NOTES BY THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ON THE CURRICULUM STUDY GROUP AND THE MINISTRY'S PILOT SCHEME FOR THE TEACHING OF FRENCH IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

1964 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-85
Author(s):  
Sophie Ahono Maninji

Writing can be used to measure learning of the other three language skills and written materials be used for reference in future. Creative writing (CW) is the production of texts which have an aesthetic rather than a purely informative, instrumental or pragmatic purpose. It is a personal writing where the purpose is to express thoughts, feeling and emotions in an imaginative, unique, and sometimes poetic way. Of all the four language skills, creative writing is a high order skill that calls for molding through appropriate pedagogical approaches. In Kenya, English is both an examinable subject and a language of instruction. CW accounts for 40% of the total score in English subject. However, over 62% of learners fail to achieve writing competence at the end of primary course. Primary schools in Vihiga County have persistently underperformed in CW with more than (70%) of Class 8 learners scoring below the average mean mark. Despite this underperformance, only a few studies on CW pedagogy are available. CW studies conducted in Kenya have established that 60 % of teachers find it difficult to teach CW while 75% of learners find it boring. These have implications for pedagogy and students’ writing enthusiasm. The objective of this study was to explore the use genre pedagogic approach and its effectiveness in the development of CW skills. Archer’s theory of reflexivity which views writing as internal and external conversations was used. The study used qualitative exploratory research design and the study was conducted in Vihiga County. The data collection tools were Lesson Observation Schedule and Interview Schedule whose validity and reliability were tested through triangulation. From Class 6-8, 30 lessons in 10 purposively selected schools were observed and 30 teachers whose lessons had been observed were interviewed. Data were analyzed thematically through transcription, coding and identification of themes. The key finding was: inappropriate use of genre approach due to teachers’ knowledge gaps on CW pedagogical approaches. The study recommended that teachers of English use genre approaches appropriately in CW pedagogy and the Ministry of Education to in-service teachers of English on CW approaches. The results are useful to teachers of English and Teacher Training Institutions. KEY WORDS: Approaches, Genre Approach Creative Writing and Upper Primary Learners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
Yoong Soo May ◽  
Fu Sai Hoe ◽  
Wong Wei Lun ◽  
Lijuan Shen

This study aims to examine the perceptions of primary school teachers in Malaysia regarding dyscalculia using a survey. The researchers conducted the study using a quantitative design. The survey data had been collected using a questionnaire. The survey data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The questionnaire was adapted from Chinn’s (2020) checklist for dyscalculia with permission from Professor Dr. Steve Chinn. Thirty Mathematics teachers from Year One to Year Three in primary schools were randomly chosen. The severity of dyscalculia were analysed by using means and standard deviations. In contrast, independent t-tests were used to compare the severity of dyscalculia between school locations, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the severity of dyscalculia between different school types. According to teachers’ perceptions, the difficulty level for dyscalculic pupils in our country is medium-high (M=3.684, σ=.994). There is no significant difference in dyscalculia severity between school locations (p=.243, p>.05). However, there is a significant difference in dyscalculia severity between school types (p=.007, p.05). Dyscalculic pupils need to be detected since primary schools. The future agenda for this study is to design and develop an instrument in order to detect the dyscalculic pupils among the population. The disparities in dyscalculia severity levels between school types and s are important for the Ministry of Education, educators, teachers, and researchers. This is because it will be useful to determine the allocations of funding and resources so that the learning capability for pupils with different learning abilities can be improved to the maximum.


1993 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Carlson ◽  
Charles R. Johnson ◽  
David C. Lay ◽  
A. Duane Porter

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Stephanie Yang ◽  
Hsueh-Chih Chen ◽  
Wen-Ching Chen ◽  
Cheng-Hong Yang

Education competitiveness is a key feature of national competitiveness. It is crucial for nations to develop and enhance student and teacher potential to increase national competitiveness. The decreasing population of children has caused a series of social problems in many developed countries, directly affecting education and com.petitiveness in an international environment. In Taiwan, a low birthrate has had a large impact on schools at every level because of a substantial decrease in enrollment and a surplus of teachers. Therefore, close attention must be paid to these trends. In this study, combining a whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and support vector regression (WOASVR) was proposed to determine trends of student and teacher numbers in Taiwan for higher accuracy in time-series forecasting analysis. To select the most suitable support vector kernel parameters, WOA was applied. Data collected from the Ministry of Education datasets of student and teacher numbers between 1991 and 2018 were used to examine the proposed method. Analysis revealed that the numbers of students and teachers decreased annually except in private primary schools. A comparison of the forecasting results obtained from WOASVR and other common models indicated that WOASVR provided the lowest mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE) for all analyzed datasets. Forecasting performed using the WOASVR method can provide accurate data for use in developing education policies and responses.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1070-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Padilla ◽  
Rosalinda Diaz ◽  
Alfonso Alarcon ◽  
Roberto Barreda

This study sought to examine whether the administration of quinfamide at 3- or 6-month intervals diminished the frequency ofEntamoeba histolyticacysts in stool samples compared to controls. The prospective, longitudinal, randomized, single-blind study examined children from six primary schools in Celaya and Neutla, Guanajuato. Of the 1,524 students in these schools, we selected participants for the study as follows: Children were included in the study if their parents agreed in writing to the study and if the children demonstrated evidence ofE. histolyticacysts after a parasitoscopic analysis by concentration (PSC) in three samples over consecutive days using Faust’s method. Those included in the study received a single 4.3-g/kg dose of quinfamide, and we performed PSC on days 5, 6, and 7 following dose administration to examine whether quinfamide had affected the presence of the cysts. The study participants who tested negative for cysts were divided into three groups: Group 1 had 102 patients who underwent quinfamide treatment and three CPS analyses after the 12 months of the study; Group 2 had 98 subjects who underwent the quinfamide treatment and three CPS analyses at months 3, 6, 9, and 12 after their entrance into the study; and Group 3 had 102 patients, who underwent the quinfamide treatment and series of three CPS analyses at months 6 and 12 of the study. All participants received the dose of quinfamide after providing stool samples and after a clinical gastrointestinal history was obtained. Further clinical gastrointestinal data were collected 5 days after the quintamide dose was administered. We used EpiInfo 6.0 for statistical analysis, calculatingX2andpvalues for the clinical data and the CPS data after the 12 months concluded. Of the initial samples of 1,524 subjects, 308 (20.2%) had Entamoebic cysts. Of these, six were further eliminated because they did not meet the inclusion requirements. At the conclusion of the study, Group 1 presented with 37.6% of subjects still testing positive for cysts; of Group 2, 12.5% tested positive; and in Group 3, 23.5% of participants tested positive for cysts (X2= 16.8; df = 2;p= 0.0002). For comparisons of groups 1 and 2 and 1 and 3,p> 0.05. We conclude that antiamoebic chemoprophylaxis can be a choice for control of amoebic infection where personal hygiene and food consumption habits are not improving.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1306-C1306
Author(s):  
Ricardo Baggio ◽  
Pablo Botta ◽  
Florencia Di Salvo ◽  
Sebastián Klinke ◽  
Griselda Narda ◽  
...  

"The history of Crystallography in Argentina is very rich, probably starting with the pioneer work of Prof. Ernesto Galloni in the decade of the `40s. Thanks to Prof. Galloni, the National Committee of Crystallography was founded in 1958 and recognized by the IUCr in 1960. This committee organized several scientific meetings and was in good contact with the Ibero American Crystallography Group during about 35 years. After some crisis in the late `90s, some young crystallographers decided to reorganize the activities and form the Argentinian Association of Crystallography (AACr), which was finally founded on October 30th, 2004, on the occasion of the ""National Workshop on Crystallography"" held in Villa Giardino, Province of Córdoba. Therefore, in the International Year of Crystallography, the AACr is also celebrating its tenth anniversary. The regular annual events of the AACr are a scientific meeting, a school on Crystallography and a workshop. This year, they will be held in Mar del Plata (Province of Buenos Aires) in the period of October 27th-Novembre 7th. In addition, many other academic activities such workshops or postgraduate courses are being organized in the whole country. It is worth to remark the School on Fundamental Crystallography to be held in La Plata, followed by an Agilent-UNESCO-IUCr OpenLab in La Plata and Buenos Aires, in April-May. Moreover, taking into account that Crystallography is a field that needs more promotion in our country, the AACr decided to propitiate several educational and dissemination activities. They include a national crystal growing contest, promotion of Crystallography in high and primary schools through the National Fairs of Science of the Ministry of Education, dissemination talks for different audiences, exhibitions, etc. Acknowledgements: The AACr thanks all the crystallographers that are working hard in these activities: G. Echeverría, O. Piro, S. Suárez, M. Saleta, D. Tobía, R. Carbonio, G. Aurelio, J. Pedregosa, F. Doctorovich, S. Conconi, L. Baqué, F. Napolitano, S. Alconchel, C. Alvarez, A. Ares, C. Bernini, S. Brühl, M. Dailoff, M.A. Foi, M. Harvey, M.S. Lassa, S. Montoro, E. Pannunzio Miner, etc."


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Asha Bekidusa ◽  
Dr. JohnBosco Kisimbii

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of school feeding program on the retention of learners in public primary schools.Methodology: This study was conducted through a descriptive survey research design. A descriptive survey is a present oriented methodology used to investigate populations by selecting samples to analyze and discover occurrences. The survey focused on 60 out of the 188 head teachers and teachers who are beneficiaries of school milk program in all the six sub counties in Mombasa i.e. Mvita, Kisauni, Likoni, Nyali, Jomvu and Changamwe.This gives 31.9 % of the total number of participants in this project. To obtain the study sample for descriptive studies 10% of the accessible population is enough. Simple random and purposive sampling procedures were used in this research.Results: School feeding program influences retention of learners in public primary schools with a reliability value of 0.8 which is considered minimal acceptable thus rejecting null hypothesis therefore meaning that school feeding program has a significant effect on retention of learners in pubic primary schools.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: School feeding programmes are often designed to enhance academic performance and cognitive development. Improved nutritional status of school-age children leads to better attention and cognition, and thus, better educational outcome. School feeding can improve attentiveness in class by reducing short-term hunger many children come to school on an empty stomach, yet they remain surrounded by the distracting and disturbing facets of the crisis. The study recommends that the ministry of education should review the School feeding Programme and extend it upper primary classes. They should prioritize supply of food to ensure continuous provision and adequate supply of food for pupils. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Mónica Fontana ◽  
Martin Ariapa ◽  
Gillian Atuheire

INTRODUCTION. As highlighted in the 2018 Uganda Education Response Plan, reading levels in refugee host communities are way below the national average. Since the 2018 National Assessment of Progress in Education report highlighted some challenging areas to the in-service teachers, a possible explanation for the persistent poor performance of learners in reading may reside with the finding that many educators themselves lack an understanding of the linguistic construct. Therefore, an informed training for teachers in primary schools was implemented to help them foster learners’ reading skills. The purpose of this paper is consequently to analyse whether learners whose teachers participated in the evidence-based intervention have better reading skills than those whose teachers did not participate in the intervention. METHOD. To achieve this, a quasi-experimental pre-program/post-program design, involving 2 schools, 24 teachers (12 per school), and 297 learners (157 from treatment and 140 from control) from Palabek (Uganda) refugee settlement was adopted. FINDINGS. The findings show that the reading skills of learners whose teachers participated in the intervention significantly improved as compared to their counterparts. Particularly, learners’ reading skills significantly improved in the areas of letter sound knowledge, segmenting knowledge, and nonword decoding, and slightly in oral passage reading and comprehension, and English vocabulary. DISCUSSION. This study therefore supported the hypothesis linked to the Peter Effect - one cannot be expected to give what they do not possess and raised a need for the Ministry of Education and Sports to mandate sufficient and informed training of teachers.


Teachers Work ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Rix ◽  
Ross Bernay

This study investigated the effects of an eight-week mindfulness in schools programme delivered in five primary schools in New Zealand. The participants included 126 students ranging in age from 6-11 years old and six classroom teachers. The programme was developed by one of our researchers (Rix) to align with The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) and with a bi-cultural focus in mind. A Māori model of hauora (holistic well-being), Te Whare Tapa Wha, was incorporated as a key element of the programme. Te Whare Tapa Wha describes a Māori perspective on health and well-being which suggests that the house (whare) and its parts are viewed as a metaphor for different aspects of one’s health such that if one part of a house (or one’s health) is not in order, then there will be an effect of the other parts of the house (an individual’s health). Thus, physical health, spiritual health, family health and mental health are all interconnected for a person’s well-being, which is also a critical aspect of mindfulness. Classroom teachers were asked to complete fortnightly journal entries as part of a qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of the programme. A follow-up survey was completed three months after the last mindfulness class to assess any potential long term effects. Findings suggest that the programme may be efficacious for increasing calm, reduced stress, and improved focus and attention. In addition, results indicated enhanced self-awareness, and the development of positive relationships. A number of these outcomes were observed in both students and classroom teachers. These findings suggest that mindfulness practice can make a strong contribution to the key competencies outlined in the New Zealand curriculum. The design of the programme, findings of the study, and future recommendations for implementing mindfulness practice in New Zealand schools are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Alex Mbonabi ILUKENA ◽  
Christina Nyarai UTETE ◽  
Chosi KASANDA

This research paper reports strategies used by Grade 6 learners in multiplying whole numbers in five selected primary schools in Kavango East and West regions. A total of 200 learners’ mathematics exercise books were analysed in order to identify the commonly used strategies by learners in multiplying whole numbers. A total of ten teachers teaching grade 6 mathematics were also requested to complete a questionnaire which required them to indicate the strategies that they employed in class when teaching multiplication of whole numbers. The teachers indicated that they used a variety of strategies including repeated addition, complete-number (Including doubling), partitioning and compensation to teach multiplication of whole numbers. The results also disclosed that the majority of the learners’ mathematics exercise books reflected the use of the traditional method of repeated addition contrary to the teachers’ claims. It was also found that a few of the learners used other strategies such as long method, short method and learner “invented” strategies. Additionally, the mathematics curriculum for upper primary learners (Grade 4-7 mathematics syllabus) requires learners to use paper and pencil algorithms to carry out multiplication of whole numbers without calculators (Ministry of Education, Arts & Culture [MoEAC], 2015, p. 2). However, at Grade 6, learners were expected to use paper and pencil algorithms to multiply numbers within the range 0-100000. Analysis of the learners’ exercise books indicated that the majority were not able to multiply a two digit by a single digit, a two digit by a two digit and a three digit by a two digit number.


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