The Influence of Urban Poverty on Students’ Academic Optimism: Does Government Assistance Play a Role?

The present study investigated the relationship between urban poor students’ perceptions of government assistance and poverty and their level of academic optimism. A survey was administered to 500 urban poor students in two major Malaysian cities, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. The students were identified and randomly selected for the study with the help of their respective schools. AMOS version 24 was used to test the hypothesised model using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings revealed a significant direct association between students’ perceptions of poverty and academic optimism. However, no significant indirect influence was found between students’ perceptions of poverty and their academic optimism through government assistance. These findings suggest that government assistance programmes are not necessarily a contributor to students’ academic optimism. The lack of any significant influence between students’ perceptions of poverty and academic optimism, through government assistance, may indicate a need to re-evaluate the existing assistance programmes rendered by the government to students in the urban poor category.

Galicyjska recepcja Chopina. W kręgu Marceliny Czartoryskiej i Stanisława Tarnowskiego

The paper is dedicated to the role of princess Marcelina Czartoryska, a friend and student of Chopin, as an initiator of the research into his life and work, and to Stanisław Tarnowski’s essay about the composer. On 19 March 1871, in the hall of the Saski Hotel, a public lecture on Chopin was presented by Tarnowski, accompanied by Czartoryska’s magnificent performance. The income from this event was donated to Towarzystwo Wzajemnej Pomocy (mutual help association) for the support of the poor students of the Jagiellonian University. Czartoryska accompanied Tarnowski, illustrating his speech by playing the piano. Tarnowski published his work twice: in 1871 and 1892. He set the life and work of Chopin in the context of the period. Based on the sources, he reconstructed the spiritual biography of the artist, his creative personality both in terms of the psychological and the social aspects. He saw in Chopin “the fourth greatest poet of the divided Poland,” the fourth Bard.

Integrated Data-based Poverty Alleviation to Achieve SDGs

Poverty alleviation is not an easy job. Lack of coordination, inaccurate data, and slow information are factors leading to inappropriate decisions making. This research aims to learn in detail about the Integrated Social Welfare Database (ISWD) and how to use the ISWD for Poverty Programs. This research used a literature study approach through collecting, classifying, analyzing, visualizing, validating data, and drawing conclusions. The results of the research showed that the ISWD is an electronic data system containing social, economic, and demographic information in Indonesia which consists of 16 variables, namely: welfare status of households and individuals, education, health, employment, and primary information households covering the lowest share of 40% of the Indonesian population based on welfare states. The ISWD provides many benefits for the central government, regional governments in Indonesia, for example, supporting the analysis or the planning of poverty alleviation activities/programs, determining the target beneficiaries of social protection programs such as the Raskin Program, Jamkesmas, Assistance for Poor Students, Family Hope Program, and other programs managed by the regional government.

Pragmatic Sentiments and Coping Strategies of Out-Of-Field English Teachers in Public Senior High Schools

A phenomenological study was conducted to examine the challenges of out-of-field teachers in English, including their coping mechanisms and their suggested solutions to manage their sentiments in public senior high schools during the school year 2019-2020. The researcher used a one-on-one interview guide in collecting data, which were analyzed using the Ajjawi and Higgs framework of data analysis. The lack of content mastery that results in poor students’ performance is the top sentiment for out-of-field teachers, and it was hard for them to teach English as it is out of their specialization. It was found out that the out-of-field teachers employed several coping strategies and suggested solutions to DepEd to manage their sentiments, such as; acquiring competence through training, self-learning and motivating, asking for assistance from co-teachers, and to improve schools’ manpower. Hence, the researcher recommends the conduct of a comparative study on the performance of students and teachers, and regular mentoring of school heads and master teachers to aid out-of-field teachers. This calls for program mechanics that deal with alleviating the challenges that novice out-of-field teachers experience through program reforms, training and skills enhancement, professional development, and peer mentoring programs.

Enhancing the Reading for Pleasure Habit of the Students of Samtse College of Education

Reading is an essential skill for everybody especially for the students of Samtse College of Education who are future teachers. They need to read to enhance their communication skills, upgrade their knowledge and skills and be role models in reading for their students. However, we have found that the reading for pleasure habit among the students is poor. Students generally use social media during their leisure time instead of reading which is a concern both for their lecturers and the institution. An action research study was carried out to improve students’ reading for pleasure habit. Data for the study were gathered using a survey and interview. A total of 325 students completed the survey and 57 students participated in the interview. The data were collected twice; before (baseline) and after the intervention. Comparison of means was used to analyse the quantitative data and the qualitative data were analysed thematically. Following the analysis of the baseline data, three intervention strategies were employed; Our Time To Enjoy Reading (OTTER), Self-indulgence Reading, and Raffle Draw. These strategies were implemented in all the 16 classes for a period of 8 weeks. The comparison of the analysis of the pre-and post-data showed that the interventions have been effective in promoting the reading for pleasure habit of the students.

How Finance Reform May Alter Teacher and School Quality: California’s $23 Billion Initiative

Gains in school spending helped to lift achievement over the past half century. But California’s ambitious effort—progressively distributing $23 billion in yearly funding to poorer districts—has yet to reduce disparities in learning. We theorize how administrators in districts and schools, given organizational habits and labor constraints, may fail to move quality resources to disadvantaged students. We identify the exogenous portion of California’s post-2013 reform, finding that schools receiving progressively targeted funding tended to hire inexperienced teachers and disproportionately assign novices to courses serving English learners. New funding expanded the array of courses in high schools, as access to college-preparatory classes by English learners declined. These unfair mechanisms operated most strongly in high-needs schools serving larger concentrations of poor students.

Ethics, Materialism and Higher Education: The Dilemma between Career and Social Goals

This article assesses the ways in which the shifting ethical perspectives of money-orientated learned individuals influence their approach towards family, career and societal bounds. For the purpose of this study, a descriptive study of 100 college students was undertaken at a leading university in north-western India by using self-administered questionnaires with stratified random sampling procedures. A principal component (factor) analysis using varimax rotation and K-means clustering were conducted. The findings indicated that consumption communicative senior poor students and lifestyle communicative young poor students have no materialistic career goals. A high prospect for integrated career and social development is a common expectation, providing the need to assess other variables affecting integrated career and social development. Ethnicity, academic discipline and gender are factors of perspective, incitement and prospects towards ethics, materialism and career and social goals. Social interaction in consumption or lifestyle also has a significant impact on materialistic career goals and integrated career and social development. By increasing communicativeness, the probability of having low materialistic career goals also increases. Materialistic career goals of students substantially influence their integrated career and social development. Social groupings and institutional gatherings may devise new ways to inculcate social and academic ethics among their affiliates. Institutional change in instilling values in staff behaviour can result in positive outcomes and a social lifestyle.

Experience Sharing on Virtual COOP Training to Mechanical Engineering Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in December 2019, brought about a paradigm shift in the lifestyles of people worldwide due to the imposed constraints and lockdowns aimed at containing the spread of the infection. Each and every aspect of our lifestyle such as eating, travelling, socializing and learning was affected by this pandemic. Even the education sector was not untouched due to this pandemic, which caught the various stakeholders of this industry, such as the students, faculty and the administration, unaware. The education of a complete generation of kids and adults all over the world required some drastic adjustments so that their learning process would continue unaffected. Even though distance learning and online teaching have been around for a long time in the education sector, its importance was felt during this last year because of the role it played in the transfer of knowledge to students during the lockdowns wherein the students did not have access to physical classrooms and schools. Faculty, students and the administration developed new innovative ideas to adjust to this new change in teaching/learning styles and made the transition for all stakeholders a smooth and an enlightening experience. One such change had to be made in the delivery style of the cooperative program (COOP) for Mechanical engineering students at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). COOP is a 9-credit hour course that a student with a junior standing in the Applied Mechanical Engineering program (AME) has to take and pass. It requires the student to spend about seven months in the industry to learn applications in a practical environment and solve practical problems with the aid of the theoretical knowledge gained by him in the courses. However, due to the sudden lockdown in March 2020, most of the industries downed their shutters, which left these poor students halfway stranded through their COOP course. Hence, in order to cater to these students, the administration came up with the idea of substituting physical training with virtual training without compromising on the quality of the education. Comprehensive procedures on the various modules designed and delivered under this new virtual training program, the mode of instruction used, the assessment methods implemented and the experiences of the students are presented in this paper, which can be of tremendous help to various stakeholders.