The SCOTS corpus and TEFL: Discovering and Using Strategies of Spoken English in Finnish Upper Secondary Schools

Suomen koulutuspolitiikasta vastaavat viranomaiset ovat reagoineet kansainvälisten kommunikaatiotarpeiden asettamiin haasteisiin ja muuttaneet yhden lukion A-tasoisen vieraan kielen kurssin sisällön vastaamaan suullisen viestinnän tarpeita. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään, miten englannin puhestrategioita voi opettaa suomalaisille lukiolaisille ja mitä metodeja on käytettävissä puhestrategioiden oppimisen arvioimiseksi. Vastaan asettamiini kysymyksiin aikaisemman tutkimuskirjallisuuden ja englannin kielen lukio-opetuksesta keräämäni aineiston avulla. Keskeisiä elementtejä tutkielmassa ovat erityisesti pragmaattinen kompetenssi ja kolme yleisen tason puhestrategiaa (keskustelun aloittaminen, oman puheenvuoron säilyttäminen sekä keskustelun ylläpitäminen). Aineistossa on mukana 65 ensimmäisen vuosiluokan lukiolaista (luokka A ja B) Helsingistä ja Espoosta. Opetusmateriaalina on käytetty SCOTS korpusta; tarkemmin määriteltynä puhetiedosto nimeltä Conversation 20: Four secondary school girls in the North East. Tiedostossa esille tulleet, kolmeen puhestrategiaan liittyvät fraasit, sanat ja rakenteet havainnollistettiin opiskelijoille mm. AntConc - konkordanssiohjelman avulla. Opiskelijat tekivät myös kirjallisia ja suullisia harjoituksia, jotka liittyivät puhestrategioihin. Neljälle vapaaehtoiselle opiskelijalle suunnattu toinen suullinen tehtävätyyppi vapaamuotoisine keskusteluineen äänitettiin, transkriboitiin ja tuloksia arvioitiin mm. eurooppalaisen viitekehyksen avulla. Lisäksi B - luokka vastasi kyselylomakkeeseen, jossa kysyttiin heidän mielipiteitään esim. hyödyllisimmästä testioppitunnista sekä heidän osallistumishalukkuudestaan uudelle pitkän englannin kahdeksannelle syventävälle kurssille. Tutkimustulokset ovat kannustavia ja osoittavat, että puhestrategioita on mahdollista opettaa jo lukiotasolla. Vaikka tutkimuksessa käytetty lähestymistapa oli opiskelijoille osittain uusi, valtaosa heistä myönsi oppineensa uutta englannin kielen keskustelurakenteista. Lisäksi vapaaehtoisten opiskelijoiden äänitetyt ja transkriboidut keskustelut tarjoavat hyvän lähtökohdan mahdolliselle jatkotutkimukselle.

Re-thinking teacher quality in high-poverty schools in Australia

As is the case globally, Australian schools that serve high-poverty communities most often employ the least experienced, least prepared teachers. Beginning with a discussion of poverty in Australia this chapter draws on 6 years of learnings from Australia's National Exceptional Teachers for Disadvantaged Schools (NETDS) program to examine how social justice can be taught within a mainstream Initial Teacher Education program in an increasingly neoliberal climate where teacher education curriculum around social justice struggles to find a place within the current discourses of quality teaching and its preoccupations with standards, accountability, and high-stakes testing.

Teacher Education, School Effectiveness and Improvement : A Study of Academic and Professional Qualification on Teachers' Job Effectiveness in Nigerian Secondary Schools

This academic work begins with a compact presentation of the general background to the study, which also includes an autobiography for the interest in this research. The presentation provides readers who know little of the topic of this research and of the structure of the educational system as well as of the value given to education in Nigeria. It further concentrates on the dynamic interplay of the effect of academic and professional qualification and teachers' job effectiveness in secondary schools in Nigeria in particular, and in Africa in general. The aim of this study is to produce a systematic analysis and rich theoretical and empirical description of teachers' teaching competencies. The theoretical part comprises a comprehensive literature review that focuses on research conducted in the areas of academic and professional qualification and teachers' job effectiveness, teaching competencies, and the role of teacher education with particular emphasis on school effectiveness and improvement. This research benefits greatly from the functionalist conception of education, which is built upon two emphases: the application of the scientific method to the objective social world, and the use of an analogy between the individual 'organism' and 'society'. To this end, it offers us an opportunity to define terms systematically and to view problems as always being interrelated with other components of society. The empirical part involves describing and interpreting what educational objectives can be achieved with the help of teachers' teaching competencies in close connection to educational planning, teacher training and development, and achieving them without waste. The data used in this study were collected between 2002 and 2003 from teachers, principals, supervisors of education from the Ministry of Education and Post Primary Schools Board in the Rivers State of Nigeria (N=300). The data were collected from interviews, documents, observation, and questionnaires and were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to strengthen the validity of the findings. The data collected were analyzed to answer the specific research questions and hypotheses posited in this study. The data analysis involved the use of multiple statistical procedures: Percentages Mean Point Value, T-test of Significance, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Cross Tabulation. The results obtained from the data analysis show that teachers require professional knowledge and professional teaching skills, as well as a broad base of general knowledge (e.g., morality, service, cultural capital, institutional survey). Above all, in order to carry out instructional processes effectively, teachers should be both academically and professionally trained. This study revealed that teachers are not however expected to have an extraordinary memory, but rather looked upon as persons capable of thinking in the right direction. This study may provide a solution to the problem of teacher education and school effectiveness in Nigeria. For this reason, I offer this treatise to anyone seriously committed in improving schools in developing countries in general and in Nigeria in particular to improve the lives of all its citizens. In particular, I write this to encourage educational planners, education policy makers, curriculum developers, principals, teachers, and students of education interested in empirical information and methods to conceptualize the issue this study has raised and to provide them with useful suggestions to help them improve secondary schooling in Nigeria. Though, multiple audiences exist for any text. For this reason, I trust that the academic community will find this piece of work a useful addition to the existing literature on school effectiveness and school improvement. Through integrating concepts from a number of disciplines, I aim to describe as holistic a representation as space could allow of the components of school effectiveness and quality improvement. A new perspective on teachers' professional competencies, which not only take into consideration the unique characteristics of the variables used in this study, but also recommend their environmental and cultural derivation. In addition, researchers should focus their attention on the ways in which both professional and non-professional teachers construct and apply their methodological competencies, such as their grouping procedures and behaviors to the schooling of students. Keywords: Professional Training, Academic Training, Professionally Qualified, Academically Qualified, Professional Qualification, Academic Qualification, Job Effectiveness, Job Efficiency, Educational Planning, Teacher Training and Development, Nigeria.

Do UNESCO Schools in Finland Prepare Their Students for the Future? : A Study of Their School-based Curriculums

The purpose of the research was to study how Finnish lower-stage schools participating in the international network of UNESCO schools, also called the Associated Schools Project (ASP), prepare their students for the future at the level of their school-based curriculums. In the research, the future trends were discussed, and the importance of their consideration in educational practice was explained from a global viewpoint: Based on the examination of today's problematic world state, and development trends characterized by globalization, the challenges and demands set for schooling and education in the future were discussed. Understanding the significance of an individual's action and responsibility was considered to be the central resource for building a more just and sustainable future. The study was grounded on a theoretical model developed by the researcher, which combined the models of Dalin & Rust (1996) and UNESCO (Delors et al. 1996) about future-oriented learning. The model consists of four basic elements of curriculum; "Nature", "Culture", "Myself", and "Others", and four dimension of learning; "Learning to know", "Learning to do", "Learning to live together" and "Learning to be". The model represents the holistic aspect of educational theory, and its aim is to maintain a balance between its different components. The research material composed of ten lower-stage UNESCO schools' school-based curriculums. They were analyzed using the theoretical model by the methology of content analysis. The research results were notably consistent between the different schools. They showed cultural learning and learning concerned with "myself" to be clearly more emphasized than learning referring to nature and other people. In addition, they reflected the central position of subjects, knowledge and skills, thus leaving the development of the pupils' personalities, and particularly learning concerned with living with other people, in a marginal role. The question about whether the schools prepare for the future interms of their curriculums, was discussed in the light of the results. The research offered a way and a model to approach the relationship between education and the future, and to evaluate schools' future-orientation. Based on the results, the schools are suggested to lay more stress on learning concerned with nature and other people, and focus more on developing the mental capasities of their pupils and competencies they need for living with other people. Above all, what the present societies require of schools is education which produces balanced and broadly aware human beings who have the mental strength to face the challenges of the future and abilities to direct it along the lines they desire. Keywords: future, curriculum, content analysis

Factors influencing the outdoor concentration of carbonaceous aerosols at urban schools in Brisbane, Australia: implications for children’s exposure

This comprehensive study aimed to determine the sources and driving factors of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) concentrations in ambient PM2.5 in urban schools. Sampling was conducted outdoors at 25 schools in the Brisbane Metropolitan Area, Australia. Concentrations of primary and secondary OC were quantified using the EC tracer method, with secondary OC accounting for an average of 60%. Principal component analysis distinguished the contributing sources above the background and identified groups of schools with differing levels of primary and secondary carbonaceous aerosols. Overall, the results showed that vehicle emissions, local weather conditions and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) were the key factors influencing concentrations of carbonaceous component of PM2.5 at these schools. These results provide insights into children’s exposure to vehicle emissions and SOA at such urban schools.

Elizabeth Gottschalk with unidentified classmates on a field trip from Sophienschule; Hannover, Germany. Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Elizabeth Gottschalk is probably the student far left on the horse wagon

Unidentified girls class seated at desks in classroom Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

"Chanukah" written on blackboard at rear left of classroom

Unidentified girls class Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Digital Image

Students on the steps of the Lehranstalt fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Jewish teachers' seminary); Berlin Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Digital Image

Students on the steps of the Lehranstalt fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Jewish teachers' seminary); Berlin Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Digital Image

Elizabeth Gottschalk with unidentified classmates on a field trip from Sophienschule; Hannover, Germany. Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Elizabeth Gottschalk is probably the student far left on the horse wagon

Unidentified girls class seated at desks in classroom Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

"Chanukah" written on blackboard at rear left of classroom

Unidentified girls class Institutions; Educational; Schools; Portraits; Groups

Digital Image