1,720,957 research outputs found
A Situational Analysis of Language of Instruction in Lower Primary School in Nyeri County, Kenya
No full textThe purpose of this study was to establish the language(s) used for instruction in lower primary school and also find out to what extent various factors related to school, teachers and parents influence the language choices for instruction in the respective classes and schools. This is because in spite of the language policy in Kenya stipulating that, learners in lower primary school be instructed in the language of the catchment area, studies in pre-primary school show that some schools ignore this rule. This comes at a time that issues have been raised concerning children being introduced to foreign languages too early before they have even mastered the first language. Likewise in the recent past a debate has been raging concerning instructing children in mother tongue at the pre-primary and lower primary schools. The available studies did not focus on language choices made at the lower primary level of education which is a crucial transition stage to formal learning. Most of these studies either addressed the status of the language policy in general or focused on other levels. They have also been exploratory in nature and dwelt on either perceptions, attitudes, values, multilingualism or other aspects of language. The study adopted the Choice theory and Transitional language model in the theoretical framework. The study design was qualitative and adopted a descriptive survey methodology which allowed for an in-depth examination of the situation. The independent variables were the factors said to influence the choice of the language of instruction while the dependent variable was the language of instruction used at lower primary school. This study was carried out within Nyeri County in which Kikuyu is the dominant language. This county has experienced an outcry in academic performance particularly in languages, mathematics and the sciences which has been attributed to the inability to express ideas. The target population of the study was children in lower primary school classes, their teachers and parents. A multistage sampling technique was adopted. Schools were randomly or purposefully selected at various stages; classes were selected through cluster sampling while teachers were randomly selected. Data was collected from private and public schools in rural and urban areas through lesson observations, interviewing teachers and focus group discussions with parents. A pilot study was conducted to pretest the instruments. Validity and reliability were established through triangulation. The qualitative data collected was analyzed using Kitwoods Qualitative Technique of Analysis to bring out the emerging patterns, themes and trends. Among other findings a variety of languages were being used in the classroom instruction with limited consideration to language policy in education. This was seen to be influenced by choices made by the teachers, parents and schools’ management and locality. The study recommends a cross monitoring of implementation of language of instruction policy, training of teachers and education officers, community awareness and resource mobilization so as to benefit children at lower primary school
Synthesizing Policy and Practice: An Examination of Child-Related Policy Implementation in Elementary Education within Nyeri County, Kenya
Full text linkSince independence, Kenya’s education system has undergone significant reforms aimed at enhancing access, equity, and quality. The Basic Education Act 2013 underscored the government’s commitment to free compulsory education, laying the foundation for policy interventions in elementary education. While policies aimed at safeguarding children's rights and ensuring their holistic development exist at the national and regional levels, translating them into effective practice within schools remains a challenge due to limited resources, infrastructure deficits, bureaucratic hurdles, cultural norms, and socioeconomic disparities. These factors influence access and retention rates, thereby impeding policy implementation efforts. The objective of the study was to establish the status of the provision and utilization of education-related policies. This article, therefore, delves into the critical issue of policy-practice disparities in the implementation of child-related policies within primary schools in Nyeri County, Kenya. The findings show that most schools were aware of and had the requisite resources and capacity to implement policies governing early childhood programs. However, they were not strictly adhering to those on childcare and protection. Thus, policy enforcement should be strengthened to curb malpractices in some primary schools
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
INFLUENCE OF UTILIZATION OF MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL COMPETENCIES AMONG GRADE ONE LEARNERS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA
Full text linkMathematics is an important aspect in life. Early development of mathematics skills leads to early acquisition of mathematical competencies. For effective acquisition of mathematical competencies in early years, instructional materials are required to enhance development mathematical skills. Studies conducted in Kenya have not adequately focused on the use of instructional materials to develop mathematical competencies. This has hindered learning, making learners assume a passive role in their learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of use of instructional materials on acquisition of mathematics competencies. The study was guided by Bruner’s theory of instruction. Correlation research design was used in this study. The independent variables were: types of mathematics instructional materials in grade one classrooms, utilization of instructional materials during mathematics instruction as well as investigating the influence of instructional materials on acquisition of mathematics skills. The dependent variable was acquisition of mathematical competencies. The study was carried out in Nakuru East Sub County, Nakuru County. The target population was both private and public primary schools in Nakuru East Sub County. Grade one learners and teachers were the participants. Purposive, stratified and random sampling methods were used to select an appropriate sample for the study. Research instruments used were: lesson observation schedule, interview schedule for teachers and a competency checklist. Pilot study to test the instruments was carried out in two private schools and two public primary schools from the study area. Data was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The study established that few grade one teachers in public schools utilized instructional materials during mathematics instructions. It was also established that instructional materials influenced acquisition of mathematics competencies. The study recommends that teachers and other key stakeholders should invest more resources to ensure availability of adequate instructional materials for learners. It also recommends that school management should invest more to ensure adequate and right instructional materials are availed to enable learners and teachers have all the basic requirements required for better teaching and learning. Article visualizations
INFLUENCE OF READING ACTIVITIES ON PERFORMANCE IN READING ENGLISH AMONG GRADE ONE PUPILS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA
Full text linkReading activities are becoming a focal point in teaching pupils a new language especially English. Based on the studies that have attempted to show the influence of reading activities on performance in reading, it remains inconclusive that reading activities have significant influence on performance of the learners in English as one of the subjects learnt in lower primary schools in Kenya. There are inadequate studies on the influence of reading activities on performance of learners in reading in English in Grade One. This study sought to investigate the influence of reading activities on performance of learners in reading English among Grade One pupils in public primary schools in Kayole Zone of Embakasi Sub-County, Nairobi County. The study employed descriptive research design. The target population was 180 teachers and 3600 Grade One pupils summing up to an overall target population of 3780 respondents in 20 schools. This study employed stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques to obtain a sample size of 241 respondents comprising of 36 teachers and 205 Grade One pupils. The researcher used questionnaires and performance tests to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and presented in form of percentages, frequencies and means for all objectives and correlations between the objectives. Qualitative data was analysed by categorizing it into themes and presented in form of themes and verbatim quotation where necessary. The study findings revealed that reading activities identified include sound reading, word reading, shape reading and colour reading. In addition, pupils perform better (mean of 3.52) in reading speed followed by interpretation of colour and shapes (mean of 3.51) and the least performance is in fluency (mean of 3.38). The study findings established that, sound reading activities and shape reading activities positively influenced performance of pupils in reading English. Also, word reading activities and colour activities did not significantly influence performance in reading English. The study concludes that not all reading activities significantly influence performance of the pupils. The study recommends that school administration and teachers should improve their strategies in improving delivery and performance of pupils in English. Article visualizations
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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