Impact teaching and alternative school week designs on standardized exam performance of International students

Strang Kenneth David* and Shimer Marie

Teachers and administrators around the world continue to debate about the pros and cons of using a shortened school week. More so, the increasing rise of immigration presents another factor: International student English Language Learner (ELL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) socio-cultural status. The 2008 fiscal crisis drove schools in USA to reduce costs while the No Child Left Behind national initiative increased teaching accountability policy that requires ELL students to pass standardized tests. Unfortunately the school system in USA experienced many challenges due to the above over the last five years. USA has a large population of approximately 320 million with many different cultures. Each state has a distinct cultural profile. It is possible that culture and school week configuration impact student performance.

We empirically examined the effectiveness of various school week formats using a large sample of rural schools in Oregon with a high concentration of ELL students from distinct cultures (N=628). We used nonparametric correlation, ANOVA and post-hoc techniques to examine the relationship between school week configuration and standardized exam scores for a multicultural ELL sample. Teacher quality and other common predictors of exam score were controlled through the sampling design. Although the economic benefits of a shortened school week were clear and the literature tends to support this in some USA populations, we found some controversial differences in our sample, owing in part to the unique immigrant culture in Oregon. These findings may generalize to school teachers and administrators in other regions around the world having diverse student cultures.

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Observe Merits and Appreciate Kindness (OMAK): A Research on How to improve the Teacher/Student Relationship

Ming-Li Chang

With advanced technology nowadays, the interpersonal relationship between people in the E generation is not as closed as in a more traditional society; the affection between teachers and students in colleges is also much lower than before14. The quality and quantity between college teacher-student interactions is lower as well as in level of affinity29. Based on these reasons, this research tends to find out the relationship between college teachers and students one month later, after OMAK activity had been conducted. The sample used in this action research was the number of 29 students who were taking the course in interpersonal communication. Written records and reflections in OMAK, research journals, related references and the feedback from critical friends were the tools used in this research.

A qualitative analysis was used in the reflection records written by the student sample in the research. The result found that through the OMAK activity, the written feedback from the student sample had also shown a positive way. Therefore, according to the result, this research made some recommendations for colleges and universities in the related fields for future references.

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