Selecting Learning Materials Research Articles

JUSTIFICATION FOR TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING PROCESSES IN SCHOOLS IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY. A LITERATURE REVIEW

Ponte Academic JournalSep 2017, Volume 73, Issue 9 JUSTIFICATION FOR TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING PROCESSES IN SCHOOLS IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY. A LITERATURE REVIEWAuthor(s): Newman WadesangoJ. Ponte - Sep 2017 - Volume 73 - Issue 9 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2017.9.24 Abstract:African countries like all other developing ones have placed priority on the enhancement of education by making it a right and ensuring its implementation among others through universal primary education. Moreover, there has been a move to improve the management of education by devolving certain powers to the school level. Noticeable in this trend is a shift from autocratic models of decision making by few people to collective decision making and team work. Different members of school communities became involved in decision making regarding teaching and learning and other school activities. Teachers are also involved in decision making at higher levels, that is, in districts and provinces through their professional associations. Examples of decisions on policies and other issues that teachers are involved include classroom discipline policies; selecting learning materials and structuring learning activities, decisions on course offerings; school discipline and promotion policies; how student time is scheduled; class size and selection and recruitment of teachers. This desktop study therefore sought to review literature that talk to the significance of participatory decision-making to justify the adoption of such a model by the country under study. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

A simple and effective remedial learning system with a fuzzy expert system

AbstractThis study aims at implementing a simple and effective remedial learning system. Based on fuzzy inference, a remedial learning material selection system is proposed for a digital logic course. Two learning concepts of the course have been used in the proposed system: number systems and combinational logic. We conducted an experiment to validate the success of the proposed system where 88 students who studied a computer‐related program at a vocational high school in Taiwan participated in the experiment. The participating students came from three different types of classes. The fuzzy expert system determined the numbers of the remedial material units according to the scores of the pre‐test. Based on the results of the fuzzy expert system, each student then received personalized remedial learning materials by randomly selecting problem‐based learning units from a learning material repository. After reading the remedial learning materials, the students took the post‐test. The experimental results reveal that the students made significant progresses after studying the remedial learning materials. Both of high‐achieving students and low‐achieving students made significant progresses. Moreover, all of the three types of students made significant progresses.Lay descriptionWhat is currently known about the subject matter: Remedial learning systems are helpful. Some systems are good for only low‐achieving students. The remedial systems are complicated. What their paper adds to this: A fuzzy expert system has been added to produce remedial materials. Automatically select the remedial learning units according to the pre‐test. The implications of study findings for practitioners: Our remedial system is good for both high‐achieving and low‐achieving students. Our remedial system is good for different types of students. Our remedial system is simple and easy‐to‐implement.

Studi Kualitatif Dampak Uji Kompetensi Dokter Indonesia terhadap Pembelajaran pada Mahasiswa Kedokteran

Background: There are two important characteristics that need to be considered by the institution of medical education today, the first is about the importance of using assessment as a measuring instrument and the role of curriculum in producing good quality graduates. UKDI is only one exit to be a doctor that will certainly have varied impact on students from the expected and unexpected. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact on student learning UKDI on which will follow UKDI related to the allocation of time for study, the number of hours of study, the distribution of learning, the selection of learning resources and learning materials selection.Method: The research method is qualitative study that use Focus Group Discussion to get the data. The number of participants is 61 people devided into 6 groups. That group of students at the Faculty of Medicine with the accreditation of A, B and C respectively - each of the public and private colleges.Results: The results of the qualitative analysis portrait that UKDI has an impact on the student learning. The impact of learning that occurs associated with two things, the first is related to the quality of student learning and the second related to student metacognitive regulation. The general quality of the student learning that occurs in the face of UKDI is still low quality, learn by rote. For metacognitive regulation is related to the allocation, the number and distribution of learning, the selection of learning materials, the selection of learning resources, the selection of a place of learning, learning strategies, learning to maintain consistency, and monitor the process of learning and improvement.Conclusion: UKDI have an impact on the learning of medical students, both in the quality of learning and metacognitive regulation.

Gender Responsiveness of HIV/AIDS Awareness Program in Addis Ababa

A qualitative research method was employed to ascertain gender responsiveness of HIV/AIDS awareness education program by three Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)in Addis Ababa, Arada sub-city administration. The NGOs include the Save Your Generation Ethiopia (SYGE), Welfare for the Street Mothers and Children Organization (WeSMCO) and Integrated Service for AIDS Prevention and Support Organization (ISAPSO). Data were gathered from key informants and other experts in each NGO. The researchers transcribed, coded and interpreted the interview transcript to analyze thedata. The research questions set formed the basis for describing and interpreting the views, experiences and knowledge of the key informants on each question. Eventually, it was concluded that the HIV/AIDS awareness education program that the selected NGOs conducted under the above captioned sub-city administration was not gender responsive due to several reasons that include; time constraints as participants did not have enough time for the awareness education program that each of the selected NGO implemented; the selection of trainers was not based on fair gender selection; time suitability for implementing awareness education programs, selecting learning materials and using teaching methods did not consider the learning needs of both sexes; the selected NGOs were applying gender analysis method prior to the implementation of the awareness education program. Recommendations were also formulated.

Cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies among Arabic language students

This study investigates cognitive and metacognitive strategies in learning oral Arabic among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The concept of these strategies was derived from the self-regulated learning framework, which consists of five components, namely rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. The purposes of this study are to investigate the level of cognitive and metacognitive strategies used (1) among UiTM students; (2) between students with different prior experiences, namely, some of them had an experience of 5 years in learning Arabic in secondary school (abbreviated by SWE) and some of them did not have any experience at all (abbreviated by SNE); (3) between students of different gender; and (4) between students with the interaction of different gender and prior experience. The sample of this study consists of 183 students and employs a questionnaire adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study revealed that (1) all UiTM students used cognitive and metacognitive strategies at a moderate level; (2) SWE scored significantly higher than SNE in all five components of cognitive and metacognitive strategies; (3) females scored significantly higher than males in rehearsal, organization, and metacognitive strategies; and (4) there were no statistically significant differences noted in all components between students with the interaction of prior experience and gender. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested that some improvement and changes in learning oral Arabic should be made in terms of selecting learning materials, implementing oral Arabic activities, and learning tasks, which will stimulate the use of all strategies, as well as conducting proficiency tests instead of achievement tests. Students should also be exposed to the learning techniques which used all these strategies extensively and collaborative activities may be carried out among students with mixed prior experience and gender.

INTEGRATING LIFE SKILLS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING (ELT): STRATEGIES, PROBLEMS AND THEIR POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

The integration of life skills in English language teaching has to be managed properly to achieve an optimal result. The exploration to the fields reveals some problems on their implementation: (1) classroom management, (2) selection of learning materials, (3) learning assessment, and (4) selection of learning methods. In addition, most teachers were fully satisfied with the existing model due to the following reasons: (1) requiring an extra preparation and teaching media, (2) incomplete communication task executions, and (3) inflexibility of model to apply in any class. To make the model of implementation better some recommendation are made: (1) incorporating materials reflecting life skills, (2) providing more comprehensible inputs, (3) developing a representative assessments, and (4) selecting a learning method that guide teacher to gradually develop communicative competence and simultaneously develop life skills.

PENGEMBANGAN BUKU PANDUAN MENULIS CERPEN SISWA KELAS IX SMP N 4 KAJEN KABUPATEN PEKALONGAN

This study departed from the fact that often teachers find difficulties in selectingappropriate materials. It is assumed that the students' low grade in basic competenceto write short story is attributed to their poor ability and motivation to write as well asthe teachers' poor selection of learning materials. In response to this situation, thepresent study developed a book specifically designed to improve the students' abilityto write a short story. To bring this aim into practice this project took 30 junior highschool students and 6 teachers of three junior high schools of Pekalongan District,Central Java. All were purposively selected. Following research and developmentmodel of research suggested by Borg and Gall (cited in Sukmadinata 2008:169), thisstudy found that: (1) in terms of the profile of the book, the students were interestednot only in its interesting cover but also in its handy form. Besides, it used easilyunderstood language and the price was reasonable; (2) the experts' examinationshowed that the prototype of the book could feasibly be used for supporting theteachers' instructional practice; and (3) the book was effective to support teachers'instructions. This study is preliminary in nature however, and therefore a furthercomprehensive study is needed in the future to fill in the gap this study may still leave. Kata Kunci : menulis cerpen, buku panduan, siswaSMP

An interactive learning environment (ILE) to study statistics: Effects of prior knowledge on the use of embedded support devices

The present contribution focuses on an interactive learning environment for the delivery of distance education learning materials. The use of such an interactive learning environment is foreseen in a distance education context in which students explore and study (part) of the learning materials by means of a personal computer. Research with interactive learning environments is transposed to the development of a course delivery environment, called ILCE, that also supports the development of a course model and learning materials. A learning environment as used in the present study allows students to access the course materials in a more flexible way. The printed self-study materials often do not correspond with the specific needs of a student, are only weakly related to his or her prior knowledge, or do not take account of differences in learning style. Although the printed course materials include text-embedded support devices (e.g., examples, exercises, illustrations), it is questioned whether the available devices provide enough support for each individual student. Therefore, it is argued that an interactive learning environment — in which a student is actively engaged in selecting learning materials (basic content and embedded support devices) — may provide a valuable tool in order to meet the individual needs of the student. Prototypes of an interactive learning environment were tested in two experimental settings. It appeared that all students were actively engaged in selecting the required support devices. However, the results showed that students with a high prior knowledge state manifested a higher amount of interactive use of support devices than their peers with a low prior knowledge state. The latter was especially found for support devices that either reinforce the acquisition process or provide a tool to test one’s mastery level.

Individualized course generation: A marriage between CAL and ICAL

An architecture of a “slightly-intelligent” Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) system is proposed, able to carry out a rather rigid, goal-driven, presentation-oriented style of teaching. However, it is able to generate individualized courses of instruction for students with differing background knowledge and with differing purposes. Already developed CAL courseware is used as a “raw material” for every individual course: thus the architecture builds upon an existing database of learning materials that will be used as a source of atomic course-pieces. The architecture includes domain-knowledge representation at three levels: a level of the teaching goals, a concept-level and a presentation level, containing the database of learning materials. An individualized course is generated dynamically out of the learning materials following the links in the concept-structure to meet the teaching goals assigned by the teacher. Individualization is obtained at three levels: in the teaching goals, in the selection of the concepts to be presented and in the selection of learning materials for a given concept. Three different types of student models are used for this purpose. We believe that this architecture is practical in cases when there is much available learning material and students with different backgrounds who need various and frequently changing teaching goals.

Getting Hard-nosed about Software: Guidelines for Evaluating Computerized Instructional Materials

Why Special Guidelines, Anyway? Most educators are at some time called upon to participate in the selection of learning materials. Using selection criteria that have attained a certain national com monality evaluators have coped with the nonexistence of the perfect textbook by employing academic trade offs. This flexible application of criteria was justified by the belief that the ultimate effectiveness of the materials chosen is dependent on the manner in which they are used by the teacher or student. To date, both gross con trol and fine tuning of the instructional en vironment have been under the command of the participants. The execution of computer-assisted less ons is characterized by a new independence from teacher or learner control. For ex