Impact of Formative Assessment Practices on Student Motivation for Learning the English Language

This study aimed at exploring the impact of formative assessment practices on student motivation for learning the English language. As Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, and Wiliam (2005) stated, education needs to change its function from collecting the results of right or wrong, and to encourage teachers in gathering information that will affect the educational decisions. This study is a non-experimental, correlational study, to describe the relationship between formative assessment practices and motivation for leaning. The instrument used was a questionnaire on high school students from public and private schools, who were selected randomly by stratified sampling. They belonged to three major high schools of Durres, Albania. The findings of this study showed that factors like strategic questions used by the teacher during formative assessment, student’s portfolio, self-assessment, and peer assessment affected positively the motivation for learning the English language. The results of the regression equation revealed that from four independent variables, the factor that had the greatest impact on motivation for learning were strategic questions used by the teacher during formative assessment, followed by self-assessment, peer assessment and student’s portfolio. This study identified ways of intervention to promote motivation for learning the English language. The study will contribute in the Albanian context showing how assessment practices made an impact on student motivation. It will help educational institutions and policy makers, foreign language teachers in improving the assessment practices to promote student motivation in learning the English language.

A Correlation Analysis of Education for Sustainable Development in Pre and Post Covid Scenarios

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has become a focus of international education attention, for its multidisciplinary character and for the interest in caring for the environment due to their degradation and environmental impact. This study compared two tests, one was conducted before confinement on 325 participants with 3545 responses, and one in confinement on 350 participants with 3832 responses. Surveys were conducted using Google Forms, based on 11 questions with its items verified by ANOVA and Bonferroni. The COVID-19 lockdown significantly influenced the results of both tests. The results indicated increased awareness of the environment during confinement. At the educational level it was intended to take an initial test and a year later perform a second test to compare them. The first test was carried out online at school, and the second one was held a year later in confinement due to COVID-19. This unexpected circumstance became an opportunity to value and compare them in different circumstances. Surveys were conducted using Google Forms. The results indicated a more significant concern for sustainability. The conclusion has been that students behave more sensitively to sustainable development in confinement circumstances.

Evaluation of the Application of an Inclusive Education Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support of the Learners at Schools in South Africa

The aim of this research was to evaluate the application of an inclusive education policy on screening, identification, assessment and support of learners (SIAS) policy at South African schools. The research explores how educators screen, identify, and assess barriers to learning as well as support learners with barriers. The variables on the screening, identification, assessment and support of learners were chosen as a focal point of this study mainly because they were all variables contained in the policy which must be mastered by the educators during the policy application. A survey design of quantitative research approach was followed. Document analysis of the SIAS 2014 policy document was done over the target population of educators in primary and secondary schools. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 320 male and female respondents from both primary and secondary schools. The quantitative data were collected using a seven-point semantic differential scale which elicited responses from a total of 250 educators. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data on the educators’ responses about the extent to which they implemented the inclusive education policy. Statistical data revealed that the implementation of the policy was modest. Educators do not effectively use the screen resources such as the learner profile to screen barriers and the Support Needs Assessment 1 is not effectively used to identify and assess the barriers experienced by learners. As a result, support of learners was found to be inadequate. An independent-samples t-test revealed that there was statistically significant difference between the means of primary and secondary schools in the application of SIAS 2014 policy. This research recommends that the teacher training institutions should capacitate aspiring educators about inclusive education policies such as the SIAS 2014 policy rationale, principles, and how the policy is to be effectively implemented at schools.

Effects of an Interventional Music Program on Learning Skills of Primary-School Students with Dyslexia

Research has shown that children with dyslexia have difficulties perceiving rhythm, and that musical training can enhance their learning skills. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of an interventional music-training program based on rhythm-perception enhancement, within the curriculum of the music course in Greece. For this purpose, this research was conducted on primary school students over a period of 12 weeks. Thirty-two students of the 4th Elementary class, diagnosed with dyslexia, participated in the study. The LAMDA (Learning Skills and Weakness Detection Software) test, a weighted tool for automated detection of learning difficulties in written and oral language, was used to assess the improvement of children. The assessment showed that the interventional music-training program improved students' performance in areas such as word recognition, grammar spelling, visual sequences and rhythm reproduction. The research findings indicate that the incorporation of an appropriately adapted music program into the primary school curriculum, as well as the use of music as a systematic treatment, may have positive effects on students with dyslexia.