Junior School Teachers Research Articles

Perceived Roles of Religious and Cultural Teachers in Implementing the Curriculum towards Achieving and Sustaining Peace in Imo State

The study investigated the perceived roles of Religious and Cultural Teachers in Implementing the Curriculum towards Achieving and Sustaining Peace in Imo State. The study was guided by two research questions and one hypothesis. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Multistage proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used to draw a sample of 224 Christian religious teachers from population of 602 Christian religious teachers in junior and senior public secondary schools. Researchers developed two rating scales: Religious and Cultural Teachers Roles in Peace Achievement Rating Scale (RCTRPARS) and Level Religious and Cultural Teachers Discharge their Roles Towards Achieving Peace Rating Scale (LRCTDRTAPRS). The reliability of internal consistency of RCTPPARS and LRCTDRTAPRS are 0.86 and 0.82 respectively while reliability of temporal stability are 0.80 and 0.83 respectively. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while z-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significant levels. Findings showed the sixteen specific roles religious and cultural teachers are expected to play in discharging these duties, the religious and cultural teachers have significantly performed below the expected average level. Religious and cultural teachers should endeavour to be more proactive in the discharge of their duties in these areas through effective curriculum implementation so as to enhance the realization of peaceful society for all citizens.

Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task

This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task. The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech–language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part of the Better Start Literacy Approach for early literacy teaching. Teachers administered the task to 303 5-year-olds in New Zealand at school entry and after 20 weeks and 12 months of schooling. The children listened to a story with pictures via iPad presentation and were then prompted to retell the story. The children's spontaneous language used in their story retell was captured and uploaded digitally via iPad audio recording and analyzed using semi-automated speech recognition and computer software. Their responses to factual and inferential story comprehension questions were also analyzed. The data suggested that the task has good criterion validity. Significant correlations between story retell measures and a standardized measure of children's oral language were found. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task, which took approximately 6 min for teachers to administer, accurately identified children with low oral language ability 81% of the time. Growth curve analysis revealed that the task was useful for monitoring oral language development, including for English as second language learners. Boys showed a slower story comprehension growth trajectory than girls. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task shows promise in providing valid data to support teacher judgement of children's oral language development.

Homework Assignment and Assessment Practices in Grade-1 in Public Schools

This quantitative survey study tends to explore the current homeworkassignment and assessment practices by teachers in Pakistan. It studiedtheir perceptions regarding importance of homework, purposes ofassigning homework besides the nature of homework assigned and thetypes of feedback strategies adopted for homework assessment. Thesample was the 100 (57 females, 43 male) junior school teachers from 08public schools and 275 (125 males, 150 female) students of 1st class ofSargodha. Two research instruments Teachers’ questionnaire regardinghomework practices and Homework assessment analysis checklist, weredeveloped and used on the bases of four factors planning, assigning,feedback and advantages of homework. It was concluded that the femaleteachers were better in planning, assigning and evaluation of homeworkthan the male teachers. Data obtained from checklist revealed that majorityof the teachers did not focus on written comments, correction of mistakesand subject relevant comments. Most of the teachers’ assigned revisionbased homework and did not focus on other higher purposes of assigninghomework.

Homework Assignment and Assessment Practices in Grade-1 in Public Schools

This quantitative survey study tends to explore the current homework assignment and evaluation practices in Pakistan like perception of teachers about homework, purposes of assigning homework and type of feedback strategies adopted by teachers for homework evaluation. The sample was the 100 (57 female, 43 male) junior school teachers and 275 (125 male, 150 female) students of 1st and 2nd classes of Sargodha city. Two research instruments Teachers’ questionnaire regarding homework practices, Homework assessment analysis checklist, were developed and used on the bases of four factors planning, assigning, feedback and advantages of homework. It was concluded that the female teachers were better in planning, assigning and evaluation of homework than the male teachers. Data obtained from checklist revealed that majority of the teachers did not focus on written comments, correction of mistakes and subject relevant comments. Most of the teachers’ assigned revision based homework and did not focus on other higher level purposes of assigning homework.

The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary school teachers in Sfax, Tunisia : anxiety disorders

IntroductionDuring the COVID-19 pandemic time, teachers have to adapt to many changes that could potentially make them more vulnerable to psychological distress.ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence and the factors for anxiety during the COVID-19 epidemic among the high school teachers in Sfax, Tunisia.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study, for descriptive and analytical purposes, conducted on google drive in May 2021.We involved 97 junior and secondary school teachers from Sfax, Tunisia, practicing in public high schools. Anxiety was assessed by using Generalized Anxiety Disorder tool (GAD-7).ResultsThe average age of the participants was 44.23 years old with a sex-ratio (M/F) of 0.32. Since the advent of COVID-19, 54.2% had presented sleep disturbances while 10.4% had suicidal thoughts. Among all participants, 77.8% were afraid of the virus transmission within the classroom or the school and 81.3% reported regular mask wear at work. The median score on the GAD-7 was 6.5 (Q1=3, Q3=11). Scores’ distribution indicated that 68% of the participants had no to mild symptoms of anxiety while 32% had moderate to severe anxiety. Furthermore, the presence of anxiety was associated to the female gender (p=0.01), sleep disturbances (p<0.001), suicidal thoughts (p=0.006), and to the conviction that wearing masks blocks the transmission of voice, information or emotions between teacher and student (p=0.025).ConclusionsDuring the COVID-19 outbreak, high school teachers in Sfax, Tunisia have high levels of anxiety.This can lead to a decreased effectiveness of their complex work.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Assessement of burnout among high school teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sfax, Tunisia

IntroductionFacing educational difficulties related to COVID-19, some teachers can no longer adapt, making them potential candidates for burnout.ObjectivesWe aimed to assess burnout among high school teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine its prevalence and factors associated with it.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, carried out on google drive in May 2021, and relating to 97 Tunisian junior and secondary school teachers from the Sfax region. Burnout was evaluated by the Burnout Measure Short version (BMS-10).ResultsThe sex-ratio (M/F) of our population was 0.32 and the average age was 44.23 ± 7.81 years old. The labor load was low, medium and high in respectively 1.4%, 57.6% and 41% of cases. Almost a third of participants (30.6%) reported a low satisfaction with working conditions. The average BMS score was 40.19 ± 13.98. According to the BMS scores, 36.1% of teachers had a very low to a low degree of burnout, 23.6% had burnout while 40.3% had a high to very high degree of exposure to burnout. Furthermore, the BMS score was associated with the female gender (p=0.002), sleep disturbances (p<0.001), suicidal thoughts (p<0.001) and with a medium to a high labor load (p=0.045).ConclusionsIn this study, Tunisian high school teachers in times of COVID-19 reported a high burnout rate. Thus, the protection of this vulnerable population must be an important component of public health measures.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

The Impact of External Factors on the Acceptance of Educational Technology Among the Indonesian Junior School Teachers

Literature shows the immense importance of technology acceptance among junior school teachers. Hence based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the current study aims to investigate the impact of various external factors, i.e., appreciation learning climate, facilitation learning climate, learning through reflection, and learning through experimentation on the adoption of technology among junior school teachers in Indonesia. Using a quantitative field survey, data were collected from 410 respondents and were analyzed using SmartPls3 by testing through the measurement and structural model. Results revealed that junior school teachers have a positive attitude towards the use of educational technology. Also, the external factors, i.e., appreciation learning climate was positively associated with perceived usefulness. Whereas facilitation learning climate, learning through reflection, and learning through experimentation were found to be positively and significantly associated with the perceived ease of use and actual use of the educational technology. Integrating Motivation-Hygiene Theory with the TAM model, this study revealed how multiple external factors motivate teachers to incorporate educational technology in their teaching methodologies. Besides extending the literature related to TAM and motivation theory, several future research directions are suggested.

TEACHERS DIFFICULTIES AND STRUGGLES IN MODULAR DISTANCE LEARNING DELIVERY: INPUT TO BE-LCP

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of Teachers Difficulties and Struggles in Modular Distance Learning Delivery: Input to BE-LCP. The information on related literature and studies were gathered to formulate the hyphothesis, conceptual framework presented in the paradigm and the definitions of terms. Specifically, the information was found in journals documents, published and unpublished materials like thesis, readings and internet. Descriptive method was used to determine the answers from the questions stated above. The respondents of this study were sixty public junior and senior high school teachers in Cavinti, Laguna. The study used questionnaire checklist by means of google form as the main tool in gathering the data. The formulation of the questionnaire was based on the investigations and findings of other researchers discussed in the related literatures and studies. The main instrument used in gathering data was the questionnaire checklist was the statistical tool such as Mean and Standard Deviation. From the data gathered and discussed, the following conclusions were derived: The computed mean value registered Teachers Difficulties and Struggles in Modular Distance Learning Delivery: Input to BE-LCP in terms of Strategy is Highly Practiced shows that it is being practiced. At the time of pandemic in the learning continuity, teachers and parents encourage learners in the new normal. Understanding the current education setup can make a way to guide the learners in answering their activities. By giving ample time and don’t give pressure can help learners to answer their task. But teachers must explain or give clear instruction for learners to easily understand the lesson. In this time of pandemic, school must open their communication to the stakeholders as they are the one who can help in the learning continuity. As they will work as one for the sake of the learners’ progress as they need the support to cope up with the current situation. KEYWORDS: Modular Distance Learning, Learning Continuity, Instruction, Stakeholders, Learning Outcomes, Learning Plan

Pedagogical challenge and resilience of English teachers at Islamic schools in Ajatappareng area, South Sulawesi

This study aims to find out whether there is significant difference of pedagogical challenge and resilience between English elementary, junior, and senior high school teachers or not; and to find out the correlation between teachers’ pedagogical challenge and teachers’ resilience. This study is quantitative research. Two kinds of questionnaires were administered to find out data about pedagogical challenge and resilience. Sample of this study was 84 English teachers consists 11 elementary schools teachers, 52 junior high schools teachers, and 21 senior high schools teachers. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistic, t-test significance and Pearson correlation. The findings show that: (1) there is no significant difference of pedagogical challenges between elementary, junior, and senior Islamic school teachers, (2) there is no significant difference of resilience between elementary, junior, and senior Islamic school teachers, and (3) there is no correlation between teachers’ pedagogical challenges and teachers’ resilience.

Computational Thinking in Junior Classrooms in New Zealand

From 2020, the New Zealand technology curriculum will include computational thinking. The new curriculum content is being introduced to students from five-years-old onwards. In preparation for its introduction, online resources have been developed for teachers, including junior teachers (who teach new entrants to year three), that contain progress outcomes, lesson plans, exemplars and assessments. However, it is unclear whether New Zealand junior teachers are sufficiently prepared to teach computational thinking and what factors influence their preparedness to teach the new curriculum. This research explored the experiences of a small group of junior school teachers in the year prior to the official introduction of the technology curriculum. Research findings highlight that factors including professional development, assessment, schoolwide support, and time availability influence the uptake of the computational thinking curriculum by teachers in New Zealand junior classrooms.

Pelatihan dan Pendampingan Online dalam Penulisan Penelitian Tindakan dan Karya Tulis Imiah Bagi Guru

This community service program is a online training and assistance in writing action research and scientific articles for teachers which aims to increase motivation and ability to write action research and scientific articles for teachers in Bali Province. The combination of the synchronize method through the Zoom application and unsynchronized method through the WhatsApp application was carried out for two weeks involving 85 elementary, junior, and high school teachers from various regions of Bali province. Evaluation of this program is measured through few indicators: (1) success in identifying problems and themes for action research, (2) success in formulating solutions to overcome problems, (3) success in drafting action research proposals, and (4) success in compiling a draft of action research articles. The evaluation results showed that (1) 90% of participants succeeded in compiling problem identification and research themes, 80% of participants succeeded in formulating solutions to overcome problems, (3) 80% of participants succeeded in compiling a draft proposal, and (4) 65% of participants have successfully drafted a scientific articles from their action research studies. This results indicate that online training and mentoring was quite successful in increasing teacher motivation and ability to compile action research and scientific articles.

Effect of health education on knowledge and attitude of menopause among middle-age teachers

BackgroundAdequate knowledge and positive attitude toward menopause are important for women to tackle changes related to menopause. Even though all women experience menopause at some stage in their life, teachers face more difficulties more than other female employees due to the nature of their roles do. In Eritrea, menopause has been given little attention hence gaps exist concerning women’s knowledge, attitude, and the effects of health education on the same subject. This study aimed at assessing the effect of health education on knowledge and attitude of menopause among middle-aged teachers in elementary, junior, and secondary schools of Asmara, Eritrea.MethodA semi-experimental design with pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, and three-month follow up test was used in this study. The data was collected from 99 middle age teachers using stratified random sampling. The intervention was done using lectures, group discussions, brochures, and handouts. Data on socio-demographics, knowledge, and attitude was collected using a pre-designed questionnaire. The effect of educational training at the three-time points was evaluated by repeated measure ANOVA using SPSS version 22.ResultsThe mean scores of correct knowledge at pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, and 3-months follow-up were 12.3/22 (SD = 3.06), 17.3/22 (SD = 3.21), and 16.5/22 (SD = 2.52) respectively. A significant difference in scores of knowledge at the three-time points was observed due to the educational intervention with a statistical significance of (p < 0.0001). Post-hoc analysis revealed that knowledge score immediately after intervention was significantly greater than that of pre-intervention (p < 0.0001), and 3-months follow-up (p = 0.004). The mean scores of attitude at the three-time points were 27.9/45 (SD = 5.14), 28.3/45(SD = 5.25), 28.32/45(SD = 5.12). The educational intervention had brought a change in the mean scores of attitude at the three-time point with a statistical significance of (p < 0.0001). Post-hoc analysis revealed that attitude scores at immediate post-intervention were also significant (p = 0.001) with the 3-months follow up at (p < 0.0001) were higher than that of pre-intervention.ConclusionThe structured educational intervention was beneficial to the studied women in intensifying their knowledge and tuning them toward a positive attitude. Hence, proper health education programs regarding menopause are strongly recommended.

Effect of Health Education on Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity among Female Teachers Aged 40-60 Years in Asmara, Eritrea: A Quasiexperimental Study.

Background Middle age is a period in women's life where many changes occur in their bodies due to the decline of gonadotropins. As a result, they face various vasomotor, psychological, and somatic symptoms. Moreover, chronic illness such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, and osteoporosis are prevalent at this time. Healthy nutrition and physical activity are effective factors to reduce the problems of menopause faced during middle age. Objective This study aimed at assessing the effect of health education on healthy nutrition and physical activity among 40–60-year-old female teachers in elementary, junior, and secondary schools of Asmara. Method A quasiexperimental design was used in this study. The data were collected from 99 middle-age female teachers who were selected by stratified random sampling. The intervention was conducted using lecture, brochure, and group discussion for a total of 3 hours. Data on physical activity and healthy nutrition were collecting using HPLP- II subscales physical activity and nutrition. Sociodemographic data were collected using a predesigned questionnaire. The effect of educational training at preintervention and postintervention was evaluated by the paired t-test and factorial mixed ANOVA using SPSS (version 22). Results The mean score of practicing healthy diet and physical activity at preintervention and postintervention was 27/44 (SD = 4.20) and 31/44 (SD = 5.36), respectively. A significant difference in the scores of practicing healthy diet and physical activity was observed after the educational intervention (MD = 4.06, 95% CI 2.95–5.17, p < 0.0001). The effectiveness of health education was seen across the categories of age, educational level, and occupational level where none of them showed significant interaction, displaying similar effect of educational intervention across all categories of the demographic variables. Conclusion The structured educational intervention was beneficial for the studied women in changing their practice on healthy nutrition and physical activity.

Who was going to become a teacher? The socio-economic background of primary school teachers in northern Sweden 1870–1950

ABSTRACT By exploring demographic data on teachers through a Bordieusian lens, this study aims to analyse the socio-economic background of primary school teachers in northern Sweden depending on gender and type. The rural area under study follows a national development where the number of primarily female teachers and junior school teachers increased rapidly between 1870 and 1910. The results show an occupational reproduction of teachers between mother and daughter that is not present to the same extent in other parent–child combinations. Furthermore, almost half of the teachers born within the region came from a farming background, yet children of higher professionals showed the highest probability of becoming a teacher. The other group in the upper stratum, higher managers, instead had a very low probability of becoming a teacher. This thus suggests that the teacher track was more associated with a social background representing higher cultural capital rather than economic capital.

Critical Analysis on Prevailing Teaching Strategies Promoting Critical Thinking in Public Elementary Classroom: A Survey of District Shaheed Benazirabad

Critical teaching is the process of students' intellectual development, which is used for conceptualization, communication, problem identification, collecting data through observation, analyzing information, and problem-solving and reflecting high-order thinking in the elementary classroom. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effective teaching strategy that promoted critical thinking among the students of public elementary schools in four Talukas of District Shaheed Benazirabad. A self-made questionnaire containing 15 statements was distributed among 102 participants including 64 male and 38 female teachers in 28 public elementary schools. The target population was 314 junior school teachers in 64 public elementary schools in the district. From the statistical data, it was analyzed, overall 82.35% of respondents found either strongly agree or agree and recommended the ‘visual-aid’ teaching strategy promotes high order critical thinking in public elementary classrooms. ‘Problem-based activity’ and ‘making charts on the topic’ were also recommended as 68.72% and 64.70% respectively. From the findings it was analyzed that the visual aid teaching strategy observed as more effective and result oriented and was concluded that Visual-aid is widely integrating technology being used as a teaching tool to promote critical thinking and logics through colorful text, voice, pictures, and videos. The study is very important because it has dragged the teachers’ attention toward the most effective and result-oriented teaching strategies. Keywords: Critical thinking; teaching strategies; elementary students; classroom. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-12-14 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Probing in-service elementary school teachers’ perceptions of TPACK for games, attitudes towards games, and actual teaching usage: a study of their structural models and teaching experiences

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate differences in junior and senior (categorised by their years of teaching experience) elementary school teachers’ perceptions of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge – Games (TPACK-G), attitudes towards game, and actual teaching usage. It also aimed to probe how each of the two groups’ TPACK-G perceptions predicted their attitudes towards games and actual teaching usage. 376 in-service teachers in Taiwan filled out the questionnaire consisting of game knowledge (GK), game pedagogical knowledge (GPK), game content knowledge (GCK), game pedagogical content knowledge (GPCK), attitudes towards games (AT), and actual teaching usage (AU). The results showed that junior teachers tended to have higher GK, GCK and GPCK than the seniors. GK alone might not be sufficient to predict the teachers’ actual teaching usage. To predict teachers’ actual teaching usage, the junior teachers might rely on their GPCK, whereas the senior teachers might rely on their GPK.

Financial Awareness Among the Teachers

People are vulnerable into economic difficulties if they do not have financial awareness. This study seeks to find out what the determinants of financial intelligence in junior and vocational school teachers in an area of West Java are. Our findings explain, in general, that teachers have relatively high financial awareness. Empirical tests suggest the financial awareness is influenced by an only one independent variable, namely a person's attitude. While the other independent variables such as family and individual perceptions are not significant at all. This finding proves the need for character education for everyone to have financial awareness. The reason is, the more mature a person, then the most determines everything in the life is his/ or her attitude, not anything coming from the family or something perceived so far.

Artificial Intelligence in Education: Integrating Serious Gaming into the Language Class ClassDojo Technology for Classroom Behavioral Management

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" lang="EN-US"&gt;The aim of the study at hand was to examine students' perceptions of game elements used in gamification application. ClassDojo, as a study case, was implemented class-wide in a Moroccan High School EFL classroom. Data was gathered and saved directly through the application. It is qualitative research that opted for structured interviews to collect data. The findings were evaluated in so far as class motivation, participation, cooperation, discipline, attendance, and classroom discourse are concerned. This study has shown a crystal clear improvement in terms of discipline, motivations and classroom participation, suggesting the great need to conduct more research with a view to determine if these areas could be positively or negatively impacted when integrating ClassDojo in classroom management on a large scale. The findings of this study are of much significance to decision makers, curriculum developers, syllabus designers, and teachers in both senior and junior schools in Morocco&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" lang="EN-US"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHER CAPABILITY IN SOLOK SELATAN DISTRICT IN DEVELOPING MULTIMEDIA THROUGH TRAINING VIDEO EDITING

Education in South Solok District, still lagging behind in the South Sumatra region, the UN ranking in 2016 is ranked 16th out of 19 existing cities / districts. This happens because the teacher uses video processing software that is recorded, so that many phenomena that cannot be used optimally. This PKM aims to improve the ability of teachers to develop text and video editing. The method used is the stage of interaction and discussion, training, training, training, training and development. Monitoring stages and, end of data analysis and report preparation. The instrument was a test of multimedia and video editing and questionnaires for the implementation of PKM activities. The results of data analysis, obtained by the average from the pretest is 14.42, for the average posttest average is 17.21. Then a paired t test was carried out, obtained a significance value of 0,000 &lt;0,05, thus giving the conclusion that this PKM activity had been able to improve the ability of the Solok district junior school teachers in developing learning videos. Based on the questionnaire given at the end of the training activity, results were obtained that participants were very happy and involved in learning at school

Teachers’ competences in dealing with instructional constraints to develop higher quality of learning

Competence is usually associated with highly professional performance and there is a direct link in the field of education between a teacher’s professional competence and students’ performance. The present study explores teachers’ competences in dealing with instructional constraints to develop a higher quality of learning. The participants were pre-service junior high school teachers. The analysis includes teachers’ strategies in encountering the various constraints and problem faced by the teachers in conducting teaching and learning process. This study made use of a qualitative research design in which the data were analyzed analytically with deep argumentation and presented descriptively. Data were collected through direct observation and in-depth interviews with the selected junior high school teachers. The findings of the present study indicated that pre-service junior school teachers employed some strategies in dealing with the students' learning constraints which mainly modifying teaching strategies and motivating the students to learn more actively. This study suggests that teachers should continually develop their competence in dealing with various problems found in the classroom.