Despite the UNESCO declaration of literacy and access to primary education as a fundamental human right, many developing countries still face low literacy levels, limited access to reading material ...and poor reading culture. This can arguably be used to explain why children from developing countries are (according to large-scale studies such as Progress in International Reading Competency Study) performing below the expected standard compared to those from developed countries. While the low literacy levels are not solely attributed to limited access to reading material, the researchers argue that exploring the positive impacts of book donation will, in one way or the other, subvert the issue around low reading competency levels, and advance multilingualism as well as curriculum decolonization. This paper, therefore, discusses how decolonialism, reading and multilingualism are concurrently developed and realized through book donation. Using the decolonial thought theory as a lens, a qualitative design and case study approach were followed to explore how teachers used donated books to foster decolonization and advance reading as well as multilingualism in their classrooms. Three teachers from one rural primary school participated in the semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that the donated books written by university students empowered teachers to decolonize lesson presentations. In addition, the study found that the different languages in which the donated books were written promoted multilingualism. Finally, teachers reported learners’ interest in reading the donated books written by university students. This study concluded that it is important to evaluate the practice of book donation considering the current debates around decolonization, low reading competencies and multilingualism. Keywords: Book Donation; Decolonization, Primary Schools, Rural, Multilingualism
Chinese character reading is the focus of Chinese teaching in the lower grades of primary school, and it is also a difficult point and challenging problem in the transition from kindergartens (K3) to ...primary school. To understand the learning slope of children's Chinese character reading in this transition, this study assessed the requirements of Chinese curriculum standards for compulsory education over the years based on the number of Chinese characters being learned by children in the lower grades of primary school. The results showed that the requirement of 1600 Chinese characters was, is, and will be the “should level” required at this stage of education. Comparing it with the levels achieved by children in kindergartens and primary schools in the empirical research from 2005 to 2021, it was found that the slope of children's Chinese character reading was not in the transition between K3 and Grade 1 but rather between Grades 1 and 2. The study proposed that to alleviate the slope in this transition, we should pay more attention to Chinese character teaching in Grade 2, improve the abilities of Grade 2 students’ Chinese character reading, and help them reach the requirements of the curriculum standards, in order to prevent the pressure of Chinese character reading from Grade 2 flooding back into Grade 1, causing parents to worry about their children's Chinese character reading before entering primary school.
2013 curriculum of Indonesia has amended English as an extra-curricular or a local content subject at primary schools. There are no standards to achieve and the teachers have to find the appropriate ...strategies to its delivery. It triggers the teachers’ lack of confidence in terms of content and methods. On the other hand, cognitive domain with the test as achievement standard regardless providing the experience of using the language for communication has been practiced. Integrating the thematic units of primary schools’ thematic lesson seems possible to carry out because the teacher can use its themes or sub-themes as a topic for Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL). This exploratory case study employs in-depth interviews with three teachers from well-established schools using a semi-structured interview, observations for field notes, and focus group discussion. The findings reveal that all teachers developed the materials for their teaching based on the regular class thematic lessons and a book provided by the local government. As for teaching practice, they have implemented the CLIL principles although they did not realize it. Ultimately, CLIL adaptation is appropriate for TEYL as that representative area in as much as teacher’s English language proficiency and pedagogical competency are upgraded.
Highlights:
Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) should provide the young learners opportunities to use the English language contextually.
Soft CLIL does not require a high level of achievement in language but it provides the students simple language instruction with simplified materials.
Texts such as curriculum and policy documents work in complex ways to coordinate teachers' work and approaches to diverse genders and sexualities. Although it might be assumed that official, mandated ...curricula determine teachers'
curriculum choices, little is known about the extent of textual influences on how teachers represent genders and sexualities in primary schooling. This institutional ethnographic study investigated how the Australian national curriculum
coordinated teachers' curriculum decisions in one Australian primary school. Drawing on the work of Dorothy E. Smith, we found that teachers and school leaders use multiple institutional texts to guide curriculum choices. Although
diverse genders and sexualities are visible in the Australian Curriculum (minimally so), we found curriculum and related policy texts were shaped by an ideological code that conceals diverse sexualities and genders. We argue that
dominant hetero-cis-normative practices embedded in chains of texts remain powerful, shaping representations of genders and sexualities in primary schooling. Author abstract
The New Ukrainian School reform aims to transform the system of education, emphasising the use of approaches that align with play-based learning. This qualitative interview study investigated the ...perspectives of 29 Ukrainian teachers on implementing learning through play. The findings echo challenges reported in previous research, suggesting a level of generalisability in the evidence from high-income countries. These include a perceived disconnect between the ideals of the reform and the teachers' lived reality in the classroom, pressures from above relating to accountability and pressures from within relating to teacher confidence and motivation. Pressures from below, relating to children's readiness for learning through play, appear to be a more prominent barrier for these teachers than previously suggested in the literature.
The study research includes the representation of primary education services in the district of Al-Maimuna maps, and modern technologies have been used in the use of information and data in ...the preparation of maps with high accuracy in drawing, design and information as well as deduction, updating and analysis, the research has indicated that the total number of primary schools in the district of Al-Maimuna for the year 2021 ( 101 ) schools, the center of elimination ranked first with the largest number of schools and then the side of peace in second place while the area of Sayed Ahmed Rifai came in The third and last rank, and the research proved that the number of primary schools is not commensurate with the number of students in the judiciary according to the global standard for the number of students in one class, through this study it was concluded that the district of Maimuna needs (13) schools for the purpose of achieving the ideal number of schools.
Racial bias and racism present widespread challenges in educational settings. Children may experience and/or witness racial bias or racism at school and the impacts are pervasive. Despite this ...knowledge, there is a paucity of research examining these issues in primary school contexts. A scoping review and thematic analysis examining racial bias and racism within Australian primary school contexts yielded four salient themes (1) a lack of teacher confidence and competency regarding racial issues, (2) white normativity, (3) colour-blindness and (4) silencing. Findings suggest that students need ongoing discussions about race, racism and racial bias. However, teachers need supportive leadership and training to enact such educational conversations. This review also provides an understanding of how school contexts potentially contribute to the development of prejudicial views in children, finishing with implications for policy, practice and research to assist in building more inclusive and equitable classrooms for all students, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Author abstract
Creativity and curiosity are recognised as vital skills to prepare students to engage with the significant challenges and opportunities of the future. To address the research question “What practices ...do teachers enact with the aim of encouraging creativity and curiosity in primary classrooms?”, 21 teachers were interviewed about their teaching practices; this data was triangulated with self-captured classroom videos from 19 classrooms in nine countries. Results of the analysis demonstrated a variety of promising classroom practices. These findings and implications for practice are discussed in terms of diverse feedback pathways, nurturing inquisitive minds, supporting self-regulatory learning and self-expression.
Self-regulation and executive functioning impairments are common in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Given the high rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder identified amongst children ...living in the remote Fitzroy Valley region of Western Australia, the Alert Program was identified as a culturally safe intervention for use in local primary schools. Researchers collaborated with Aboriginal Elders, community members, and staff from a Fitzroy Valley primary school to trial the Alert Program. Teachers were trained to deliver eight Alert Program lessons to children in class. Self-regulation and executive functioning were measured using teacher and parent/caregiver questionnaires three times. Data were analysed using repeated-measures ANOVA. Teacher-led delivery of the Alert Program was feasible in a region with high fetal alcohol spectrum disorder rates. As measured by teacher and parent/caregiver ratings, this curriculum may improve the self-regulation and executive functioning of children for some outcomes and provide sustained effects for some children. This community partnered pilot research, evaluated a school-based program to reduce the behavioural impact of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and informed design of a larger trial across eight Aboriginal community schools. Author abstract
The research that aims to identify the satisfaction of teachers with educational guidance services in primary schools. The sample of the research was 100 teachers, who were randomly selected. The ...researcher built the scale after reviewing previous studies and literature and presented it to a group of 6 experts in the field of psychological counseling and educational guidance. The alternatives followed in the answer were (completely satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied, never satisfied). The reliability was obtained by the split-half method (0.925). The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the arithmetic mean and the hypothetical mean (60) in favor of the arithmetic mean (77.4000) for the scale of teacher satisfaction with guidance services. When comparing the calculated t-value (10.517) with the tabular t-value of (1.98) at a significance level of (0.05) with a degree of freedom (99).
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