Improve Education Outcomes Research Articles

Individual learning plans foster self-directed learning skills and contribute to improved educational outcomes in the surgery clerkship

BackgroundThe Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is a newly implemented curricular element designed to foster self-directed learning (SDL) skills among medical students during our surgery clerkship. Our aim was to determine the impact of ILPs on educational outcomes and acquisition of SDL skills. MethodsStudents were surveyed regarding the educational value of ILPs, their acquisition of SDL skills, and the impact of the surgery clerkship on fostering these skills. Mean scores for the NBME surgery subject exam (SSE) were compared before and after implementation of the ILP requirement. ResultsStudents perceived the ILP requirement as having strong educational value. Mean scores for the SSE increased significantly in the year following ILP implementation (74.9 vs 76.6; p = .042; d = 0.21). Students reported successful acquisition and frequent utilization of SDL skills. ConclusionsSDL exercises, such as the ILP requirement, lead to improved education outcomes while fostering the acquisition of SDL skills.

Correlates of Teaching Effectiveness of the General Education Faculty in a State University of the Philippines

Universally recognized and accepted as a direct and promising strategy to improve education outcomes is improving the teacher quality and measuring teaching effectiveness. This study investigated variables that influence the students’ evaluation of the teaching effectiveness of the general education (GE) faculty of a state university in the Philippines for the Second Semester, School Year 2014-2015. It looked into factors pertaining to the professional profile of the GEfaculty members that affect the students’ evaluation of the faculty teaching with the use of correlational research design. Findings revealed that of the variables considered, length of service in the teaching profession has a significant inverserelationship with the students’ evaluation of the faculty members’ teaching effectiveness particularly regarding their commitment. The findings suggest that e GE faculty should continue to live up to the precept that teaching is a vocation. ger. The faculty members whether in the early years of teaching or the experienced faculty must be likewise provided with faculty development programs. The university should consider a shift to online student evaluation of faculty teaching effectiveness.

Innovation Policy and the Economy: Introduction to Volume 18

Innovation Policy and the Economy: Introduction to Volume 18

Improving Education Outcomes in Engineering & Technology Domain: A Case of Faculty of Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

Improving Education Outcomes in Engineering & Technology Domain: A Case of Faculty of Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

Educative Effects of Bolsa Familia: Brazil in Latin American Context

This paper analyzes the relationship between educational outcomes in access and socioeconomic levels of the population from Brazil, focusing on conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs (Bolsa Escola/Bolsa Familia) and the comparison between Brazil and the rest of Latin America in terms of improvements in educational outcomes. To do this, we analyze, for the 2000–2014 period, different indicators of educational outcomes at the aggregate level and/or income levels and poverty. These analyses are realized on the basis of microdata by country and year, homogeneously processed according to the criteria of the SEDLAC base. We conclude that the positive effect of that program is a robust conclusion, both in terms of impact studies and the evolution of aggregate data. It is also observed that Brazil must intensify efforts in basic education so as not to be left behind in the context of Latin America. Finally, the lack of progress in the tertiary/university sector calls for some thought on whether it is not necessary to modify the conditionalities of the program.

Quelle prise en charge du jeune présentant un premier épisode psychotique, quand la scolarité est mise à mal ?

Quelle prise en charge du jeune présentant un premier épisode psychotique, quand la scolarité est mise à mal ?

Learning on Gaming: A New Digital Game Based Learning Approach to Improve Education Outcomes

Learning on Gaming: A New Digital Game Based Learning Approach to Improve Education Outcomes

DOES REGULATING FOR‐PROFIT COLLEGES IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES? WHAT WE KNOW, WHAT WE DON'T KNOW, AND WHAT WE NEED TO FIND OUT

DOES REGULATING FOR‐PROFIT COLLEGES IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES? WHAT WE KNOW, WHAT WE DON'T KNOW, AND WHAT WE NEED TO FIND OUT

An Overview of School Dropout in Central America: Unresolved Issues and New Challenges for Education Progress

<p style="text-align:justify">School dropout is a growing concern in Central America, and in Latin America as a whole, because of its consequences for economic productivity, the inclusiveness of growth, social cohesion, and increasing youth risks. This paper utilizes more than two decades of household survey data to construct a systematic overview of school dropout at the primary and secondary levels in Central America, focusing on recent trends in dropout patterns and their underlying causes. Within each country, poverty, rurality, and indigenous group membership are the strongest correlates of dropout, reflecting several underlying factors that affect the marginal benefits and costs of staying in school. Global and regional evidence increasingly points to common policy priorities for reducing dropout across Central America, including addressing remaining gaps in access at the pre-primary and secondary levels, improving the quality of education at all levels, and strengthening the coverage, targeting, and coherence of existing programs aimed at improving education outcomes. However, additional rigorous evaluations, including cost data, are needed to identify the most effective specific approaches in each country. JEL Classification: I2, I24, I25, I26, I28, O15</p>

2015 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture: Anonymity No More: Seeing Our Neighbors in Ferguson and the Implications for Social Policy

Ferguson, Missouri, has been characterized as an archetype of structural inequality and segregation. Several questions guide this investigation of Ferguson and its surrounding region. How did policies, practices, and folkways help to create the conditions in Ferguson and the broader metropolitan region? The regional segregation regime’s history provides a background to better understand current conditions. What is the existing state of affairs for young persons and their families in the region? To address this question, social epidemiological methods and geospatial analysis inform the development of a set of visuals to determine if racial segregation, economic opportunity, health and developmental outcomes, and education-related outcomes are spatially arranged. The authors found that these indicators of well-being are spatially arranged and concentrated; thus, they raise another question: How does a politically fragmented region intervene to disrupt concentrated disadvantage? As Ferguson and the region seek social and education reform, the final section offers several recommendations to improve education outcomes through broader economic strategy and social policy.

Implementation of a Learning Management System for Medical Students: A Case Study of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are powerful tools for the organization and presentation of curricular learning materials, for monitoring of student and faculty members performance, and for overall quality control. However, there is limited evidence regarding the acceptance and performance of LMS in Africa. This manuscript describes the implementation, the outcomes, and the challenges of the first five years of a LMS at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo). The LMS has been fully adopted into KCMUCo curriculum and deployed to 1356 students. It has been demonstrated to enhance learning with strength of consensus measure of 84% for basic sciences and 78% for clinical classes. 80% of faculty members have been satisfied with the use of LMS. Electronic assessment has become an obligatory platform for theory examinations. LMS adoption may improve education outcomes at other medical schools in Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa.

Analyzing ICT Policy in K-12 Education in Sudan (1990-2016)

The aim of this study of ICT policy in K-12 education in Sudan is to investigate the status of planning for technologyin education and then determine how the advantage of ICT can best serve the educational system and improveeducational outcomes. The study examined two plans for ICT in education, addition to an interview with theeducational planning manager, and information center of federal ministry of general education, and other documentsfrom the ministry of education, as well as recommendations of previous studies which emphasized the need forpolicy to be compatible with other countries may face semi conditions of Sudan, and importance of compatible withUNESCO declarations (Incheon& Qingdao, 2015). The results of this study showed the need for policy emphasis onusing technology in education, K-12 education in Sudan requires better technology equipment, inclusive ICT policyincludes primary and secondary education need to formulate. The study also suggests that evaluation and assessmentare required in order to get more effective solutions and cope with the international educational progress of ICT inK-12 education.

Are Basic School Head Teachers Transformational Leaders? Views of Teachers

Transformational leadership practice is associated with improved school functioning and quality education delivery through teacher commitment and willingness to exceed targets or educational benchmarks (Balyer, 2012; Nedelcu, 2013). The establishment of the Leadership for Learning (LFL) program in Ghana in 2009 aimed at improving the effectiveness of basic school head teachers to better lead schools to promote student learning. In this study, the perceptions of basic school teachers as to the transformational leadership conduct of head teachers who had received training under the LFL model were collected and reviewed. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to determine from teachers’ perceptions how the conduct of head teachers related to transformational leadership. From the study results, the findings indicated that while teachers largely perceived their head teachers as transformational leaders, more than the influence of head teachers is required to motivate teachers to give of themselves to improve education outcomes. Recommendations and implications of the study for practice and research were considered.

Early high school engagement in students with attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Students with attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) continue to languish behind their peers with regard to academic achievement and education attainment. School engagement is potentially modifiable, and targeting engagement may be a means to improve education outcomes. To investigate school engagement for students with ADHD during the crucial high school transition period and to identify factors associated with low school engagement. Participants are adolescents (12-15years) in the first and third year of high school with diagnosed ADHD (n=130). Participants were recruited from 21 paediatric practices. Cross-sectional study assessing school engagement. Data were collected through direct assessment and child, parent, and teacher surveys. School engagement is measured as student attitudes to school (cognitive and emotional) and suspension rates (behavioural). Multivariable regression analyses examined student, family, and school factors affecting engagement. In comparison with state data, students with ADHD in the first year of high school were less motivated (p<.01) and less connected to peers (p<.01). Overall, there was no discordance in third year attitudes. There were high rates of suspension in both years in comparison to state-wide suspensions (21% vs. 6%, p<.01). Explanatory factors for poor attitudes include adolescent depression, poor adolescent supervision, and devaluing education. Conduct problems and increased hyperactivity were related to increased likelihood of being suspended, whilst higher cognitive ability, family socio-economic status, and independent schools reduced risk. Potentially modifiable individual and family factors including adolescent depression, behavioural problems, education values, and family supervision could be targeted to better manage the high school transition for students with ADHD.

We need to rediscover the art of the conversation

Central to improving education outcomes is more effective conversation and discussion with young children. This entails better understanding of its nature and role, and a rethink of interaction strategies.

Teacher strategies to improve education outcomes for Indigenous students

Abstract The article presents the teaching strategies that supported education success for Indigenous students of New Zealand from a case study research approach. Interviews were conducted with teacher participants that revealed four dominant strategies that were perceived to improve Māori education outcomes and were confirmed by national testing results. These strategies were: Building and repairing relationships through a relationship-based pedagogy; student focused school and classrooms; teachers that provided feedforward and feedback to students; administrative leadership, and the regular incorporation of Māori culture in the school and the classroom. Over a six-year timeframe, implementation of these strategies more than doubled Māori academic achievement levels.

AMALAN PENAMBAHBAIKAN KUALITI BERTERUSAN DALAM INSTITUSI PENDIDIKAN

With the increasing demand in improving quality education system, the Malaysian Education Ministry has recently adopted a policy aimed at practicing continuous quality improvement (CQI) at all levels and across all states. The key goal is to achieve changes in practice which improve education outcomes. This paper includes the systematic literature review to describe the scenario of quality management practices in industry and quality improvement approaches at various levels in education systems. Several identified themes were discovered ie the importance of continuous improvement programs, quality management systems and readiness to implement the quality improvement practices. Future research should include the psychology aspects in testing the effectiveness of quality improvement practices.

Improving Learning Outcomes in South Asia: Findings from a Decade of Impact Evaluations

There have been many initiatives to improve education outcomes in South Asia. Still, outcomes remain stubbornly resistant to improvements, at least when considered across the region. To collect and synthesize the insights about what actually works to improve learning and other education outcomes, this paper conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of 29 education-focused impact evaluations from South Asia, establishing a standard that includes randomized control trials and quasi-experimental designs. It finds that while there are impacts from interventions that seek to increase the demand for education in households and communities, those targeting teachers or schools and thus the supply-side of the education sector are generally much more adept at improving learning outcomes. In addition, interventions that provide different actors with resources and those that incentivize behavioral changes show moderate but statistically significant impacts on student learning. A mix of input- and incentive-oriented interventions tailored to the specific conditions on the ground appears most promising for fostering education outcomes in South Asia.

Family literacy and unit standards: can they work together?

Straddling conventional education system boundaries between adult learners and children, and between employment-related and social benefits, family literacy programmes are not well recognised or supported in New Zealand's policy and funding environment. In this article, I reflect on my personal experience of redesigning the Whānau Ara Mua intergenerational family literacy programme to deliver standardised qualifications and use unit standards for assessment. A lack of unit standards supporting important family learning areas, and standards that are too prescriptive in content, scope, level or assessment conditions to fit well with family literacy and learning, resulted in learning content becoming less relevant to learners and their families. This is of particular concern as Māori concepts of literacy place a whānau approach, whānau literacy and whānau wellbeing at the heart of literacy work. My investigation led to the conclusion that development of whānau-focused unit standards would both support family literacy programmes and facilitate broader take-up of family literacy elements within adult literacy work. This would give substance to government support for Māori literacy aspirations, while also supporting wider policy objectives around reaching priority tertiary learners and improving education outcomes for children.

International Policy and Roma Education in Europe: Essential Inputs or Centralized Distractions?

This article examines the case of Roma inclusion in education as a study of the ways in which international policy can and cannot bring change at the local level. I first reflect on the numerous international organizations and initiatives to improve the educational outcomes of Roma, and to reduce segregation and other non-inclusionary practices. Given these actions—and their relatively small impact—I identify both benefits and drawbacks of international efforts to achieve Roma inclusion and improve education outcomes. I conclude that international organizations provide significant inputs for Roma inclusion, but also serve as centralized distractions that foster extremely high expectations and thus great disappointment with the results.