scholarly journals A Didactic Model of Sustainability Commitment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3083
Author(s):  
Johan Öhman ◽  
Louise Sund
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Scientific Rigor ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools ◽  
Future Practice ◽  
Pragmatic Philosophy

This article proposes a model that describes and frames sustainability commitment. The model is based on didactic theory and pragmatic philosophy and is informed by several empirical studies on environmental and sustainability education (ESE) practice. The intention is for the model to serve as a critical perspective on ESE practices in secondary and upper secondary schools, and to offer a framework for the development of future practice with emphasis on teachers’ choices of content and teaching methods. The model suggests that a sound commitment is situated in the intersection of the intellectual, emotional, and practical aspects of sustainability. It is argued that: The intellectual aspect is essential for giving the commitment scientific rigor and a critical stance; emotions are vital for students to become dedicated; and skills to carry out appropriate actions for change is necessary for playing an active role in providing a sustainable transformation of society.

scholarly journals Exploring the washback effects of a high-stakes English test on the teaching of English in Spanish upper secondary schools

2010 ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Amengual Pizarro
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Teaching Curriculum ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

In the past decades, there has been a growing interest in the effects of language tests, especially high-stakes tests, on teaching and learning referred to as ‘washback'. In fact, high-stakes tests have started to be exploited to reform instruction and achieve beneficial washback. This paper focuses on the washback effects of a high-stakes English Test (ET) on the teaching of English. The main goal of this study is to examine the washback effects of the ET on the following aspects of teaching: curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and teaching feelings and attitudes. The study also attempts to discover teachers' perceptions towards the introduction of a speaking and a listening component in the design of the new ET due to be implemented in 2012. The overall findings, collected from a questionnaire carried out among 51 secondary teachers, indicate that the ET is clearly affecting curriculum and materials. Results also reveal that the ET appears to influence teachers' methodology. Furthermore, most of the teachers believe that the introduction of a speaking and a listening component in the new ET design will help solve the mismatch between the communicative approach they seem to value and the skills so far evaluated in the ET.

The Challenges of History Education in Iceland

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-110
Author(s):  
Súsanna Margrét Gestsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Teaching Material ◽  
History Teaching ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Standardized Exams ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

In this article the author discusses the teaching of history in Iceland, first and foremost in relation to the environment in which the subject finds itself, the legislation relating to it and the curriculum. Curriculum development over the past decades is examined, in addition to changes in teaching material and the general attitudes that have influenced both of these from the time of the struggle for national independence in the former half of the twentieth century. There is a discussion of the disputes that have arisen as a result of tampering with the curriculum and teaching material in history in recent years, both when new emphases were introduced in the eighties and when history teaching in upper secondary schools was substantially reduced with the new curriculum in 1999. Considerable attention is given to history teaching in upper secondary schools, despite there being a dearth of research at this level. There is quite a degree of evidence that history is popular amongst Icelandic students and the public at large. In this article, an attempt is made to analyse the state of history as a school subject in Iceland, not least in the light of the extensive freedom enjoyed by teachers in their jobs, bearing in mind that there are no standardized exams in the subject and no supervision of teaching methods. At present there is a review of the curricula at all school levels in Iceland and the future of history as a subject is therefore rather uncertain.

scholarly journals History teaching in Finnish general upper secondary schools: Objectives and practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Rautiainen ◽  
Eija Räikkönen ◽  
Anna Veijola ◽  
Simo Mikkonen
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
History Teachers ◽  
History Teaching ◽  
Student Activities ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teaching History ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

In Finland, the trend towards a new kind of history teaching emphasizing the understanding of historical knowledge and historical thinking skills began in the mid-1990s, when history teaching objectives were defined much more broadly in the curriculum than previously. In this article, we examine how, in over twenty years since the changes in curriculum objectives were made, general upper secondary school teachers have come to value the curriculum objectives of history teaching and how these have impacted on their teaching. The data for this article were collected by a semi-structured survey in 2016. Using counts, percentages, means, standard deviations and medians, a descriptive exploration was made of history teachers' perceptions of the essential objectives in teaching history and how often they were put into practice in related student activities. To investigate the balance between the objectives the teachers emphasized as the most essential and the teaching methods they actually used, we applied the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Friedman test. According to the results, what the teachers considered essential for teaching history did not correlate with their teaching methods. In addition, according to the results, this state of affairs is still undergoing change; old traditions and new objectives of history teaching are creating tensions. The results were interpreted in the light of the cultural viewpoints of Finnish teaching, the position of matriculation examinations in Finnish general upper secondary schools and the challenges the curriculum is setting for history teachers.

scholarly journals Governance and Evaluation - consequences for teaching culture and teacher profession

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dion Rüsselbæk Hansen ◽  
Ane Qvortrup
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Impact Evaluation ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Teaching Culture ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools

This article examines, whether contemporary teaching culture and the teaching profession are being transformed as a result of demands for evaluation and visibility, and what the consequences of this may be. We identify dominant education policy discourses that impact teachers and teaching, following which we show how the concept of ‘quality assurance’ has shaped contemporary evaluation demands. The paper then argues that we must challenge existing worries that evaluation initiatives have instrumental and mechanical consequences for teaching practices. Inspired by existing research and building upon empirical studies of Danish educational practices (upper secondary schools and universities), we show that indirect, so-called performance paradoxes may occur. This is because the effort to make one thing visible, often renders other aspects difficult to access. From these considerations, we discuss, which impact evaluation and visibility demands may have on the teacher profession and teaching culture. The article only points out tendencies, wherefore, we argue the need for more knowledge about how various evaluation demands impact teaching practices.

scholarly journals Prevalence of exhaustion symptoms and associations with school level, length of work experience and gender: a nationwide cross-sectional study of Swedish principals

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Persson ◽  
Ulf Leo ◽  
Inger Arvidsson ◽  
Carita Håkansson ◽  
Kerstin Nilsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
School Level ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Compulsory Schools ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools ◽  
Exhaustion Disorder

Abstract Background While poor mental health and psychiatric disorders attributed to stressful work conditions are a public health concern in many countries, the health consequences of the occupational stress experienced by school principals is an understudied issue. Although current data is lacking, some research suggests that principals have a stressful work situation that eventually may lead to burnout and exhaustion disorder, thus negatively affecting the ability of principals to function as leaders. To gauge the situation in Sweden, and as a basis for future preventive actions, we examined to what extent principals displayed signs of exhaustion and whether the prevalence rates of exhaustion differed across school levels, length of work experience as a principal, and gender. Methods Principals (N = 2219; mean age 49 years [SD 7 years]; 78% women) working at least 50% in pre-schools, compulsory schools, upper secondary schools or adult education completed a cross-sectional web survey entailing two validated inventories: The Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS) and the Lund University Checklist for Incipient Exhaustion (LUCIE). Data was analysed using traditional non-parametric methods. Gender stratification achieved covariate balance when analysing school level and length of work experience. Results Altogether, 29.0% of the principals met the exhaustion criteria in KEDS. The prevalence rates for the four LUCIE-steps of increasing signs of exhaustion were: no signs of stress, 48.8%; weak signs of stress, 25.6%; clear signs of stress but no exhaustion, 15.4%; possible exhaustion disorder, 10.2%. Compared with male principals, female principals reported more signs of possible exhaustion disorder in both LUCIE and KEDS. School level was not associated with reports of exhaustion symptoms in neither LUCIE nor KEDS. Among male principals, length of work experience was associated with exhaustion symptoms in KEDS. Conclusions A large group of Swedish principals working in pre-schools, compulsory schools, upper secondary schools or adult education displayed a symptomatology of signs of exhaustion that if sustained might lead to poor health. This observation suggests that education authorities, or other relevant stakeholders, ought to take some form of preventive action. However, effective combinations of individual, group, organisational, and/or societal preventive activities remain to be identified and tested.

scholarly journals Religiosity as a factor protecting against problem behaviour in adolescence

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-89
Author(s):  
Iwona Niewiadomska ◽  
Rafał P. Bartczuk ◽  
Joanna Chwaszcz ◽  
Stanisław Fel ◽  
Weronika Augustynowicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behaviour ◽  
Problem Behaviours ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools ◽  
Conceptual Work ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This article explores the question, to what degree religiosity contributes, as a protecting factor against a broad category of socially deviant adolescent and youth behaviours. It also tests the hypothesis that gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between religiosity and problem behaviour. It employs a modified version of the Problem Behaviour Syndrome Measure (PBSM), in concert with Jessor and Jessor’s conceptual work. It also makes use of the Duke Religion Index (DUREL) to assess religiosity. The empirical study deals with a representative group of 960 students of upper-secondary schools in the Lubelskie province, Poland. The results were analyzed using canonical analysis and ANOVA. The achievements of the article are twofold. First, it identifies significant correlations between the different levels of religiosity among youth, and the occurrence and intensification of problem behaviours, particularly in regard to organized activity. Organized and intrinsic religiosity play principal protective roles, while the impact of personal religious practices is less significant. Secondly, while analyzing the moderating role of gender in the relationship between religiosity and the intensity of problem behaviour, it was found that gender does not have a significant interactive impact. An affirmative conclusion was confirmed in only two instances.

A quantitative investigation of the effects of new generation vs traditional upper secondary schools in Cambodia through the lens of STEM transfer model

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sovansophal Kao
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Attitudes Toward Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Math Teachers ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
New Form ◽  
K 12 ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Upper Secondary Schools ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis study aimed to examine the effects of Cambodia's New Generation Schools (NGS), as compared to their traditional counterparts, in enhancing the seven constructs: (1) science and math achievement, (2) science and math self-efficacy, (3) science and math outcome expectations, (4) attitudes toward science, (5) interactive science and math lessons, (6) support from science and math teachers and (7) encouragement and support in science from family.Design/methodology/approachThe two observations data was collected using self-rated questionnaire from 301 11th graders from five upper secondary schools located in three provinces of Cambodia. Independent sample t-test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and dependent sample t-test were used to analyze the repeated measures data.FindingsThe study revealed that students from the NGS exhibited statistically higher scores for most constructs, especially for attitudes toward science. However, when controlling for the differences in the first observation data, the significant effects of the three constructs have been neutralized. Moreover, though there was an increase in science activities outside school, there was a negative trajectory in the other two sub-constructs of attitudes toward science and support from science and math teachers, both in NGS and traditional schools.Practical implicationsThese findings point some practical implications for enhancing the effectiveness of the two school types and further research.Originality/valueThere is heavy investment in new form of schools across the world to enhance students' learning and academic achievement in science and math in K-12 and to promote their interest in STEM in higher education. However, there is little document on the effectiveness of this new form of school, particularly in the Cambodian context.

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