scholarly journals Preparing Adolescents for the Uncertain Future: Concepts, Tools and Strategies for Teaching Anthropogenic Environmental Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6832
Author(s):  
Xi Xiang ◽  
Michael E Meadows
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
School Students ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Geospatial Technology ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Responding To Change ◽  
Future Concepts

Humankind is increasingly being challenged by anthropogenic environmental changes and society needs to be better equipped with knowledge, skills and values to adapt to these changes. This poses new challenges for school education. We propose a framework towards future-oriented education by addressing three issues: a) How can the school curriculum be reframed to take account of anthropogenic environmental changes? b) What difficulties do students encounter when learning about these changes? c) What learning tools and pedagogical strategies are best suited to effectively and efficiently teach about environmental changes? An example is provided, whereby secondary school students engage with the topic of deforestation using geospatial technology. This study informs curriculum makers and instructors in providing education that enhances adolescents’ understanding of the uncertain world and increases their ability to be proactive, rather than merely responding to change.

scholarly journals The plans and aspirations of teenage students in semi-rural Timor-Leste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anna Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Good Life ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Education And Development

<p>While there is wide agreement that education supports development, there is also much scholarship to suggest that the potential benefits of education are only fully realised when education systems are well-adapted to local needs. Systems left by colonial in newly independent developing countries, for instance, can impede the achievement of their development goals.  This project focused on the plans and aspirations of secondary school students in Ermera subdistrict, a semi-rural region of Timor-Leste, in order to explore the relationship between education and local livelihoods. Three case study communities in Ermera vila, Ponilala and Mirtutu were examined. Guided by the concept of the ‘good life’, I sought to reveal what students, parents and educators hope to get out of education and development. This enabled me to assess whether the schooling that students are receiving is supporting their future goals.  The methodology combined ethnographic observation with other qualitative and quantitative data collection. It comprised twenty-two weeks in-country: volunteering, and conducting surveys and interviews. The ensuing data analysis draws on education theory, alternative development theory, and decolonisation theory.  Overall I found that the secondary school curriculum is Western-oriented, and focused on getting students into university rather than on preparing them for the kinds of lives they are likely to lead. Students overwhelmingly aspire to university or vocational study, once they leave school. Conceptions of the good life in the three communities centre on social connectedness and opportunities for the next generation. While there is an evident disconnect between the content of available secondary education and local livelihood realities, there have been successful initiatives from within all three communities to expand education over the past twenty years to include local skills and epistemologies. An extension of these efforts to create a more diverse education, with the inclusion of agriculture as a learning topic, could give students the best chance of gaining secure work and leading comfortable lives in the future.</p>

scholarly journals The effect of providing educational sessions about sexually transmitted diseases on knowledge and attitudes of secondary school students at Zagazig City

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Samia Farouk Mahmoud ◽  
Naeima Mohamed El-Sayed Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
School Students ◽  
Major Health Problem ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
Knowledge And Attitudes ◽  
Knowledge And Attitude

Background and objective: Sexually Transmitted Diseases are a major health problem that affects mostly young people. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of providing educational sessions about Sexually Transmitted Diseases on knowledge and attitude of secondary school students.Methods: A quasi-experimental research design was used in carrying out the study. The study was conducted at four governmental public secondary schools in Zagazig City, 367 secondary school students from the previously mentioned settings were included in the study. Two tools were used to collect necessary data: Tools (I): An interview questionnaire sheet; It was consisted of two parts: Part (A) entailed questions pertaining to socio demographic characteristics of the students, while part (B) included questions regarding student’s knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases. Tool (II): It was intended to assess student's attitude toward sexually transmitted diseases.Results: Pre, post and follow up students’ knowledge and attitude tests after sessions implementation revealed highly statistically significant improvement in students’ knowledge and attitudes (p < .001), which justified the research hypothesis.Conclusions: The educational sessions significantly brought out improvements in the knowledge and attitudes of adolescent students regarding sexually transmitted diseases. The study recommended an educational program about all types of sexually transmitted diseases to be included into the secondary school curriculum and media enlightenment campaigns about these diseases should also be emphasized. 

ENGAGING SCHOOL STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS WITH THE PRACTICE OF STATISTICS

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
PETER HOWLEY ◽  
TIM ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Statistics Education ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Primary And Secondary School

This paper describes a national statistics-oriented project-based learning activity, which has been delivered annually for five years in Australia and the outcomes of a particular collaboration of this initiative with the discipline of environmental sustainability. The national initiative engages primary- and secondary-school students from varied backgrounds and education levels in quantitative-based investigations. It develops key future workplace skills aligned with national school-curriculum outcomes and motivates students by enabling them to take the lead, determine the context, collaborate, investigate, and create. An underlying delivery model connects primary- and secondary-school students with tertiary educators, industry, and the practice of statistics. A pre-post cross-sectional study revealed significant improvements in students’ and teachers’ confidence with, and awareness of, the field of statistics. Australian school teachers are saying, “21st Century learning at its best” and “motivates and engages students.” Industry mentors are saying, “provides students a unique opportunity.” Students are saying, “engaging, educational and enjoyable.” The activity has engaged some eighty schools, and annually several hundred students participate. First published February 2020 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

Positive youth development and academic behavior in Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel T.L. Shek ◽  
Florence K.Y. Wu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Positive Youth Development ◽  
Life Skills ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
School Students ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Academic Confidence

AbstractWith the launching of the education reform in Hong Kong, the secondary school structure was changed from 7 years to 6 years in the 2006–07 school year. This paper describes Secondary four students’ views about the new secondary school curriculum, including their confidence and related stress. The students were also asked to assess the importance of life skills and its perceived adequacy in the formal curriculum. Results showed that roughly four-tenths of the students did not feel confident about their study and around six-tenths felt stressed. Although most of the students agreed that life skills were important, around 37% of them thought that the coverage of such knowledge in the formal curriculum was not adequate. Consistent with our hypotheses, academic confidence, academic stress, support provided by the school, and positive youth development were significantly related, with positive youth development predicting academic confidence.

scholarly journals Instructional guidelines based on conceptions of students and scientists about economic and population growth within planetary boundaries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Lampert ◽  
Kai Niebert ◽  
Markus Wilhelm
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
School Students ◽  
Senior Secondary School ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global Environmental Changes ◽  
Senior Secondary

AbstractThe burden placed by human activities on Earth is ever-increasing. Global environmental changes have profoundly affected the Earth’s core systems and processes, thus, risking their stability. These core systems and processes are described in the planetary boundary framework. The drastic rate of environmental change over the last 200 years, which is also known as the Great Acceleration, has been depicted graphically by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. This study is aimed to (1) examine the conceptions of students and scientists regarding socioeconomic growth within planetary boundaries, and (2) develop instructional guidelines based on the comparison of their conceptions. Accordingly, relevant conceptions of 22 junior and 20 senior secondary school students were analyzed. Scientists’ conceptions were extracted by thoroughly analyzing nine publications, which were selected by systematic literature search. Student statements and scientific inferences were coded following established protocols. Our results indicated that junior and senior secondary school students considered global population growth to be the primary cause of global environmental changes. On the contrary, the scientists considered the quantity of natural resources consumed by rich countries in their economic pursuits as the most critical factor in environmental degradation. Based on our findings, we proposed instructional guidelines for planning lessons on changing current socioeconomic systems to enable humans to live within planetary boundaries.

scholarly journals THE USE OF FORUM THEATRE AS CREATIVE PEDAGOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MORAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MALAYSIA

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-324
Author(s):  
Nadarajan Thambu ◽  
Ganesan Shanmugavelu ◽  
Zulkufli Mahayudin
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Classroom Teaching ◽  
School Students ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Forum Theatre

Implementing teaching and learning, to raise the dimension of moral reasoning among students, is still a major challenge to secondary school teachers. Pedagogy and classroom teaching strategies is important to stimulate students to think critically and pro-active in addressing a moral and social conflict. Furthermore, one of the aspirations of Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is to produce a creative, innovative and critical thinking society in Malaysia. Conventional classroom teaching seems difficult to attract secondary school students to engage physically and mentally in moral learning process. In this regard, the use of pedagogical strategies and innovative teaching techniques can stimulate students' cognitive skills to current demands. Therefore, this article discusses the use of Forum Theatre as a creative pedagogical strategies in teaching and learning of moral education in secondary school. Creative teaching strategies that are able to develop reasonable thought and justification, is essential for the development of human capital in the era of globalization. KEYWORDS : Pedagogy, Creativity, Moral Education, Technique, Strategies, Teaching, Learning

scholarly journals The plans and aspirations of teenage students in semi-rural Timor-Leste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anna Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Good Life ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Education And Development

<p>While there is wide agreement that education supports development, there is also much scholarship to suggest that the potential benefits of education are only fully realised when education systems are well-adapted to local needs. Systems left by colonial in newly independent developing countries, for instance, can impede the achievement of their development goals.  This project focused on the plans and aspirations of secondary school students in Ermera subdistrict, a semi-rural region of Timor-Leste, in order to explore the relationship between education and local livelihoods. Three case study communities in Ermera vila, Ponilala and Mirtutu were examined. Guided by the concept of the ‘good life’, I sought to reveal what students, parents and educators hope to get out of education and development. This enabled me to assess whether the schooling that students are receiving is supporting their future goals.  The methodology combined ethnographic observation with other qualitative and quantitative data collection. It comprised twenty-two weeks in-country: volunteering, and conducting surveys and interviews. The ensuing data analysis draws on education theory, alternative development theory, and decolonisation theory.  Overall I found that the secondary school curriculum is Western-oriented, and focused on getting students into university rather than on preparing them for the kinds of lives they are likely to lead. Students overwhelmingly aspire to university or vocational study, once they leave school. Conceptions of the good life in the three communities centre on social connectedness and opportunities for the next generation. While there is an evident disconnect between the content of available secondary education and local livelihood realities, there have been successful initiatives from within all three communities to expand education over the past twenty years to include local skills and epistemologies. An extension of these efforts to create a more diverse education, with the inclusion of agriculture as a learning topic, could give students the best chance of gaining secure work and leading comfortable lives in the future.</p>

scholarly journals Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibel Erduran ◽  
Liam Guilfoyle ◽  
Wonyong Park
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Secondary School Teachers ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
School Subjects ◽  
Quantitative Results

Abstract Argumentation, the justification of claims with reasons and/or evidence, has emerged as a significant educational goal in science education in recent years. It has also been noted as an important pedagogical approach in numerous school subjects. Yet, there is limited understanding of how teachers’ views of argumentation and its teaching compare in different school subjects. In order to ensure coherence in the implementation of the school curriculum, it is important to understand such views particularly in the context of subjects that are often positioned to be in conflict with each other, for example in the context of science versus religious education. In this paper, we present an empirical study on how science and religious education teachers view argumentation and its teaching. The data are drawn from a survey of secondary school teachers of 11–16-year-old students in England. Twenty-nine teachers were presented with an online survey in order to collect data on various aspects of their views including pedagogical strategies that support argumentation. Qualitative and quantitative results suggest that teachers of both subjects consider argumentation to be a significant aspect of their subject although particular nuances exist in how the teachers interpret argumentation. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are statistically significant differences in terms of the perceived frequency of pedagogical strategies used to support argumentation in lessons.

scholarly journals Quality Improvement and Time to Lift the Ban on Mobile Phones in Secondary Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Zvavahera Promise ◽  
Chigora Farai
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
School Students ◽  
Internet Service

This study was conducted over three months from March to May 2018, at a time when modern mobile phones possess various functions that are invaluable for learning, teaching and communication purposes. Whilst some countries with a quest to improve quality of education, have embraced the continuously evolving technological capacities of mobile phones for educational purposes, secondary school pupils in Zimbabwe are prohibited from using mobile phones in class as these are viewed to be disruptive rather than useful. This study investigated stakeholders’ perceptions of potential utilisation of cell phones by secondary school students as learning tools that enhance quality of education. The sample included 15 secondary schools in Mazowe District. From these, the District Education Officials, headmasters, teachers, pupils and parents were given questionnaires to complete. Validation interviews were conducted for triangulation purposes. The findings revealed strong positive responses in favour of allowing the utilisation of mobile phones as learning tools in Zimbabwean secondary schools although some challenges in the implementation process were cited. These included possibilities of: student distraction in class; cheating; inappropriate video recording of class events and the publication of captured material on social platforms which could be harmful to other learners and the school. The issue of cost of data also came up. The study recommended the removal of the blanket ban on the use of mobile phones; instead, school authorities were encouraged to focus on developing strategies for addressing the implementation challenges cited. It is also critical to make sure that accessible cheap data be made available to learners in secondary schools. Schools in Zimbabwe should form networks so that cheap data is made available by sharing the networks. Schools in Zimbabwe, like institutions of higher learning, are encouraged to embrace the National Research and Education Network (NREN) concept which specialises in internet service provision dedicated to supporting the needs of education in Zimbabwe.

Information literacy skills of secondary school students in Singapore

2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schubert Foo ◽  
Shaheen Majid ◽  
Intan Azura Mokhtar ◽  
Xue Zhang ◽  
Yun-Ke Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Family Background ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
School Students ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – This study aimed to acquire knowledge about Singapore secondary school (ages 13 to 16 years old) students' skills in searching, evaluating and using information. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive instrument encompassing the basic information literacy (IL) skills, as well as a new dimension of ethical usage of information and collaborative information seeking was used for data collection. From August to November 2010, a total of eight schools comprising 3,164 students participated in this study. Findings – It was a matter of concern that various kinds of libraries, including school libraries, were found to be under-utilized. From the test that was administered to assess the IL skills of students, the results were found to be generally unsatisfactory as each of the major categories of IL skills recorded a score that is below 50 (out of a maximum of 100) except for “task definition”. For skills related to “information seeking strategies”, “location & access” and “information use”, the types of schools, academic streams of study, and students' family background seemed to have significant influences. Originality/value – This study is the first large-scale survey conducted in Singapore that sought to test the IL skills of secondary school students. The findings are useful in assessing the current effectiveness of IL integration, and the need for a more planned approach towards IL competency training within the school curriculum in Singapore.

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