In the world of education, quality assurance has become a keyword that indicates awareness of the importance of quality in the implementation of both formal and non-formal education. This is evidenced by the issuance of Ministerial Regulation Number 28 of 2016 concerning the Quality Assurance System for Elementary and Secondary Education. This paper was created to understand how the strategies carried out by schools in implementing education quality assurance are based on education planning, implementation and supervision in the framework of realizing quality national education. This research is a case study using a qualitative research approach conducted at SMK Negeri I Agriculture Sukaraja. The results of this study are an overview of the process and results of implementing quality assurance in schools. The implementation of the quality assurance system is carried out in stages, starting from schools up to the local and central government levels. Improving the quality of schools is carried out in a systemic, planned, measurable and sustainable manner. The findings in this study are that there are four stages of quality assurance that must be carried out, namely quality mapping, preparation of quality compliance plans, implementation of quality compliance, and evaluation of the implementation of quality compliance. This study also reveals how stakeholders are involved in implementing quality assurance in schools.

This study investigated the in-service teachers’ attitude towards inclusive education with respect to gender. An adapted version of the Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale (SACIE) (Loreman et al., 2007) and the Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale [CIES] (Sharma & Desai, 2002) were administered to 58 in-service secondary school teachers (33 male and 25 female teachers) from 30 schools in Pakistan. The findings revealed that overall, female secondary school teachers had more negative attitudes towards inclusion than their male counterparts, especially towards students with behaviour management issues. Where students’ needs were more complex, teachers did not favour inclusion of such students in mainstream classes. These findings have implications for teachers and practitioners in the field of inclusive education.

This article aims to demonstrate the importance of intercultural courses for developing intercultural sensitivity among students in schools and universities, and Chen and Starosta’s (2000) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) used to evaluate the course. The results indicated intercultural courses significantly contributed students’ intercultural sensitivity through five categories of ISS. There is an increase in students’ intercultural sensitivity across all ISS categories, including respect for cultural differences, interaction engagement, interaction enjoyment, interaction confidence, and interaction attentiveness. Nonetheless, some studies found only a slight increase in students’ intercultural sensitivity for some indicators of ISS, and a small study found no significant change.

This article examines how social studies teachers from middle schools view the concept and application of professional development. We utilized qualitative data from semi-structured interviews of nine teachers from the State of Tennessee. This article addresses several questions: What are middle school social studies teachers’ perceptions of professional development? What are middle school social studies teachers’ perceptions regarding professional development and its relation to the subject? What are middle school social studies teachers’ perceptions regarding professional development concerning pedagogy? What are teachers’ perceptions of middle school social studies teachers’ professional development and student achievement? The teachers’ responses answers appeared unvarying. Although they mainly considered a one-size-fits-all professional development ineffective, teachers believed content-specific professional development had noticeable benefits if performed correctly. Although teachers recognized that the possible benefits of professional development in tested content areas held benefits, social studies teachers believed professional development should apply to pedagogy and classroom practices. Furthermore, aligning content and state-mandated standards and interpreting student examination data would prove beneficial.

Several studies have investigated how pre-task planning affects L2 writers’ writing performance. However, results remain contradictory and many of the studies that dealt with this area of interest mainly focused on individual writing and less on collaborative writing. It is in this context that the current study examines how collaborative pre-task planning affects the writing performance of English as foreign language (EFL) students. Specifically, we seek to answer the following questions: (1) Is there a significant posttest gain among the group who were exposed to collaborative pre-task planning? (2) Is there a significant difference between the control group and the treatment group who used collaborative pre-task planning? This quasi-experimental study involved 30 intermediate EFL learners, who were enrolled in English classes at a language institute in Iran. They were divided into two groups. Each group was composed of 15 students. Based on the pretests and posttests, results have confirmed the positive effects of collaborative pre-task planning on EFL learners’ writing performance. The improvement in students’ writing performance is attributed to the interaction and meta-talk involved during the collaborative pre-task planning. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The need for inclusive education (IE) is growing dire in mainstream classrooms. Yet, teacher preparedness and confidence to deliver IE in mainstream classrooms remains a critical issue. To highlight this need, document analysis, interviews, and questionnaires were employed for qualitative data-gathering from 9 teachers. Thematic analysis revealed the need for IE in mainstream classrooms, however, teachers require support to implement IE. Bronfenbrenner’s theory expressed the need for interconnectedness and interplay among systems to enhance teacher development and inclusive advancement. The study recommends the DBE cogitate the needs expressed by the teachers to strengthen the provision of IE in mainstream classrooms.

This article examines the politics of curriculum design and evaluation in school settings globally. It examines the role of ideology and dominant meta-narratives of standards and academic achievement culture and its impact on education policy, curriculum design and implementation. The article discusses major models of curriculum design and their impact on teaching and learning in schools It is concluded that standards-driven and outcomes-defined policy changes have impacted on curriculum design and development globally.

This comparative study explores the attitudes of Kosovan children towards foreign languages (FL) and compares the findings with a similar study conducted in Slovenia. The research aims to identify Kosovan children’s motivation for learning languages, the influence of significant others (teachers, parents, peers) on their language attitudes, and their perceptions of the languages they encounter. The focus is on FLs in general rather than a specific language. The research was conducted in various primary schools across Kosova, involving 472 pupils aged 8/9, matching the sample size of the Slovenian study. The methodology includes a survey with two parts: the first part employs the LANGattMini scale (Bratož et al., 2021) to examine FL learning motivation, FL attitudes, and the importance of significant others. The second part utilizes a qualitative approach to explore respondents’ perceptions of FLs. The results reveal that, like their Slovenian counterparts, Kosovan children generally hold positive attitudes towards FLs. However, there are nuanced differences in the interplay between attitudes, motivation, and the influence of significant others, reflecting the distinct cultural and educational contexts of Kosova.

This article is about problems that children may have when learning mathematics, problems that are also typified in publications as ‘dyscalculia’. We consider two questions. The first: Is a child a dyscalculic if it runs into trouble learning mathematics? The second: Does a child have problems when learning mathematics because it experiences dyscalculia? In both cases, we must know what are the troubles that occur when learning mathematics and what it means to ‘experiences dyscalculia’. We consider these questions based on ‘Open Minded Research’ (OMR), especially the theories of ‘realistic mathematics education’ (Freudenthal, 1991) and the cultural-historical theory (Vygotskij, 1978; Leont’ev, 1979). OMR is context-embedded, and the researcher and child are always in discussion about problems that are meaningful to the child. Our approach is not based on a theory of dyscalculia; indeed, there is no accepted definition of dyscalculia (Trott, 1974). We prefer research ‐ like OMR ‐ based on studies and observations of the thinking activities of a child that experiences problems when learning mathematics.Butterworth (2019, 2022), a leading researcher of dyscalculia, claims that dyscalculia is connected with an ‘inherited domain-specific capacity’, called ‘the number module’. He presents research that shows that, when this module fails to work, the result will be a ‘core deficit’ for number reasoning. The question we discuss is whether this low number sense must be considered as ‐ and is connected with ‐ a genetic disorder (a core deficit) in the child’s brain? Or is it an indication that the child needs special ortho-educational support? We prefer the second view as we suppose that there is indeed a connection, but not a causal one, but rather a correlational one. If dyscalculia is a matter of genetics, there is not so much help a teacher can give a child. If, however, a ‘failing number module’ is a signal that the child may experience trouble when learning mathematics, there may be more that can still be done. Children, moreover, are very different in their capacities and they can be endowed with a differentiated intraindividual ability profile (Vaughn & Linan-Thompson, 2003). And sometimes it happens that children are not so good in mathematics, while they are average ‐ or even excellent ‐ in other disciplines. So, a limited, innate talent or potential for mathematics can cause problems. Another difficulty may be that mathematics education at school is particularly ‘practice and drill’ (‘mechanistic’) without stimulating interaction, reflection and meaning. Children’s understanding of the (mathematical) world, however, is strongly connected with their construction of meanings (Walkerdine, 1997). That is why familiar contexts should be the basis of mathematics education, as well as of remediation for children with learning problems. Reflection gives insight into one’s own thinking activity, while interaction and reflection are indispensable sources for helping children with learning problems. Familiar contexts are very suitable for children who suffer ‘mathematics anxiety’ and may have a fear of ‘cold’, abstract numbers.