scholarly journals Education in Africa: What Are We Learning?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K Evans ◽  
Amina Mendez Acosta
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Grant Programs ◽  
Multiple Treatment ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
School Feeding ◽  
Mother Tongue Instruction ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Positive Impacts

Abstract Countries across Africa continue to face major challenges in education. In this review, we examine 145 recent empirical studies (from 2014 onward) on how to increase access to and improve the quality of education across the continent, specifically examining how these studies update previous research findings. We find that 64% of the studies evaluate government-implemented programs, 36% include detailed cost analysis and 35% evaluate multiple treatment arms. We identify several areas where new studies provide rigorous evidence on topics that do not figure prominently in earlier evidence syntheses. New evidence shows promising impacts of structured pedagogy interventions (which typically provide a variety of inputs, such as lesson plans and training for teachers together with new materials for students) and of mother tongue instruction interventions, as well as from a range of teacher programs, including both remunerative (pay-for-performance of various designs) and non-remunerative (coaching and certain types of training) programs. School feeding delivers gains in both access and learning. New studies also show long-term positive impacts of eliminating school fees for primary school and positive impacts of eliminating fees in secondary school. Education technology interventions have decidedly mixed impacts, as do school grant programs and programs providing individual learning inputs (e.g., uniforms or textbooks).

scholarly journals Mother tongue instruction in Sweden and Denmark

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 591-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linus Salö ◽  
Natalia Ganuza ◽  
Christina Hedman ◽  
Martha Sif Karrebæk
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Mother Tongue Instruction

scholarly journals Challenges of the Sudden Switch from Mother Tongue Instruction to English as a Medium of Instruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Shahinaz Abdullah Bukhari
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Classroom Communication ◽  
Mother Tongue Instruction

The present study explored the challenges encountered through the transition from using the mother tongue as a medium of instruction at schools to using English as a medium of instruction at universities. Two focus groups were conducted with Saudi undergraduates and faculty members from different Saudi universities. The focus groups investigated how participants perceive this experience, what difficulties they face and how they cope. Participants expressed their preference for using English as a medium of instruction in higher education to maximise students’ future and international opportunities. Participant students reported difficulties in lecture comprehension, taking notes while listening and classroom communication. Participant content lecturers reported difficulties related to students’ reluctance to speak in English, lack of English terminology and insufficient lecture comprehension. Some suggestions that have been offered to overcome these challenges include the following: designing adequate trainings for content lecturers on teaching their content in English; using Arabic-English bilingualism as medium of instruction; giving emphasis to academic literacy and communication skills over the use of standard English models and enhancing the collaborative work between English language teaching practitioners and content lecturers.

scholarly journals Introducing the leapfrog design: A simple Bayesian adaptive rolling trial design for accelerated treatment development and optimization

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Edward Blackwell ◽  
Marcella Woud ◽  
Jürgen Margraf ◽  
Felix D. Schönbrodt
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Options ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Clinical Translation ◽  
Psychological Treatments ◽  
Multiple Treatment ◽  
Accelerate Development ◽  
New Variant ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Treatment Research ◽  
New Treatment

The application of basic science research to the development and optimization of psychological treatments holds great potential. However, this process of clinical translation is challenging and time-consuming, and the standard route by which it proceeds is inefficient. Adaptive rolling designs, which originated within cancer treatment research, provide an alternative methodology with potential to accelerate development and optimization of psychological treatments. In such designs, multiple treatment options are tested simultaneously, with sequential Bayesian analyses used to remove poorly performing arms. Further, new treatment arms informed by the latest research findings can be introduced into the existing infrastructure as the trial progresses. These features drastically reduce the sample sizes needed and offer a means for more rapid and efficient clinical translation. This paper outlines the utility of such designs to clinical psychological science, focusing on a new variant termed the ‘leapfrog’ design, and discusses their potential uses to accelerate clinical translation.

scholarly journals Value-based provider payment: towards a theoretically preferred design

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniëlle Cattel ◽  
Frank Eijkenaar ◽  
Frederik T. Schut
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Risk Profile ◽  
Provider Group ◽  
Payment Incentives ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Provider Payment ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractWorldwide, policymakers and purchasers are exploring innovative provider payment strategies promoting value in health care, known as value-based payments (VBP). What is meant by ‘value’, however, is often unclear and the relationship between value and the payment design is not explicated. This paper aims at: (1) identifying value dimensions that are ideally stimulated by VBP and (2) constructing a framework of a theoretically preferred VBP design. Based on a synthesis of both theoretical and empirical studies on payment incentives, we conclude that VBP should consist of two components: a relatively large base payment that implicitly stimulates value and a relatively small payment that explicitly rewards measurable aspects of value (pay-for-performance). Being the largest component, the base payment design is essential, but often neglected when it comes to VBP reform. We explain that this base payment ideally (1) is paid to a multidisciplinary provider group (2) for a cohesive set of care activities for a predefined population, (3) is fixed, (4) is adjusted for the population’s risk profile and (5) includes risk-mitigating measures. Finally, some important trade-offs in the practical operationalisation of VBP are discussed.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 154-164
Author(s):  
Eva Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Political Learning ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 11 aggregates the conceptual developments and theoretical argument and research findings presented in the previous chapters into a theoretical framework for studying the political leadership of elected politicians in the age of governance. The framework suggests that interactive political leadership holds the potential to promote robust political authorization in the age of governance through a promotion of interactive democracy, political learning accountability, interactive political entrepreneurship, and socio-political implementation. Conditioning factors are multi-level governance, an increased mediatization of political communication and access to interactive political platforms and arenas. Moreover, the chapter provides twenty propositions regarding the prospects for, and dilemmas and challenges related to the performance of interactive political leadership that can guide and inspire future research. Finally, the chapter proposes an agenda for future research and highlights the need for empirical studies on the scope for interactive political leadership in different contexts, discourse analyses of current understandings of political leadership and followership, process studies of the interplay between politicians and citizens, and studies of the impact of institutional design on political leadership styles.

Empirical Comparison of Equity Preference Questionnaire and Equity Sensitivity Instrument in Relation to Work Outcome Preferences

2007 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth G. Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Equity Sensitivity ◽  
Empirical Comparison ◽  
Work Outcome ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Equity Preference

Until the development of the Equity Preference Questionnaire in 2000, the only measure of equity sensitivity available was the Equity Sensitivity Instrument. However, only one out of nine empirical studies conducted since 2000 has used this questionnaire, perhaps given the concerns about its applicability to earlier equity sensitivity research findings. This paper empirically examined both measures in relation to work outcome preferences based on the previous study by Miles, Hatfield, and Huseman in 1994 and finds that the two questionnaires produce comparable results.

The Identification and Prevention of Publication Bias in the Social Sciences and Economics

2011 ◽  
Vol 231 (5-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Weiß ◽  
Michael Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Missing Data ◽  
Publication Bias ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Research Results ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings

SummarySystematic research reviews have become essential in all empirical sciences. However, the validity of research syntheses is threatened by the fact that not all studies on a given topic can be summarized. Research reviews may suffer from missing data, and this is especially crucial in those cases where the selectivity of studies and their findings affects the summarized result. So-called publication bias is a type of missing data and a phenomenon that jeopardizes the validity of systematic or quantitative, as well as narrative, reviews. Publication bias exists if the preparation, submission or publication of research findings depend on characteristics of just these research results, e. g. their direction or statistical significance. This article describes methods to identify publication bias in the context of meta-analysis. It also reviews empirical studies on the prevalence of publication bias, especially in the social and economic sciences, where publication bias also seems to be prevalent. Several proposals to prevent publication bias are discussed.

Text characteristics, perceived difficulty and task performance in sight translation

Interpreting ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Wu
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Word Type ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Perceived Difficulty ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory study examining the relationship between text characteristics, perceived difficulty and task performance in sight translation (ST). Twenty-nine undergraduate interpreters were asked to sight-translate six texts with different properties. Correlation analysis shows that Sophisticated Word Type and Mean Length of a T-unit are, respectively, the lexical and the syntactic variables having the highest correlations with all the three dependent variables (i.e. perceived difficulty, accuracy and fluency in ST performance). Surprisingly, the discoursal variables are weakly or modestly correlated with the dependent variables. Thematic analysis of the students’ reflective essays points to two hypothesized causal links among the three Ps in ST: task properties may cause decoding difficulties and cognitive overload in the cognitive process, which in turn lead to inaccuracy and dysfluency in ST performance. The research findings lend empirical support to the “shallow-scan hypothesis” in previous research. Finally, this study proposes a three-tier conceptual framework to inform and guide future research to operationalize variables in ST empirical studies. The pedagogical implications of ST are also discussed.

Heteroglossia in mother tongue instruction in Sweden and the development of plurilingual literacies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Reath Warren
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Heterogeneous Groups ◽  
Mother Tongue Instruction ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Abstract This article analyses how perceptions of and approaches to teaching linguistically heterogeneous groups in mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden impact on the development of plurilingual literacies in that context. Linguistic ethnographic data collected over 12 months in classrooms and schools where MTI takes place were thematically categorized and data from the most prominent category, heterogeneity, were further coded into the heteroglossic categories of multidiscursivity and multivoicedness (Todorov 1984). The continua of biliteracy provides an additional interpretative framework. Results show that heteroglossic discursive practices involving diverse linguistic repertoires are commonly reported on and observed in MTI classrooms, and are viewed both as a resource for and an obstacle to learning. These results contribute to discussions on organizational and pedagogical approaches that work with rather than against heteroglossia, through resourceful use of languages to enhance learning in MTI and potentially other subjects as well.

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