This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices in professional development (PD) ... more This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices in professional development (PD) activities and the impact of PD on their professional growth. A descriptive mixed-method design was utilized, and the study sample of seven hundred (700) respondents from four primary schools was selected randomly. The results indicate that the program is charming and perfectly designed for the professional development of Zambian teachers; however, there are many flaws in the various steps of the program's implementation, which seem to fail PD activities in teacher training, as the transfer of exercise was found to be very ineffective. The results show that teachers perceived PD as being significant because it improves the teacher's pedagogical knowledge, teaching skills, and updating content knowledge. The results show that the predominant PD practices in schools were workshops, in-service training, and continuing learning. This study argues that PD enhances teachers' pedago...
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, learning has metamorphosed rapidly as never envisaged be... more In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, learning has metamorphosed rapidly as never envisaged before. Accordingly, lessons learnt as a result of the pandemic will influence and shape the future of learning and assessment as the pandemic has brought about a unique opportunity to actualise changes in the education sub-sector that had hitherto been proposed but never really implemented until the pandemic struck, catching the vast majority of educational systems unawares. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic led to worldwide closure of institutions of learning, leaving educators and learners’ to undertake learning in completely different modes, situations and locations. Consequently, remote learning was offered without much preparation and in some cases, without prior digital experience. This article, thus, explores education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors attempt to envisage education in a post COVID-19 world in light of the changes made as the pandemic raged. It is, ...
This study is an in-depth qualitative literature review on the barriers to parental involvement i... more This study is an in-depth qualitative literature review on the barriers to parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities. The review adopted Paulo Freire’s theory in an attempt to illustrate the significant role that parents are supposed to play in the education of their children with intellectual disabilities. The findings revealed that the barriers to enhanced parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities include: low level of parental education, teachers’ negative attitude towards both the affected learners and their parents, economic constraints, stigmatization of intellectual disabilities, lack of support, parental stress/depression, lack of knowledge and skills, the number of siblings in the family, mismatched expectations (between parents and teachers), absence of legal/policy frameworks on parental involvement, absence of clear channels of communication between parents and school personnel and, the severity of the child’s disability. As a result of the findings, some suggestions to enhance parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities are given, these include: parental education, economic emancipation of the parents, change of teachers’ attitude, specialized training for all persons handling learners with intellectual disability, establishment of positive home-school working relationships, proper legislation on handling people with disabilities, civic education on human rights and development of a policy framework to guide school-home collaborations.
This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices in professional development (PD) ... more This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and practices in professional development (PD) activities and the impact of PD on their professional growth. A descriptive mixed-method design was utilized, and the study sample of seven hundred (700) respondents from four primary schools was selected randomly. The results indicate that the program is charming and perfectly designed for the professional development of Zambian teachers; however, there are many flaws in the various steps of the program's implementation, which seem to fail PD activities in teacher training, as the transfer of exercise was found to be very ineffective. The results show that teachers perceived PD as being significant because it improves the teacher's pedagogical knowledge, teaching skills, and updating content knowledge. The results show that the predominant PD practices in schools were workshops, in-service training, and continuing learning. This study argues that PD enhances teachers' pedago...
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, learning has metamorphosed rapidly as never envisaged be... more In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, learning has metamorphosed rapidly as never envisaged before. Accordingly, lessons learnt as a result of the pandemic will influence and shape the future of learning and assessment as the pandemic has brought about a unique opportunity to actualise changes in the education sub-sector that had hitherto been proposed but never really implemented until the pandemic struck, catching the vast majority of educational systems unawares. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic led to worldwide closure of institutions of learning, leaving educators and learners’ to undertake learning in completely different modes, situations and locations. Consequently, remote learning was offered without much preparation and in some cases, without prior digital experience. This article, thus, explores education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors attempt to envisage education in a post COVID-19 world in light of the changes made as the pandemic raged. It is, ...
This study is an in-depth qualitative literature review on the barriers to parental involvement i... more This study is an in-depth qualitative literature review on the barriers to parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities. The review adopted Paulo Freire’s theory in an attempt to illustrate the significant role that parents are supposed to play in the education of their children with intellectual disabilities. The findings revealed that the barriers to enhanced parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities include: low level of parental education, teachers’ negative attitude towards both the affected learners and their parents, economic constraints, stigmatization of intellectual disabilities, lack of support, parental stress/depression, lack of knowledge and skills, the number of siblings in the family, mismatched expectations (between parents and teachers), absence of legal/policy frameworks on parental involvement, absence of clear channels of communication between parents and school personnel and, the severity of the child’s disability. As a result of the findings, some suggestions to enhance parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities are given, these include: parental education, economic emancipation of the parents, change of teachers’ attitude, specialized training for all persons handling learners with intellectual disability, establishment of positive home-school working relationships, proper legislation on handling people with disabilities, civic education on human rights and development of a policy framework to guide school-home collaborations.
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Papers by Josephine Oranga