Assessment of Availability and Use of Teaching and Learning Resources for Retention of Learners with Special Needs in Regular Primary Schools in Dadaab Sub-County, Kenya

The status of implementation of inclusive education in terms of availability and use of teaching and learning resources for retention of learners with special needs in Garissa County was unknown. Inclusive education refers to a situation where learners with disabilities and special educational needs have full membership in age-appropriate classes in their regular neighborhood schools with appropriate supplementary aids and support services. Records from Educational Assessment and Resource Centres (EARC) Garissa County revealed that there was a decline in the retention rate of learners` admitted. For example, in the year 2014, the retention rate was 37 learners (45.7%), 2015 (114 learners, 38.0%), 2016 (43 learners, 28.9%), 2017 (35 learners, 31.5%) and 2018 (41 learners, 23.7%). The purpose of the study was to assess the status of implementation of inclusive education practices for the retention of learners with special needs in regular primary schools in Dadaab sub-county. The specific objective of the study was to establish the extent to which the availability and use of teaching and learning resources affect the retention of learners with special needs in regular primary schools in Dadaab sub-county. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised 26 head-teachers, 78 teachers, 300 learners with special needs, and 4 education officers. Saturated sampling technique was used to select 23 head-teachers, 70 teachers, 100 learners with special needs, and 4 education officers. Instruments for data collection were questionnaires, interview schedules and observation schedules. Quantitative data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, and mean. The findings of the study indicated that the availability and use of teaching and learning materials were inadequate (mean= 2.18). The study concluded that the low retention of learners with special needs as a result of the availability and use of teaching and learning materials to a small extent. The study recommended that the country and national government should ensure that there is adequate provision of teaching and learning resources to enhance learning for learners with special needs. The budget for materials should be enhanced. The study also recommends to non-governmental organizations to assist regular primary schools to access teaching and learning materials that can be used by learners with special needs.

CS4Some? Differences in Technology Learning Readiness

This article investigates the extent to which teens are ready to take advantage of the Computer Science for All (CS4All) initiative promoted in 2016 by the Obama administration. Using new survey data from a socioeconomically stratified random sample of eighth graders in regular neighborhood schools in Chicago, author Cassidy Puckett looks at differences in students' technology learning readiness, operationalized as the use of five technology learning habits, and home and school resources and practices that explain these differences. Findings show that students vary in their technology learning readiness, which suggests the need for intervention before high school, and that families shape readiness, but schools largely do not. This study contributes to debates about schools' relationship to inequality by identifying a mechanism through which policies can inadvertently exacerbate inequities without understanding and addressing readiness; it also offers possible methods for interventions in schools.

PENGARUH KOMUNIKASI ANTARPRIBADI TERHADAP KONSEP DIRI JULIANTO EKA PUTRA

Success is not only desired and owned by people who are able, but those who cannot afford,even want to have it. For someone who is born from unrich people, having success thing is a pricelesshappiness. It is felt by Julianto Eka Putra who is growing in a regular neighborhood. Julianto EkaPutra initiated and motivated to make the VISION 2010 program with the aim is to establish freeschool and a charitable foundation that dedicated himself to help orphans in Indonesia who cannotafford to continue their study to high school education. The purpose of this study is to determine theeffect of Julianto Eka Putra’s self-concept on the students of Selamat Pagi Indonesia’s High SchoolBatu-Malang. The result of the first hypothesis reads the suspect classification and purpose of theinterpersonal communication affects the self-concept, is acceptable because of the calculation it tcount (1,944) > t table (1,667), second hypothesis is assumed to be accepted because of theeffectiveness of interpersonal communication is known that t count (4,335) > t table (1,667), thismeans that the independent variable X1 (classification and interpersonal communication objective)and X2 (interpersonal communication effectiveness) significantly affects the self concept of JuliantoEka Putra.Keywords: Classification and Interpersonal Communication Objective, Interpersonal CommunicationEffectiveness, Self Concept

School-based teaching research and lesson-case study in mediating the second-cycle curriculum reform in Shanghai

Purpose Emerging research on education reform in Shanghai for the last decade or so has either focused on broad contexts and trends of the second-cycle curriculum reform or the professional development in response to the reform or a few detailed cases of teaching improvement to meet the reform demand. Little attention has been paid to how schools as institutions have been made to respond to and enact the reform. Through three detailed school cases, the purpose of this paper is to understand their distinctive responses to reform in terms of how they interpreted, enacted and sustained their reform efforts and how more importantly lesson-case study and multi-tiered research projects has become a reinvigorated form of Chinese lesson study and teaching research to significantly mediate the school’s curriculum reform efforts. Features of sustainable development behind these cases are conceptualized by Lave and Wenger’s notion of transparency of the mediating technology of a community of practice. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on master’s thesis reports of school leaders (2010-2016), school research publications and lesson cases as secondary data sources, an instrumental multi-case research design was adopted to build detailed case narratives and tease out cross-case comparisons. Findings Building on unique strengths and legacies to solve school problems, the three secondary schools responded to, enacted and sustained the reform in unique ways: case 1, a municipal key school, has focused on “three translations (of curriculum)” involving all teaching research groups (TRGs) in specifying broad curriculum standards and turning them into concrete, actionable designs and student tasks which are tested and refined through iterative cycles of lesson-case study, with the decision making for each translation informed by research projects studying problems arising. Case 2, a district key school, has capitalized on its strong TRGs and used research projects and lesson-case study to unite teaching, research and PD into a whole; and case 3, a regular neighborhood school, has aimed to build a structured PD system to tackle teacher stagnation by stressing the reflection components of each cycle of lesson-case study, challenging teachers to learn in the district-level curriculum integration experiment, and nudging them into their own research projects with well-staged support. In all the three cases, research projects have been networked connecting municipal, district, school and teachers in building a research climate. The lesson-case study has turned designs into refined actions to ensure quality of curriculum implementation and teacher growth. Originality/value This study yields insights into the inner workings of Shanghai’s recent curriculum reform. With strategic injection of research into the familiar institutional structures and organic cultural forms of collegiality, school innovations can be built on familiarity to create a sense of continuity, coherence and institutional identity so that teachers learn from doing with least disruption. The slow and steady work of sustaining innovations and reform goes beyond simple notions of scaling up and relies on building internal drive and institutional and teacher capacity for deep learning in responding to reform.

FIBERED KNOTS AND VIRTUAL KNOTS

We introduce a new technique for studying classical knots with the methods of virtual knot theory. Let K be a knot and J be a knot in the complement of K with lk (J, K) = 0. Suppose there is covering space [Formula: see text], where V(J) is a regular neighborhood of J satisfying V(J) ∩ im (K) = ∅ and Σ is a connected compact orientable 2-manifold. Let K′ be a knot in Σ × (0, 1) such that πJ(K′) = K. Then K′ stabilizes to a virtual knot [Formula: see text], called a virtual cover of K relative to J. We investigate what can be said about a classical knot from its virtual covers in the case that J is a fibered knot. Several examples and applications to classical knots are presented. A basic theory of virtual covers is established.

INCOMPRESSIBLE SURFACES AND (1, 1)-KNOTS

Let M be S3, S1 × S2, or a lens space L(p, q), and let k be a (1, 1)-knot in M. We show that if there is a closed meridionally incompressible surface in the complement of k, then the surface and the knot can be put in a special position, namely, the surface is the boundary of a regular neighborhood of a toroidal graph, and the knot is level with respect to that graph. As an application we show that for any such M there exist tunnel number one knots which are not (1, 1)-knots.

EMBEDDINGS OF 2-COMPLEXES INTO 3-MANIFOLDS

Let f: K2 → M3 be an embedding of a compact, connected 2-complex into a compact, connected, orientable 3-manifold. We are interested to know, to which extent K2 determines (up to homeomorphism) its regular neighborhood N(f(K2)) ⊆ M3. We exhibit a list of four obstructions to uniqueness, and prove that in the absence of these, the regular neighborhoods are uniquely determined: Let f,K2,M3 be as above and assume M3 is prime and not a Poincaré-counterexample. If N(f(K2)) does not contain essential annuli and has connected boundary, then N is determined by K2.

A CLASS OF 3-COMPLEXES WITH INFINITE CYCLIC FUNDAMENTAL GROUP

Let D be a clasp disk in S3 with n singularities and let U be a regular neighborhood of D. Say D bounds the knot Γ. We show that the 3-complex X=(U\Γ)∪ c * Bd(U) 3-deforms to [Formula: see text]. In particular, π1(X)=ℤ for all 3-complexes X constructed in this manner. We observe that each X in this class corresponds to an unknotting scheme for the participating knot Γ.