Schools In Town Research Articles

Los efectos de un programa de formación docente en neuroeducación en la mejora de las competencias lectoras, matemática, socioemocionales y morales de estudiantes de secundaria. Un estudio cuasi-experimental de dos años

Teacher training is directly related to the quality of the educational process. In recent years, the contributions of neuroeducation have begun to be valued as an important element to improve teachers’ skills. The current study has the objective of measuring the effectiveness of a teacher training program in neuroeducation through the improvement of three key competencies, reading, mathematical, social, emotional and moral competencies in secondary school students. This quasi-experimental study was carried out over two years, in which there have been two experimental and one control group, with 209 participants from all three schools in the same town of Spain (53.2% girls and 46.8% boys). The subjects are from all the classes of 1st grade of Secondary Education in the pre-test (M=12.18 years old, SD=.45). After carrying out a repeated-measures ANOVA, the results show a significant effect of the intervention on reading competence, mathematical competence and empathy (social and emotional area) between the experimental groups and the control one. These findings invite us to think about the potential of neuroeducation in schools and have implications for educational policies, teacher training and school practice.

School head leadership qualities and school performance in the Pacific towns of Northern Samar

A correlational research design was employed to determine the relationship between the leadership qualities of school heads and the school performance in the 2019 National Achievement Test in the pacific towns of Northern Samar. The data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentage, mode, and Spearman rho correlation test at a .05 level of significance. Findings showed that the majority of the respondents are aged 30-34 years old, female, with at most ten years in the profession, hold a master's degree, have attended 11-20 seminars and conferences, and possess a very satisfactory level of leadership qualities in terms of challenging the people, inspiring people, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging people. Most schools in the pacific towns of Northern Samar scored average mastery in the national achievement test. However, no significant relationship was established between the leadership qualities of school heads and school performance on the national achievement test. Hence, local training workshops should be designed and conducted on the awareness of the leadership qualities of the school heads and teachers.

The use of English to offer learner support and enhance perceptual skills development in South African township schools

Research has identified the underdevelopment of perceptual skills as a cause of lifelong learning struggles and the restriction of developmental progress in learners. The literature also indicates that early intervention is one strategy that effectively mitigates the long-term effects thereof through learner support. However, the inadequacy of in-service teachers’ skills to assess perceptual skills development, coupled with the implementation of the teaching and learning language policy, are issues for concern, particularly in South African schools.This article reports on a module-aligned community engagement project conducted with 87 pre-service teachers to assess the perceptual skills development of Foundation Phase learners as part of their work-integrated learning (WIL). The two selected schools used English as their language of teaching and learning. Two lecturers and eight Grade 2 and Grade 3 in-service teachers from Pretoria East schools participated in the project. Play-based pedagogy was used as a resource for assessment as a qualitative approach, thus inspiring in-service teachers’ and learners’ creativity and enjoyment at the schools.Kolb’s cyclic theoretical framework consisting of four cycles underpinned the project. Firstly, the project confirmed literature findings of teachers’ lack of skills to assess perceptual skills development using English in Foundation Phase learners. Secondly, the use of non-mother tongue language as a medium of instruction in early learning centres affected learners’ knowledge acquisition. Thirdly, the use of the foreign medium of instruction affected the learners’ speaking and listening skills, thus impacting language and cognitive development essential for learning.

The effects of a teacher training program on neuroeducation in improving reading, mathematical, social, emotional and moral competencies of secondary school students. A two-year quasi-experimental study

Teacher training is directly related to the quality of the educational process. In recent years, the contributions of neuroeducation have begun to be valued as an important element to improve teachers' skills. The current study has the objective of measuring the effectiveness of a teacher training program in neuroeducation through the improvement of three key competencies, reading, mathematical, social, emotional and moral competencies in secondary school students. This quasi-experimental study was carried out over two years, in which there have been two experimental and one control group, with 209 participants from all three schools in the same town of Spain (53.2% girls and 46.8% boys). The subjects are from all the classes of 1st grade of Secondary Education in the pre-test (M=12.18 years old, SD=.45). After carrying out a repeated-measures ANOVA, the results show a significant effect of the intervention on reading competence, mathematical competence and empathy (social and emotional area) between the experimental groups and the control one. These findings invite us to think about the potential of neuroeducation in schools and have implications for educational policies, teacher training and school practice.

Gall

Gall Ben Fergusson (bio) The Lawrences were so scared of their father that none of them screamed when he parked their Volvo on the track between Kidlington and Yarnton. He drove like an idiot—everyone knew that. He was so cruel when any of the children dared cry out at a bend taken too fast that they sat stoic and silent when the barriers came down on the level crossing and only began to panic when they saw the train coming. That’s how their mother, Gerry, told it. Their father was called Tracey. That had always been the joke about the Lawrences before he parked the kids in front of the train: that the dad had a girl’s name, and the mother had a boy’s name. But the accident killed the joke. We did make new jokes. Nasty jokes it makes me sad to recall. Jokes that we used to whisper to each other through the rough velour gaps between the seats of the school bus. Jokes that were barely jokes. Jokes that put us and our friends and our enemies into those car seats. It was the same for my friends at school, I’m sure, though we never talked about it: the bell at the level crossing would ring, the barriers would begin to come down, I would listen to the grasshoppers in the cow parsley that foamed at the edge of the railway verge and watch my mother’s hands on the wheel, wondering whether the car was going to lurch forward. When someone new joined the school, awkward in their pristine uniform with their odd rucksack, bought to follow the rules of some other school in some other town, we would all try and chivvy along the conversation to the Lawrences. The story had such power that everyone wanted to be the first to gift it to this alien. It was the ur-myth of our town. Someone else would tell the story of Kelly’s mum having a stroke at twenty-nine—she’d gone back on the pill—or Miss Glazer shutting her finger in the door and her red-painted fingernail sticking in the hinge for a week before the caretaker found it. But the new kid would just nod at those stories, feign interest with appropriately wide eyes and a whispered “Fuck,” all the time imagining themselves strapped into the back seat of that car, pawing at the child-locked doors. [End Page 51] Every time my mother saw one of the Lawrence children, she would say, “It’s a miracle that any of them survived.” It was a miracle. Tracey had parked the car at a slight angle, and the train had spun it back onto the road, smashing his leg and his pelvis, but not killing him, leaving the children trapped in bent metal, sprayed with shimmering glass, but unhurt. My mother would stare at the Lawrence children over the Tesco car-park, Gerry ushering them to a new car. Mum would worry her lower lip with the tip of her car key and say, “How could she have bought another Volvo?” “Maybe she just likes driving them.” “It’s like a coffin on wheels.” In school, we also stared at the Lawrence children from a distance. We had not really thought about them as a threesome before the accident. They blended into their respective classes. But they kept together after their father was jailed, huddled at the edge of the playground, at the edge of the canteen. Mary Lawrence, the eldest, began to carry an Uno deck with her and they played in silence, never having to notice the children watching them from the dinner queue, their gray plastic lunch trays clutched to their chests. I didn’t share a word with any of the Lawrences for years after the accident. Not until the school was rehearsing a production of The Tempest, and I climbed the lighting rig in the sports hall to find David Lawrence trying to peel a scarlet gel off the front of an ancient lantern. “You doing lighting this year?” I said. He shrugged, only looking up briefly to identify me. “Mr...

The Effect of Dialogic Practical Work on Secondary School Students' Attitudes towards Physics

This study investigated the effect of dialogic practical work on students’ attitudes towards physics. The sample of the study was 91 grade 11 secondary school students selected randomly from two schools in Bahir Dar town, Ethiopia. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest between groups research design was used. The treatment group participated in dialogic practical work while the comparison group conducted traditional practical work. A 30-item physics attitude questionnaire with Cronbach alpha value of 0.84 was used to collect the data before and after intervention. T-test and one way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The result of the study showed that there was a statistically significant difference between treatment and comparison group in favor of the treatment group with no gender differential effects. In addition, the finding showed that the most significant attitude change occurred between the high and low achievement groups. However, no significant difference was observed between the high and medium achievement groups. Dialogic practical work can be used to enhance secondary school attitudes towards physics.

An Empirical Analysis on Urban-rural Disparity of Compulsory Education Resource Allocation in Guangxi

In this paper, the situation of compulsory education resource allocation in Guangxi, China at the end of 2019 was empirically analyzed by selecting relevant indicator systems and using descriptive statistical analysis and analysis of variance. The main characteristics of the urban-rural disparity of compulsory education resource allocation in Guangxi were explored. From the statistical data, Guangxi has basically achieved the goal of realizing the basic balanced development of compulsory education between urban areas and counties & cities. However, the disparity of compulsory education resource allocation between elementary schools in Guangxi is still relatively serious. The continuous inflow of rural population to urban areas, the shrinkage and disappearance of rural schools, and the expansion of urban schools in counties and towns have led to the new characteristics of urban-rural disparity in compulsory education resource allocation in Guangxi, which must be observed with a new perspective. In the study, compulsory education resource allocation in districts and counties in Guangxi is suggested according to the target of urbanization rate of the resident population in each district and county in the future.

Examining Implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports in Rural Schools

School-wide PBIS implementation is associated with positive academic and behavioral outcomes. Research supports the importance of school context in implementation and sustainment, but more work is needed to explore the role of community locale, particularly for rural communities that experience context-specific strengths and challenges in accessing resources. The purpose of this study was to examine variables that may influence PBIS implementation fidelity, sustained fidelity, training, and assessment and how these variables vary across geographic locales. Nine years of statewide PBIS implementation and school-level data were drawn from a longitudinal statewide dataset for the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Results of generalized linear models, MANOVA, and discriminant analysis indicated (a) consistent assessment and sustained fidelity in rural and town schools were positively associated with district size and enrollment of minoritized students, but they were negatively associated with enrollment of ELL students (with grade level also having an association with sustained fidelity); (b) locale had an effect on fidelity, assessment, and training; and (c) rural and city locales had the greatest differences from each other in training, assessment, and fidelity. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.

From the Familiar to the Abstract: Exploring Grade 11 Learners’ Development in Stoichiometry Problem Solving Competency with Exposure to POGIL

This qualitative case study explored how exposure to Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) improves 11th grade physical sciences learners’ competency in solving stoichiometry problems. Two township schools of low socioeconomic status in Pretoria, South Africa, were conveniently and purposively sampled. Two classes (N = 48) composed of multicultural black learners of mixed gender participated in the study. Data were collected at each school using a pre-test, post-test and video-recorded classroom observations. The Interactive–Constructive–Active–Passive theory served as a conceptual and analytical framework to understand the nature of student engagement during the POGIL activities. High student engagement could contribute to improved problem-solving competency in the post-test. The findings from the classroom observations and recorded group discussions served as evidence of the learners’ engagement. The learners collaboratively engaged in the analysis, synthesis and evaluation of ideas, reasoning and justifying their suggestions in solving POGIL tasks. Interactions were largely characterised as interactive and constructive modes of engagement, both facilitating deep processing strategies. Regarding data from the tests, problem-solving competency was classified at four levels based on Bloom’s taxonomy. The pre-test results indicated a lack of competency in solving complex stoichiometry problems. ANOVA indicated that the differences in the frequencies of the competency levels found in the pre- and post-test are statistically significant. High student engagement could have contributed to improved problem-solving competency in the post-test, although more improvement could be made in terms of problem solving competency in questions introducing more complexity and higher cognitive demand such as multistep calculations. The study shows how using POGIL in high school science may empower learners with enhanced problem solving skills.

Exploring the Evolution of the Accessibility of Educational Facilities and Its Influencing Factors in Mountainous Areas: A Case Study of the Rocky Desertification Area in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou

The optimal allocation of educational resources has been a hot issue, and exploring the accessibility of educational facilities in poor mountainous areas helps to reasonably plan the layout of educational facilities and promote the balanced development of education. Taking the rocky desertification area in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou (YGGRD) as the study area, based on the POI data of educational facilities in the YGGRD in 2000, 2010 and 2019, this study explored the evolution of the accessibility of educational facilities in the YGGRD through raster accessibility. And the influencing factors were analyzed by the ordinary least square method (OLS) and geographically weighted regression model (GWR), and evaluated the model through cross validation. The results show that the overall accessibility of educational facilities improved significantly from 2000 to 2019. Educational facilities mainly have good accessibility and average accessibility. Poor accessibility areas are concentrated in the interprovincial border regions, and the boundary effect is significant. County accessibility, population density and rural per capita disposable income have a great impact on the accessibility of educational facilities in the YGGRD. It is suggested to strengthen the construction of educational facilities in the interprovincial border regions, relocate and integrate villages, and improve the education quality of township schools to improve the supply of rural educational resources.

Internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior - three dimensions of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ): A study among South African adolescents.

This study aimed to examine the factor structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Self-Report version (SDQ-S), its psychometric properties and measurement invariance by gender and language spoken at home, among secondary school students in Western Cape, South Africa. A sample of 3,542 adolescents in Grade 8 (Mean age = 13.7 years) completed the SDQ-S in a three-language questionnaire (Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa). The data were collected from 42 secondary schools in Cape Town, South Africa. Confirmatory factor analyses with the WLSMV estimator with adjustment for cluster effects (schools) were applied. The SDQ-S was originally developed to cover five domains: four "difficulty" domains (hyperactivity/inattention, emotional, conduct, and peer) and one "strengths" domain (prosocial behavior). When the five factors were tested on the data for the current study, poor fit was obtained. After excluding four items, a three-factor solution with no cross-loadings and no correlated error terms obtained acceptable fit. The results are consistent with previous studies. Strong measurement invariance across genders and language spoken at home was confirmed. In studies of community samples, the use of the SDQ-S scale as an instrument with a three-factor dimension (internalizing, externalizing and prosocial) may be more appropriate than using the original five-factor model.

A Taxi Ride to Critical Literacy: High School Students as Co-Researchers and Text Analysts

This article describes a critical literacy research project undertaken with English Additional Language students at a South African township school. Students were invited to take on the position of researchers in gathering and analysing bumper stickers found in commuter minibuses known as itekisi (taxi). These everyday texts in English and African languages are salient for the students’ discourse communities. Bringing them into English lessons validates the use of languages and discourses that multilingual students inhabit and draws on their ability to move fluidly between languages. Framed by critical discourse analysis theory, this project aimed to facilitate students’ abilities to develop and use critical literacy knowledge and skills in analysing taxi bumper stickers. The findings indicate that the students were able to demonstrate some criticality as they investigated multiple interpretations of the texts by community members and themselves. Inviting students to investigate texts drawn from their own communities was envisaged as enabling their development as critical readers with a social justice orientation to texts. However, their relentless negativity towards taxi drivers made it difficult for them to keep their focus on the texts, suggesting that teachers’ selection of salient texts for lessons with a focus on critical literacy may not always achieve the intended outcomes.

A School Intervention's Impact on Adolescents' Health-Related Knowledge and Behavior.

BackgroundMany factors can influence health behavior during adolescence, and the lifestyle of adolescents is associated with health behavior during adulthood. Therefore, their behavior can determine not only present, but also later health status.ObjectiveWe aimed to develop an intervention program to improve high school students' health behavior and to evaluate its effectiveness.MethodsWe performed our study at a secondary school in a rural town in East Hungary between 2016 and 2020. Sessions about healthy lifestyles were organized regularly for the intervention group to improve students' knowledge, to help them acquire the right skills and attitudes, and to shape their behavior accordingly. Data collection was carried out via self-administered, anonymous questionnaires (n = 192; boys = 49.5%; girls = 50.5%; age range: 14–16). To determine the intervention-specific effect, we took into account the differences between baseline and post-intervention status, and between the intervention and control groups using individual follow-up data. We used generalized estimating equations to assess the effectiveness of our health promotion program.ResultsOur health promotion program had a positive effect on the students' health-related knowledge and health behavior in the case of unhealthy eating, moderate to vigorous physical activity, and alcohol consumption.ConclusionOur findings suggest that school health promotion can be effective in knowledge transfer and lifestyle modification. To achieve a more positive impact on health behavior, preventive actions must use a complex approach during implementation.

Prevalence of Intestinal Protozoa and Soil Transmitted Helminths Infections among School Children in Jaragedo Town, South Gondar Zone of Ethiopia.

Background Parasitism is a relationship where one, the parasite, harms the host or lives at the expense of the host. Intestinal parasites (protozoa and STHs-soil-transmitted helminths) cause gastrointestinal tract infection in humans and animals. Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) predominate the tropics and subtropics and affect poor countries, where school children suffer the most. To prevent and control these infections, local risk factors must first be identified. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated risk factors among school children in Jaragedo town schools, South Gondar Zone of Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2018 to April 30, 2019, involving 396 students from one elementary and one secondary school. Stratified simple random sampling method was used. A questionnaire was prepared to collect sociodemographic and socioeconomic data of the study subjects. Stool samples were collected and examined using formalin-ether concentration technique. Data were analyzed using SAS software version 9.4. Descriptive statistics were used to give a clear picture of population characteristics. Logistic regression was also used to determine the relationship between dependent variables (primary infection) with independent (explanatory) variables using SAS software. Results Results showed that the overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections was 65.4%. E. histolytica was the most prevalent intestinal parasite (12–14%) followed by G. lamblia (8–9%); other parasites could not infect more than 5% of the study subjects. Generally, parasitism did not vary between the sexes. The logistic regression analysis showed that grade, level of students, water source, habit of consuming raw meat, and level of income had a strong effect on intestinal parasitic infection (P < 0.05). Other explanatory variables were not significant (P > 0.05). High prevalence of parasites indicates improper disposal of waste, low socioeconomic level, low living standard, and poor water quality. Conclusion Therefore, short-term and long-term intervention strategies are required to minimize rates of infection.

Author Biographies

Author Biographies

Relationship Between Career Interest and Career Decision-Making of Grade 12 Learners in Township Secondary Schools in South Africa

This study examined the relationship between career interests and career decision-making of grade 12 learners in township secondary schools in South Africa. The correlational survey research design was adopted. The sample size comprised 204 grade 12 learners selected from six township secondary schools. The career interest and career decision-making scales were used to collect data from the learners. The inferential statistics such as Pearson correlation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and regression analysis were used to analyse data. The results indicated that the correlation between enterprising career interest and career decision-making was established to be the strongest (r=0.535, n=204, p&lt;0.001), followed by the relationship between adventurous career interest and career decision-making (r=0.465, n=204, p&lt;0.001), but operational career interest had the least relationship with career decision-making, r (204)=0.284, p&lt;0.001. The study concludes that the career interest model, F (9, 194)=17.403, p&lt;0.01, is a significant predictor of career decision-making among the 12th grade learners. The study recommends that school psychologists should do early assessment of learners to ascertain their career interests. Keywords: Career interest, career decision-making, secondary school, grade 12 learners, township schools

Socioeconomic Status, English Exposure and CLIL Motivation in High and Low Exposure CLIL Groups

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs are often praised for bringing equity to foreign language learning (e.g., Lorenzo et al., 2020). However, streaming processes, such as those of the Community of Madrid Bilingual Program, may reinforce social inequalities among students (e.g., Llinares &amp; Evnitskaya, 2020). In line with recent research comparing CLIL students’ affective factors in high exposure (HE) and low exposure (LE) tracks (e.g., Fernández-Agüero &amp; Hidalgo-McCabe, 2020), the present study examines potential differences in the socioeconomic status (SES), CLIL motivation and exposure to English of HE and LE students at a bilingual (Spanish/English) secondary school in a low SES town in Madrid. A questionnaire measuring cultural and economic capital, CLIL motivation, and teachers’ use of English was administered to a sample of LE and all HE students in year 10. Results show that the students of lowest and highest SES were concentrated in LE and HE tracks, respectively. In the LE track, CLIL and English teachers used English less frequently, and students exhibited lower intrinsic motivation. For students with lower English proficiency (often of lower SES), access to the cultural and economic capital afforded by knowledge of English may be constrained by fewer meaningful learning opportunities.

Promoting Dialogic Action through the Expansion of English Language Learners’ Communicative Repertoires

This action research study sought to foster dialogic action through the expansion of English language learners’ communicative repertoires in a 6th-grade class at a public school in a Colombian town. During the first action research cycle, the restricted concept of communication of the grammar-based syllabus and the competitive and violent interactions between the learners were identified as key issues to address. From a critical perspective of pedagogy and literacy, this study understands that communication in language education should transcend the use of a standard target language, and include multiple linguistic codes and multimodal representative forms. Considering these principles and the issues identified, we designed an action plan for the second action research cycle. This plan consisted of activities that sought to expand English language learners’ communicative repertoires and promote reflections on violence and conflict resolution through the analysis and creation of different visual representations. Data were collected through journal entries, semi-structured interviews, and students’ artifacts. Findings show how the learners have a diverse and differentiated access to communicative repertoires and how they manipulated available representations to transform meanings. As a conclusion, not enough evidence of the emergence of dialogic action was found since competitiveness and violent interactions in the classroom did not significantly change during the intervention. Nonetheless, embracing the learners’ communicative practices created spaces for reflection on complex social and moral topics in the classroom, even if their English linguistic resources were still limited.&#x0D;

Effects of information communication technology-assisted teaching training on English language teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and English language proficiency

This study was conducted to examine the effects of training in Information Communication Technology-assisted (ICT-assisted) English language teaching on secondary school English language teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and English language proficiency. To achieve this goal, a one-group within-subject quasi-experimental design was utilized. Twenty-two (n = 22) teachers selected from three government secondary schools in Arba Minch and Sawla towns of Gamo and Gofa zones of South Nations, Nationalities, and the Peoples Regional State of Ethiopia were included in the study using a comprehensive sampling technique. Four rounds of repeated measurements were used to collect data and Friedman’s test was used to compare the mean scores to examine the effects of the training on the teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and English language proficiency. Related-samples Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (effect size) was also run using the same non-parametric test of Friedman’s test to exmine the magnitude of the effect. The results revealed that training in ICT-assisted teaching has a significant effect on the pedagogical knowledge and English language proficiency of the teachers. Moreover, the independent variable (training in ICT-assisted English language teaching) has a strong effect (effect size) on their pedagogical knowledge and English language proficiency. Based on the results, in-service teacher training in ICT-assisted teaching is recommended to harness the potential of new technologies for English language teachers’ professional development.

Complexities of translating mathematics tasks from English to learners’ home languages

Mathematics education remains problematic in South Africa’s schools. However, some mathematics educators are deliberately using learners’ home languages in tasks to assist learners to understand mathematics. Research-based evidence shows that learners’ home languages when used as a resource have a potential to enhance learners’ understanding of mathematics. This article addresses the issue of translating mathematics tasks from English to learners’ home languages, a field that is less common in mathematics education studies. The study shows that there are complexities associated with such translation which all stakeholders in education should bear in mind. The article does so by referring to a study where a Grade 11 mathematics educator in a multilingual class tried to use learners’ home languages in tasks with an aim to enhance learners’ understanding of linear programming concepts. The study was conducted in township school in Gauteng province. Ethical clearance was given by the Gauteng Department of Education. Data were collected through observations and were analysed qualitatively. The situated sociocultural perspectives guided the study. The findings show that during the translation process, the educator went as far as translating mathematics technical terms. Such translation distorted the meaning of the original task and therefore made it hard for learners to comprehend concepts as envisioned. The recommendation is that the translation should not be left to individual mathematics educators but rather there should be a broader approach of having mathematics tasks translated from English into other official languages and such tasks be distributed to all schools throughout the country. Professional translators must also be contracted to do such a job.