ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Changing Perceptions of Teachers Regarding the Importance and Competence of Their Principals as Leaders
Author: Grobler, Bernardus
Date: 2012-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Leadership Effectiveness,Leadership Qualities,Minimum Competencies,Principals,Teacher Attitudes,Attitude Change,Intervention,Faculty Development,Pretests Posttests,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Questionnaires,Biographies,Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis

We examined the perceptions of teachers on the importance and competence of principals as leaders before and after an intervention programme on holistic leadership. The research was quantitative and contextualized in the Secunda region of Mpumalanga province in South Africa. The methodology followed a literature study and an empirical investigation in the form of a pre- and post-test experimental-type design. A structured questionnaire was administered to 400 teachers in 40 randomly selected schools divided into two groups. One group of 20 principals was provided with an intervention programme regarding the dimensions of holistic leadership.The other group of 20 principals was not exposed to the intervention programme. The perceptions of teachers from their schools were probed using a pre-post-test design. The intervention programme and biographic variables served as independent variables whilst the seven factors of holistic leadership formed the dependent variables. Principals who were exposed to the intervention programme were perceived by their teachers to be more competent than their counterparts who were not exposed to the programme.
Mass, Energy, Entropy and Exergy Rate Balance in a Ranque-Hilsh Vortex Tube
Author: Carrascal Lecumberri, Edorta
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Thermodynamics,Science Instruction,College Science,Foreign Countries,Science Laboratories,Energy,Scientific Principles,Science Experiments,Laboratory Experiments

The objective of this paper is to present a laboratory program designed for the Thermodynamics course offered in the Department of Thermal Engineering at the University of the Basque Country. With reference to one of the examples given in the textbook by Moran, Shapiro, Boettner and Bailey (2012), the balances of mass, energy, entropy and exergy are applied to a particular control volume, and the ideal gas model is used. Using a Ranque-Hilsh vortex tube (Ranque, 1934), the division of a compressed air flow into two streams at a lower pressure is achieved: one hot stream, where the temperature can exceed 100 degrees C, and another cold stream, in which temperatures can fall below -40 degrees C. Therefore, an air flow is divided into two separate hot and cold streams, without any thermal interaction with hot or cold focuses. The vortex tube is used to demonstrate the basics of the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics. In addition, this practical laboratory program can even be used to make sense of one of the best-known theoretical experiments in thermodynamics, the so-called Maxwell's demon experiment (Lewins &amp; Bejan, 1999; Liew, Zeegers, Kuerten &amp; Michalek, 2012). It should also be noted that once a compressed air source has been provided, the material needed to prepare the practicum is simple and affordable, and the lab itself is very interesting and appeals to students.
Educators' Understanding of Workplace Bullying
Author: de Wet, Corene
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Bullying,Work Environment,Inservice Teacher Education,College Students,Student Attitudes,Quality of Working Life,Questionnaires,Victims,Organizational Climate,Organizational Culture,Foreign Countries

This article looks at educators' understanding of workplace bullying through the lens of a two- dimensional model of bullying. Educators, who were furthering their studies at the University of the Free State, were invited to take part in a study on different types of bullying. Deductive, directed content analysis was used to analyse 59 participants' descriptions of workplace bullying. The study found that the theoretical model provided a valuable framework for studying bullying in this context. The analysis of the educators' descriptions provided the following insights about the relational and organisational foundations of workplace bullying: (1) The relational powerless victims are subjected to public humiliation, disregard, isolation and discrimination. The bullying of educators results in escalating apathy and disempowerment, to the detriment of their professional and private wellbeing. (2) Bullying is likely to occur in schools where organisational chaos reigns. Such schools are characterised by incompetent, unprincipled, abusive leadership, lack of accountability, fairness and transparency. (3) There is interplay between relational powerlessness and organisational chaos, i.e. the absence of principled leadership, accountability and transparency gives rise to workplace bullying.
Project-Based Learning: Application to a Research Master Subject of Thermal Engineering
Author: Arce, María Elena
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Active Learning,Student Projects,Higher Education,Foreign Countries,Heat,Engineering,Engineering Education,Independent Study,Self Management,Competence,Skill Development,Teaching Methods,Masters Programs

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) requires students to engage in more autonomous work. This autonomy is an outcome of the self-regulated learning process. Self-regulation involves a self-management skill set that can cope with any adverse contingency and requires both knowledge of the available abilities and personal control to put these skills into action. Learning the self-regulation process is a critical step in developing competences that enable the transformation of mental aptitudes into academic competences. However, it is necessary to modify the learning conditions to achieve self-regulation in an adequate way. Thus, the academic authorities should empower skills that facilitate autonomous learning and contribute tools to student proactivity. In this regard, problem-based learning is an effective method to facilitate the acquisition of traversal competences. This didactic methodology may be performed in terms of the individual or team-based learning (TBL) that is necessarily linked to a teaching-learning open system. An adaptation of Project-Based Learning (PBL) to the thermal engineering studies, i.e., the project-based learning model, was designed for the Research Master subject of &quot;Building Energetic Efficiency&quot;.
Introduction of Team Self-Regulation for Teamwork Promotion. A Case Study in Energy Engineering Topics
Author: González-Fernández, María Jesús
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Self Management,Teamwork,Active Learning,Learning Strategies,Engineering Education,Teaching Methods,Case Studies,Learning Activities,Energy,Heat,Thermodynamics,Electronics,Peer Relationship,Student Attitudes,Program Descriptions,Undergraduate Students,Foreign Countries

The learning and development of teamwork skill is only possible if its achievement is a self-building process of the student. In turn, the teachers must become guides in the process of a learning which is not limited only to the topic of their own course, but which must be imbedded with a good dose of this skill. Promotion of teamwork is not spontaneous but very often requires the use of self-regulation within teams. The aim of the paper is to elucidate if positive or negative self-regulation of teams are useful to promote teamwork. The paper presents some experiences on the use of self-regulation of teams within active teaching strategies that involve teamwork as a critical skill in engineering education. The paper presents first the fundamentals of the learning strategy adopted, intended to develop teamwork abilities in the students. It then describes the context and challenges faced up in the case studies, as well as the essentials of the learning activities proposed. Finally, the paper discusses the student's achievement and perception. Although some influence of unbalanced teams there exists, it can be stated that positive self-regulation of teams is more easily accepted by teams than the negative ones, because of the influence on interpersonal relationships amongst students. The topics involved in this experience are energy related topics such as electrical installations, heat transfer, engineering thermodynamics or theory of circuits.
Entrepreneurial Leadership Practices and School Innovativeness
Author: Akmaliah, Zaidatol
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Entrepreneurship,Instructional Leadership,Leadership Styles,Educational Innovation,Educational Improvement,Principals,Teacher Attitudes,Secondary School Teachers,Questionnaires,Data Analysis,Correlation,Statistical Analysis

Entrepreneurial leadership, as a distinctive type of leadership required for dealing with challenges and crises of current organizational settings, has increasingly been applied to improve school performance. However, there is limited research on the impact of school leaders' entrepreneurial leadership practices on school innovativeness. The main purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between principals' entrepreneurial leadership practices and school innovativeness through the teachers' perspectives. The participants included 294 Malaysian secondary school teachers in Selangor, Malaysia. A questionnaire containing 64 items (50 items on school principals' entrepreneurial leadership practices and 14 items on school innovativeness) was utilized. An analysis of the data indicates that teachers perceive entrepreneurial leadership as highly important for school principals. However, the principals practise it moderately. Furthermore, this study found a significant correlation between teachers' perceptions of school principals' entrepreneurial leadership practices and school innovativeness. Implications of the findings for developing school principals' entrepreneurial leadership and school innovativeness are discussed.
Exploring South African High School Teachers' Conceptions of the Nature of Scientific Inquiry: A Case Study
Author: Dudu, Washington T.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Inquiry,Secondary School Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Creativity,Scientific Research,Questionnaires,Semi Structured Interviews,Imagination,Cultural Influences,Teaching Methods,Science Instruction,Decision Making,Constructivism (Learning),Case Studies,Foreign Countries,Grade 11,Qualitative Research

The paper explores conceptions of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) held by five teachers who were purposively and conveniently sampled. Teachers' conceptions of the NOSI were determined using a Probes questionnaire. To confirm teachers' responses, a semi-structured interview was conducted with each teacher. The Probes questionnaire was based on six tenets of the nature of scientific inquiry but only three tenets are presented in this paper, namely: (1) scientists use a variety of methods to conduct scientific investigations; (2) scientific knowledge is socially and culturally embedded; and (3) scientific knowledge is partly the product of human creativity and imagination. The study found that the teachers held mixed NOSI conceptions. These conceptions were fluid and lacked coherence, ranging from static, empiricist-aligned to dynamic, constructivist-oriented conceptions. Although all participants expressed some views that were consistent with current, acceptable conceptions of NOSI, some held inadequate (naïve) views on the crucial three NOSI tenets. The significance of this study rests in recommending explicit teaching of NOSI during pre-service and in-service training which enables teachers to possess informed conceptions about NOSI. With these informed conceptions, teachers may internalise the instructional importance of the NOSI which, in turn, may help avoid the lack of attention to NOSI currently evidenced in teachers' instructional decisions. This might result in teachers' orientations shifting towards an explicit inquiry-based approach from that of an implicit science process and discovery approach.
CO2LD: An Educational Innovation Project for Advanced Vocational Training in Refrigeration
Author: Sánchez, Daniel
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Innovation,Vocational Education,Advanced Courses,Climate,Mechanics (Process),Scientific Concepts,Foreign Countries,Teacher Education,Secondary Education,Higher Education,Technology Transfer

Refrigeration is one of the technology sectors that has suffered the most changes in the last twenty years, because of the negative impact of the fluids used in the refrigeration cycles, i.e., refrigerants, due to their impact on the ozone layer and their contribution to global warming. As a result of their negative effects, the European Union has established several directives to restrict the use of refrigerant fluids, and the sector therefore needs to adapt to the new regulations. This process of adaptation of the refrigeration sector to the new regulations must be carried out by all the agents involved, including those engaged in the training and education of the future refrigeration technicians. To allow this to be accomplished, a project called CO2LD was developed to introduce the future technology in High Degree Professional Training in Refrigeration. The objective of the project consisted in introducing more efficient and more sustainable refrigeration systems, namely R134a/CO[subscript 2] cascade cycles, into the Advanced Vocational Training in Refrigeration studies, and in creating a collaborative framework among students, secondary schools, refrigeration technicians, refrigeration companies, and the University in order to facilitate the transfer of know-how. This paper presents the objectives of the project, describes its development, and analyzes its main conclusions.
Framing of School Violence in the South African Printed Media--(Mis)information to the Public
Author: Jacobs, Lynette
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Violence,Misconceptions,Educational Environment,Public Opinion,Stereotypes,Journalism,Social Responsibility,Mass Media Effects,Newspapers,Coding

The way in which the media report on school violence influences public perceptions, gives rise to particular attitudes and can influence decisions by policy makers. The more frequently an issue is presented in a specific way, the more likely it is for readers to perceive the media's version as the truth. Although news is assumed to be reliable, comprehensive and unprejudiced, journalism can be questioned. This study explores how school violence is framed in the South African print media. A framing analysis was done of 92 articles that appeared in 21 different public newspapers during one year. I found that the way in which the public is informed encourages the perception of school violence as being an individual, rather than a societal, problem and encourages the acceptance of assumptions and stereotypes. Typical &quot;blood-and-guts&quot; reporting is popular, while issues such as emotional and sexual violence in schools appear largely unnoticed by journalists. I argue that the main frames provided to readers in South African newspapers fail largely to elicit social responsibility, while at the same time promoting civic indifference.
Disciplinary Practices in Schools and Principles of Alternatives to Corporal Punishment Strategies
Author: Moyo, George
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Punishment,Administrative Principles,Administrative Policy,Functional Behavioral Assessment,Discipline,Discipline Policy,Case Studies,School Surveys,Predictor Variables,School Culture,Change Strategies,Educational Practices,Foreign Countries,Mixed Methods Research,Elementary Secondary Education

The aim of the study was to determine the consistency prevailing between the disciplinary practices in the schools and the principles of the Alternatives-to-Corporal Punishment strategy. The three main research questions that guided the study were to determine (1) How much variance of offences can be explained by disciplinary measures of alternative corporal punishment? (2) How well do the different measures of alternative corporal punishment predict offences? (3) Which is the best predictor of offences given a set of alternative measures? Twenty-nine schools participated in the survey and five schools participated in the case study, so the achieved sample was 34 schools. From the 29 survey schools, one principal and one Life Orientation (LO) teacher participated. All in all 58 people participated. The results revealed that 66.60% of the variation in the offence of vandalism was explained by the predictors. When vandalism was predicted it was found that School identification (ß = 0.693, p &lt; 0.05), gender (ß = -0.180, p &lt; 0.05), coordination of disciplinary committee (DC) meetings (ß = 0.116, p &lt; 0.05), communication with parents (ß = 1.070, p &lt; 0.05) and monitoring compliance to DC (ß = 0.852, p &lt; 0.05) were significant predictors. Responsibility, school location, experience as a principal, availability of policy, capacitation on discipline, counselling, recording of sanctions and monitoring implementation of sanctions were not significant predictors (varying ß and p &gt; 0.05). The results reveal that there was no established consistency between the disciplinary practices in the schools and the principles of the alternatives-to-corporal punishment strategy.
Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers' Concerns and Solutions to Overcome Them (the Case of Pamukkale University)
Author: Cevher-Kalburan, Nilgün
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Preservice Teacher Education,Student Teacher Attitudes,Performance Factors,Change Strategies,Qualitative Research,Online Surveys,Interviews,Questionnaires,Classroom Techniques,Inclusion,Special Needs Students,Parent Teacher Cooperation,Interpersonal Communication,Parent Attitudes,Administrator Behavior,Collegiality,Educational Environment,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this qualitative study is to determine early childhood pre-service teachers' concerns and solutions. One hundred early childhood pre-service teachers who were enrolled at Pamukkale University, Turkey, answered two open-ended questions by e-mail. In addition, six of these participants were interviewed for developing a deeper understanding of their concerns and solutions. Five main areas of concerns and solutions were identified as: (1) children, (2) parents, (3) school principals and colleagues, (4) environmental conditions, (5) self-orientation. This paper draws attention to the underlying reasons given by pre-service teachers about their concerns and elicits their ways of overcoming these concerns, in order to identify pre-service teachers' needs, in becoming effective teachers, and to integrate possible areas of concern in management and development of teacher education.
Performance Management: The Neglected Imperative of Accountability Systems in Education
Author: Mosoge, M. J.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Accountability,Academic Achievement,Job Performance,Governance,School Administration,Concept Formation,Teacher Attitudes,Program Implementation,Barriers,Familiarity,Value Judgment,Administrator Attitudes,Total Quality Management,Foreign Countries,Qualitative Research,Structured Interviews

The first aim of this paper is to clarify the concept &quot;performance management&quot; as an aspect of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS). The second is to report on an exploration into the experiences and perceptions of management teams in the implementation of performance management. As part of the qualitative research design, the individual interview was selected for use in this research. Fifteen participants drawn randomly from 24 schools were interviewed. The findings revealed the weakness of integrating development with appraisal since it leads to the neglect of development in favour of appraisal which is linked to incentives. A lack of knowledge and expertise on the IQMS processes such as mentoring, coaching, and monitoring was found to hamper the zeal to implement performance management. Teachers, as co-developers of education policy on the ground, act as a driving force behind the actualisation of transformation in education. The development of teachers is therefore crucial in an education system that is in the grips of transformation.
The Effects of Problem-Based Learning on Pre-Service Teachers' Critical Thinking Dispositions and Perceptions of Problem-Solving Ability
Author: Temel, Senar
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Problem Based Learning,Critical Thinking,Problem Solving,Foreign Countries,Teacher Attitudes,Mathematics Instruction,Preservice Teachers,Teaching Methods,Pretests Posttests,Control Groups,Conventional Instruction,Thinking Skills,Research Design,Experimental Groups,Statistical Analysis,Likert Scales

The aim of this study was two-fold. The first aim was to determine the levels of critical thinking disposition and perception of problem-solving ability of pre-service teachers. The second aim was to compare the effects of problem-based learning and traditional teaching methods on the critical thinking dispositions and perceptions of problem-solving ability of pre-service teachers, when implemented in the teaching of the acid-base topic. Participants for the study consisted of 49 pre-service teachers. A pre-test-post-test control group design was used. Data were obtained using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and Problem-Solving Inventory. It was generally determined that pre-service teachers exhibit low levels of critical thinking disposition and medium levels of perception of problem-solving ability. Also, while problem-based learning and traditional teaching methods did not have different effects on the critical thinking dispositions of pre-service teachers, they had different effects on their perceptions of problem-solving ability.
Learners' Experiences of Learning Support in Selected Western Cape Schools
Author: Bojuwoye, Olaniyi
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Experience,Qualitative Research,Focus Groups,Interviews,Academic Support Services,School Support,Elementary Secondary Education,Barriers,Improvement Programs,Change Strategies,Program Effectiveness,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries

The study explored Western Cape primary and secondary school learners' experiences regarding the provision and utilization of support services for improving learning. A qualitative interpretive approach was adopted and data gathered through focus group interviews involving 90 learners. Results revealed that learners received and utilized various forms of learning support from their schools, teachers, and peers. The learning support assisted in meeting learners' academic, social and emotional needs by addressing barriers to learning, creating conducive learning environments, enhancing learners' self-esteem and improving learners' academic performance.