Browsing by Author "James, Cynthia"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 20
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    Blogging as an Educational Tool
    (Daily Express, 2006) James, Cynthia
    This article examines the blog as a teaching tool
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    Breaking the silence: Using journals to stimulate self-evaluation toward change in the Trinidad primary school system
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2004) James, Cynthia
    Attempts at Caribbean education reform have traditionally suffered from lack of implementation and resistance to change. This paper argues that in Trinidad and Tobago, the slow march of education reform is compounded by the culture of silence that is institutionalized in the teaching profession. It posits that unless teachers become articulate about themselves, their students, and their practice in the classroom, recurrent top-down reforms are destined to fail. Against the background of a discussion of the cultural contexts of education in Trinidad and Tobago, and the fact that primary school teachers are subjecting themselves to repeated training with little apparent effect on the system, the paper evaluates the journals and the responses to journaling of 14 teachers enrolled in a Language Arts teacher education programme. The paper suggests that breaking the code of teacher silence could stimulate empowerment from within. With support, this empowerment could propel a tradition of documented Caribbean best practice toward building a base of regional educational research, generated by insights from the people in the trenches
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    Classroom Metaphors
    (Daily Express, 2006) James, Cynthia
    In this article, the author uses the extended metaphor of a garden to visualize her classroom and examine her practice as a language teacher
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    Constructing Childhood
    (Daily Express, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This article takes off from a 2004 book, "Constructing Childhood," by Allison and Adrian James, which examines the agencies and social policies that construct childhood in the UK, and concludes that however much society tries to protect, regulate, and oversee the growing of children, children are not passive factors in their construction. This argument is seen as providing a context for some of the factors that should be considered in tinkering with the education system in Trinidad and Tobago
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    Impacting struggling adolescent readers: A socio-psycholinguistic study of junior secondary students in Trinidad
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2007) James, Cynthia
    This paper analyses the classroom reading behaviours and literacy culture of 19 low SES students, aged 11-14, who scored between 0-30 percent on their primary school exit examinations, and were placed in an English-and-Math intensive Form 1 Remedial class at a junior secondary school in Trinidad. Although there were large differences in reading abilities within the group, poor phonics, syntactic, and semantic competencies impeded decoding and meaning-making for the majority fo the students. A reading interview, the students' reading journals, and a variety of authentic reading stimuli formed a backdrop for surveying six issues. An exploratory analysis of 8 two-hour sessions over a period of eight weeks suggest that isolating the students in a concentrated English-and-Math intensive programme would increase their stigamtization and encourage reading fossilization. A blend of interactive, transactional, sociocultural, and engagement approaches seems likely to promote the best outcomes. It is also suggested that given the students' lack of access to the potential literacy benefits of high-end technology, that they be at least exposed to a wider range of sign system literacies for making meaning from text
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    Learning to Read
    (Daily Express, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This article reflects on the author's experience of learning to read
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    Netiquette and Netsmartz
    (Daily Express, 2006) James, Cynthia
    This article identifies some of the cyberperils faced by young people in the use of the Internet, and recommends the teaching of cyberethics, netiquette, and netsmartz
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    Nuts and Bolts of Education
    (Daily Express, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This article suggests that in keeping with the demands of contemporary times, secondary school teachers need to train their students to be creative and resourceful thinkers
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    Project Gutenberg
    (Daily Express, 2006) James, Cynthia
    This article introduces readers to Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of free e-books on the Internet
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    Reading Programmes That Work
    (Daily Express, 2006) James, Cynthia
    This article profiles a reading programme called "Success for All," whose design, implementation, and reading instruction frameworks are seen as suggesting pathways for effective indigenous reading programmes, not only for underachievers but also for learners in general
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    Reading the Headlines
    (Daily Express, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This article recounts the author's use of a newspaper article to encourage a class of 14-year-old Form 1 Special students to read
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    The status of literature in six types of Trinidad secondary schools: Issues, implications, and recommendations
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2003) James, Cynthia
    A survey of teachers' perspectives on the status of literature in Trinidadian secondary schools suggested that the subject is dying. Teachers cited problems with reading, critical thinking, and students' lack of interest, singling out poetry as an area of little competence. Current deficiencies in teaching strategies suggest that teachers need to approach the language arts, on the whole, as a field of knowledge, amenable to and requiring scientific methods of approach, which teachers must perfect. A comparative survey of students suggested that teachers need to take into consideration the allure that technology holds for young people in planning their lessons. They also need to be aware that the secondary school population of Trinidad and Tobago is not homogenous, and requires varied strategies and teaching approaches to woo its varied cultures. Further recommendations of this paper include: (a) the training of secondary school teachers of English in the teaching of reading and remedial reading strategies; and (b) a focus on literature in all its genres, including non-fiction, especially for the upper levels of public secondary schools, and particularly to attract boys. It is felt that these policies, together, will promote a culture that will offset the literacy problems that affect schools, as well as enhance the preparation for adulthood that schooling offers
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    Teaching Language Arts With Vice-Y Verse-Y Love
    (Daily Express, 2002-09-03) James, Cynthia
    This article discusses strategies for teaching literary appreciation to adolescents in secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. It provides an example of the successful use of Barrington Levy's Vice Versa Love with fourth formers at a secondary school in Trinidad
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    Teaching with WebQuests
    (Daily Express, 2007) James, Cynthia
    This article examines the use of the WebQuest as an educational tool
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    Themes and metaphors in the autobiographical narratives of new sector secondary teachers in Trinidad and Tobago: A case study
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This paper analyses autobiographical narratives of 14 female and 2 male secondary school teachers of English, employed at schools in the new education sector of Trinidad and Tobago and enrolled in an inservice postgraduate teacher education programme. The study investigates the major themes and metaphors that shape the realities of these teachers and their students. A secondary aim is to find out what culture permeates Language Arts teaching at their schools. The analysis indicates that metaphors of control, blame, and survival are common signifiers of how teachers deal with perceptions of inadequate teacher preparation, helplessness, and a sense of failure. Teachers' narratives impute indiscipline and low academic ability to their students. With regard to Language Arts, teachers express feelings of inadequacy about language teaching as compared to literature teaching. In examining assumptions, contradictions, and hidden perspectives, the paper suggests that the valuable insights gained from self-referential documents need to play a more important part in teacher education programmes and planners' deliberations, if Universal Secondary Education is here to stay in its present format. Language Arts teachers, in particular, need to review their positions; also teacher educators who serve the sector should encourage teachers to review their narratives on a more frequent basis, in order to periodically reassess where they have been, in the context of future goals
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    To Kill a Mockingbird
    (Daily Express, 2004) James, Cynthia
    This article examines three issues that need to be addressed in introducing new styles of teaching, namely, culture and curriculum reform, the use of foreign research in teacher education, and the kind of personality required for teaching in the education system of Trinidad and Tobago
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    Using blogging as a teaching/learning tool in a postgraduate teacher education programme at The University of the West Indies (UWI): An activity systems analysis
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2009) James, Cynthia
    This paper analyses the impact of blogging on teaching/learning in the English Curriculum unit of a postgraduate teacher education programme that had traditionally been taught face-to-face. Since the 22 teachers of this unit met as a whole group only once a fortnight for most of the semester, blogging was used to introduce course content, to promote reflection and research, and to facilitate teacher interaction. Activity systems criteria such as use of tools, distribution of community learning, interplay of contradictions, and achievement of objectives were used to analyse comments posted to topics on the English Curriculum blog. Two post-blog questionnaires were also administered to gain feedback on interactivity and blog outcomes. Findings suggest that while blogging did promote course content dissemination, it promoted little self-generated research. Teacher interaction was highest on topics of current local concern, while reflection, critical thinking, and risk taking varied with length of teaching experience and individual teacher aptitude. Implications are that in transitioning to online learning in the Caribbean, teacher educators should pay attention to cultural issues and to traditions of learning in Caribbean educational systems. With the rapid evolution of e-learning resources and ongoing research in mixing traditional and online technologies, a blended learning approach that accommodates a "flexible learning" philosophy might be best suited for the Caribbean as educators acclimatize to and indigenize technologies
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    Using blogging as a teaching/learning tool in a postgraduate teacher education programme at The University of the West Indies (UWI): An activity systems analysis
    (School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, 2008) James, Cynthia
    This paper analyses the impact of blogging on teaching/learning in the English Curriculum unit of a postgraduate teacher education programme that had traditionally been taught face-to-face. Since the 22 teachers of this unit met as a whole group only once a fortnight for most of the semester, blogging was used to introduce course content, to promote reflection and research, and to facilitate teacher interaction. Activity systems criteria such as use of tools, distribution of community learning, interplay of contradictions, and achievement of objectives were used to analyse comments posted to topics on the English Curriculum blog. Two post-blog questionnaires were also administered to gain feedback on interactivity and blog outcomes. Findings suggest that while blogging did promote course content dissemination, it promoted little self-generated research. Teacher interaction was highest on topics of current local concern, while reflection, critical thinking, and risk taking varied with length of teaching experience and individual teacher aptitude. Implications are that in transitioning to online learning in the Caribbean, teacher educators should pay attention to cultural issues and to traditions of learning in Caribbean educational systems. They should also be prepared to experiment and indigenize, as teachers acclimatize to the use of technologies
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    What Teachers Want
    (Daily Express, 2004) James, Cynthia
    This article identifies some of the concerns of teachers in Trinidad and Tobago, which point to the need for a professional fraternity and sorority. It then provides suggestions to educational planners on what teachers need to fulfil their needs
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    What the Cursor Said
    (Daily Express, 2005) James, Cynthia
    This article acknowledges the benefits of information and communication (ICT) technologies in education, but cautions against the assumption that having ICTs and being proficient translates automatically into enhanced learning. It suggests that there is need to understand the different purposes of ICT in various educational scenarios