ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
EFL Primary School Teachers' Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Alternative Assessment
Author: Al-Nouh, Nowreyah A.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Elementary School Teachers,FLES,English (Second Language),English Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Characteristics,Alternative Assessment,Skills,Females,Questionnaires,Focus Groups,Interviews,Principals,Content Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Age Differences,Majors (Students),Teaching Experience

The study investigated female EFL primary school teachers' attitudes as well as teachers' knowledge and skills in alternative assessment. Data was collected via a questionnaire from 335 EFL primary school teachers randomly selected from six educational zones. An interview with principals and head teachers and a focus group interview with EFL primary school teachers were conducted along with document analysis of ongoing assessment obtained from the ELT General Supervision at the Ministry of Education (MOE). Descriptive statistics were employed including a t-test and a one-way ANOVA Test. Results showed that teachers perceived themselves knowledgeable and skillful in alternative assessment. Nonetheless, some reported the need for workshops and training courses on alternative assessment. Teachers further expressed their preference for traditional written tests over alternative assessment. Teachers' attitudes, however, were found to be at a medium level. They reported that alternative assessment is time-consuming and ignores pupil writing skills. Significant differences were found in teachers' knowledge and skills in relation to their age, undergraduate major, and experience. Significant differences were further found in teachers' attitudes in relation to their educational zone and experience. Limitations of the study as well as recommendations were further discussed.
Investigating Mixed-Ability Teaching in Taiwanese Primary Schools
Author: Huang, Ling-Ying
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Investigations,English Teachers,English (Second Language),English Instruction,Teacher Attitudes,Questionnaires,Teaching Methods,Elementary School Teachers,Likert Scales,Teacher Background,Teaching Conditions,Teaching Experience,Behavioral Objectives,Academic Ability,Cognitive Ability,Cognitive Style,Teacher Responsibility,Instructional Materials

In 2001, Taiwan reformed English language teaching in primary schools, and a mixed ability approach was taken as an organisational method for this. Many teachers claim that they encounter numerous difficulties in catering for different needs because of the large number of differences between students. However, the debate and comparisons between the traditional streamed approach and the current mixed ability approach continues in Taiwan. This study seeks to explore Taiwanese English teachers' attitudes towards MAT (mixed ability teaching) and MAC (mixed ability class) in primary schools. To do this, a questionnaire was distributed to 80 English teachers in Taiwanese primary schools. The findings show that the majority of the participants agree that the mixed-ability approach can help students fit into society; however, over one third of the teachers did not agree that students can learn effectively in MAT and over half claimed that they had difficulties catering for different individuals, especially the ablest and weakest students. Furthermore, they state that the current class size, learning hours, equipment and other additional factors cause difficulties for MAT (mixed ability teaching).
Thinking Skill Education and Transformational Progress in Malaysia
Author: Othman, Nooraini
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Thinking Skills,Educational Development,Educational Change,Teaching Methods,Performance Factors,Student Evaluation,Human Capital,Labor Force Development,Innovation,Educational Objectives

This paper intends to highlight the issues in thinking skills development and efforts made in addressing these issues in Malaysia. The education system in Malaysia has undergone a huge transformational progress particularly in the field related to the development of thinking skill. Traditionally, thinking skill was not specifically cultivated in the education syllabus. What moved as a global agenda in the realm of education, thinking skill was embraced as an important subject matter that needs a specific attention. It was later embedded in the teachers' training activities and translated into many forms, curricular and extra-curricular activities alike. Students are trained right from school up to tertiary levels. The move is ongoing and continuosly progressing.
The Actualization of the Malaysian National Education Philosophy in Secondary Schools: Student and Teacher Perspectives
Author: Al-Hudawi, Shafeeq Hussain Vazhathodi
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Philosophy,Secondary School Students,Secondary School Teachers,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Educational Planning,Educational Policy,Program Implementation,Fidelity,Participant Satisfaction,Student Surveys,Teacher Surveys,Educational Change

In the Malaysian context, all educational processes at the national level are envisioned by the National Education Philosophy (NEP). The NEP was formed in 1988 in line with the National Principles (Rukun Negara) with the ultimate aims of building a united and progressive society (Ministry of Education, 2001). However, there is uncertainty whether the NEP has been actualized in the educational processes, transmitted successfully by teachers to students and further personalized by students. This paper aims to report findings of study which analyzed the actualization of the NEP in government and private secondary schools based on student and teacher perspectives. The research followed a survey design through two sets of questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient value for the teacher and student questionnaire was 0.96 and 0.98 respectively. A total of 185 Form 4 students and 45 teachers from both private and government secondary schools in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia participated in this research. 77.3% of students and 64.4% of teachers rated the level of actualization of the NEP as high, with a mean score of 7.67 and 7.28 out of 10 as rated by the students and teachers respectively. The paper further discusses the finding of the study from both teacher and student perspectives. It also provides a brief discussion on the limitations of this study and on its implications. It concludes with general implications of the study to the educational processes in the country in general and to the national education system in specific.
Early Childhood Education in Botswana: A Case of Fragmented &quot;Fits&quot;
Author: Maunganidze, Langtone
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Early Childhood Education,Case Studies,Content Analysis,Position Papers,Educational History,Educational Development,Educational Finance,Alignment (Education),Budgets,Barriers,Performance Factors,Educational Practices,Child Care Centers,Delivery Systems

Scholarly and institutional research on early childhood education is not a new phenomenon, but what is perhaps limited is extant literature that particularly focuses on revisiting current practices and their &quot;dialogue&quot; with the ever-changing environment that prevails especially in an African setting. The practices of providers of early childhood education are either simply &quot;business opportunity seeking&quot; responses to the new consumption patterns of more affluent parent (or guardian) or current global trends of child education preparation. There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of early child centres in recent years but with fragmented structures. However whether or not this will reduce possibilities of tensions between the macro and micro aspects of this kind of co-evolution is one of the questions this article seeks to address. It also investigates the fit between the internal structure and processes of early childhood centers and the external environment (national framework), focusing on the challenges and prospects of early childhood education. Buoyed by the Fit/Congruence model of organizational analysis, the paper is based on findings from a content analysis of media reports and desk review of policy documents from purposively selected centres based in Gaborone. The data is analyzed using a combination of the pattern model and analytic comparison methods. In Botswana, one of the observed missing links is the absence of national framework guiding the structure and content of early childhood curriculum and instruction. It concludes that while the approaches used in these centres are relatively not similar they may be complementary particularly to the extent to which they prepare the children for an exclusionary education system in a country whose long-term vision is ironically to achieve an equitable and quality education for all. Institutional initiatives at national level have been limited and unevenly distributed with wide differences in the quality of services and lack of coherence and coordination at micro-level.
Building Foundational and Vocabulary Knowledge in the Common Core, K-8: Developmentally-Grounded Instruction about Words
Author: Templeton, Shane
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Vocabulary Development,State Standards,Academic Standards,Developmentally Appropriate Practices,Developmental Stages,Emergent Literacy,Beginning Reading,Writing Skills,Writing Instruction,Morphology (Languages),Reading Skills

How young children's and older students' knowledge of words develops--their structure, their meanings, how they work in context--is reflected in the Common Core English Language Arts expectations. Meeting these expectations for each learner requires that we teach in a developmentally-responsive manner. This includes our being familiar with the nature of the English spelling system, determining what each learner knows about the system, and then providing instruction that stretches but does not frustrate learning. There is a reciprocal relationship between reading and spelling words, and understanding how this relationship develops over time is the key to developmentally-responsive decoding and encoding instruction, as well as to developing every learner's vocabulary.
Activity Theory as a Framework for Designing the Model of College English Listening
Author: Zhang, Jianfeng
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College English,Listening,Models,English (Second Language),English Instruction,Listening Comprehension,Learning Activities,Instructional Design,Learner Controlled Instruction,Learning Theories,Units of Study,Language Acquisition,Educational Practices,Educational Strategies,Foreign Countries

Activity theory signifies that activities are at the centre of human behaviour and it has been used to study cognitive process in many fields. Nowadays, college English listening learning is time-consuming but less effective in China, so enhancing the performance of listening instruction is a very hot topic. Theoretically, activity theory is able to provide a proper framework for analyzing motive, designing tasks, contributing rules and tools in English listening in English as foreign language environment. Therefore, it is necessary and significant to unify the activity theory to design a novel model of listening comprehension and to analyze the college English listening from a different perspective. According to the theoretical analysis, activity theory is a useful framework to design the model of college English listening and to provide learner-centered education.
Concept Mapping Revisited: Nurturing Children's Writing Skills in Science
Author: Isabelle, Aaron
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Concept Mapping,Concept Formation,Language Arts,Writing Instruction,Science Instruction,Tutors,Performance Based Assessment

Concept mapping has long been used an assessment tool by educators to illustrate students' conceptual development of a topic over time. In this article, we chronicle the use of concept maps in a language arts environment. Focusing on a literacy tutoring program for struggling readers/writers centered on hands-on science experiments, we explain how concept maps were used as tools to engage students in authentic writing. Using the example of one struggling reader/writer, step-by-step instructions are provided used by the student's literacy tutor to transform ideas captured on a concept map (generated from experiments and readings about magnets) into a student-written non-fiction, informational book. Results from the student's pre- and post-writing assessments not only show increased writing abilities, but also mastery of science language demands.
Environmental Education in the Teaching and the Learning of Scientific Disciplines in Moroccan High Schools
Author: El Moussaouy, Abdelaziz
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Environmental Education,High Schools,Geology,Physics,Chemistry,Biology,Interdisciplinary Approach,Curriculum Implementation,Teaching Methods,Teaching Styles,Questionnaires,Textbook Evaluation,Teacher Surveys,Teacher Attitudes,Educational Practices,Incidence

In this work we investigate the place and the importance of environmental education (EE) in Moroccan high school education with a focus on Physics/Chemistry and Biology/Geology classes. It is performed within a comparative method by using an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the presence and the pedagogical styles adopted for the implementation of EE in both disciplines. This study is accomplished via an anthropological theory of knowledge to analyze textbooks and a questionnaire administered to 90 teachers of these disciplines throughout different high schools in Oujda academy, Morocco. The analyses of collected data were performed by adopting a statistical descriptive method. Results show that the presence and the importance of EE are mediocre and its contribution to learning activity is dominated by informative pedagogical style. Similarly, questionnaire results reveal that the implementation of EE in their practices cannot enable learners to construct competencies and skills that would help them adopt a positive behavior towards the environment because first, the presence of EE in their classes is almost absent especially in P/C classes, second, teachers' practices are overwhelmed by the informative pedagogical style. Furthermore, respondents have never benefited from basic and in-service training and their interdisciplinary professional collaboration is totally lacking.
To Win the Game, Know the Rules and Legitimize the Players: Disciplinary Literacy and Multilingual Learners
Author: Hickey, Pamela J.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Multilingualism,Teaching Methods,Language Usage,Knowledge Base for Teaching,Literacy Education,Intellectual Disciplines,Academic Discourse,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Bilingualism,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Contrastive Linguistics,Metalinguistics

Effective disciplinary literacy instruction is an essential element in the education of multilingual learners. In this article, we provide an overview of disciplinary literacy as well as instructional approaches that support meaningful pedagogy for these students. We recognize that multilingual learners are already skilled at negotiating language use for different purposes in different contexts. This article describes opportunities to build on these strengths. Essential elements of teacher knowledge and practice are presented. Multiple resources for classroom practice are included.
An Evaluative Review of School Accreditation Implementation Program in Indonesian Contexts
Author: Haryati, Sri
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Accreditation (Institutions),Program Implementation,Context Effect,Equal Education,Compliance (Legal),Kindergarten,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Policy,Educational Objectives,Relevance (Education),Educational Practices,Interviews,Profiles,Institutional Characteristics,Institutional Evaluation,Classification,Academic Standards,Competence,Teacher Qualifications,Administrator Qualifications,Educational Facilities,Governance,Financial Policy,Evaluation Criteria

This paper critically reviews and evaluates the implementation of School Accreditation Program for the period of 2013 with a particular reference to Central Java Schools, consisting of Kindergarten (TK) Elementary School (SD), Junior High School (SMP) and Senior High School (SMA) (Note 1). The aim of the review is to see to what extent they can comply with the &quot;Education for All&quot; (EFA) Program as expressed in World Summit (2000) resulting in a Millennium Declaration known as &quot;Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The research setting involved Central Java, covering 35 regencies as the sample consisting of 1,985 schools as the target and realized 1,972 (99%) schools accredited. It turned out that there were technical problems at schools of all levels, ranging from pre-accreditation, accreditation to post accreditation in need of special attention by involved parties for better improvement of the program implementation.
Re-Engineering Values into the Youth Education System: A Needs Analysis Study in Brunei Darussalam
Author: Zakaria, Gamal Abdul Nasir
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Needs Assessment,Youth Programs,Values Education,Questionnaires,Content Analysis,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Generational Differences,Student Characteristics,Learning Processes,Teacher Student Relationship,Values,Course Content,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries,College Students

This study aimed to present a practical framework for designing a values teaching program in the youth education system. The choice of content, the nature of the students with respect to learning and their perception about the selected content for teaching values were studied. The study follows a Needs analysis design which drew upon document analysis and questionnaire. There were 104 respondents consisting of students from Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) coming from different background and nationalities. Although qualitative paradigm was adopted, quantitative strategy was also used in order to gather views from a large sample size. Document analysis and questionnaire survey were used for data collection. The finding reveals that majority of respondents have strong interest in the selected content and exhibit most of Generation Y characteristics with respect to learning. Although they are technology addicts, they unexpectedly show a different approach to values learning; they preferred personal contact with teachers rather than online-based mode. Inferring from results, the authors recommend the content and method of teaching values in Universiti Brunei Darussalam and the need for further research on the effect of cultural and religious background on the adoption of global culture by students.
Encouraging Socio-Ethnic Pluralism in Arab High Schools in Israel: Perspective of the Headmasters and Educational Staff
Author: Suwaed, Muhammad
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Arabs,Cultural Pluralism,Principals,Multicultural Education,Ethnicity,Minority Groups,Participant Characteristics,Interviews,Personal Narratives,Christianity,Islam,Desegregation Effects,Social Integration,Leadership Role,Fear,Social Bias,Helplessness,Political Attitudes,Political Issues,Religious Conflict,Community Coordination,High Schools,Administrator Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes

The paper presents the perspective of headmasters and educational staff in a sample of Arab high schools in Galilee, Israel, employing and serving a mixed population comprising Moslem and Christian communities. The paper describes efforts made by these schools to bring people closer, and examines programs designed for this purpose, and factors involved in these attempts. It also presents and discusses the role of school headmasters and leading staff, their contribution to the cause, and focused on their points of disagreements and their proposals regarding ways to improve the existing situation and promote social pluralism among students. The paper also presents, approaches prevailing in the Ministry of Education and local authorities, and examines educational programs designed by external and internal bodies, and other educational initiatives adopted by the participating schools, to increase tolerance and respect among students. In addition, the paper analyses goal-directed educational programs proposed and implemented by school headmasters and leading staff, lessons that could be drawn from these exercises and their implementation, and the headmaster's social status and influence in advancing social changes in the given community. The findings showed significant differences in the perception of situation between majority and minority community representatives in each given village. Furthermore, they clearly indicated that the students were not adequately exposed to each other's cultures and were significantly influenced by incorrect perceptions and superficial/erroneous interpretations. Thus, it was recommended to introduce intervention programs based on respect for difference, renunciation of enforced uniformity, promotion of maximal freedom of choice in the way of life, and dialog between different cultures.
Challenges Facing Women Academic Leadership in Secondary Schools of Irbid Educational Area
Author: Al-Jaradat, Mahmoud Khaled Mohammad
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Women Faculty,Womens Studies,Barriers,Performance Factors,Women Administrators,Secondary Schools,Females,Questionnaires,Statistical Significance,Predictor Variables,Tenure,Academic Degrees,Work Experience,Foreign Countries,Educational Attainment,Work Environment,Statistical Analysis

This study aimed at identifying the challenges facing women academic leadership in secondary schools of Irbid Educational Area. A random sample of 187 female leaders were chosen. They responded to a 49-item questionnaire prepared by the researcher. The items were distributed into four domains: organizational, personal, social and physical challenges. The study concluded that the women academic leaders are facing challenges between medium and high levels. In addition, there is no difference attributed to the job position in all domains, except for the physical challenges in favor for the principals. There were differences attributed to the academic qualification in all the domains in favor of those who hold BA degrees or higher, except for the organizational challenges domain. Finally, there were no differences related to the years of experience in all domains. The study recommended setting up developmental programs for the women's academic leaders.
Visibility and Citation Impact
Author: Ebrahim, Nader Ale
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Productivity,Faculty Publishing,Citations (References),Citation Analysis,Investigations,Case Studies,Publications,Research Tools,Bibliometrics,Information Dissemination,Publicity,Electronic Publishing

The number of publications is the first criteria for assessing a researcher output. However, the main measurement for author productivity is the number of citations, and citations are typically related to the paper's visibility. In this paper, the relationship between article visibility and the number of citations is investigated. A case study of two researchers who are using publication marketing tools confirmed that the article visibility will greatly improve the citation impact. Some strategies to make the publications available to a larger audience have been presented at the end of this paper.