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This book represents a crop of wide-ranging research conducted by renown scholars in sub-Sahara Africa revolving around mathematics teaching and professional development programs for mathematics teachers. The research-based proposals and actual how-to-conduct professional development initiatives that enhance effective mathematics instruction are rooted in teacher input and informed by learners errors and misconceptions. The book provides a comprehensive snapshot on mathematics teaching,...

Cosmopolitanism theory was mostly developed separately from the study of multilingualism: while language is central to cosmopolitanism as a practice, only a few scholars focusing on cosmopolitanism have taken a language-centred approach. We further theorise the relationship between cosmopolitanism and translingual practice with our focus on "morality" in relation to the use of the semiotic repertoire. The use of resources of the semiotic repertoire in translingual practice is infused with...

This study sought to establish the influence of home-based and school-based factors on pupils' school attendance in Alternative Primary Schools in Mathare Constituency, Nairobi. The study employed the correlational design. The Study population was 18,000 pupils, 58 head teachers and 604 teachers. The sample size comprised of 12 head teachers (20%), 60 teachers (10%) and 317 pupils (1.8%). The study established that there was a strong positive and statistically significant correlation between...

The modalities of performance ranking in high stakes testing to a greater extent affect Mathematics teaching and learning. While performance ranking has the potential of being a critical catalyst in the process of making Mathematics classrooms a place of positive competition, it fails to balance the most crucial aspects in Mathematics discourses-the voice and agency of teachers and students. The proactive engagement of all students and teachers equitably with the process of Mathematics...

The present study examined the impact of professional development training on Canadian and Kenyan teachers' confidence, comfort, and perceptions of their abilities to teach early literacy skills in the primary or elementary grades. Data were collected prior to and following training on how to integrate early literacy software as part of ongoing in-class instruction. Domain and technology constructs consistent with Mishra and Koehler's (2006) technology integration model were assessed, as...

The present study explored the role of vocabulary and decoding skills in predicting reading comprehension, utilizing data from 322 first- grade children from four elementary schools in Kenya. The children were administered a comprehensive battery of tests to assess pseudo-word reading skills, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and receptive vocabulary in English and Kiswahili. The results showed that receptive vocabulary and pseudo-word reading in English played a significant role...

The present study explored the role of vocabulary and decoding skills in predicting reading comprehension, utilizing data from 322 first- grade children from four elementary schools in Kenya. The children were administered a comprehensive battery of tests to assess pseudo-word reading skills, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and receptive vocabulary in English and Kiswahili. The results showed that receptive vocabulary and pseudo-word reading in English played a significant role...

Numeracy and literacy are important foundation skills which command significant wage premia in modern labour markets. The existence of gender differences in these skills is therefore of potential concern, and has spurred a large amount of research, especially with respect to numeracy skills. Still, little is known about the moment in which such gaps emerge, how they evolve, and if this evolution differs across countries. We use data from large scale international assessments to follow...

Citizen-led assessments were developed in the mid-2000s to gather evidence on children's learning outcomes following the rapid increase in primary student enrolment in the developing world. Integral to their philosophy is social accountability and community engagement. While most large-scale assessments focus on test-based accountability to promote policy shifts, citizen-led assessments, utilizing the information-accountability causal chain, theorize that information of low learning...

This paper highlights findings from the, 'Advancing learning outcomes for transformational change (A LOT-Change), whose goal was to increase efforts towards securing the future of children living in urban informal settlements. The intervention was implemented in Korogocho and Site 2 respectively. This paper looks at the narratives from girls, boys and their parents and seeks to answer the question, "From the minds of adolescents: What has worked for them in an education intervention in the...

Teacher classroom practices have been identified as the key contributing factor to the low learning outcomes of primary school grades in Kenya. Teacher mentoring has the potential to improve classroom practices and this study sought to determine its effects on the classroom practices of primary school teachers in Kwale County, Kenya. Using One Group Repeated Measures Quasi-Experimental Design, one cohort of 40 teachers in 22 public primary schools was mentored for 20 months, from May 2016 to...

This study aims at investigating the effects of collective promotion on the attainment of literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills by primary school pupils and also to find out if the policy of collective promotion meets its objective of minimization of wastage in basic education. The study used written tests for pupils in the final class (Level II, class 6) to collect data in some selected English-speaking primary schools in Meme Division of Cameroon. Descriptive statistics and a one...

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized the way different sectors in developed and developing countries operate. They have pervaded modern societies as tools for transforming education systems, supporting economic development through the creation of new products and services, providing access to information and expertise to support improvements in agriculture, health and education, and connecting communities, teachers and students. Education sector in many countries...

This study examines the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement in Mathematics among Grade 4 pupils located in 91 urban primary schools and 181 rural primary schools in Kenya. We hypothesise that teacher quality indicators including teacher characteristics, teacher qualification comprising initial teacher education and teacher professional development and teacher classroom practices are significantly associated with student achievement. Our analysis is based on data from...

Stakeholders of language tests are often interested in subscores. However, reporting a subscore is not always justified; a subscore should provide reliable and distinct information to be worth reporting. When a subscore is used for decisions across multiple levels (e.g., individual test takers and schools), it needs to be justified for its reliability and distinctiveness at every relevant level. In this study, we examined whether reporting seven Reading and Listening subscores of the "TOEFL...

Stakeholders of language tests are often interested in subscores. However, reporting a subscore is not always justified; a subscore should provide reliable and distinct information to be worth reporting. When a subscore is used for decisions across multiple levels (e.g., individual test takers and schools), it needs to be justified for its reliability and distinctiveness at every relevant level. In this study, we examined whether reporting seven Reading and Listening subscores of the "TOEFL...