Research
Masters and Doctoral Theses
This study uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques to compare factors contributing to variations in Reading and Mathematics achievement in Kenya and Italy. Data for the study was obtained from SACMEQ (2007) and INVALSI (2012) studies.
This study examines SACMEQ policy suggestions and agenda for action on school resources and the impact of the policy interventions in Kenya’s primary education system. The research dwells on the extent the school instructional materials support, a large scale investment, has contributed to quality in primary education. The Government did also implement targeted infrastructure improvement programme for improving pupil learning environment. The Kenya SACMEQ I, II and III project data was used in this study that took place in 1998, 2000 and 2007 respectively. The school learning environment (SLE) and the School Instructional materials (SIM) variable scales were constructed using Item Response Theory technique. Descriptive and inferential analysis was used to explain level and trends of school instructional materials and the relationship to pupil learning outcomes in reading and mathematics among standard 6 pupils’ across the provinces. ...
In Zambia, as the focus shifts from achieving access to primary education to quality of education comes the need to hold schools accountable for the performance of their intakes. In as much as this should be the case, care must be taken to ensure that schools are held accountable only for the things they can influence. School effectiveness research offers the possibility for achieving this in that it is possible to determine school effects on pupil scores by statistically isolating other contributing factors. This therefore offers a possibility for fairly ranking schools according to performance. When school management teams accept the ranking criterion as fair and that what is being measured is the core purpose for which they were set out to achieve, they will strive to improve and consequently make schools better learning environments. ...
The many and varied links between student socioeconomic status and educational outcomes have been well documented in the South African economics of education literature. The strong legacy of apartheid and the consequent correlation between education and wealth have meant that, generally speaking, poorer learners perform worse academically. The links between affluence and educational quality in South Africa can partially explain this outcome since the poor receive a far inferior quality of education when compared to their wealthier counterparts. This disadvantages them in the labourmarket and entrenches their poverty. This thesis uses the recent Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III) dataset for South Africa to answer three important questions: ...
In Zambia, as the focus shifts from achieving access to primary education to quality of education comes the need to hold schools accountable for the performance of their intakes. In as much as this should be the case, care must be taken to ensure that schools are held accountable only for the things they can influence. School effectiveness research offers the possibility for achieving this in that it is possible to determine school effects on pupil scores by statistically isolating other contributing factors. This therefore offers a possibility for fairly ranking schools according to performance. When school management teams accept the ranking criterion as fair and that what is being measured is the core purpose for which they were set out to achieve, they will strive to improve and consequently make schools better learning environments. ...
the different modes of operation of this concept is, so far, scarce for developing countries in general, but for sub-Sahara-Africa in particular. To help fill this gap, this paper examines the effects of parental and community participation on the quality of education received by the students in primary
schools in Anglophone Southern and Eastern Africa. Initially, this paper analyzes whether schools with a more regular and a higher degree of participation produce better student achievements, as evidenced by test scores in Mathematics. Additionally and predominantly, the focus is placed on the effects
of different manifestations of participation on the institutional settings of the school environment, which regulate the production of education – a so far poorly researched «black box» in the region. ...
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The research study investigates the response of the education sector to HIV-AIDS through inputs of the primary school heads in Zimbabwe from the SACMEQ III Project by describing their viewpoints and professional characteristics and also examining how the school environment, that the school heads are in charge of, were supportive in the context of HIVAIDS.
During SACMEQ III, an additional research component on evaluating “the impact of HIVAIDS on the functioning of the school system” was introduced as requested by the SACMEQ Ministers of Education. As a result, the SACMEQ researchers developed a range of indicators in order to evaluate HIV education prevention programmes in primary schools among the SACMEQ countries.
The objective of the study was to assess the changes in the availability of the basic teaching and learning provisions in Zimbabwe Primary schools and establish how these resources were related to the pupil’s achievements in the SACMEQ III Project. The following major research questions were explored in this study: ...
Several cross-national studies, which monitor the quality of education in many countries across the world, have been conducted over the recent years. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), founded in 1958 by a group of European and American researchers (Grisay and Griffin, 2004), wanted to measure the achievement of comparable samples of students in various subjects and in diverse school systems, with the view of investigating the relationships between possible differences in achievement and differences in inputs, processes and educational contexts. ...
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This thesis proposes a new approach to analyzing SACMEQ and other international assessments using “GNI per capita”, “SES”, and “Scores” to clarify the relationship of the country’s economic background and educational achievement. Frames are constructed with countries in order of the size of the indicators (e.g. GNI per capita), in which the piled graph of each answers are located. The graphs are expected to show similar shapes if they have correlations, with the indicators’ logical shapes: Logarithm for “GNI per capita”, and a Function for “SES” and “Scores” with a liner in the middle and rapid inverted curbs at the ends. The major advantage of this frame analysis is to enable the handling of raw data as qualitative information, compared with regular regression analysis in which the data should sometimes be reformed. ...
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E-mail Machiko Sasaki.
http://srvrhldig001.uct.ac.za/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=91560Doctoral Thesis, Department of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
This thesis undertakes a detailed examination of the reading skills of Botswana ‘s Grade 6 pupils and then uses the results of this examination to reflect upon the content and structure of the curriculum and teaching materials provided for these children. The research was centred around the construction of a Reading Skills Hierarchy for Botswana’s Grade 6 pupils that provides a descriptive account of their reading competencies by illustrating exactly “what they can and can not do”. ...
Master's Thesis, University Of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Masters Thesis, Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
PhD Thesis, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. (57 mb - PDF)
Masters Thesis, University of Western Cape, South Africa.
Papers from the 2005 International Invitational Educational Policy Research Conference
Research Papers
International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 30, Issue 1, January 2010, pp 33-43
International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 31, Issue 3, May 2011, pp 223-233
in Alexander W. Wiseman (ed.) The Impact of International Achievement Studies on National Education Policymaking (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Volume 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.3-34
Africa Educational Research Journal Number 1, 92-109
International Review of Education, 56:63-11.
International Review of Education, 56:63-11.
CSAE Conference 2009, Economic Development in Africa, 22nd - 24th March 2009, St Catherine's College, Oxford.
Prospects, 38: 325-344.
International Journal of Educational Development, 28(2): 149-160.
University of Nottingham, UK.
Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Göttingen 2007 with number 5.
SeeQ Working Paper No. 1, EdQual.
Comparative Education Review, vol. 50, no. 4.
September 19-21 2006, Johannesburg.
Prospects, vol. XXXV, no.1.
Paper presented during the SACMEQ Data Archive Dissemination Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya & Pretoria, South Africa, 28 June – 2 July 2004.