Different Aspects Of Teaching Research Articles

The Status of Creative Teaching in Medical Classes and Solutions for Its Promotion

Background: Nowadays, creativity is emphasized in different aspects of teaching and learning. Different educational conditions, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), have directed attention to this issue. Objectives: The current study was an attempt to investigate creative teaching behaviors in medical classrooms and propose solutions for its promotion. Methods: This mixed-method study was conducted at the Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (2020 - 2021). It was conducted in two phases, including quantitative (to determine the status quo) and qualitative (to provide solutions for its promotion). In the quantitative phase, 168 students were selected by simple random sampling. The data collection instrument was a standard creative teaching questionnaire. The qualitative phase included semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and parametric tests. Results: The mean scores of creative teachings in higher-grade classes were significantly higher (P = 0.001). The highest mean score was reported for the fourth year (204.6 ± 0.58). The fourth-year students also had the highest mean scores in each component compared to other years. Except for the freedom component, the highest score was related to the third-year students (21.42 ± 0.89). In the qualitative phase, the strategies were classified into two categories: Developing software factors (3 subcategories) and upgrading and developing hardware factors (2 subcategories). Conclusions: According to the current study, a creative class will provide an appropriate environment for fostering creativity in students. Therefore, the use of appropriate instructional designs and motivational models that are compatible with the educational environment can be a suitable strategy.

Aspect-Oriented Lexicon-Based Sentiment Analysis of Students’ Feedback

The evaluation of feedback collected from students at the end of the year is very essential for every educational institution. It is important to improve the teaching–learning process and the annual appraisal process. The existing approach utilizes a Likert scale questionnaire, which allows students to express their level of agreement or disagreement with given statements or provide a neutral response. Additionally, the feedback form includes open-ended questions where students can provide textual feedback. This study introduces a Lexicon-based approach to automatically analyze the textual feedback concerning different aspects of teaching. Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) of student feedback aims to identify sentiments expressed toward various aspects of teachers, such as their ability to address student doubts and their overall knowledge. This study explores linguistic characteristics found in sentences, including negation, modifiers and contact shifters. To assess the sentiment of a sentence, the SentiWordNet lexicon is utilized to assign scores to individual words. Based on these scores, the sentence is categorized as either positive, negative or neutral. According to the experimental findings, the Aspect-Oriented Lexicon-Based (AOLB) approach demonstrates superior performance compared to other baseline methods when it comes to accurately scoring sentiment. The approach achieved a high accuracy rate of 94% for the student feedback dataset-I, 74% for the student feedback dataset-II, 55% for laptop reviews and 59% for restaurant reviews in the SemEval 2014 dataset-III.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on preschool teachers’ identity

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has affected different aspects of teachers’ personal and professional lives, including their teaching skills and their relationships with each other and the children they teach. This study investigated the effects of COVID-19 on preschool teachers’ identity in a city in South East Turkey between September and October 2020. It aimed to understand how the teachers coped with the situation and how they feel about their personal and professional lives in the wake of the pandemic. The study was qualitative and used semi-structured interviews as the data collection method. The participants included 29 preschool teachers (one male and 28 female). Three main themes emerged from the data: emotional bonds, improving professional knowledge and taking on more responsibilities. The findings indicated that the participating teachers faced challenges in establishing emotional bonds with children, and they felt that a vital part of their profession was missing. The findings demonstrate that the teachers considered the pandemic as an opportunity to revise and improve their professional knowledge of child development and their use of technology in teaching.

Examining Intercultural Communicative Competence in Collectivist and Individualistic Efl Teachers

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is an indispensable part of any educational setting and the need for high quality teachers is getting more crucial. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is the capacity to understand one’s own and other cultures and to communicate effectively and appropriately with those of other cultures. Language teachers are required to have an acceptable perception of ICC. Among the personality traits, being collectivist or individualistic is under study to find the possible effect/relationship on different aspects of teachers’ performance in real classes. This study is an attempt to investigate the difference in intercultural competence between collectivist and individualistic Iranian EFL teachers. To this end, the researcher administered Mostafaei’s, Alaei’s and Nosrati’s (2018) ICC questionnaire and Singelis’ et al. (1995) collectivists individualistic questionnaire to collect data from EFL teachers. After two months of data collection, 106 teachers responded to the items of both questionnaires. The data were analyzed through running independent samples t tests to find the difference between collectivists/ individualistic groups of teachers regarding their responses to ICC questionnaire. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between these groups and collectivists teachers had a higher mean in comparison to the mean score of individualistic teachers. Moreover, the results of further analysis showed that there is no significant difference between male and female EFL teachers regarding their responses to the ICC questionnaire. The results can be beneficial for both administrators and teachers.

Editorial

We are pleased to present the June 2023 issue of Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL). In this issue, we bring together six thought-provoking papers that explore critical perspectives and different aspects of teaching and learning in higher education. The first two papers in this issue deal with issues of inequality. The first alludes to the pandemic and the ways in which it has affected students' experiences, while the second looks at the inequalities faced by rural students in higher education as a result of the neglect and undervaluation of their experiences, skills and knowledge within the university environment. The next two papers focus on challenges to teaching and learning in the classroom, the first on learning-centred assessment practices and the second on teachers' reflections on the quality and modes of thinking in writing intensive courses. The final two papers are dedicated to research, with the first focusing on the attributes and dispositions that doctoral students should develop, and the second on the need to rethink reflexivity in the context of medical education research. Let us take a closer look at the key insights offered by each of these papers.

EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections on Different Aspects of Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A Preliminary Qualitative Case Study

This qualitative investigation addresses the following aspects of Saudi pre-service English as a foreign language teachers: their perceptions of and attitudes toward their English proficiency and teaching competence; their teaching approaches; the motivating and deterring factors when choosing a teaching career; the problems they encountered; and suggestions to improve the English teaching profession. Eight participants who registered for a teaching practicum course at the university and met particular grade point average thresholds (from “passable” to “excellent”) were recruited. After the semester, the participants were asked four questions addressing the aspects mentioned earlier. The results indicate that regardless of gender, the higher participants’ grade point average, the more negative their perceptions and attitudes and, therefore, the greater their determination to avoid the profession. This study provides numerous suggestions for researchers on how to address these limitations and expand the investigation of this topic.

Analysis of Approaches to the use of ICT in the Teaching of Mathematics

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an increasingly important role in learning and teaching. The way they are used in specific lessons is influenced by a number of factors, one of the most important of which is the teacher's beliefs about the use of ICT in education. The way teachers think about modern technologies is very important and greatly influences how they use ICT in their teaching. Our paper presents a partial output of research focusing on the influence of teachers' beliefs on the use of ICT in teaching.
 Within the presented research, lessons of several mathematics teachers were recorded longitudinally. The recordings from classes were subsequently coded by a team of researchers and analysed in detail on the basis of Grounded theory. Several different aspects of teaching were observed in the analysis:
 Forms of instruction, Teacher-pupil communication, Pupil activities at the blackboard, Pupil activity on PC or laptop, ICT involvement, Teacher activities, Phenomena in teaching using ICT, Used programs and applications and Testing. The results of this analysis were then compared with how teachers think about the use of ICT and how they characterize their own use of ICT in teaching.
 Even though all the monitored teachers characterized themselves as experienced users of ICT, the way they used technologies in their teaching was very different and often differed greatly from the positions they declared. As part of the paper, we present a comparison of the teaching styles of individual teachers and a comparison of their beliefs and proclamations with the reality that was observed in the lessons. Attention will also be paid to the impact of the actual use of ICT on the overall course of the lesson and the activity of the pupils. The results of the research show that the way in which the teacher's beliefs affect teaching is really crucial.

Content, tools, and surrogates: assessing K-12 teachers’ criteria for interactively searching for digital video

PurposeDigital video is regularly used to supplement instruction in K-12 education. However, more research is needed on how teachers interactively search for video to support their instructional tasks and activities. The purpose of the study is to better understand teachers’ perceptions of their video searches which can help facilitate video needs and interactions with digital tools.Design/methodology/approachBased on an existing image search model, variables were constructed and adapted to reflect the experiences of an interactive video search in an educational context or setting. A survey was then implemented and presented to K-12 teachers to gather perceptions about video searches. Statistical tests were used to examine certain variables that were categorized according to video needs, search tools and video surrogates or representations. The tests included descriptive tests and mean comparisons of variables within the categories to better understand priority among the criteria of teachers when interactively searching for video.FindingsResults produced various statistical differences between variables within each of the categories of video needs, search tools and video surrogates or representations; as a result, certain priorities among the criteria of a video search emerged.Originality/valueOnline resources, particularly digital video, are likely to keep growing in importance for instruction and learning in K-12 settings. This study provides an important step to understanding different aspects of teachers’ criteria and perspectives of the video search process which will help better facilitate fulfillment of information needs.

Сравнительное исследование осведомленности о динамическом оценивании и его практического восприятия в сообществах университетских преподавателей и преподавателей частных институтов, преподающих английский язык как иностранный

The widespread prevalence of dynamic tools to assess English language achievement has led to burgeoning research on exploring different aspects of teachers' beliefs toward Dynamic Assessment (DA). In the educational system of Iran, experts and researchers who have undergone second language education may verify that there is very little, if any, attention given to the perceptions held by instructors and teachers regarding Dynamic Assessment (DA). In an attempt to remedy this gap, the current study aimed to investigate the familiarity with DA of Iranian EFL teachers working in two educational settings (e.g., language institutes and universities). The study also set out to explore the teachers' attitudes toward the practicality of DA in the two settings. To address the research questions, a sequential explanatory mixed methods design was employed. The instruments of this study comprised a questionnaire and an Email interview with 12 ELT assessment experts in order to have their interpretations of the research findings. The results of the t-tests showed no significant difference between the two groups of teachers in terms of their familiarity with DA and their attitudes toward the practicality of DA in the two contexts. In addition, content analysis of the Email interview data revealed that the ELT assessment experts' primary arguments for the insignificant difference between the two groups in terms of the two variables related to the fact that DA has remained at the theoretical level, that there is a lack of teacher training in DA and the strict rules of Iran's educational system which prohibit teachers from applying DA principles and procedures in their classes. The implications of the findings for teacher education, materials development as well as for program administrators, EFL teachers, and learners will be discussed.

The Questionnaire on Teacher Support Adaptivity (QTSA): Reliability and Validity of Student Perceptions

Adaptive teacher support (i.e., support that is tailored to students’ understanding) is considered crucial for students’ learning. Previous research examined support adaptivity mostly in small-scale, observational studies without distinguishing between theory-based facets of support adaptivity. Yet, students’ perceptions of different aspects of teachers’ support adaptivity may be important for students’ academic functioning. We investigated to what extent students perceive theory-based support adaptivity facets. We developed the Questionnaire on Teacher Support Adaptivity (QTSA) measuring students’ perceptions of teacher support adaptivity and examined its reliability and validity in two samples of secondary school students (N study1 = 1682; N study2 = 1048). Overall, the QTSA provided reliable and valid scores of students’ perceptions of teacher support adaptivity at the student and teacher level. One facet (non-adaptive support with much regulation upon high student understanding) should be used with some caution and needs further research. The QTSA scores converged with but also added to other constructs tapping into teachers’ support adaptivity. Students’ support adaptivity perceptions were distinguishable from students’ perceptions of other teaching indicators (agency and autonomy support). The QTSA can provide both individual and class level feedback for practitioners and help researchers to gain more insight into possible differential effectiveness of different adaptivity facets.

Teachers Attitude Towards Inclusive Education in Educational Institutions of Pakistan

The paper provides a useful insight into the dynamics of teacher approaches and attitudes towards inclusive education. It reflects the access and inclusiveness for all educational institutions in Pakistan. The objectives of the research are to analyze the different aspects of teachers’ attitudes, and differences between trained and untrained teachers to improve the knowledge towards inclusive education in secondary educational institutions. Using the quantitative research methodology, the survey tool is used for the collection of data. It unfolded that training of the teachers is a compulsory area that needs attention from the higher education experts. The inclusiveness of teachers is possible with the management and better training processes, those are tested in a quantitative setup. The finding of the study incorporated the lapses in un-trained teachers and that is the major reason for reduced access to inclusive education. It is suggested that teacher training, which is a major aspect of gaining access to inclusive education in Pakistani institutions affect on development and progress of teachers' attitudes.

EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections on Different Aspects of Teaching in Saudi Arabia

EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections on Different Aspects of Teaching in Saudi Arabia

Playing and Reflecting Games: The Production of Gamified Learning Artefacts in Teacher Education

At the University, students played and reflected on different games within a digital course conducted by the teaching study program. In one session students chose and played different games. Guided by questions, they discussed and reflected in groups the potential of games for their own future teaching. Their new found experience was critical for the production of a gamified learning artefact in moodle. The self-evaluation showed that the participants were able to utilize their new set of skills and develop, implement and improve a learning artefact over a self-chosen topic. The following paper describes the didactical approach. We share the results of the students perspectives and learning outcomes towards game based dialogue. Students consider gamification and games as useful for different aspects of teaching.

Tradicionalna narodna kola u nastavi muzičke kulture za mlađi školski uzrast

Traditional folk dances within the subject Music Culture find their application within the teaching area of the subject Performing Music. As teaching content of the subject, they contribute to the preservation of folk tradition and the positive attitude of students towards this area of our people's culture. By choosing teaching methods and approaches, traditional folk dances are also an educational tool for younger students. The paper also gives musical examples of traditional folk dances on the way they are performed. The purpose of this paper is to point out the importance and application of traditional folk dances in teaching Music Culture. The aim of the research is to examine different aspects of teachers' opinions on the application of traditional folk dances within Music Culture. The obtained results indicate positive attitudes of teachers when it comes to the application of traditional folk dances, as well as moderately positive when it comes to importance of traditional folk dances application

Investigating the Existence of Mentoring Support to School’s New-Entrant Substitute Teachers in the Greek Educational Context: The Role of School Leadership

Teacher mentoring is one of the most well-known and widespread methods of personalized guidance and support for school’s new-entrant substitute teachers (Bezzina, 2006; Andrews & Quinn 2005; Moyles, Suschitsky & Chapman,1999; Nemser-Feiman, 1996), providing multiple benefits (Ingersoll, 2003; Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Lambeth, 2012). However, in the Greek context, teacher mentoring as a practice, although it is institutionalized in 2010, has not been yet implemented. For that reason, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether the school’s new-entrant substitute teachers receive mentoring support and guidance, even informally, from their colleagues (peer mentoring) and their principal. Additionally, it explores the role of leadership in mentoring support as described above. A quantitative research approach has been adopted. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 120 school’s new-entrant substitute schoolteachers using the convenience sampling technique. The questionnaires included a Likert-type scale with 51 items measuring different aspects of teachers’ views about their informal peer mentoring support (Huling-Austin & Murphy, 1987) and leadership style of their principal (Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire- Hoy & Clover, 1986). According to the results, the school’s new-entrant substitute teachers seem to receive a small extent informal mentoring support and guidance from their colleagues and principal. However, colleagues provide to a greater extent mentoring support than school principals. In addition, school leadership, especially supportive leadership style is positively correlated with mentoring support.

Evaluation of Educator Self-Efficacy in Informal Science Centers

ABSTRACT There is increasing recognition that significant amounts of science learning take place over the course of one’s lifetime and much of this learning takes place outside of the formal educational settings. This learning is often facilitated by educators in these informal science settings. While much is known about educators in formal classroom settings, the research on informal science educators is nascent. This study aims to add to the literature through a survey of informal science educators’ levels of self-efficacy related to their work. The participants in this study (n = 400) completed a 35-item survey the survey which included 32 Likert scale questions on perceived levels of self-efficacy in different aspects of teaching in an informal science setting. When examining the results, the areas where the respondents felt less than skillful fell in areas related to facilitation and teaching about physical sciences concepts. Identifying areas where informal science educators feel less than skillful can help improve professional development opportunities by tailoring them to cover specific skills.

Teacher professional learning under audit: reconfiguring practice in an age of standards

ABSTRACT One of the key tenets of the global education reform movement, professional standards for teachers have reshaped different aspects of teachers’ work and learning in many contexts internationally over the past two decades. This paper explores the consequences of neoliberalism for teacher professional learning in contemporary times. The policies and processes built up around teacher professional development and learning as a consequence of contemporary regimes of standards and their dominant conceptualisation of teacher professionalism, constitute particular cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that frame the practice of teacher professional learning. These in turn give rise to some possibilities of practice while limiting others, effectively creating the space within which what counts as 'authentic professional learning' can be enacted. A case study of the interplay between professional standards and professional learning in the jurisdiction of New South Wales, Australia, is presented, via an analysis of publicly available texts generated by the NSW Education Standards Authority explicitly related to teacher professional learning and development. The paper argues that the practice architectures of professional learning in an age of standards work to support instrumental forms of professional learning while constraining the possibility of more authentic or generative forms of professional learning and consequently, teacher professionalism.

Triangulation with video observation when studying teachers’ practice

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss methodological issues concerning the use of video observation of a single lesson as a supplement to interviews when studying teachers’ practice and competencies.Design/methodology/approachUsing a Danish follow-up study focused on teachers’ practice as a jumping-off point, the authors address both opportunities and challenges when triangulating interviews with video observations of a single lesson. The discussion is structured around the four challenges when using video observations presented by Derry et al. (2010), namely selection, technology, analysis and ethics.FindingsBased on experiences from the follow-up study, the use of video observations for triangulation has the potential to nuance the meanings ascribed to teachers’ practice. This approach entails productive challenges that can support the more nuanced and diverse perspectives on teachers’ practice if used proactively.Originality/valueAlthough there is a wide body of literature on conducting interviews and observations when studying teachers’ practice, the use of a combination of interviews and video observations is seldom addressed. This paper presents concrete experience of how to capture different aspects of teachers’ practice by triangulating data generated from interviews and from video observations in a research design with limited resources. The authors discuss what to consider when planning and conducting video observations of a single lesson as part of an interview-based study.

A longitudinal approach to understanding course evaluations

Tenure, promotion, and salary decisions are influenced by student ratings of instructors (SRIs) (McKeachie, 1979; Theall & Franklin, 1990; Yao, Weissinger & Grady, 2003). The literature addressing their validity, as a consequence, is voluminous (Marsh, 1987; Seldin, 1997; Silverman, 2001). From one institution of higher education to the next, however, the evaluation instruments take on different formats and address different aspects of teaching and teacher quality. And, from one institution to the next, the degree to which administrators incorporate this information into an overall judgment about teaching quality is often vague at best (Millman & Darling-Hammond, 1990; Scriven, 1995; Theall, Franklin & Ludlow, 1990; Wachtel, 1998).

Editorial

The second 2019 issue of SSLLT brings together six papers, all of which report empirical studies dealing with different aspects of teaching and learning additional languages in various contexts, and it also includes two book reviews. In the first contribution, Alastair Henry combines Hermans’ (2008) concept of the dialogical self with the tenets of complex dynamic systems theories (Hiver & Al-Hoorie, 2016) to investigate the developing professional identity of a preservice teacher of English during the practicum in a school in western Sweden. Using a combination of intra-personal data in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted before and after the practicum as well as inter-personal data in the form of forum postings and a stimulated recall discussion of a lesson taught by the participant, Henry shows that the construction of teacher identity entails interaction between present experiences and the imagined self. In the subsequent paper, Anne Huhtala, Anta Kursiša and Marjo Vesalainen seek to identify the motives driving 51 Finnish university students to learn foreign languages other than English, in this case French, German and Swedish, adopting as a theoretical framework Dörnyei’s (2009) theory of the L2 motivational self-system. Qualitative analysis of the narrative reflections written by the participants revealed that although the initial decisions to engage in language learning may be driven by social pressure, or the ought-to self, in the course of time it is the ideal self and the L2 learning experience that start to play the dominant role.