Important Educational Goal Research Articles

Transferring responsibility in primary school physical education: Experiences of five teachers participating in a professional development programme

Developing personal and social skills is an important educational goal and part of citizenship education. In physical education (PE), transferring responsibility for managing activities is a method to achieve this goal. For teachers, however, it is a challenge to relinquish control. This qualitative study investigated how five PE teachers experience a continuous professional development (CPD) programme aimed to help them deal with this challenge. Findings showed that a CPD programme can help teachers to make room for children to manage activities independently. However, teachers’ beliefs about the purpose of PE and limited teaching time complicate their willingness to transfer responsibility.

Students’ local vs. global views of data distributions: a cross-grade-level analysis using eye-tracking

AbstractThe ability to interpret and compare data distributions is an important educational goal. Inherent in the statistical concept of distribution is the need to focus not only on individual data points or small groups of data points (so-called local view), but to perceive a distribution as a whole, allowing to recognize global features such as center, spread, and shape (so-called global view). However, the latter is challenging for students to acquire. This study, involving 68 students in grades 4, 6, and 8, had two main objectives. First, we aimed to examine the potential impact of grade level on how students perceive and compare distributions presented in dot plots. Despite variations in specific pre-knowledge, our findings showed no significant grade-related differences in students’ gaze behavior or their ability to process global features when comparing distributions. This finding suggests that there is no significant developmental trend across grade levels regarding students’ capacity to perceive distributions globally, a critical aim in statistics education. Our second objective was to extend the findings of our previous work regarding the identification of specific eye-tracking measures as indicators of students’ local vs. global views. In line with our hypotheses, differences in gaze behavior between students with a local and global view were determined regardless of their grade level. This robustness across different educational stages underscores the validity of specific eye-tracking measures as reliable indicators for students local vs. global view of data. Our research highlights the potential of eye-tracking for understanding students’ data interpretation approaches in statistics education.

The Transformation of Teacher s Role and the Cultivation of Students Innovative Ability in English Education

With the deepening of education reform, training high-quality talents with innovative spirit and practical ability has become an important goal of English education. Facing the needs and challenges of The Times, English teachers need to change the traditional teaching concept, innovate the teaching mode, attach importance to the dominant position of students, and stimulate the innovative potential of students. This paper discusses the significance of the change of teacher s role in English education in cultivating students innovative ability, and puts forward corresponding teaching strategies to provide references for English education reform.

Fostering Language Awareness in a Plurilingual Learning Environment

Developing young learners’ language awareness is becoming an important educational goal in a rapidly globalised world characterised by linguistic and cultural diversity. Drawing upon previous research in the field, the article highlights the importance of promoting language diversity and nurturing language awareness from an early age. We present a qualitative study’s findings to analyse the potential of using pluralistic approaches to language teaching for developing young learners’ language awareness. The study was based on a case study format involving pupils aged five and six years. By exposing the participants to a set of plurilingual activities following the DivCon model, we were able to observe and identify their language awareness development. In addition, the pupils’ responses to language awareness activities and their perceptions of different languages were analysed through a survey in the form of interviews. The results of the study indicate positive outcomes, demonstrating an enhanced level of language awareness among the pupils, as well as an increased appreciation for language diversity.

MODERN UNIVERSITY IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITALIZATION: SEARCH FOR AN EXISTENTIAL-AXIOLOGICAL MODEL OF EDUCATION

The article carries out a socio-philosophical analysis of the value orientations of the modern generation of students, showing their dependence on the social context, as well as the norms and values that dominate the cul-ture of society. An attempt has been made to create a psychological portrait of the generation of “new adults”; the issue of the content of the educational ideal, which should serve as a guideline for choosing a strategy for achie-ving one of the important goals of education — the education of a humanistic personality, is considered. It is shown that the existence of educational models with various axiological dominants (theological, socio-political, econom-ic, naturalistic, humanistic) indicates, on the one hand, the impossibility of the existen ce of a universal model, and on the other, makes it possible to understand that the continuity of education should be ensured by the presence of an invariant value core, which is surrounded by a set of diff erent-order values associated with various fi elds of activity. An existential-axiological model of education is proposed, refl ecting the ontological need to acquire new paradigmatic foundations.

Effects of socioscientific issues-based teaching on attitudes: Students’ resources as moderator

Engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) is seen as an important citizenship goal of SSI-based science education. In this experimental study, Dutch students (age 8 to 13) participated in lesson series in which they learned about and discussed SSI, such as issues related to the textile industry and wastewater. Attitudes toward SSI indicating engagement were measured among relatively large experimental (n = 236) and control (n = 192) groups prior to and after the intervention. Multilevel analyses showed a positive effect of SSI-based teaching on collective efficacy and no effects on the other seven attitude components. Furthermore, we investigated whether the effects depended on students’ SSI-related resources. Students’ profiles for use of sources of knowledge (USK) moderated the effect of condition on self-efficacy and—depending on analysis type—on personal relevance, positive feelings, and collective efficacy. The positive impact occurred mainly for students with low USK. We discuss implications thereof for SSI education.

A qualitative study on Chinese primary school EFL teachers’ beliefs about incorporating intercultural competence into foreign language teaching

Intercultural competence has become one of the important goals of foreign language education. The potential and value of foreign language education on students' intercultural competence (IC) has been widely recognized by academia. Currently, most of the research on intercultural foreign language teachers in China focuses on university teachers, with little attention paid to primary school EFL teachers. However, the cultivation of IC is a staged and continuous process which cannot be achieved in one stroke. Therefore, it is necessary to include primary school EFL teachers in the study of IC cultivation. This paper presents data on Chinese primary school EFL teachers' beliefs about incorporating IC into foreign language teaching. Specifically, their understanding of culture, IC, and intercultural teaching practices are investigated through interviews. The interview transcriptions were analyzed using thematic analysis. The research found: 1. Chinese primary school EFL teachers generally hold an essentialist view of culture; 2. Teachers emphasize the attitudinal dimension of IC; however, they also exhibit a tendency to oversimplify IC or perceive it as a higher-order skill than language proficiency, hence deeming it unsuitable for cultivation at the primary school level; 3. Most cultural teaching practices are teacher-centered, focusing on background knowledge-style introduction. In general, teachers’ intercultural teaching practices align with their cultural outlook. At last, the study explores two suggestions for promoting intercultural foreign language teaching: 1. Supporting primary school EFL teachers in updating their language and culture concepts system; 2. Encouraging teachers to reflect on their daily teaching practices as a major opportunity to promote the development of intercultural foreign language teaching.

Appreciation of multilingual teaching activities by secondary school students in Germany: findings from a quasi-experimental intervention study on teaching French

ABSTRACT Recognising and appreciating linguistic diversity and different cultural identities is an important educational goal for the development of our societies [Council of Europe 2007. From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe. Council of Europe Publishing; 2020. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment – Companion Volume. Council of Europe Publishing]. This paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental pre–post control-group study on the implementation of multilingual teaching activities in teaching French as a second foreign language at secondary grammar schools in Germany (in total n = 221 students, a convenience sample of 207th grade classes). Results of analysis of questionnaires and interviews with students show a positive appreciation of multilingual teaching activities, especially among students with migration background who have been raised plurilingually, and an increase in the appreciation of multilingual teaching activities among students who have been raised monolingually in the lingua franca German. Furthermore, the results indicate that the intervention was relevant to students’ intercultural learning in terms of fostering their appreciation of multilingual teaching activities, even though the teaching materials prepared for the study were not implemented consistently in all participating classes.

Developing Vocabulary for Children 24-36 Months through Daily Activities at Chan Son kindergarten, Yen Son District, Tuyen Quang Province, Vietnam

Educational scientists have affirmed that language development in general and vocabulary development for children in particular is one of the most important goals of preschool education. The period between 24-36 months is considered the golden period for developing vocabulary. A well-developed child's vocabulary will help them be confident, explore, learn, and express their own needs and desires with things, people, and phenomena surrounding their daily life. Daily living regime is the reasonable allocation of time and activities during the day for children, meeting the child's physiological and psychological needs, thereby helping children form good habits, adapting to the surrounding environment. Therefore, it can be said that a child's daily living regimen is a favorable environment for developing vocabulary for children 24 - 26 months old. The daily routine has its own unique activities suitable to the child's characteristics so that the child can passively and proactively absorb vocabulary through the process of learning and experiencing activities children's daily.

Collaborative Cultivation of Ideological and Political Education and Undergraduate Management in Colleges and Universities Under the Guidance of Moral Education

Guided by moral education, improving the ideological and moral quality of college students is an important goal of college education. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to strengthen ideological and political education and continuously improve the level of undergraduate management. This paper outlines the feasibility of collaborative cultivation of ideological and political education and undergraduate management in colleges and universities and analyzes its significance and the specific implementation strategies, with a view to providing valuable references for relevant colleges and universities to carry out educational work.

Social and emotional competencies of students with special educational needs in inclusive education

AbstractThe social and emotional development of students is one of the important goals of inclusive education. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the multidimensional social and emotional competencies of students with special educational needs (SEN), with a focus on identifying the areas in which they achieve the highest and lowest levels of proficiency. Furthermore, it will be investigated whether there are gender differences in the social and emotional competencies of students with SEN, and differences in comparison to students without SEN. This research is based on the CASEL conceptual framework of social and emotional learning. A random sample of teachers (N = 54) assess the social and emotional competencies of both students with SEN (N = 54) and students without SEN (N = 54) with Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). Participants completed questionnaires online in spring of 2021. The results show that students with SEN exhibit the highest level of competence in relationship skills and optimistic thinking, whereas the lowest level of competence is found in goal‐directed behaviour and self‐management. There were no discernible gender differences observed in the social and emotional competences of students with SEN. Compared to students without SEN, they exhibit statistically significant lower levels of every social and emotional competency. The findings indicate the necessity of implementing interventions targeting goal‐directed behaviours and self‐management of students with SEN.

Influencing factors and mechanisms of the primary and secondary school students’ science aspirations: evidence from 8501 students in China

ABSTRACT Background Students’ science aspirations has received much attention worldwide in recent years, and becoming an important goal of science education. Although many studies have pointed out several factors potentially influencing science aspirations, there is still a relative lack of research on the specific mechanisms at play. Purpose This study aims to collectively discuss the effects of science capital, learning experiences, attitudes, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations on science aspirations and the mechanisms of these five factors in predicting students’ science aspirations. Sample This study was conducted with 8,501 primary and secondary school students from 320 schools in China. Design and methods The validity of the instrument was verified through EFA and CFA. The strength of the relationships between different variables was measured through correlation analysis. Direct effect analysis was used to establish the effect of the variables on science aspirations. Mediation effect analysis was used to test a series of pathways for mechanisms of action. Results The developed instrument is valid. Science capital, learning experiences, self-efficacy, attitudes, and outcome expectations were able to influence science aspirations significantly and positively. The mediation between science capital and science aspirations was established, specifically as a chain mediation. Conclusion The development of students’ science aspirations is a gradual process that is facilitated by coordinating the combined effects of science capital, learning experiences, self-efficacy, attitudes and outcome expectations in education.

Research on Flipped Classroom Teaching Reform Based on the Cultivation of Innovative Ability of College Students

Cultivation of innovative ability is an important goal of higher education, and flipped classroom teaching is undoubtedly an important way to cultivate innovative talents. This paper firstly refines the current situation and problems of classroom teaching in higher education, then systematically elaborates the content of flipped classroom teaching reform based on the cultivation of innovative ability, and finally summarizes the innovations of this kind of teaching reform.

Examining the mediating effect of nature of science perceptions on the relationship between metacognition and science self-efficacy

ABSTRACT Background The nature of science (NOS) and science self-efficacy have an important place in the development of scientific literacy, which is the ultimate goal of science education. However, the relationship between them and metacognition, which can have a significant impact on these variables, is an under-researched area and worthy of study. Purpose To fill this gap in the literature, this study examines the relationship between metacognition, NOS perceptions, and science self-efficacy using structural equation modeling. Sample A total of 448 secondary school students (grades 5–8) participated in the study. Design and Method Students’ Ideas about the Nature of Science, Science Learning Self-Efficacy Belief Scale, and Metacognitive Awareness Scales were utilized to collect the data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to reveal the mediating role of the NOS perceptions in the relationship between science self-efficacy and metacognition of secondary school students. Results and Conclusion The results showed that NOS perceptions partially mediate the relationship between metacognition and science self-efficacy. Furthermore, metacognition highly predicted NOS perceptions and science self-efficacy, providing clues to the formation or prevention of misconceptions about the nature of science. From this perspective, it is suggested that developing students’ metacognition should be another important goal of science education to increase their scientific literacy.

영유아 교사의 미디어 영향과 미디어 교육에 대한 인식

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover the media influence and perception of media education for infants and toddlers. Research questions for this were set as infant teachers' perception of media and infant teachers' perception of media education.
 Methods: For this study, a preliminary survey was conducted after composing a questionnaire through related prior research and literature analysis. This survey was conducted by wireless sampling infant teachers working in educational fields in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and distributing data face-to-face and non-face-to-face from September 28, 2022, to October 31, 2022. A total of 290 copies of data were collected, but 268 copies of data were finally selected excluding twenty-two copies of unfaithful responses. For the collected data, frequency analysis, mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated according to the research questions using SPSS 29.0.
 Results: When the research results were presented according to the research questions, first, the media was recognized as affecting infants and toddlers. The biggest positive influence was the convenient acquisition of information and knowledge to solve questions in infancy when curiosity was high, and the biggest negative influence was to imitate the wrong actions and words of characters appearing in the media. In addition, among various media, digital media had an enormous influence and print media such as newspapers and magazines were recognized as having little influence. Second, there was a need for media education for infants and toddlers, and the leader of media education was recognized as a teacher. In addition, it was recognized that the most important goal of media education is to cultivate the habit of responsible and safe use of media.
 Conclusion: In conclusion, infant and toddler teachers should be able to use media in terms of education in consideration of its positive and negative influences. In addition, it is required that media education programs for infants and toddlers in development should reflect changes in the digital media environment, and it is necessary to cultivate teachers' capacity for media education through educational training for teachers.

When people still had enough time to live

AbstractIn this paper the author want to focus especially on the education of girls from Hungarian aristocratic families by studying not only the relationship between the parents and the children but also the aim, content, methods of education. The sources were primarily the memoirs that have been more frequently published, that resulted in more detailed, subtle conclusions complete with personal motivations as well. The research method was narrative text analysis. The author concluded that there were practically only some aristocratic girls who had enrolled a secondary school before WW1. After WW1 there were more and more girls taking part in school education, the reason being their financial circumstances and the changed social and cultural situation. Some have already enrolled in university or obtained a vocational qualification. However, working women were very rare among them. The relationship between the parents and children was different by families, but the strict distance increasingly loosened up. One of the most important goal of education was the knowledge of modern languages. Besides practising religion and arts physical education and sports were present in the lives of the girls in the country. Girls could only move around in their own social groups, they put special emphasis on developing social competences. A girl's goal was to find a spouse who is worthy of her rank.

Science Teachers’ Understanding of Creative Thinking and How to Foster It as Mandated by the Australian Curriculum

ABSTRACT Developing students’ creativity is an important educational goal in many countries. The Australian Curriculum Authority has mandated that all teachers teach creative thinking across all subjects and grades. However, after more than 10 years working within this mandate, how do science teachers see their role in promoting creativity in the classroom? This study reports interviews with 13 Australian science teachers, from three jurisdictions, about how they understand creativity, the activities that they use and barriers to supporting creative thinking in classrooms. The findings showed that, although teachers were able to identify many of the elements of creativity and creative thinking described in the literature, many still felt unsure of what creative thinking entails. For class activities that foster creative thinking most teachers focused on project-based or inquiry learning which require long periods of class time to complete. Less emphasis was given to the importance of developing creative thinking skills in making hypotheses by supporting construction of meaning, providing personal insights and explanations through the use of possibility thinking, mental images, analogies when teaching curriculum content. The Australian Curriculum documents themselves give guidance suggesting that creative thinking in science is mainly developed through inquiry-based activities. It is imperative that schools give more support to teachers to understand and develop creative thinking tasks, including time, resources, professional learning, and accountability systems.

Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices of Learner Autonomy: A Case Study in Vietnam

This paper discusses learner autonomy (LA), which has recently been adopted as an important educational goal in the new competence-based curriculum for general education in Vietnam. Despite numerous studies on the initiatives to foster LA in various contexts, more research is needed to substantiate the literature on how pre-service teachers interpret and practice LA so that they could better reach the educational goal of fostering student autonomy in school settings. Drawing on data from surveys and interviews with pre-service teachers from Years 1 to 4 across seven disciplines of teacher education programs, the findings of our case study indicate that teacher education programs in Vietnam may prepare pre-service teachers to enact their autonomy in learning to some extent. Nevertheless, such programs need to provide to-be teachers with opportunities to actually control their learning in university settings so that they might better assist school students to develop their own independent learning and self-study. This paper thus concludes by raising two points concerning pedagogical obligation that pre-service teachers and teacher trainers should be aware of: first, that student autonomy relies substantially on teachers being supportive and flexible in devising learning activities; and second, that teacher education programs should equip pre-service teachers with sufficient knowledge, skills and resources to develop their own autonomy to enable their future students’ independence.

Development and validation of the inquiry-based nature of science and argumentation: A new instructional model on students’ scientific argumentation ability

One of the important goals of science education is to improve scientific argumentation ability which is part of the core practice of science. The main goals of this research are to develop and validate the inquiry-based nature of science and argumentation (IB-NOSA) instructional model which is designed to improve scientific argumentation ability. The research design in this study is Research and Development (R&D) using the steps proposed by Borg & Gall. The feasibility test of the IB-NOSA instructional model was assessed using the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) method, an assessment of the IB-NOSA model book, and an instrument test of scientific argumentation ability involving four experts. The practicality test was assessed by a lower secondary school science teacher. The data were analyzed using quantitative methods, and the validity and reliability indexes were calculated. The results of the study show that the IB-NOSA instructional model is feasible and practical. Meanwhile, the validation results of the scientific argumentation ability test instrument show that each item is in the range of 0.92 to 1. This indicates that each item is valid for further use. Therefore, it can be concluded that the IB-NOSA instructional model has feasibility and practicality for use in science learning and for developing the scientific argumentation ability of lower secondary school students.

What affects the continued learning about energy? Evidence from a 4‐year longitudinal study

AbstractEnergy is a central concept across the sciences and an important goal of science education is to support all students so that they develop a full understanding of the energy concept. However, given the abstract and complex nature of the energy concept, only a few students develop an understanding so that they can use energy ideas to make sense of phenomena. Research into energy learning progressions aims at developing models of learning about energy to guide instruction so that students can be best supported in developing competence and has provided a rich model of how students' understanding of energy develops over time. Being largely based on cross‐section data, however, the extent to which this model can guide instruction is limited, especially concerning the continued learning of students about energy. To address this gap—the limited evidence regarding what supports students' continued learning about energy—it was investigated how holding non‐normative ideas and the integratedness of students' energy knowledge affect students' continued learning about energy. Drawing on data from a 4‐year longitudinal study covering Grades 6–9 on students' learning about energy, diagnostic classification models were used to characterize students' non‐normative idea profiles and the integratedness of their knowledge and then related both to their continued learning. The results suggest no detrimental effects of holding non‐normative ideas and strong positive effects of holding integrated knowledge for students' continued learning about energy. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.