Poor Basic Skills Research Articles

Effect of Game-Based Learning in Vehicle Air-Conditioning Course on Cognitive and Affective Skills of Vocational Students

Refrigerant and air conditioning course in vocational college is challenging to students and teachers as indicated by the unsatisfactory student’s examination results. Students come diverse backgrounds with poor basic skills and low motivation which, is difficult to address using the traditional interactive teaching and learning methods as currently practiced by teachers Therefore, game-based learning is suggested as an alternative to increase students’ motivation and achievement. A study was conducted to assess the effect of game-based learning on learning of the cognitive (recall the fact, concept, and procedure)and affective (respond/reaction) skills of vocational students in automotive air-conditioning course. A quasi-experiment was conducted on 30 students from two vocational colleges who were randomly assigned to the experimental and control group. The experimental group underwent a game-based learning method and tested using pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire. Whereas the control group underwent the existing method and tested using only pre-test and post-test. The teaching and learning module were developed based on the ADDIE model. The module has been analysed for usability and method. The results of this experiment show that the achievement of the experimental group is better than the control group. The students show good responses and reactions towardsgame-based learning. In conclusion, game-based learning is effective for student’s cognitive and affective skills in this course.

Parents' skills and children's cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes

Previous research has suggested a positive intergenerational relationship between a parent's childhood cognitive skill level and their own children's skill levels. Yet we also know that individuals' skill levels change during childhood and into adulthood, not least as a result of their education, training and work experience. Thus parents' adult skill levels are potentially as important in predicting the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of their children. The aims of this paper are two fold. Firstly, to assess the strength of the intergenerational correlation between parental skill in adulthood, specifically literacy and numeracy skills, and their children's early skills. The second aim is to assess whether, from a policy perspective, identifying adults with poor basic skills in literacy and numeracy is helpful in devising policies to target children at risk of having poor cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The data used are from the British Cohort Study (BCS), which in 2004 assessed cohort members' adult literacy and numeracy skills and, for a subset of the cohort, the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of their children. We find strong evidence that parents with better numeracy and literacy in adulthood have children who perform better in early cognitive and non-cognitive tests. This finding is not simply due to the positive correlation between parents' early cognitive skills and their adult cognitive skills. Rather, parents' adult skill levels provide additional useful information to help explain their children's early skills in regressions that also control for parents' own early cognitive skills as measured at age five. This paper provides clear support for the notion that identifying parents with poor literacy and numeracy skills can help us predict which children are most at risk of having poor skills themselves.

Basic skills and transitions to adulthood

This article reports on the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in the North East of England. This project involved interviews with 55 young adults in an attempt to explore the impact of poor basic skills on transitions to adulthood. Poor basic skills have been identifued across Europe as a problem facing nation states, groups and individuals. But apart from large-scale survey-based studies (Bynner and Parsons, 2001), previous youth research has neglected the process through which basic skills play a role in transitions to adulthood. Proposing a social theory of situated basic skills as communal and individual resources, the authors develop an approach that is sensitive to both structure and agency in theorizing the role of literacy, numeracy and oracy in transitions. They claim that the mobilization of basic skills resources and their role across the life-course can best be understood by using a conceptualization of agency that recognizes the importance of reflexivity as a mediating link between subjective (agential) and objective (structural) dimensions of transition.

Variables Associated With Assigning Students to Behavioral Classrooms

The effects of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and basic skills performance on (a) grade failure, (b) course failure, (c) Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test scores, and (d) attendance of middle school students assigned to behavioral classrooms were identified. Computerized data were collected from 2 middle schools located in 2 different El Paso school districts. Each middle school had 3 behavioral classrooms, which together included 85 students. The data were collected on 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students who were enrolled during the 1992–93 and 1993–94 school years. Results of chi-square analyses indicated that SES had a significant impact on grade failure, course failure, TAAS test scores, and attendance (p < .001). In addition, basic skills performance was not related to grade failure but had a significant relationship with course failure, TAAS test scores, and attendance (p < .01). Gender and ethnicity were not related to any of the dependent variables. Implications for tracking “at risk” students with low SES or poor basic skills performance were suggested.

Computer Based At-Risk Instructional Model

Students are dropping out of high school at an increasing rate. Many students have dropped out because they have poor basic skills and therefore cannot succeed academically. This study developed a strategy whereby the classroom teacher was given the responsibility to manage all aspects of the instructional process, including the assignment of computer-based learning activities for low achieving At-Risk students and peer group learning. The research investigated the effectiveness of a computer-based instructional model for improving the ability of At-Risk students to read, write, and calculate. The model placed the microcomputer and related software in the hands of the classroom teacher to be used as a tool for the target students in grades 1–8. Besides increased performance in most grade level tests, students and teachers also demonstrate positive attitudes toward using computers as tools.

The role of vocational counseling for the American Indian student

American Indian students have been neglected over the years in educational settings more apparently than other minority groups. Problems resulting from poor basic skills and motivation have placed them at a disadvantage when competing with other people for employment. Moreover, the values conflict between Indian and dominant European-American culture has created acculturation difficulties. Persons knowledgeable regarding the particular problems of Indians are greatly needed in educational and counseling situations to move toward a more fulfilling future for the Indian people. Tapping into the special capabilities of the Indian people can enhance the quality of living for all who share this earth.

Adolescent pregnancy: black and white.

According to recent data from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the United States leads nearly all other developed nations of the world in rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion and child-bearing even though it has comparable rates of sexual activity. Data show that this top-ranked status is not due to the high rates of pregnancy and parenthood among minority teens alone. Pregnancy rates for white teenagers are twice as high as those of Canada, France, and England. Moreover, the maximum difference in birth rates by race occurs among girls under 15, the most vulnerable teenagers. International data make it clear that the enormous costs of adolescent parenthood for teen parents, their children and society are not the inevitable outcomes of increased adolescent sexual activity. These costs represent inability as a society to deal in a preventive way with the implications of that increase, to provide adequate and comprehensive sex education, and to give sexually active teens easy access to family planning services and counseling. Many object to giving teenagers the capacity to delay parenthood while unsuccessfully imploring them to delay sexual activity. Withholding sex education and family planning services has not led to less teenage sexual activity in the U.S. Conversely, the provision of needed information and services in Europe and Canada has not resulted in increased sexual activity, but in heightened sexual responsibility. The costs of adolescent parenthood fall disproportionately on those least able to support them, teens from low-income/minority families and teens with poor basic skills and poor employment potential. They initiate sexual activity earlier than more advantaged teens and have poorer access to information and services.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)