Urban Secondary Schools Research Articles

Mathematics achievement at rural and urban secondary schools: a trends analysis

Mathematics achievement at rural and urban secondary schools: a trends analysis

Metacognitive reading strategies: gender, locality, and age differences among secondary school students

This study ascertained the influence of gender, locality and age on metacognitive reading strategies of secondary school students. The sample size consists of 440 students randomly selected from 23 secondary schools. An adopted questionnaire tagged “metacognitive reading strategies questionnaire,” was used as the data gathering instrument, with a logical validity of 0.88 and Cronbach alpha of 0.73 as internal consistency. The data collected were analysed statistically using descriptive statistics and t-tests. Data analysis revealed that females' reading strategies outnumber males'; females' global strategies ranked highest, while females' problem-solving strategies ranked lowest; and students in urban secondary schools tended to utilise metacognitive reading strategies more frequently than their rural counterparts. This study also shows that students with higher age brackets make more use of metacognitive reading strategies than lower-age students. Therefore, it is recommended that educators should be prepared to educate students how to effectively utilise various components of metacognitive reading strategies.

Comparison of Volleyball Skills of Rural and Urban Students in Bardiya

This study aims to compare the volleyball skills of rural and urban secondary school students in Bardiya district. A descriptive research method was employed, and respondents were selected using a random sampling technique. The AAHPER volleyball skill test, a standardized assessment tool, was utilized, comprising four specific skills: volleying, serving, passing, and setting. To analyze the data, various statistical techniques were applied as required. Each test item was compared separately between the rural and urban groups. The findings indicated that the mean scores of rural school students were higher for all four skills. A Z-test was conducted to determine the significance of the differences, revealing significant differences in each skill item. The study concluded that rural secondary school students in Bardiya district possess better volleyball skills compared to their urban counterparts. This conclusion is based on the higher mean scores and significant differences observed in the AAHPER volleyball skill test items. These findings suggest that rural students may have more opportunities or better conditions for developing their volleyball skills compared to urban students in this region. The findings of this study may be helpful to the coaches and selectors of players of volleyball game to find new players who possess potentiality to be good player of the game.

Sexual initiation age and related risk-taking behaviours among adolescents in urban secondary schools in Nairobi County

Risky sexual behaviour such as early sexual initiation, inconsistent condom use and sexual intercourse with multiple partners are relatively prevalent among youths in sub-Saharan Africa. Sexual intercourse is an important event in one’s life trajectory and the contributory factors are: proximate and distal environments. The proximate environment includes micro systemic influences such as one's attitudes and beliefs, and extends to one's family. The distal environment includes one's community and culture. However, there are core forces which influence personal choices and behaviours like the self, family and community, and networks and cultural influences. While there are a variety of factors that contribute to early sexual initiation, proper parenting behaviour has been identified as a key strategy for reducing adolescents’ risky sexual behaviours. Even though early sexual initiation process is subject to a number of barriers, there is still less focus on parenting behaviour and its relationship with early sexual initiation among adolescents. Therefore, this study applied social survey to assess sexual initiation age and its related risk-taking behaviors among the adolescents in urban secondary schools in Nairobi County. The study found the common period in which adolescents initiate sex and even befriend strangers as age (15-16years). The findings have shown that children are capable of initiating drug use at any given period. This suggests the need for parent to undertake close monitoring of their children at all ages to curb drug abuse and encourage health talk with them on the effects of drug use.

How Well Do German A-Level Students Understand the Scientific Underpinnings of Climate Change?

Understanding the scientific underpinnings of climate change is crucial for informed citizenship and future decision-making. This study investigates the understanding of the scientific underpinnings of climate change among German A-level students, focusing on key content areas such as the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect, the carbon cycle, and the distinction between weather and climate. Using a validated climate change concept inventory (CCCI-422), we assessed 501 students from five urban secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. Results indicate that students correctly answered on average 39% of the questions correctly, revealing significant knowledge gaps, particularly in areas like the greenhouse effect and atmospheric composition. We also identified several overarching ideas that many students demonstrate. This study underscores the importance of integrating comprehensive climate science education into national curricula and classroom instruction to foster scientifically literate future generations capable of addressing the global climate crisis.

An Analytical Study Among Stress Dimension Between Rural and Urban Secondary School Students

An Analytical Study Among Stress Dimension Between Rural and Urban Secondary School Students

Strategies for Enhancing Solid Waste Management Practices in Urban Secondary Schools in Developing Countries

Effective solid waste management in urban secondary schools in developing countries is essential for mitigating environmental and health risks associated with improper waste disposal. This manuscript examines current practices and proposes strategies to enhance solid waste management in these educational settings. Current practices include efforts to reduce packaging materials, promote recycling and composting initiatives, utilize sorting and processing technologies, and implement anaerobic digestion for organic waste treatment. However, challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, limited resources, and insufficient awareness among students and staff hinder effective waste management. This study also investigates current solid waste generation rates specific to urban secondary schools, highlighting variability influenced by factors like population density and consumption patterns. The environmental impact of poor waste management includes pollution of air, soil, and water, as well as habitat. Health concerns arise from disease transmission due to breeding grounds for vectors like mosquitoes in stagnant water and exposure to hazardous chemicals from improperly managed waste. To address these challenges, comprehensive strategies are proposed, encompassing infrastructure development, educational programs integrating waste management into the curriculum, community engagement, and policy advocacy. These strategies aim to promote sustainable practices, improve waste segregation, enhance recycling rates, and reduce the overall environmental footprint of urban secondary schools in developing countries. Implementation of these strategies is crucial for fostering a cleaner, healthier environment and empowering future generations with environmental stewardship values.

Effect of an inquiry-based teaching sequence on secondary school students’ understanding of wave optics

Wave optics is a mandatory part of Croatian secondary school physics curriculum for students in the final year of secondary school (age 18–19). Many physics education research studies have shown that it is a difficult physics topic for both university and secondary school students. An inquiry-based teaching sequence on wave optics, designed for eight 45-min teaching periods, was developed by the authors. The sequence included four investigative students’ experiments on the topics of interference, diffraction, and polarization of light, as well as several teacher demonstrations. The experimental group included six classes of students from six different Croatian urban secondary schools, who underwent the teaching intervention with the new inquiry-based sequence on wave optics, whereas the control group consisted of six classes from the same schools, taught in a predominantly lecturing way. Both groups were post-tested with the same instrument, the Conceptual Survey on Wave Optics (CSWO), to evaluate the research hypothesis that the new sequence might improve students’ conceptual understanding better than the traditional teaching. The results of the experimental and control groups were analyzed and compared using the Rasch analysis. The results show that the experimental group outperformed the control group in four out of five conceptual areas probed by the CSWO, suggesting that the new inquiry-based teaching sequence may contribute to stronger development of secondary school students’ conceptual understanding of wave optics, especially concerning typical wave optics patterns, reasoning from experiments, and explaining basic wave optics phenomena. A questionnaire on attitudes toward the teaching intervention was administered to students and it was found that students generally liked the inquiry-based teaching intervention and expressed positive attitudes to interactive, experimental, and collaborative aspects of physics teaching. The results are very promising, but their generalization may be limited by the selection of the students, as well as by the short duration of the teaching intervention and the relatively small breadth of the covered topics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Studying Students’ Representations of the “Orbital” and “Electron Cloud” Concepts

The study investigates secondary students’ understanding of “orbital” and “electron cloud” concepts in different quantum contexts (for values of the ʽprincipal quantum number n = 1 and n = 2) on the basis of their verbal and pictorial representations, evaluating also their consistency. Participants, which were 192 12th-grade students from six urban secondary schools of Northern Greece, represented these two concepts through two corresponding tasks of a paper-and-pencil assessment tool, each of which comprised two parts for verbal and pictorial representations, respectively. Results provide evidence that although students struggle to express verbally the orbital and electron cloud concepts, their competences in the corresponding pictorial representations are relatively better, exhibiting inconsistencies between verbal and pictorial representations. Inconsistencies also exist between representations of the orbital and electron cloud concepts, since students appear to have verbally a better understanding of the electron cloud than the orbital, whereas the opposite holds true for their pictorial representations. Comparing verbal and pictorial representations, the pictorial ones appear to be more consistent tools, whereas a quantum context defined by n = 2 seems to be more challenging for students compared to that of n = 1. Furthermore, an analysis of student profiles leads to their categorization in four classes, providing additional relevant information. Implications for science education are also discussed.

A study of the impact of the new digital divide on the ICT competences of rural and urban secondary school teachers in China

Teachers' competence in information and communication technology (ICT) applications can lead to a deeper integration of technology into the curriculum and improve the quality of education. However, its application and distribution issues could result in resource inequality and social injustice. Based on the ICT competency framework for teachers, the study investigates the variables influencing teachers' ICT competency. A prediction model of teachers' ICT competency is built using empirical data from secondary school teachers in Hebei Province, China, both in urban and rural settings. The study results show that a new digital divide does exist between urban and rural teachers and that differences in digital environment and digital literacy reflecting the new digital divide have different degrees of impact on teachers' ICT competence. Age and subject also affect teachers' ICT competence. In the new era, we can start with knowledge acquisition, knowledge deepening and knowledge creation to improve teachers' ICT competence.

Conceptualizing Education for Sustainable Development in Urban Secondary Schools

This conceptual paper explores the characteristics of education for sustainable development (ESD) within urban secondary schools. Despite the discourse about the importance of sustainability, there has been a lack of research on this topic. The authors employed theory synthesis, which resulted in a concept for Education for Sustainable Development in Urban Contexts (ESDUC). This presents a comprehensive view on the interconnected characteristics that facilitate the successful implementation of ESD in urban secondary schools, (1) developing sustainability competences among both students and teachers, encompassing intercultural competences for teachers and self-regulating skills for students, (2) utilizing teaching methods that are both transformative and culturally responsive, (3) engaging the wider community in the educational process, and (4) shifting the school culture toward embracing diversity and adopting a whole-school approach. This study is valuable for researchers and urban secondary schools seeking to effectively integrate ESD into their educational framework.

THE INTEGRATION OF 5E INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING AND GROUP INVESTIGATION MODEL: ITS EFFECTS ON LEVEL FOUR SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS OF FORM FOUR STUDENTS

Studies found that the mastery of Level-4 Science Process Skills (L4SPS) among secondary school students is still relatively weak. Thus, the purpose of this research was to determine the effects of 5E Inquiry-based Learning and Group Investigation (I5E-GI) model on the five constructs of L4SPS, namely Identifying Manipulated, Responding, and Constant Variables, Forming Hypotheses, Making Observations, Making Inferences, and Defining Operationally. A teaching and learning (TL) module was developed to guide teachers in implementing the I5E-GI method for the five L4SPS constructs. The L4SPS Test Instrument was constructed to measure the level of L4SPS mastery at the end of intervention. The quasi-experimental research design was conducted on 180 Form Four students taking Core Science subjects. A total of three groups were assigned, namely i) 5E Inquiry-based Learning and Group Investigation method (I5E-GI, n = 60), ii) 5E Inquiry-based Learning method (5E, n= 60), and iii) Traditional Learning (TR, n = 60) in an urban secondary school in Sarawak, Malaysia. Data were analyzed using the inferential statistical tests of MANOVA, MANCOVA, ANCOVA, and effect size. The results showed that there was a statistically significant effect across the three groups of TL methods. There is a statistically significant effect of the I5E-GI method compared to the 5E and TR methods on the five L4SPS constructs. As for the effect size, the I5E-GI method provides a more significant effect size than the 5E and TR learning methods. Overall, the findings prove that the I5E-GI method has positive implications for the mastery of L4SPS among Form Four students. Keywords: 5E inquiry-based learning, Form Four students, Group Investigation, level-4 science process skills

Borderland teaching of Chinese American teachers with Mexican American students

Even as research on teachers of Color increases, there still are few studies that examine Asian American teachers working cross-culturally with Latinx American students in US K–12 schools. This qualitative case study uses elements from borderlands theory and culturally responsive teaching to examine three Chinese American teachers working with eleven Mexican American students in three ethnically diverse urban secondary schools in the Pacific Northwest. Findings suggest that the Chinese American teachers used borderland teaching (a hybrid of borderlands theory and culturally responsive teaching) to promote academic performance and build kinships with the Mexican American students. Implications of the study include further refining borderland teaching for educational research and practice.

PREVALENCE, CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF TRUANCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDIES: A CASE STUDY OF ESE ODO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

This study investigated the prevalence, causes and effects of truancy among secondary school students. A survey research design was used for the study. The population comprised all secondary school teachers in Ese-Odo Local Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select one hundred teachers from three rural schools and three urban schools. Three research questions and three hypotheses were raised for the study. Questionnaire on prevalence, causes and effects of truancy among secondary school students was used as instrument to collect data. Mean, rank order and t-test statistics were used to analyse the data. Results of the study showed that there is prevalence of truancy among secondary school students, causes and effects of truancy were also revealed. It was found that there is no significant difference in the prevalence, causes and effects of truancy between rural and urban secondary school students. Based on this finding, recommendations on collaborative efforts among government, school, teachers and parents to reduce truancy to the barest minimum were made.

Opportunities and Challenges of School Based Assessment during COVID 19 Pandemic in Lusaka Urban Secondary Schools.

This study explored the opportunities and challenges faced by learners, teachers and head teachers with respect to School-Based Assessment (SBA) during the COVID 19 pandemic. Worldwide, learning institutions experienced the lock down due to COVID -19. Theoretically, the study was guided by Jean Piaget constructivism learning theory anchored on the idea that knowledge is constructed by the learner’s mental activities. The Argument is that children construct their new understandings and knowledge through experience and social discourse, integrating new information with what they already know. Methodologically, the study employed a case study design because it provided an in-depth exploration of a contemporary, real-life COVID 19 phenomenon in its context. The study comprised 50 pupils, 22 female teachers, 28 male teachers and two head teachers. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The study established that respondents were aware of the SBA programme. The experiences of the implementation of SBA show that due to the past influences of the traditional objective-based assessment, some teachers found it difficult to change to the outcomes-based assessment. Of concern during the COVID 19 period was that of absenteeism on the part of learners with most of them being apathetic towards SBA. The study alludes to the fact that inadequate teachers and lack of requisite resources to implement the SBA programme compounded the problem further which should have been examined to solve the problem next time it reoccurs in urban schools of Lusaka district. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education (MoE), Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) and Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) should provide teachers with more training opportunities to receive professional development in handling SBA in schools and that Head teachers and teachers should ensure that pupils are responsible for their own learning. In addition, teachers should provide adequate feedback to learners, indicating their strengths and weaknesses as a measure of improving learning.

Teacher Retention: Retaining Teachers in High-Needs, Urban Secondary Schools in a Midwest State Post-Pandemic

Teacher Retention: Retaining Teachers in High-Needs, Urban Secondary Schools in a Midwest State Post-Pandemic

Influence of Classroom Environment on the Academic Performance of Students in English Language

The classroom environment plays a pivotal role in the academic performance and engagement of students, particularly in the realm of English language learning. This study explored the perceived influence of various classroom environmental factors on the academic performance of students in English language. Factors such as the physical environment, teacher-student interactions, peer interactions, teaching strategies, and assessment techniques were examined. A mixed-method approach, encompassing surveys and focus group discussions, were employed to gather perceptions from both students and teachers in a diverse urban secondary school. The findings suggest that a conducive physical environment, positive interpersonal relations, innovative teaching strategies, and fair assessment practices significantly impact students’ motivation and performance in English language. Recommendations for improving the classroom environment to foster better language acquisition and academic performance were made. This study contributes to the broader understanding of how the classroom environment shapes the learning experiences and academic outcomes of students in the context of English language education.

KESAN PENGINTEGRASIAN MODEL PEMBELAJARAN INKUIRI 5E DAN KOPERATIF TERHADAP KEMAHIRAN PROSES SAINS TAHAP EMPAT PELAJAR TINGKATAN EMPAT

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of teaching and learning methods based on the 5E Cycle Inquiry Learning Model and the Cooperative Learning Model (5E-CL) on the five constructs of Level Four Science Process Skills (L4SPS), namely Identifying Manipulated, Responding, and Constant Variables, Forming Hypotheses, Making Observations, Making Inferences, and Defining Operationally. A teaching and learning module was developed as a guide for teachers in implementing the 5E-CL method for the five L4SPS constructs. The L4SPS Test Instrument was constructed to measure the level of L4SPS mastery at the end of the study intervention. The quasi-experimental study was carried out on 180 Form Four students taking Core Science subjects. A total of three groups were assigned, namely i) Learning based on the 5E Inquiry Learning Model and Cooperative Learning (5E-CL, n=60), ii) Learning based on the 5E Inquiry Learning Model (P5E, n=60), and iii) Traditional Learning (TrL, n=60) in an urban secondary school in Lawas district, Sarawak. Study data were analyzed using the inferential statistical tests of MANOVA, MANCOVA, ANCOVA, and effect size. The results of the study showed that there was a statistically significant effect across the three groups of teaching and learning methods [F(2, 176)=31.819, p<0.01]. The results of the study also show that there is a statistically significant effect of the 5E-CL method compared to the 5E and TrL methods on the five L4SPS constructs. As for the effect size, the 5E-CL method as a whole provides a large effect size magnitude compared to the 5E and TrL methods. Overall, the findings of this study prove that the 5E-CL method has positive implications on the mastery of L4SPS among Form Four students.

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Exacerbate the Digital Divide at Secondary Education: The Case of Two Chinese Schools

In major public health crises, online education can play an important role in guaranteeing the continuity of education. However, whether online education can promote educational equity has been questioned widely. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed severe challenges students face in online teaching. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction and 34 interviews with participants including students, parents, and teachers, this research adopted a case study approach to explore the digital divide among Chinese rural and urban secondary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that despite measures adopted by the Chinese government, a wider digital divide has been created between urban and rural secondary schools, and the online learning result was heavily influenced by the socioeconomic status of both the individuals and the schools they attended. More specifically, compared with urban students, rural students had less access to sui digital devices and environment, quality-parental guide and supervision, effective teachers’ instruction, and worse habitus and less ability in independent online learning. Overall, this study calls on policymakers, leaders, educators, and parents to take collective actions to create a more effective online educational environment for students from the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

Managing Stressful Conditions in Inclusive Classrooms: A Case of Gweru Urban Secondary School Teachers

Managing Stressful Conditions in Inclusive Classrooms: A Case of Gweru Urban Secondary School Teachers