ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
English Communication Skills: How Are They Taught at Schools and Universities in Oman?
Author: Al-Mahrooqi, Rahma
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Communication Skills,English (Second Language),English Instruction,Teaching Methods,Investigations,Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Definitions,Relevance (Education),Educational Practices,Higher Education,Elementary Secondary Education

The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a student perspective, how English communication skills are taught in Oman's schools and higher education institutions. Previous research has documented the lack of communicative ability in English among school and higher education graduates in Oman (Al-Issa, 2007; Moody, 2009). However, the reasons for this weakness have never been investigated from the point of view of students themselves. Using written protocols from 58 respondents, this study embarks on such an investigation and explores student definitions of communication skills, opinions about their importance, and how they were taught in school and higher education institutions. The results reveal that these crucial skills were actually either not taught at all or taught indirectly, which helps to explain the deficit under investigation.
Effect of Methods of Learning and Self Regulated Learning toward Outcomes of Learning Social Studies
Author: Tjalla, Awaluddin
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Learning Strategies,Independent Study,Outcomes of Education,Social Studies,Scores,Junior High School Students,Quasiexperimental Design,Statistical Analysis,Peer Teaching,Tutoring,Conventional Instruction,Comparative Analysis,Questionnaires

This research aims to reveal the influence of learning methods and self-regulated learning on students learning scores for Social Studies object. The research was done in Islamic Junior High School (MTs Manba'ul Ulum), Batuceper City Tangerang using quasi-experimental method. The research employed simple random technique to 28 students. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and two-way design with treatment by level 2 x 2. The findings of the research showed that: (1) Social Studies scores of students that were given learning method peer tutoring is higher than the scores of those that were given the conventional method (2) there is an interaction effect between self-regulated learning and peer tutoring learning method on Social Studies scores of students, and (3) for students with high self-regulated learning, Social Studies scores which were given using peer tutoring is higher than those given using conventional learning. Therefore the next research is expected to find appropriate learning method for students with low self-regulated learning.
From Method to Post Method: A Panacea!
Author: Masouleh, Nima Shakouri
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Educational Change,Beginning Teachers,Novices,Reflective Teaching,Language Teachers,Teacher Effectiveness,Second Language Instruction

The foundation of language teaching has undergone many changes. The rise and fall of language teaching methods depends upon a variety of factors extrinsic to a method itself and often reflects the influence of profit-seekers and promoters, as well as the forces of the intellectual marketplace. There was always a source of contention among people that what the secret of a method life is. In this paper, the writer investigated why once have various teaching methods come into vogue and then disappeared? Some contradicted the method, while others came to provide a complementary view. The writer with a critical lens questioned the concept of post-method which qualitatively, as Akbari (2008) held, is not that much different from the term method. Furthermore, the author claimed the concept of post-method is not plausible by novice teachers. For the fulfillment of post-method perspectives, the whole system must be touched upon, not just a teacher as the key feature of post method. And if it is said there should be an attempt to find an alternative to method, is it really logical to imagine that even a novice teacher must seek for it? The one who first must be provided with some packages of principles in order to begin his teaching job? There is not a place to discuss whether a teacher should adopt a method or not, but what is plausible is that method is always present everywhere even in the body of the phrase like post-method. The writer, in the paper, attempted to shed lights into the concept of methods, beyond methods, post-method and, in a nutshell, what is going on in the history of language teaching.
Achieving Competitive Advantage in Human Resource Management in General School District of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia
Author: Al dakeel, Taghreed M.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Human Resources,School Districts,Administrators,Competition,Barriers,Educational Administration,School Personnel,Questionnaires

The general school district of Riyadh is one of largest in the country of (45) school districts in Saudi Arabia. The school districts play an important roles in the development of education, therefore the objective of the study is to examine the roles of the management in the school districts to see if it is achieving competitive advantage. After the analysis of (226) respondents , the study revealed that there are three of nine dimensions of human resource management in the study with low degree.in recruiting human resources, motivation of human resources, services and public relations (mean of 2.35 of 5.00), and moderate degree in salaries, work analysis, description and design, performance assessment, planning of human resources, and training and developing of human resources ( mean of 2.70 of 5.00), But the degree of overall of these roles of human resource management is blow the average(mean = 2.53). The result of the study indicate that the General School District of Riyadh is not in a position to be competitive in human resource management with other school districts in Saudi Arabia or with the international level. The school district of Riyadh needs to put great efforts in development of management of human resources to achieve competitive advantages by training school district superintendent and human resource manager. The study has implication for other school districts in Saudi Arabia and for many developing countries with centralized system in education. It also highlighted the challenges facing lack of regulation related to human resources management, and the absence of many of human resources management the lack of integrated management of competent human resources, lack of specialists in human resource management, and the most important is deficiencies in many of the functions of human resources and lack of incentives and training.
The Reality of Professional Development of Mathematics and Science Teachers at Elementary Schools in Najran, Saudi Arabia
Author: Aseeri, Mohammed Mofreh Yahya
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Mathematics Teachers,Science Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Gender Differences,Specialization,Training,Questionnaires,Faculty Development,Educational Resources,Statistical Analysis,Teacher Participation,Scores,Multivariate Analysis

This study aimed to identify the practice extent of mathematics and science teachers of professional development activities, its sources and obstacles at elementary schools in Najran, and its relationship with specialty, gender, number of training courses. To achieve the study aims, the research questionnaire was prepared and consisted of (70) items distributed to three fields related to the activities, sources, and obstacles of the professional development in curriculum developed of the American McGraw Hill Education. Validity of the questionnaire was asserted by submitting it to a number of specialist arbitrators. Reliability was also verified and Cronbach Alpha correlation coefficient was (0.97). The study sample consisted of (201) teachers among which (103) mathematics teachers and (98) science teachers who were all teaching the developed mathematics and science curricula at the elementary schools in Najran during the academic year 2014/2015. Findings showed that the practice level of teachers' practice degree of professional development activities was moderate. The sources of which they receive professional development programs and obstacles they face were moderate, too. Results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences due to specialization and training courses, while there were significant differences (a = 0.01) among teachers with regard to the practice degree of professional development activities and the number of training courses due to gender in favor of females. The study recommended paying attention to the programs of teachers' professional development and their participation to meet their needs and requirements to attend conferences, seminars, workshops at the universities.
The Predictors of Indonesian Senior High School Students' Anger at School
Author: Hernawati, Lucia
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,High School Students,Psychological Patterns,Predictor Variables,Student Attitudes,Parent Child Relationship,Adolescents,Peer Influence,Personality Traits,Educational Environment,Attachment Behavior,Questionnaires,Private Schools,Public Schools,Hypothesis Testing,Correlation,Grade 11,Statistical Analysis

This study aimed to find out the correlation between senior high school students' anger at school and the quality relationship of parents-adolescents, peer pressure, narcissistic personality, and school climate. The instruments used were student anger at school inventory, scale of adolescent and family attachment, peer pressure inventory, narcissistic personality inventory and school climate questionnaire. Seven hundred students of eleven grade from thirteen senior high schools both private and state in Semarang-Indonesia participated in this research. The hypotheses on this study were analyzed using product moment correlation. The results of this study showed that 1) there was a negative correlation between students' anger at school and quality relationship between parents and adolescents; 2) there was a positive relationship between students' anger at school and peer pressure; 3) there was a positive relationship between students' anger at school and narcissistic personality; 4) there was a a negative relationship between students' anger at school and school climate. Further analysis by Anova suggested that the strongest predictor for student anger was peer pressure.
Guidance and Counselling: What Is the Level of Human and Physical Resource Preparedness in Providing Effective Services in Secondary Schools in Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya?
Author: Cheruiyot, David Kipkorir
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Career Counseling,Career Guidance,Human Resources,Counseling Services,Secondary Schools,School Counselors,Qualifications,Certification,Counseling Effectiveness,Public Schools,Counselor Training,County School Districts,Resources,Questionnaires,Interviews

The gist of this study was to examine the human and resource preparedness to provide effective guidance and counselling (G&amp;C) services in secondary schools in Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya. The study used combinations of descriptive survey and correlation research designs. Stratified sampling technique was employed to select 20 principals and 20 heads of G&amp;C department while simple random sampling technique was used to select 400 students yielding a sample size of 440. Questionnaire, interview schedule and document analysis guide were used to collect data for the study. The study established that approximately two thirds of the practicing school guidance and counseling personnel did not have the required qualifications of diploma and above. Guidance and Counseling facilities were too inadequate to facilitate effective implementation of G&amp;C services in most schools within the study locale. Based on the findings, it was recommended that regular workshops on G&amp;C for public secondary school teachers and other service providers be intensified to enable them improve significantly in pedagogy and effectiveness. The importance of professional self-development and upgrading for teacher effectiveness through self-sponsored workshop attendance should be encouraged. These findings are significant to teacher counselors, Principals and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology as it will enable them to enhance G&amp;C services in schools and achieve the set objectives of school guidance and counseling program in schools.
Output Tasks, Noticing, and Learning: Teaching English Past Tense to Iranian EFL Students
Author: Khatib, Mohammad
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Morphemes,Verbs,Females,Pretests Posttests,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Comparative Analysis,Grammar,High School Students,Measures (Individuals),Statistical Analysis,Task Analysis,Language Processing,Multivariate Analysis

EFL Learners often have problems using the past tense accurately. In an attempt to solve their problem, this study was carried out to examine the effects of using two different types of output tasks on noticing and learning the English past tense. Sixty female school-age EFL learners were divided into groups of 18, 19, and 23 participants. A pretest was administered at the outset of the study, the scores of which proved that all the participants equally lacked the required accuracy in using the target structure. Therefore, five treatment sessions followed, during which the first two groups were given picture-cued writing tasks and reconstruction tasks respectively. The comparison group, however, did comprehension check-up tasks. Finally, a posttest was given. The results of the statistical analyses revealed that only the reconstruction group improved in their noticing of the target feature. However, both experimental groups equally promoted their learning of the form.
Research on the Translation of Public Signs
Author: Qiannan, Ma
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Translation,Error Analysis (Language),Error Patterns,Cultural Awareness,Context Effect,Signs

Because of the increasing international image of China, the translation of public signs in city has become the very important issue. From the point of view of cross-cultural communication, the public signs have crucial influence on the image of the city, even for the whole China. However, there exist many translation errors of the public signs in China. This paper makes some research and analysis on the Chinese-English translation of public signs. On account of the current situation of public signs' translation in China, and take the characteristics and function of the public signs into consideration, this paper proposes some main principles and strategies which public signs' translation should pay attention to.
Second Language Learners' Attitudes towards the Methods of Learning Vocabulary
Author: Ali, Zuraina
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Second Language Learning,Learning Strategies,Investigations,Student Attitudes,Vocabulary,Vocabulary Development,Cues,Dictionaries,Computer Assisted Instruction,Questionnaires,Pretests Posttests,Educational Practices,Cognitive Style,Student Surveys,Undergraduate Students,Foreign Countries

The paper aims at investigating students' learning attitudes after they are exposed to three vocabulary learning methods, namely Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The study involves 123 undergraduates, who were surveyed to identify the factors that affect their attitudes in learning vocabulary using these methods. Findings from the study using ANOVA revealed that students who were exposed to CALL showed more positive attitudes in learning vocabulary compared to other methods. This is due to the tools matching their aptitude for learning. In fact, the tools are regarded as &quot;part and parcel&quot; of the students' lives. The results of the study also showed that the usefulness and limitation of the respective methods depend on students' approaches in using them to learn vocabulary. The implications for language teaching and learning of vocabulary demand practitioners to incorporate the use of computers in their lessons. Nonetheless, they may also integrate the use of Contextual Clues, Dictionary Strategy and CALL in their teaching to accelerate the expansion of students' vocabulary.
Impact of Attitudinal Adaptation on Academic Achievement among Students: A Comparative Study of Boys and Girls in Boarding Secondary Schools in Meru County, Kenya
Author: Murithi, Grace Gatune
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Student Attitudes,Attitude Change,Academic Achievement,Comparative Analysis,Gender Differences,Boarding Schools,Secondary School Students,Questionnaires,Interviews,Statistical Analysis,Student Adjustment,Counselor Attitudes,Attitude Measures

This study sought to examine the impact of attitudinal adaptation on academic achievement among boys and girls in boarding secondary schools in Meru County in Kenya. The descriptive survey research design was adapted for the study whose sample size was 384 students, school counsellors and deputy principals in the boarding secondary schools. The research instruments consisted of questionnaires and interview schedules. Data analysis was enabled by use of the Scientific Package for Social Sciences version 20.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that attitudinal adaptation had a positive impact on academic achievement but there were no significant differences in the impact between boys and girls in boarding secondary schools within Meru County in Kenya. It was therefore recommended that school administrators needed to improve the image of secondary schools through rebranding, upgrading the furniture and equipment as well as maintaining the school compounds. The Ministry of Education could also set minimum quality standards for school resources such as size of rooms and nature of furniture and equipments while school counsellors could design programs geared towards helping students in general attitudinal adaptation.
The Effects of Foreign Language Learning on Creativity
Author: Ghonsooly, Behzad
Date: 2012-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Creativity,Thinking Skills,Bilingualism,Second Language Learning,Monolingualism,Comparative Analysis,Language Fluency,Language Proficiency,Cognitive Ability,Questionnaires,Intelligence Tests,Correlation

The present study investigates the possible influence of foreign language learning on individuals' divergent thinking abilities. Unlike the large body of research devoted to unfolding the effect of bilingualism on cognitive functions, foreign language learning has gained little attention. This study aimed at bringing into attention the distinctive nature of foreign language learning which deserves a separate line of investigation. To this end, controlling age, gender, socioeconomic status, and previous learning experiences, the performance of advanced learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and non-EFL learner monolinguals were compared on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. The findings revealed that learning English as a foreign language to an advanced level significantly enhances all four divergent thinking abilities, i.e., fluency, elaboration, originality and flexibility. Such enhancement can be attributed to specific cognitive practices that language learning brings, and the psychological consequences of being trained under a system different from school system
Perception of Gifted Students on Compulsory Subjects in Their Academic Performance a Case of Secondary Schools in Uasin Gishu County in Kenya
Author: Bundotich, Sarah
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Academically Gifted,Foreign Countries,Student Attitudes,Required Courses,Academic Achievement,Mentors,School Counseling,Teacher Attitudes,Talent Identification,Surveys,Questionnaires,Secondary School Students,Secondary School Teachers,Statistical Analysis,Teaching Methods,Guidance,Intelligence Tests,Screening Tests

Academic performance is a function of many interrelated variables including inherent study efforts, modes of teaching, school environment and students ability. Many gifted students may face myriads of academic problems, which may however, be masked by their academic prowess, yet research into this realm is limited in Kenya. The objectives of the study were: To investigate the perception of gifted students on the effects of compulsory subjects on academic performance. To establish the perception of gifted students of teacher - centred teaching methods on academic performance. To examine the perception of the gifted students of the effects of mentorship and counselling services on academic performance. To establish the perception of teachers on gifted students identification criteria on academic performance. An exploratory survey design was used. The research population consisted of 100 heads of academic departments and 153 gifted students. The sample then was 30 teachers and 120 gifted students from the sampled schools in Uasin Gishu District. Two sets of structured questionnaires were used to collect data. The sample was selected using random sampling technique and purposive sampling technique. Descriptive statistics was used in data analysis that is of frequencies and percentages. The findings were presented using tables, pie charts and figures. From the findings it was established that the gifted students perceived that the compulsory subjects were highly influential in affecting academic performance. That most of these students 48% (50) rated the teacher-centred teaching methods as poor and these teaching methods were found to affect the academic performances negatively. Absence of mentorship and guidance and counselling services affected a majority 55% (58) of the gifted students negatively academically. Identifying the gifted learners in secondary schools of Uasin Gishu was non standard. No intelligence tests were used to identify gifted learners instead evaluation test results was majorly used by 60% of the teachers to identify these learners. The study recommended that the MoE should make IQ tests available in schools. Teachers should be equipped with skills and knowledge of how to handle gifted learners in schools. Further studies should be carried out to establish how primary schools cater for these gifted learners.