/library/oar/handle/123456789/33478 Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:51:55 GMT 2025-11-10T11:51:55Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/88605 Title: Malta Review of Educational Research : volume 12 : issue 1 Authors: Buhagiar, Michael A.; Farrugia, Marie Therese; Bezzina, Leonard Abstract: Broadly speaking, mathematics education aims “to study the factors affecting the teaching and learning of mathematics and to develop programmes to improve the teaching of mathematics” (Godino, Batanero, & Font, 2007, p. 127). As a relatively recent scientific discipline, mathematics education lacks a consolidated and dominant research paradigm. As a result, as Sriraman and English (2010) note, there have been frequent shifts in the dominant paradigm. They point out the progressive shifts from behaviourism, through to stage and level theories, to various forms of constructivism, to situated and distributed cognitions, and more recently, to complexity theories and neuroscience. Sriraman and English explain that for the first couple of decades of its life, mathematics education as a discipline drew heavily on theories and methodologies from psychology. However, by the end of the 1980s, as researchers began to focus on the social dimension of learning, theories that view mathematics as a social product began to be used, and thus, socio-cultural theories became more dominant. Sriraman and English argue that one plausible explanation for these shifts is the diverging epistemological perspectives about what constitutes mathematical knowledge; another possible explanation proposed by Sriraman and English is that mathematics education is heavily influenced by unpredictable cultural and political forces. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/88605 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/38816 Title: Phillip T. Slee, Grace Skrzypiec and Carmel Cefai (Eds.) (2018) : Child and adolescent wellbeing and violence prevention in schools [book review] Abstract: Can positive school approaches that foster student wellbeing effectively address destructive perceptions of self and others and reduce negative behaviour and violence in school? This was the focus of the first international conference of the Centre for Student Wellbeing and Prevention of Violence in 2016, which was held in Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. The book under review grew out of the papers presented at this conference. Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/38816 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/38815 Title: Homelessness and adult education in the UK and Malta Authors: Roberts, Kelly-Marie Abstract: In this piece, I aim to present a critical commentary on the relationship between adult education and homelessness in two different European contexts: the United Kingdom and Malta. As a developing adult educator from the UK, with experience of living in Malta, I am in a privileged position to be able to draw on knowledge and experience in both contexts to illuminate the topic in a comparative way. I position myself as a feminist adult educator who supports a capabilities or asset-based approach to development (see, for example bell hooks, 1994, Sen, 1999, Foot & Hopkins, 2010, and El Khayat, 2018). After several years working in community education with marginalized groups in the UK and Global South (South America and Southern Africa), I recently came to live in the small, southern Mediterranean island nation of Malta, where I undertook a student placement with a homelessness charity (January-June 2018). At the time of writing, there is limited data showing the scale and impact of homelessness in Malta so whilst focusing in particular on Malta and the UK, reference will also be made to research from other countries. Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/38815 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/38814 Title: School as experienced by early school leavers Authors: Camilleri, Marisabelle; De Giovanni, Katya Abstract: This research aims at shedding light on the experiences of Early School Leavers and their families; experiences which are very often disregarded or merely neglected when tailoring policies and strategies to combat Early School Leaving (ESL). This research seeks to qualitatively obtain information related to the causes and consequences of ESL, extrapolate data on the background of Early School Leavers and their families as well as give voice to their feelings, prospects, perspectives and experiences, whilst eliciting pertinent recommendations. The semi-structured interviews identify several shortcomings in the local educational system, including the focus on knowledge-based subjects, with little opportunities to opt for vocational subjects. In this research, the vast majority of interviewees advocate for the traditional trade schools. Furthermore, while the working-class parents interviewed feel that they lack the necessary skills and confidence to actively involve themselves in their children’s school life, they suggest an increase in communication between the school and home. Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/38814 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z