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Item Directory of technical-vocational teachers(Ministry of Education and Sports Education Division, 1111) Dominica. Ministry of Education and Sports Education DivisionItem Teacher education and training policies in the Commonwealth Caribbean(2004) Miller, Errol; UNESCO Office Santiago & the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the CaribbeanThe purpose of the paper is to identify and discuss policies and practices that have been adopted in teacher education and training in this sub-region. The primary focus will be on new policies, projects and programmes in teacher education and training since the beginning of the 1990s.Item Postcolonial Structural Violence: A Study of School Violence in Trinidad & Tobago(2013) Williams, HakimThe Caribbean region, per capita, is one of the most violent in the world. Trinidad & Tobago (TT), an economic powerhouse, has been bedeviled by violence. Unsurprisingly, school violence has escalated; however, there is a paucity of data. In this case study, I employed a critical peace education and postcolonial studies framework to examine how school violence is conceptualized. The research site - a product of postcolonial educational expansion - is a co-educational secondary school in TT, and is nationally stigmatized for its violent notoriety and persistent academic underperformance. Observations, 33 semi-structured interviews, and 9 focus groups/classroom discussions (with a total of 84 students) were conducted over a 7-month period in 2010, with a 3-week follow-up in 2013. My data illustrate how youth are the main analytic unit in the discourse around school violence; a discourse from which the structural role of the school is mostly omitted, as well as the lingering impact of a contemporaneously bifurcated educational system that was created during the colonial era. These omissions may serve to reinforce/perpetuate TT’s class-stratified society; this constitutes discursive violence, but more specifically, as its iteration in this case study, postcolonial structural violence. Such discursive violence is both a neocolonial product and enabler of the structural violence that maintains educational inequity in TT.Item Education Is the Key to Prosperity: The Barbadian Education System and 20th-Century Black Barbadian Migrants in Canada(Sage Publications, Inc., 2014-07) Taylor, Christopher StuartThe following article will discuss the history of formal education in Barbados and will situate how this emphasis on the equal access to education between the sexes facilitated the emigration of Black Barbadian educators, most notably Black women, in the mid-20th century. This article argues that the emphasis on education was a deliberate and calculated initiative by the Barbadian Government to assist in the socio-economic advancement of its Black population up to the mid-20th century. The author has chosen this period to reflect the mass emigration of Black Barbadians to Canada prior to liberalization of the latter's immigration policies in the late 1960s and beyond. The article highlights that female and male Black Barbadian migrants capitalized on their educational background to circumvent and challenge racist international migration barriers. Moreover, the following will situate Black Barbadian educators in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s.Item Associate Degree Handbook: Caribbean Examinations Council(Caribbean Examinations Council, 2015) Caribbean Examinations CouncilThe CXC® Associate Degree Handbook is intended to provide students, parents, teachers and administrators with summative information on the awards offered. The handbook is divided into three main parts to ensure that information is easily accessible. They are as follows: Section I – Introduction. This section provides a summary of the content, objectives, assessment strategies, quality assurance mechanisms and the credits and grade points interpretations. Section II – Associate Degree Framework and Requirements. This section provides details on the types of degrees, the areas of specialisation and the required credit hours. Section III – Registration and Certification Arrangements. This section provides details on the registration process for certification.Item Mathematics education reform in Trinidad and Tobago: The case of reasoning and proof in secondary school(2016) Hunte, Andrew AnthonyIn Trinidad and Tobago, there have been substantive efforts to reform mathematics education. Through the implementation of new policies, the reformers have promoted changes in mathematics curriculum and instruction. A focus of the reform has been that of increasing opportunities for students to engage in reasoning and proving. However, little is known about how these policies affect the opportunities for reasoning and proof in the written curriculum, the teaching of proof, and students’ learning. Furthermore, we are yet to know how the high-stake assessment measures interact with these new policies to impact the teaching and learning of proof. In this dissertation, my overarching question asks: What are the implications of reform on the teaching and learning of secondary school mathematics in Trinidad and Tobago? To answer this question, I conducted three studies, which examined the content, teaching, and students’ conceptions. All the studies are situated in the teaching reasoning and proof when introducing geometry concepts. In the first study, I conduct a curriculum analysis focused on examining the opportunities for reasoning and proof in the three recommended secondary school textbooks. In the second study, I conduct classroom observations of teachers’ geometry instruction focusing on opportunities for engaging students in reasoning and proof. In the third study, I examine geometry students’ conceptions of proof. The three studies are intended to provide an overview of the impact of reform on instructional issues in relation to the dynamics between teachers, student, and content (Cohen, Raudenbush, & Ball, 2003). For the first study, I adapt a framework developed by Otten, Gilbertson, Males, and Clark (2014) to investigate the quality and quantity of the opportunities for students to engage in or reflect on reasoning and proof. The findings highlight some unique characteristics of the recommended textbooks such as, (a) the promotion of the explanatory role of proof through the affordances of what I define as the Geometric Calculation with Number and Explanation (GCNE) exercises, (b) the necessary scaffolding of proof construction through activities and exercises promoting pattern identification, conjecturing, and developing of informal non-proof arguments, and (c) the varying advocacy for Geometry as an area in the curriculum where students can experience the work of real mathematicians and see the intellectual of proof in their mathematical experiences. All these characteristics align with the reformers’ vision for the teaching and learning of reasoning and proof in secondary school mathematics. In the second study, I examine the nature of the teaching of reasoning and proof in secondary school. I use classroom observations along with pre- and post-observations interview data of three teachers to determine (a) the classroom microculture (i.e., classroom mathematical practices and sociomathematical norms), (b) teachers’ pedagogical decisions, and (c) teachers’ use of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) examination materials and textbooks. I also determine whether the teachers’ instruction demonstrate the four characteristics of reform-based mathematics teaching (Hufferd-Ackles, Fuson, & Sherin, 2004). My analysis of classroom observations of the three teachers suggests that their instructional practices exhibit elements of reform-based instruction. These include teachers’ use of open-ended and direct questions to solicit students’ mathematical ideas and teachers’ consideration of students as the source of mathematical ideas. Each teacher established sociomathematical norms that governed how and when a student can ask questions. In this case, questioning helped students articulate their ideas when responding to questions and clarifying their understanding of other’s ideas when they posed a question. Teachers also established sociomathematical norms that outlined what counts as a valid proof and what counts as an acceptable answer during instruction. The aforementioned norms supported the expectation that students must always provide explanations for their mathematical thinking, which is another characteristic of reform-based teaching. Teachers used group work and whole class discussions to offer opportunities for collaborative learning, which facilitated their creation of a social constructivist environment for learning reasoning and proof. Teachers used the reform-oriented curriculum materials to provide opportunities for construction of proofs. However, the textbooks and curriculum were limited in their support for proving some geometrical results. Overall, the teachers emphasized the making and testing of conjectures, which afforded students with authentic mathematical experiences that promoted the development of mathematical knowledge. In the third study, I use the six principles of proof understanding (McCrone & Martin, 2009) to examine 21 students’ conceptions of proof. I use semi-structured interviews to gather students’ perspectives of (a) the roles of proof, (b) structure and generality of proof, and (c) the opportunities for proof in the curriculum materials. The findings indicate that the students considered proof as serving the roles of explanation, verification, systemization, and appreciation in mathematics. The latter role helps students see the value and purpose of the mathematical results they learn (a) for applications during problem solving and (b) within the axiomatic system of Geometry results. The aforementioned roles also help students see the intellectual need for reasoning and proof in their mathematical experiences. Students’ talk suggests that, their teachers’ and the external examiners’ expectations of the structure, generality, and validity of proof influence their notions of what constitutes a proof. Students also consider the examination opportunities that require the development of reasoned explanations as possible opportunities to construct proof arguments. The combined findings of these three studies could help researchers understand the implications of the recent reform recommendations on the teaching and learning of proof in Trinidad and Tobago. Firstly, these findings can be useful to policy makers and education stakeholders in their future efforts for developing the national curriculum, revision or development of instructional policies, and recommendations of textbooks and instructional support materials. Secondly, these findings can help curriculum designers, examiners, and teachers in creating future opportunities in the national curriculum and CSEC mathematics syllabus to support students’ learning of proof in Trinidad and Tobago. Thirdly, these findings can help educational stakeholders understand the type of support that is needed for teachers’ future professional development and students’ competency with reasoning and proof on CSEC examinations. This international study is a case of the larger issues surrounding reform implications in a centralized governed educational system, which offers uniform prescriptive guidance for teaching and uniform curriculum support for learning. Furthermore this work potentially adds to the ongoing discussions in mathematics education about the interplay between policy, practice, and student learning.Item Labor Education in the Caribbean: A Critical Evaluation of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad(International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2016, 2016) Roberts, Danny; Marsh, LaurenThe achievements of the labor movement in the Caribbean are generally historicized without highlighting the contribution of labor colleges to the function and survivability of trade unions. For more than fifty years, labor colleges have played a critical role in developing the knowledge and skill sets of union members who had an interest in labor studies. Many will attribute the heydays of the Caribbean labor movement in the mid-1900s to the intellectual thrust given to the trade union movement by labor colleges. During this period, trade unions relied heavily on labor colleges for intellectual support and advice primarily on matters that required in-depth academic investigation. Support from the labor colleges enhanced the reputation of the labor movement by shifting popular notions that the trade union movement consisted only of the poor and illiterate working class. The effects of these parallel training activities have been positive for both the leadership of the trade union movement and the overall impact they have had on labor-management relationships. There has been a noted change in the pattern of trade union leadership where “the first generation leaders, considered by many as demagogic and messianic, have given way increasingly to a younger and more formally educated second and third generation leadership”Item Principles of higher education institutions in postcolonial Barbados: A study using life history as a decolonizing methodology(2016-06) Butcher-Lashley, JeanLife stories of indigenous or colonized peoples can be located within a decolonizing agenda. Our biographies can influence our professional life. However, if not contextualized or examined against the social, political, cultural or whatever context from which they originate, our biographies and life stories can be disempowering and assist in ‘fortifying patterns of dominance’ (Goodson, 2013, p. 5). I take a decolonizing life history approach to explore the biographies of Barbadian higher education principals working at particular times within the island’s recent history from the period 1987 to the present. This approach allows me to see how the stories of principals are set within a colonial, sociohistorical, political context imbedded with the meta-narratives of a colonial hegemony still in existence within a Barbadian context. In various ways this affected the way principals functioned in the professional sphere. It may therefore be necessary to include in training programmes, space for principals or persons in leadership positions to reflect on their life experiences and to attempt to contextualize those life experiences.Item Implementation Strategy and Action Plan to Promote a STEM Education, Innovation and Employment Program for Barbados - Final Report(2016-09-05) Caribbean Science FoundationThe specific objectives of this consultancy, carried out by the Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF), were to review the current status of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and STEM-related employment in Barbados, and establish a comprehensive Blueprint for a STEM education, innovation and employment program for Barbados. The review of the current status of STEM education and STEM-related employment in Barbados comprised a survey of about one hundred Barbadians from several different sectors. The major recommendations of the STEM Blueprint incorporate perspectives from respondents to the survey. This STEM Blueprint addresses Pillar 5 of the Barbados Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy which has a primary goal of promoting research, entrepreneurship, and innovation in primary through tertiary education with a view to increasing the number of STEM-based small and medium size enterprises (SME) contributing to economic growth. Whereas Barbados has in the past invested a considerable amount of its GDP in supporting micro and SME development, the results have not led to significant changes in the economic development of the country. Unemployment remains at very high levels. This Blueprint lays out the challenges, proposes a strategy, and makes a set of specific recommendations for implementation to promote STEM education and STEM-related employment in Barbados. In particular, the Blueprint points out that expansion and diversification of the private sector is key. It recommends both attracting and home-growing more technology-based companies, removing unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and creating a more business friendly environment, and reforming STEM education at all levels to increase the number of young people pursuing STEM-related careers. To assist the Government with the planning and implementation of this private-sector expansion and diversification strategy, the Blueprint recommends the formation of a Science and Engineering Advisory Board (SEAB) for Barbados, with membership comprising international and Caribbean experts in science, engineering and business. The chairman of the SEAB would report directly to the Prime Minister.Item St. Kitts and Nevis, Ministry of Education 2017–2021 Education Sector Plan: Education for All: Embracing Change, Securing the Future(Ministry of Education, St. Kitts and Nevis, 2017) St. Kitts and Nevis. Ministry of EducationThe Ministry of Education (MoE) is implementing the 2017–2021 Education Sector Plan (ESP) under the theme: Education for All: Embracing Change, Securing the Future. The plan builds on its predecessor, the White Paper on Education Development and Policy 2009–2019, and provides a strategic road-map for the MoE to follow to improve the provision and administration of education over the medium-term plan period. Guided by the MoE vision of providing holistic lifelong education for all, the ESP responds to the developmental priorities outlined in a number of national policy and strategy documents, and demonstrates the Federation’s commitment to regional and global education imperatives, communicated, for example, through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) 2012–2021 sub-regional education sector strategy (OESS) and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 for 2030.Item Out-Of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI)(United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Belize, 2017) Young, Roy A.; Macfarlane, Victoria; Aldana, MartinThe Five Dimensions of Exclusion (5DE) are central to the OOSCI approach, presenting groups of children for analysis and interventions. Three of the dimensions represent children who are out-of-school, as follows: • Dimension 1: Children of pre-primary school age who are not in pre-primary or primary school. • Dimension 2: Children of primary school age who are not in primary or secondary school. • Dimension 3: Children of lower secondary school age who are not in primary or secondary school. Two dimensions are represented by children in school but at risk of dropping out, as follows: • Dimension 4: Children who are in primary school but at risk of dropping out. • Dimension 5: Children who are in lower secondary school but at risk of dropping out.Item The path to inclusion for children with learning disabilities in Guyana: Challenges and future considerations(Division of International Special Education and Services, 2017) Fraser, SherwinOne of the major challenges facing special and general education teachers and parents in Guyana is the current educational move towards inclusion. This move has been characterized by the changing political and economic systems which have resulted in inclusion gaining increased momentum in many circles including major organizations, institutions, and even among members of civil society. Inclusion has also been touted as the prelude to meaningful political, economic, social, educational, religious, and cultural engagement in governance and other decision making processes in Guyana. The concept hinges on the right to participate and become involved in various activities regardless of ability or disability. The Jomtien Declaration (1990) which was adopted by the World Conference on Education for All in Thailand in March 1990, mandates the removal of barriers to education for all children. The declaration also affirms the right to education for every individual as well as equal access for all categories of persons with disabilities (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 1990). While the main pillar of the declaration is the right to education, it also mandates the removal of barriers that would prevent equal learning opportunities for vulnerable and marginalized groups (UNESCO, 1990). This paper examines issues relevant to inclusion and the education of children with learning disabilities in Guyana. The author gives an account of the political system, inclusive education, and legislation for persons with disabilities, and highlights the challenges faced by teachers in educating children with learning disabilities in Guyana.Item Education Professionals' Perceptions of Factors that Contribute to Effective Mathematics Teaching and Achievement in Jamaica(Sryahwa Publications, 2017) Crossfield, Devon; Bourne, Paul AndrewThis quantitative survey was designed to identify deficiencies in teacher quality that impede student achievement in CSEC Mathematics in Jamaica. It intended to identify and suggest programs, policies and strategies that should prove effective in diminishing deficiencies identified. It was also planned to identify strategies to improve teacher quality and enhance student achievement as well as to provide a body of literature to guide policy makers. The sample consisted of 120 CSEC Mathematics teachers from both upgraded and traditional high schools of whom 103 completed and returned the questionnaire designed by the researcher. Each questionnaire consisted of 30 items; 29 forced-choices and one free choice. The reliability statistic yielded was 0.744 when subjected to Cronbach Alpha. The response categories were: High (5); Moderate (3), and Low (1). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to obtain percentages and frequency values of specific responses. The findings revealed that low socioeconomic status of teachers and students, lack of parental involvement, leadership conditions, scale and replicability, lack of teaching learning resources, poor working conditions, lack of preparation on the part of students, the impact of teacher certification and licensing status, lack of specialization in relation to preparation programs and degrees, coursework, teachers own test scores and limited participation in professional development were major deficiencies that impact teacher quality and student achievement in CSEC Mathematics. It was also found that efforts of the National Transformation Program to promote and emphasize teaching as a viable profession were ineffective. It was recommended that a holistic approach be embarked upon to establish a relevant, high-quality, mathematics education model, to respond to the mathematical needs of students in the Jamaican context, and that teachers be empowered through purposeful professional development to monitor student success, and create a stimulating environment that encourages intellectual engagement of students.Item Learning style preferences: A study of Pre-clinical Medical Students in Barbados(2017) Ojeh, Nkemcho; Sobers-Grannum, Natasha; Gaur, Uma; Udupa, Alaya; Majumder, Anwarul AzimEducators need to be aware of different learning styles to effectively tailor instructional strategies and methods to cater to the students’ learning needs and support a conductive learning environment. The VARK [an acronym for visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R) and kinesthetic (K)] instrument is a useful model to assess learning styles. The aim of this study was to use the VARK questionnaire to determine the learning styles of pre-clinical medical students in order to compare the perceived and assessed learning style preferences, assess gender differences in learning style preferences, and determine whether any relationships exists between awareness of learning styles and academic grades, age, gender and learning modality. The VARK questionnaire was administered to preclinical students taking a variety of courses in the first three years of the undergraduate MB BS degree programme at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados in 2014. The majority of the students were multimodal learners with no differences observed between males (59.5%) and females (60.0%), with tetramodal being the most common. Read/write (33.8%) followed by kinesthetic (32.5%) were the most common learning style preferences. The sensory modality preference for females was read/write (34.2%) and for males it was kinesthetic (40.5%). Significant differences were observed between the perceived and assessed learning style preferences with a majority of visual and read/write learners correctly matching their perceived to their actual learning styles. Awareness of learning styles was associated with learning modality but not with academic performance, age or gender. Overall, 60.7% of high achievers used multimodal learning compared to 56.9% low achievers. The findings from this study indicated that the VARK tool was useful in gathering information about different learning styles, and might assist educators in designing blended teaching strategies to cater to the students’ needs as well as help the students in becoming aware of their learning style preferences to enhance learning.Item Education and training policy and strategy(2017) Caribbean Development BankThe CDB developed a strategy premised on improved quality of education in BMCs, leading to increased learner outcomes producing a qualified, capable and representative workforce of diverse individuals, to reduce poverty and achieve inclusive social and economic development for the Region. The Strategy will implement activities that coalesce around three specific objectives which align with the challenges that are still outstanding. The objectives are: (a) development of education and training systems which provide for equitable access and participation across all levels of the system; (b) enhanced efficiency, relevance and effectiveness of education and training to create systems which are responsive to national, regional and global labour markets; and (c) strengthened capacity to reform and manage education systems for the purpose of enhancing student outcomes.Item Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project: Indigenous Peoples Plan(Ministry of Education, Guyana, 2017-02-04) Guyana. Ministry of EducationThe objectives of the Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project are to support the Government in improving (i) the curricula and teaching quality at the pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary levels and (ii) learning environment in the Faculty of Health Science at The University of Guyana (UG). The direct Project beneficiaries would be: (i) about 146,000 nursery, primary and lower secondary school students in Guyana, 760 students in University of Guyana (UG) Health Sciences Department; (ii) approximately 8,700 nursery, primary and lower secondary school teachers, 821 faculty members of UG Health Sciences Department; and (iii) the Ministry of Education, which would benefit through improving capacity in curriculum design. Given current enrollment shares between males and females in these regions, 50 percent of the student beneficiaries in nursery to lower secondary levels would be female. 560 out of 760 (more than 70%) of the UG Health and Sciences student beneficiaries are female.Item Situation analysis of children in St. Lucia(UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean, 2017-09) United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)This report is the first comprehensive SitAn of children in St. Lucia focuses on the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups – children of migrant parents, those living with disabilities and those living in remote, single-parented households and poor urban communities. Due to the limitations of available quantitative data, the use of qualitative information is highlighted. The research combined an expansive desk review with over 50 national and global documents, interviews with key stakeholders (32 government and nongovernment officials) and 34 social and health workers, teachers, children, and their parents, and social workers), focus group discussions with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society and adolescents. The number of child abuse cases reported over the period of 2010-2015 totaled 1,341. Sexual abuse was the most common type of reported child abuse, accounting for 34 per cent, of all reported cases. Generally girls account for over 70 per cent of the victims. The 12-16 year old group are most often victims and many of the total cases are incest, as was the case for 29 of the 103 reports in 2014.Item Internet access to Caribbean government information of home-schooling: A preliminary case study of Barbados(2017-11) Scale, Mark-ShaneThis article reports on a preliminary study investigating access to government information obtainable on the Internet about homeschooling in Barbados. Barbados has one of the highest Internet usage in the English-speaking Caribbean and ranks high in the region in e-government services. As such, a search query aimed at obtaining government information on homeschooling in Barbados was conducted of both Government Web sites and a popular search engine. The central issue was whether there was access to government information on legally homeschooling in Barbados. The study utilized a qualitative approach to analysing and studying the information sources retrieved from the search results of the top ten sources retrieved from an Internet search as well as the results from the Government portals and websites. The findings indicate gaps in Barbadian government information availability and dissemination via Internet on homeschooling that restrict citizens from accessing information for legal homeschooling. It also reveals that gaps in the government provided information is filled by non-government providers on the Internet including those that provide inaccurate information to the public.Item The Challenges to the Barbados Education System in the 21st Century(Barbados Union of Teachers, 2018) Carter, Dan C.This speech on the challenges to the Barbados education system in the 21st century touches on globalization, access to tertiary education, curriculum reform, AIDS, and the teacher.Item The Future of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean: Possibilities for United States Investment and Engagement(Inter-American Dialogue, 2018) Fiszbein, Ariel; Stanton, SarahThis report looks at: 1)The State of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. This section focuses on major education trends in the region over the past decade and a half. Specifically, it examines student outcomes, considering both coverage and quality. Using a variety of tools and measures, it provides a broad overview of strengths and weaknesses at each level of the educational system across the region. The section also considers LAC countries within a broader international context, using assessment data to determine how students are performing and where the most pressing concerns lie. 2) The Challenges to Education Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. This section examines country capacity to improve education outcomes, in particular whether countries have a clear vision for their education sector, the tools to establish and evaluate standards to meet those goals and the fiscal commitment necessary to support their implementation. Combining this capacity analysis with the outcomes discussed in the previous section, we develop a typology of countries in LAC that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each country along these two dimensions. At the same time, the analysis remains cognizant of the significant bottlenecks affecting country capacity to implement effective education. 3) Opportunities: The Current Development Landscape and the Future of Education. The third major section of the report examines the current development context in LAC, in particular within the framework of multi- and bilateral development agencies and their investment levels and strategic priorities in LAC over the past decade and a half. It seeks to identify key trends in funding by country and sub-sector and place USAID’s commitment within this broader context. It also analyzes how these investments and priorities correspond with the education outcomes and policy environments discussed in the first two sections. Finally, the section uses strategic planning documents and historic funding trends to identify potential areas of future focus for USAID and other development actors. 4) Possibilities: The US and the Future of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Given shifting US priorities, as well as a new set of challenges and opportunities within the education sector in LAC, the final section seeks to identify potential pathways for new and continued engagement between USAID, other government agencies, the private sector and education systems in LAC. The purpose is to identify high-priority areas where USAID has a particular advantage and can maximize the impact of every dollar invested. In particular, we propose an increased focus on workforce and skills development given the possibilities for leveraging USAID’s existing commitments and promoting US national security, foreign policy and economic interests across the region.