School Education Research Articles

The Realities of Implementing First Language (L1) for Instruction in Lower Primary Schools in Ghana

In May 2002, Ghana approved the use of English as the language of instruction (LOI) in lower primary schools. In 2012 however, a new policy was declared on using the Ghanaian language, the first language (L1) of learners as LOI. This raised some controversies among stakeholders. Currently, although teachers are required to implement the new policy, there appears to be an apparent lack of literature on what really pertains in the lower primary classrooms. This study provides preliminary findings from a larger study funded by the Jacobs Foundation. The study used a concurrent mixed methods design. In the qualitative phase, 48 participants were interviewed, and their lessons were observed using interview and observation guides. In the quantitative phase, 448 respondents completed a questionnaire. Key findings indicate that while teachers recognise the benefits of using L1 to enhance engagement and comprehension, they often adopt a blended approach that combines both English and L1. Major challenges in implementing the L1 policy include community-parental resistance, unavailability of teaching and learning resources, policy-examination mismatches and issues with teacher postings. Subsequently, participants advocated for a blended LOI approach because of its added merit to help learners understand concepts more easily in their native languages while developing crucial skills in English, and further ease the transition of L1 at the lower primary to English at later years. It is recommended that policymakers should promptly investigate the potential benefits of adopting a blended approach to modify existing policies that mandates the use of L1.

OPTIMIZING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION OF LEARNERS WITH AUTISM IN ESWATINI MAINSTREAM PRIMARY SCHOOLS

In 2010, the Kingdom of Eswatini granted learners with mild to moderate forms of autism the right to access education in neighborhood schools. However, the Eswatini Annual Education Census report of 2019 did not make specific mention of these learners’ current state of affairs. This qualitative, phenomenological study explored strategies for optimizing parental involvement in the education of learners with autism in Eswatini mainstream primary schools. The data were extracted through interviews and document analysis from fifteen purposively sampled parents and teachers selected from four mainstream primary schools in Eswatini. The data were analyzed thematically. Ethical considerations upheld during this investigation were informed consent, voluntary participation, anonymity, and confidentiality of information that participants divulged. One major finding of this study demonstrates that the deployment of highly autism-qualified teachers is crucial for laying a concrete foundation for parents to use in helping the learners in their studies. Thus, to accrue the involvement of parents in education, the Deputy Prime Minister’s office should state guidelines and craft monitoring tools to ensure that schools embrace and support the involvement of parents.

Language and Literacy Education in Austria: Teachers’ Perspectives

This study examines the critical role of language and literacy in educational contexts, emphasizing their significance in human development and social inclusion. Drawing on a diverse range of literature and research, this study explores the interconnectedness of language acquisition, literacy development, and educational practices. Highlighting language and literacy as fundamental human rights, this study underscores the importance of inclusive and equitable education. Through qualitative methods, including online questionnaires (n=18) and interviews (n=8) with teachers, this study investigates the implementation of language and literacy education in Austrian primary schools as well as the challenges faced by educators in this domain. The findings reveal diverse teaching methodologies employed by teachers, ranging from shared book reading to digital tools, while also identifying obstacles, such as multilingualism, professional training deficiencies, and student engagement issues. The study’s findings strongly support the need for targeted interventions to improve educational outcomes. Specifically, the challenges identified—particularly multilingualism and training gaps—underscore the necessity of ongoing professional development tailored to teachers’ specific needs. Enhancing teacher training programs with a focus on multilingual pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching can directly address these obstacles. Furthermore, the findings suggest that improving student engagement requires innovative and adaptable teaching methodologies, such as integrating digital literacy tools more effectively into the curriculum.

Evaluation of a basic-clinical integrated pharmacology case-based learning program from a student perspective using the CIPP model.

This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of case-based learning (CBL) within a basic-clinical integrated educational program using the Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) evaluation model. The CBL program was integrated into the Pharmacology-Clinical Case Practice component of the pharmacology course, a mandatory course for first-year medical students. To evaluate the program, a CIPP model-based questionnaire was developed, assessing needs, goals, resources, educational management, and outcomes. To ensure the reliability and validity of the variables, factor analysis was performed, reducing an initial set of 28 items to 18 final observation variables distributed across four factors. The survey, designed to measure learner satisfaction, was administered to 37 students who participated in the Pharmacology-Clinical Case Practice course during the first semester of 2022. Participants rated their satisfaction with the CBL program based on the CIPP model (on a 5-point scale), giving an average score of 4.17. This suggests that learners who followed the CBL program combining basic and clinical components generally found the program operationally effective with positive outcomes. The teaching model and evaluation model applied in this study can be utilized in various majors when operating CBL classes that link basic and clinical education in medical schools in the future.

A Capstone Course for Secondary Math Educators Moving to College-Level Teaching

The University of Tennessee has a Master of Mathematics (M.M.) program for secondary educators interested in college-level teaching. The program includes a capstone course on topics related to college-level teaching and can be thought of as a kind of professional development which allows secondary educators to explore options for their careers. This paper outlines the design, structure, and implementation of the course, including that it incorporated findings from an active research project. We describe details of class design, activities, our reflections, and how the course can serve as a way for teaching ideas to flourish between high school and college educators.

Drivers of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among rural populations in Madagascar: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe WHO set the global immunisation threshold for COVID-19 at 70% to achieve worldwide protection against the disease. To date, global COVID-19 vaccine coverage is still below this threshold, in particular in several sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, such as Madagascar. While factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy have been widely explored in the past few years, research on drivers of COVID-19 vaccine uptake remains scarce. This study aimed at investigating drivers associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the Boeny region of Madagascar.MethodsThe study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data on drivers of vaccine uptake from a sample of adults recruited from 12 healthcare facilities between November 2022 and February 2023. Relative and absolute frequencies were used to summarize participants’ characteristics. Prevalence ratios were estimated by Poisson regression to identify and compare sociodemographic and motivational drivers of vaccine uptake among those who were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with those who had already been vaccinated.ResultsA total of 928 participants aged between 18 and 76 years were included in the study. Among those recruited, 44.9% (n = 417) had already been vaccinated and 55.1% (n = 511) were willing to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the day of the interview. The proportions of those respondents who live in urban areas (56.5% vs. 43.8%) and who have high school or university education (46.6% vs. 35.8%) were higher for the uptake group, whereas the proportion of employed respondents (66.3% vs. 56.5%) was higher among those willing to get vaccinated. Vaccine being free of charge (aPR = 1.77 [CI 95%: 1.45–2.17]) and being able to travel again (aPR = 1.61 [CI 95%: 1.30–1.98]) were the drivers most strongly associated with higher vaccine uptake after adjustment for sociodemographic factors.ConclusionsThis study shows that actual COVID-19 vaccine uptake is influenced by a different set of factors than willingness to get vaccinated. Taking this difference in drivers into account can inform more tailored vaccination strategies to increase worldwide coverage.

Teachers’ perspectives on determinants of educational (under)achievement of Cigano/Roma students in Portugal

ABSTRACT The presence of Cigano/Roma students in secondary education in Portugal is still a rarity, considering that less than 3% of young Ciganos/Roma attend secondary education. This article aims to highlight the need for a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions of school teachers and principals on educational (under)achievement, absenteeism and school integration of Cigano students. To this end, we analyse data from an online questionnaire survey of a sample of 819 teachers, school principals and deputy principals and other senior management staff in schools of the Metropolitan Areas. These respondents express persistent representations and stereotypes in relation to the educational trajectories of Cigano students, especially in assigning prime causes of school failure to factors relating to the students’ family or own intrinsic issues, rarely indicating institutional factors or those linked to their teaching practices. Although this is a study centred on Portugal, the lessons drawn from it can point to new directions for other contexts, as the educational achievement of Cigano students represents an opportunity and an invitation to transform and upgrade school institutions as well as the educational system as a whole, which should be more innovative, reflexive and increasingly open to the community.

Profiling patterns of patient experiences of access and continuity at team-based primary healthcare clinics (Canada): a latent class analysis

BackgroundAccess to primary healthcare services is a core lever for reducing health inequalities. Population groups living with certain individual social characteristics are disproportionately more likely to experience barriers accessing care. This study identified profiles of access and continuity experiences of patients registered with a family physician working in team-based primary healthcare clinics and explored the associations of these profiles with individual and organizational characteristics.MethodsA cross-sectional e-survey was conducted between September 2022 and April 2023. All registered adult patients with an email address at 104 team-based primary healthcare clinics in Quebec were invited to participate. Latent class analysis was used to identify patient profiles based on nine components of access to care and continuity experiences. Multinomial logistic regression models were fit to analyze each profile’s association with ten characteristics related to individual sociodemographics, perceived heath status, chronic conditions and two related to clinic area and size.ResultsBased on 87,155 patients who reported on their experience, four profiles were identified. “Easy access and continuity” (42% of respondents) was characterized by ease in almost all access and continuity components. Three profiles were characterized by diverging access and/or continuity difficulties. “Challenging booking” (32%) was characterized by patients having to try several times to obtain an appointment at their clinic. “Challenging continuity” (9%) was characterized by patients having to repeat information that should have been in their file. “Access and continuity barriers” (16%) was characterized by difficulties with all access and continuity components. Female gender and poor perceived health significantly increased the risk of belonging to the three profiles associated with difficulties by 1.5. Being a recently arrived immigrant (p = 0.036), having less than a high school education (p = 0.002) and being registered at a large clinic (p < 0.001) were associated with experiencing booking difficulties. Having at least one chronic condition (p = 0.004) or poor perceived mental health (p = 0.048) were associated with experiencing continuity difficulties.ConclusionsThese results highlight individual social and health characteristics associated with increased risk of experiencing healthcare access difficulties, such as immigration status and education level and/or continuity difficulties when having a chronic condition and poor perceived mental health. Facilitating appointment booking for recently arrived immigrants and patients with low education, integrating interprofessional collaboration practices for patients with chronic conditions and improving care coordination and communication for patients with mental health needs are recommended.

Predictors of advance care planning in 11 high-income nations.

Elderly population is increasing in high-income countries. For instance, by 2050, 21.4% of the United States population is expected to be 65+, thus making advance care planning (ACP) increasingly important. We aim to identify predictors of ACP completion in 11 high-income countries and explore relationships between ACP and utilization factors. Using the 2021 International Health Policy (IHP) survey data, we assessed the relationship between sociodemographic factors, healthcare utilization, and ACP. The primary outcome variable was a composite of three ACP activities. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) was used to identify predictors of ACP completion. Analyses included 18,677 older adults who answered at least one ACP question. Only 5126 (27.4%) reported completion of three ACP activities. Germany (64.7%) showed the highest completion rates, while Sweden (5.0%) and France (5.0%) showed the lowest completion rates. Predictors of ACP completion identified in the GLMM were: increasing age (incidence rate ratio [IRR] range between 1.2 and 1.5), completion of high school education or more (IRR: 1.1, 95% CI: 1.1-1.1), higher income (IRR: 1.1, 95% CI: 1.1-1.2), presence of two or more health conditions (IRR: 1.1, 95% CI: 1.0-1.1), hospital stay in the past 2 years (IRR: 1.1, 95% CI: 1.1-1.1), and access to quality primary care (IRR: 1.0, 95% CI: 1.0-1.1). Male gender (IRR: 0.9, 95% CI: 0.8-0.9) had a negative association with ACP activity completion. Several patient-specific and health system utilization factors were identified as predictors of ACP activity completion, which clinicians and policymakers could use to enhance ACP completion.

Association of Racial Residential Segregation and Other Social Determinants of Health with HIV Late Presentation.

Understanding social determinants of HIV late presentation with advanced disease (LPWA) beyond individual-level factors could help decrease LPWA and improve population-level HIV outcomes. This study aimed to examine county-level social determinants of health (SDOH) with HIV late presentation. We aggregated datasets for analysis by linking statewide HIV diagnosis data from the South Carolina (SC) Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System and multiple social contextual datasets (e.g., the American Community Survey). All adult (18 years and older) people with HIV diagnosed from 2014 to 2019 in SC were included. Linear mixed models with forward selection were employed to explore the association of county-level SDOH with the county-level three-year moving average percentage of LPWA and average delay time from HIV infection to diagnosis. Around 30% of new HIV diagnoses were LPWA in SC, and the mean delay time for people with LPWA was approximately 13 years. Counties with more racial residential segregation had longer average delay time (Adjusted beta = 5.079, 95% CI: 0.268 ~ 9.889). Regarding other SDOH, the increased percentage of LPWA was associated with fewer Ryan White centers per 100,000 population (Adjusted beta = -0.006, 95% CI: -0.011~-0.001) and higher percentages of the population with less than a high school education (Adjusted beta = 0.008, 95% CI: 0 ~ 0.015). Reducing county-level disparities in LPWA requires multifaceted interventions addressing multiple dimensions of SDOH. Targeted interventions are needed for counties with more Black residential segregation, fewer Ryan White centers, and higher percentages of less than high school education.

The prevalence, course, and risk factors of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among students in vocational education

BackgroundWorldwide, suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents and young adults. Given that suicide in this age group is common within vocational students, this study aims to provide insights into the prevalence, course, and risk factors of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts (SA) among students in vocational education over the past 10 years.MethodsThis study has a repeated cross-sectional design, utilizing data from 2013 to 2023 provided by the ‘Testjeleefstijl’ foundation in the Netherlands (‘Test Your Lifestyle’). In total, 101,182 students in vocational education completed a web-based standardized questionnaire. Univariate logistic regression was used to test the predictive value of risk factors separately (anxiety and depression, gender, age and school year) on SI and SA. In addition, a machine learning model (Berkelmans et al., 2023) ​was used for high-risk identification of combined risk factors (multivariate models).ResultsWithin vocational students, 12-month SI and SA prevalence increased from respectively 17.7% and 2.3% in schoolyear 2013–2014 to 23% and 3.2% in 2022–2023. Although female gender significantly predicted SI and SA in the univariate analyses, the multivariate models revealed that female gender decreased the likelihood of both SI (OR 0.9) and SA (OR 0.7). A high risk for anxiety and depression was the strongest predictor in the multivariate models for SI (OR 42.8) and SA (OR 19.0).ConclusionOver the past decade, the prevalence of SI and SA increased in students in vocational education, with the risk of anxiety and depression being the strongest contributing factor. While females had a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression, the results suggest these conditions tend to lead to SI and SA more quickly among male students. Early intervention in suicide prevention is crucial, highlighting the need to identify and address anxiety and depression. Vocational education schools have a critical role in this, emphasizing early screening and intervention, with specific attention to gender-specific factors.

Current and Future Directions for School Media Specialists

School media specialists have served as technological experts for their schools and have been pioneers with digital natives, helping create good digital citizens and addressing digital gaps for learners and advocate for access no matter what barriers students face. School of Library and Information Science programs have focused on creating a curriculum that will help create a school technology expert for every school library. This served schools well during the COVID-19 shutdowns, where the school had to find new ways for students to learn remotely.School media specialists have now become the target of hate in their schools. This has become increasingly complicated with states legislating what can be put in school libraries and how teachers can address historical events. School media specialists are required to make decisions on access or potentially losing their jobs. While these are important areas, they are just a small part of the job for school media specialists. The American Association of School Librarians has increased the expected role for school media specialists, having them often serve as teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator, all in addition to serving as the expert technologist at their school. However, not all school media programs take this approach to pedagogy for school media.School media specialists create technological opportunities for schools and are a key source for teachers seeking to reach students with diverse learning styles while informing and building relationships with families on internet safety and other important topics. Teachers depend on school media specialists to provide resources and support for the classroom while school media specialists also support students’ intellectual freedom. Ultimately, the focus for school media specialists has been to try to create a school library that represents everyone’s values. While this sounds ideal, it has been a difficult road for the profession.The position of school media specialist has changed dramatically over the last four years. This panel seeks to address research contributions to scholarship on school media specialists and how Schools of Library and Information Science are changing their programs to prepare school media specialists for the workforce. There will be a moderator and a panel comprised of four faculty members who are educators, practitioners, and researchers specializing in school media. Their perspectives and expertise will be present in this discussion, along with the following discussion topics:What are your current research findings telling you?What are practitioners experiencing?What is working with educational pedagogy in school media?What is not working with educational pedagogy in school media?What new technologies have you incorporated into the curriculum?What changes are being made at Schools of Information Science programs to help ready students for the current environment?The panel will explore questions of education, research, and practitioner-based experiences to address concerns impacting school media specialists. The information will inform the future discussion and curriculum pedagogy for school media specialists. The panel discussion will be formatted around the expertise of the faculty with school media. These discussions will inform pedagogical teaching practices in school media programs and hopefully provide a framework for improvement.

Pi Class – A Revolutionary Step Forward in Hybrid Class Management System

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruptions globally, resulting in a state of health emergency with numerous deaths reported and an overall implementation of quarantine and isolation. Strict lockdowns have been implemented to curb the spread of the virus, requiring social distancing and limiting physical interactions. These measures had far-reaching impacts on all aspects of life, including education. Education was one of the most affected sectors, with difficulty delivering quality education in schools, colleges, and universities. It was hard to provide quality education, a basic need of humanity. In this research paper, we propose an adequate solution to overcome the difficulties of maintaining educational quality during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple variants. The proposed solution is a hybrid model for an autonomous lecture recording system that facilitates students to attend physical classes and attend lectures virtually. The solution proposed is a cost-effective and convenient way for students to access lectures. The application involves hardware and software components that record and preserve lectures' audio and visual aspects. The system will allow lectures to be delivered directly to the students' devices. The major modules of the project include Python scripting, model training, UI/UX design, and app development.

READCON: A Curriculum for Library Readiness, Advocacy, and Community Empowerment During Challenging Conditions

This panel introduces the READCON curriculum: Library Readiness, Advocacy, and Community Empowerment During Challenging Conditions The curriculum equips library workers with soft skills to develop relationships with their communities, partnering more effectively for advocacy. Building on the highly successful Get Ready Stay Ready Community Action Toolkit (GRSR), this curriculum builds foundational skills for library workers to engage in constructive dialogue on potentially divisive aspects of library programming, service, and material challenges. READCON takes Get Ready Stay Ready a step further by providing library workers with the soft skills needed to encourage community members to use the action steps included in the GRSR toolkit. Both resources are highly adaptable, multi-lingual, open-source learning tools developed by experts in academic, public, and school librarianship, education and family law, crisis communications, community advocacy and relations, and youth leadership.

The impact of bullying cognition on school bullying among Chinese primary school students: a moderated mediation model of resilience and sex.

Previous studies have shown the positive effects of bullying cognition on school bullying behavior among young people, but the mechanism underlying this association remains unclear. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 5,903 primary school students in grades 3-5 in Luzhou city. Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to test the mediating effect of psychological resilience and the moderating effect of sex on the relationship between bullying cognition and school bullying after controlling for grade. Psychological resilience partially mediated the relationship between school bullying cognition and victimization (β = -0.0174, 95% CI: -0.0219 to -0.0132) and between perpetration (β = -0.0079, 95% CI: -0.0104 to -0.0055). This study revealed that sex moderated the relationship between school bullying cognition and perpetration (β = 0.0383, p < 0.001) and victimization behavior (β = 0.0400, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that it is crucial for education regulators, schools, and families to cultivate students' school bullying cognitions and psychological resilience, which may help to decrease the prevalence of school bullying. Especially for boys, improving their bullying cognition may largely decrease its perpetration.

Developmental profile of Filipino children born during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic: pilot study.

The Philippines experienced one of the longest restriction periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to provide a developmental profile of 18-25 month-old children and identify factors associated with their development during their early years being born and raised during the pandemic. The study population was recruited through convenience sampling among families living in proximity to the daycare centers in Cainta, Rizal, Philippines. 116 children qualified to participate and underwent developmental screening using the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Checklist and their parents were interviewed related to demographic and social factors. The mean score of the children's Overall Development is 106.47 (SD = 13.43) indicating that children's skills were within the expected range of 80-119. Girls had significantly higher mean scores compared to boys [M Girl = 111.23, SD Girl = 9.95 vs. M Boy = 101.18, SD Boy = 14.83 t(114) = -4.32 p < 0.001]. Mean scores were highest among children whose mothers completed a high school education (M High School = 107.76, SD HighSchool = 12.47) compared to those who have some or have completed an elementary education (M SomeElem = 72.50, SD SomeElem = 6.36 and M Elem = 103.58, SD Elem = 13.86 respectively) [F(2, 113) = 8.18, p < 0.001]. Unadjusted linear regression shows a modest increase in mean scores as the number of household members increased [ꞵ = 0.86, (CI: 0.02, 1.70), t-score (1, 113) = 2.03, p = 0.045]. The developmental skills of 18-25 month-old children born and raised during the COVID-19 pandemic in an urban municipality in the Philippines are within average scores. Both hindering and protective demographic factors were identified as associated with the children's developmental evaluation scores. It is important to acknowledge these factors and continue monitoring the children's development and address needs among children who may need further support.

Information Science Advancing while Library Retreating:An Exploratory Study with LIS Education in mainland China

The aim of this study is to highlight the evolving trend of 'delibrarization' in LIS school education in mainland China and to explore the underlying reasons for its emergence. To achieve this, the study employs discourse analysis to examine the nomenclatures and objectives of undergraduate degree programs at the top five LIS schools in mainland China. Furthermore, a critical analysis of the social background and academic evaluation system was conducted to further identify some contributing factors. The study concludes that the trend of 'delibrarization' in LIS education is driven by a combination of factors: the self-imposed perception of library science as 'restricted to library' and interdisciplinary, as constructed by some scholars in the field; the unfavorable nature of the current academic evaluation system; and the diminishing influence of library science within LIS schools.

Social Determinants of Preterm Birth amongst Non-Hispanic Black Individuals.

Non-Hispanic Black individuals are disproportionately affected by preterm birth (PTB), a major driver of the racial disparity in infant mortality in the United States. The objective of this study is to identify indicators of social determinants of health (SDoH) that contribute to preterm birth amongst non-Hispanic Black individuals. Population-based retrospective case-control study of U.S. birth records (2012-2016). Factors potentially associated with PTB and considered indicators of SDoH were compared between singleton live births of non-Hispanic Black individuals delivering preterm (<37 weeks of gestation) and term (≥37 weeks of gestation). Logistic regression quantified the association between SDoH and PTB such as insurance, education, and prenatal care visits and reported as odds ratios (ORs; 95% confidence interval, CI). Of 2,763,235 live births to Black individuals, 340,480 (12%) occurred <37 weeks of gestation. Factors most strongly associated with PTB (p < 0.001), presented as OR (95% CI), included no prenatal care 3.0 (95% CI: 2.9-3.1) or insufficient prenatal care 2.7 (95% CI: 2.7-2.8), smoking during pregnancy 1.4 (95% CI: 1.43-1.47), unmarried 1.18 (95% CI: 1.17-1.19), lack of high school diploma 1.1 (95% CI: 1.12-1.40), lack of father of baby listed on birth certificate 1.22 (1.21-1.23), and Black paternal race 1.10 (1.08-1.12). Receipt of WIC (women, infants, and children) during the pregnancy had a protective effect on PTB risk in Black individuals, OR 0.83 (0.83-0.84). Pregnancies in Black individuals who are ≥35 years old, smoke tobacco, utilize Medicaid insurance, have less than a high school education, are unmarried, have little to no prenatal care, Black paternal race, and lack of father of baby listed on birth record had increased risk of PTB. Understanding the lived experience of Black pregnant people and these selected indicators of SDoH that contribute to the risk of PTB may inform development of interventions to address the racial disparity in PTB in the United States. · Preterm birth disproportionately affects Black individuals.. · SDoH are contributors to preterm birth.. · This study investigates social determinant influences on preterm birth among Black individuals..

Leading New Prospects: English Teachers' Perceptions of Technology-Mediated Professional Development

The significance of technology-mediated professional development (PD) in rapidly evolving school education system in Nepal has grown substantially, particularly for English teachers attempting to acclimate to digital modalities of instruction and learning. English teachers' perspectives on technology-facilitated PD were investigated and assessed in this study. The information was gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted using Zoom. English Teachers’ viewpoints on the effectiveness, challenges, and prospective benefits of technology-enabled professional development were revealed in this study. The study encompasses a range of facets such as the accessibility of digital resources, the impact of technology on pedagogical approaches, and the overall enhancement of teaching capabilities. By providing best practices to enhance professional development practices, the study's findings support policymakers and professionals. Moreover, The study also investigated the impact of perceived relevance of professional development (PD) content on instructors' teaching practices, prior technology experience, and institutional support on perceptions

Pupil referral units (PRUs) and alternative education provision; a think piece on making a case for parental choice for children with SEND

AbstractParental choice remains a central theme in education policy in England. Parents have the right to choose how their children are educated. For some families this choice is surrendered, with volition and intention, to their local authority which allocates school places after parents, statutory guardians and families have made their decisions. Where applicable, after parents have selected mainstream education for children with SEND, their child might be evaluated, and a recommendation made for their child to undergo a managed move; typically to join a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) or Alternative Provision (AP). In this think piece, we advocate for PRUs and APs to sit alongside mainstream and special education schools to offer a more balanced first choice for parents. This means PRUs and APs are not ‘othered’ in this choice offer for parents. There are academic, psycho‐social, emotional, well‐being and self‐affirming complexities which could, and quite frankly, tend to result in the pupils and students accessing settings such as these which appear to be othered in this way.