Conceptualizing school effectiveness

The theoretical status of existing school effectiveness models is analyzed by using perspectives from organizational theory and models of classroom effectiveness. This leads to the formulation of a basic framework for conceptualizing school effectiveness that includes variables at the levels of the school, the context of the school and the classroom, while background variables of pupils are also taken into account. One of the conclusions is that hypothesis construction and empirical research on cross-level relationships within this basic framework are of central importance to enhance our understanding of school effectiveness

Education Reform for the Digital Era

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals forestalled? Missed opportunities seized

Engaging Higher Education Students Through Tweeting

Social media such as Twitter helps engage learners and promotes interaction with course content. Twitter allows learners and educators to interact via “tweets” via Smartphones, laptops, or any device with Internet access. This presentation will demonstrate how to use Twitter as a platform for discussion, polling, question and answer sessions, and other collaborative interactions in a higher education classroom. It will step educators through the process of setting up a Twitter account and the process of planning a lesson with Twitter applications

Students’ Perception of Vodcast and Podcast as Instructional Material

The study was conducted to examine students’ perception of vodcast and podcast as instructional material. The study employed a survey research design. The total sample size for the study was two hundred and twenty-five (225) respondents. Data was analyzed and presented using mean statistic and standard deviation. Hypothesis for the study was analyzed using t-test with a p≤0.05 level of significance. Students in the study to a low extent (=1.97) agreed that vodcast and podcast increase productivity, promote creativity and facilitate academic learning. Respondents are of the view that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka postgraduate program is not yet advanced enough to use vodcast and podcast technologies for teaching students (=2.88). Unavailability of technologies had a significant influence on barriers that hinder students from using vodcast and podcast. Based on the findings and conclusion, it is recommended among others, that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka organize a capacity building workshop hinged on the use of top-notch technology for 21st century education; that departments in the university should motivate lecturers to employ technological tools in teaching through incentives as these will encourage every lecturer to key into the move