In the Commonwealth Caribbean, on average, girls start schooling earlier, attend school more regularly, repeat fewer grades, are less and achieve higher likely to drop out and therefore stay in school longer, standards of educational performance than boys. In the adult population more women are literate than men. Girls are more highly represented in those sections of the secondary and tertiary levels of the education system which enhance the prospects of upward social mobility. In a real sense girls and women constitute the first sex in Caribbean education. The Caribbean is one of the few areas of the world where this is the case. The data to support these assertions are not in question. They are routinely reported and confirmed by the annual education statistical reports of all the countries in the subregion. The issue at hand is their explanation.
The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Working Group (consisting of teacher educators within the School of Education at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica), conducted a collaborative action research project to infuse ESD skills, issues, perspectives, and values into six courses. The study explored students’ views on the role of teachers in promoting ESD, their personal commitment to ESD, and whether these views were influenced by the infusion process. The study involved 140 undergraduate and graduate students, comprising both pre-service and in-service teachers, and an instrument was developed to gather pre- and post-course responses to open-ended prompts. The results showed development in students’ awareness about their roles and personal commitment to ESD after the infusion process. The findings indicate that teacher education programmes have the potential to promote sustainable development and empower teachers as change agents.
This paper presents a descriptive case study of students’ proficiency in argumentative writing prior to receiving instruction. Data were collected from students at two purposefully sampled traditional denominational schools, a boys’ secondary and a girls’ secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago. Teachers asked students to write an argumentative essay on a topic that they felt was within students’ prior knowledge. However, analysis of those essays revealed that most students needed “intensive support”; only 5.7% of writers needed “some support”. Findings pointed to the need for systematic instruction in argumentative genre features, audience awareness, use of discourse organizers, and cohesive devices. Fewer girls than boys required intensive support of their writing. The findings have implications for teachers’ pedagogical approaches to teaching argumentation, especially the amount of time that may be required for increasing students’ writing proficiency.
This study conducted an analysis of selected items from the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) mathematics multiple-choice test to detect misunderstandings or misconceptions among Jamaican test-takers. The sample of the data included 7,000 CSEC test-takers’ test scores for the examination period 2010–2016. The study applied the Classical Test Theory (CTT) and the Item Response Theory (IRT) in the data analysis process. Results from the study showed that the CSEC mathematics multiple-choice test recorded a relatively high distractor efficiency (DE) for each exam year over the period 2010–2016; and the items were less prone to guessing, based on Jamaican test-takers’ responses. The CTT item difficulty analysis showed that Jamaican test-takers generally found topics such as measurement; and function, relations, and graphs more difficult in comparison to other topics. They displayed more of their misunderstandings or misconceptions in specific concepts tested in these areas on the test. The findings from this study have implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in Jamaica before, at, and after the CSEC level.
This paper explores teachers’ experiences in implementing the Language Arts Alternative Pathway to Secondary Education (APSE) curriculum in a rural high school and the factors which influenced its implementation. The study employed a qualitative case study research design. Semi-structured interviews, observations of participants, and document analysis were used to gather data from six purposefully selected members of the Language and Literacy Department. The collected data were analysed using content analysis. The findings showed that teachers have varied experiences while practicing differentiated instruction during the implementation of the curriculum. The findings also revealed that teachers encountered challenges such as inadequate training, limited resources, and felt they had poor orientation to the curriculum—which led to uncertainty. Recommendations are made regarding how curriculum reforms should be introduced in schools and the role teachers should play in the implementation of any curriculum reform.
