Problems of Education in the 21st Century

3-4

Authors: Editorial Board

Problems of Education in the 21st Century, ISSN 1822-7864 Volume 31, 2011

7-17

Authors: Maurice Musasia Amadalo, Duncan Wekesa Wasike, Joseph Mulei Wambua

Despite playing a central role in peoples’ daily life, the average Kenyan secondary school students’ mathematics score in national examinations has consistently averaged below 40%. The contribution of teachers’ lesson preparations and subsequent delivery leading to this poor result has not been investigated sufficiently in Kenyan secondary schools. This is especially so for topics deemed to be difficult. The present study investigated the effect of teacher preparations when teaching the topic “Vectors” to form three secondary school students. The instructional plans impact on achievement as well as on skills performance in Mathematics formed the objectives of the study. The Solomon- four experimental design was adopted. Professionally drawn Instructional Plans provided the treatment. Students’ achievement was determined using a Mathematics Achievement Test, MAT. The study determined that the use of the instructional plans improved students’ achievement and skill performance compared to the control group. Consequently use of instructional plans when teaching mathematics was recommended for improved students’ achievement. Emphasis on students’ stepwise skill performance rather than insistence on acquisition of correct answers during problem solution in mathematics was recommended.

33-44

Authors: Jiří Břehovský, Petr Emanovský

Quality of mathematical education is very actual didactic issue at present. One possibility how to increase it is a use of unconvencional experimentally inductive approach. The appropriate textbook then can be a useful helper for teacher who intends to apply this approach. There are given an analysis of the usage of inductive and deductive approach in mathematical textbooks here. The research was focused on the content of mathematics textbooks for secondary school, on their interpretative and exercise text components, respectively. The main interest was to explore the representation of inductive and deductive methods in interpretation of the mathematics textbooks and to measure the content of the exercises whose student's solution requires the use of heuristic approaches. The results of the analysis show that each author prefers a different approach to interpretation which is used in the writing of textbooks. Interpretative means most contained in all the textbooks are a direct interpretation with the motivation (34.4%), a direct interpretation without motivation (31%) and an indirect interpretation with the motivation (24.5%). Inductive and deductive interpretative means are only rarely represented in all the textbooks. The highest rate was registred in the case of task using interpretation with the motivation (7%).

56-72

Authors: Fu-Chien Kao, Wei-De Li, Han-Chieh Hsien, Chih-Hung Wang

The traditional E-learning often offers the online examination to assess the learning effect of a student after completion of the online learning. Basically, this traditional learning assessment mechanism is a passive and negative assessment mechanism, which cannot provide an real-time learning warning mechanism for teachers or students to find out problems as early as possible (including such learning conditions as “absence of mind” resulting from poor learning stage or physical or psychological factor), and the post-assessment mechanism also cannot assess the learning effectiveness provided by the online learning system. This research paper attempts to acquire the electroencephalogram to analyze the characteristic frequency band of the brainwave related to learning and formulate the learning energy index (LEI) for the learner at the time when the learner is reasoning logically via the brain-wave detector based on the cognitive neuroscience. With the established LEI, the physical and psychological conditions of an online leaner can be provided instantly for teachers for assessment. Given that the learning system is integrated into the brainwave analytic sensing component, the system not only can provide learners an instant learning warming mechanism, but also help teachers and learning partners to further understand the causes of learning disorder of learners, and can also provide relevant learning members with timely care and encouragement. This research will discuss and analyze such subjects as the electroencephalogram difference between the traditional print textbooks and the multi-medium textbooks, whether the development of exercise habit will be help to learning by means of a view of cognitive neuroscience except for the analysis of characteristic frequency band of the brainwave represented at the time when learners adopt diverse learning methods.

85-93

Authors: Liliana Mammino

The education for sustainable development is one of the major challenges of our époque, because it is the key to make sustainable development possible by fostering informed, active and convinced participation from the public. It is also a novel type of challenge, because it needs to reach the public at large, and not only learners within the formal instruction systems, and it needs to promote responses in terms of sustainable behaviour patterns. Therefore, it needs to expand beyond science education and to incorporate and utilise additional types of information in order to design the best communication options for each type of audience. On the other hand, it requires a certain level of science literacy to offer adequate motivations on proposing sustainable behaviour patterns; therefore, it may also need to address the issue of science literacy when necessary, above all when targeting the general public. After an introductory overview of the general features of these challenges, the paper focuses on the Sub Saharan Africa context and attempts to outline options for the integration of the new messages inherent in the sustainable development concept with relevant aspects of the local realities. Specific attention is given to the challenges common to science education and to sustainable development education (mostly stemming from historical reasons); to the challenges of education aimed at fostering sustainable patterns; to possible routes for the youths’ active participation in the dissemination of information and in the design of viable sustainable options; and to the importance of connections with traditional systems of knowledge and values.

101-111

Authors: Suobere T. Puyate, Iheanyi Nwokanma Okwakpam

The study on technical teachers’ factors that influence student’s academic performance in industrial education programme in Rivers State, Nigeria was carried out in Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria and Rivers State University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The population for the study comprised all students undergoing industrial programme while sample size used for study was 206 students, which comprises 96 students for Rivers State University of Science and Technology and 110 students for University of Education. The only instrument used for the study was the questionnaire. Two research questions and one null hypothesis where posed and tested for the study. The Findings of the study imply that, workshop spaces are inadequate, teacher in both institutions do not use instructional materials always, teachers do not select and use the most appropriate techniques in lesson delivery. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.

119-128

Authors: Bożena Wójtowicz

The number of secondary school graduates choosing a particular discipline to study is, to some extent, the reflection of the position of this scientific discipline and the improvement of its research achievements as well as the economical needs for such university graduates. The popularity of a particular scientific discipline is revealed in the number of applicants wanting to study the selected discipline along with the number of students. It depends on many factors, such as: changing demographic processes, social changes, the demand for specialists in the sphere of the economy, the status and the position of a particular scientific discipline, the personal interest of the individual as well as the formal conditions (e.g. limits of the accepted students, legal restrictions, demanded disciplines, etc.). In order to answer the question how popular the Geographical studies are in Poland, the statistic data of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education was analyzed. Furthermore, the questionnaires among the students of Geography in eight academic centers in Poland were conducted. The research allowed to capture the important factors that had the great impact on the interest in the sphere of the geographical studies among young people. It should allow the universities dealing with geographical studies to develop the strategies of popularization of such studies. The psychological aspect of the made choice had the considerable impact on the popularity. The main factors, which were crucial as far as the selection of the studies at the university was concerned, appeared as follow: the close distance from the university, the possibility of selecting the preferred specialty, the prestige of the university in the rankings, the family traditions.