The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of free education for all on the primary schools in Babati, Tanzania. The study is based on the fieldwork carried out in Babati district Tanzania, where information was gathered through qualitative methods. The empirical findings are analysed using a World Bank model of how educational inputs affects welfare outcomes. The study examines the millennium development goal with respect to giving every child an education. The study shows that a bigger impact can be seen in an increased enrolment in schools. That was the result of removing the primary school fees. This has resulted in overcrowding in the primary schools, lack of enough teachers, classrooms and learning material. However, over time the performances have improved. In the short term, the removal of school fees increased enrolment but resulted in poor quality of the education. In the long term, these problems are decreasing and the educational sector can now provide education to children that could not afford it before.

This thesis investigates the success of the academic program of El Colegio Fundación Fernando Borrero Caicedo, a small private school in Facatativa, Colombia, and the ways in which the school may be a model for other similar private schools both nationally and internationally. Using observation and personal interviews with parents, administrators and students affiliated with El Colegio Fundación Fernando Borrero Caicedo, this thesis discusses the school’s main strength, its close-knit and compassionate community, as it relates to the school’s success.

This study investigates whether the girls' education project "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" was able to increase girls' schooling and to what extent it was effective. In Turkey, there is still gender disparity in primary education although it is compulsory. "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" is UNICEF and Turkish Ministry of Education's joint project, which aims to increase girls' primary enrollment. The project consists of increasing public awareness, free books and incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfer) for female students. To find the magnitude of the program's impact, data is collected from Turkish and European statistical databases and a panel data analysis is employed. The results show that if the program has been implemented in a province, girls' enrollment rate increases by 1.310-2 units and total schooling increases by 1.410-2 units. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) found to have a bigger impact on girls' enrollment rates than total enrollment rates but the impact is not statistically significant. When a dummy for poverty is included in the model, then CCT becomes significant and the impact can be interpreted as; 1% increase in the conditional cash paid to a province results in 1.310-4 units increase in girls' enrollment rates. It is concluded that the project's impact is statistically significant but the magnitude is smaller than expected. Improvements are needed for increasing the effectiveness of the project. New cash transfer schemes should be implemented and community contribution should be encouraged. Another result of the analysis show that school buildings and adult literacy have greater impacts than the girls' education project.

Elever i Eskilstuna kommuns förmåga att prestera i grundskolan är påverkad av vilket symboliskt kapital elever innehar. En uppväxt i en miljö som hedrar samma värden som skolan ger eleven ett habitus som i högre grad samstämmer med skolans och ökar därför elevens möjligheter. Ett motsatt förhållande kan ses hos elevgrupper med ett lågt symboliskt kapital. Elevers förmåga att prestera är även påverkad av hur elevsammansättningen ser ut. Denna effekt kan verka både i positiv och i negativ riktning. En hög andel elever med ett starkt kapital ger en positiv effekt på alla elevkategorier medan en hög andel med svagt kapital ger en negativ effekt. Genom en snedfördelad tilldelning av resurser försöker Eskilstuna kommun skapa mer likvärdiga förutsättningar mellan de olika elevgrupperna. Kommunens pengar når de elevgrupper som behöver dem men det återstår att säga om resurserna är tillräckliga och om de omsätts på ett effektivt sätt. Den tröghet som finns i den sociala strukturen gör relationen mellan missgynnade elevers habitus och skolans kapital naturligt problematisk och svår att överbrygga. Resultatet är framtaget genom regressioner och korrelationer mellan skolresultat, social bakgrund och pedagogiska incitament som sedan är analyserade utifrån Bourdieus teori om social reproduktion. / The performance in primary education of students in the municipality of Eskilstuna is affected by the symbolic capital that students possesses. A student growing up in an environment that treasures the same values as the school does is given a habitus that better corresponds with the habitus of the school and therefore has better prospects. The performance of students is also affected by the composition of students. The effect of the composition of students may result in both positive and negative outcomes.  A high share of students with strong capital results in a positive effect on all categories of students while a high share of students with weak capital results in a negative effect. The municipality of Eskilstuna is trying to create more equal conditions between the different categories of students by applying an unequal allocation of resources. The funds handed out by the municipality do reach the categories of students in need of them but whether the resources are sufficient and whether they are efficiently converted remains to be seen.  As inertia is inherent to the social structure, the relationship between the habitus of disadvantaged students and the capital of the school is innately problematic and hard to bridge. The results were retrieved through regression analyses and correlations between results in school, social background, and pedagogical incentives. They were then analyzed on the basis of Bourdieus’ theory on social reproduction.

This study aimed to investigate how teachers integrated the development of students&#039 / critical thinking skills into their teaching during the three major phases of their teaching, namely, their planning practices, interactive practices, and reflective practices and to evaluate the influence of their instruction as felt by students in fourth grade Turkish course. The study was conducted as a comparative case study in which three teachers from three different primary schools participated. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews with teachers and their students, logs written by students and documents. The findings of the study indicated that, in the planning stage, factors such as autonomy, methodological stance and relevance played a role on the level of teachers&#039 / incorporation of critical thinking into the process. In the lessons, their classroom climate and management, perception of their realm of influence, their approach to challenge and tendency to create a common frame of reference were found to have an effect on the ways their students were involved in critical thinking processes. Furthermore, metacognitive skills and critical reading skills, together with others, were addressed by teachers in different ways. In their reflection, the way they referred to the strengths and weaknesses of their lessons and the way they evaluated their students&#039 / learning as well as their discrimination of thinking concepts and the ways they dealt with assumptions underlying students&#039 / reasoning involved elements revealing their approach to critical thinking. Among students, some interactive patterns, curiosity and interest constituted the factors that motivated students to think critically.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate environmental literacy of 6th, 7th and 8th grades primary school students in public schools of Bodrum, Turkey. The study was carried out during the spring semester of the 2006-2007 academic years. A total of 848 students enrolled in four public primary schools completed the 49-item Environmental Literacy Questionnaire (Kaplowitz &amp / Levine, 2005). The components of environmental literacy which are defined as knowledge, attitude, use and concern of students about environmental issues were examined by means of frequency distributions. Results displayed that although students had low levels of knowledge about the environent, they displayed positive attitudes and high levels of concern toward the environment. They were also aware of the importance of interaction between humans and the environment. Relationships among the components of the ELQ (knowledge, attitudes, uses, and concerns) have been analyzed by means of zero order correlations. The strongest correlation found between &lsquo / attitude and use&rsquo / and &lsquo / use and concern&rsquo / variables among the components of the ELQ indicating that the students with positive attitude towards environmental issues have positive views on environmental uses and service and students concerning about environmental problems have more positive views on environmental use and service. Canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship, if any, between the background characteristics of students and the set of environmental literacy variables in the questionnaire. The results showed that students who were interested in environmental issues, who gave importance to environmental problems, who thought they had good knowledge about environmental issues, whose parents&rsquo / were interested in environmental issues and involved in environmental activities had better knowledge about environmental issues, more positive attitude towards environmental issues, more positive view on environmental uses and service and concern environmental problems. In addition, the results of analysis by means of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that female students had more positive attitudes towards environmental issues, more positive views on environmental use and more concern about environmental problems than male students&rsquo / had but same level of knowledge on environmental issues.

An explanatory mixed method research design was utilized to examine the elementary teachers&rsquo / (classroom teachers) perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching. In the first phase instruments were translated into Turkish and pilot tested with 282 classroom teachers. For the main study, the survey was distributed to classroom teachers in 90 schools in Ankara. With a 45% percent return rate, 1055 surveys from elementary teachers were used in the quantitative data analysis part. Two simultaneous multiple regression analysis were conducted and the results showed that teachers&rsquo / perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching can be explained by different sets of variables where the most important one is teachers&rsquo / pedagogical beliefs. In the third phase, teachers were clustered under constructivist and behaviorist groups and ten teachers from each group were interviewed to reveal the differences on teachers&rsquo / ICT integration perception in relation to education and their teaching. The research result presented that elementary teacher pedagogical beliefs affect their perceptions towards ICT integration in teaching and learning process. Qualitative data analysis presented differences between constructivist and behaviorist group participants in relation to ICT integration in teaching and learning process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of argumentation based instruction on sixth grade students

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Worldwide, accumulating evidence indicates an international movement within countries towards the development of integrated early childhood education and care services (OECD, 2001). Not only do demographic trends underscore such a demand, but also extensive research documents the cognitive, social and emotional developmental benefits of high quality integrated provision in early childhood while at the same time contributing to countries’ ability to compete in a global economy (Eming-Young, 2002). This thesis is concerned with an analysis of the feasibility of transferring the English Early Excellence Centres (EEC) Programme to early childhood settings in Greece. The EEC Programme was introduced by the English Government in 1997 to develop and promote models of high quality integrated education and care services for young children and families as an important part of Government’s broad based strategy for increasing opportunities, supporting families, reducing social exclusion, increasing the health of the nation and addressing child poverty. Case studies were constructed at three Early Excellence Centres (EECs) in England - and two key policy makers involved in the programme were also interviewed. The analysis of the interviews, questionnaires and documents collected during the research in England provided useful insights into the development of integrated services at practice and policy level, along with the successes and challenges encountered during the process of change. Further exploratory case study research took place in Greece to examine whether there is the potential and desire to move towards integration. The theory of a ‘tipping point’ (Gladwell, 2000) provided some profoundly suggestive arguments and insights to analyse the processes by which the English EEC Programme developed at policy level, and how it ‘crossed a threshold’, tipped and spread nationally and internationally. In addition, this theory offered a practical thinking tool for constructing a strategy towards integration in Greece. Analysis revealed that a change process towards integration is not easy to manage; is most productively seen as a social process that gradually unfolds over time; and which acknowledges the socio-economic, political and cultural context of each country. This research indicates that keeping our focus on the development of integration at ground level could be an effective starting point in Greece, -but the development and delivery of integrated services also needs local and central support. A strategy towards establishing integrated service provision in Greece needs to explore what already exists and start building on that; to support personal and professional development; to value the participation of parents; to promote research; and to influence policy. This thesis wishes to stimulate debate, to contribute to the limited Greek literature in the area of integrated early childhood services and to be of interest to policy makers and advocates who have the capacity to shape the direction of the early childhood system in Greece.