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This study is based on research on secondary textbook and school library provision in Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo, as well as existing recent country reports on textbook provision and an extensive desk research. Considerable variations exist in Sub-Saharan African textbook requirements needed to meet secondary curriculum specifications just as significant differences exist between and within countries in regard to the average price of recommended textbooks. Some countries have no approved textbooks list. This World Bank Working Paper aims to discuss the textbook situation in Sub-Saharan Africa with a special focus on secondary textbook availability, cost and financing, distribution and publishing, and the status of school libraries. Its objective is to analyze the issues in secondary textbook and school library provision and to provide some options and strategies for improvement.

This thematic study discusses strategies for sustainable financing of secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report provides insight into options for financing the expansion of secondary education and training in Africa. This comes with a hefty price tag and points to the need to undertake fundamental reforms swiftly. This publication messages are clear: secondary education and training in Sub-Saharan Africa faces the challenge of improved efficiency and improved quality simultaneously with a fast growing demand. Sustainable financing will also require more effective public-private partnerships, because governments have many priorities and do not have a lot of room for significant additional public funding of post-primary systems. Educational reforms are needed to expand enrollment in secondary schooling in affordable ways. These reforms will contribute to poverty reduction by increasing the levels of knowledge, skills, and capability; diminishing inequalities in access that limit social mobility and skew income distribution; and contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that relate to education.

Background The number of resources available to medical students studying a degree in medicine is growing exponentially. In addition to traditional learning resources such as lectures and textbooks, students are increasingly using e-learning tools like commercially available question banks to supplement their learning. Student preference for learning resources has not been described in detail, and a better understanding of the tools perceived to be useful could provide essential information to medical educators when designing and implementing medical curricula. Methods We invited 1083 undergraduate and postgraduate medical students from two major Australian universities to complete an online survey. Questions asked students to indicate the frequency with which they use various types of resources when learning new material or when revising previous content. Results Approximately one third (32.3%, N  = 350) of invited participants completed the survey, and of those who responded, the gender distribution was even with a median age of 25 years. Making written notes and reading textbooks were the most frequently utilized resources for learning new material. Online or downloaded question banks were the most frequently used resource for revision. In addition to the use of traditional learning tools, the majority of students report using a variety of e-learning tools including online teaching videos (92%, n  = 322) and question banks (90.6%, n  = 317). Conclusion Despite the trend towards e-learning, traditional resources like attendance at face-to-face lectures remain the most popular for learning new material. The increasing use of question banks raises potential issues of poor alignment to medical school curricula. With the advantages of exam technique practice, time efficiency and multiplatform availability, their popularity is likely to continue. Evaluation of existing question banks is required to facilitate appropriate integration into the curricula, with equitable access for all students.

English language education is a vital component of global communication. Hence, the quality of textbooks is crucial for effective teaching-learning. The teaching of English is seen to be incomplete without implementing the use of an appropriate textbook. Relying so much on textbooks is evident in the curriculum and program syllabi, as teachers often have textbooks as their main reference for teaching. This paper overviews a study that systematically evaluated National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) English textbooks for primary classes using the checklist method. The checklist under consideration was developed by Denir and Ertas in 2014. The checklist comprised 54 questions based on a systematic review of 23 checklists. For the sake of the study, 14 teachers’ feedback was collected based on the developed checklist. Feedback from the teachers gathered through the designed checklist adds valuable insights into the textbook’s real-world application, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. Considering multiple parameters, our study reveals that 78% of the questions in the checklist were answered in the affirmative, indicating that the textbooks under our consideration were aptly designed and suitable for the learners; however, they require some changes to be made, especially in the Skills and Sub-skills section.

Across many different contexts, randomized evaluations find that school participation is sensitive to costs: Reducing out-of-pocket costs, merit scholarships, and conditional cash transfers all increase schooling. Addressing child health and providing information on how earnings rise with education can increase schooling even more cost-effectively. However, among those in school, test scores are remarkably low and unresponsive to more-of-the-same inputs, such as hiring additional teachers, buying more textbooks, or providing flexible grants. In contrast, pedagogical reforms that match teaching to students' learning levels are highly cost effective at increasing learning, as are reforms that improve accountability and incentives, such as local hiring of teachers on short-term contracts. Technology could potentially improve pedagogy and accountability. Improving pre-and postprimary education are major future challenges.

PurposeThis paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate how supply chain risk management (SCRM) is applied to the healthcare supply chains and which improvement opportunities are being missed in this segment.Design/methodology/approachThis SLR used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to answer three research questions: (1) Which are the main gaps concerning healthcare supply chain risk management (HCSCRM)? (2) What is the definition of HCSCRM? and (3) What are the risk management techniques and approaches used in healthcare supply chains?FindingsThe authors present a complete summary of the HCSCRM body of research, investigating research strings like clinical engineering and high reliability organizations (HROs) and its relations with HCSCRM; (1) This research revealed the five pillars of HCSCRM; (2) The authors proposed a formal definition for HCSCRM considering all the literature blocks explored and (3) The authors generated a list of risks present in healthcare supply chains resulting from extensive article research.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors only reviewed international journal articles (published in the English language), excluding conference papers, dissertations and theses, textbooks, book chapters, unpublished articles and notes. In addition, the study did not thoroughly investigate specific countries' particularities concerning how the healthcare providers are organized.Originality/valueThe contribution of this article is threefold: (1) To the best of authors knowledge, there is no other SLR about HCSCRM published in the scientific literature by the time of realization of authors’ work, suggesting that is the first effort to fulfill this research gap; (2) Following the previous contribution, in this work the authors propose a first formal definition for HCSCRM and (3) The authors analyzed concepts such as clinical engineering and HROs to establish the building blocks of HCSCRM.

When people make judgments of learning (JOLs) after studying paired associates, the process they engage in to monitor their learning can directly enhance learning for some types of material (Soderstrom et al. 2015). The current experiments investigated whether JOLs directly enhance learning educationally relevant texts. Across 5 experiments (N = 703), people read several sections of an educational textbook with or without JOLs embedded between each section. We manipulated whether JOLs queried one’s understanding of the text at the aggregate level (Experiment 1) or for specific concepts in the text (Experiment 2a, 2b, 3, and 4). We also manipulated whether JOLs were framed to afford covert retrieval practice by prompting judgments with either the target information present or absent (Experiment 3). In most cases, instructing students to make JOLs did not improve comprehension above and beyond just reading the text. However, when people were instructed to retrieve information prior to making JOLs (Experiment 4), large learning gains occurred. These results indicate that JOLs in their standard form are unlikely to produce educational benefits to text comprehension in part because learners do not spontaneously retrieve criterial information when making metacomprehension judgments.

Background The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 1 is one of the two examinations written after completion of the first two years (basic science stage) of medical school to be eligible to apply for residency training in the USA. A huge number and types of study materials are available to prepare for the exam which might confuse students choosing a resource. We investigated learning resources being used by the third and fifth-semester medical students and their association with academic performance. We also compared learning resources and exam scores of high-performing and low-performing students. Methods Data collection was done using structured (quantitative study) and semi-structured (qualitative study) questionnaires during a face-to-face interview. This article is about the quantitative part which was designed as a correlational study. Single factor one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation coefficient test, T-test, and Fisher’s exact test were used to analyze the data. Results About half of all students used three or more commercial resources dealing with the same content. A weak negative correlation was observed between the number of commercial resources and the exam scores, especially when the number of these resources was three or more ( r  = -0.26). The mean exam score of textbook users was statistically significantly higher than the mean score of textbook non-users ( p  = 0.01). The usage of textbooks was statistically significantly higher in the cohort of top performers in comparison to the rest of the students ( p  = 0.006). In addition to less usage of textbooks, the mean number of review books was higher in the group of weakest students (2.84 versus 3.7; p  = 0.75). Conclusions Most students did not use professional textbooks and about half used too many commercial review resources. While the former fact was significantly associated with poor academic performance, the later fact had weak negative correlation with exam score. Pedagogical interventions are urgently needed to make the right type of learning resources available by making professional textbooks more USMLE-oriented and helping the students choose the best and right number of resources for optimum academic performance. By fulfilling the observed needs of the students in this way, they might feel empowered because of self-determination which will motivate studies.

This study investigates the effect of incorporating different learning materials (paper textbooks, wearable AR material, and wearable hybrid AR/VR material) in a physics laboratory education on the situational interest, engagement, and learning performance of high school students. The study utilized a quasi-experimental research design. The participants were 105 students, who were assigned to three groups: the traditional learning group, wearable AR group, and wearable hybrid AR/VR group. The instruments included a situational interest scale, an engagement scale, a learning performance test, and an open-ended questionnaire. The results showed that the situational interest and learning performance of the wearable hybrid AR/VR group were significantly higher, compared with that of the traditional learning group. The engagement of the wearable hybrid AR/VR group was significantly higher, compared with that of the other two groups. The wearable hybrid AR/VR material increased situational interest, engagement, and learning performance in the physical laboratory course. This study suggests that instructors can use wearable hybrid AR/VR to enhance situational interest, engagement, and learning performance among learners in science laboratory learning environments.