Guidelines for Developing an Appropriate General English Material for Higher Students: A Perspective

English lesson is one of compulsory subject in the first semester of higher students that only two credits for sixteen meetings including midterm and final test.In the other hand most of the teacher are bound by a mandated curriculum defining the content, skills and values to be taught. Whether expected at school or state level, a curriculum outlines the goals and objectives for the students and the course of study. The study is expected to give a valuable contribution and improvement of the English teaching at the research site in designing an appropriate materials for higher students.

Early Childhood Teacher Professional Development on Technologies for Young Children

Early childhood (EC) teachers need ongoing professional development (PD) to use information and communications technology (ICT) intentionally with young children. This chapter bridges the existing literature on PD best practices with additional interview data from EC teachers and higher education faculty. Three frames of influence on EC teachers' uses of ICT are discussed: personal – beliefs and comfort with technology; institutional – mandated curriculum, affordances of equipment, and ongoing personalized support; and societal – pervasive reliance on technology and influence on young children's future careers. The chapter concludes with PD recommendations for ICT that is content- and pedagogy-focused, based on research and policy, provides options for PD types and timing with follow up supports, and includes EC teachers in shared decision making for appropriate ICT practices in their classrooms.

“Getting the Tip of the Pen on the Paper”: How the Spectrum of Teaching Styles Narrows the Gap Between the Hope and the Happening

Purpose: In response to the limitations with what has been termed a “traditional” Physical Education method, in the last decade Models-Based Practice (MBP) has emerged as an alternative. However, these limitations were recognized by Mosston in 1966 and from which The Spectrum of Teaching Styles (The Spectrum) was presented as a means toward a more obvious educative focus in Physical Education. We propose that The Spectrum provides a bridge between the hope and happening of MBP suggested by Casey and colleagues. Method: Using a qualitative narrative approach, we construct a fictional discussion between two academics (one from a country with centralized, mandated curriculum and one without) through which to navigate the mythical island of quality Physical Education in order to analytically frame The Spectrum and the “happening” of teacher’s implementation of MBP. Use of a fictional dialogue as a qualitative instrument enabled us to be provocative through the posing of questions in a novel fashion. Results: We suggest adopting a nonversus perspective reorients the view of model fidelity and, The Spectrum provides the “how” or micropedagogies to close the gap between the “hope” and the “happening.” Conclusion: This conversation is timely considering reservations about the successfulness of “second-generation” MBP exist in the literature and evidence of the continuation of the historically common Physical Education method despite its well-recognized limitations.

Lincoln and Education

The current norm of compulsory formal schooling includes a system in which schools teach state mandated curriculum, parents are held legally responsible to assure their children attend school until they reach a certain age, and students are confined within set class meeting times and set locations during their schooling years. The two terms, education and schooling, have been increasingly used synonymously. Our assertion here is that education is a more inclusive term than schooling. More importantly, using Abraham Lincoln as a biographical model, we argue that a good education can be achieved in different ways.

Factors Influencing Saudi Parents’ Choice of International Schools in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Ministry of Education has recently begun to allow all Saudi families to enroll their children in international schools. The international curriculum offered by such schools represents a notably different choice compared with Saudi traditional public and private schools, both of which teach the same state-mandated curriculum. As a result of the change, there has been a surge in demand for international education; the number of schools has increased rapidly, and there has been a steady “student leak” towards them and away from traditional schools. Little is known about why Saudi parents choose to enroll their children in international schools. We explored this question by surveying 431 Saudi parents of children attending such schools to identify the main factors contributing to their choice. Although all factors examined were important to parents, curriculum and overall school quality emerged as the most important; socioeconomic status was not influential in their decisions.

Maintaining an empowered school community: Introducing digital technologies by building digital literacies at Beehive Montessori School

In 2019, educators at Beehive Montessori School (Beehive) in Western Australia implemented their self-defined digital literacies framework. The framework guided their approach to, and use of, digital technologies in their classrooms. Doing so came out of a whole school action research project in which the school became a hub for inquiry and educators, and researchers worked together to identify issues and develop improvement processes. At the project conclusion, the educators and researchers had collaboratively defined a solution that met the mandated curriculum needs and fitted with the school autonomy. Most importantly the project and the solution empowered educators, as it aligned with the school-identified virtues and utilized the three-period lesson to teach it, all of which was consistent with Montessori pedagogy.

Reframing citizenship education: The shifting portrayal of citizenship in curriculum policy in the province of Ontario, 1999-2018

State-mandated curriculum policy documents have an important political function. Governments use them to make ideological statements about the role of schools and how the next generation of citizens are to be shaped. Beginning from this premise, we use a frame analysis methodology to examine how citizenship in the Province of Ontario, Canada is framed in four consecutive versions of the curriculum policy documents that prescribe citizenship education for secondary schools. Our analysis spans 20 years, during which two political parties – one conservative, the other liberal – held power. Our inductive analysis is presented using a typology of citizenship with five dimensions: political, public, cultural, juridical, and economic. We illustrate consistency across the decades, including a preoccupation with: 1) external and internal threats to the stability and unity of Canada (political); 2) fostering nationalistic identification (political); 3) developing transferrable skills for the globalized economy (economic); 4) establishing a pre-set role for the individual citizen, characterized by legal and ethical obligations (juridical). We reveal a gradual de-emphasis of opportunities for citizens to actively participate in reshaping their communities and society (public, cultural). This shift in the political and ideological meaning of citizenship conceives citizens as isolated individuals in a reified state and society.

WRITTEN SPEECH ACTS FOUND IN ADVERTISEMENTS ON INDONESIAN ONLINE NEWS WEBSITES

This study attempts to help senior high school English teachers in developing their teaching material about advertisement, which is included in the state mandated curriculum. Having analyzed 20 advertisements, we found two types of speech acts, namely representatives and directives. The representative acts used were 59% and directive acts were 41% of the data. The advertisement strategy in Indonesia utilized representative acts, which intended to highlight the good quality of the products or services, whereas, the use of directive acts was situational since it is usually preceded by the appearance of representative acts. Since both speech acts frequently appeared in the advertisements on Indonesian online news websites, we recommend that teachers should provide exposures toward the linguistic features, which support students’ ability to produce advertisement texts containing representative and directive acts.

Assessing the Interdependence of SSC EFL Testing, Teaching and Materials; an Evaluation of SSC Curriculum

Secondary School Certificate (SSC) is an “O” level equivalent grade in Bangladesh. Numerous studies found that SSC EFL tests have harmful backwash effects as teachers and learners have become “test-wise”, because same test pattern continues since 1996. It is a sign of deviation from the SSC curriculum which is designed following CLT principles. It is further criticised that SSC students and their teachers exceedingly depend on commercially published Note/Guidebooks although there are two officially published textbooks known as English For Today (English 1st Paper) and English Grammar and Composition (English 2nd Paper) edited and published by National Curriculum Textbook Board (NCTB). Thus, this study was designed to appraise the interdependence of SSC EFL testing, teaching and teaching-learning materials in the light of the guidelines of the SSC English curriculum. To collect data, in this study, we used two methods: namely document analysis and survey. The former includes SSC curriculum and English test papers, while the latter involves a questionnaire. The analysis of the data revealed that SSC EFL tests affect teaching of English at SSC level and also influence teachers and students when they select reading/teaching materials. It is also found that the curriculum guidelines are not followed in the classroom teaching and test design. Exam centric teaching is prevalent everywhere. We noticed a mismatch among the mandated curriculum, classroom teaching and the teaching materials used which might foil the endeavour to achieve the objectives of the secondary English curriculum. Conventional test pattern immensely influences the teachers’ teaching and their selection of teaching materials. This study recommends some specific measures including the reformation of SSC EFL testing.

Assessing the Interdependence of SSC EFL Testing, Teaching and Materials; an Evaluation of SSC Curriculum

Secondary School Certificate (SSC) is an “O” level equivalent grade in Bangladesh. Numerous studies found that SSC EFL tests have harmful backwash effects as teachers and learners have become “test-wise”, because same test pattern continues since 1996. It is a sign of deviation from the SSC curriculum which is designed following CLT principles. It is further criticised that SSC students and their teachers exceedingly depend on commercially published Note/Guidebooks although there are two officially published textbooks known as English For Today (English 1st Paper) and English Grammar and Composition (English 2nd Paper) edited and published by National Curriculum Textbook Board (NCTB). Thus, this study was designed to appraise the interdependence of SSC EFL testing, teaching and teaching-learning materials in the light of the guidelines of the SSC English curriculum. To collect data, in this study, we used two methods: namely document analysis and survey. The former includes SSC curriculum and English test papers, while the latter involves a questionnaire. The analysis of the data revealed that SSC EFL tests affect teaching of English at SSC level and also influence teachers and students when they select reading/teaching materials. It is also found that the curriculum guidelines are not followed in the classroom teaching and test design. Exam centric teaching is prevalent everywhere. We noticed a mismatch among the mandated curriculum, classroom teaching and the teaching materials used which might foil the endeavour to achieve the objectives of the secondary English curriculum. Conventional test pattern immensely influences the teachers’ teaching and their selection of teaching materials. This study recommends some specific measures including the reformation of SSC EFL testing.