DEVELOPING COGNITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH EDUCATION

Author(s):  
Beatrice Namusonge Manyasi

Environmental sustainability focuses on protecting environmental resources such as water, land, forests and biodiversity, among others. The relationship between human beings and nature is essential. Human beings need a healthy productive life without undermining the environmental needs of present and future generations. Social communities ought to develop their economy making intellectual decisions pertaining to the management of their natural resources so as not to compromise the needs of future generations. The study sought to establish the effectiveness of the approach used in teaching environmental education in secondary schools in Kenya by investigating the cognition of first year university students about environmental concerns and their effects. Qualitative research methodology was used. The techniques used to generate data were interviews and audio-recording. Findings revealed that respondents lacked cognition about how human beings negatively affect the environment and the challenges experienced by them as a result of the negative effects. The approach used in teaching environmental education in secondary schools in Kenya is not effective. It goes against the principle of using the preventive approach to protect the environment through education. It is essential to develop appropriate policies and reform the curriculum in basic education to enable learners to move from nature appreciation and awareness to education for an ecologically sustainable future. Environmental Education can be used as a context of integration for learning with other subjects including English Language Teaching.

Author(s):  
Rahma Al-Mahrooqi ◽  
Faisal Said Al-Maamari ◽  
Christopher Denman

The chapter employed a corpus-based approach to evaluate the representation of prepositions in the Omani Basic Education English language teaching (ELT) school textbooks in Grades 1-4. In doing so, it sought to investigate English preposition distribution patterns in the textbooks in order to understand more about how Omani learners are introduced to them. To achieve this, a corpus of Omani ELT school textbooks was used and a qualitative page-by-page content analysis performed through manual content analysis. Findings indicate that prepositions were not presented with enough frequency for learners to be adequately exposed to them across all grades. Moreover, results suggest that the textbook writers have not considered the frequency distribution of patterns of prepositions during the textbook design phase. Practical implications of these results are offered.


Author(s):  
Muriel M. Grosbois ◽  
Cédric G. Sarré

This chapter examines how pre-service teachers specializing in English Language Teaching (ELT) in secondary schools can learn to teach for Next-Generation Education by developing professional skills that are in line with today and tomorrow's technology-mediated environments. To face this challenge, some specific CALL-based ELT training combining action and reflection has recently been introduced in the Education Department at Paris-Sorbonne University. In order to examine the specific CALL-based ELT training offered in light of the set objective, its theoretical underpinnings will first be considered. The design and content of a CALL-based ELT course and of an online tutoring module will then be studied. The pre-service teachers' perception of this CALL-based ELT training will then be explored through the results of online surveys. Conclusions will be drawn from these results and future directions will be outlined.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 147-157
Author(s):  
SM Kamruddin Ropum ◽  
Md Yasin Arafat

Smart teacher smart class (STSC) is a portal developed by Dnet which contains curriculum, teachers’ guide, education policy, textbook, lesson plan, multimedia contents, and teaching-learning strategies on different subjects aiming to provide content and pedagogical support to the secondary school teachers in Bangladesh. Making an offline CD, the STSC portal is provided to the respective teachers of secondary schools Dnet works with. The regular use of the STSC portal helps the teachers to improve their knowledge about effective teaching-learning techniques. The study was designed as one group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental method to find the effect of STSC portal on secondary school English teachers’ English language teaching knowledge (ELTK). Twenty eight English teachers from 14 secondary schools were selected purposively to form the group and the tests were administered on them considering 6 months intervention (STSC portal) period. The test was adapted from Cambridge language teaching knowledge (TKT) test focusing on different ELT aspects. The tests scores of the teachers were categorized in 4 knowledge levels: limited, basic, deep and extensive. The findings of the study show that the STSC portal induces a significant improvement of the teachers’ ELTK. Most of the teachers showed better performances in the post-test than the pre-test. Moreover, significance (0.001) and effect size score (0.91) also depict a clear and large effect in enhancing teachers’ ELTK. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12087 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 147-157


Author(s):  
Rudolf N. Akongoh

Speaking is an important language skill that deserves a place both in English language teaching and English language assessment. However, the assessment of speaking in Cameroonian secondary schools is still neglected in many teacher-based English language tests. Often, attempts made to assess the skill are done either almost always indirectly or informally, leaving a wide gap between tenets professed in the Competency-Based Approach (CBA) to English language teaching and practice in the field. In 2012, the government of Cameroon officially introduced the CBA as the pedagogic paradigm for the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL), and by extension, assessment in secondary schools. Eight years down the line, little seems to have changed concerning the way speaking has always been assessed, even though the CBA requires that learners practically demonstrate knowledge, skills and values in testing situations. This article set out to evaluate the contribution of teacher training to the assessment of speaking. Data was collected through qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 259 questionnaires were administered to examiners of the June 2019 marking session of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (CGCE) as well as members of the Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers’ Association (CAMELTA). Also, four interviews were conducted with the maximum variation principle in mind. The findings revealed that teacher training, both pre-service and in-service, is a major factor responsible for the neglect of speaking in assessments. It was recommended that teacher-training institutions introduce or expand courses on testing to include direct assessment of speaking and that opportunities be created for in-service teachers to acquire certification on assessment within the framework of the CBA to English language teaching.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Steven Sylvester Bockarie ◽  
Michael Sahr Bengu

The study entitled 'Constraints in English Language Teaching and Learning in Senior Secondary Schools: Strategies for Implementation' seeks to unravel the myriad of problems in teaching and learning the English Language in senior secondary schools and offers strategies that can be implemented to salvage the situation. Learning to teach is more than simply knowing the results of research and theory; it always involves learning the ‘craft’ of classroom exposition, explanation, organization, and guidance. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does. To guide the study, three research questions were posed. The questions examined the following three variables: (1) the constraints in teaching English; (2) the constraints in learning English; and (3) strategies for implementation in senior secondary schools. The research will be carried out in two senior secondary schools in Kenema City, Eastern Sierra Leone (Government Senior Secondary School and Methodist Senior Secondary School). The study revealed that: the lack of adequate teaching and learning materials, poor pedagogical and academic subject matter competency, and the negative attitude of students towards the English Language, account for the major constraints in the teaching and learning of the subject.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Xi

The present study aimed to 1) investigate English teachers’ perspectives on using music in English teaching in Thai secondary schools; and 2) explore the problems teachers met while using music to teach English in Thai secondary schools. Participants in the present study were 55 English teachers from different secondary schools in central Bangkok, Thailand. The instrument for the current study was a questionnaire which included 24 Likert-scale items about teachers’ perspectives involving the attitudes, beliefs, intentions and problems of using music in English teaching, and one open-ended question asking about the problems teachers met while using music in their English teaching. Results from the quantitative data of the current study revealed the significantly positive attitudes and beliefs of the English teachers in Thai secondary schools on using music in English teaching, however, the results of open-ended question mismatched with the teachers’ attitudes and beliefs, which indicated that teachers actually did not use music in their English teaching frequently. The reasons and recommendations for future research have been discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
Renu Singh

Technology integration in English language teaching (ELT) has changed the mode of classroom instruction at school. The use of modern technologies at public secondary schools within Nepal is a big challenge. This study explores students ‘perspectives on technology integration in English language teaching at public secondary schools in Nepal. The study was framed under qualitative research design that used focus group discussion to gather data from the six groups of students in the Kathmandu valley. The thematic analysis of their views under different categories revealed that the ELT with technology integration is a dire need for developing students’ language proficiency. Additionally, the results show that the learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) are aware of the advantages of teaching with technology but the insufficient ICT infrastructure at school and the lack of EFL teachers’ professional skills and knowledge of integrating technology into their daily pedagogical practices are main obstacles of technology integration. The study points out implications for ELT practitioners, researchers, policy makers of ICT in education along with stakeholders.


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