Policies with regard to language in education in the Caribbean regionhave historically been formulated on the basis of considerations not necessarily related to the linguistic realities of the speech communities of the region. In the last two decades however political change and increased linguistic information have allowed adjustments to be made so that curricula might try to reflect to some extent goals that will satisfy the needs of the populations for which they were designed.

This paper describes, in some detail, stages in the development of a Science Attitude Scale for Jamaican 10th-grade students. The statistical techniques employed with the original item pool (and which resulted in a 36-item scale being proposed as a suitable instrument for the purpose intended) are discussed. Reliability and preliminary validation exercises are also reported, and proposals for further refinement of the new scale are outlined.

Perhaps the simplest way of stating the question is in terms of the relationship between language and thought or between language and knowledge or between language structure and the structure of the perceptual world; and I wish here to make a confession about why this subject interests me in relation to Caribbean speech behaviour.

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”.

The relationships existing between performance in separate subject areas in the Cambridge Advanced Level Examinations (A-Level) and past performance (PP) in Cambridge Ordinary Level, and Caribbean Examinations Council General Level Examinations on the one hand, and teacher estimates (TE) on the other, formed the major focus of this study. TE were, on the whole, better predictors of A-Level performance than PP, and were more reliable for girls than boys in arts subjects, and for boys than girls in the sciences.

During the slavery period, many blacks in the West Indies were able to acquire literacy of both a basic and advanced kind. The extent of the acquisition of this intellectual skill was directly related to changes within the plantation economy, characterised by the growth of occupation stratification and social élitism within the slave communities. As the plantation social formation became increasingly complex and creolised, many slaves were able to obtain high levels of occupational mobility.

This study investigated the relation between the entering characteristics of the 1,210 students who entered the seven residential teachers’ colleges in Jamaica in September 1976 and their subsequent performance in college. There were 41 predictor variables (encompassing biographical data, previous education and work experience, and general and specific performance in public examinations) and 33 criterion variables (specific and average grades in compulsory and optional examination. subjects, teaching practice, internship and individual study).

As is evident from the overview of the content of the articles, there is much in this volume which should appeal to a variety of readers. There is a richness and diversity in the methodologies used in the articles: a convergent mixed method design (Jennings et al); mixed method (Verna Knight); a cross-sectional survey design (Marshall et al.); a quantitative non-experimental design (Martina King); and case study (Green-Mitchell).

Meta-analysis techniques were utilized to examine the differences in summative academic achievement among African American and African Caribbean students. A fixed effects model with moderator analyses was applied to a sample of five studies. Significant between group heterogeneity was identified. The aggregate effect size of -1.08 for differences in academic achievement between both groups was statistically significant. The type of summative assessment emerged as a substantial moderator which explained 86% of the heterogeneity between both groups.

There is a lack of clarity on what quality education means and how it could be achieved. This study examines this question from the perspective of secondary school students in Jamaica and Trinidad. The study also sought to ascertain whether there were significant country, school type and gender differences in the students’ perceptions .A convergent mixed methods design was used for the research.