Investigating the Instructional and Assessment Strategies That Teachers Use in Reading Classes in Elementary Schools: A UAE Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the reading strategies; and assessment strategies teachers use in their reading classes. Furthermore, it aims to explore the types of reading difficulties students face while reading English. The research is based on three research questions. Firstly, what kind of instructional strategies do elementary school teachers use in their reading classes? Secondly, what type of assessment strategies do elementary school teachers use to assess reading? Lastly, what do elementary school teachers perceive as the difficulties that their ESL learners face while reading in English? The main objectives of this research are to explore the different types of reading strategies used by teachers in reading classes, reading problems that learners face in reading classes and the types of assessments strategies used by teachers. To answer the research questions, the researcher employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The study includes a questionnaire and classroom observations. The questionnaire was distributed to 186 teachers in 13 public schools in Al Ain and the researcher observed six teachers from three different grades. The results showed that the reading strategies teachers preferred using were to predict the content of the story by looking at the cover picture or the title, reading aloud and retelling the story. The findings showed that most of the teachers frequently used answering questions, reading aloud and retelling the story as assessment strategies in the classrooms. In addition, the study revealed that the teachers viewed the inability of students to guess the meaning of words through the text as a reading difficulty student’s face. Moreover, the study revealed that the students in elementary schools, in Al Ain, faced some difficulties in reading and have difficulty in pronouncing the words, using the features of the text and identifying the main idea of the text

Examinations as instruments for educational change : investigating the washback effect of the Nepalese English exams

This study examines the washback effect of a final examination. Despite the general criticisms of a final examination for its negative influence on education, no empirical evidence was noted in the existing literature; rather some evidence for positive washback was found. The study was based on the assumption that the detrimental effect of a final exam is not inherent; whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on the design of the exam. Furthermore, the power that the exam has to influence teaching and learning, if exploited properly, can make it work as an instrument for educational change. The context of the study was English language teaching and testing at school in Nepal. The washback effect of the School Leaving Certificate English exam, an exit exam based on prescribed textbooks in terms of its content and discrete-point approach in terms of its format, was examined. A new exam of reading, grammar, note-taking and writing based on the course objectives of the SLC English course in terms of its content, and integrative-communicative approach in terms of its format was designed to use as the criterion measure of the English proficiency of the students. The new exam was administered to school leavers and students of the previous year. The performance of the school leavers on the new exam was compared with their performance on the SLC English exam, and with the performance of the students of the previous year on the new exam. The results indicate that SLC English exam had a negative washback on the teaching and learning of the SLC English course because it failed to allow the students and the teacher to work for the course objectives of the SLC English. It was concluded that washback is an inherent quality of a final exam; people whose future is affected by the exam-results work for the exam regardless of the quality of the exam. Whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on what the exam measures; if it is congruent with the sentiment and the purposes of the course objectives, it can achieve beneficial washback; if not it is bound to produce harmful washback. Innovations through the former type of exam would lead the teaching for the exam to be in accordance with it. The implications for language testing in general, and the Nepalese ELT situation in particular are presented. It is suggested that the SLC English exam should be replaced by an exam similar to the one used, in order to bring about change in the teaching of the SLC English course. Recommendations for further research are made

An investigation of event-related potentials in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences

It is well established that patients with schizophrenia exhibit a wide range of deficits in sensory and cognitive processing. Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these abnormalities are also impaired in patients with schizophrenia, as well as in first episode and prodromal patients and in unaffected family relatives. Recent evidence has documented the presence of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and other risk factors for psychosis in the general population (Kelleher and Cannon, 2011; Van Os et al, 2000). Adolescence is a critical time period that is marked by an increased vulnerability for the development of psychopathology, particularly psychosis (Poulton et al, 2000). Research has documented a relationship between the onset of psychotic symptoms in adolescence and the development of a psychotic disorder in adulthood (Poulton et al, 2000). Therefore, this group can be conceptualised as an at-risk group for psychosis. This thesis examined neural correlates of sensory and cognitive processing in adolescents with PLEs from the general population. Using the event-related potential technique (ERP), we compared adolescents with PLEs to a group of age matched controls on tasks of auditory change detection, response inhibition, receptive language and semantic comprehension. The adolescents with PLEs were characterised by reductions in mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300 amplitude on tasks of auditory discrimination and language comprehension. In comparison to the controls, the adolescents with PLEs displayed delayed latency on the P300 component and prolonged latency on the N400 component on tasks of response inhibition and language comprehension, respectively. The abnormalities observed in these tasks were evident over frontal regions, which suggested possible evidence of early frontal dysfunction in this at-risk group. Evidence of impaired neurophysiological activity in adolescents with PLEs provides important information regarding risk for psychosis a t the level of the general population

An investigation into the readability of the grade 10 physical science textbooks : a case study

In her newsletter “Curriculum News, Improving the Quality of Learning and Teaching: Planning for 2010 and Beyond”, Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, Minister of Basic Education, positions the textbook very definitely as central to the curriculum and states that it is one of the most effective tools through which to deliver the curriculum and support assessment. Acknowledging the importance of the accessibility of textbooks for the South African classroom audience, this study has sought to investigate the readability of the chemistry section of grade 10 science textbooks. Readability research is concerned with the relationship between the textbook, the reader and the context in which the book is read; research supports the use of both classical quantitative measures and a qualitative cognitive-structural form of analysis to investigate this relationship. The research design is a mixed method one where quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously: the methodical application of selected readability formulae gave rise to quantitative data while the line-by-line textual analysis, tracing cognitive-structural aspects, and focus-group discussions with teachers gave rise to the qualitative data. The results of the merged data analysis were then interpreted together to provide a better understanding of the readability of the texts for a South African audience. The results of the investigation reveal that readability is greatly impaired for a number of reasons, the primary one being a lack of articulation between the textbook writers/editors and the audience for which they are writing and preparing the texts. This is particularly reflected in the inadequate preparation of the material for the English Second Language reader, as certain textbooks are completely out of their reach. Furthermore, this lack of articulation can be traced to the lack of time available for piloting the textbooks: an invaluable intervention in the process of textbook production

Research on Teaching and Learning In Biology, Chemistry and Physics In ESERA 2013 Conference

This paper provides an overview of the topics in educational research that were published in the ESERA 2013 conference proceedings. The aim of the research was to identify what aspects of the teacher-student-content interaction were investigated frequently and what have been studied rarely. We used the categorization system developed by Kinnunen, Lampiselkä, Malmi and Meisalo (2016) and altogether 184 articles were analyzed. The analysis focused on secondary and tertiary level biology, chemistry, physics, and science education. The results showed that most of the studies focus on either the teacher’s pedagogical actions or on the student - content relationship. All other aspects were studied considerably less. For example, the teachers’ thoughts about the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the goals and the content, and the teachers’ conceptions of the students’ actions towards achieving the goals were studied only rarely. Discussion about the scope and the coverage of the research in science education in Europe is needed.Peer reviewe

EBook proceedings of the ESERA 2011 conference : science learning and citizenship

This ebook contains fourteen parts according to the strands of the ESERA 2011 conference. Each part is co-edited by one or two persons, most of them were strand chairs. All papers in this ebook correspond to accepted communications during the ESERA conference that were reviewed by two referees. Moreover the co-editors carried out a global reviewing of the papers.ESERA - European Science Education Research Associatio