The inclusion of Slovak Roma pupils in secondary school: contexts of language policy and planning

The arrival of large numbers of Slovak Roma to Sheffield over a relatively short period has inserted two new languages (Slovak and Romani) into an already diverse, multilingual school environment. Schools face challenges in welcoming the new migrant children, inducting and integrating them and facilitating access to the English school curriculum. This paper draws on longitudinal ethnolinguistic research in one secondary school in Sheffield that has experienced this migration and language situation and responded in a variety of ways. Utilizing an analytical framework based upon “language-in-education planning” (LEP, [Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997, Language planning. From practice to theory. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters]) and “micro language planning” (MLP, [Liddicoat & Taylor-Leech, 2014, Micro language planning for multilingual education: Agency in local contexts. Current Issues in Language Planning, 15(3), 237–244]), the various emergent practices are examined. Findings show that the school is engaging in various “unplanned” practices to surmount the language and pedagogical issues, thus highlighting the role of MLP as a necessary part of more macro LEP processes

The Influence of Value Orientations in Curriculum Decision Making

Value orientations play an important role in secondary physical education curriculum decision making by influencing the teacher's curriculum content priorities relative to student needs and interests, school context, and subject matter goals. Five value orientations mediating curricular decisions in middle and high school settings have been identified as disciplinary mastery, learning process, self-actualization, social reconstruction, and ecological integration. Curriculum research conducted to examine the value orientations of secondary teachers supports the diversity of educational value orientations in physical education. Diversity may be reflected in teachers' goals for student learning and expectations for performance. Sensitivity to the diversity in teachers' educational belief systems may enhance preparation of future secondary teachers and encourage in-service teachers to become more actively involved in planning and teaching with an increased focus on student learnin

Exploring pre-service teachers’ opportunities to learn to teach science with ICTs during teaching practice

Teaching practice is an important component of the teacher education programme that provides opportunities for pre-service teachers to learn in the context of real classrooms. In this paper, I use the framework of opportunities to learn (OTL) to analyse data from a mixed-methods study on the experiences of pre-service teachers with learning to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the teaching of science during teaching placement in schools. A sample of 103 science pre-service teachers from one mid-size university in South Africa completed a survey on their use of ICTs for subject teaching during teaching practice, 21 of whom submitted 33 actual lesson plans from teaching practice for analysis and participated in 4 focus group interviews. The findings show that the teacher education programme provided uneven opportunities to learn for students in the same cohort. These findings have implications for how universities should structure teaching practice experience for equitable OTL for all pre-service teachers, especially with respect to the integration of ICTs for subject teaching. Thus, I recommend restructuring of teacher education programmes to better the opportunities for future teachers to learn to use ICTs for subject teaching during and after teaching practice

Business Education Lecturers’ Perception of Learning Management Systems for Effective Teaching and Learning Accounting in Universities in South-East, Nigeria

Literature revealed that ICT if properly integrated into teaching and learning have the potential to improve students’ academic performance. This study focused on determining business education lecturers’ perception of learning management systems (LMS) for effective teaching and learning of accounting in universities in South-East Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from 232 lecturers from 9 universities from South-East Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using percentages and mean to answer the research questions, while null hypotheses were tested using ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that business education lecturers’ perceived LMS as an effective learning environment. Thus, 184 (79%) of them maintained that constant use of LMS in teaching improves their professional practice, while 194 (83%) lecturers agreed that using LMS in instructional delivery increases ICT skills of the students. The findings also revealed a low mean score of skills possessed by business education lecturers for effective usage of LMS for teaching and learning. Inadequate ICT trainings, poor power supply, and poor internet connection were identified as the major barriers to LMS usage. The implication of underutilization of LMS by lecturers in instructional delivery is that many students are graduated without 21st century skills required for employment. The study recommended among others that integration of LMS into all accounting courses should be made compulsory in all the universities in Nigeria. Again, both government and administrative of the universities should create special funds for sponsoring the lecturers for workshops and LMS training to improve their skill

Modelling Classroom Space Allocation at University of Rwanda-A Linear Programming Approach

Education and training play a key role as the human capital function. This is especially true for tertiary education. However, infrastructure and equipment limitations are some factors that limits levels of students\u27 enrollment in universities. This is moreso the case in developing countries where much of the infrastructure developments are donor-funded. For institutional managers and administrators, the allocating of the limited available classroom space is a constant problem that needs sophisticated approaches to deal with. Linear Optimization technique has shown promise in dealing with this problem. This research seeks to assess the Rwandan education system and highlight strides made to broaden access to tertiary education. Using data accessed from the College of Science and Technology for the 2019/2020 academic year, a linear programming model is formulated to assess the level of usage of the available classroom space at the College. The model is solved using the Dual Simplex algorithm via the Cplex solver implemented in AMPL. A solution analysis shows that, out of the 68 classrooms available on the Nyarugenge campus, only 18 with a seating capacity of 2,147 are being used to facilitate the learning of approximated 4,088 students, and that 50 classrooms with a seating capacity of 1,506 are being underutilized or not being used at all. Relevant recommendations including that the college explores the usage of virtual laboratory platforms to overcome space and material limitations associated with physical laboratories are presented

Impact of teacher value orientations on student learning in physical education

Based on the value orientation theory, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of value orientation incongruence between physical education teachers and an externally designed curriculum on student learning in a concept-based fitness-centered physical education curriculum. Physical education teachers (n = 15) with different value orientations taught an externally designed, standards-based fitness/healthful living curriculum to their middle school students (n = 3,827) in 155 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade intact classes. A pre-post assessment design was used to determine whether student fitness/healthful living knowledge gains differed in terms of teachers’ value orientations. An ANOVA on class means of residual-adjusted knowledge gain scores revealed no statistically significant differences based on value orientations. The evidence suggests that teacher value orientation impact may be mediated by curriculum impact. This finding supports the observation that a well-designed physical education curriculum may minimize the impact of teachers’ diverse value orientations on the curriculum implementation and student learning

Nonparametric approach to evaluation of economic and social development in the EU28 member states by DEA efficiency

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology is used in this study for a comparison of the dynamic efficiency of European countries over the last decade. Moreover, efficiency analysis is used to determine where resources are distributed efficiently and/or were used efficiently/inefficiently under factors of competitiveness extracted from factor analysis. DEA measures numerical grades of the efficiency of economic processes within evaluated countries and, therefore, it becomes a suitable tool for setting an efficient/inefficient position of each country. Most importantly, the DEA technique is applied to all (28) European Union (EU) countries to evaluate their technical and technological efficiency within the selected factors of competitiveness based on country competitiveness index in the 2000-2017 reference period. The main aim of the paper is to measure efficiency changes over the reference period and to analyze the level of productivity in individual countries based on the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). Empirical results confirm significant disparities among European countries and selected periods 2000-2007, 2008-2011, and 2012-2017. Finally, the study offers a comprehensive comparison and discussion of results obtained by MPI that indicate the EU countries in which policy-making authorities should aim to stimulate national development and provide more quality of life to the EU citizens.Web of Science122art. no. 7