Search

The International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA) is a rapidly growing field in education which has gained considerable attention of stakeholders across the globe. Historically, ILSA emerged from the developed context which has drifted to the developing contexts in a short span of time due to globalisation. Pakistan has participated in ILSA (i.e., TIMSS) for the first time in the 2019 cycle. In light of the global critique on ILSA, this paper presents a critical analysis on Pakistan's participation in TIMSS by raising questions embedded in contextual realities. The discussion adds to the understanding of ILSA in terms of historical developments, theoretical underpinnings towards participation in ILSA, and the general as well as context-specific critique on ILSA. The paper ends with the argument in favour of strengthening national LSA instead of relying only on ILSA.

This study aims to explore the efficacy of literature relating to Anne Frank to reduce children's attitudes of prejudice and discrimination with respect to specific dimensions, including ethnicity and race, religion and gender. A quasi-experiment was employed with pre-post control design. The sample consisted of 100 students of the upper key-stage 2 (UKS2) level, recruited from the two British schools in Karachi. These schools represented an Experimental Group (EG) and a matched Comparison Group (CG). A research instrument titled 'Muggles world of differences' (MWD) was developed and validated. It was administered on CG and EG, both before and after intervention. The intervention plan 'Reading of Young Anne's Literature' (ROYAL) was developed based on selected readings from Anne Frank related literature (AFL). Intervention was provided to EG, while CG studied similar concepts using a more standard method. Results of the pretest revealed a high level of prejudice and discrimination in both the EG and CG, with no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the overall scores, as well as in the specific content domains. However, the post-test of the two groups revealed that the students in the EG had outperformed their CG counterparts in overall MWD scores, as well as in specific content domains. The difference was found to be significant (p < 0.05) with the large effect size (r = -0.63). Results support the efficacy of teaching Anne Frank related literature in reducing attitudes of prejudice and discrimination.

This research aimed to explore how female students of a secondary school of Pakistan can be engaged in Argumentation about a Socio-Scientific Issue. An intervention was designed and carried out using Tolmin Model of Argumentation. The intervention consisted of three consecutive lessons in a senior secondary class of a girls' government school in Karachi. Allocated time for each lesson was sixty minutes. There were 39 students in the class. A selected socio scientific issue was explicitly taught with the help of different teaching strategies based on Tolmin Model of Argumentation. The results of the study showed that there was a visible improvement in the scientific knowledge and argumentation skills of female students. This study presents significant insights into students' conceptual understanding and argumentations skills for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]