Critics have emerged questioning the benefits of homework in a students daily learning progress. They claim that homework leads to frustration, fatigue, and nervousness in the learners. The critics say that homework is brought about by a lack of appropriate management and monitoring of the students by both teachers and parents.
Main Body
In general, homework can be very beneficial to students in several aspects. Homework gives students an opportunity to test their capability of working independently and to conduct a review on what they were taught. The assignments also create an opportunity for teachers and parents to interact. All these benefits are lost if the concerned parties neglect their responsibility of putting appropriate mechanisms in place to ensure the homework helps students to develop their knowledge and skills.
Parents should be responsible for ensuring that their children have a peaceful environment of doing their homework. This is meant to limit distractions that might create errors in the pupils work. A good example of this is a case where parents should encourage children to do their homework in a room without television or radios. Parents should also provide the required resources to minimize movement when undertaking the assignment. This can best be achieved by liaising with teachers to learn the nature of the required materials to undertake the assignments.
Parents should also show interest in whatever their children are doing and be ready to give direction when they are stranded. Giving direction should not mean doing the assignment for them, but just giving guidance or correction on the small mistakes. Parents should set aside time for doing the assignment that does not collide with the family chores.
The completed assignment must be checked by the parent before the child is allowed to proceed to other activities. If mistakes are identified, correction must be done immediately before the work is handed over to the teachers. After the assignment has been checked, comments given by the teacher should be addressed before the student can proceed with the next days work. In this way, the students will learn from the mistakes they had done the previous day.
For high school and college students, homework can be a big source of stress if not managed efficiently. This is because it leads to confrontation with their tutors. These students need to realize that the first step in proper homework management is to have a notebook.This is used to record all the assignments given in class with all details such as date of submission, reference materials to be used and the mode of presentation.
The second thing that they need is a weekly work plan which they should use to indicate the day and time they will work on each assignment. The plan helps students to prioritize their work depending on the date of submission. This eliminates the last-minute rush that finally makes the students plagiarize on their work. The work plan should also set aside time to review previous assignments.
Teachers on the other hand hold the key to ensuring that homework attains its intended purpose. This is because they decide the nature of the assignment to give to the students. In this case, the teachers must ensure that the given work matches the students ability based on what they have coved in class. Teachers should also give clear instructions to avoid ambiguity. The homework must target specific learning aspects of the student. Teachers should give out assignments that prepare students for the next days lesson. It should also encourage the students to be responsible and teach them how to adhere to deadlines and manage their time well.
Conclusion
The homework given in school could be a great source of motivation to students if they are properly managed. For this to be achieved, the assignments have to be tailored to encourage creativity and present the students with an opportunity to apply their skills while enhancing their knowledge towards their academic achievement. This must involve the cooperation of the parents, teachers, and the students.
Many students hope to find the special technique which could help them to study successfully because of the variety of materials and tasks with which it is necessary to cope every day.
Nevertheless, there is no only formula which can solve all the students problems, but there are a lot of methods effective for developing students study skills and abilities.
All the study skills are important for students, but it is useful to focus on the effective listening skills and time management which improvement can contribute to the students high academic performance.
Effective listening as well as the developed skills in time management are the ways to help students to organize their studying and everyday activity successfully that is why these skills should be discussed in detail.
Listening is the part of the peoples everyday life because of a lot of communication. The process of studying also depends on communication which is realised during lectures and seminars.
Students communicate with lecturers and their classmates in order to get and share the knowledge. This process is effective only when students concentrate on listening to the speaker.
Effective listening is important during lectures when students should focus on the information presented by the lecturer and think over it because the passive listening cannot be discussed as effective one.
Students succeed in listening to lectures when they not only make the necessary notes but also react to the presented material.
Moreover, there are a lot of situations when it is necessary to ask the lecturer or tutor about the details of the material. Asking the question, students should pay attention to the answer, but not concentrate on their own ideas.
Providing some pieces of advice on the effective listening and communication, Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 122) state that you must listen actively to the answer . To listen actively means that students should react to the answer, and it can be useful to ask the additional questions.
The developed skills in time management are useful not only for study but also for organising the life effectively. The problem is in the fact many students have poor time management skills, and it can limit their possibilities in overcoming a lot of challenges in learning the material and planning the work.
Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 2) determine that students can be less organised than is desirable, not always able to manage time effectively and discuss these problems as their weaknesses.
The poor skills in time management should be improved because students have more tasks every day, and the inability to organise their time can make them procrastinate.
Time management skills can be improved with focusing on daily planning with the help of calendars and diaries. Thus, Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007, p. 174) advise students, along with diary management also do a daily to-do-list for the following day .
To-do-lists are effective for increasing the level of students productivity and help them to avoid procrastination.
It is important for students to improve their study skills in order to achieve the high results in their academic performance.
The developed skills in time management and listening to the speaker are useful not only for studying but also for everyday life and career because they help students to become organised, active, and dynamic without procrastinating habits, but with focusing on productivity.
Reference List
Burdess, N 2007, Good study, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W. Australia.
Lee-Davies, L & Bailey, S 2007, Developing work and study skills, Thomson, Australia.
No matter how sad it may sound, student drinking is not a myth. Several students indulge in binge drinking throughout their studying and life at campus. The results of such behavior, however, differ depending on a variety of factors; some students cease to drink as soon as they graduate, while others resume drinking even when they are supposed to enter the realm of adult life and start searching for a job. Seeing how the problem of binge drinking among students is slowly getting out of hand and becoming global, more thorough research based on a ten-year follow-up to a grand-scale study on binge drinking among students must be conducted.
Research Premise and Rationale: Alcoholism Rates Increasing Steadily
As one might have guessed, a rapid and sharp increase in the number of people with drinking problems was the main reason from the article to have been written. According to the author of the article, the key to the problem may be concealed in the specifics of student life that the people with a drinking problem used to lead during their academic years. The research was started ten years ago and presupposed that several students with obvious susceptibility to developing a drinking issue should be observed. Ten years later, the effects that college binge drinking had had on the former students were checked.
Article Findings and Their Significance: In Search for the Truth
When dealing with a problem as complicated as the one in question, one must be ready for retrieving rather ambiguous results. While several facts acquired in the course of the research point at the negative effects of binge drinking on most students, especially male ones, other factors, including societal and economic ones, as well as the ones related to students health, must be born in mind.
Binge drinking as a harmless pastime for students
Much to her credit, Jennison does not focus on a single hypothesis and explores alternative opinions regarding the issue in question. The article shows that the attempts to consider binge drinking as a relatively harmless pastime have been undertaken. Thus, Jennison managed to make the paper objective; the author refuses from taking sides and prefers to analyze the opponents viewpoint as well to come to the logical conclusion.
Binge drinking as a path leading to alcoholism in the future
Even though in several cases, people find the will power to overcome their habit of drinking and find a less harmful way of entertaining themselves, the study carried out by Jennison has also shown that the number of people unwilling to give up their harmful addiction is growing rapidly. An evaluation of the personal and professional progress of the people who used to indulge in binge drinking as students has shown that only 15.5% of the respondents managed to abstain from consuming alcohol in the future (Jennison, 2004, p. 667). Speaking of the number of former students who did not handle their addiction, one must admit that the impressive 55% speaks for itself.
Analysis: When Binge Drinking Stops Being an Integral Part of Studentship
Though solid and reliable, the research mentioned above still needs further development, seeing how it embraces a relatively small amount of people and, therefore, does not produce the results that are general enough to be one hundred percent credible. More to the point, the social status of the students mentioned in the research, as well as their family background or health issues, have not been mentioned in the article, which begs the question whether binge drinking has the same effects on every student or whether only the people with a particular social background are predisposed to further alcohol consumption after graduating from college or any other higher education establishment.
Nevertheless, the results offered by Jennison in her article on student binge drinking are quite impressive To start with, the scope of the research is an obvious strength, seeing how it is a follow-up to the previous study that was carried out ten years ago. Therefore, it can be expected that the research contains authentic results and has an incredible significance for the studies of student drinking and the associated problems.
The strength of Jennisons article concerns the range of aspects, which the researcher considers the problem. Taking a closer look at the research, one will be able to spot that the author considers the problem of binge drinking among the American youth from a range of aspects, including not only social but also a cultural and economical one, therefore, allowing for a more cohesive and efficient solution to be provided.
Conclusion: Evaluating the Possible Outcomes
Jennisons article should be given credit for the effort put into the research. What started ten years ago and has now provided fruitful results may be used as the premise for creating a major strategy for preventing drinking problems. Thus, safer lifestyle can be promoted among students.
Reference List
Jennison, K. (2004). The short-term effects and unintended long-term consequences of binge drinking in college: A 10-year follow-up study. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 30(3), 659684.
Now that we have come to the start of our leadership careers, the reality that education in the 21st century is nothing like we have experienced, nor dreamed of before, is beginning to sink in for most of us. We are faced with the challenge of keeping classroom education relevant in an era of lightning-speed access to any information one can think of. The Internet generation should be considered a special generation of students because of the way their access to information has given them the chance to become wise beyond their years. Our task, as educators of today and tomorrow, is to ensure that the students of this era will not rely solely on fast and unconfirmed sources of information. Our main goal is to find the halfway point wherein the information found on the Internet can be safely used to augment whatever shortcomings will be found within the textbook and classroom discussions. This way, students will actually have a well-rounded and relevant education that has not only theoretical but everyday applications as well.
In order to succeed with my plans, the instructional climate that I will create for their learning should be conducive and open to exploring various ways and means of getting an education. I will make it my duty to ensure that they learn how to properly resource material from both books and the Internet and set up guidelines by which they can analyze and decide upon the accuracy and relevance of the material they are using themselves. Meaning that information both from textbooks and the Internet will be acceptable provided that the student displays that analysis and research were actually involved in this educational process.
However, in order for my educational vision to succeed, I will need the full cooperation of the teachers and staff, students, parents, and school district officials. Their acceptance of the fact that education these days must be updated to include the acceptance of technological advances in the field of education and research, and therefore, being open to change will certainly help build a new learning climate for the students. We will all have to cooperate and understand each others stand in order to be able to come up with specific teaching guidelines and student instructional handouts which will clearly define how the educational system shall unfold.
As the person in authority in my building, I must take on the role of the effective leader by conducting consultations with my co-workers regarding topics that affect the overall, and daily functions of the building. I will be a leader who has open lines of communication with the others who share the building in order to ensure that the rapport between its inhabitants will consistently be conducive to student learning and teacher creativity.
My teaching philosophy is one which I took from Peyton Williams, the president of the ASCD in 2003. He said We must give more attention to the interplay between the science of teaching pedagogy and the art of teaching& A teacher must be anchored in pedagogy and blend imagination, creativity, and inspiration into the teaching-learning process to ignite a passion for learning in the student. We have never had a more eager-to-learn generation than these Internet-generation students. As teachers, we must learn to build upon this eagerness and use it to our advantage for it will make the teaching process easier and the learning process, more fun for the student.
Education is now played on a totally different playing field and yet the art of teaching has not lost its relevance. The only difference is that now, teachers are not the only educators. Teachers now serve as intellectual guides as well and should therefore know how to best use all of the teaching aids and instruments presented. before him or her in order to keep a student interested in classroom learning.
The campus of any educational establishment is a little society with its issues that every campus member has to deal with. The campus of Felix Cook Junior Elementary in Houston, Texas is not an exception. This paper presents an analysis of the top 5 issues observed nowadays on the campus of this educational institution. The information presented in this analysis has been obtained from the interviews with the campus principal and other leaders of students organizations and campus authorities.
To start with, the top 5 issues on the campus include high absentees rates, janitorial staff issues, professional development of campus members, decrease in TAKS scores observed over the past 2 years, and handling the needs of migrate students. It is also necessary to consider the demographics of the campus under consideration to see the reasons for the above issues. The bulk of the students are of African American (64%) and Hispanic (34%) origins, and the lack of discipline observed in their cultures might explain the first issue. So might the ratio of students to teachers on campus which amounts to 20:1.
Moreover, about 88% of the teaching staff is also of African American origin, while the rest of 12% are Hispanic people. Among the schools students, a considerable number of people (12%) are those with Limited English Proficiency, while 60.8% are on the edge of this group according to their academic performance results. Further on, 70% of the students are economically disadvantaged people. These factors may be reasons for lack of professional development perspectives and low TAKS scores. Finally, the working experience of the campus teachers varies from 1 to 5 (70%) and 6 to 10 (20%) to 10 and more years of practice (10%) which explains issues in handling janitorial staff and migrate students.
There is no use denying the fact that education is very important in the modern world. Living in the age of blistering development of some traditional issues, it is impossible to be able to process the torrent of information which a person obtains every day without a good knowledge base. Education is the phenomenon which helps to create this very base and promote personal development of a person. For ages, it has been taken as the privilege of noble and rich people. Thus, nowadays in the age of tolerance, education is supposed to be affordable for everyone. Unfortunately, things are not so good as it is supposed to be. Very often education remains unobtainable for certain groups of population. Especially keen this issue became after the world financial crisis which stroke many households and made their financial state rather complicated (Campos para. 4).
That is why, nowadays the question whether the college tuition costs very high or not becomes very important. With this in mind, it should be said that under modern conditions the policy of the formation of tuition fees should be rethought in order to make education affordable for everyone.
First of all, it should be said that if to take into account modern statistics, the necessity of the reconsideration of the issue of college tuition becomes obvious (Anderson para. 2). According to the latest findings, tuition at some private educational establishment costs an average of $31,000 a year (Davidson para. 2), while people very often do not earn the needed sum. The given facts can be taken as the best evidence of the existing problem.
Coherent society proclaims that tolerance and equal possibilities for everyone should become the main aim which should be achieved, however, education still remains something very expensive and exclusive. Resting on these facts, it is possible to say that the main aim of the policy of the government in the given sphere should be the significant decrease of tuition fees for people to be able to obtain education and satisfy their need in knowledge. It is obvious that these steps will be met with great enthusiasm as there are many people who will benefit from it.
It should be said that the necessity of the changes in the sphere of college tuition is also proved by the fact that the targeted audience is rather big. Nowadays, the smaller part of the population of the USA can pay for education and guarantee it for their children. The lack of access to high education results in the change of the lifestyle of the middle class (Rucke para. 4). Being very important, education is still not the guaranty of a good job and position in society, it is just one of the factors which could help to obtain it. That is why, very often people refuse to enter the college because of the incongruity between high tuition fees and possible perspectives (Selingo para. 6). The lack of graduates leads to the absence of specialists in some spheres and this fact, in its turn, damages the whole economy. That is why, it is possible to say that there is a great number of people who are affected by high tuition fees and wait for some changes in the given sphere.
One more argument, which could be adduced, is the fact that elitism of education leads to the decrease of the level of rivalry which results in the worsening of the quality of education and knowledge that specialists obtain at educational establishments. The recent findings show that being traditionally taken as very good places to obtain knowledge, colleges and institutions of the USA gradually lose their significance in the world because of the high tuition fees. Students would rather prefer some European educational establishments where the price is lower though the quality of education is very high.
Moreover, even citizens of the USA nowadays more often prefer to study abroad as the price of education and living will be still lower than tuition fees in the U.S. colleges (Noack para. 3). With this in mind, it is possible to predict that the further development of the given tendency can lead to the decline of educational establishments of the USA (Douglas-Gabriel para. 6) as they will not be able to win the rivalry.
There are several ways in which these changes could be implemented. The first obvious way is the involvement of the government in the process of the formation of tuition fees. Nowadays, there is a system of education loans which is created in order to help young people to obtain an education by giving them the sum which is needed to pay for education. Thus, it is obvious, that this system is not efficient as not many people use this system. That is why, the government should rethink the system of education loans for it to become more efficient (Healy para. 4). The loan should be prolonged for people to be able to sink it without a great effort. However, it could be not the only way to change the situation. The government should try to influence colleges and make the tuition fees lower. That is why, special sums from the budget could be allocated to colleges in order to recoup losses which they could have because of the lowering of tuition fees.
Nevertheless, there are some other possible variants. There is no use denying the fact that the state of colleges depends on the state of economy, which, in its turn is influenced by the functioning and well being of a great number of different organizations and enterprises. Lack of specialists, which appeared because of high tuition fees, could lead to the decrease of the profitability and efficiency of a great number of different companies. This fact will have the negative impact on the incomes of population which, in its turn will decrease the number of applicants. This chain of events shows that educational system will also suffer from high tuition fees. That is why colleges should create more amicable system.
With this in mind, having analyzed information connected with the given issue, it is possible to make a certain conclusion. It should be said that nowadays tuition fees are extremely high and this fact is also complicated by the fact that people do not earn so much money to be able to afford education. Besides, it is possible to say that a certain conflict appears. Just recovering from the aftermath of the world financial crisis, greater part of population is not able to obtain education even using the system of education loans. However, there are many people who want to obtain it and, that is why, the targeted audience is rather big. Nevertheless, the change of the policy of formation of tuition fees and involvement of the government could be the only possible solution to existing problem.
Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) can easily be understood from children learning behaviour and approach towards utilisation of available materials. In their early learning, children are normally influenced by their environment and the society surrounding them. At the same time, they tend to make good use of their learning experiences both for their own interest and the society at large.
Concerns over the environment and other factors affecting people in the society have been studied to be an in-built in many people. While children hardly understand their actions, they are being driven by what normally takes place in the society. This paper is a review of a journal based on development of technology based on childrens understanding.
The children were first taken on tricycles riding in rough environment full of obstacles in a rural community setting. After this, they were engaged in creation of a better technological application environment, which they chose to be a town setting.
During the town creation process, several SOSE elements were identified among the children in different phases (McKay, 2006). Most of these were as a result of their daily observation and influences from their society. The children generally showed a lot of interest in the project as well as sustainable creativity in their work (Sanders, 2002).
From their experience in tricycle riding, the children seemed to have known the best place for technological system to a town setting. When asked what they do with the boxes given, Hayden and Chloe simply answered: We could make a town (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006, p. 2). After the idea surfaced, the children were able to give more information involving social and geographical setting of the town.
They came up with structures like post office, town clock, bank, supermarket, restaurant and service station. Consequently, it should be noted that they did not merely mention these landmarks but added the importance of each in the town. Serayah was concerned with the safety and availability of money for their uses hence she suggested a bank. Nevertheless, this was an ideas of societal wellness based on security of property and people safety.
She added that a service station for petrol is essential for their rides in the town. Georgia was concerned with how they will acquire groceries and suggested building of a supermarket (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006). It was obvious that the children knew their environment and society enough. This made them able to come up with these necessary structures to facilitate their project (Zadja, 2000).
Steaven was creative enough to think of a town clock. His thoughts were based on the observation of his environment. He had even known that more information can be sought in advanced technological systems like the internet.
The child had the knowledge and meaning of numbers in the clock and he systematically arranged them to make the clock. On the other hand, they had the knowledge of such things as height in raising the clock. The clock building period was carried under communal commitment. They knew who could be more helpful for raising the clock based on the knowledge of different heights.
Children understand and analyse flow of activities in their environment, this can be seen when Samantha proposed for a post office through his past reflections. She gave out a clear design of the post office to ensure its maximum usefulness to their society. The children could easily relate their structure and develop a carriage limit to ensure efficiency in its functioning a well (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006).
On the third day, the children showed a lot of knowledge in technological advancement. They knew the importance of conservation over such resources as petrol. Through their storage, they could aid those who needed the resource and keep the rest. The ideas of scarcity in resources are also developed when the petrol runs low and they seek an alternative methods.
To make maximum use of their petrol, they came up with a hose for bowser to fill the vessels. Advanced in communication system is also seen when Steaven suggested a phone call to other petrol stations. At the same time, they showed amazing innovation when they develop air pressure for their rides (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006).
From their experience, the children showed a lot of understanding over housing. They knew that certain spacing was required, windows and door need to be installed and that each of the material they had could only fit perfectly to a given use without wastage (Tasker, 2004).
The children as well knew that the health of the community rely on security from law enforcers hence they opted for a police surveillance by David (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006). This was a clear show of different roles of people in the society.
The children understood the meaning of safety while using their rides. Due to this, they came up with traffic system to ensure safety on their road. It is clear that the children understood the meaning of the colours and signs on their roads.
On their sixth day, the children showed their ability to corporate while carrying out researches on their transportation means. Application of different research strategies could be noted while they sought transport system that would serve different purpose. They could identify vehicles, aeroplanes and trains for their transportation (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006).
In the seventh day, the children showed application of legal system in management of traffic. They also developed creative measure to ensure that all the vehicles operated within the traffic rules (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006). Week seven work was based on increasing safety on the roads for all the road uses. The children seemed to have knowledge of road accidents to the society that they ensured that everything was under control (Tylee, 2011).
The children as well seemed to have known the importance of work maps. It was from the group of Samantha that they identified that several gaps were missing out of their project that could render their road usage ineffective (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006).
As a result, they added more signs and traffic measures to reduce cases of accident. They were familiar with town setting and came up with more housing system and lighting programs. Environmental pollution seemed to have struck their minds that they came up with bins to manage wastes in the town (Australian Lutheran World Services 2012).
Conclusion
Week ten found the children engrossed in their own interest through the remains of their construction. They found themselves making tents and camping site. This was clear show that the children have developed interest based on their town construction.
This study shows how children have integrated SOSE in their technological learning. The end session reveals the childrens interest through their use of remnants in building tents. From the study, it can be seen that measures of environmental concerns and the general societal wellbeing have been given a lot of attention by the children.
References
Australian Lutheran World Services. (2012). Lower Primary Teaching Ideas and Resources. Web.
McKay, P. (2006).Planning and teaching creatively within a required curriculum for school-age learners. University of Michigan: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
Sanders, S. 2002. Active for life: Developmental Appropriate Movement Programs for Young Children. NAEYC, Washington DC.
Tasker, S. (2004). World Explorers: Library Activity Pack Greenwood, WA: Ready-Ed Publications.
Tylee, J. (2011). What Should a Society and Environment Curriculum do? Web.
Queensland Studies Authority. (2006). Early Years Curriculum Materials. Developing Technology Understanding. Web.
Zadja, J. (2000). Society and the Environment: Teaching Sose. Melbourne. Australia: James Nicholas Publishers.
Several studies suggest that economic development is directly correlated with the quality and the rate of access to education in a state. Similarly, there is a strong link between the quality of education and the number of resources allocated to promoting education in the states. About 50 years ago, there was a high trend in high schools attendance leading to high graduation rate, but the level of enrolment was quite low. This led to increased productivity of workers and hence an increase in economic growth.
Economic growth led to increasing in resources provided to cater for education and a high motivation to keep up with the growing wage difference between high school graduates and dropouts as dropout wages declined while the wages of graduates increased. As years went by the internal rate of return to graduating versus dropping out increased, and this led to a rise in enrolment as more wanted to acquire skills to improve their earnings. Some of them are in partial employment and the need for balancing their work, and studies are always hard, and they tend to drop out to keep their jobs rather than study.
The overall effect of poor funding of public education is declined economic trends in various states as the level of education output is low and lacks the required skills. Over the years, due to the increase in incentives for high school graduation, the high school attendance increased, but the graduation rate gradually decreased. This reduction in graduation rate has led to a lower rate of college attendance as most students on attaining high school degree tend to search for employment.
This was due to over-stretching of resources such that there was not enough to cater for increased student attendance. This was also due to lack of enough preparation of the enrolled students and increase in time of attainment of degrees. In recent years the high school enrolment has gradually increased, and the resources available have decreased tremendously. The funding allocated has become inadequate for the public schools and resources are being overstretched to cater for a large number of students attending school. Due to this underfunding the number of teachers available decreases tremendously, and as such class sizes increase as students are combined so that they could be handled by the few teachers available.
Public education spending per student has changed drastically over the years as the world develops, and new resources are discovered. If we go 50 years back, the student spending was insignificant as it was only just a little spending on writing materials and quite cheap trips and research funding of which most of the funding itself was done by the state government. As the years went by, economic growth became vibrant, inventions, and improvements in technology were on the rise.
This lead to more research being done in schools and a lot of resources being required and as the number of students is quite large such that the government could not cater for all students it led to student chipping in to attain the required skills and education. Nowadays, students need to acquire laptops, research materials, books to keep up with the highly trendy education system and spend quite a lot than 50 years ago. They also need to make contributions to support different projects undertaken by the school like constructions and field trips.
Public education spending and taxes have a significant impact both positively and negatively on economies of different states. Direct effects commence with direct spending on education in which the expenses could include salaries paid to teachers, administrators, maintenance costs, transportation costs, and purchasing costs for various goods and services. The direct impact of public education affects the persons receiving money for offering various services and goods, and this direct spending on education influences other factors of economic development. For instance, salaries paid to teachers are spent within a state in payment of services and to promote consumer spending.
The expansion of education facilities would involve the use of state construction and maintenance services, and this would increase the number of people indirectly employed by huge funding toward education and reduce congestion in the public schools. Also, if institutions of learning purchase goods and services from local businesses, then the businesses improve their sales and performances. We also see that some of this public spending is used to employ new teachers who help ease the congestion in classes.
Data on the 50 states in the U.S. about public education spending, high school graduates, and college attendance reveal crucial trends that are essential in making critical decisions in education management. All the 50 states show upward trends in the amount of funding of education varying from one state to another for the past 50 years. Thus it can be concluded that education budgets have been reflecting socioeconomic dynamics within states and reveal the level of importance that education authorities have attached to public education. This reflects the past 50 years as the number of students enrolling increases as years go by with the states improving the outreach strategies to bring more students to schools.
If states have not been providing significant funds toward building facilities and employing teachers, among other activities, the number of students transiting from high schools to colleges would be low. The state has also in recent years has created opportunities for high school students to attain college scholarships and also restructured college education so as the students can attain degrees promptly.
The correlation between increased public education spending with high school and college enrolment is a clear demonstration that public education is the key to expanding educational access and quality as those who graduate are highly skilled and enhance production improving the economic status of the state at large. Another key feature of the data on the 50 states is the fact that top states in terms of public education funding are also leading in the number of high school graduates and college enrolment. On the other hand, states that have consistently been at the bottom in funding public education have been recording lower percentages of students graduating from high school and joining colleges.
The parents education level and per capita income have changed over the years regarding the education levels. Fifty years ago, the wage difference was very low between dropouts and graduates, and hence, parents could easily afford to pay education for their children and also to acquire the necessary equipment needed. As years went by the wage rate steadily grew and this led to a decline in wages of dropouts and increase in wages of graduates.
Dropout parents often find themselves stuck and can not manage to cater for their childrens education needs as they are also increasing and their salaries are low, and so they end up dropping out. On the other hand, graduate parents earn a higher wage and can cater to their childrens education needs, which are highly increasing while the few who can afford to remain in school, the rest dropout to search for jobs or work part-time to cater for their education.
Abu Dhabi University was given a charter in the year 2000. After 3 years of preparation, the institution of higher education admitted its first students in the year 2003. The university has two campuses. Before registering students, the university is required to obtain all essential measures to guarantee approval for all its degree courses from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The university aims to be the leading higher education institution in the UAE, the Arabian Gulf region, and internationally. Considered that the university has a few years of operation, achieving the above aim is a great challenge. Its courses, incorporating a number of diverse cultures and structures, emulate the history of our society and embrace emerging requirements of Emiratis. The paper below analyses the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University.
Introduction
Abu Dhabi University offers a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (Abu Dhabi University, 2015). Some of the degrees are founded on the American structure of higher education. Other professional and diploma courses are based on the British structure of post-secondary education. Abu Dhabi Universitys formal language is English. Nonetheless, the institution offers degree and diploma courses in English and Arabic languages. Currently, the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University is the major worry among education stakeholders (Abu Dhabi University, 2015). Researchers agree that supervising and upholding the quality of education in higher institutions with diverse cultural populace is not only thought-provoking and a difficult task. The paper below focuses on the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University. A prototype to uphold the quality of learning in the university will be analysed along with its difficulties.
Research question
As indicated above, the research paper will attempt to identify the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University. Through this, the research paper attempts to answer a number of sub-questions, which explores the topic from a narrower perspective. Below are the research questions:
Does the learning offered at Abu Dhabi University equip graduates with the necessary skills needed to operate in a competitive environment?
Does the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University meet international education standards?
What is the consistency of quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University?
Does the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University meet the customers expectations?
What are the efficiency and effectiveness of education offered at Abu Dhabi University?
Is education offered at Abu Dhabi University transformative?
Based on these questions, researchers can explore the quality of learning in institutions. Education stakeholders have realised the need to create a curriculum that encourages broad and balanced learning for graduates. The essence of enhancing the quality of learning in higher education is to allow graduates to achieve wide and balanced experiences during their training programmes.
Research problem
Globally, universities and colleges are trying hard to meet growing concerns of quality assurance and the ever-changing customer requirements. Eight new difficulties have been identified as the major challenges facing universities and colleges. The challenges are illustrated below:
Rising demand and mystification.
Diversification of providers and methods.
Private provisions.
Distance education.
Cross-border higher education.
Quality assurance.
Teacher education.
Academic profession.
A number of factors determine problems in higher education. They are political, economic, administrative, quality of students, quality of teachers, and academic factors. In the UAE, universities and colleges are experiencing problems on numerous fronts (Abu Dhabi University, 2015). For instance, anxieties among students and increasing questions about the significance of tertiary education for the public good are some of the concerns. The above challenges result from the quality of learning offered in tertiary institutions.
In the recent past, several questions have been asked about the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University (Gitsaki, 2011). The issue has been on whether the institution equips graduates with the necessary skills needed to operate in a competitive environment. Based on these questions, tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have emphasised the importance of the whole person development programmes. Educators have realised the need to create a curriculum that encourages broad and balanced learning for graduates. The essence of the whole person development programmes is to allow graduates to achieve wide and balanced experiences during their training programmes.
Data collection
For this study, most of the data were collected through field research. The method entailed acquiring data from secure and reliable higher education institutions, face-to-face interviews, and questionnaires. The institutions provided the researchers with crucial information such as the present and the past education and learning reports. The above sources were very efficient since they were bias-free. The face-to-face interview and surveys required researchers to question the participants in person to collect their personal views. During the interview, the contributors were asked to detail their perspectives. The questions used during the interviews were open-ended. Equally, questionnaires were appropriate for collecting private information from the participants.
As such, our target population were students from Abu Dhabi University. The survey used in the collection of data consisted of 20 questions. The questions were collected from 10o female students. The questions were open-ended so that the answers would bring unambiguous results. The first questionnaire contained 10 questions. The second questionnaire was comprised of 10 questions. The sampling technique was relevant to the study because the samples of the population were judged based on a typical representation of the population.
The questions were formulated in such a way that the students needed to mark only ticks to express their appreciations or observations in the respective columns. The use of questionnaires was suitable for this study as the sample population was large in number and answers to the questions would bring obvious results. In addition, secondary researches were also conducted on related studies with the help of internet databases and online contents. Two study samples were selected from this random search, and their methods of study and the findings were analysed.
When the data was being collected, participants privacy was upheld to ensure that the research did not harm them. Before we commenced our research, we acknowledged that the major issues that we were to encounter were related to participants privacy. In this regard, before the data collection process was undertaken in our research, permission for the study was requested from the university authorities and the Institute of Research Board. Equally, the research followed the directives of the established code of ethics.
As such, the research caused no harm to the participants, safeguarded the participants privacy, and was voluntary. During the data collection, participants were informed of what was required of them before the start of the project, the length of the project benefits accrued from the project, possible risk associated with the research, and who to consult.
Results
After the collection of the data, the researchers analysed the information to identify the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University. From the data, it was noted that the universitys quality of learning had been affected by four major challenges. The challenges are misalignment of tertiary education outcomes with the countrys socio-economic vision, inadequate quality of alumni & faculty, restricted research activity, and limited chances of admission to quality higher education. The results also showed that there is no balance amid the employments demands and the supply of tertiary education graduates based on discipline. Indicated below is a graph indicating tertiary education specialization supply against labour market demand.
Fig 1: tertiary education specialization supply against labour market demand.
The results indicated that the root causes of the challenges facing the quality of learning in Abu Dhabi University were manifold. Some of the causes were little training level of p-12 graduates, insufficient quality assurance, inadequate and fuzzy program offerings, challenges in drawing and retaining quality staff, inadequate aid for tertiary education, and undersized research & innovation setting.
Discussions
Abu Dhabi University has noted that higher education has evolved to define graduates outcomes and cater to the dynamic needs of the society. Quality learning programmes have been critical in developing these needs. Past studies have guided tertiary institutions to formulate curriculum, which could respond to intellectual development, emotional growth, moral, and personal growth of learners. Thus, society has an insight into what graduates should be after completing the training. Insufficient quality assurance was also a major reason for the low quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University. Emerging demand for access to tertiary education has led to establishments of a number of tertiary institutions across the UAE.
In Abu Dhabi, different perspectives of societal expectations towards the quality of learning exist. Several individuals believe that tertiary education should produce graduates who meet employers and communities needs. As such, the society expects graduates to have a broad range of skills, positive attitudes, abilities to cope with others and serve the society. The above expectation differs from exam-oriented elites of the past. It is imperative to note that the past curriculum could only meet these skills partially. Therefore, educators at Abu Dhabi University must come up with programs that meet the expectations of various stakeholders in education and society.
Similarly, across the UAE the society expects higher education institutions to produce graduates who have core values, which they can use in society to propel their teams to greatness (Gaad, 2010). Equally, they expect the institutions to offer quality-learning programs that will instil transformational leadership styles in graduates. Skills applied in the past years can no longer match the demands of a shifting world. On a positive note, these changes in the society have led to creativity, the need to create a balance, and the desire among graduates to create long-lasting impacts in the society. Changes in the society have created the need for quality learning programmes.
Such changes have forced Abu Dhabi University to invent new methods of training graduates. People look upon their leaders to show them directions during difficult situations. Leaders must rely on their core skills in order to produce the desired changes in society. Universities in the UAE such as Abu Dhabi University are expected to produce such leaders.
Discoveries of the 20th century led people to high-levels of specialisation (Davidson, 2009). Scientific and technological advancement created graduates who had skills in focused fields, specialised areas, and mainly in sub-disciplines. Then, professionals had high-levels of skills in limited areas. As such, they were generally clueless in other fields. However, the 21st centurys work environment has changed. The 21st centurys work environment requires all-round graduates who could survive and thrive in dynamic environments. The society expects current graduates to possess positive attributes that will enable them to thrive in the dynamic 21st century environment. Therefore, Abu Dhabi University must consider the above challenges in order to create quality-learning programmes, which would produce graduates who will meet the societys expectations.
Recommendation
Based on the results obtained in the research, it is apparent that the university and the relevant authorities should put in place measures to enhance the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University. As such, quality assurance team should be set up to evaluate on the quality of education offered at the university. The team should identify areas that need to be boosted to improve the quality of learning at the institution.
Similarly, education stakeholders should ensure that more and qualified students join the university. Currently, the number of those joining the universities across the country is very low. The number of female students compared with male students is even lower. The above imply that more students at the secondary level of education should be encouraged to pursue higher education.
To improve its global ranking, the university should set more funds for research purpose. The research conducted above noted that there were few funds allocated for research at the university compared to other leading western universities. As such, the money were not enough to fund comprehensive research studies. In this regard, the university should attract more donors to fund their researchers.
Equally, the university must attract and retain competent faculty (Albadri, 2013). The research noted that it was very hard for the university to attract competent faculty compared to other leading western universities. Therefore, remunerations offered by the university should be reviewed to ensure that they attract and retain competent staff members. Similarly, better remunerations will boost staff morale leading to improvement in the quality of learning.
Similarly, the university should introduce whole person development programs in all courses. Through this, it will be able to produce dynamic graduates needed in the 21st century work environment. Educators should come up with a curriculum that encourages broad and balanced learning for graduates. The essence of a whole person development is to allow graduates to achieve wide and balanced experiences during their training programmes.
They get a wide range of experiences from various fields to develop their potential, which relate to creativity, emotional intelligence, interpersonal relations, motor skills, social responsibilities, and other skills required today. Whole person development programmes recognise learners participation and achievement in academic programmes, sports, games, and other co-curricular activities. Such training programmes develop learners self-confidence, motivation, and emotions to allow them survive under various circumstances. Therefore, the university should prioritise the need to produce effective and competitive graduates.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be noted that the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University is the major worry among education stakeholders. Researchers agree that supervising and upholding the quality of education in higher institutions with diverse cultural populace is not only thought provoking and a difficult task. From the data, it was noted that the universitys quality of learning had been affected by four major challenges. The challenges are misalignment of tertiary education outcomes with the countrys socioeconomic vision, inadequate quality of alumni & faculty, restricted research activity, and limited chances of admission to quality higher education. Based on the results obtained in the research, it is apparent that the university and the relevant authorities should put in place measures to enhance the quality of learning at Abu Dhabi University.
The available literature demonstrates that some of the key learning outcomes that should be achieved by students include knowledge, comprehension/competence, skills, application, synthesis, as well as evaluation (Crespo et al., 2010; Hall, 2002). In online learning contexts, it is important for educators to align all educational activities and resources with the anticipated learning outcomes of a learning module or course with the view to assisting the students in achieving and internalizing the above-mentioned learning outcomes upon successful completion of their learning experience. In particular, students should demonstrate sufficient knowledge and competence in applying the contents of the module or the course to real-life contexts. The faculty can pride itself on having achieved effectiveness if the students are able to demonstrate comprehension of tasks as well as application of skills in real-life contexts upon completion of the module or the course. Synthesis and evaluation are another important learning outcomes that should be achieved by students.
As the faculty chair, it would be important to underscore the importance of knowledge, skill and competence as the primary learning outcomes in online environments. Knowledge means assimilation of information through learning and encompasses the capacity developed by students to enumerate and explain the facts, principles, theories and practices that are linked to a particular field of study. Being another important learning outcome, skill means the ability to apply knowledge and use knowhow to complete tasks and solve problems (Crespo et al., 2010, p. 1). Lastly, competence denotes the confirmed or verified capability of students to employ knowledge and skills learned in study contexts not only to further their academic and personal development, but also to demonstrate their autonomy and independence in fulfilling particular tasks with minimal supervision by the tutor.
Steps in Creating Effective Outcomes
As the faculty chair, it is important to develop a comprehensive understanding of the steps that could be used to develop effective learning outcomes based on the fact that the assessment criteria must have the capacity to establish clear and unambiguous standards of achievement and must be related to the learning outcomes of a course (Hatziapostolou & Paraskakis, 2010, p. 113). The steps involved in creating effective outcomes in online learning contexts include
engaging in a clear and coherent description of course or module outcomes and assessments,
ensuring curriculum coherence by relating module or course requirements to programmatic outcomes,
defining program level outcomes in a comprehensive and understandable manner,
defining the measurable outcomes for the course or module under study,
associating the noted learning outcomes with assessments, and
creating an enduring understanding of the desired learning outcomes as they relate to learning activities (A Short Guide, n.d.).
It is also important to not only design learning activities or the unit assessment in a way that enables students to demonstrate their understanding, but also to ensure that the learning process around which the course is built has the capacity to support the students approach to fulfill the course outcomes in a manner that also reinforces the comprehensive understanding of specific course objectives. Effective learning outcomes, according to van Melle and Pinchin (2008), should assist in focusing the overall purpose of the learning experience, determining where the particular learning experience best fits within the larger curriculum, selecting the suitable learning experience, as well as selecting the appropriate method of assessment.
Concept of Aligning Assessments with Objectives
The term assessment indicates the measurement of student learning through the collection and ranking of information that might include not only tests but also a variety of techniques such as performance tasks, portfolios, and observation (Rogier, 2014, p. 14). Drawing from this description, it is evident that assessments should not only provide educators and learners with quantifiable and/or qualitative evidence on how well the students have learned the material, but should also have the capacity to demonstrate if the teaching methods and techniques are effective. Consequently, the concept of aligning assessments with objectives basically implies that any form of assessment should have the capacity to demonstrate if the set learning objectives are being met or not.
Importance of Aligning Assessments with Objectives
It is of immense importance to align assessments with their objectives so that educators are able to make informed decisions associated with instruction and also to determine the extent to which instructional and assessment objectives have been met (Rogier, 2014). For faculty, effective alignment serves as a solid base for grounding major administrative decisions related to the reliability of student learning outcomes and achievement. Here, reliability means that the students learning outcomes and achievement should be consistent in the event that the students are assessed more than once using the same assessment criteria. Additionally, effective alignment should not only enhance the probability that educators will provide learners with the opportunities to learn and practice the knowledge and skills required on the various assessments, but also ensure that the good grades achieved by students will most likely translate into good learning experiences as learners will be empowered to focus their efforts on learning what the faculty educators believe is important (Crespo et al., 2010; Hall, 2002).
Strategies for Ensuring Alignment of Assessments with their Objectives
In the online learning environments, educators within the faculty may ensure the alignment of assessments with objectives through the use of formative feedback. Available literature demonstrates that feedback is an essential component in all learning contexts and serves a variety of purposes including evaluation of students achievements, development of students competencies and understanding, and elevation of students motivation and confidence (Hatziapostolou & Paraskakis, 2010, p. 111). These authors further acknowledge that, for formative feedback to be used as a strategy in ensuring alignment between assessment and objectives, educators must ensure that it is timely, productive, motivational, individualistic, manageable, and straightforwardly associated with the assessment criteria as well as learning outcomes. Formative feedback can be provided in terms of word-processed feedback forms, e-mails, as well as electronic annotations on students work.
Educators should also always ensure that they plan their assessments in close reference to the course learning objectives, implying that how they plan to assess student learning should have a bearing on how they present materials and teach the course in online contexts (Rogier, 2014). Another strategy for ensuring alignment is to capitalize on the initial planning stage in the assessment process to ensure that the assessment context, available resources, purpose of the course, and instructional settings are described in great detail and ensuing that all the information is included in the assessment specifications (Rogier, 2014). Lastly, alignment can be ensured by undertaking comprehensive research on the intended teaching objectives with the view to developing a practical assessment criterion or rubric which could then be used to maintain consistency.
References
A short guide to developing effective learning outcomes and assessments. (n.d.). Web.
Crespo, R.M., Leony, D., Najjar, J., Totschnig, M., Simon, B., Derntl, M&Oberhuemer, P. (2010). Aligning assessment with learning outcomes in outcome-based education. Web.
Hall, R. (2002). Aligning learning, teaching and assessment using the web: An evaluation of pedagogical approaches. British Journal of Educational Technology, 33(2), 149-158.
Hatziapostolou, T., & Paraskakis, I. (2010). Enhancing the impact of formative feedback on student learning through an online feedback system. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 8(2), 111-122.
Rogier, D. (2014). Assessment literacy: Building a base for better teaching and learning. English Teaching Forum, 52(3), 2-13.
