In-service Training Institutes Research Articles

Systematically designed literature classroom interventions: design principles, development and implementation: an introduction

Intervention studies in L1 language arts and literature classrooms are pivotal to investigate the effects of instructional approaches that have been purposefully designed to achieve certain learning outcomes. Ideally, design principles, design procedures and the resulting interventions (i.e., lessons, projects, materials) would be comprehensively described in research papers. Unfortunately, intervention research in the education sciences are often focused on empirical intervention effects rather than the content and mode of instruction. Even now that journals provide more room for additional digital information about instructional materials and measurement, information on critical design choices made in interventions for reading and literary instruction remains underwhelming (see Schrijvers, Janssen, Fialho, & Rijlaarsdam,2016). Yet, it is important to shed light on the content and structure of evidence based instructional programs for reading and literary instruction, for two aims and audiences: research and practice. First, insight in the key elements of an intervention enhances the opportunities for both theory building as well as conducting replication studies in different contexts. Research that explicitly and coherently reports the theoretical, practical and contextual choices in the instructional design provides a deeper understanding about the relation between basic design principles (the instruction) and the desired and realized learning outcomes. These basic design principles, presented in an argumentative structure, must be judged by the research community from the perspective of construct validity: the perspective is then on the extent into which the basic principles in the study under review do represent the theory. The second layer of the report, on the contextual operationalizations – adaptations to specific aims, age group of students and cultural traditions – provides information that may prove invaluable in the evaluation of content validity: to which extent the operationalizations match the theoretical construct. These theories may serve as the steppingstones for other researchers, in other national, regional and cultural traditions, to establish studies in their particular context to improve literacy instruction. Such studies do not replicate the original study but adapt the theory to cultural contexts and contribute to the generalizability of instructional theories in literacy education. Second, educational studies in the L1 domain do not serve further research only. Intervention studies are mostly set up with the same aim as all educational practices: to change something, somewhere, in someone. Teachers who prepare a literature lesson, considering which story to introduce – or which stories, because different students might be affected by different stories – are driven by a desire for accomplishing change in their students. A lesson is meant to contribute to a student’s new understanding, to new affect, or to check assumptions (De Groot,1980; see for an application Schrijvers, Janssen, Fialho & Rijlaarsdam, 2016, p. 9). According to De Groot(1980), education contributes to several types of learning experiences including the construction of rules and the exceptions to rules as they apply to the inside and outside world. Further, education is about affecting positive change in the life trajectories of students, and the education sciences, through intervention studies, explicitly aim to contribute to the improvement or enhancement of language arts and literature teachers’ daily practices, directly or via change agents like national in-service training institutes. To support further implementation of evidence-based, theoretically underpinned learning programs, mere availability of concrete instructional activities is insufficient. Teachers and teacher educators must understand these activities in the context of the theoretical framework: the design principles, embedded in research literature, in terms of key-learning activities that must take place; the instructional acts to generate these learning activities; and the changes in the learner that are intended. Practice must be fully informed, as providing materials is not enough to change teachers’ understandings and beliefs (e.g., Nieveen, 1999; O’Donnell, 2008). Although design research has built a certain tradition, reporting instructional designs and materials is not an easy task in doing research likely due in part to underdeveloped instructional theories in the literacy domain as well as the lack of generally accepted reporting formats. A research tradition of reporting intervention designs is yet to take hold.

Investigation of physics teachers’ opinions about the physics curriculum

The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of physics teachers about the physics curriculum that was updated in 2017. The study was carried out by using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools within the context of case study methodology. The research sample was formed from 64 physics teachers from different provinces of Turkey who participated in the training organized for introducing a physics curriculum at the Yalova Esenkoy In-service Training Institute. A questionnaire consisting of 30 questions with four-point Likert-type and interviews including eight questions were conducted. Findings show that physics teachers generally indicate a positive approach to the physics curriculum. However, almost all physics teachers who participated in the research stated that the physics course hours were insufficient to implement the physics curriculum and that some subjects should be removed from the physics curriculum.

The performance diamond: measuring public sector organisational performance

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a multi-dimensional analytical framework of effectiveness, efficiency, relevancy, learning1innovation (EERL) for assessing the performance of public sector organisations (PSOs) in reference to Public Sector In-Service Training Institutes (PSTIs) in Pakistan as an example of how the model can be operationalised. This framework (EERL) has broad canvas and covers almost everything, which can influence organisational performance (i.e., inputs, outputs, outcomes etc) and have significant usefulness in seeking to capture the performance of PSOs. Performance indicators of each of these four criteria have also been discussed. The performance of PSOs depends on the simultaneous achievement of these criteria which purports that good performance on the part of PSOs means improvement in realising these criteria. This framework is relevant from both an academic and practical point of view and has implications for policy-makers in terms of conceptualising and measuring performance in the PSOs.

In-service teacher training for agricultural education in the Netherlands: From supply to demand

This article reports the results of research on in-service teacher training in agricultural education in the Netherlands. Seven agricultural education centres (in Dutch: AOCs) and six institutes which are involved in in-service teacher training participated in this research. The data were collected by way of structured open interviews with persons ( N = 16) responsible for the in-service policy of their organization. The Dutch government has changed the rules concerning in-service teacher training. The in-service budget has been transferred from in-service training institutes to schools. Accordingly, a new situation has arisen, for both schools and in-service training institutes. Schools will have to show a more active in-service policy than before; in-service training institutes can no longer offer schools in-service training activities which they deem necessary. More than in the past these institutes have to meet the in-service training needs of schools. In literature this is called a shift from a supplied to a demanded in-service training organization. This research has been carried out in order to gain insight into the way the institutes involved will organize their in-service policy in the near future, and, as a result, to give recommendations to help these institutes to make these policies. At this moment it appears that agricultural education in the Netherlands lacks certain fundamental conditions in order to achieve professional growth of teachers.

Towards a new in-service policy: the case of Dutch agricultural education

Abstract This article reports the results of research on in-service teacher training in agricultural education in the Netherlands. Seven agricultural education centres (in Dutch: AOC's) and six institutes which are involved in in-service teacher training participated in this research. The data were collected by way of structured open interviews with persons (N=16) responsible for the in-service policy of their organization. The Dutch government has changed the rules concerning in-service teacher training. The in-service budget has been transferred from in-service training institutes to schools. Accordingly a new situation has arisen, for both schools and in-service training institutes. Schools will have to show a more active in-service policy than before; in-service training institutes can no longer offer schools in-service training activities which they deem necessary. More so than in the past these institutes have to meet the in-service training needs of schools. In literature this is called a shift fro...

The Mujedawa Dispensary Project: An Experiment in Social Work Education in Nigeria

Abstract Social work education in Nigeria is taught only in polytechnic schools and in-service training institutes. Only recently have social work course units been introduced at the university level; no Nigerian university offers a degree in the field, yet. The social work courses available are offered toward degrees in sociology. This paper describes how social work students at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, built a dispensary as part of their fieldwork in a newly-introduced social work methodology course. It discusses implications for social work education in Nigeria.

Equal-Status Contact and Modification of Racial Prejudice: A Reexamination of the Contact Hypothesis

Recent research on equal-status interracial suggests that such lessens prejudice. The present study extends research on equal-status into a situation designed to elicit favorable contact, namely faculty desegregation in public schools. Black and white teachers were interviewed with regard to their levels of prejudice both before and after participating in an in-service training institute on problems of school desegregation in Houston, Texas. In addition, a follow-up survey was administered sixteen months after the conclusion of institute training. The conclusions were: (1) after completion of institute training white respondents scored significantly lower on all measures of prejudice while black scores remained relatively stable; (2) teachers who participated in institute training were significantly less prejudiced than were a random sample of non-institute participants selected from the same schools; and (3) institute training was more effective in lessening white prejudice toward blacks than in reducing black prejudice toward whites. In relating these findings to recent research by Cohen and Roper and W. Scott Ford, we conclude that many interracial situations that are perceived as being of equal status by whites are not perceived in the same manner by blacks, a conclusion which suggests a modification of the traditional equal-status hypothesis as well as having direct implications for policymaking in the area of school desegregation. Studies of the effects of equal-status interracial on attitudes and behavior of majority and minority group members have generally yielded consistent results. Most such research has concluded that social between participants of equal status reduces prejudice (Amir; Brophy; Gundlach; Mann; Meer and Friedman; Yarrow et al.). Research has also found reduction of prejudice in situations where is between majority group members and high-status representatives of the minority group (Amir; Irish; Mannheimer and Williams; Watson). The concept contact has been applied to a wide spectrum of situations with a variety of subjects. Contact situations studied include the armed services, residential areas, recreational activities, occupational endeavors, and various types of classroom situations. Subjects include children and various categories of adults, frequently segregated by sex. Activities studied as examples of can be viewed as existing on a continuum ranging from extreme forms of cooperation (e.g., white and black groups in combat together) to competitive and conflict situations (e.g., invasion of a white residential area by blacks). The most appropriate generali*This research was conducted under grant no. MH14622 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors are indebted to Lynn Weber Cannon for her helpful critique and suggestions for revision.

Fisk Inservice Training Institute in Teaching Black Literature

Fisk Inservice Training Institute in Teaching Black Literature