Search results

Education is the most promising and prominent domain for entrepreneurs who are willing to infuse innovation and creation to initiate the change in existing educational practices. These changing agents are known as edupreneurs. Educational domain generates an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to balance work and life, both. However, women edupreneurs community needs to enhance their competencies and capacities to handle diverse issues and challenges posed by stakeholders. This paper aims to explore competencies helpful in designing a customized leadership development program, especially for women edupreneurs community.

From the extensive literature, a number of competencies for women's edupreneurs were found and 12 competencies were selected in this study after experts’ opinions. These competencies were analyzed by an integrated analytical hierarchy process (AHP)-TOPSIS approach.

The study has extracted competencies (visionary, delegative, inquisitive, learning agility, cognitive ability, self-reflection, tolerance, decisive, self-development, receptive to feedback, building partnership networks and save face) to be included in leadership development program specially designed for women edupreneurs community engage in operating child care, pre-school, primary-elementary schools and secondary-high schools, addressing the problems and issues related to students and parents community.

Future leadership development programs designed for women edupreneurs can include these competencies and trainers, educators and policymakers can follow the suggested structure for execution purpose.

This study is an initial attempt to set a benchmark for improving competencies of women edupreneurs.

Writing performance is an international issue and, while the quality of instruction is key, features of the context shape classroom practice. The issues and solutions in terms of teacher practice to address underachievement need to be considered within such a context and the purpose of the chapter is to undertake such an analysis.

Data from five different research projects (national and regional) of the author and colleagues, and two studies of the author’s doctoral students, are synthesized to identify both common and specific elements of primary/elementary (years 1–8, ages 5–13) teacher practice in writing. These data provide an indication of the practices which appear to be the most powerful levers for developing writing and for accelerating student progress in the context in which the teachers work. These practices are discussed.

The identified practices are: (1) acquiring and applying deep knowledge of your writers; (2) making connections with, and validating, relevant cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge; (3) aligning learning goals in writing with appropriately designed writing tasks and ensuring that students understand what they are learning and why; (4) providing quality feedback; (5) scaffolding self-regulation in writers; (6) differentiating instruction (while maintaining high expectations) and (7) providing targeted and direct instruction at the point of need. A discussion and a description of writing-specific instantiations of these help to illustrate their nature and the overlaps and interconnections.

As much of the data are drawn from the practices of teachers deemed to be highly effective, classroom practices associated with these teachers can be targeted as a means to improve the quality of instruction more widely in the particular context.

In this chapter we have broadly sketched the educational history of Aotearoa New Zealand to show that this historical backdrop offers a fascinating insight into contemporary debates. In the following chapters we adopt a thematic approach to the history of teacher preparation in Aotearoa New Zealand. We do not offer an institutional or chronological historical narrative, but rather, the chapters are interconnected as they re-trace, recall and re-tell this educational history. Our core thesis is that across the long history of teacher preparation these themes permeate the shifts and changes in educational policy and practice and that ruptures at particular historical moments are not unique. We draw on a number of historical examples to underscore the oftentimes personal impact of the wider policy environment and the educational stories of aspiring teachers. Importantly, we have documented the methodological approaches employed and the archival research that has influenced our reading of the materials.

This chapter focuses on teaching practices used in multigrade classes and the importance of them being incorporated in teacher education as promising pedagogies for future use. Multigrade classes – defined as classes in which two or more grades are taught together – are common worldwide. Hence, there is a need for teacher candidates to become familiar with how to teach in split grade classrooms. However, research on multigrade teaching as well as its development in teacher education studies has been neglected, even though multigrade teachers need special skills to organize instruction in their heterogeneous classrooms. We argue that in successful multigrade teaching practices, the heterogeneity of students is taken into account and cultivated. Based on content analysis of teacher interviews conducted in Austrian and Finnish primary schools, we recommend teaching practices such as spiral curricula, working plans, and peer learning as promising teacher education pedagogies for future multigrade class teaching. We also suggest that the professional skills required in high-quality teaching practices in multigrade teaching should be further studied by researchers and educators.

The 1988 Education Reform Act has profoundly affected the organisation of education in England and Wales. In common with changes in several other jurisdictions, the power of both the central government and the schools has been increased and that of the local authorities decreased. The major changes involve (a) introduction of local management of schools by school governing bodies; (b) introduction of both a national curriculum and a national scheme for assessment of pupils; (c) reduction of the operational role of local education authorities, which will become more involved in planning, policy making, and monitoring; (d) more parental choice of schools that their children attend; (e) the possibility that individual schools can apply directly for national funding; and (f) establishment of city technology colleges. Several implications of those changes are presented, together with positive and negative reactions. The applicability of some of those changes to other systems, especially in Canada, is discussed.

Nannies occupy a rather problematic position in childcare. Their presence facilitates intensive mothering for their employers’ children, while their absence from their own children facilitates distance parenting. By moving away from home and working as nannies, they enable ideal mothering for their often White, middle-class employers, seemingly at the expense of their own children. Unspoken feeling rules further complicate their provision of emotional labor in childcare, while continuous efforts to avoid strong attachment with the children under their care become a source of struggle. Employers need them as invisible extensions of themselves with limited parental authority. In order to provide for their families, nannies, who are often Black working-class single women, also make parallel childcare arrangements. These arrangements differ, as community othermothers enjoy the respect and authority that nannies do not. The continuation of their caregiver role from a distance requires active nurturing of emotional bonds despite spatial separation using a variety of means. Gift-giving also features strongly as a means to bridge physical gap between nannies and their children. As Black mothers from communities which emphasize communal childcare, their support networks are well placed to care for their children and concurrently reinforce their position as mothers – a position they do not enjoy in paid employment.

This paper aims to present the findings of a study that investigated the impact of information literacy (IL) teaching approaches, which are grounded in pedagogy, on students' level and applicability of IL competencies.

A quasi‐experimental control group study was carried out with 476 students, aged from 13 to 15 years old, from four secondary (high) schools in Singapore. The students were given a pre‐intervention test in the beginning. Out of the 476 students, 279 students (from two schools) went through a mediated learning intervention programme, while the remaining 197 students went through a multiple intelligence intervention programme. Students were organised into smaller groups of five each, and were given a group project to do. Students in the experimental sub‐clusters were exposed to the respective intervention approaches, while students in the control sub‐clusters were left on their own to carry out the project. A post‐intervention test was administered to all students at the end of the intervention programmes.

The results of the group reports and project evaluation done by three independent and neutral teacher‐examiners, as well as those from the pre‐ and post‐intervention tests, found that the application of either mediated learning (or close coaching) or multiple intelligences helped students perform better in the learning and application of IL skills.

The study managed to involve 476 students from four secondary (high) schools only. A larger number of students from more schools would have been more desirable. In addition, the inclusion of students from primary (elementary) schools and tertiary institutions would be useful in strengthening the findings. However, the study has sufficiently provided evidence that appropriate pedagogy is important in enhancing the learning and application of IL competencies amongst students. This could in turn yield initiatives on various aspects of IL‐related research, such as in IL policy formulation, and IL pedagogy.

The application of appropriate pedagogical approaches in teaching IL makes the learning and application of IL competencies more effective.

Although it is widely accepted that IL competencies are useful in helping students perform better, both academically or otherwise, limited empirical evidence is available showing the relationship between IL education and IL competencies. The paper highlights the impact of appropriate pedagogy in imparting and entrenching IL competencies in students.

This paper aims to focus on achievement level of primary grade students in different subjects taught at primary level and the factors affecting the student achievement in this regard.

The study was carried out on a sample of 1,080 students of grade 3 and 5 drawn from randomly selected 36 primary/ elementary schools from nine districts of the Punjab province. The instruments were: the achievement tests in three subjects mathematics, Urdu (national language) and life skills (Islamyat, social studies and science); and questionnaires for teachers and students to know various possible factors affecting achievement.

Results show that the achievement was the lowest in the subject of Urdu (mean 15.2) and the highest in life skills (mean 29.9) in grade 3. While in grade 5, it was the lowest in mathematics (mean 10.8) and the highest in life skills (31.63). Overall the performance of the female students was relatively better than their male partners. Location‐wise, the rural students performed better than the urban students. District‐wise, the performance of students of Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts was relatively better than the students of district Kasur and Bahawalpur. Among the factors affecting students achievement were parental education, their occupation and guidance, teacher guidance, social status, transport facility, self study, book reading and home work – all have a positive or negative correlation with students’ achievement.

This paper is of use to those wishing to understand the achievement levels of students at primary grade in developing countries.

This paper seeks to determine the relationship among school size, school culture and students' achievement at secondary level in Pakistan.

The study was descriptive (survey type). It was conducted on a sample of 90 secondary school head teachers and 540 primary, elementary and high school teachers working in the government boys secondary schools of Punjab province. Data was collected through three sources: first, statistics on education from Education Management Information System (EMIS) Punjab; second, annual results of grade 9 and 10 students of Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISEs) Punjab; and third, a questionnaire which contained 39 items at five‐point rating scale and ten items in yes/no form. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were ensured through experts' opinions and pilot testing in early 2006; the overall reliability was established at 0.967.

There was a significant correlation between school size and school culture, and school size and students' achievement. Small schools revealed positive school culture and performed better than medium and large schools.

The policy makers, administrators and managers, and teachers at secondary level may improve school culture by bringing schools to a reasonable size, which may improve the students' achievement in Pakistan. The findings may be useful for other countries of almost similar socio‐economic status to improve the quality of teaching‐learning at secondary level.