scholarly journals Validating an evaluation school functionality tool

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Roper ◽  
Leticia Taimo ◽  
Jennifer L. Bisgard ◽  
Katharine Tjasink
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Validation Process ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Build Time ◽  
The Status ◽  
Specific Assessment ◽  
Context Specific

Background: Evaluators are cognisant of the need to determine the effects of an intervention within its context.Objectives: In education evaluations, there was a gap in context-specific assessment tools to determine the status of school functionality with the ultimate aim of examining whether there is a relationship between school functionality context and teaching and learning outcomes. To meet evaluation standards, evaluators must ensure that evaluation tools and data are accurately measuring the indicators and variables. The focus of the article is on lessons learned from a tool validation process. These are shared to guide evaluators in similar settings.Method: Khulisa Management Services (Khulisa) has conducted research and evaluations in South African schools since 1993. In 2011, Khulisa developed a school functionality tool based on local and international literature, engagement with key stakeholders, and through a series of implementation phases over various evaluations. The tool identifies high functional, functional, stagnant but functional and dysfunctional schools. The authors of this article undertook a reflection process to evaluate the evidence gathered to support the meaningfulness, usefulness and appropriateness of the tool properties.Results: Lessons from the validation process include the need to build time and resources for validation from the beginning, validating a tool over time and across evaluations adds value, training of data collectors is critical, and analysis is important towards establishing the consistency and reliability of a tool.Conclusion: While reliability analysis and the validation process are ongoing, preliminary results show that the tool has potential to document context appropriately.

The Transmission of Knowledge in South African Traditional Healing

Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Thornton
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Medical Doctors ◽  
Mpumalanga Province ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Training

‘Traditional healers’ (sangomas) in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, are organized into ‘schools’ around a senior teacher (gobela). Healing is understood by its practioners to be a profession, not a religion or even a spiritual exercise. Healers actively assess the effectiveness of their healing methods, transmit their knowledge to each other, and evaluate each others’ performances in ways that stray far from the mere transmission of ‘tradition’. Clients are likely to pay sangomas as much as they would medical doctors for their services, which are not limited to the medical. Their practices can be divided into roughly six ‘disciplines’: divination, herbs, control of ancestral spirits, the cult of foreign ndzawe spirits, drumming and dancing, and training of new sangomas. The status of sangoma is achieved through an arduous process of teaching and learning through which the student or initiate is simultaneously ‘healed’ and educated to become a member of the profession that coheres around these knowledge practices.

scholarly journals THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ICT IN TEACHING THE PREFIX PEN-

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-194
Author(s):  
Sanisah Rahim ◽  
Nuraishah Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Immediate Feedback ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Level Of Understanding

This study examines the effectiveness of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as one of the Formative Assessment tools in the teaching and learning of Malay Language grammar. This study focuses on the level of understanding and understanding of pupils on the lessons learned through the application of Nearpod. The subject involved in this study were 26 students of Primary 4. They are from middle and high progress students. Through Nearpod Application, teachers can monitor and evaluate students' learning-related lessons. Teachers are able to give immediate feedback as students’ responses will be flashed on the projector screen. Peer assessments are also used in this lesson. Through teacher observation, the Nearpod Application was successfully used as one of the Formative Assessment tools. The findings show that 90% of students are able to understand the use of prefix peN- clearly. This application can also arouse students’ interest to learn Malay in a fun environment.

scholarly journals “Students Make History Every Day Just by Sitting on These Steps”: Performative Spaces and Re-Genring in the South

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Hunma
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Textual Practices ◽  
Conception Of Teaching ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Lived Spaces ◽  
Physical Spaces

Students’ call for decolonising the curriculum has triggered deep reflection about what we teach and how we teach it, but equally, about the role of pedagogic spaces in recognising students as agents in their learning. This paper is situated within the field of academic literacies, where students’ engagement with texts is seen as being context-specific, and involving assertions of agency to various degrees. The added dimension here is the embedding of digital literacies, defined as a set of customised online practices, into a writing-intensive, first year, foundational course at a South African university, to favour the acquisition of academic literacies. The analysis of different spaces becomes crucial in grasping how innovative forms teaching and learning may take place. In his trialectics of space, Lefebvre distinguishes between perceived, conceived and lived spaces. Butler would refer to lived spaces as “performative” ones, “congealing” into form through iterative use. Online learning spaces may well turn into performative spaces as students inhabit them, interact with online resources and explore their spatial boundaries. I perform a discourse analysis of students’ textual practices on the online and physical spaces, to explore how students reproduce or subvert genre categories through processes of “re-genring.” Furthermore, I share the extent to which such pedagogic spaces become performative, the power dynamics that emerge, and their effects on our traditional conception of teaching and learning in higher education.

A Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists' Approaches to Assessing Social Communication Disorders in Children

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Kristen Izaryk ◽  
Robin Edge ◽  
Dawn Lechwar
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Teacher Report ◽  
Formal Assessment ◽  
Language Sampling ◽  
Specific Assessment ◽  
Social Communication Disorders

Purpose The purpose of this article is to explore and describe the approaches and specific assessment tools that speech-language pathologists are currently using to assess social communication disorders (SCDs) in children, in relation to current best practices. Method Ninety-four speech-language pathologists completed an online survey asking them to identify which of the following approaches they use to assess children with SCD: parent/teacher report, naturalistic observation, formal assessment, language sample analysis, interviews, semistructured tasks, and peer/self-report. Participants were also asked to identify specific assessment tools they use within each approach. Results Participants most commonly assess SCDs by combining interviews, naturalistic observation, language sampling, parent/teacher report, and formal assessment. Semistructured tasks and peer/self-report tools were less frequently utilized. Several established parent/teacher report and formal assessment tools were commonly identified for assessing SCDs. Most participants use an informal approach for interviews, language sampling, and naturalistic observations in their SCD assessment process. Conclusions Generally, participants follow best practices for assessing SCDs by combining several different approaches. Some considerations for future assessment are identified, including the use of established protocols in the place of informal approaches in order to make the assessment of SCDs more systematic. Future directions for research are discussed.

Implementation status of antimicrobial stewardship programs in hospitals: A quantitative analysis study in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

MedPharmRes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
Thi-Hai-Yen Nguyen ◽  
Truong Van Dat ◽  
Phuong-Thao Huynh ◽  
Chi-Thuong Tang ◽  
Vinh-Chau Van Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Multi Drug Resistance ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Clostridioides Difficile ◽  
The Status ◽  
Specific Assessment ◽  
Implementation Status

Vietnam has one of the highest multi drug resistance in Asia. Although, despite many efforts to implement the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (the ASP) since 2016, studies that on the implementation policy are very lacking of this program are limited. For that reason, we conducted this cross-sectional study to analyze the viewpoint of health workers (HWs) on the implementation of the ASP at some hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). An assessment of 234 HWs showed that the implementation of the ASP in HCMC hospitals was above average (62.7/100.0). A barrier to the implementation consisted of the deficiency in finances, guidelines for diagnosis, and specific interventions for some common infections, such as distributing current antibiogram and monitoring rate of Clostridioides difficile infections. These were the widely recognized problems in initially implementing the ASP. Although most HWs are aware of the importance of implementing the ASP (79.1%), the specific assessment has not been recorded clearly due to the numerous neutral responses. Despite the support of the leadership, the implementation still faces many difficulties and limitations, especially in 3rd and 4th class hospitals. Besides, there was a lack of wide dissemination of information on the ASP at each unit. To generalize the status of the ASP implementation, researchers should conduct qualitative and quantitative studies with a larger scale.

Forest Management In Mongolia – A Review Of Challenges And Lessons Learned With Special Reference To Degradation And Deforestation

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gradel ◽  
Gerelbaatar Sukhbaatar ◽  
Daniel Karthe ◽  
Hoduck Kang
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Health ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Driven System ◽  
The Status

The natural conditions, climate change and socio-economic challenges related to the transformation from a socialistic society towards a market-driven system make the implementation of sustainable land management practices in Mongolia especially complicated. Forests play an important role in land management. In addition to providing resources and ecosystem functions, Mongolian forests protect against land degradation.We conducted a literature review of the status of forest management in Mongolia and lessons learned, with special consideration to halting deforestation and degradation. We grouped our review into seven challenges relevant to developing regionally adapted forest management systems that both safeguard forest health and consider socio-economic needs. In our review, we found that current forest management in Mongolia is not always sustainable, and that some practices lack scientific grounding. An overwhelming number of sources noticed a decrease in forest area and quality during the last decades, although afforestation initiatives are reported to have increased. We found that they have had, with few exceptions, only limited success. During our review, however, we found a number of case studies that presented or proposed promising approaches to (re-)establishing and managing forests. These studies are further supported by a body of literature that examines how forest administration, and local participation can be modified to better support sustainable forestry. Based on our review, we conclude that it is necessary to integrate capacity development and forest research into holistic initiatives. A special focus should be given to the linkages between vegetation cover and the hydrological regime.

A CUSTOMISED FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE PODCAST INTEGRATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Shane Pachagadu ◽  
Liezel Nel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Effective Integration

Numerous studies have explored the potential of podcast integration in teaching and learning environments. This paper first presents and organises perspectives from literature in a conceptual framework for the effective integration of podcasting in higher education. An empirical study is then discussed in which the guidelines presented in the framework were evaluated for applicability in a selected course at a South African University of Technology. Since the results of the study revealed a number of aspects not accounted for in the conceptual framework, the framework was customised to make it more applicable for the particular higher education environment. The customised framework identifies four principles and a series of related guidelines for the effective integration of podcasts in a South African higher education teaching and learning environment. This framework can become a valuable resource for effective podcast integration in similar environments.

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