Department Of Primary Education Research Articles

Prospective Kindergarten and Primary school teachers’ attitudes and beliefs on Differentiated Teaching during their Teaching Practice

The aim of this proposal is the investigation of the beliefs of fourth-year students in the Department of Primary Education and the Department of Pre-School Education at the University of Ioannina – who constitute our research sample – on the issue of the implemented functionality of Differentiated Teaching within the context of Teaching Practice. The structured questionnaire was used as our research tool. The research conclusions showed that future teachers receive adequate training in the theoretical and implemented functionality of differentiated teaching but nevertheless they also revealed the limited use made of differentiated teaching during Teaching Practice and ultimately the adoption of traditional forms of instruction. While the research findings are limited, they constitute a trigger for further investigation of the issue in the teaching departments of our country. This would be especially important since the Curriculum in the Teaching Departments of the Universities, and Teaching Practice too could be reshaped in such a way that future teachers are well prepared to implement the things they were taught during their undergraduate studies.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Views about Teacher Behaviours Observed in the Classroom

The purpose of the study is to explore the opinions of third year pre-service teachers studying in the department of primary education about the teacher behaviours exhibited or observed in the classes or lessons when they were elementary, secondary and high school students. The research has adopted a descriptive approach with 61 third year pre-service teachers, 49 females and 12 males, attending the undergraduate program of primary education at a state university. The data of the study were collected via an interview form consisting of three open-ended questions. In addition, clinical interviews were carried out with five participants selected randomly among the pre-service teachers who volunteered and were available. The responses and explanations of participants written for each open-ended question were examined and they were grouped according to their content, similarities, and affinity. The categorized responses were tabulated in different columns considering the total number of the female and male pre-service teachers who wrote the answers and percentages of the categorized responses to the total responses. Considering the pre-service teachers’ opinions about the teacher behaviours which must not be exhibited in the classrooms, it can be determined that for students classrooms are the environments in which they are not treated respectfully. When the pre-service teachers’ memories related to what they witnessed or observed in the classrooms or lessons during their primary, secondary, and high school years -that is the third question of the study- were examined, there is some evidence supporting/verifying the answers written for the first and second questions. It is recommended in the study that the views stated by the participants should be considered and some of them should be used.

The role of digital stories and civic actions on student-teachers’ understanding about social sustainability in urban settings

The present study aims to explore student-teachers’ (STs’) progress in understanding social urban sustainability and how it is affected through the development of digital stories and engagement in civic actions. Participants were 44 STs enrolled in a Department of Primary Education located in Northern Greece. Although participants were aware of the principles of sustainable development and education for sustainability, none of them had familiarity with social or urban sustainability. Three individual digital concept maps constructed before, intermediate and after the end of the course served as data sources. Both quantitative (significance testing, effect sizes, and confidence intervals) and qualitative (categories development) methods of analysis were implemented. Results indicate a sound improvement of STs’ understanding even in the intermediate concept maps with the most significant proposition gains associated with the society pillar. Moreover, despite the significant improvement in understanding of all main pillars of sustainability, this improvement was unbalanced because a minority of subcategories constituted the majority of STs’ propositions in all settings, indicating a strong and constructive combination between theory and praxis for the advancement of STs’ learning.

Implementation and Evaluation of a Three-Dimensional Virtual Reality Biology Lab versus Conventional Didactic Practices in Lab Experimenting with the Photonic Microscope.

This study presents the integration of three different teaching scenarios, during biology laboratory lessons, with the overall aim of exploring the potential predominant effectiveness of teaching and improvement of students' learning, by the use of the three-dimensional virtual reality educational tool Onlabs, versus more traditional didactic practices. A sample of 83, fourth year, undergraduate students of the Primary Education Department of Patras' University in Greece, were equally separated into three cognitively balanced groups to be educated on the light microscopy experiment by three different educational scenarios. Students' conceptual understanding in the domain of microscopy, was evaluated during all learning procedure with Pre and Post tests, whereas their skill to handle properly a real light microscope in the wet biology lab was summatively assessed via a specially designed work sheet. Results of the present study provide evidence in favor of the virtual reality application. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 48(1):21-27, 2020.

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS IN UKRAINE՚S POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ON ORGANIZATION OF INCLUSIVE SCHOOL EDUCATION

YANKOVYCH Oleksandra – Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Head of Pedagogy and Methods of Primary and Pre-school Education Department, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Maksym Kryvonos Str., 2, Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine; Kujawy and Pomorze University of Bydgoshch, ul. Torunska, 55-57, Bydgoshch, 85-023, Poland E-mail address: yankov@tnpu.edu.ua ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4253-5954 ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/1927393/oleksandra-yankovych/ PRYMAKOVA Vitaliia – Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Education, Psychology and Inclusive Education Department, Kherson Academy of Continuing Education, Pokrysheva Str., 41, Kherson, 73000, Ukraine E-mail address: pran703@gmail.com ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8914-6748 ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/1696005/vitaliia-prymakova/ To cite this article: Yankovych, O., & Prymakova, V. (2019). Preparation of teachers in Ukraine’s postgraduate education institutions on organization of inclusive school education. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy» , 9/41, 77–87. doi: 10.24919/2413-2039.9/41.175702. Article history Received: May 21, 2019 Received in revised form: June 25, 2019 Accepted: July 20, 2019 Available online: September 24, 2019 Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094 e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2019 The Authors. Human studies. Series of «Pedagogy» published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ). The article is devoted to the problem of training teachers in organizing inclusive school education and to the role of Ukrainian postgraduate education institutions in it. The influence of external factors (the socio-economic condition of the country and its health care system, educational concepts and legislative acts, environmental threats) on the development of inclusive education in Ukraine has been demonstrated. The difficulty of introducing the inclusive form of education in the modern educational system of Ukraine has been outlined, consisting particularly in the lack of qualified staff, insufficient material resources for equipping inclusion centres, the imperfect content of education, the lack of clearly defined standards for the assessment of teaching children with disabilities, etc. The structure of teachers’ readiness for the organization of inclusive forms of education has been determined to include motivational-personal, cognitive-operational, and reflexive-evaluative components. A criterion-diagnostic toolkit of teachers’ readiness to work with children with certain peculiarities of their psychophysical development has been substantiated; relevant criteria (personal-value, informational-activity, design-analytical) and level indicators (high, medium, low) have been specified. We have developed and experimentally tested a methodology of teacher training in postgraduate education institutions in organizing inclusive school education. It is presented as an open system consisting of target, content, procedural and effective components and comprises a comprehensive teacher training program for organizing inclusive education. It calls for the formation in teachers of complex knowledge about the organization of inclusive education, the ability to draw up individual programs that would help with correction of a child’s psychophysical development and such analytical skills as analysing, monitoring and further adjusting of their own professional activities in the specified field. Innovative technologies and methods of work have been described. The expediency of the interactive, project and case study methods has been demonstrated. The emphasis is laid on the need for self-education. The efficiency of the experimental methodology has been proved: in the wake of the formative experiment, the number of teachers with an average readiness to organize the inclusive form of education increased from 34.7 % (recorded during the summative experiment) to 61.6 %; the number of persons showing low level readiness decreased from 65.3 % to 36.5 %. This conclusion confirms the necessity of finding new ways of organizing inclusive forms of education as numerous peculiarities of children’s psychophysical development, socioeconomic and medical issues affect the quality of teacher training. Acknowledgments. The authors of the article express their gratitude to Professor A. Zubko, the rector of «Kherson Academy of Continuing Education» in Kherson, for his support of the study. Funding. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Teaching English for Students of Primary School Teacher Education Department

One of the learning models that can be implemented in increasing the students ability in English language is using Problem Based Learning (PBL). Problem Based Learning is a learning model that focuses on giving the solution for students in learning process. PBL provides the chance for students to find their problem and also creating the alternative solution to deal with their problems in English language learning. The aims of this study, by using PBL can increase the students’ ability in mastering English language. The participant of this study chosen from primary school teacher education department (PGSD) faculty of educational sciences, Muhammadiyah University of Jakarta. There several consideration in choosing the department as the object of this study. First, the student of this department lack of interest in joining the English subject, the learning process becomes ineffective. Second, as the future candidate of teacher for elementary school students, they need to concern with the ability of English language. Third, the average ability of students in mastering English is weak. The method used for this study based on qualitative/interpretive paradigm. This method concern on viewing the focus and problems of this study in a comprehensive way. The finding, based on the result of the study it can be shown that the students ability in English language increased as the researcher targeted from the beginning. And the learning process becomes more active after the use of Problem Based Learning. So, it can be concluded that the use of Problem Based Learning (PBL) can increase the students’ ability in mastering English Language.

Inequality in Higher Education in Greece: Through an Era of Crisis

The present study explores factors and conditions that make the process of learning difficult and at times problematic for students in the University, through a period of crisis. The survey was conducted at the Department of Primary Education of the University of Ioannina. First-semester students were given a questionnaire, in order to explore their views concerning the factors that inhibit learning in the University. To collect the survey data, an anonymous questionnaire was used that included 44 open and closed-ended questions. There are six sections on the reasons concerning the difficulty of learning: A. Personal Issues B. Multiplicity of Roles C. Issues of Conditions and Learning Environment D. Issues related to the lessons and the classroom. E. Issues relating to teachers F. Quality of teaching and Frequency of attendance. The findings of the survey showed important evidence regarding the conditions that impede students' learning and attendance, highlighting important issues as: learning environment, classrooms, distance from/to the University, and the financial poverty of the students themselves which affects their daily routine. It is primarily noted that at the time of the crisis we are facing the under-funding of HEIs and this has caused problems. Therefore, the underprivileged and full of disadvantages area of the universities implies poor academic preparation, but also an "unfamiliar" and inappropriate environment of the Institution, which is unable to respond effectively to the needs of students, who are already under financial pressure from their families. These conditions may lead to the well-known situation of students who are "lingering" and probably never acquire their degree, as has been proved by other researchers (The Widening Gap in Higher Education, 1996).

Values and Values Education As Perceived By Primary School Teacher Candidates

In this study which is carried out in the phenomenology pattern, the aim of this course is to determine the opinions of the pre-service teachers about the value concept and values education. In this study, twelve prospective teachers in 4th grade in the department of primary education in a faculty of education were interviewed. The opinions of prospective teachers on values and values education were grouped under two categories as “My Values” and “Values Education”. In the category of “My Values”, prospective teachers included the concept of values and the values that guided their lives within personal and social values. The category of Values Education was examined under the purpose of values education and the path I will follow. While some prospective teachers emphasized that the primary goal in values education should be to raise good citizens, other teacher candidates highlighted the importance of having a good character by focusing on personal values. Prospective teachers thought that active learning methods, modelling, and cooperating with family would be effective in values education.

The Effects of Adaptive Educational Web Environment on Students’ Academic Achievement and Motivation

Bu çalışmanın amacı uyarlanabilir olan, uyarlanabilir olmayan ve yüz yüze öğrenme etkinlikleri ile desteklenmiş uyarlanabilir web temelli öğrenme ortamlarının, öğrencilerin başarıları ve motivasyonları üzerindeki etkilerinin farklı olup olmadığını belirlemektir. Araştırmada iki faktörlü 3x2’lik faktöriyel desen kullanılmıştır. Araştırma deseninin birinci faktörü deneysel işlemleri içeren öğrenme ortamı (uyarlamaların bulunduğu web temelli öğrenme ortamı, uyarlamaların bulunmadığı web temelli öğrenme ortamı ve yüzyüze öğrenme etkinlikleri ile desteklenmiş uyarlamaların olduğu web temelli ortamı), ikinci faktörü ise öntest ve sontest ölçümlerini içeren ve başarının değişimini ortaya koyan tekrarlı ölçümlerdir. Araştırmanın bağımlı değişkenleri başarı ve motivasyondur. Araştırma 2013-2014 öğretim yılı bahar döneminde Sakarya Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Sınıf Öğretmenliği, İlköğretim Matematik Öğretmenliği ve Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği bölümlerinin 2. sınıfında öğrenim görmekte olan ve Temel Bilgi Teknolojisi Kullanımı dersini alan 72 öğrenci ile yürütülmüştür. Elde edilen bulgulara göre yüzyüze öğrenme etkinlikleri ile desteklenmiş uyarlamaların olduğu web temelli ortamdaki başarı anlamlı olarak daha yüksektir. Farklı öğrenme ortamlarındaki öğrencilerin ürünlerinin incelenmesi sonucunda kullanılan ortam türlerinin öğrencilerin rubrik başarı puanlarını etkilemediği ortaya konmuştur. Ayrıca kullanılan öğrenme ortamlarına göre öğrencilerin motivasyonları arasında farklılık olmadığı tespit edilmiştir.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZER CONCEPT ON STUDENTS’ READING SKILL

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of the implementation of the Graphic Organizer Concept on students’ reading skills. The method used for this study is Quasi Experimental Design with Pre-Experimental design type one-group pretest-posttest design. The total subject of this study is 15 of Primary Education Department second semester students. The Data collection techniques were carried out by tests. Test the validity of using Product Moment test while the reliability test uses Alpha, the data analysis technique uses the Kolmogorov-smirnov test with the help of the SPSS for windows program to test normality, and the t-test to test the hypothesis. Based on the research, there is an influence on the application of the Graphic Organizer Concept model, this is evidenced by the normality test results of data analysis obtained by the pretest significance of 0.134 0.05 and the posttest significance of 0.118 0.05. In the hypothesis test used the t-test, the results of the analysis of the t-test obtained t count (27,730) t table (2,131). Because t count t table then Ho is rejected and H1 is accepted. It means that graphic organizer concept affects the ability to read. The conclusion of this study is that the Graphic Organizer Concept learning model influences reading skills.

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

PRYSHLYAK Oksana – Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Foreign Languages Department, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa Str., 2, Ternopil, 46024, UkraineE-mail address: pryshlyak_o@yahoo.com ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3108-502X ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-3895-2019 LUPAK Natalia – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Pedagogy and Methods of Primary and Preschool Education Department, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, Kryvonosa Str., 2, Ternopil, 46024, Ukraine E-mail address: lupak@elr.tnpu.edu.ua ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7868-8771 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/I-7018-2018 To cite this article: Pryshlyak, O., & Lupak, N. (2019). Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy», 8/40, 185–200. doi: 10.24919/2413-2039.8/40.164457. Article history Received: January 12, 2019Received in revised form: February 14, 2019 Accepted: February 18, 2019Available online: April 22, 2019Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2019 The Authors. Human studies. Series of «Pedagogy» published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).Abstract. The article reveals the understanding of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching. Teaching culture in foreign language teaching has remained an unsolved problem for many years. The relevance of the study is to identify the readiness of the English language teachers to implement intercultural competence at English language lessons. Teachers of a foreign language are the first people who introduce pupils to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the world, open the child’s consciousness to the knowledge of other cultural realities, traditions, behavioral models, values, etc. The realities of the modern world prove the importance of forming pupils’ multicultural consciousness, associated not only with countries of the target language, but also with other cultures whose representatives can communicate in the target language. However, the readiness of foreign language teachers to meet the modern challenges of society, which is related to the development of intercultural competence in pupils, has not been sufficiently highlighted in professional pedagogical education. The authors investigated the level of readiness of foreign language teachers for the development of intercultural competence in pupils. Data were collected from 78 foreign language teachers from four regions (Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi region) by means of a questionnaire. Study presented teachers’ understanding of intercultural competence and culture, attitudes to intercultural competence teaching, applications and actual teaching practices in foreign language classroom. The article reveals the attitude of the English language teachers to implementation of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching classroom. Findings revealed two distinct teacher profiles, i.e., the favourably disposed foreign language teacher, who integrate culture into their classroom practices and the unfavourably disposed foreign language teacher, who did not support this practice.Acknowledgements. Sincere thanks to the pedagogical staff of Ternopil National Volodymyr Hnatyuk Pedagogical University, in the person of Prof. Vira Polishchuk.Funding. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Preservice Classroom Teachers' Opinions on Use of Educational Games in Instructions of Primary School Courses

This study aimed to examine preservice classroom teachers’ opinions on how educational games improve their teaching skills. In accordance with this purpose, the qualitative research design was employed. The study group was composed of 60 preservice teachers attending the Department of Primary Education in the Faculty of Education at a state university in the spring term of the 2017/2018 academic year and who took the physical education and game teaching course. A semi-structured, open-ended question form prepared in accordance with the purpose of the research and letters were used as the data collection instruments. Answers of the preservice teachers to the open-ended questions were scanned as images and transferred into digital medium. Next, the obtained data were subjected to a content analysis with the MAXQDA 12 qualitative data analysis software and the data products were analyzed with the “data coding” technique. The data obtained from the preservice teachers with letters were analyzed by both researchers descriptively. The findings achieved in the analysis were utilized to reinforce the findings on themes and codes achieved in the analysis of the data obtained with the semi-structured interview forms. It was concluded that educational games improved the preservice classroom teachers’ competencies of planning and implementing the use of games in the instruction of primary school course attainments. It was also concluded in the study that the participants had been very little aware of educational games’ definition and their contributions to student learning before the application and their awareness increased after the application.

Temel Eğitim Bölümü Öğretmen Adaylarının Farklılıklara Saygı Düzeylerinin Belirlenmesi

One of the most important facts that primary teachers should have is the respect to the differences. Some of these characteristics are shaped during the pre-service training period. The aim of this study is to investigate the pre-service primary teachers’ level of the respect to the differences under the context of some variables. The research is formed with 501 pre-service primary teachers from the primary education department in the education faculty of a state university located in the Eastern Black Sea Region. The research data were collected from the participants in the spring semester, in the 2016-2017 education year using the Respect of Differences Scale developed by Oksuz ve Guven (2012). As a result of these analyzes, while the total scores of the pre-service primary teachers' respect to the differences differ significantly in favor of female students, no difference according to the class level was found. Moreover, it was determined that the meaningful difference on the basis of the program was in favor of the students attending the pre-school teacher program. Finally, the total scores of the respect to the differences differ significantly in favor of social democratic or cultural pluralist participants.

A Study on the Transformative Public Library Usage of the Second Semester Students of STKIP Muhammadiyah Enrekang

This study was aimed at knowing the extent to which the use of the transformative public library of the second semester students of STKIP Muhammadiyah Enrekang. The subjects of the study were the second semester students of STKIP Muhammadiyah Enrekang in primary school teacher education department. The data was collected through interview. The result shows that the students use the transformative public library in three purposes. The first is as a media to do the assignment from the campus. The second is to read interesting books. The third is to participate in a book fair. Yet, there are some students who never use the facilities given by the public library since they never go there.

Формирование поликультурной компетентности студентов началь¬ного отделения

Формирование поликультурной компетентности студентов началь¬ного отделения

Opinions of Prospective Primary School Teachers about Methods and Techniques Suitable for Teaching Science: A Case Study from Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine opinions of a group of prospective Turkish primary school teachers aboutwhat teaching methods and techniques are more suitable to teach science. In addition, their perceived competence inselection of teaching methods and techniques was explored. In Turkey, primary school teachers offer various coursesin the first four years of primary education. Their ability to benefit from teaching methods and techniques suitable forsubjects and courses is considered important in terms of realization of learning. The study was also directed towardsexamining whether third-year university students having taken courses for methods and techniques used to teachdifferent subjects felt competent about selection of suitable methods and techniques.This is a case study using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative data were gathered withPerceived Competence Scale for Selection of Teaching Methods and Techniques for Prospective Teachers,developed by Durdukoca et al. (2017). Qualitative data were collected through an open-ended question “Whatteaching methods and techniques do you think you want to use in the future”. All the participants answered thisopen-ended question and completed the scale. Data obtained through the open ended-question were analyzed withcontent analysis.The study sample included 96 third-year students studying in the Department of Primary Education in BucaEducation Faculty of Dokuz Eylül University in the spring term of the 2017-2018 academic year. Quantitative datawere analyzed with SPSS v. 22 and t-test.The prospective primary school teachers were found to plan to use student-centered methods and techniques and tohave high perceived competence concerning selection of teaching methods and techniques. Their perceivedcompetence did not differ between genders and students with different academic performance. Only having apositive perception of competence significantly differed between branches of students.

Exploring the music: a teaching-learning sequence about sound in authentic settings

ABSTRACTBackground: Research regarding students’ ideas about the nature of sound reveals a variety of conceptions about sound. In order to reconstruct these ideas and explain sound phenomena, researchers’ teaching interventions often make use of everyday-life contexts. However existing research on sound only partially addresses the correlation between the properties of sound and its perceptive characteristics.Purpose: To identify the evolution of students’ conceptions regarding the nature of sound and its properties (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) through a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about sound phenomena in an authentic musical context. The described TLS consists of three activities aiming students to correlate the properties of sound waves (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) with its perceptive characteristics (pitch, loudness and timbre) via the use of smartphone applications.Sample: Eight students, in the second year of their studies in the Department of Primary Education of the XXX University.Design and methods: Students’ perspectives on sound and their progression are investigated through a teaching experiment design. Data are collected by recording students’ interviews. Due to the explorative nature of the research qualitative methods of content analysis are used.Results: The results show that the students’ perspectives on sound evolved, as students managed to consolidate links between their everyday experience of sounds and the underlying science concepts as frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum. The authentic environment and the use of the smartphone’s applications were key factors for the success of the teaching experiment. The interaction with the activities shifted student’s conceptualizations closer to the scientific ones, by communicating every day sound experiences with their scientific interpretation.

English

The aim of this study was to adapt inclusive education teacher efficacy scale in to Turkish population. The Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices (TEIP) scale needed to be translated into Turkish, as no scales were available to evaluate the efficacy of pre-service teachers in inclusive settings. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the TEIP scale (Sharma et al., 2012). The scale was administered to 567 pre-service teachers (167 males and 396 females) studying in the special education, primary education and preschool education departments across four universities. The scale’s internal consistency coefficient was found to be α=0.89 while a confirmatory factor analysis revealed acceptable goodness of fit indices (c2/sd=6.82, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation [RMSEA]=0.10, standardized root mean squared residual [SRMR]=0.05, Normed Fit Index [NFI]=0.95, Non-Normed Fit Index [NNFI]=0.95, Comparative Fit Index [CFI]=0.96), fitting a three factor model, similar to the original version of the scale. The authors concluded that TEIP may be used as a valid and reliable instrument for identifying the self-efficacy of Turkish pre-service teachers regarding inclusive practices. Key words:Teacher efficacy for Inclusive practices (TEIP), inclusive education, self-efficacy, validity, reliability.

Students’ perceptions on the implementation of e-learning: Helpful or unhelpful?

E-learning is an essential part of today’s education. This article reports a design research conducted to develop an e-learning web-based module at the Primary Education Department of Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia. The study employed the Four-D Model of instructional development which consisted of Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate. This article focuses on the Develop stage where the users’ perception was assessed regarding the implementation of the module. A number of 19 third semester students participated in the study. The data was collected using a questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was constructed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which suggested that two factors influencing someone’s acceptance of technology were perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The result showed that the students perceived the e-learning web-based module to be useful in improving their understanding, independence, self-discipline, motivation to learn, and interactions with each other and with the teacher. The students also agreed that the e-learning web-based module was easy to use. This study implies that the inclusion of technology in education at the university is beneficial.

Eğitim Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Epistemolojik İnançlarının Bazı Değişkenlere Göre İncelenmesi


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This study aimed to determine the epistemological
 beliefs of 1004 teacher candidates studying at the Education Faculty, Secondary
 Grade Science and Mathematics Education departments, and the teacher candidates
 attending the Primary Grade Mathematics and Science Education departments and
 to examine whether these epistemological beliefs differ on the basis of gender,
 learning style, academic average, class level and department.  The study made use of the Epistemological Beliefs
 Inventory and the Kolb Learning Styles Questionnaire.  According to the analysis results, there were
 differences seen in dependent variables based on gender.  Also, there was a negative relationship found
 between the learning styles and epistemological beliefs.  The analysis results suggest that the teacher
 candidates mostly possess a strong belief that learning is dependent on effort
 and that they possess a weak belief that there is only one truth that
 epistemological beliefs of the candidates show meaningful differences on the
 basis of each dimension and class levels and that females possess more
 developed beliefs than males.