Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Perceptions Of Health Educators And Supervisors About Their Preparation In Alexandria, Egypt (How Well They Believe Their Training And Preparation Prepared Them To Work As Health Educators), Elshaymaa Ahmed

Master's Capstone Projects

Health educators have many responsibilities, including community education, assessment program development, evaluation, research, health policy and grant writing. Health educators in Egypt do not participate in all these activities, but they mostly do participate in essential activities such as community education. The health educators in Egypt get training and preparation on topics such as addiction, women’s health, chronic diseases, and the skills needed for teaching.

This study investigated the perceptions of health educators and their supervisors about how well they believe their training and preparation has prepared them to work with health clients in Alexandria, Egypt. The study includes interviews …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Teacher Support Approaches In Afghanistan, Noorullah Noori

Master's Capstone Projects

This research explores the effectiveness of three teacher professional development (TPD) approaches in the context of Afghanistan: 2-year in-service teacher education; short-term (ad-hoc) teacher training; and teacher learning circles (TLC). In this research, I compare these three models, their impact on improving teacher quality and subsequently student outcome. I applied the mix-methods approach by using three different research tools: classroom observations, self-administered questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. I also reviewed student performance records over four semesters; from 2010 to 2011. Despite many challenges, the results show three core strengths of each of these models: the 2-year in-service teacher …

Recognizing Culture In Experiential Education: An Analysis And Framework For Practitioners, Valerie J. Kurka

Master's Capstone Projects

Experiential education is an intentional educational process that relies on experiential learning theory. This paper categorizes common features of experiential education and analyzes them with a cultural framework. Common features of experiential education include individual development, student-centered teaching, individual challenge and learning, challenge-by-choice, “emotional safety”, and reflection/processing activities. The features of experiential education that I have analyzed have basic cultural assumptions of high individuality, low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high achievement, emphasis on internal control, and possible interaction with ascriptive dispositions and masculine characteristics. These assumptions may have implications for practitioners practicing cross-culturally. In an increasingly global world and …

Students’ Perceptions Of Effectiveness Of Hospitality Curricula And Their Preparedness, Imran Rahman

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Curriculum assessment has been an important tool in measuring the effectiveness of the curriculum to evaluate student learning and preparedness. This study develops a conceptual framework, based on course offerings and descriptions of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to evaluate how the curriculum contributes to students’ preparedness for their future career. Using an online field survey, this study examines the skills that contribute to students’ preparedness. Besides putting forward the strengths and weaknesses of the program, and identifying the significant skill areas that contribute significantly to students’ preparedness, findings of this study indicate …

A Unilateral Grading Contract To Improve Learning And Teaching, Peter Elbow

English Department Faculty Publication Series

Contract grading has achieved some prominence in our field as a practice associated with critical pedagogy. In this context, we describe a hybrid grading contract where students earn a course grade of B based not on our evaluation of their writing quality but solely on their completion of the specified activities. The contract lists activities we’ve found most reliable in producing B-quality writing over fourteen weeks. Higher grades are awarded to students who produce exemplary portfolios. Thus we freely give students lots of evaluative feedback on their writing, but students can count on a course grade of B if they …

Final Report, Center For International Education

Learning Initiatives for Rural Education

Since August 2007, the Learning Initiatives for Rural Education (LIRE) project in Senegal and The Gambia has strengthened educators' capacity to deliver and support quality multi-grade (MG) education in rural areas with low population densities. In a truly collaborative approach, the LIRE project worked with 20 demonstration schools (13 in Senegal and 7 in The Gambia) to develop a teacher training manual and teachers' guide that was locally appropriate and in keeping with the curricula of each country. The LIRE team was truly international, with team members in Senegal, The Gambia and in the United States. The team met regularly …

Civics And Citizenship Education In Schools In Afghanistan, Mohammad Tariq Habibyar

Master's Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the status of civics and citizenship education in schools in Afghanistan. My purpose for this study was (a) to understand what is taught about civics education in classrooms, (b) what concepts of civics education are addressed in the national curriculum and the text books, and (c) what role civics education plays in Afghan schools to produce productive citizens. My assumption is that schools have direct impact on civics understanding of the students and how they use their civics knowledge in everyday life. Civics education raises students’ political, governance, and social awareness and informs them about their …

Research On Undergraduate Mathematics Education In Afghanistan: How Students Understand And Learn The Concept Of “Function”, Ahmad Khalid Mowahed

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate students’ conception of the concept of function in the education faculty of Balkh University, Afghanistan. In particular, the focus was to see what difficulties they had in learning the concept and to determine those factors that impeded/facilitated the learning of the concept in the curriculum. The research methodology was an exploratory approach where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. The theoretical basis for the study was David Tall’s theory which focuses on understanding one’s knowledge and learning. David Tall’s theory was used to analyze qualitative data …

Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser

Participatory Research & Practice

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey lecture to bring together some ideas expressed in m recent work and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context. That experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment …

Widening Literacy: A Training Manual For Managers Of Adult Literacy Learning Programs, Alan Rogers, Joanie Cohen-Mitchell, Udaya Manandhar

Methods, Training, & Materials Development

This training manual has been developed to serve two purposes:

1. To be used as the basis of a training program. To this end, some comments are addressed to the trainer.
2. To be read independently of a training program as a tool for self-directed learning. To this end, some remarks are addressed to the independent reader.

Both sets of users may of course use this manual in whichever way they prefer, starting where they wish to start and finishing where they wish to finish. But we recommend that you look at the introduction before you begin to work on any section …

Using Distance Education To Improve Teaching In Namibia: Teachers' Views On An Inservice Training Program., Ndinovaameni Christian Shatona

Master's Capstone Projects

Teacher education in Namibia is likely to involve more participants and more expenditure in the future. Analysis of the substance and character of teacher education programs as seen by the teachers are very important for the public. This study is a compilation of the thoughts of almost 70 teachers enrolled in a distance teacher education program. Their views are captured in conversations, observations, interviews and on questionnaires. Voice is an important aspect of the study, for both content and tone. The actual words of teachers have been quoted directly and at leng·�h, so that they may speak for themselves, as …

A Situational Analysis And Recommendations For Educational Policy For Addressing The Problem Of Out-Of-School Youth In Cabo Verde, Ondina Ferreira

Master's Capstone Projects

The objective of this project is to examine the negative effects of the current formal educational policy in Cape Verde and to recommend to the Ministry of Education some educational alternatives in order to deal with the out-of-school youth's problem in the country.

Problem: The Legal system places outside secondary school the young who are considered overage (16 years old and above) to get her/his first application.

actually and annually approximately one thousand young people leave middle school without possibility to pursue their secondary education. Generally, speaking, the out-of-school youths belong to the socially and economically disadvantaged population in the …

Science Teacher Training In Tanzania: A Study Of Junior Secondary And Primary School Teacher Training Programs, Ward M.J. Mavura

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of Non-Formal Education In Ecuador, Donald A. Swanson

Non-Formal Education

A logical place to begin this study was to list objectives from the original contract. The University of Massachusetts/USAID contract for this Project had some explicit objectives and contractual agreements are briefly outlined here so that we have a common background for discussing merits of this project. They are:

1. Create and field test a range of non-formal educational techniques using local institutions to implement and support these techniques in field situation.
2. Develop a number of non-formal educational methodologies which are feasible for use by existing Ecuadorean institutions.
3. Implement selected methodologies with institutions, including the Ministry of Education, with on-going evaluation …