instruction in Moroccan Public Schools

The multi-linguistic nature of Moroccan society entails the existence of different languages such as Moroccan Arabic, Amazigh Language with its varieties, Standard Arabic, French, and English. From this group, the Moroccan education system opts for two main languages as official mediums of instruction: standard Arabic and French; Arabic starting from the first level in primary school and French beginning from the first year in secondary school. This state of fact challenges the notions of inclusion and equality in the Moroccan education system. Students are being taught in languages different from their mother tongues. The focal objective of this paper is to prove that the gap between the languages used at school and students’ home languages harms the students’ learning outcomes, integration, self-esteem, and self-confidence. To test the validity of this claim, the paper uses a mixed-method approach; a questionnaire is addressed to 200 high school science students to investigate how the absence of their home languages affects their learning outcomes, participation in classroom activities, self-esteem, and self-confidence. In addition, 20 high school teachers are interviewed to detect the negative impact of the mediums of instruction on the students’ learning outcomes, participation in the classroom activities, self-esteem, and self-confidence. Findings reveal that languages of instruction form a real hindrance to guaranteeing quality education for students. All the teachers’ interviewed confirmed that using the official mediums of instruction in the classroom hampers students’ performances and affects their results.

以马内利二校初中一年级学生使用 MICROSOFT TEAMS 对汉语学习的影响

AbstractMicrosoft Teams (MT) is a full-featured chat-based collaboration platform, that integrates chat, video conferencing, file storage and more. In order to understand the impact of using the Microsoft Teams application on learning Mandarin, and the responds of the first-year secondary Immanuel junior high school students using Microsoft Teams on learning Mandarin, the writer used a questionnaire and survey method to obtain research result. The first result is the average rate of students using MT software is 73.4%, which proved that students using MT software can help students learn Chinese. And the average rate of students' response to using MT software to learn Chinese is 69.3%. It proved that the students have received the approval of using the MT software, which means that the students are satisfied with using the MT software to learn Chinese. The second result is the students' responds of using Microsoft Teams software on learning Mandarin are very interesting and satisfying; Student do tasks are more convenient to submit and also student can review the mandarin material easier because it is uploaded to Microsoft Teams.Keywords: Influence, Learning Chinese, Microsoft Teams software

What if I Don’t Like All of Them? A Person-Centered Approach to Examine Student–Teacher Relationships in the First Year of Secondary School

Person-centered analyses were used to identify relationship profiles based on seventh graders’ perceptions of relationships with three of their teachers (homeroom teacher, teacher of the easiest subject, teacher of the hardest subject). Furthermore, we investigated whether students’ characteristics (gender and academic track) could explain relationship profile membership and how these relationship profiles were associated with students’ school engagement. Students ( N = 899, 47.8% girls) reported about their relationships (closeness, conflict) with their teachers. Students and their homeroom teachers reported about students’ behavioral and emotional engagement. Four relationship profiles were found: a no risk profile (high closeness, low conflict with all three teachers), two single risk profiles (low closeness, high conflict with only one teacher), and one multiple risk profile (high conflict with all three teachers). Furthermore, boys were underrepresented in the no risk profile. Finally, students in the no risk profile tended to be more behaviorally and emotional engaged.

Teachers' Experiences and Perceptions about the Responsibility of Female high School Students in Tabriz

Background and Aim: One of the most important concerns of the educational system is the training of responsible people, which is very important for the future and life of students. Students' responsibility is one of the significant and serious issues that exist in the curriculum of all educational systems in different forms. Based on this, the main goal of this research was to represent the experiences and perceptions of teachers regarding the responsibility of female students of the first year of secondary school in Tabriz city. Methods: The approach of the present study is a qualitative interpretive phenomenology. The statistical population of the study was teachers in the city of Tabriz, using a purposive sampling method, 18 people; They formed the research sample. Saturation of the theoretical idea was the criterion for the number of samples. Semi-structured interview tools were used to collect data. After recording the interviews and implementing them, the data and information were analyzed by Dickelman, Tanner and Allen (1989) method. For the accuracy and robustness of data and information in the present study, 4 criteria of acceptability, reliability, verifiability and transferability were used. Results: From teachers' experiences and perceptions about responsibility of female students in junior high school, 7 main topics including the meaning and concept of responsibility, dimensions of responsibility, necessity of responsibility, responsibility education requirements, responsibility curriculum and strategies for promoting responsibility education and 19 topics Subsidiaries were identified. Conclusion: Educating responsible Human is the end of most societies and educational systems. Responsibility education, both in the form of formal and informal education, should be given more attention by educators and parents.

Humanizing Reading Comprehension Instruction: Using Reader Response Approach to Improve Al -Azhar First-Year Secondary School Students’ Attitudes Towards Literature Reading

Humanizing Reading Comprehension Instruction: Using Reader Response Approach to Improve Al -Azhar First-Year Secondary School Students’ Attitudes Towards Literature Reading

School market and the democratization of education: one step forward, two steps back. The case of the Canadian Province of Quebec

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to show that since the 1980s, educational inequalities in Quebec have gradually been reconfigured through the school market. The results obtained from a sample (N = 24,085) of a cohort of students who entered their first year of secondary school in 2002–2003 and who were observed for up to ten years (2012–2013) show that the influence of social origin on educational inequalities operates in large part via mediation of the type of institution attended. The results indicate that enrollment in selective schools, whether public or private, is closely associated to the social characteristics of the students: socioeconomic and ethnocultural origin, gender and mother tongue. In addition, there is a strong association between attendance at these same institutions, access to higher education and graduation. We conclude that the persistence of the reproduction of social inequalities in education is the result of the interactive and combined effects of social power relations related to class and ethnicity, and the current organization of public policies in education. This reveals a paradox as school markets have been promoted by public policies in the name of strengthening democratization and improving the quality of education.