Journal of Advances in Education Research

9

Authors: Kamal Prasad Koirala

This paper explores the effect of practical work on students' achievement in science at secondary level in Gorkha district, Nepal. The research was carried out using Quasi-Experimental pretest/ posttest research design. For carrying out the research, two schools of Gorkha district were selected purposively. For the collection of data, the researcher developed test items as the main instrument. Items were selected by analyzing difficulty level and discrimination index through pilot study. Then prepared test items were pretested to both schools and responses were checked and scored the result of pretest. The experiment group was taught using practical approach for one term while the control group was taught using the traditional methods. At the end of instructional period, both groups were post-tested with the same set of the test items in each school. The result of pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed at 0.05 level of significance using SPSS version 20 for the score of achievement test to find out the significance difference between two mean score of control group and experimental group. This study showed that mean achievement score of students taught by using practical approach resulted higher students achievement score of students in science. This study also revealed that the practical approach is more effective in science teaching at secondary level. So science teachers should be encouraged to incorporate this method in teaching.

3

Authors: David Palmer

Interest is currently thought to be an important construct that it can influence student motivation. It has widely been recognized that there are long-term and short-term forms of interest (often referred to as individual interest and situational interest, respectively), but it has not always been recognized that these may interact. For example, the term actualized individual interest can be used to refer to the arousal of interest that occurs when educational material aligns with one’s preexisting individual interest. This form of interest is important because it results in high level and persistent engagement in learning, yet it is not a widely studied phenomenon. The purpose of the present commentary is to bring attention to this important construct, with the aim of promoting conversation among researchers.

4

Authors: Yuqing He, Jiaoyang Nie

The purpose of this paper is to figure out the successful experience of western educational model that act as a reference for traditional Chinese education and the reform of Chinese educational model and method. Comparison is carried out on school education and family education between China and western countries. For school education, the comparison is carried out on the basic method, teaching model and enrollment system; for family education, the comparison is carried out on cultivating consciousness, psychological cultivation and responsibility education.

14

Authors: Anders Breidlid

This article discusses the relationship between education and armed conflict in Sudan and South Sudan, and particularly the role of teachers in peace and reconciliation efforts. The periods covered are the North-South civil war from 1955 to 2005, the interim period between 2005 and 2011 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the current civil war in South Sudan which started two years after South Sudan’s independence in 2013. The article shows that teachers are not always promoters of peace and reconciliation, and that their teaching in class to a large extent is context-dependent. The teachers in the Islamic schools during the first civil war had few options but to teach according to the Islamic curriculum and thus cemented the self-Other dichotomy between the Northerners and the Southerners in the conflict-ridden country. Moreover, the article shows that the teachers in the liberation areas in the South during the first civil war chose deliberately a confrontation strategy against their oppressors from the North that coincided with the resistance war. In the civil war inside South Sudan from 2013 a different teaching pattern emerged where the teachers discussed openly the atrocities of the North during the first civil war, but applied an avoidance strategy in class when teaching about the civil war inside the South. It was perceived to be less of a dilemma to teach contemporary history without touching upon domestic conflict and ethnic rivalry than to teach about conflicts in the South which seriously undermined any idea of social cohesion. Undoubtedly, the teachers felt strongly that it was necessary to treat history teaching carefully, and that there is a fine line between what should and should not be told. There was a perception among teachers that debating the domestic civil war might cause unrest and conflict in class whereas any discussion of the South-North war would not since very few, if any of the students had any allegiance to the North and the Islamic discourse. The article thus raises the question of the relationship between the teachers’ solutions to these dilemmas and education’s role in conflict situations.

4

Authors: Zhang Jin’e

"Gender"1 (le genre) is a typical grammatical feature of French nouns. Compared with English, this is a prominent feature of French, and this feature also constitutes one of the difficulties in French learning. Accurately remember French nouns’ gender is the basis for the proper use of articles and adjectives. The study and mastery of French nouns’ gender often causes great trouble to Chinese French learners, especially to English majors who take French as a second foreign language. Even native French speakers do not understand the gender of all nouns, and the mastery of gender is acquired rather than inherent. This paper mainly summarizes some methods and techniques of French nouns’ gender acquisition and memory from the formation of nouns in order to help Chinese French learners better learn and master the French nouns.

11

Authors: Joseph M. Furner

Math anxiety remains a critical issue affecting student performance and confidence across grade levels throughout the world. This shares data on math anxiety trends and discusses how students’ poor attitudes toward math can be the real disability for them in life. This paper provides much research and recommendations of best practices for teaching math and addressing such concerns in light of the reality of math anxiety existing in a world where we are preparing our young people for a STEM world. Research, best practices for teaching, strategies, and a survey are included.

23

Authors: Joseph G. Claudet

This article presents an overview and critical appraisal of current turnaround leadership challenges confronting education leaders today in the design, development, and provision of quality education and social development opportunities for the world’s children and youth. Three specific turnaround leadership challenge areas in global education and social development are identified for review. Within each of these three challenge areas, some emerging best practices involving current regional and global collaboration initiatives that demonstrate considerable promise for advancing education and social development opportunities for the world’s children and youth are highlighted. The article includes a literature-informed discussion of important dimensions of each of the three identified global education and social development challenge areas along with an appraisal of some creative educational program design ideas for expanding young people’s access to high-quality education and career advancement opportunities. Finally, a number of practical education leadership action strategies are offered that educators – working in a variety of education organizations in diverse countries and regions of the world – can consider employing as intentional means to expand and deepen their ongoing educational mentoring and developmental support of children and youth in ways that help young people maximize their twenty-first-century job/career prospects and life-long learning opportunities.

10

Authors: Evangelia Krevetzakis

The aim of this paper is to reclaim the value of movement/physical activity, and hence the value of physical education in the school curriculum. The paper discusses, on the one hand, the role of movement/physical activity in the context of learning, by citing the relevant research literature, and more specifically the benefits of including movement/physical activity in the school curriculum (e.g., improvement of students’ short-term and long-term memory, stress reduction, invigoration of existing brain cells, growth of new neural connections, increase in focus and retention, regulation of students’ energy), and, on the other hand, the role of the human body in the process of concept development and meaning making. The implications of this discussion for an integrated approach to the teaching and learning of physical education is also discussed, something that can be used as a justification of physical education as a school subject which can contribute to students’ general education.

12

Authors: Michele Tine

It is essential to understand the strengths and weaknesses of students from distinct contexts so efficacious support can be designed. But, thus far research samples have been drawn almost exclusively from urban areas. Inadvertently, urban findings have been generalized to rural populations. This study addresses this issue by (a) comparing the unique cognitive processing abilities of students who grew up in low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural, and high-income urban contexts and (b) determining the relationship between their cognitive processing and academic achievement. Participants completed cognitive processing tasks measuring incidental memory, language, and inhibition as well as an academic achievement task. Low-income rural students exhibited distinct patterns from low-income urban students. The low-income rural students had lower inhibition scores and, unlike the other three groups, inhibition did not account for a signification portion of variance in their academic achievement scores. Potential explanations and implications of these rural-urban differences are discussed.

4

Authors: Xu Yifei

With the promotion of economic globalization, cultural diversity, market economy and social transformation, the subject, object, form and organization of voluntary services also change gradually. By measures like conducting matrix management, building two-way information platform and offering professional courses, a long-term voluntary service mechanism is established, which can be used as reference in dealing with the new problems brought by such revolution.

6

Authors: Fang Hongfeng

From the application of new media in learning, this paper divides new media learning into two categories: application in traditional classroom and network learning, and expounds the changes brought about by the development of science and technology to the two types of learning modes and the current situation of new media learning. It predicts the possibility of new media network education extending from online learning to online self-study, then to academic education, as well as the possibility of adaptive learning, and the change of learning style theory under the influence of new media and network development.

8

Authors: Qin Xu, Lili Yan

Based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis and from the perspective of involvement load and task type of the task design, this study aims to investigate the effects of task-induced involvement and different task types on incidental vocabulary acquisition in senior high school students. In this study, three parallel classes of Grade 10 from a senior high school in Xin County are selected as participants and they are divided as three parallel treatment groups assigned with three different reading tasks respectively. The three tasks are multiple choice questions after reading comprehension, gap-filling after looking up target words in the dictionary, and answering related questions with original sentences. Upon finishing the tasks, an immediate vocabulary test and a delayed vocabulary test one week later are carried out. Both quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis are applied to analyze the data collected. Major research findings are presented below: (1) Reading tasks with higher involvement loads generally lead to better initial word gains and delayed word gains than tasks with lower involvement loads but both fail to bring about satisfying retention effect of vocabulary. (2) With the same involvement load, there is no significant difference between the effect of the interpretive task and the productive task on immediate word acquisition while as for the effect on word retention, the productive task appears much superior to the interpretive task. The results of the present experiment partially supported the Involvement Load Hypothesis. Meanwhile, some pedagogical implications were suggested to improve vocabulary teaching in senior high school.

12

Authors: Guan Junyan

This study was designed to compare the similarities and differences between Chinese and the UK’s primary school teachers’ approaches to discipline problems. It also investigated the factors that influence the teachers’ choices on different aspects of discipline. Moreover, the study was to discuss the reasons that cause the similarities and differences between the two countries. Questionnaires were carried out with 75 teachers working for the different primary schools as well as 45 teachers in the UK’s primary schools. Findings showed that factors such as different teaching subject, teaching experience, the characteristics of class of teacher teach and individuals and so on may influence teachers’ choices on solving discipline problems. There are many similarities and differences on the different aspect on teachers’ approaches on discipline in China and the UK, but similarities are more than differences. The beliefs of children and children’s behaviours, globalization, culture, education system and practice situation in two countries may cause the similarities and the differences. The implications of these findings are that teachers should pay attention to students’ self-esteem and treat the solution of punishment in the right way.