by Marouane IKIRA and Abdeljaouad EZZRARI
Original Research
In many developing countries, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have a significant social impact. They seek to combat poverty through redistributive transfers, and to combat transmission of poverty through generations by investing in human capital in the form of children. Several studies show that these programs have succeeded in increasing the demand for education and reducing child labor. This paper aims to assess the impact of Morocco’s conditional cash transfer program (Tayssir) on school attendance and labor of rural children aged 6 to 15 years. Using data from the Household Panel Survey conducted by the National Observatory for Human Development (ONDH), we estimate first an Average-treatment-Effect (ATE) by using Propensity Score Matching. This initial analysis shows that Tayssir has significantly increased enrollment rates and reduced child labor. In order to refine the analysis and due to non-compliance with the criteria of eligibility, we also estimate a Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) by using the eligibility rule as an instrumental variable. This second analysis shows that Tayssir has had no significant effect on children whose participation was assigned under the eligibility rule (the compliers). This suggests that the program requires additional measures.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 320-329. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-10
Pub. Date: May 31, 2021
by Nduduzo Phuthi and Irene Mpofu
Original Research
Critical reflection enables humans to come to an awareness of how ideologies shape beliefs and practices that justify and maintain global economic and political inequity, explaining how subjugated people get convinced to embrace dominant ideologies as always being in their own best interests. Cultural change and adjustment is imminent in Africa as the waves of globalization sweep through, and science teachers need to develop correct frames of thinking to make sense of science teaching and learning. Serving and prospective teachers need to construct methods and purposes which reflect their own lived experiences and rationales for professionalism. This paper reports on a research study that sought to demystify western science through critical reflection, encouraging developing country cultures to use the science as their own tool for cultural progressiveness. It discusses the value of engagement by science educators and learners from non-western backgrounds in serious intellectual dialogues concerning their classroom practice on one hand, and their own feelings and thoughts about this practice gained from previous learnings and experiences, on the other. The paper draws from a qualitative case study carried out in a high school biology class in Zimbabwe. Insights from this study underscore the gains to science teachers and learners who engage themselves in self-initiated personal and methodological reflection on their pedagogical encounters. The microcosm of learnings from such reflection should promote transferrable learning to address short and long term life goals including personal welfare, ambition, heritage, and destinies of future generations.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 313-319. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-9
Pub. Date: May 30, 2021
by Ivo P. Janecka
Original Research
All societies have goals of achieving health, happiness, and longevity, but without success. Visible to all are organizational structures that are under stress, international collaboration that is without harmony, and priorities that are missing their targets. A search for etiology and a possible common denominator of such outcomes has been conducted in this study using systems science. Results of this research indicate that, in many societies, there exist numerous deviations from systems science principles, regarding health, components relationships, decisions – consequences learning loops, and many others; all such nonconformities lead to fragmentation of collective intelligence, predominantly affecting rationality and responsibility to self and to all-related larger systems.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 300-312. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-8
Pub. Date: May 30, 2021
by Ángel Martín Aguilar Riveroll
Original Research
This study addresses the current situation of school violence in high schools in the Yucatán state, from the students' perspective. In the theoretical framework, school violence is analyzed from the general to the particular, that is, the impact of school violence in the country is mentioned until reaching the interested state. The methodology is supported by the unstructured questionnaire as a data collection technique, which allowed us to know more extensive answers from the 715 students surveyed about this problem in their schools. The results reveal that there is some inference in cases of bullying since the students do not always report such events. It was also found that some of the students prefer not to attend classes rather than ask for help from a teacher or principal.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 291-299. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-7
Pub. Date: May 25, 2021
by Erni Susanti, E. Elvis Napitupulu and Hasratuddin
Original Research
This research aims to: Analyzing the effect size of different learning models on mathematical critical thinking abilities. This type of research is a meta-analysis research with a sample size of 8 journals indexed in Sinta RistekDikti and filtered through coding. The results showed that: Of the eight studies that met the criteria for a meta-analysis of different mathematics learning models in improving junior high school students' mathematical critical thinking abilities, the highest effect size with a value of 0,8247 was a problem-based learning model. So that the model is considered more effective in improving the mathematical critical thinking abilities of junior high school students. The results of the analysis with the random effect model show that there is a significant positive correlation between the learning model and the students' mathematical critical thinking abilities (z = 5,785 < 0,001; 95% CI [0.480; 0.971]) with the mean effect size of the effect of the learning model on mathematical critical thinking abilities, included in the large category with r RE = 0.725.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 286-290. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-6
Pub. Date: May 14, 2021
by Carmen Loreto-Gómez and Lilia Fernández-Sánchez
Original Research
A descriptive-quantitative study was conducted to compare two methods of analysis. A quantitative-descriptive research was carried out on the perception of digital technology as a support tool in teaching. A standardized questionnaire was applied to identify the following dimensions of technology use: frequency, benefits, infrastructure, and perception of institutional policies. The analysis was carried out with arithmetic means and with categorical principal component analysis (PCA). The results in both methods indicate that teachers who conduct research use digital technology the most, while experimental teachers use it the least. The PCA method is more robust and allows to obtain the reliability of the results obtained, its use is recommended on the basic statistical analysis to increase the validity of the results.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 278-285. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-5
Pub. Date: May 13, 2021
by Vashisth Manoj Kumar, Zhang Limei, Tian Xianzhang and Zhang Bensi
Original Research
The COVID-19 pandemic only provided a short window of time to prepare and maintain the learning environment. In multiple countries, governments instructed various education facilities to halt their routines, and switch from traditional education of classroom teaching to online teaching. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of this switch to online teaching and learning in a university in China. A survey was conducted among 269 international clinical medicine students at the School of Basic Medicine, Dali University to analyze the effectiveness of online learning during the spread of COVID-19 using seven variables of investigation (1) is responsive to individual learning requirements, (2) efficient communication as in real class, (3) enhance the participant’s communication skills with instructor and other students, (4) fosters the participant’s involvement and interaction, (5) instructor’s effectively handled the class time and pace, (6) organization and preparation of the class, and (7) the course delivery according to the outlined syllabus . A statistically significant difference was observed for all seven variables of investigation. The value of χ2 were significant (0.021, 0.005, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.005 and 0.02 respectively) at P≤0.05. However, for preference of online class in place of traditional classroom teaching, the result showed an insignificant value for χ2 of 0.140 at P≤0.05. Online learning is equally effective, and probably more effective in the current pandemic situation, when compared to traditional in class learning.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 272-277. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-4
Pub. Date: May 12, 2021
by Shukra Raj Subedi and Sunil Subedi
Original Research
Governance practice has become a central issue of the development process since the historical evolution of civilizations. It has counted as the heart of the process for public administration and organizations. The limited literature on the research entitled “The Status of Governance Practice" has shown the clear gap in the literature on how the local groups implement and practice good governance policies and existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context. Following the interpretative paradigm with a qualitative approach, the research analyzes the existing practice, the situation of participation, and the gap between policy and existing practice. The primary data has been gathered from seven selected informants of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City through judgmental sampling, and in-depth interviews and observation have been adopted as data collection tools. The study has explored the situation of meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in the research area. The study has shown that even after the state's reconstruction, the local governments have not severed the governance practice satisfactorily. However, Nepal's restructuring process has increased local people's access to local government, but local people's meaningful participation in developmental activities, accountability, and transparency are still unsatisfactory. The finding has indicated the essentiality of good governance at the local level for local power. The federal government needs to monitor the provincial government and provincial to local government for reasonable control. The study has become an implication for policymakers and further researchers.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 263-271. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-3
Pub. Date: May 11, 2021
by Mason S. Gilbert, Abigail Smith, Alison L. Walsh and M. Felicia Cavallini
Original Research
Successful bike share systems are more common in larger than smaller cities. People use bikes to run errands, shop, go out to eat, or tour the city. But what about smaller communities that make up so much of the United States? For the sake of access to transportation and the economic boost to smaller municipalities, it is important to implement a bike share program that provides its citizens with options for public transportation. Incorporating a bike share system should be considered in smaller cities or municipalities that contain colleges or universities, given the large available student population that would be interested in using bikes for their own transportation needs. The approach is to first build the foundation for bike share success among college students while methodologically planning to increase bike availability to sites with probable high participation usage, including locations centrally located to city commerce in the community. The purpose of this article is to present the foundation to implement a successful bike share program for those smaller cities and communities with a college or university. The benefits of a bike share partnership with a college campus, overall physical activity (PA) and health benefits, potential and current demographic groups to use the bike share scheme, economic benefits, environmental factors, dock versus dockless bike share programs, and the finances and logistics of a bike share scheme will be examined. Yearlong strategies and important considerations for a successful bike share program will be explored.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 255-262. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-2
Pub. Date: May 09, 2021
by Amnah Jameel Abo Mokh, Shaheen Jameel Shayeb, Amjad Badah, Islam Asim Ismail, YaffaJumah Ahmed, Laila K. A. Dawoud and Hanan Essam Ayoub
Original Research
This study examines the effect of online learning on technostress levels among language teachers in Palestine during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research method that is used is quantitative with a database of research respondents. The researchers used a scale and validated the instrument carefully to measure the technostress levels among language teachers in Palestine. The collected data were analyzed using (SPSS) to provide answers to the questions of the study. The sample consisted of 101 Palestinian English language teachers who teach at private and public schools. Results indicate that the level of technostress among Palestinian English language teachers is moderate; this shows that teachers seem to be comfortable with both styles of teaching; face to face and virtually. Other promising finding is that there were no statistically significant differences in the technical stress levels of Palestinian English language teachers in terms of gender, length of service, educational level, and levels of frequent internet use. Moreover, the results also demonstrate that technical field sores the highest rate of technostress. Technological causes related to technology ranked first in terms of technical stress levels. The researchers recommend the Palestinian Ministry of Education to enhance teachers’ proficiency in using technology, specifically integrating technology into the educational process in the long run in Palestine.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2021, 9(5), 243-254. DOI: 10.12691/education-9-5-1
Pub. Date: May 09, 2021