ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Towards Enhancing Open Distance Learning Students&apos; Roles and Responsibilities: An African Epistemological Perspective
Author: Kgati, Noziphiwo Cleopatra
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Higher Education,Educational Technology,Open Education,Student Attitudes,College Students,Student Role,Student Responsibility,World Views,African Culture,Cultural Influences

South Africa requires an educated population to sustain her economic development. Higher education institutions are under pressure to produce graduates with skills and competencies to fulfil such an aspiration. Distance education is an essential avenue through which more South Africans can have the much-needed education without necessarily displacing themselves. Distance education is facilitated and regulated by the White Paper on e-Education which is a generic policy document to serve the needs of the system-wide use of ICT integration at all levels of education. It falls short of conceptualising the implications of ICT in distance education particularly the North-West University's (NWU) open distance learning (ODL) multi-mode of education content delivery. The conceptualisation shortfall facilitates a Western-oriented understanding of knowledge while ODL students' traditional understanding of their roles and responsibilities is ignored. The concepts of roles and responsibilities are critically important for the effective functioning of ODL, and they are essential to the attainment of students' education aspirations. At the NWU, approximately seventy per cent of ODL students are Africans whose worldviews do not harmonise with the vision of universities. The research question which underpinned this study was &quot;What are the experiences of the roles and responsibilities of open distance students at a higher education institution?&quot; This study followed an interpretivist research paradigm, which would draw on a qualitative research approach. A systematic literature review was utilised and subsequently the views of ODL students were explored. Purposive sampling was employed to select ODL students as research participants for focus-group interviews. The collected data were analysed using the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (a CAQDAS), ATLAS tiTM. Due attention was given to ethical considerations throughout the study. The findings revealed that ODL students have several ways in which they understand their roles and responsibilities which were shaped by their African worldview, Africanisation. The findings that emerged from the analyses of roles and responsibilities were task orientation; time management; personal growth; social roles; financial responsibilities; personal responsibilities; family responsibilities; and social responsibilities. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
Rebuilding Higher Education by Combating Researcher Isolation
Author: Rossouw, J. P.
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Higher Education,Professional Isolation,Psychological Patterns,Teacher Researchers,Cooperation,College Faculty,Interpersonal Relationship,Barriers,Research Methodology,Interdisciplinary Approach

To build new and better higher education systems, it is vital to consider all aspects of systems in the recent past. Measures should be taken to identify and address deficiencies, of which academic isolation and the prevalence of a silo mentality is a prominent example. The central question of this paper to be answered is how to effectively combat academic isolation. While an individual in solitude has a positive experience when alone, isolation resulting in loneliness is an uneasy feeling of being unwillingly detached from others. Education institutions, faculties, colleges or communities of practice as well as individuals can experience isolation, whether it is self-imposed or enforced by discriminatory measures. Highly specialized groups may isolate themselves, and so can experienced academics be unwilling to share ideas and so deny others to benefit from their expertise. During an analytical literature survey, which generated valuable observations and findings from scholars worldwide, some of the most prominent reasons for and effects of this phenomenon emerged. The analysis, into which personal experience was also factored, lead to proposing cooperative research and interdisciplinary research as effective ways to breach harmful silo forming amongst researchers, and combat academic isolation. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
Safety in Mechanical Technology Workshops at South African Public Schools
Author: Jurgens, Coenraad
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Foreign Countries,School Safety,Workshops,Experiential Learning,Accident Prevention,Engineering,Technology,Teacher Responsibility,Legal Responsibility,Knowledge Level,Public Schools

South Africa has an urgent need for qualified technical and mechanical people. Technical disciplines are encouraged in public schools to fulfil this requirement. Teachers are also in an environment that is becoming increasingly litigious. Technology teachers may be forced to pay greater attention to managing safety and security as legal liability for harm caused during activities in school workshops is expected to increase. The safety of all students is a crucial component in schools. Effective teaching and learning can be improved in workshop areas where learner safety, or &quot;Geborgenheit&quot;, is generated. The security of students while they participate in activities is the responsibility of the Mechanical Technology teacher. For school workshops, an efficient safety policy must be created to reduce the danger of injuries and harm to students. The primary method for reducing and preventing injuries and making sure that the teacher or school is not held accountable for damage, is a purposeful policy. The empirical investigation used a mixed research methodology, where Mechanical Technology teachers quantitatively and qualitatively assessed the management of security in school workshops. Data were triangulated (analytically, narratively, and discussed), and conclusions and suggestions were formed. The results show that teachers are unaware of their legal obligation to take care of students and are under-informed on delictual liability and education law. Due to the complexity of today's society, all participants in the education industry must recognize that understanding the legal and technological facets of the field is not only important, but also ought to be made essential. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
School Management Support for Parental Involvement in Education
Author: Khumalo, Jan B.
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Parent Participation,Parent School Relationship,Administrator Role,Teamwork,Child Rearing,Interpersonal Communication,Volunteers,Family Environment,Decision Making,Cooperation,Educational Environment,Teacher Empowerment,Teacher Role,Parent Teacher Cooperation

The role of parents in the education of their children is a factor which has been acknowledged as one of the contributors to learners' success in schools. In addition, the nature of parental involvement and the benefits thereof, have been sufficiently treated in the corpus on school improvement. The purpose of this paper is to probe the support that schools, through their School Management Teams (SMTs), provide to parents to enable them to be closely involved in their children's education. Seen through the lens of Epstein's model, parental involvement is conceptualized and related to school environments in diverse South African contexts. The model of parental involvement reveals six areas of involvement, namely, parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community. Accordingly, parental involvement as defined by Epstein and the inherent support that schools should provide to parents, form the thesis of this paper. The paper concludes with a recommendation of implementing proactive strategies of parental involvement in education. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
Social Media in Schools -- A Comparative Legal and Educational Perspective
Author: Smit, Marius
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Social Media,Technology Uses in Education,Teaching Methods,Educational Benefits,Risk,Cross Cultural Studies,Computer Mediated Communication,Bullying,Addictive Behavior,Phenomenology,Principals,Administrator Attitudes,Foreign Countries,Privacy,Laws,School Policy,Freedom of Speech,Crime

The comparative research paper explores the use and risks of social media in South African, USA and European schools. It discusses the potential challenges that schools, educators and learners may face such as cyberbullying, sexting, identity theft, fraud, catphishing, cybercrimes, excessive online presence, and addiction to social media. The paper reports on the findings of a phenomenological study and purposive survey among school principals and educators in South African schools. The paper highlights the advantages of applying social media in the classroom, and provides recommendations for schools, educators, parents and principals to manage the use of social media in the education environment. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
Children&apos;s School Readiness Skills across the Pre-K Year: Associations with Teacher-Student Interactions, Teacher Practices, and Exposure to Academic Content
Author: Pianta, Robert C.
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: School Readiness,Preschool Children,Public Schools,Preschool Education,Teacher Student Relationship,Preschool Teachers,Classroom Environment,Emotional Development,Social Development,Executive Function,Short Term Memory

The present study reports associations between features of directly observed classroom processes and school readiness skills across the academic year for 1498 children enrolled in publicly funded pre-K programs in a large and diverse county. In models adjusting for a range of child and family covariates, evidence was detected for the separate, and on occasion additive, associations of several classroom process features with children's skills -- overall quality of teacher-student interaction, teachers' direct involvement in educational activities, the rigor of those activities in terms of difficulty, and children's exposure to academic content. Associations were not widespread or large, and overall children's performance appeared to increase modestly when classrooms were more educationally focused and structured, and teachers were supportive and responsive as they were involved with children. Results are discussed in light of efforts to improve the benefits of pre-K programs on children's learning.
Towards the Recovery of Education: Reaching for 2030 and Comparative and International Education
Author: Wolhuter, Charl
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Comparative Education,International Education,COVID-19,Pandemics,Intervention,Sustainable Development,Objectives,Educational Change,Educational Benefits,Distance Education,Technology Uses in Education,Role,Futures (of Society),Educational Trends,Educational History,Access to Education,Climate,Social Change,Equal Education,Educational Quality,Educational Opportunities,Educational Improvement

The aim of this paper is to reflect on what the changing context brought about by the Pandemic mean and can mean for the repositioning and reinvigoration of Comparative and International Education in 2023. The paper commences with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Incheon Declaration, as the vision humanity has set for itself for 2030. The paper then maps out the gap between the reality of education globally in 2015, when the goals were set, and the vision for 2030. The intervention of the COVID-19 Pandemic increased that gap. This paper argues that at the same time the Pandemic brought with it an opportunity to redesign education in the world, benefitting from the opportunities offered by technology. The paper further argues that in effecting such a redesign of education in the world, the scholarly field of Comparative and International Education has a pivotal role to play to -- to connect to the theme of this book and of the conference of which this volume is the proceedings of papers presented -- to use education experiences of the Pandemic and post-Pandemic times, to learn to not only recover education to its pre-Pandemic state, but to ensure the recovery has enough momentum to move beyond the pre-Pandemic level, surging towards the goals set for 2030, i.e. building new better education systems. [For the complete Volume 21 proceedings, see ED629259.]
The Transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten: Parent, Teacher, and Administrator Perspectives
Author: Vitiello, Virginia E.
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preschool Children,Student Adjustment,Parent Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Public Schools,Transitional Programs,Parent Education,Teacher Education,School Readiness,Alignment (Education),Preschool Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Kindergarten,Educational Practices

The present study aimed to identify commonalities and points of divergence in the ways that parents, teachers, and administrators characterize children's transition from public pre-K into kindergarten within a large, diverse school district. A wide range of transition practices were in use across the district, including practices designed to educate parents, connect pre-K and kindergarten stakeholders, train teachers, and provide transition experiences to children. Transition experiences were not uniform across programs, though. Using a consensual qualitative coding approach, we identified three crosscutting themes related to pre-K transitions: (1) pre-k programs and staff invest significant time and effort in supporting successful transitions; (2) preschool programs' school readiness efforts often center on the mechanics of the transition, like completing paperwork and teaching children basic school behaviors; and (3) there are concerns about a lack of alignment between pre-K and kindergarten in terms of readiness, behavioral expectations, and learning goals.
Using Self Report Surveys to Measure PreK Children&apos;s Academic Orientations: A Psychometric Evaluation
Author: Ruzek, Erik
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Surveys,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Preschool Children,Preschool Education,Educational Attitudes,Childrens Attitudes,Psychometrics,Likert Scales,Factor Analysis,Factor Structure

As research continues to show the benefits of high-quality early childhood education, it is important to ensure that measures are available to assess the full impacts of these programs for student outcomes. Many achievement measures and observational measures exist, but there is a need for measures of children's experiences at the preschool level. Using data from 1102 preschool children, we evaluated the reliability and validity of a new measure of children's academic orientations, including their feelings about their teacher, school enjoyment, growth mindset, and perceived academic competence. We gave children a one-on-one 12-item assessment in which they responded to survey questions on a 3-point Likert scale. The psychometric qualities of the scale were evaluated using item factor analysis, invariance testing of the scale across important demographic groups, examination of item thresholds, and correlations of the scales with teacher-reported measures. Overall, the measures adhered to the hypothesized factor structure, were invariant across the diverse demographic groups in the sample, and correlated with teacher-reported outcomes in hypothesized ways. Results from the psychometric analysis are being used to update the scale for the next iteration.
Alignment and Misalignment of Classroom Experiences from Pre-K to Kindergarten
Author: Vitiello, Virginia E.
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Alignment (Education),Early Experience,Student Experience,Preschool Children,Preschool Education,Kindergarten,Student Promotion,Classroom Environment,Teacher Student Relationship,Academic Achievement,Social Development

Areas of misalignment between children's experiences in preschool and kindergarten are increasingly viewed as contributing to the fade-out of preschool effects. The current study examined alignment and misalignment of classroom experiences across the transition from public pre-k into kindergarten. As part of a longitudinal cohort study, we examined structural features, process features, and teacher beliefs and practices in 295 public kindergarten classrooms and 117 public pre-K classrooms that feed into them. Analyses revealed a number of differences indicative of potential misalignment, including fewer ethnically and linguistically diverse teachers, more time in teacher-structured activities, and less effective teacher-child interactions in kindergarten. Potential alignment was indicated in some areas, such as more time in kindergarten spent on academics; progression toward more advanced literacy and math content from pre-k to kindergarten; and teachers across both grades reported similarly child-centered ideas about children. Exploratory results by pre-K auspice comparing school-based and center-based pre-K raised further questions about what the meaningful components of alignment are. The field lacks a robust empirical base for defining &quot;good&quot; alignment, thus these descriptive results are discussed in terms of implications for future, predictive research.
Parental Choice: Facilitators and Barriers of Utilizing Childcare Centers in Karachi, Pakistan
Author: Premani, Zahra Shaheen
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Parent Attitudes,Child Care Centers,Violence,Spouses,Barriers,Foreign Countries,Educational Quality,Decision Making,Geographic Location,Family Relationship,Access to Information,Urban Areas,Employed Parents,School Choice

This qualitative study explored parental perceptions regarding parent's choice of quality childcare centers in urban areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Sixteen participants were selected from two centers in different geographical areas. For parents, the most common reason for selecting the childcare centers was the lack of other available options such as family support. Availability and accessibility of childcare centers were reported as supporting factors, while lack of family support, lack of information, and violent city conditions were identified as barriers to choosing childcare centers. In addition, husband support was perceived as a facilitator and a barrier to choosing childcare centers.
Self-Concept Transformation on Senior Secondary School Students&apos; Academic Achievement in Central Zone, Plateau State, Nigeria
Author: Danladi, Gwaison Panan
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Self Concept,Academic Achievement,Transformative Learning,Secondary School Students,Foreign Countries,Economics Education,Self Concept Measures,Achievement Tests,Parent Student Relationship,Antisocial Behavior,Language Usage,Scores

Economics is one of the popular subjects in the Senior Secondary School (SSS) curriculum, and it covers the fundamental aspects of human lives concerning scarcity of resources. Proper understanding of the basic concept will enable students to realize the benefit of the subject. This study examined the effects of the self-concept transformation package on senior secondary school student's academic achievement in the quantitative aspect of Economics in Central Zone, Plateau State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental research design, the non-equivalent control- group design, was used for this study. The sample size consisted of 105 economics SS2 students from intact classes of the four sampled schools. There were 50 and 55 students in the experimental and control group, respectively. Multi-Stage Cluster sampling techniques were used for this study. The instruments used for data collection were the Multi-dimensional Self-Concept Scales (MSS) and Quantitative Economics Achievement Test (QEAT). Research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the t-test of independent sample and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used for the analysis. The results show that the self-concept transformation package positively and significantly affected students' self-concept and academic achievement in quantitative economics. The study recommended that the use of abusive words on students by Parents and guardians should be discouraged to strengthening their student's self-concept.
Al-Islam dan Kemuhammadiyahan: How to Teach the Non-Muslim Students at Muhammadiyah Education University of Sorong
Author: Husnaini, M.
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Muslims,Islam,Barriers,Models,Teacher Attitudes,College Faculty,College Students,Religious Colleges,Universities,Multicultural Education,Educational Resources,Internet,Arabic,Language Usage,Intellectual Disciplines,Teacher Student Relationship,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this study seeks to understand the model of Al-Islam and Kemuhammadiyahan (AIK) learning for non-Muslim students at Unimuda Sorong. The things researched about the implementation of AIK teaching, the obstacles faced by AIK lecturers in learning AIK for non-Muslim students, and the efforts to overcome the obstacles to AIK learning for non-Muslim students Unimuda Sorong. It is a qualitative research method. The study employed the snowball sampling method. The chosen participant was three lecturers who had experienced teaching Al-Islam and Kemuhammadiyahan. In specific, participants are lecturers from the Muhammadiyah Education University (Unimuda) of Sorong, Indonesia. This study's primary data source was obtained through semi-structured interviews emphasizing the participants' experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze data. The results of this study AIK learning at Unimuda Sorong are carried out with a multicultural spirit, AIK learning at Unimuda is carried out in various ways. The obstacles during AIK learning include the availability of AIK learning resources literature, limited internet network access, and non-Muslim students' difficulties understanding Islamic religious terms in Arabic. Efforts were made to overcome these obstacles, namely teaching AIK as knowledge, not doctrine, communication between non-Muslim students and lecturers, and other Muslim students. Suggestions for further research are to make non-Muslim students the primary informants in the research.