By the time children in low- and middle-income countries start primary school, large socioeconomic disparities are evident in children's learning and development. Both pre-primary and home environments can play important roles in influencing school readiness and can contribute to disparities in early childhood development, but there is limited…

Learning endocrine physiology can be challenging. Some physiological concepts are abstract, making the process of learning more difficult for students. The comprehension of basic concepts, such as chemical hormone classification, is essential to understand the differences in synthesis, secretion, transport, and mechanism of action of hormones. To…

Most universities are enrolling large numbers of students amidst dwindling budgets. This leads to reduced book- to student ratios. Makerere University started a Book Bank system to ensure availability of basic text books to students. The aim of this paper was to assess whether the Book Bank system was a viable strategy for enhancing access to…

The World Bank's focus on foundational skills requires that issues of language and Language of Instruction be brought to the forefront of education policy discussions. Poor Language of Instruction policies harm learning, access, equity, cost-effectiveness, and inclusion. Yet nearly 37% of students in low- and middle-income countries are taught in…

The Idea Bank column provides tips and techniques for creative teaching, in about 1,000 words. As students use increasingly diverse internet sources, it becomes hard to tell whether their answers are truly original. A general solution to this dilemma is to ask students to present information in a format that they are unlikely to encounter in books…

Despite recent clarifications by central banks that it is indeed "commercial banks" that are the main creators of the money supply, money creation processes remain as confusing and opaque as ever to many. This article develops a simplified macro-visual diagram of today's money system based on the increasingly accepted "credit…

This transcendental phenomenological qualitative study examined two middle school social studies teachers that worked with an instructional coach to use their classroom textbook to transform the curriculum by using the College, Career, and Civic (C3) Life framework. Both teachers implemented several attributes and characteristics from the…

Background: Patients with anomic aphasia experience difficulties in narrative processing. General discourse measures are time consuming and require necessary skills. Core lexicon analysis has been proposed as an effort-saving approach but has not been developed in Mandarin discourse. Aims: This exploratory study was aimed (1) to apply core lexicon…

James Banks's framework for determining the levels of integration of multicultural content in teachers' pedagogy has long been a tool used by researchers worldwide. This article introduces the Holistic Analysis of Multicultural Teaching Framework that rethinks Banks's framework to allow research analysis to capture the hybrid and fluid aspects of…

The World Bank uses a combination of financial and non-financial aid to influence educational reform in aid-recipient countries. Drawing on an interpretive policy analysis methodology and using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power as a 'thinking tool', this article aims to shed light on the Bank's non-financial pathways of policy influence…

The advancement of information and technology resulted in the change in conventional test methods. The weaknesses of the paper-based test can be minimized using the computer-based test (CBT). The development of a CBT desperately needs a computerized item bank. This study aimed to develop a computerized item bank for classroom and school-based…

It is known that students have many misconceptions about concepts related to function. By discovering misconceptions using an appropriate measurement instrument, we can determine what changes we need to make in the real functions curriculum to improve learning outcomes. Therefore, we designed an item bank for measuring conceptual understandings of…

This article critically reviews the World Bank's latest high-profile report on skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the Report's prescriptions and recommendations are broadly in line with those of national skills development strategies elsewhere in both the developed and developing world, its overall analysis is quite limited and…

William Banks' 1984 article "Afro-American Scholars in the University" situated Black faculty at predominantly White institutions in a milieu noting the uses and misuses of Black scholars, constituencies in conflict, the range of responses from Black scholars, and the standards and realities for their advancement in academia. Banks…

Item parameter drift (IPD) is the systematic differentiation of parameter values of items over time due to various reasons. If it occurs in computer adaptive tests (CAT), it causes errors in the estimation of item and ability parameters. Identification of the underlying conditions of this situation in CAT is important for estimating item and…