ASSERTIVE OR NONASSERTIVE; MEASURING THE COMMUNICATION STYLES OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS

Mathematical communication skills are essential for prospective elementary school teachers. However, many problems still occur in prospective elementary school teachers related to their mathematical communication skills. This study aims to describe the mathematical communication skills of prospective elementary school teachers and their level of self-regulated learning. This qualitative research, employing a phenomenological design, aims to explore and identify the mathematical communication skills of prospective elementary school teachers. Forty-eight prospective elementary school teachers participated in this study, and nine were selected for in-depth interviews to understand their mathematical communication skills better. The results showed that prospective elementary school teachers with high self-regulated learning almost met all indicators, prospective teachers with moderate self-regulated learning met three indicators, and prospective teachers with low self-regulated learning met one indicator. All of them were unable to provide mathematical solutions with rational reasons. Several factors cause prospective elementary school teachers not to have good mathematical communication skills, such as 1) lack of knowledge of basic geometry concepts, 2) lack of motivation to learn independently, 3) inability to manage what to learn, and 4) inability to evaluate their mistakes. Based on the research results, not all prospective elementary school teachers possess practical communication skills.

Numeracy skills are the abilities to manage data and numbers to solve problems in various contexts of everyday life. However, numeracy skills of prospective elementary school teachers have not been satisfactory. One of the factors that influence numeracy skills is self-efficacy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate to what extent is the effect of self-efficacy on numeracy skills of prospective elementary school teachers. The type of this study was correlational research. In addition, the research population was prospective teachers in universities throughout Surabaya with a minimum accreditation of B for the bachelor’s programme of elementary school teacher education. Furthermore, the samples were selected using proportional cluster random sampling, resulting in 293 prospective teachers or college students from the bachelor’s programme of elementary school teacher education. Apart from that, the research instruments consisted of a numeration test and a self-efficacy questionnaire developed in a standardised manner. In addition, the applied analysis was a simple linear regression test with r-product moment. The results showed that (1) there was a positive relationship between self-efficacy and numeracy skills of prospective elementary school teachers and (2) the effect of self-efficacy on numeracy was 20.1%. This indicated that 20.1% of the contribution to numeration skills of prospective elementary school teachers is influenced by self-efficacy, while the remaining 79.9% is influenced by other factors not examined in this study. This study provides information on the characteristics and patterns of the relationship between self-efficacy and numeracy skills of elementary school teachers.
 Keywords: Self-efficacy, numeracy skills, prospective elementary school.

Cognitive style refers to an individual’s consistent way of perceiving, organizing, and processing information. For prospective teachers, cognitive styles play a crucial role in shaping learning approaches, teaching strategies, classroom management, and problem-solving abilities. This study aims to explore the cognitive styles of prospective teachers enrolled in teacher education programs, with a focus on identifying dominant orientations such as field-dependent vs. field-independent and analytic vs. holistic. A research study was conducted to know the Cognitive Styles of Prospective Teachers for total population. Descriptive Survey Method was adopted and a sample of 300 teachers drawn from Prospective Teachers was selected following the random sampling technique. Cognitive Style Inventory (CSI) was used. The findings revealed that prospective teachers exhibit a wide range of cognitive styles, with significant proportions showing field-independent/analytic orientations conducive to self-directed learning and problem-solving, while others demonstrated field-dependent/holistic orientations supportive of collaborative and contextual learning. The investigator used appropriate statistical techniques like ’t’ test and F test (ANOVA).

(2021) Volume 2, Issue 4 Cultural Implications of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC Authors: Dr. Unsa Jamshed Amar Jahangir Anbrin Khawaja Abstract: This study is an attempt to highlight the cultural implication of CPEC on Pak-China relations, how it will align two nations culturally, and what steps were taken by the governments of two states to bring the people closer.

The aim of this study was to determine the learning styles of prospective chemistry and science teachers, and to examine the effects of different learning styles on their self-regulated learning skills. The survey method which is one of the quantitative research methods was used in this study. A total of 251 prospective chemistry and science teachers from the Departments of Chemistry and Science Education of three different public universities participated in the study. The Self-Regulated Learning Skills Scale was used to determine the self-regulated learning skills of the prospective teachers, and the ‘Maggie McVay Lynch Learning Style Inventory’ was used to determine the prospective teachers’ learning styles. The results showed that 61.8% of prospective chemistry and science teachers had a visual learning style, followed by a moving or kinaesthetic learning style (19.9%) and an auditory learning style (18.3%). Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was determined in the prospective chemistry and science teachers’ lack of self-directedness scores. Keywords: Learning style, prospective chemistry and science teachers, self-regulated learning

Learning environment enriched with diverse teaching styles can be effective in fostering critical thinking (CT) and achievement goals (AG) for preparing prospective teachers to cope with challenges of twenty-first century. To examine the effect of diverse teaching styles on prospective teachers’ CT and AG; guided discovery, convergent discovery and divergent production styles (Mosston & Ashworth, 2002) were used in teaching of badminton during fourteen weeks. Voluntary participants were forty prospective classroom teachers (treatment group n=20; comparison group n=20) from a Teacher Education Program at a public university in central Turkey. California Critical Thinking Skills Test-Form 2000 (CCTST), The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and Trichotomous Achievement Goal Scale (TAGS) were administered as pre-post test. The results showed that diverse teaching styles had positive effect on CT skills, CT dispositions, AG of performance approach and performance avoidance, but negative effect on mastery AG of prospective teachers

The inclusion of History of Mathematics (HoM) in the official mathematics textbook published by Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture became an essential aspect in supporting the national curriculum of mathematics education.This study aimed to examine Indonesian prospective mathematics teachers' pedagogical attitudes and beliefs in using HoM to teach mathematics.305 prospective teachers from nine universities in Indonesia were involved as the respondents.Data were collected using Questionnaires of Attitude and Belief in using HoM to teach mathematics.The results showed that prospective teachers had positive attitudes and beliefs in using HoM to teach mathematics.However, those who had taken the mathematics history course tent to have a higher score compared to those who had not taken the course yet during their study times.Hence, this study recommends that involving the HoM course is vital in supporting the prospective teachers' learning process as a part of their future professional developments.However, both groups showed low scores in the questionnaire item of self-efficacy beliefs.This implies that teacher education programs should facilitate the improvement of prospective teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and skills, especially of using HoM in teaching mathematics.

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the change in the affective characteristics (attitudes, interests and self-efficacy beliefs) and communication skills of prospective teachers, and to question what these changes are, how they happened and the reason behind them. This study has been designed longitudinally for this purpose. The study group consists of 28 prospective teachers that were educated under 3 different undergraduate programs. 12 of the prospective teachers studied primary mathematics education while 8 of them studied Turkish and 8 of them studied social sciences. The research’s study group was determined by the maximum variation sampling method. The placement scores of prospective teachers were taken as a basis in order to enable maximum variation. Data was collected from prospective teachers by means of scales and semi-structured interview forms. According to the research’s results, prospective teachers started their teaching education with a high level of affective characteristics and communication skills. It was seen that there was a decrease in the attitude and self-efficacy levels, an increase in the communication skills levels and no change in the interest levels of prospective teacher over time. The results show that there was no significant difference between the first and second measure scores from the participant’s measure instruments. However, in the analyses performed individually, it was seen that some prospective teachers had significant changes in their affective characteristics and communicational skills.

Although the use of portfolio in the curriculum of teacher training and evaluation process is a common method, in recent years, it is a new trend in Turkey. The purpose of this study is to display the effectiveness of portfolio implementations and evaluations on the improvement of the teaching skills of prospective preschool teachers and set forth an approach on using portfolio not only as an assessment tool based on constructivist approach but also as a teaching tool in the process of science and math education in preschool education. In this study, collaborative action research is applied with a group of volunteer preschool teachers who worked with a university professor and staff development officer. The document examination and observation methods of qualitative research were employed in this study. The study was conducted with second grade prospective preschool teachers (n=49). For this study, prospective teachers were asked to design two original experiments and materials for science and math education for children at the age of 4-6, to perform these experiments by them and children in a period of 14 weeks; and to perform these experiments at home and kindergarten in compliance with the target achievements. The experiments designed by prospective teachers were discussed with other prospective teachers in terms of being safe, economic and practicable. The experiments were performed by prospective teachers for two times; first at home and kindergarten, then at science classes. After the process of experiments and the applications of materials, the feedback obtained from children were re-evaluated by prospective teachers. Finally, the prospective teachers were asked to prepare portfolio involving their self-assessment regarding each step of the implementation process. As a result of this study, under the lights of portfolio implementations and evaluations, the improvement of the teaching skills of the preschool teachers was observed in terms of being reflective practitioners, making progress on school wide priorities and building professional culture. Finally, an approach was set forth towards the use of portfolio in the process of teacher training which paves the way for the usability of cognitive life skills at the highest level for teachers and suggestions were made.

Introduction: The concept of empathy has been described in many ways by researchers. According to some, it is the basic cognitive function or ability of being aware of others’ thoughts and feelings. Empathy refers to being able to respond to emotions, sharing the feelings of individuals, and reflecting them as if in a mirror. It also helps to establish good relationships with people, to understand them, and share their feelings. The use of empathy in the classroom, especially in life skills courses help students to make connections between school and everyday life. Methods: This study aimed to investigate how an empathy-based education programme implemented in the life skills teaching course affected the empathy skills of prospective classroom teachers in Turkey. For this purpose, using a mixed-methods research design, the participant prospective classroom teachers received empathy-based education programme 12 class hours. The data collection tools used in the study were the Empathy Quotient Scale, document analysis and open-ended questionnaire. The study was conducted with 64 prospective classroom teachers attending at Istanbul University, Turkey. The dependent t-test was employed to analyze the quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. Results: As a result, it was seen that the qualitative data supported the quantitative data. According to the quantitative data, after receiving empathy-based education programme, the students developed the skills of empathy. According to the qualitative data, it was determined that prospective teachers understood the importance of empathy and put themselves in the place of others. In addition, the prospective teachers considered that empathy would have several positive contributions to their future primary school students. It is thought that the results obtained from this study will guide teaching practices involving empathy-based activities. Discussion: According to the findings obtained from the quantitative data, the empathy-based education programme provided for the prospective teachers caused a significant increase in their empathy levels. Similarly, in a study who applied a critical thinking programme and empathic tendency scale to prospective teachers, reported a positive correlation between critical thinking and empathic tendency at a low-level significance. According to the findings obtained from the qualitative data, the topics chosen for the preparation of empathy-based activities were mostly from the life skills subjects of the first grade of primary school, followed by second and third grades. This may be because the prospective teachers considered it appropriate to perform empathy-based activities with children from the earliest age. Furthermore, a higher number of participants chose to prepare written empathy-based activities, followed by drawing and photography, which might be attributed to their belief that they could better express themselves through writing, rather than drawing or taking/showing pictures. Limitations: The study group covered in the third year of the classroom teaching programme in the selected university only. Although the empathy-based education programme prepared by the researcher was implemented with the prospective teachers as part of the life skills teaching course in 10 class hours. Conclusions: In conclusion, empathy is considered to be very important especially in the education of children of young age. As revealed by the review of literature, empathy skills also affect many positive elements. For this reason and considering that the available research in the literature is based either on quantitative or on qualitative data, more mixed-design studies are needed to investigate the effects of similar empathy-based education programmes integrated into life skills and social studies courses. In addition, it is as important to conduct empathy-based activities in other courses of the primary and middle school as in life skills and social studies courses. It is also suggested that empathy-based education should also be provided for teacher candidates enrolled in science teaching programmes, as well as those in social studies.

Does studying about the nature(s) of science contribute to a prospective teachers' effectiveness as a science teacher? This research grew out of a course created by a science educator and historian of science who believed prospective teachers needed more complex understandings of the cultural wars surrounding science. The research team consisted of five prospective teachers who participated in the course as well as the two instructors. This paper describes the experience of participating in the course from both perspectives. We argue that studying the cultural wars over science contributes to prospective teachers' professional growth as much because the course elicits tacit beliefs about school science as it introduces more complex understandings of science. We found that prospective teachers' tacit beliefs about school science were their greatest barrier to developing more complex understandings about the nature(s) of science. We contend that willingness to grapple with complexity and developing a professional identity by locating oneself in the conversations about the nature(s) of science are better criteria for determining the professional growth of prospective teachers than knowledge measures. Finally, we argue that prospective teachers should be viewed as professionals who are responsible for finding their own voice, making their own decisions, and considering the consequences of their beliefs on their practice. This study raises questions critical to teacher education programs for prospective teachers and teacher-educators alike. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 895–915, 2000

This study aims to identify the essential soft skills for prospective foreign language teachers and determine which skills should be prioritized in their training. Through an extensive review of existing research and a thorough document analysis, 11 key soft skills were identified for teacher education: motivation, empathy, problem-solving abilities, stress management, presentation skills, organizational and planning skills, communication skills, teamwork, creativity, professional resilience, and time management. To understand which skills prospective foreign language teachers consider most important, focus group discussions were held with students from teacher training programs in Turkey and Germany. These sessions underscored the particular importance of empathy, communication, stress management, and motivation as the most valued skills for successful teaching. This research underscores the relevance of all identified soft skills for foreign language teacher training, emphasizing communication, empathy, stress management, and motivation. Embedding these skills in teacher education programs will not only support teachers' professional growth but also enhance the foreign language learning experience for students.

The aim of this research is to analyze the Social Studies Teacher Education Program (SSTEP) and determine the problems encountered in practice according to the views of teacher educators and prospective teachers at Ankara University, Faculty of Educational Sciences. Two study groups of participants were included in this study. Ten prospective social studies teachers in their last year of matriculation constituted the first study group. The second group consisted of teacher educators lecturing in SSTEP. All participants voluntarily expressed their views on the official and operational curriculum. A focus group interview with prospective teachers and semi-structured interviews with teacher educators provided the data. Data collected from both study groups were analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. Results showed that some changes were necessary concerning the sequence of some courses per semester and the theory-practice balance of the courses in the program. Furthermore, some courses should be removed from the program and some new courses should be added. As for teacher educators’ and prospective teachers’ views on operational curriculum, it is emphasized that there are some problems related with physical conditions, teacher educators, learning-teaching processes, evaluation of teacher educators, student profiles, teaching practices, and a lack of some units. Results are thought to be significant in terms of contributing to the development of teacher education programs. KEYWORDS: social studies teaching, teacher education program, prospective teacher. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/atee.v1i0.661

This qualitative research article investigates the impact of lesson planning on the professional skills of prospective teachers at the University of Narowal. Lesson planning is a critical component of effective teaching, and it usually influences the effectiveness of teacher training programs. The study employs qualitative research methods, including interviews and focus group discussions, to explore the perspectives and experiences of prospective teachers regarding the influence of lesson planning on their professional skill development. The study involves sixteen prospective teachers enrolled in teacher education programs in the 3rd and 8th semesters at the University of Narowal. As a sample of the study, these prospective teachers were selected by using a purposive sampling technique. The findings stated that lesson planning may play a key in teaching skill development and professional growth and make teaching and learning more effective during a planned class.

Science learning can be integrated with local culture in the form of learning models. This study aimed to analyze the contribution of the local wisdom integrated science (LWIS) learning model in practicing scientific communication skills of prospective science teachers in Ecology learning. This study used a quasi-experimental of posttest only control design and purposive sampling technique from prospective science teachers at Trunojoyo University, Madura. The research instrument was a test of scientific communication skills, observations of the implementation of the LWIS learning model, questionnaire and interview responses of prospective science teachers to ecological learning using the LWIS learning model. Data analysis techniques used the t-test significance level of 5%. The results showed that (1) there were differences in the scientific communication skills of prospective science teachers after using the LWIS learning model of significance of 0.014 < 0.05 and - t count < t table < t count (-2.528 < 1.9996 < 2.528), (2) scientific communication skills in the experimental class by 94.87% (high) > control class by 88.03% (high), (3) implementation of the LWIS learning model obtained an average value of 100% (very good), and (4) the response of prospective science teachers obtained an average value of 89.40% (very good) for the experimental class and the prospective science teacher said that the learning model was new, easy to use, developed scientific communication skills. Thus it can be concluded that the LWIS learning model contributes positively in training the scientific communication skills of prospective science teachers in Ecology learning.