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Researchers have considered how school choice policies affect student achievement, but less inquiry explores how the organization of schools may change in the presence of choice. This descriptive and exploratory paper analyzes a state representative sample of school mission statements at two time points: before the enactment of choice policies in Indiana, namely the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, and again six years into the policy. Using structural topic modeling, this paper examines whether and how school mission statements topics have changed over this period. Descriptive findings suggest mission statement topics differ significantly between sectors but show few changes over time. The most striking shift is that Catholic and other private religious schools appear to be clarifying the religious aspects of their mission in the presence of robust choice policies.

Schools develop mission statements in part to communicate their purposes of schooling to internal and external audiences. The goal of this study is to employ text analytic techniques to analyze school mission statements. Focusing on Arizona and New Jersey's schools, we seek to understand: 1) what themes (topics) emerge from their mission statements, 2) whether local context (politics) and institutional factors (being a charter) mediate topic prevalence, and 3) how similar school mission statements are to one another overall and across select factors. Using structural topic modeling we find that five topics emerge as particularly prevalent, and they address key purposes within the US context related to social, academic, and civic development with an emphasis on a safe environment and a sense of community. Local political leanings have a minor impact on the prevalence of topics but being a charter has a distinct influence. Compared to regular schools, charters are more likely to include themes related to preparing for college, academic approaches, and character and family ties, but they place lower emphasis on community and citizenship themes. School missions display moderate levels of similarity, indicating that a common set vocabulary has permeated schools' missions, though differences remain, including between states. Overall, this study deepens our understanding of the varieties of schools' missions and reveals text analytic techniques are well suited for uncovering them.

This paper explored the factors influencing the leadership strategies of school principals in rural primary schools regarding the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the process of teaching and learning in their schools. School principals are responsible for ensuring that there is ICTs integration in their schools' teaching and learning processes. Embedded within the theory of learning-centred leadership (LCL), school principals have a responsibility to lead, foster, manage, and support the learning process for teachers and learners in their schools. Thus, school principals need to be well acquainted with innovative technologies for teaching and learning amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which is global, complex, and fast-paced, to lead learning through ICT integration. Underpinned by the interpretive qualitative approach and using a multiple case study as a research design, this study generated data from three selected South African rural primary schools through face-to-face interviews with the three school principals. Data were analysed thematically. Findings revealed that school principals' leadership strategies are influenced by their attitudes towards ICT integration into teaching and learning, their exposure to ICT workshops, and their own judgements of their abilities in using ICT. The paper recommends customised in-service training for school principals and teachers to alter and improve their exposure to, attitudes, perceptions toward ICT integration in teaching and learning.

Over the past twenty years, Catholic elementary schools that self identify as "inner-city" have closed at a higher rate than Catholic schools in other locations. These schools have also long been associated with a legacy of effectively serving low-income students, students of color, and recent immigrant students, suggesting that the persistent closure of these schools may have a negative impact on these communities. In this paper, we set out to assess the extent to which there have been demographic or organizational changes over the past twenty years in these "inner-city" schools. We found that while these schools do still serve higher proportions of students of color than Catholic schools nationally, there are distinct organizational and demographic trends that have developed in these schools that merit additional analysis or investigation. We conclude this paper with several suggestions for how to build a research agenda around this up-to-date demographic and organizational analysis of this segment of U.S. Catholic elementary schools.

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components of this interplay, and a special attention is given to the use of arts to promoting creativity and meaningful learning. We then propose the Empowering Creative Education Model (ECEM), which aims to provide a practical framework for employing artistic tools in each of the model's four developmental circles: I, Us, Educational and Community. Each of the four circles includes unique aspects of personal development.

This paper intends to show the importance of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) as well as the trends, challenges, and implications to educational policy. To achieve this, the proponents did a mini-review. The paper searched the internet for relevant and timely research papers and articles mainly focusing on the education management information system. After garnering enough materials for the mini-review, the tedious task of evaluating and analyzing the concepts and contexts of each material took place. Based on the evaluation, this paper found that some studies have shown promising results and positive experiences with the implementation education management information system (EMIS) in their institution. However, some did not execute well due to several reasons and factors. In addition, some research papers provided essential recommendations and suggestions that will help solve these different problems of EMIS. In the end, the paper concluded and shared some significant implications that school administrators can use for future references for policy and decision-making.

Disadvantaged pupils are those pupils whose ability to learn in school is impeded by their family, social or economic situations which are often times beyond their control. Without adequate intervention, there are chances that this group of pupils could drop out of school. In Nigeria, there are many categories of disadvantaged pupils into which a vast majority of pupils can be grouped. Providing science education requires a lot of resources and organization. By its nature, the engagement of children in science education under an ideal environment is a huge task, let alone for pupils who are disadvantaged and must learn science under abnormal circumstances. The gravity of the disadvantage suffered by these pupils vary, hence, this paper focuses on two very critical groups of disadvantaged pupils in Nigeria (the pastoralist nomads and the Almajiris) and describes the challenges faced by educators in providing science education to them. The paper further presents a critical appraisal of some national and international educational programs which are designed to assist educationally disadvantaged pupils with an intention to explore the successes and failures of such programs within the Nigerian context. Some recommendations on how to tackle the identified challenges are proposed.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the studies on the Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools using meta-thematic analysis. In this research, qualitative research papers containing the opinions of participants about the Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools (REPPS) were examined by reviewing using Google Scholar and TR Dizin databases. In our research, research papers were determined by making a search using the keywords "Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools" and "REPPS." As a result of the review, 12 articles published as full text, using the qualitative research model and containing participant views, were included in the research. Five themes were developed as a result of this research.

In this article, we examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. We combined collaborative inquiry and photo-eliciting methods to examine education with a reflective lens and understand changes that occurred during the pandemic. A principal and a vice principal working in different public schools adopted the dual roles of being researchers and participants. The main data source was the conversation that emerged as we reviewed classroom and school photos taken by the participant researchers. The central theme that emerged from the analysis was that the COVID-19 pandemic made the invisible visible, along with two sub-themes: a) The teacher's source of motivation is the student, while the student's source of motivation is the teacher and b) Students care and grow when they can be a part of the history, culture, and story of their school. The pandemic made the importance of human connection in education evident. The findings of the study offer solutions and recommendations informing future education. [This study was presented at the International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences (ICSES) on November 14, 2021.]

The research aims to determine the relationship between public primary school principals' paternalistic leadership behaviours and teachers' organizational creativity and organizational dissent perception levels according to primary school teachers' perceptions. A quantitative correlational design was utilized in the research. The research sample consists of 1059 public primary school teachers selected by stratified sampling method in Mardin city center and eight districts of Mardin during the 2016-2017 academic year. The data of the research were obtained by using the "Headmasters' Paternalistic Leadership Behaviours Scale," "Organizational Creativity Scale," and "Organizational Dissent Scale." The data analysis revealed the following findings: There was a positive and significant correlation between the paternalistic leadership behaviours of primary school administrators and teachers' perceptions toward organizational creativity and organizational dissent. Also, paternalistic leadership behaviours of primary school administrators were found to be a significant predictor of teachers' perceptions toward organizational creativity and organizational dissent. The principals should exhibit benevolent leadership behaviours that enhance the teachers' organizational creativity perceptions, such as endeavouring to create a family milieu in school, being tolerant of teachers, and supporting teachers to take the initiative. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the V. International Eurasian Educational Research Congress.]

Opportunity areas are primarily selected to improve the social mobility of citizens using education. This paper explores teachers' perspectives on school transitions, particularly emphasizing the role of school transition intervention activities in supporting students' resilience, behavior, academic understanding, and positive parental involvement. Informed by Multiple and Multi-dimensional Transitions (MMT) theory, the paper focuses on the outcomes of school transition intervention activities applied to new Year 7 students in a UK opportunity area. Data was collected through document review, teacher survey, and semi-structured interviews. As a result, 14 interventions were identified, such as a summer school program, peer mentoring, and interschool visits, aiming to make primary to secondary school transition smoother. However, the findings suggested that many schools did not employ some of the school transition intervention projects. Moreover, the data indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the implementation of many of the school transition projects. The paper contributes to understanding the impact of school transition projects on students' confidence, wellbeing, and academic achievement.

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students' learning and understanding.

This paper focuses on investigating the effectiveness of the professional learning community (PLC) on student teachers' curriculum development skills, as well as the effectiveness of the professional learning community (PLC) on Thai L1 young students' reading comprehension. The instruments utilized for the study include the following: a professional learning community activity, learning management for developing students' reading comprehension, a test for student teachers' curriculum design skills, and a test for students' reading comprehension. The data were analyzed using percentage, mean score, standard deviation, a pair samples-test, and the effectiveness index, with the criterion of 80%. The results of the study indicate that the professional learning community (PLC) positively affected student teachers' curriculum design skills as the effectiveness of the method was 94.57/94.96 (E1 94.57/E2 = 94.96), reaching the criterion of 80. The professional learning community (PLC) was also beneficial in developing students' reading comprehension. The effectiveness index of the method was 83.54/85.77 (E1 = 83.54/E2 = 85.77), reaching the criteria set at 80. The results of the study therefore suggest the benefits of the professional learning community (PLC) for both teacher education and student skill development.

The pedagogical and didactic guidance of teachers has been linked, in the relevant literature, to the school management's adoption of the model of pedagogical leadership as well as to the assurance of a series of factors that influence it. This study aims at investigating the pedagogical role of the principal in Greek primary schools. Data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire completed by 133 Greek primary school head teachers. Results show that head teachers consider that their pedagogical role has mainly to do with the pedagogical climate, psychosocial and pedagogical guidance of the school unit. Additionally, the research results show that head teachers carry out their pedagogical role cooperating and communicating mainly with the members of the educational community of the school. Another noteworthy finding of the present study is that the factors that support head teachers in their pedagogical leadership role, are hard to exist in hierarchical educational realities such as Greece. The originality of the paper draws attention to the school's socio-economic environment, which significantly influences school leadership. Conclusions on the implications of the study are made and directions for future research are suggested.

In this paper, a principal and two lead teachers describe the ways their school community has reimagined the learning environment at their NYC urban, public, K-5 elementary school throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020 they were forced to immediately switch to fully remote learning, a platform they had never previously experienced. Since then, they have engaged in hybrid and now fully in person learning through a worldwide pandemic. The school community, whose focus before the pandemic was on social emotional learning and culturally responsive pedagogy, utilized those practices and the strong relationships between staff, students, and families to persevere. The pandemic disproportionately impacted communities of color, like the one this school community is located in. Other inequalities such as food insecurity, job loss, sickness, financial strain, and death impacted the community. Racial trauma and political unrest that was exacerbated during the pandemic also placed a toll on the school community. The staff, families and children of the community joined together with a mission to support one another, strengthen relationships, practice self-care, address trauma and crisis, tackle unfinished learning, and focus on celebrating the community wherever possible to find joy, survive and thrive.

Schools and policy makers face common challenges driven by external affairs such as economic uncertainty, globalisation, and advances in technology. Rapidly changing educational, societal, and political systems require school leaders to adopt creativity and innovation (Cr&Inn) as an integral feature of their leadership. To understand what Cr&Inn means to those in primary sector headteacher positions, this conceptual paper explores the following questions: How is Cr&Inn defined regarding headteachers within the primary sector? What are the key characteristics of Cr&Inn regarding primary sector headteachers? We incorporate a systematic literature review along with definitions from primary sector headteachers drawn from interview data. Whilst Cr&Inn remain conceptually complex, we provide clarity by proposing a succinct definition and recognising the key characteristics involved which in turn, has the potential to strengthen effective leadership to improve learner outcomes through overcoming unusual challenges. We conclude with a discussion of how misconceptions may negatively influence creative and innovative practices, yet we recognise that Cr&Inn have much to offer those in such dynamic and accountable roles, globally, particularly in times of uncertainty. Through our identification of the characteristics, we provide school leaders and policy makers with a framework to understand what Cr&Inn entails.

The creation and implementation of innovation proposals in education can provide a new key towards sustainable development. We are aware that schools perform very different innovations but often, with very low levels of impact and dissemination in their community. There are not many studies that describe, put a value on, categorize or analyse the innovations. This study sought to gain insight into the ICT innovations produced in Spanish primary and pre-primary schools. A quantitative approach based on a questionnaire was used to collect the data, named MANEDUIN, completed by 86 teachers selected by stratified random sampling (public - private, rural - urban). The reliability and the construct-related validity was evaluated from the questionnaire and the validity of content decided by means of experts' judgment. Our findings point to a good consistency in the questionnaire (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.848). The descriptive statistics and the analysis were made by factorial categories. The results of the factorial analysis confirm the dimensions proposed in the design of the questionnaire in the categories of the factors included in the innovation (social cohesion, interaction with the community, technologies, and success), the innovative schools and their characteristics, the topic and the type of innovation (on resources, direction, materials and time), as well as the obstacles to the innovation. This paper concludes that the questionnaire MANEDUIN is a valid and reliable tool to measure the management of schools' innovations.

Technology education varies across countries depending on the goals they set to achieve. Therefore, comparative research on different technology education approaches can provide a holistic perspective and contribute to the literature. This paper compared the technology-focused courses offered by primary schools in Turkey and Scotland. A qualitative research design was adopted. Data were collected using document review and analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results pointed to differences in technology policies, manifesting themselves in the curricula of the courses offered by the schools. However, the courses also had something in common in terms of structure, goal, content, and approach to learning and teaching. We discussed the differences and similarities based on literature. In order to reveal different dimensions of technology education, comparative education studies that address different countries can be suggested.

This paper aims to understand the nature of classrooms, "power containers" in Gidden's words (Giddens, 1986, p.136), in terms of inequality and power share. Inequalities in education have been a by-passed subject in Turkey for a long time, and classroom practices remained "black boxes" (Mehan, 1979, p.4). Thus, after a brief summary of power issue in education, educational inequality discussions and their reflections in the Turkish context are discussed in the study. Then, the position teachers hold is discussed with references to history and society. Then, the 6-month observations and interviews conducted on the first grade are discussed both chronically and thematically. Beginning on the first day of school, the teacher held a higher position than the students and parents and distributed power share among students. Students were discriminated against according to their parents and cultural capital (language, strategies, communication style, and school materials). In accordance with the neoliberal policies, middle-class students and their parents were fronted in the classroom and they had more power than the others. However, lower-class students had little power and they were mostly criticized in the classroom. The strategies and advantages middle-class students had over lower-class ones are discussed in the study.

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This paper describes the different elements of a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between a Community College in New York City and a public elementary school in a low-income neighborhood that serves predominantly children of color and low-income families. A major component of the partnership was a school-wide comprehensive professional development (PD) program centered on progressive pedagogy. We situate this case study in a discussion of the NAPDS (2008) 9 Essentials. We offer insights for other community colleges looking to embark on PDS partnerships.

The study investigated head teachers, and, education administrators' view of the Home Grown School Feeding Program and the associated sociodemographic variables. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional design. Fifty-four government owned primary schools in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, participated in the study. Head teachers and education secretaries completed a paper-and-pen questionnaire and described their perception about Home Grown School Feeding Program impact on pupil registration, presence, retention, dropout, and the problems that may be associated with the program implementation. SPSS version 23 was used to interpret the data. Results showed that head teachers perception on HGSFP was good on its effect on pupils' enrolment, attendance, retention, and dropout. Nonexistence of lawful framework and strategy for sustenance of HGSFP, insufficient funding, inability to monitor food preparation, inadequate teaching space and equipment to deal with extra admission were challenges perceived. Sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, education level, and location were not significant (p > 0.05). Head teachers perception was good though they have their concerns on aspects of implementation. Program implementation agencies should improve funding, monitoring, and educational infrastructure for the smooth running of the program.

Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) and Jones and Baumgartner's Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) are public policy frameworks that have existed for many years. Given their long-term popularity, it is important for readers to have a strong working knowledge on how said frameworks function, and be able to compare and contrast them. It has also been put forth that PET only serves as an updated version of MSA, but this paper argues that said assertion is inaccurate, as PET is a useful framework in its own right. By inspecting this paper, readers will learn about MSA, PET, how they are similar and different, how they can be operationalized or used in real life circumstances, how they have been tested, and it is ultimately concluded that PET is not just a reworking of MSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: A serious game application was developed to train factual knowledge and for self-assessment. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of a game application (intervention group) or paper scripts (control group) on knowledge acquisition and to evaluate the acceptance of the new application among dental students. Methods: The 4th semester students of the second preclinical prosthodontics course were randomly assigned to one of the two groups (n = 58/51) for two consecutive years. The study was conducted in two phases: First, all participants took a pretest, with the intervention group using the game application and the control group receiving the same set of questions in a paper script. In the second phase, all participants took a post-test. After the post-test, both groups had access to the application for another three weeks. After that, all participants completed standardized questionnaires and a scale to evaluate the usability of the system. Usage statistics were also tracked. Differences between groups were evaluated together and for both years separately in terms of pretest and posttest scores and learning success. Results: There was no significant difference between the groups with regard to the posttest and learning success. A significant improvement in knowledge between pretest and posttest (p < 0.05) was demonstrated in both groups. Each student played approximately 350 questions. Participants rated the application with the German school grade "good". Participants appreciated the application and rated it positively. They stated that the game motivated them to learn and that they spent more time with the learning content. Conclusion: Due to the positive perception achieved through the game, this application is able to motivate students to learn. The learning effect achieved is similar to learning on paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined deaf learners' academic and social difficulties as well as their coping mechanisms in Ethiopian elementary schools. To do this, the study adopted a phenomenological design from qualitative research methodology. Purposive sampling methods were used to choose nine deaf students for semi-structured interviews. Using word-by-word narrative analysis, data were analyzed. The lack of sign language interpreters and teachers' exclusionary behaviors were found to be some of the academic and social obstacles faced by deaf learners in the research area. The study also found that deaf learners in participating schools used problem-focused coping techniques, including pen-and-paper techniques for interpersonal communication, and maladaptive coping mechanisms like ignoring and social withdrawal. According to the report, local authorities should organize awareness workshops for instructors from participating schools on how to instruct deaf learners in inclusive environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an in-depth study and analysis of the relevance of early childhood education to occupational psychotherapy using a virtual-assisted affective interaction approach. Starting from the educational theory of interactive cognitive psychology, the theoretical basis for parent-child picture book education for interactive learning is explored, as well as the theoretical development after the introduction of AR technology. Firstly, the analysis of young children's emotions involves massive image processing, and the use of cloud computing architecture leads to high latency, while young children's safety is a latency-sensitive service. Secondly, face recognition accuracy based on static images is not high due to problems such as inconspicuous facial features of toddlers and low-quality kindergarten surveillance videos. In this paper, a face identity correction model based on location features is proposed and the superiority of the model is demonstrated through experiments. Finally, this paper analyzes and mines the emotional data of young children. The level of kindergarten teachers' awareness of early childhood mental health education generally showed an upward trend as their titles rose, and there were significant differences in the seven dimensions of early childhood mental health, the purpose and meaning of early childhood mental health education, implementers, targets, content, pathways, and effects; significant differences existed between teachers of different kindergarten natures, and there were significant differences in the purpose and meaning of early childhood mental health education, implementers, targets, content, pathways, effects, and mental health education for young children. Therefore, this paper proposes a face identity correction model based on position information, which considers both the correlation between pixel values in the spatial domain and the correlation between frames in the temporal domain. This paper has developed an emotion analysis system for kindergartens and put it into use in kindergartens to meet the needs of monitoring the safety of young children and evaluating early childhood education and has received good feedback from users, demonstrating the effectiveness of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper it is investigated if the mental computation strategies in the research literature are enough to satisfactorily categorize the mental computation strategy use by preservice elementary teachers (PETs) in subtraction on two-digit natural numbers. The PETs' use of mental computation strategies is measured operationally with a written questionnaire. The paper indicates that the strategies used by PETs are generally seen contained in the research literature on elementary school pupils' mental computation strategy use, but that there are additional strategies used by PETs, which are presented and discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, Catholic elementary schools that self-identify as "inner-city" have closed at a higher rate than Catholic schools in other locations. These schools have also long been associated with a legacy of effectively serving low-income students, students of color, and recent immigrant students, suggesting that the persistent closure of these schools may have a negative impact on these communities. In this paper, we set out to assess the extent to which there have been demographic or organizational changes over the past twenty years in these "inner-city" schools. We found that while these schools do still serve higher proportions of students of color than Catholic schools nationally, there are distinct organizational and demographic trends that have developed in these schools that merit additional analysis or investigation. We conclude this paper with several suggestions for how to build a research agenda around this up-to-date demographic and organizational analysis of this segment of U.S. Catholic elementary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a pedagogy for language revitalization in the specific endangered language context of the Miyakoan language in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The topic discussed on language revitalization in this paper is a matter of language teaching and learning methodology. The transmission of Miyakoan to the younger generation will be sought in the school domain. There are three guiding research questions: (1) what pedagogy might suit language revitalization, (2) how the school can accommodate this educational goal, and (3) will this educational plan raise pupils' awareness to learn about the Miyakoan language. First, this paper will review the current direction of Indigenous languages in Japan at the macro socio-historical level. Second, the micro-educational practice will be reported and analyzed. From this micro-educational practice, the role of the school in the community is indicated to become a domain for language revitalization to raise the pupils' awareness of the local endangered language. The findings also suggest an approach forging the 'mainstream' education and pedagogy for language revitalization. Since language transmission is only partially conducted at home in Miyakojima in the 21st century, heritage language education in schools will be essential for revitalizing the language and cosmology of Miyakojima. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]