/library/oar/handle/123456789/32385 2025-11-11T08:23:18Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/32599 Title: Carmel Cefai and Paul Cooper (editors) : Mental health promotion in schools : cross-cultural narratives and perspectives [book review] Abstract: This book is effectively a collection of papers by some well-known authors with a largely regional focus, the Mediterranean, and Australia in particular. It is divided into three parts covering the perspectives of students, teachers, and parents on mental health issues in relation to educational settings. These three parts are preceded by an introductory section that deals with some fundamental issues in the area of social, emotional, behaviour difficulties (SEBD). The term ‘mental health’ covers a wide range of situations stretching from temporary circumstances knowing their origin to factors in the child’s or young person’s environment to psychiatric conditions that usually start manifesting themselves in adolescence. In this introductory section, Paul Cooper makes a strong case for the polymorphic nature of SEBD and the need for flexibility in addressing the issues involved. He maintains that there is a plethora of psychological families of empirically supported approaches to address the issues. He also lists a number of teacher characteristics that go a long way towards making the whole process of managing such difficulties effective. As always, when dealing with vulnerable persons, a balanced measure of scientific intervention and human sensitivity, sympathy and warmth increases the possibility of effective intervention. Education may use scientific methods but will always need to rely on the human interface that can never be substituted. 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/32598 Title: The past is a foreign country : reflections of a head of department Abstract: In October 1996 I was appointed Head of Department (Mathematics). Before that time I taught for twelve years in a primary school, then mathematics for five years at secondary level and seven years at the post-secondary level. I must say that the time spent teaching at primary level are amongst the most I cherish. At no time in my career have I felt so much in control of teaching and learning. I had my own class, I was in contact with the pupils almost all the time, I could organise activities without the constriction of time frames imposed by teaching periods that characterise post-primary education and I could organise displays of children’s work on the walls of the classroom. On reflection I think my approach to teaching mathematics was oriented too much towards drill-and-practice and a transmission mode pedagogy. With hindsight I would have liked to include more constructivist pedagogies. But as a Maltese proverb states: Wara kulħadd għaref (Everyone is wise with hindsight). 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/32597 Title: Establishing local norms for two commercially available numeracy standardized tests to identify Maltese children with mathematics learning difficulties Authors: Zerafa, Esmeralda Abstract: Mathematics Learning Difficulties (MLD) are of international and national concern. International research estimates that between four and seven percent of any population struggle with the learning of mathematics (Geary, 2004). Nonetheless, locally this field of research is still not adequately researched. Moreover, no numeracy assessment has been standardized with children in Malta. Consequently identifying children with MLD is based locally on using assessments which have been developed and standardized in other countries, in particular the U.K.. My doctorate research project aimed at finding effective strategies that help children to overcome their difficulties in Mathematics. The study was conducted with Grade 5 (9 to 10 years old) learners attending seven Catholic Church schools for boys. Six case studies were carried out with pupils attending the same school, who were selected to follow an intervention programme. The programme aimed at supporting learners with MLD to master the numeracy components that are fundamental for mathematics learning. This with the hope of finding effective strategies that would help learners struggling with mathematics to make the desired progress in the subject. This paper describes the process of sample selection. Three tests, which have been standardized in the U.K., were administered to a sample population of 352 boys out of the 704 boys attending Church schools for boys in Grade 5 and norms were established. The tests were then administered to all the boys attending Grade 5 at the school where I taught (50 pupils). The established local norms were then used to identify the boys with MLD who would participate in the intervention programme. 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/32596 Title: Translanguaging with Maltese and English : the case of value, cost and change in a grade 3 classroom Authors: Farrugia, Marie Therese Abstract: This paper describes how a Primary school teacher in Malta used Maltese and English to teach her 8-year-old pupils meanings for the money-related English words value, cost and change. Classroom interaction data is presented to illustrate how the teacher drew on the pupils’ previous knowledge of money, using related Maltese vocabulary and then introducing the English translations. My observations support international evidence of the richness of bilingual educational contexts. The translanguaging is discussed in relation to whole-class scaffolding strategies as conceptualised by Anghileri, and by Smit, van Eerde, and Bakker. I conclude that while the observed teacher appeared to be successful in her aims, her teaching style appeared to limit the potential generation of conceptual discourse on the part of the pupils. I highlight the need for research to be carried out on how scaffolding through translanguaging might pan out in learning contexts that aim to increase pupil engagement with mathematical discourse. 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z