Relationship Between Students’ Home Background and Their Academic Performance: A Case of Some Selected Senior High School Students in Rural Districts in Ashanti Region, Ghana

This study was primarily designed to find out the relationship between students’ home background and their academic performance. The study was conducted largely in senior high schools in rural districts in Ashanti Region, Ghana. The study used the ex-post facto correlation design. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 275 senior high school students. Questionnaire was used to collect the data from the respondents. Percentages and correlations were used to analyze the data. The family size was found to be highly correlated with the academic performance of students (coefficient = .711, p value = .002). Parent found it difficult in paying school fees and other levies of their children as a result of parents’ income (ρ = .669, p value = .004) in rural Ghana. The study also revealed that the educational background characteristics of parents had a significant correlation with the academic performance of students (coefficient = .711, p value = .002). Following from the findings, the Government of Ghana (Ministry of Education) should stick to its mandate of ensuring the provision of free quality secondary school education premised on the principle of inclusivity and equity to bridge the gap between the students from rich and poor homes. Such government intervention programs like the free education should favor the poor and low-income families most.

The Impact of Home Background and Locality on the Secondary School Students’ Academic Performance in Agriculture in Enugu State, Nigeria

Home background and locality are two significant factors that affect the academic performance of students in agriculture. The home determines the comfort of the students for academic activities while locality provides a conducive environment for students to study. The study was aimed at determining the impact of home background and locality on the secondary school students’ academic performance in agriculture. Survey research design was adopted. The study population was 14,750 where 1,616 respondents were selected. The sample size was made up of 624 teachers of agriculture and 992 students of agriculture from 291 secondary schools in the 17 local government areas of Enugu state, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data collected were subjected to mean and t-test statistic to answer research questions and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results show that there was the statistically significant difference in the impact of home background on the students’ academic performance in agriculture. It provides the parents with insights on the needs to make the homes conducive for learning and provide the necessary environment that would promote their children’s academic performance in agriculture.

‘From a sense of failure to a proactive life orientation’: First year high school dropout experiences and future life expectations in Norwegian youth

Employing a salutogenic perspective, we designed a qualitative study to explore experiences related to Norwegian students’ decision to leave school and their future life expectations. We identified a range of attitudes: pessimistic, discouraged participants found school to be equally lacking in care and support as their home background, whereas optimistic, proactive participants emphasized that supportive interactions with important others had made them believe in themselves and in alternative career tracks. The implications of our findings are discussed, focusing on social work that can empower marginalized young people to find new opportunities to succeed in school and employment.

CHALLENGE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS IN RURAL GWERU ZIMBABWE

The study established that rural day secondary school science teachers face a number of challenges, including inadequate teaching and learning materials, students’ negative attitudes towards science, conflicts between students’ home background and school science, and absence of science teachers’ associations. These challenges could have a direct impact on the teaching and learning of science in rural day secondary schools. The opening of rural day secondary schools in Zimbabwe was a great challenge in terms of providing science education to all students because the newly opened secondary schools did not have conventional laboratories and equipment that would facilitate the teaching and learning of science. This study sought to find out the challenges faced by rural day secondary school science teachers in Gweru district of Zimbabwe and propose a way forward. Questionnaires, interviews and observations were used to collect data pertaining to the challenges that were faced by the teachers.

Effect of home background on advanced heritage language learning

Using a detection test and an essay writing task, this study investigates the effect of home background on Chinese heritage language (CHL) learning and attainment at the advanced level. By examining the participants' use of target morphological marker le and discourse features, the study shows that, compared with their non-HL counterparts, advanced college CHL learners used the morphological marker le more frequently and more appropriately, and older CHL arrivals performed better than younger arrivals. Results of the essay writing task show that, compared with their non-HL counterparts, the older CHL arrivals did significantly better, while the younger arrivals did marginally better. The data support previous findings that early exposure to a language has undeniable positive effect on subsequent learning and that immigrant HL learners' age of arrival is an important indicator of attainment of competence at the advanced level.