Issue 2: December 2024

This paper aims to explore the educational inequalities heightened by the pandemic, as experienced by children aged 0 – 11 years from their parents’ perspective within their homes. Two online questionnaires were held that addressed the shift to remote teaching during school closure in Malta. Findings show that the parents’ level of education, their financial ability, and the time they could dedicate to assisting their children, affected the children’s learning opportunities. The study recommends the need for policymakers to address the still-existing digital, social and economic inequities to continue working towards a socially just education system post-pandemic.

New ideas about learning and assessment have led to assessment reforms in many countries, with governments and educators introducing new assessment policies that focus more on assessment for learning rather than measuring achievement. What is problematic about assessment reform is that new policies are written by one group of individuals, usually administrators, and passed down to teachers who need to implement them within the classroom context. The shift from policy to practice is not without its challenges and there is no guarantee that new assessment policies are successfully implemented by teachers. This study explores how teachers in Maltese science classrooms implement assessment reform. More specifically it focuses on the introduction of School Based Assessment (SBA) to replace summative half-yearly examinations. Using a qualitative methodology, the study looks at the experiences of two Maltese Science Education Officers (EOs) and five Integrated Science teachers in two Maltese state schools as they navigated the shift from using assessment practices that involved traditional testing to school-based assessment practices that were more focused on student learning. The findings suggest that for the participants of the study the implementation of assessment reform was not a linear journey. The participants went through a process that involved: (i) an initial resistance to change, especially the removal of the half-yearly examinations; (ii) using coping mechanisms; and (iii) becoming empowered within a teacher community to embrace and implement new assessment practices. The study suggests that to implement reform science teachers need to develop an ‘assessment literacy’ within professional learning communities that give them voice, provide them with support and empower them with the knowledge, skills, and resources that lead to successful assessment reform.

Existing research suggests that smaller class sizes, diverse teaching methods, and engagement in sports yield positive returns on students’ educational outcomes. This paper investigates whether students participating in sports when preparing for their Secondary Educational Certificate, a pivotal milestone in their life, exhibit higher academic performances in English language and Mathematics than their non-participating counterparts. Utilising online self-completion questionnaires from students who underwent exams in the past two years, these findings reveal a statistically significant positive correlation between the frequency of sports participation and academic performance regarding improved grades. Furthermore, the study highlights that this positive influence of sports is more evident in Mathematics than in English. Additional insights from this study indicate that students in private schools generally achieve higher grades than state school students, and academic marks vary according to the students’ residential district due to diverse cultural backgrounds.

In recent decades, numbers of students taking up modern foreign languages (MFL) in post-compulsory education in Malta have shrunk to an alarming low, and the Maltese population’s past multilingual skills have undergone a significant decline. This study aims to understand the reasons for post-secondary (PS) students’ avoidance of MFL in their choice of subjects for Advanced level studies by analysing their attitudes to MFL and investigating which external and internal factors of influence impact on their level of interest in foreign language learning (FLL). A questionnaire was distributed to PS students in four of the six pre-university institutions in Malta. Results from the representative sample of respondents confirm the existence of negative attitudes to FLL among PS students. External factors of influence such as discontinuity between secondary and PS language curricula, and unsatisfactory FLL experiences at secondary level appear to be among the factors dissuading some PS learners from pursuing MFL studies. Internal factors such as causal attributions of success or failure in language studies compound the feelings of low learner agency. A case study is conducted concerning French, a foreign language (FL) in sharp decline, revealing perceptions of difficulty with regard to the language, as well as stereotypical associations that cling to the language, making it to some extent subject to lingering prejudice. Understanding actual PS learners’ beliefs about FLL is an important step towards effectively addressing the unpopularity of MFL.

This paper draws on research which addresses a topic of interest in recent times, given the rise in the number of migrant learners in Maltese schools, especially those originating from Italy. First, it sheds light on the educational challenges that Italian migrant learners face in their transition to state schools in Gozo (such as language barriers, the loss of Italian, participation in class, books, homework, examinations, inclusion and parental involvement) taking account of the experiences of these learners themselves, their parents, and their teachers. Secondly, it examines the support strategies that are in place to facilitate these learners’ move between two education systems, characterised by substantial differences. Thirdly, it explores similarities and differences between the Italian and the Maltese education systems to understand in what ways different education systems can favour or hinder the inclusion of these learners into local schools. This research continues to build on other local studies focusing on the inclusion of Italian migrant learners in Maltese schools (Baschiera & Caruana, 2020; Caruana & Pace, 2021; Palazzo, 2020). The results confirm that Italian migrant learners are generally well included in local schools, more so if they started schooling in Malta at a young age. However, some parents claim that their children have experienced exclusion, especially at the beginning of their transition into local schools. While teachers in general do their best to support these learners and sometimes switch to Italian when necessary, they have limited time and leeway to make further adaptations, because of an exam-oriented pedagogy that they feel constrained to adopt.

The effects of age and media on the acquisition or learning of Italian in Malta are investigated in this article, following previous research which had confirmed the beneficial impact of TV viewing in relation to the development of L2 competences in Italian. The rapid decline of exposure to Italian media in Malta has motivated the research behind this article, which confirms the advantages of frequent and copious exposure to media in Italian, particularly when exposure begins in childhood.

As artificial intelligence continues to make its way into virtually all aspects of our lives, it becomes increasingly important for upcoming generations to understand their relationship with technology - not simply as passive consumers, but also as creators able to properly harness its power while fully aware of its limitations. Through an exploratory bootcamp for adolescents focusing on creative, philosophical and ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, we have piloted a curriculum which aims to explore the relationship between humans and technology through thought-provoking questions, while offering practical hands-on challenges and room for independent exploration for all abilities in the classroom. This article presents the design process of the curriculum and the pedagogical approach, including practical concerns and adaptations needed for execution. Furthermore, it reflects on lessons learnt and condenses the outcome of the pilot bootcamp into a learning framework, especially relevant for technology bootcamps aiming to provide an enjoyable yet thoughtful and formative experience.

Throughout their career, several teachers seek to improve their professional practice through various means. Lesson study, a collaborative approach to teacher professional development, involves educators working together over an extended period of time to improve teaching and learning. The cyclical process involves identifying a learning goal, preparing a lesson plan, implementing the lesson, reflecting on student learning and revising the lesson plan. This article illustrates the process of a lesson study which was implemented in a local state primary school. This lesson study, conducted as part of the Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Management course at the University of Malta, focused on teaching mathematics through the concrete-pictorial-abstract (CPA) approach.

Lesson study or Jugyokenkyu is based on a Japanese model of teacher professional development (PD). This PD model fosters reflective practice and can help teachers to become more effective practitioners. It involves a collaborative process of planning, teaching, observation, evaluation and reflection. This lesson study, which involved two lesson trials, aimed to improve teaching and learning the Maltese language, targeting two classes of Year 3 students, aged 8 years. Each lesson was 70 minutes long and involved students in speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks. The focus was to improve their vocabulary and facilitate comprehension. The tasks supported reading comprehension by enabling students to learn new vocabulary through a multi-faceted approach. Discussions in pairs presented ample opportunities for collaborative learning and to use the vocabulary in context. Furthermore, posing higher order questions stimulated student thinking and promoted critical thinking skills, encouraging students to use more complex vocabulary. The results show that lesson study was beneficial for teachers to plan a well-structured lesson through ongoing collaboration and group reflection. The knowledgeable other was instrumental in lesson design, and in fostering teachers' professional growth.

This article zooms in on a lesson study process which sees a group of mathematics teachers designing a research lesson to address the students’ prevalent reliance on rote memorisation which is overshadowing the importance of conceptual understanding. Breaking away from the traditional approach of posing a textbook question, the team chose to present a Year 10 high-ability class with an open-ended investigation, allowing free exploration of a hexagonal visual aid. To ensure a structured and guided learning process, the lesson was designed on the 5E Inquiry-Based Instructional model (Bybee & Landes, 1990), a framework that was introduced to students as well. Through this self-directed learning opportunity, students took on roles as active agents fuelling a collaborative inquiry and using their existing knowledge as a scaffold for constructing new knowledge independently. The observations of this research lesson proved to be an enriching experience for everyone involved as the shared feedback revealed various successful aspects of the lesson. This experience motivated the lesson study team to intensify their efforts towards integrating lessons promoting students’ conceptual understanding. Concurrently, the observations also shed light on the challenges of teaching for conceptual understanding, urging the lesson study team to reflect on their practices for ongoing improvement.

This report explores the lesson study process undertaken to improve Year 4 students' mathematics problem-solving skills in a Maltese primary state school. It specifically focuses on their ability to identify and apply the correct operations in mathematics problems. A team of educators, including three Year 4 teachers, the assistant head in charge of the year group, the mathematics head of department and members of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta, collaboratively designed and refined the lesson through two trial implementations. The first lesson trial revealed specific challenges, leading to targeted adjustments. Following changes to the lesson plan, observations during the second lesson trial indicated significant improvements in student engagement and understanding. These findings were shared with the wider school community, leading to the decision by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to adopt lesson study as a whole-school approach. The process demonstrated the effectiveness of collaborative planning, on-going reflective practice and continuous improvement in enhancing both teaching practices and student outcomes.

This study explores the process of leading a lesson study, a collaborative teaching approach that involves choosing a team of teachers and a research focus, planning a research lesson, delivering it, followed by a debriefing session aimed to create new knowledge. Originating in Japan, lesson study has gained popularity because of its reported effectiveness to promote reflective teaching and continuous improvement. In leading the lesson study reported in this paper, which focused on facilitating connections with students through group work and discussion, the team included three teachers and a knowledgeable other. Guided by Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, the lesson study team aimed to build on students' existing knowledge with carefully planned tasks and questions. This lesson study left a profound impact on both educator development and student learning, highlighting the benefits of lesson study as an approach to collaborative teaching. This experience enhanced Physics teachers’ opportunities to explore inquiry-based teaching strategies by researching, sharing, and implementing their ideas. Meanwhile, the Year 11 students with whom the lesson was taught, were introduced to the topic in an interactive manner, and this fostered active engagement and curiosity.