Overview of the projects currently being undertaken by the Research Unit at the DRLLE

Studies into Children’s Wellbeing and Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC)

The Ministry for Education and Sport and the Ministry for Health are conducting 2 national studies about children’s wellbeing, namely the Children’s Wellbeing Study and the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children. The latter is a World Health Organization collaborative cross-national study that collects data from 11, 13 and 15 year old children every 4 years. The 2 studies are being conducted together because of the common topic.

The project aims to:

Gain insight into our children’s health and wellbeing, comprehend important determinants of health, and inform policy and practice to better the lives of young people. 

Data Collection:

This study is being conducted at middle and secondary state, church, and independent schools, each child is being provided a tablet to complete an 80-minute anonymous questionnaire in Maltese or in English.

 

Project timeframe: January – March 2022

CITO: CheckIn TakeOff

CITO is one of the projects under the ERASMUS+ EU Policy experimentation in the fields of Education and Training led by high-level public authorities in Malta, Ireland and Norway.​

This project aim is:

To develop a SkillsChecker tool that enables a person to independently carry out an initial assessment of their literacy, numeracy and digital skills. This will orientate them to their options regarding a flexible learning opportunity as well as recognising their prior skills while providing further pathways. More specifically, the SkillsChecker is aimed at empowering the learner to explore a learner centred approach to lifelong learning. CITO’s solution is to have an effective and independent assessment of one’s own skills.

Project timeframe: September 2020 – February 2022

 

BMI Study: Prevalence of overweight and obese children attending kindergarten year K2 to year 11, in Malta

The Department for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability within the Ministry for Education and Employment is working together with the Superintendence of Public Health, to implement Budget Measure 191/2020 and supplementary Budget Measure 033/2020.

 

The aim of these two budget initiatives are:​

1. To measure the prevalence of overweight and obesity among students attending Kindergarten 2 to Year 11.
   
2. To identify the rate of overweight and obesity in children residing in the Maltese Islands.
3. To identify any associations with lifestyle patterns.

Project timeframe: January 2020 – December 2022

Migrant Students in the State School Sector: A Study of Experiences, Impact, Issues and Challenges

The Ministry for Education and Employment, through the Directorate for the Curriculum, Life Long Learning and Employability, is currently conducting a project on migrant students in the State school sector.

The aims of this project are:

1. To provide a scientific, empirically-based exploration of the impact of migrant students in primary and secondary schools.
   
2. To shed light on the experiences of migrant students in Malta and feed in to policy recommendations.
   
3. To highlight good practices and raise awareness of the needs of this student cohort
4. To seek to map out the experiences, impact, issues, opinions and concerns of migrant students and their parents/guardians, Maltese students and their parents/guardians, teachers of migrant students and SMTs.

This project consists of a number of focus groups and a questionnaire with the above mentioned stakeholders. This project is being undertaken under the guidance of Prof. Mark Borg.

Timeframe: 2019/20: Focus groups with Maltese and non-Maltese students their parents, teachers and with the senior management team.​​

Research and Policy Documentation Centre (RPDC)

The setup of a Research and Policy Documentation Centre (RPDC) as a data and documentation archive for Ministry for Education and Employment staff.

The aim of the RPDC is:

1. To contribute to the development of evidence-based policy and practice through facilitating the exchange of information, related to the remit of the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE), in a reliable and timely manner.