Quality Educators for Every Child: A Pilot Professional Development Intervention in Bangladesh (Published)
Over the past two decades, best practice teaching methods have been the subject of education reform around the world. Quality Educators for Every Child (QE4EC) was an exclusive intervention in Bangladesh aimed to deliver flexible professional development for primary school teachers, focusing on pedagogical skills in the classroom (how to teach) rather than subject skills (what to teach). The endline study focused primarily on the three National Teaching Standards (Pedagogical Knowledge, Classroom Management and Assessment) and sought to measure change and improvement against the benchmark of teacher competencies established during the baseline study. This study highlights the findings from the endline survey and presents background information on the quality of education and teaching in Bangladesh. Endline findings are organized according to the three national teaching standards of focus. Finally, presents recommendations for the teachers and head teachers of the primary schools, as well as policymakers and education administrators in Bangladesh.
Keywords: Bangladesh, Child, Educators, Intervention, Teachers
Assessing the Assessors from the Student Angle: Implication for Quality Assurance in Public Secondary Schools in Lagos Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria (Published)
Visionary teachers are needed to achieve quality teaching and learning in the school. It is now firmly believed that the effective functioning of an organization depends largely on employees’ efforts that extend beyond formal role requirements. This study therefore investigated the predictive power of some quality assurance indices (school climate, principals’ leadership role, instructional supervision, availability and utilization of instructional resources) on teachers’ job effectiveness in secondary schools. Five hundred and eighty-three (583) Senior Secondary School students comprising of 268 males and 315 females were sampled for this study. Self-developed instrument tagged “Quality Assurance in Education” was employed to obtain responses from the participants. Analyses of data were done using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis fixed at the .05 significant levels. Results revealed 16% of the variance in the teachers’ job effectiveness was accounted for by the combination of instructional supervision, instructional resources, school climate, and principal leadership ((R = .817; R2 = .667; R2 (adj) = .663; F(4,582) = 20.376; p < .05). This revealed that among others that school climate was the most potent predictor (β = .300; t = 7.354; p < .05), followed by principal leadership style; (β = .279; t = 5.897; p <. 05), instructional supervision (β = .151; t = 5.098; p > .05); and lastly by instructional resources (β = .093; t = 3.765; p > .05). The findings showed that students’ assessment based on the quality assurance indices were potent in the prediction of teachers’ job effectiveness. Based on the outcome of this study, it was recommended that Since the work environment is significantly related to job effectiveness of teachers, government should encourage the support of parents, students, philanthropists, and corporate institutions in improving secondary schools’ work environment in terms of physical facilities, information services, authority-staff relationship, and staff development in order to enhance better job performance of the teachers.
Keywords: Job Effectiveness, Principals’ Leadership Role, Quality Assurance, School climate, Secondary Schools, Teachers
Principals’ Transformational Leadership Practices as Determinants of Organizational Commitment and Value Re-Orientation among Secondary School Teachers (Published)
This paper examined the transformational leadership practices of secondary school principals and the extent to which they predict organizational commitment and value re-orientation of teachers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Survey design was adopted for the study. Seven hundred and ninety-nine respondents were drawn using stratified random sampling technique from a population of 5,339 teachers for the study. One research question and two hypotheses guided the study. An instrument with 48 items titled “Principals’ Transformational Leadership Practices, Organizational Commitment and Value Re-orientation Questionnaire” was utilized for data gathering. Cronbach Alpha reliability index of the instrument was 0.88. Multiple statistical procedures such as means, standard deviation and regression analysis were employed in data analysis. The two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. From the findings it was revealed that principals’ transformational leadership practices were high, while there was a significant effect of principals’ transformational leadership practices on organizational commitment and value re-orientation of teachers. Premised on the findings of the study, it was recommended that managers of secondary education should encourage principals to adopt transformational leadership style since this has been found to positively affect organizational commitment and value re-orientation of teachers.
Keywords: Organizational Commitment, Principals, Teachers, Transformational Leadership, Value Re-orientation.
An Analysis of English Teaching Material Quality According to the English Teachers’ Response in Aceh Besar, Indonesia (Published)
The implementation of a new paradigm in the form of learning materials adopted from the outside and adapted in schools, requires the students and the teachers to change their teaching and learning behavior. Some teachers in Aceh Besar have several weaknesses in teaching. The weaknesses have not been able to get the target and introduce the wealth of the region in Aceh Besar to the students. The different learning needs are based on geographical, ethnographic, and characteristic factors of local wealth. . The results obtained are the interactive materials based on local wisdom of Aceh through a scientific approach are feasible to apply for class VII SMP in Aceh Besar District. In the next stages TPM and TPP cooperate in doing the research outcomes such as publications in international journals, inter-related proceedings of textbooks with ISSN and other targets.
Keywords: English teaching materials, Quality, Students, Teachers
Challenges Encountered By Students with Visual Impairments and Teachers In An Integrated School Environment: A Case Of Integrated Secondary Schools In Kericho District, Ainamoi Division, Kenya (Published)
The government’s effort in dealing with access and equity in the provision of education and training to children with special needs has encountered numerous challenges some of which include; lack of clear guidelines on the policy implementation of integrated education, inadequate tools and skills in identification and assessment and lack of data of children with special needs among others. This paper sought to establish the challenges encountered by students and teachers in the integrated education program for students with visual impairments. The study was carried out in Kericho District adopting a case study design. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires, focus group discussion and document analysis. A total of 200 respondents participated in the study and data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study cited a number of challenges that are experienced by the visually impaired students such as; the administration view them as a burden to school and many times they do not meet their needs like providing the necessary learning materials even though they pay fees and academic performance significantly indicated the nature of evaluation among the students in these secondary schools was clear that they are conscious about the needs of others. The government, through the Ministry of Education should provide teaching / learning resources for the visually impaired and blind students. Training for all teachers on special education should be performed. Informative campaigns at the community level with emphasis on the fact that disability is not inability are also advocated for.
Keywords: Challenges, Integrated school environment., Students with visual Impairments., Teachers
MOTIVATING AND DEMOTIVATING FACTORS AMONG KISWAHILI TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ELGEYO MARAKWET COUNTY-KEIYO SUB COUNTY, KENYA: A THEORETICAL APPROACH (Published)
This paper sought to investigate the administrative motivation factors affecting Secondary School Kiswahili teachers in Keiyo Sub County. The study was based on Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom who explained that motivation is a combination of three factors Valence, Expectancy and Instrumentality. The theory stresses that students and teachers expect to get a reward from the effort they put in their work. The paper adopted a survey research design and stratified random sampling to select teachers teaching Kiswahili from a selection of 14 schools out of the 29 schools in Keiyo Sub-County. The sample included teachers and students. Questionnaires and document analysis were used to gather data for the study which was then analyzed using descriptive statistics by frequencies, percentages, variances and standard deviations; t-test was applied in testing the hypothesis. The paper established that motivation plays a major role in contributing to good performance of students, however, most teachers felt demotivated in the school. Some of the factors contributing to demotivation include animosity from the surrounding community, poor infrastructure, lack of teaching resources, poor housing facilities, denial of study leaves or transfers as well as unwarranted blame for poor performance of students. It is recommended that Head teachers should encourage team work, provide the necessary facilities such as good housing, equipped labs, and avail necessary teaching resources as a way of motivating teachers. High quality teaching staffs are the cornerstone of a successful education system. It is thus important that teachers are motivated and any demotivation factor eliminated to ensure improved performance in schools.
Keywords: Factors, Motivation, Performance, Students, Teachers, expectancy theory
TEACHERS BELIEVE ABOUT PARENTS INVOLVEMENT IN GIRL CHILD EDUCATION AND FINANCING (Published)
The study examined the Believe of teachers about parents involvement in girl child education in the Federal Capital Territory, This is because the way at which the teachers believe the parents as a stakeholder in education involve and do their responsibility as parents has a lot of implication on the education of a Girl Child. Even though teacher as a stakeholder have a lot of role to play but a collaborative effort between parents and teachers on girl child education is more to be desired. It also aims at assessing the extent to which parents involvement in classroom teaching is perceived by teachers with less / higher qualifications. A descriptive survey research design of the expo-facto type was adopted for this study, A Teachers Believe about Parents Involvement in Girl Child Education and Financining Questionnaire (TBIGCEFQ) was used for data collection. The paper came up with some relevant recommendations.
Keywords: Child Education, Financing, Girl, Parents Involvement, Teachers
IMPACT OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) ON THE MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
This study was carried out to investigate the impact of ICT on the management and performance of secondary school teachers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Three (3) research questions and three (3) hypotheses guided the study. Three hundred (300) teachers who were sampled from three senatorial zones in the state i.e. Kwara Central, North and South were used for the data collection. The instrument utilized was researchers’ designed structured 27 items questionnaire and mean scores were used to test the hypothesis. The findings showed that many schools do not have and teachers do not use the ICT tools in their instructional activities. It was also revealed that the ICT training(s) teachers received do not have desired impact on instructional usage. The study recommended that government should partner with private organizations to provide ICT tools for secondary schools in Kwara State and that needs assessment should be carried out to determine what and types of training teachers need before they are selected to go on ICT training
Keywords: Information, Management and Performance, Teachers, Technology
TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA. (Published)
The concern of the study was to investigate into secondary school teachers’ knowledge of climate, its impacts and mitigation strategies. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used in selecting the respondents for the study. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire named Teacher Climate Change Knowledge Question (TCCKQ). The questionnaire was structured by the researchers and validated by experts. The findings revealed that teachers have the knowledge of climate change impacts on man, animals, their environment, as well as the different mitigating strategies. Revealed also is the disparity between teachers’ knowledge of climate change in urban and rural secondary schools. The implication of the findings is that success of climate change education depends on the knowledge of the teacher on the subject. It is recommended that climate change education be introduced into the teacher training institutions and regular training and workshops be organized for teachers.
Keywords: Climate Change, Knowledge, Nigeria, Rivers State, Secondary Schools, Teachers
THE IMPACT OF TEACHING LEARNING RESOURCES ON TEACHING BUSINESS MANAGEMENT (Review Completed - Accepted)
This study examined the impact of teaching learning resources on teaching business management in some selected schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. The researchers used a descriptive research design of survey type and gathered data through questionnaire. The sample of this study comprises; business management teachers and business management students in three senior high schools in the Suame District. Thus, eight (8) teachers and one hundred and twelve (112) students were selected. Three research questions guided the study. The data collected were analyzed through the computation of percentages with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings indicated the influence of teaching learning resources in teaching Business Management which include facilitating and understanding of the lesson, making teaching easy, creates an interesting environment with high class participation. Based on this finding, school heads/authorities should make it mandatory that all teachers include teaching learning resources in their lesson delivery.
Keywords: Business Management, School Authorities, Students, Teachers, Teaching Learning Resources