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Teacher education at the university of Zambia and teacher quality with specific reference to english language.
Get PDFThis paper presents an analysis of the quality of teacher education at
the University of Zambia by combining the findings of two PhD theses conducted
at the University of Zambia and in secondary schools in the last two years. Using
self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, both qualitative
and quantitative data were collected from 191 and 200 participants respectively,
comprising of students, newly qualified teachers (NQTs), heads of department
(HoDs), deans, and lecturers. The findings in the two studies indicate that there are
a number of institutional weaknesses in the provision of teacher education at the
University of Zambia. Prominent among these weaknesses is the inadequacy of
teaching practice experiences for student teachers and the mismatch between
subject content offered at the University of Zambia and content taught at the
secondary school level. The paper concludes that this combination of poor teacher
preparation affects teacher quality, which in turn affects educational delivery by
the teachers
VALUED INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE CONTENT FOR SCHOOL CURRICULUM INTEGRATION IN THE ZAMBIAN CONTEXT
Get PDFAfrica has for a long time been a rich source of data for the development of social systems, social sciences theories and paradigms. This calls for the need to identify the epistemological foundations of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and discover, evaluate and understand how knowledge is created and disseminated in local communities. Academic scholarship therefore has a duty to recognize these cultural knowing’s as legitimate sources of knowledge. It was thus the aim of this study to explore the value of IK and its potential integration into the Zambian school curriculum. Aware that IK embody rich cultural heritage, practical life skills and contextual relevance, the study argued for the inclusion as means of promoting culturally responsive education. Considering the Eurocentric nature of most education systems in Africa, there is need for a paradigm shift in curriculum content in which IKSs are also recognized as legitimate knowledge forms. The study employed a qualitative approach, using document analysis and semi structured interviews with some key education stakeholders who included teachers, traditional leaders, curriculum specialists and religious leaders. The collected data was thematically analysed drawing on constructivism and theory of tree as guiding theoretical frameworks. Findings of the study revealed that while IK is acknowledged in policy discourse, its actual integration in the curriculum content remains fragmented, limited and often ignored. Integration into classroom practice is inconsistent primarily due to a lack of teacher training, insufficient instructional materials and minimal community involvement. The study concluded that for Zambia’s education system to become truly inclusive and contextually relevant, a deliberate and structured effort is required to mainstream IK and pedagogies across subjects and levels. The study thus recommends a curricular reform to a local context for curriculum reform, teacher education and community engagement and policy implementation to support transformation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM AT THE CROSSROADS: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM IN CHINGOLA DISTRICT OF ZAMBIA
Get PDFCurriculum implementation is one of the key aspects of the curriculum development process. The success of any educational policy depends on the accomplishing of the objectives of the policy. However, despite the desire to make learning more relevant to the needs of the learners by bringing into context all the skills, attitudes, values and competencies from the three subject areas (Geography, History and Civics) into one (Social Studies). The implementation of the 2013 revised junior secondary school Social Studies curriculum still remain a challenge. The purpose of this study was to analyse the implementation of the junior secondary school Social Studies curriculum in Chingola district. The researchers used a phenomenological research design. 71 participants comprising of 40 teachers of Social Studies, 20 learners of Social Studies, 10 secondary school head teachers and the District Education Standards Officer were sampled for the study. Data was collected from the District Education Standards Officer, Head teachers and teachers using interview schedules. From the learners, data was collected using focus group discussion schedules and then a document analysis schedule was also used to collect data from policy documents and school-based curriculum implementation documents. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the time allocated to the implementation of Social Studies in schools was inadequate. Further, Social Studies was being taught through specialization by teachers who were trained in subject areas like Geography, History and Civic Education a scenario which contributed to the poor performance of learners. The researchers recommended that the Ministry of General Education through the Curriculum Development Centre should consider allocating more time (periods) to the implementation of Social Studies, expedite the training and recruitment of Social Studies teachers and encourage Continuous Professional Development (CPD) meetings both at district and school levels for the purpose of capacity building. Article visualizations
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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