Implicit Sense of Academic Futility: An Unexpected Burden From Lower Secondary Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 001312452110638
Author(s):  
Jaroslava Simonová ◽  
Jan Vyhnálek ◽  
Dominik Dvořák ◽  
Jana Straková

Vocational and professional training tracks can be a good option for many adolescents, many of whom enter these programs with a sometimes hidden burden of negative experiences and attitudes to school. This paper explores the sense of academic futility in future VET students at the end of lower secondary education. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 25 Czech students in which they described their experiences from lower secondary school, we found that despite the students’ beliefs that their achievement is the product of their own effort, they describe situations from which it is evident that they noticed (i.e., perceived) that they actually did lose control over their results. At the same time, they explicitly claim that they have full control over their own achievement. This implicit sense of academic futility is created by several mechanisms at the school level: the curriculum, ineffective teaching, grading leniency, and teachers’ distrust of students’ capabilities.

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Qaiser Suleman ◽  
Ishtiaq Hussain

The purpose of the current paper was to explore the role of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education. The objectives of the study were: (a) to investigate the role of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education; (b) to investigate the weak areas of in-service promoted secondary school heads in strengthening secondary education; and (c) to suggest workable recommendations to improve the administrative performance of in-service promoted secondary school heads. All the teachers and students at secondary school level in Kohat Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) constituted the population of the study. The study was delimited to male secondary school heads, teachers and students only. The study was further delimited to 30 secondary schools in each district of Kohat Division i.e., Karak, Kohat and Hangu. In order to ensure adequate representation of the population, 450 teachers and 900 students were selected through simple random sampling technique. The nature of the study was descriptive and questionnaires were used as research instrument. Pilot testing was conducted to eliminate the weaknesses, misconceptions and ambiguities of the questions in the questionnaires. Data was collected through personal visits. Then it was organized, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. Statistical tools, i.e., percentage and chi square were used for the statistical treatment of the data. After analysis of the data, the researchers arrived at the conclusions that the overall administrative performance of in-service promoted secondary school heads was ineffective and unproductive. They lack the qualities of effective leadership and successful administration. Based on findings of the study, it is strongly recommended that a special professional training programme regarding school administration and management should be institutionalized so that in-service promoted secondary school heads may be equipped with the modern techniques of school management and administration. KEYWORDS: Role, In-service Promoted Secondary School Heads, Strengthening, Secondary Education


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Rosalina Romero Gonzaga

The article examines the proposals and recommendations formulated by three international financial and cooperation organizations (OFyCIs) for lower secondary education (ESB), an emerging educational level in educational research. It is assumed that the lower secondary school is promoted by the OFyCI as a functional subsidiary to upper secondary education (high secondary education), reoriented and aligned toward the capitalist economy, but forgoing a critical and comprehensive development of adolescents. The discourse of the OFyCI on the compulsory nature of secondary education constitutes frames of reference that serve to reproduce their economic, political and social interests, within a context marked by educational segmentation and lack of definition of educational levels.


Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Stenseth ◽  
Unn-Doris K. Bæck

AbstractThis study explores the influence of geographical location on young pupils’ educational orientations and their transition from lower to upper secondary school; it pays particular attention to the voices of male youths from a rural area. More specifically, it investigates the interplay between gender and geographical contexts and the significance of these factors in understanding the processes associated with educational orientations. Margaret Archer’s framework is used to analyse how pupils’ agency is constrained and/or enabled by objective structures. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with 18 pupils transitioning from lower to upper secondary school in Norway. Each of the pupils was interviewed twice: first when they were in their last year of lower secondary education, and then during their first year of upper secondary education. The findings show that pupils consider geographical locations when making decisions about further education and work. In addition, they believe that education beyond compulsory schooling benefits their life in the rural areas. However, unlike their urban counterparts, pupils from rural areas appear to have a more constraining transition to upper secondary education. Through the analyses in this article, it becomes clear that both geographical location and gender are key factors for understanding processes connected to education.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Świętek ◽  
Wiktor Osuch

Education in regional geography in Poland takes place at public schools from the earliest educational stages and is compulsory until young people reach the age of adulthood. Reforms of the Polish education system, resulting in changes in the core curriculum of general education, likewise resulted in changes in the concept of education in the field of regional geography. The subject of the authors’ article is education in regional geography in the Polish education system at various educational stages. The authors’ analysis has two research goals. The first concerns changes in the education of regional geography at Polish schools; here the analysis and evaluation of the current content of education in the field of regional geography are offered. The second one is the study of the model of regional geography education in geographical studies in Poland on the example of the geographyat the Pedagogical University of Cracow. Although elements of education about one’s own region already appear in a kindergarten, they are most strongly implemented at a primary school in the form of educational paths, e.g. “Regional education – cultural heritage in the region”, and at a lower-secondary school (gymnasium) during geography classes. Owing to the current education reform, liquidating gymnasium (a lower secondary school level) and re-introducing the division of public schools into an 8-year primary school and a longer secondary school, the concept of education in regional education has inevitably changed. Currently, it is implemented in accordance with a multidisciplinary model of education consisting in weaving the content of regional education into the core curricula of various school subjects, and thus building the image of the whole region by means of viewing from different perspectives and inevitable cooperation of teachers of diverse subjects. Invariably, however, content in the field of regional geography is carried out at a primary and secondary school during geography classes. At university level, selected students – in geographical studies – receive a regional geography training. As an appropriate example one can offer A. Świętek’s original classes in “Regional Education” for geography students of a teaching specialty consisting of students designing and completing an educational trail in the area of Nowa Huta in Cracow.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-110
Author(s):  
Mariana LUNGU

In this paper, I focus my attention on the problem of teaching Japanese as part of compulsory subjects in an upper secondary education to pupils aged between 15 to 19. This article starts out with a brief overview of the Romanian education system and the current state of Japanese teaching in the upper secondary education. As compared to other educational curricula, the Romanian education system focuses on competency-based curriculum emphasizing the applicability of knowledge and the development of competences in an integrated and inter-disciplinary approach. The Japanese Language is part of that curricular area named as Language and Communication. In the Romanian educational system, the process of teaching the Japanese language starts from lower secondary school and continues to upper secondary and then to university level. In the lower secondary school, pupils study the Japanese Language as an elective subject, while in the upper secondary school, they learn Japanese as a mandatory subject of the core curriculum and as an elective one of school-based curriculum. Next, attention is paid to outline the current situation of teaching Japanese in the upper-secondary education system, providing details of our curricula, types of subjects, and specific features of Japanese classes. Forms of Japanese language education vary greatly, as well as their target students and objectives. However, the focus of all is a balanced education in the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. In addition to the Japanese language study, Japanese syllabi provide cultural and general education to learn the properties in Japanese Society and about contemporary culture.


Author(s):  
Milja Parviainen ◽  
Kaisa Aunola ◽  
Minna Torppa ◽  
Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen ◽  
Anna-Maija Poikkeus ◽  
...  

Abstract School burnout symptoms are prevalent among upper secondary education students, but thus far, very little is known about the background of these symptoms. The present study examined the extent to which school burnout symptoms (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) among upper secondary education students have their roots in primary and lower secondary school and whether early antecedents of school burnout symptoms could be identified. The sample consisted of 1544 Finnish students followed up four times (Time1–Time 4) from the end of primary school (T1; mean age 12.74 and range 11.71–14.20) to the first year of upper secondary education (T4; mean age 16.66 and range 15.55–18.39). The results of latent growth curve modeling showed that school burnout symptoms in upper secondary education were predicted by the level of school burnout symptoms at the end of primary school and by an increase in these symptoms across the transition from primary school through lower secondary school. In addition, psychological well-being, academic skills, and gender were found to contribute to the prediction of school burnout symptoms. Overall, the present study suggest that potential warning signs of school burnout should not be ignored and attention should be directed to earlier education phases.


Author(s):  
Олег Геннадиевич Якимов

В статье рассматривается проблема функционирования педагогических классов в современной образовательной практике сквозь призму перспективы и исторической ретроспективы, т. е. в контексте истории развития педагогического образования в России. Цель исследования - научное обоснование педагогических классов как социокультурного и социально-экономического феноменов на основе рассмотрения их в историческом аспекте. Для реализации данной цели автором проводится анализ истории российской практики создания педагогических классов как прообраза современной системы предпрофессиональной подготовки педагогических кадров в системе среднего образования, выявляются социокультурные доминанты и социально-экономические предпосылки организации педагогических классов. Определены этапы становления системы педагогических классов в России. Дана сущностная характеристика педагогических классов, обозначены целевые ориентиры их создания и функционирования в системе профильного обучения в общеобразовательной школе, критериальные особенности, что позволяет рассматривать их как социокультурный и социально-экономический феномен. The article examines the problem of functioning of pedagogical classes in modern educational practice through in historical perspective in the context of the history of the development of pedagogical education in Russia. The author aims to scientifically justify pedagogical classes as socio-cultural and socio-economic phenomena in historical perspective. To achieve this goal, the author analyzes the history of the Russian practice of creating pedagogical classes, as a prototype of the modern system of pre-professional training of teachers in secondary education; reveals the socio-cultural dominants and socio-economic prerequisites of the organization of pedagogical classes; identifies the stages of formation of the system of pedagogical classes in Russia; provides the essential characteristics of the pedagogical classes, the targets of their creation and functioning in the subject-oriented system in the secondary school, which allows to consider them as socio-cultural and socio-economic phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Päivi Ojala

Practical laboratory activities have become more common in primary and secondary education with the current curriculum. In lower secondary school, laboratory work in chemistry and physics has been used even longer. The central issues of laboratory work becoming more common are how the activities are organized, safety of the laboratory work, and evaluation. Laboratory work has been taken into account in evaluation in many different ways, for example, a written assignment has been complemented with a practical assignment. The evaluation method provides those who can practically and manually demonstrate activeness and skill with the possibility to succeed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
Majda Fiksl ◽  
Boris Aberšek

To achieve successful teaching in the 21st century school, teachers must change their didactical approaches in order to create a stimulating pro-activeness in a pleasant classroom climate for better development of student’s achievement. A classroom climate in the present research means the combination of variables within a classroom that work together to promote learning in a comfortable environment. In the present research, classroom’s climate will be evaluated, and what kind of influence different didactical approaches have on the atmosphere in the classroom. The classroom climate of two 6th grade classes at a lower secondary school will be studied: a class with traditional methods of teaching and a class with innovative methods, as regards searching for ideas, monitoring the students’ progress and giving instructions. Students in both classes filled out a questionnaire with thirteen statements, which included three dimensions of a classroom atmosphere: personal relationship, contribution to the class and research work. The results confirmed a change in the perception of the classroom climate, depending on different innovative didactical approaches. The values of individual dimensions are higher in the class with innovative methods, which was confirmed with a better atmosphere in this class and an increased activeness of the students. When introducing changes in an educational process, it is necessary to establish a positive classroom atmosphere. Key words: active learning, classroom atmosphere (climate), innovative didactical approaches, lower secondary education, structure of education.


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