Elementary Course Research Articles

Interpreting Teaching STEM Education to Pre-service Elementary Teachers Through Online Course

Insufficient comprehension of integrated STEM learning has become one of the main difficulties for teachers in implementing STEM lessons at school due to lack of integrative STEM curriculum in teachers’ education programs. Therefore, the Elementary Teacher Education Program Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Purwakarta offers STEM Education for Elementary course as an optional course to support 21st-century education at the elementary school level. However, due to the continued Covid-19 pandemic, during the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021, all courses in our program were entirely carried out online. Through the descriptive analysis method, this paper details how the 16-weeks course was enacted online with a varied delivery form. Forty-two pre-service teachers enrolled in the course. Data on the course implementation were gathered in the form of video recordings of the lesson, while students’ perception of the course delivery was captured through a course evaluation questionnaire. Results imply that the course includes a theoretical and practical session with teaching simulations and engineering challenges to model STEM teaching and learning to develop pre-service teacher’s STEM pedagogical and content knowledge. In addition, course evaluation suggests that after enrolling in the course, the pre-service teacher has positive perceptions of the course delivery. Keywords: STEM education, pre-service elementary teachers, online course

Case Analysis of the Application of Immersion Teaching Method in International Comprehensive Chinese Elementary Courses: Taking Food Culture Teaching as an Example

For an international student in China, learning Chinese is ultimately about being able to use it flexibly. In recent years, immersion teaching methods have received a lot of attention in international Chinese teaching. The immersion teaching method can provide a new teaching method for Chinese teaching and can effectively improve students' Chinese application ability. This article analyzes the application cases of immersion teaching method in the teaching of intermediate Chinese comprehensive courses from the aspects of Chinese teaching results and cultural teaching results, hoping to provide some thoughts for international Chinese educators.

Foundations for English for specific purposes: improving student’s vocabulary

The article deals with the problem of development of lexical skills at the lessons of English language and it gives an overview of the experience of teaching General English course as a foundation English course for specific purposes to the first-year Elementary level students of International Information Technology University (IITU). This academic year, there were about 778 students who were enrolled to the General English Elementary course. Students of IITU have to study General English and Academic English courses before studying “English for Specific Purposes” courses in order to improve their levels of English. As we know, the purpose of English language teaching is the ability to communicate. In this process, learning vocabulary plays a vital role in all language skills. Learners cannot understand others or express their own ideas without enough vocabulary. Accordingly, we will outline some activities, tools for teaching vocabulary in this work. The article encompasses the activities for improving the vocabulary of learners. The activities were used in teaching English language to the first-year Elementary level students at International Information Technology University, Almaty. Forty students studied online for four weeks. They studied online using Microsoft Teams, Moodle and other platforms. Students worked with different textbooks which were listed in the syllabus. The aim of this article is to focus on improving students’ vocabulary skill and analyzing what results have been achieved in four weeks. For this purpose, every week students had to work with new vocabulary topics which were indicated in the academic program. As a result, most students have achieved the aim of the syllabus and students were able to recognize familiar words, interpret and understand authentic oral speech on the studied topics and express their opinion on them

A Comparative Study on Programming Education——Based on China and America

In the past decade, the academia of education and computer science has regarded programming as a core competence of K-12 students. China's K-12 programming education market was launched in 2013. By 2017, the entire K-12 programming education market ushered in a period of the explosion, many of China's original K-12 programming education platforms emerged. Still, its development speed lags behind many countries led by the United States. The lack of literature on comparing K-12 programming education between China and the United States can be distinguished as a research gap in this field. It is necessary to conduct a comparative study because it can help promote a thorough understanding of their development status. The research paper mainly adopts composite methods of quantitative bibliometrics and qualitative interview to fill in this gap together with market research. The results of bibliometrics show the two developing paradigms of programming education, the research focus on computational thinking, and the trend topics of K-12 programming education among academia. Based on our Chinese market research, the teaching mode of K-12 programming education are online, offline, and blended learning. When it comes to course contents and their corresponding orientation, the elementary courses are formative education, the middle-level lessons are algorithm-oriented, and the hardest are the creative ones designed for computer competitions. Besides, most programming education curriculum starts from visual lessons and adds game elements. Through interviews with relevant professionals and teachers in China and the United States, we learned their views on programming platforms, evaluation criteria, computational thinking, and the development trend of K-12 programming education.

Six textbook mistakes in data analysis

This article discusses a number of incorrect statements appearing in textbooks on data analysis, machine learning or computational methods; the common theme in all these cases is the relevance and application of statistics to the study of scientific or engineering data; these mistakes are also quite prevalent in the research literature. Crucially, we do not address errors made by an individual author, focusing instead on mistakes that are widespread in the introductory literature. After some background on frequentist and Bayesian linear regression, we turn to our six paradigmatic cases, providing in each instance a specific example of the textbook mistake, pointers to the specialist literature where the topic is handled properly, along with a correction that summarizes the salient points. The mistakes (and corrections) are broadly relevant to any technical setting where statistical techniques are used to draw practical conclusions, ranging from topics introduced in an elementary course on experimental measurements all the way to more involved approaches to regression.

Curriculum Pre-training Heterogeneous Subgraph Transformer for Top- N Recommendation

To characterize complex and heterogeneous side information in recommender systems, the heterogeneous information network (HIN) has shown superior performance and attracted much research attention. In HIN, the rich entities, relations, and paths can be utilized to model the correlations of users and items; such a task setting is often called HIN-based recommendation . Although HIN provides a general approach to modeling rich side information, it lacks special consideration on the goal of the recommendation task. The aggregated context from the heterogeneous graph is likely to incorporate irrelevant information, and the learned representations are not specifically optimized according to the recommendation task. Therefore, there is a need to rethink how to leverage the useful information from HIN to accomplish the recommendation task. To address the above issues, we propose a Curriculum pre-training based HEterogeneous Subgraph Transformer (called CHEST ) with new data characterization , representation model, and learning algorithm . Specifically, we consider extracting useful information from HIN to compose the interaction-specific heterogeneous subgraph, containing highly relevant context information for recommendation. Then, we capture the rich semantics (e.g., graph structure and path semantics) within the subgraph via a heterogeneous subgraph Transformer, where we encode the subgraph into multi-slot sequence representations. Besides, we design a curriculum pre-training strategy to provide an elementary-to-advanced learning process. The elementary course focuses on capturing local context information within the subgraph, and the advanced course aims to learn global context information. In this way, we gradually capture useful semantic information from HIN for modeling user-item interactions. Extensive experiments conducted on four real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method over a number of competitive baselines, especially when only limited training data is available.

A.B. Sossinsky: Knots, Links and Their Invariants: An Elementary Course in Contemporary Knot Theory

A.B. Sossinsky: Knots, Links and Their Invariants: An Elementary Course in Contemporary Knot Theory

Myths and Realities of the Salt Lake Temple Foundation

Myths and Realities of the Salt Lake Temple Foundation

Examining the usability and viability of using a simulated classroom environment to prepare preservice science teachers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Educator preparation programs experienced extreme challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many universities and K-12 schools moved to fully online or hybrid instructional models. These abrupt changes significantly limited preservice teachers’ opportunities to engage in classroom-based practice teaching experiences, which are a bedrock of educator preparation programs to support preservice teachers in learning how to teach effectively. In this study, we examined the usability and viability of integrating simulated teaching experiences, which occur in an online, virtual classroom environment consisting of five student avatars, into elementary science method courses during the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare preservice science teachers to engage in one critical science teaching practice: facilitating discussions that engage students in scientific argumentation. This study uses qualitative content analysis of survey data and a focus group interview to identify patterns and themes in how four elementary science teacher educators and 49 of their preservice teachers perceived the use of this tool within elementary science teacher education, particularly the opportunities and challenges this tool afforded during the pandemic and possibilities for use in the post-COVID era. Study findings suggest that these elementary science teacher educators and preservice teachers perceived the simulated teaching experience as valuable for supporting teacher learning, addressing COVID-related challenges, and tackling perennial challenges in science teacher education. They also noted challenges related to implementation and concerns with future access. A discussion of key factors that may support and hinder the use of such tools within elementary science teacher education and implications for leveraging lessons learned post-COVID are included.

Is The Natural Order of Morpheme Acquisition Being Appropriately Presented In English Language Teaching Course Books?

This study sought to determine the sequence of L2 morpheme presentation, as well as to determine whether or not the sequence of morpheme presentations correspond with the recognized natural order of morpheme acquisition in English Language Teaching course books utilized with young adult learners at a public sector vocational education institution in Thailand. Qualitative analysis was employed in the scrutinizing of twelve beginner and elementary level ESL and EFL learners course books that have been utilized as the primary teaching material for over a decade by the general education department of the institute. This examination revealed that the morpheme presentation sequence within the selected ELT course books was not analogous with the conclusions in the supporting literature. The findings further indicated that the widely accepted viewpoint of natural order morpheme acquisition was likewise not substantially reflected within the analyzed texts. Albeit, earlier studies have found that an unnatural sequence of morpheme presentation in EFL course books may hamper communicative competence in English, further study is required to establish if this may be a contributing factor for the overall low English proficiency of adult L2 learners in Thailand.

Is The Natural Order of Morpheme Acquisition Being Appropriately Presented In English Language Teaching Course Books?

This study sought to determine the sequence of L2 morpheme presentation, as well as to determine whether or not the sequence of morpheme presentations correspond with the recognized natural order of morpheme acquisition in English Language Teaching course books utilized with young adult learners at a public sector vocational education institution in Thailand. Qualitative analysis was employed in the scrutinizing of twelve beginner and elementary level ESL and EFL learners course books that have been utilized as the primary teaching material for over a decade by the general education department of the institute. This examination revealed that the morpheme presentation sequence within the selected ELT course books was not analogous with the conclusions in the supporting literature. The findings further indicated that the widely accepted viewpoint of natural order morpheme acquisition was likewise not substantially reflected within the analyzed texts. Albeit, earlier studies have found that an unnatural sequence of morpheme presentation in EFL course books may hamper communicative competence in English, further study is required to establish if this may be a contributing factor for the overall low English proficiency of adult L2 learners in Thailand.

Preservice elementary teachers’ explanations of properties of sound using a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

ABSTRACT Background Understanding the properties of sound is difficult for students across all grade levels and even preservice elementary teachers (PSETs). Because of their abstract nature, there are challenges interpreting common features of sound waves. Purpose The goal of this study is to understand pre-service elementary teachers’ (PSETs) understanding of the properties of sound waves, specifically frequency, wavelength, and amplitude. Sample We had 59 PSETs from an elementary methods science course learn about the properties of sound in small groups through a Web-based interface. Design and Methods After they used a simulation model of an oscilloscope, we analyzed PSETs’ responses to three prompts assessing their understanding of the relationships among frequency, wavelength, and amplitude. They were asked to construct explanations for the changing frequency in an oscilloscope, how adding water to a container changes the pitch of sound and how the frequency changes in a water-based xylophone. We used the Knowledge Integration (KI) framework to understand how PSETs reasoned through properties of sound waves. Results Our findings delineated three levels of explainers that PSET groups divided into. After the unit PSETs’ overall understanding of sound waves became more normative, particularly around ideas of frequency and wavelength. Conclusions The merging of science and technology played a crucial role in promoting meaningful learning for PSETs. Implications of using technology-enhanced units in supporting PSETs’ understanding of sound waves are discussed.

Effect of direct and indirect corrective feedback on Iranian EFL writers’ short and long term retention of subject-verb agreement

Investigations have been too limited and inconclusive to find out whether written corrective feedback improves grammatical accuracy of learners. This study aimed at investigating the comparative effects of direct and indirect corrective feedback on short-term and long-term retention of the subject-verb agreement by Iranian EFL writers. The design of the study was a two group pre-post-test quasi-experimental one. The Participants were 45 male and female learners at the age range of 14 to 16. Their L1 was Turkmen and they were all taking an elementary course at a language school in Gonbad Kavoos, Iran. The participants were assigned to two experimental groups i.e. direct and indirect feedback groups, and one control group. To collect data, a pretest, post-test and a delayed post-test were given to all the groups. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that the types of corrective feedback did not have a significant positive effect on the participants’ short-term and long-term retention of subject-verb agreement. Besides, Scheffe post hoc test showed that there was a significant decline in grammatical accuracy of the indirect feedback group in the delayed posttest. The results have some implications for teaching writing in the EFL context.

FEATURES OF FUTURE ENGINEERS’ FUNDAMENTAL TRAINING IN CRISIS CONDITIONS

The article reveals the features and the role of future engineers’ fundamental training, in particular, in crisis conditions. The importance of the fundamental component in engineering training and the didactic purpose of future engineers’ mathematical training have been considered. The peculiarities of future engineers’ fundamental training in the conditions of online learning and mixed format have been revealed. The main trends of engineering education in pedagogical theory have been highlighted. The article considers future engineers’ fundamental training, in particular in mathematics, as the basis for their system thinking formation. Linear and non-linear systems of formation of future engineers’ system thinking have been highlighted. The linear system has been singled out against the background of the established educational process of future specialists’ training; non-linear – in crisis conditions which are characterized by instability, uncertainty and chaos. A nonlinear model of formation of future engineers’ system thinking in the aspect of student’s fundamental training has been generated. The experimental part of the study was carried out on the basis of the sample data formalization on the stage of transformation of students' mathematical knowledge – from the elementary course of mathematics to higher education. As a compensation and preservation of mathematical knowledge, it has been proposed to conduct adaptation courses in elementary mathematics, which enable continuity and consistency in assimilation of mathematical knowledge, and therefore contribute to increasing efficiency in formation of future engineers’ system thinking.

Study of aspects and factors for qualitative-descriptive assessment for multi-base classes I elementary school Perspective of aims and approaches

Background and Purpose: In response to the negative consequences of the traditional evaluation system and its reform, the Supreme Council of Education has replaced older methods with descriptive evaluation. Despite the good reception of this method, like any other innovation, it has faced challenges and criticism. Therefore, the purpose of the present study, is to study aspects and factors of qualitative -descriptive evaluation for multi-base elementary course from perspective of aims and approaches. Methods: Study method is qualitative approach and theoretical method for new risen data base. Participants were educational development assessment specialists, educational science specialists, curriculum and educational psychologist from all universities of the country and also staff managers of ministry of education in elementary education (whom had at least three indicated works in area of assessment, teaching in multi-base classes). considering the nature of this subject, theoretical targeted sampling was used. For analyzing data base of new risen approach in this study, open, theoretical and selective coding were used in this order. Results: results show that qualitative-descriptive evaluation must be process oriented with structuralism approach and be spread on multi-bases of student’s life as in all aspects, areas and dimensions. Conclusion: reporting structure to be qualitative and cause mental health growth and evade competitive environment and the multi-level final exams should be changed to multi-participatory exams.

Реалізація змістової лінії «Досліджуємо мовні явища» у процесі роботи з фразеологізмами в початковій школі

The article highlights the essence and implementation of the content line «Exploring language phenomena» in the terms of working with phrasal expressions in the lessons of Ukrainian language and reading and defines its place in modern linguistic and methodological research. The relevance of its implementation in the educational process of primary school is substantiated. In particular, emphasis was placed on shifting the priorities from the passive acquisition of knowledge by students to mastering it in the process of research activity. This activity is provided by the semantic line «Exploring language phenomena» in the elementary course of language and literature education. The authors of the article analyze the current educational programs and textbooks on the Ukrainian language and reading for elementary school, compiled in accordance with the typical educational program developed under the guidance of A. Y. Savchenko. They demonstrate the exercises that are the basis for phraseological work and illustrate the implementation of the content line «Exploring language phenomena», aimed at practical mastery of phraseology during observation, analysis, comparison, generalization, etc. A survey of teachers-practitioners on the implementation of this content line and a questionnaire of the 4th grade students allowed the authors to discover the skills and abilities needed to explore phraseological expressions. It was found that the methodology of teaching the Ukrainian language covers the aspects for implementation the content line «Exploring language phenomena» insufficiently. Primary school teachers need methodological recommendations for the implementation of this content line in the process of teaching primary school students. It is noted that the development of studentsʼ skills and abilities to study phraseology requires consistent, systematic, and purposeful lesson work, which will expand students' knowledge of the language, enrich their vocabulary, activate logical thinking, increase cognitive activity and arouse students’ interest in phraseological material. It is important to combine the study of stable word combinations of the Ukrainian language with the history and culture of the Ukrainian people, their everyday life and work activities. Keywords: linguistic and literary branch, semantic lines, phraseology, phraseological knowledge, skills, cognitive activity, mental operations.

FORMATION OF COMMUNICATIVE AND SPEECH COMPETENCE OF STUDENTS DURING THE STUDY OF THE DISCIPLINE “UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE (FOR PROFESSIONAL DIRECTION)

The article examines the problem of forming the speech competence of students during the study of the discipline «Ukrainian language according to (professional) direction»; the problem of the relationship between the language and the speech culture of future primary school teachers and educators of secondary schools is analyzed. The relevance of the study of the speech culture of specialists in this field is substantiated, because a specialist with a high level of intelligence is the highest value of every country, as it acts as a driving force in its creation and development. Today is characterized by the specifics of language use and, accordingly, certain conditions of its functioning. Therefore, there is a need to study language as a means of communication in the process of professional training, its use in various professional and industrial situations; speech culture in the educational sphere; at work and everyday life. The education of a linguistic personality and the implementation of the above-mentioned tasks are carried out during the study of the disciplines of the linguistic cycle, namely: «Ukrainian language (for professional direction)», «Theoretical basics of the elementary course of the Ukrainian language», «Basics of culture and speech technique of younger schoolchildren». According to its content and orientation, language culture is always objective, that is, it affects people in one way or another. From a spiritual point of view, it can be considered the result of human activity, personality development through literary works, art, etc. The level of speech culture of a person depends on his familiarity with national art, with the cultural history of his people. While receiving higher education, students should raise their intellectual and general cultural level, demonstrating the qualities of a social personality. The ability to implement one’s communicative and speech competence in various situations of professional communication is one of the most important qualities of an educated person. The language culture of a specialist is formed through the richness of the dictionary, perfect mastery of ways of combining words into sentences, the ability to distinguish between neutral and stylistically marked language units, avoidance of stylistic and expressive dissonance, characterized by phonetic and intonational expressiveness. The article outlines the principles on which the concept of language culture is based, analyzes vocabulary, and draws conclusions.

Evaluation of education quality components

The aim of the present study in the upper elementary school is to investigate the components of education quality that which one-teacher and multi-teacher methods are more effective from the Iranian teachers' point of view. This research is applied method in terms of purpose that was done through survey method. The results indicate that the quality of one-teacher teaching in upper elementary course is moderate to low because the average obtained is 2.96, less than the hypothetical average of number 3. Also, the quality of multi-teacher teaching in upper elementary course is moderate to high because the average obtained is 4.09, more than the hypothetical average. Therefore, considering the findings and analysis of the information that obtained in most components related to the quality of teaching, there are obvious differences between the one-teacher and multi-teacher in quality of courses, and the multi-teacher method is better than the one-teacher method in the upper elementary school.

Evaluation of education quality components

The aim of the present study in the upper elementary school is to investigate the components of education quality that which one-teacher and multi-teacher methods are more effective from the Iranian teachers' point of view. This research is applied method in terms of purpose that was done through survey method. The results indicate that the quality of one-teacher teaching in upper elementary course is moderate to low because the average obtained is 2.96, less than the hypothetical average of number 3. Also, the quality of multi-teacher teaching in upper elementary course is moderate to high because the average obtained is 4.09, more than the hypothetical average. Therefore, considering the findings and analysis of the information that obtained in most components related to the quality of teaching, there are obvious differences between the one-teacher and multi-teacher in quality of courses, and the multi-teacher method is better than the one-teacher method in the upper elementary school.

Training of clinical triage of acute radiation casualties: a performance comparison of on-site versus online training due to the covid-19 pandemic

A collection of powerful diagnostic tools have been developed under the umbrellas of NATO for ionising radiation dose assessment (BAT, WinFRAT) and estimate of acute health effects in humans (WinFRAT, H-Module). We assembled a database of 191 ARS cases using the medical treatment protocols for radiation accident victims (n = 167) and the system for evaluation and archiving of radiation accidents based on case histories (n = 24) for training purposes of medical personnel. From 2016 to 2019, we trained 39 participants comprising MSc level radiobiology students in an on-site teaching class. Enforced by the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 for the first time, an online teaching of nine MSc radiobiology students replaced the on-site teaching. We found that: (a) limitations of correct diagnostic decision-making based on clinical signs and symptoms were experienced unrelated to the teaching format. (b) A significant performance decrease concerning online (first number in parenthesis) versus on-site teaching (reference and second number in parenthesis) was seen regarding the estimate time (31 vs 61 cases per hour, two-fold decrease, p = 0.005). Also, the accurate assessment of response categories (89.9% vs 96.9%, p = 0.001), ARS (92.4% vs 96.7%, p = 0.002) and hospitalisation (93.5% vs 97.0%, p = 0.002) decreased by around 3%–7%. The performances of the online attendees were mainly distributed within the lower quartile performance of on-site participants and the 25%–75% interquartile range increased 3–7-fold. (c) Comparison of dose estimates performed by training participants with hematologic acute radiation syndrome (HARS) severity mirrored the known limitations of dose alone as a surrogate parameter for HARS severity at doses less than 1.5 Gy, but demonstrated correct determination of HARS 2–4 and support for clinical decision making at dose estimates >1.5 Gy, regardless of teaching format. (d) Overall, one-third of the online participants showed substantial misapprehension and insecurities of elementary course content that did not occur after the on-site teaching.