This paper presents a descriptive case study of students’ proficiency in argumentative writing prior to receiving instruction. Data were collected from students at two purposefully sampled traditional denominational schools, a boys’ secondary and a girls’ secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago. Teachers asked students to write an argumentative essay on a topic that they felt was within students’ prior knowledge. However, analysis of those essays revealed that most students needed “intensive support”; only 5.7% of writers needed “some support”.
By the end of the 19th century Trinidad had four single-sex secondary schools, the earliest of which, St. Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain), was a Roman Catholic Girls’ school dating from 1836. The most recent foundation was Naparima College (c. 1900), a Canadian Presbyterian secondary school in southern Trinidad, chiefly for Indians. The two main secondary schools - Queens Royal College (hereafter QRC), and St. Mary’s College of the Immaculate Conception (hereafter CIC) -- were founded in 1859 and 1863 respectively.
Libraries have a mandate to provide equal access to information for all; including people with disabilities. This study was conducted to determine the types of resources available for people with disabilities; identify what services were provided to people with disabilities; ascertain the suitability of facilities for people with disabilities; and determine if there were challenges that people with disabilities had in accessing services provided by public libraries in Trinidad and Tobago.
Small booming hydrocarbon exporting countries are very often challenged to utilize their economic windfall to transform their economies and improve the living conditions for their citizens. Both the transformation of the economy and the improvement of living conditions require the timely and cost effective construction of medium to large scale infrastructure and commercial projects. Such projects bring into focus the construction sector of these countries.
The Faculty of Medical Sciences, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago had its first intake of students in 1989 and graduated its first class in 1994. By 1999 there were 376 graduates. This study tracks these graduates after their internship to discern what impact they made on the medical labour market. While 90% of the graduates completed their internship in Trinidad, only 14% were employed with two of the four regional health authorities. The Faculty, in spite of its intended mission, has not been able to meet the demands of the current medical labour market.
This study raised questions about the extent to which an environmental module on bird ecology could influence environmental attitudes of urban Trinidadian elementary students. Research suggests that children’s attitudes to the environment are shaped by multi-sensory, inquiry-driven learning experiences in nature. The author therefore predicted that there was a high probability of students’ environmental attitudes and local bird knowledge increasing after exposure to the module.
The new government of Trinidad and Tobago has expressed 'multiculturalism' as a policy thrust, and a way of framing the country's plural population. This article suggests that the education of teachers will be a key to arriving at a society in which the different cultural strands can find expression. But the development of such a curriculum can be problematic, requiring a conceptual framework that shows sensitivity to the country's postcolonial status, including the histories that must be taken into account in locating the different peoples.
There is today an urgency to infuse technology into the curriculum, as technology is viewed as a pedagogical tool ideal for facilitating improvement in student performance and achievement (Bebell & Kay, 2010; Desai, 2008; Vrasidas & Glass, 2005; Yeung, 2010). The benefits identified are many, among them the possibility of providing varied, engaging and flexible environments for learning and increasing access to meaningful and effective resources (Yeung, 2010).
In Trinidad and Tobago, elementary school students transition to secondary schools after writing the Secondary Entrance Examination (SEA), which determines which school they are placed at. Up to 2013, that examination comprised summative assessment in Mathematics, English Language Arts, and Composition. During the period 2013 to 2016, however, a continuous assessment component (CAC) was introduced, requiring amongst other things, that students produce a portfolio of written pieces.
This study explored male perspectives of their educational experiences in the Trinidad and Tobago school system. It examined key push factors responsible for leading males away from pursuing higher education as well as factors responsible for male underachievement at the post-secondary and tertiary levels. This qualitative study utilized six focus groups comprising 56 participants from private and public post-secondary and tertiary institutions located in largely North-East, Central and South Trinidad.
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