Lesson Observations Research Articles

Adjusting to Remote Learning as a Result of COVID-19: Experiences of Students and Teachers in Jamaica

This qualitative study aims to explore the challenges of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural and urban Jamaica, from the perspectives of both students and teachers. Data was collected from 20 teachers and 21 students through virtual and face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, and observations of virtual lessons. While there were more positive impacts of remote learning than negative, challenges such as technical issues, attendance, digital competencies, environmental disturbances, unresponsive students, and physical pain were identified. The problem is that teachers and students are frustrated with the challenges of remote learning and are in need of a solution. The study aims to provide assistance to those facing such difficulties and to contribute to future policy decision-making. The results will be used to produce a report that initiates some level of assistance for students and teachers and informs future policy and decision-makers.

Exploring Administrators’ Use of Instructional Advisory Approaches in Enhancing Implementation of Structured Play Activities in Tanzanian Government Pre-primary Schools in Longido and Monduli Districts

This study examines the extent to which school administrators use instructional supervisory approaches in enhancing implementation of structured play activities in government pre-primary schools in Longido and Monduli Districts, in Arusha Region in Tanzania. The study was guided by Clinical Supervision Model developed by Goldhammar (1969,1993). Convergent research design was used because it allowed the researcher to collect quantitative and qualitative data so as to understand the problem in detail and triangulate the collected information. The sample consisted of 268 participants who were obtained through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, document analysis, and lesson observation. These tools were validated using triangulation and experts in the fields of research, administration and early childhood education. Reliability was ensured using. Cronbach alpha and triangulation techniques. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate the school administrators’ supervisory role on the implementation of structured play activities in pre-primary classes to be very low. Findings also show that school administrators used several approaches in supervising teaching and learning in pre-primary classes. These includes checking pre-primary teachers’ schemes of work and lesson plans, classroom observation, monitoring of pre-primary pupils’ progress and checking pre-primary pupils’ works. However, the approaches were moderately used by the school administrators. Structured play activities were also sparingly used. The study recommends that school administrators have to use instructional supervisory approaches to enhance application of the implementation of structured play activities in teaching and learning.

Examination of Pedagogical Practices of Secondary School Physical Education Teachers in Tanzania

The study on which this paper is based examined the pedagogical practices of secondary school teachers in teaching Physical Education (PE) in Tanzania. The data from two experienced PE teachers were collected through interview, lesson observation and documentary review and they were analyzed thematically. Findings indicated that PE teachers predominantly use teacher-centred teaching approaches and lecture teaching methods. This teaching approach and methods as used in teaching PE classes did not involve learners and they thus limited students’ mastery and denied them the opportunity to practice the intended skills during and after the lesson. Inadequate facilities and equipment for teaching PE also affected teachers’ pedagogical practices. It was concluded that the teacher-centred teaching approach dominated in most of the observed PE classes. It is recommended that PE teachers be advised to abide by the requirements of the syllabus. They should be given in-service training on how to apply learner centred teaching approach and to use their local environment to improve their pedagogical practices.

‘The New Curriculum is a New Baby’: Metaphors of Reform in History Pedagogy

Teachers unconsciously, and at times intentionally, use metaphors to graphically image new reform policy. This qualitative multiple case-study explores how secondary school teachers employed metaphors to communicate excitement and/or frustrations with a new history curriculum they were implementing in Zimbabwe. Findings from semi-structured interviews and lesson observations indicate that, although teachers employed either reform friendly or reform antagonistic metaphors, their metaphoric representations were consistently evolving. The new history curriculum was viewed as a new baby whose habits everyone was trying to learn. Conversely, it was equated to a dictated peace treaty. The implications of these metaphors are interrogated.

Current Fundamental Competences - The Specifics of the Teaching Profession

Abstract The design, implementation and evaluation of the initial and continuous training programs for teaching staff are based on the competence approach model, as a way of defining and recognizing training results. Competences are defined as integrative sets of knowledge, skills, motivations and attitudes that mediate professional behaviour and guarantee expert action in specific fields and contexts of activity for the teaching profession. The main fields in which the competences corresponding to the teaching profession are defined and according to which the continuous training programs are designed, realized and evaluated, are: the specialty field, corresponding to the educational disciplines and the teaching position held by the teaching staff; the field of pedagogy and educational psychology; the field of didactics/specialized didactics; the field of educational management and school legislation; the field of information and communication techniques applied in teaching and learning processes, in institutional management and data management. The competence system on which this methodology is based takes over and adapts to the specifics of the teaching profession and to the requirements of Romanian pre-university education the categories and levels of competence with which the European Qualifications Framework and the National Qualifications Framework in higher education operate. The system operates with two fundamental categories of competences: professional competences: cognitive competences; functional-action skills; and transversal skills: role skills; to which the intercultural and interrelationship competence is added, the competence meant to ensure well-being and the competence to support the environment, according to what is stated by the OECD in the PISA Global Competence Framework, The European Sustainability Competence Framework, The Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Cultures. The pedagogic practice internship involves a set of activities of observation, analysis and support of lessons, all under the guidance of a pedagogic practice mentor. The research method used was the survey, the questionnaire instrument being used in order to interview the students of the “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Faculty of Letters and Arts and Faculty of Social and Human Sciences.

Teacher professional knowledge application and service delivery in public secondary schools in Bungoma East Sub County, Kenya

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of teacher professional knowledge practice on teacher service delivery. The study was guided by Goal Setting Theory by Edwin Locke (1979) and adopted a descriptive research design. The study population of 1050 respondents comprising of three Curriculum Support Officers (CSO), 78 Principals, 80 Deputy principals and 870 teachers from public secondary schools in Bungoma East Sub County. The sample size was determined using Krejcie and Morgan formula for determining sample sizes where a sample size of 263 was achieved. The study employed purposive, stratified and random sampling techniques to draw the respondents. All the Curriculum Support Officers were used in the study. The researcher used questionnaires and interview guides to collect data. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables. Qualitative data was analyzed as per themes and subthemes and described using quotations. The study established that there was little impact on teacher service delivery by preparation of lesson plans, use of teaching/learning aids in class, marking of learners’ exercise books, lesson observation and ratings by school managers in public secondary schools.

IMPLEMENTATION OF DIFFERENTIATE LEARNING TO IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES IN MATHEMATICS SUBJECT

Student’s learning outcomes were low in Mathematics. This study aimed to improve student’s learning outcomes with differentiated learning. Differentiated learning was used by differentiating the teaching approach to content and process. This research was a classroom action research which was divided into two cycles and began with pre-cycle. Each cycle consisted of planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The research subjects were 40 grade VIII-D student of SMP Negeri 8 Denpasar. This study used test and non-test instruments in the form of lesson observation sheets, interviews, and student’s learning outcomes tests. The results showed that in Cycle I the percentage of students who passed the minimum completeness criteria was 50% and then it increased in Cycle II to 77.5%, because it met the specified classical completeness, the research was stopped in Cycle II. Based on these results it could be concluded that there was an increase in student’s learning outcomes in Mathematics by applying the Differentiated Learning Approach.

Lesson observations in sub-Saharan Africa: bringing learners into focus

ABSTRACT This article considers different approaches to lesson observation and their potential for understanding and evaluating classroom practice in sub-Saharan Africa. We start with a critical appraisal of Teach, a recent World Bank initiative. The evidence and assumptions underpinning this teacher-focused instrument are considered alongside its affordances and limitations. Following this, we review evidence from school-based research from the region to identify four salient aspects of conditions for learning: the use of languages; the role of peers; the use of resources to support learning; and differentiated support. An alternative framework for lesson observations is proposed as a means of developing understandings of these conditions through a spotlight on the activities of individual learners; learners’ interactions with teachers and peers; and the classroom environment. In conclusion we consider how this framework may be used alongside existing instruments for deeper insights into the nature and quality of education in the region.

Investigating the Characteristics of Knowledge-Related Learning Assignments in Upper Secondary School

This study reports on whether students have the opportunity to acquire generic competencies when they work with knowledge-related assignments at upper secondary school. We investigated 30 assignments. The data included lesson observations and interviews with teachers. The main categories of teaching practices were theory-based, and the subcategories and the levels of intensity were based on qualitative analysis of the data. The most common categories were Object-orientedness, Epistemic challenge, Process-like emphasis, Intensity of collaboration, Cross-fertilisation, and Information practices. The least common categories were Cross-fertilisation, Process-like emphasis, and Object-orientedness. Cluster analysis produced three groups: Open and challenging assignments with guidance and support (eight cases), Demanding assignments without support (seven cases), and Well-defined, teacher-directed assignments (15 cases). Assignments of the first type support students’ knowledge-related competencies the best. The second type of assignment is demanding because students work independently with limited support for challenging assignments. Assignments of the third type were well-structured and teacher-centered assignments.

The Impact of an Empowerment Evaluation Approach on Teachers’ TPACK-P Proficiency Levels

In South Africa, there is a strong recognition of the affordances of information and communications technology (ICT) in science teaching and learning. A key indicator for the effective use of ICT is the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of teachers with TPACK-Practical (TPACK-P) being an important iteration related to teacher enactment of this knowledge. The purpose of this research study was to capture, portray and develop the TPACK-P proficiency levels of five Physical Sciences teachers using an empowerment evaluation (EE) approach. This study adopted a mixed-methods case study design within a pragmatic research paradigm. The existing TPACK-P levels of teachers were established by administering a questionnaire and doing classroom observations of teachers using ICT in their practice. Following a professional development programme informed by principles of EE, the same TPACK-P questionnaire was used to determine if there was a change in the teachers’ TPACK-P proficiency levels. Classroom lesson observations were also conducted at this stage to establish shifts in the competency of teachers when integrating ICT into their teaching. The results of this study showed that the EE approach that guided the professional development of the Physical Sciences teachers was effective in improving their TPACK-P proficiency levels and in empowering them to be more confident and competent when integrating ICT into their teaching. This suggests that the EE approach can be modelled in professional development efforts involving small groups of teachers.

Zimbabwean mathematics pre-service teachers’ implementation of the learner-centered curriculum during teaching practice

Effective mathematics teaching and learning is crucial not only for the purposes of examination and assessment but as well for the learners’ empowerment so that they cope with the ever-changing technology and be able to solve real-life social and economic problems of the world. The study aimed at revealing the pre-service teachers’ pedagogical practices during teaching practice as well as whether they aligned their practices to the teaching approaches recommended in the mathematics syllabus. The case study involved four secondary school pre-service mathematics teachers who were purposively sampled. Documents, interviews and lesson observations were the data collection instruments. The results showed that out of the four teachers only two used both teacher-centered and learner-centered methods, whilst the other two used purely traditional teacher-centered methods. The learner-centered methods used by the two teachers were only limited to group work and pair work out of the several learner methods recommended by the syllabus. In this era of technology, none of the teachers made use of technology whilst delivering their lessons, which is also not in line with the syllabus requirements. Pre-service teachers need to be more knowledgeable in learner-centered approaches, syllabus use and interpretation as well as technology integration in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Influence of Principals’ Supervision on Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in Public Secondary Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya

The study investigated influence of principals' supervision on teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Kakamega County, Kenya. The objective was: To determine the influence of principals’ checking on teachers’ professional document and principals’ class visitation on teachers’ job satisfaction. The study was based on the Path Goal theory. The study targeted 324 public secondary schools which comprises of 324 principals and 1500 teachers and 12 TSC officials across 12 sub-counties in Kakamega County. Purposive sampling to select five sub counties included Lurambi, Ikolomani, Shinyalu, Navakholo and Malava sub county. 64 schools selected using stratified sampling, purposive sampling for 64 principals and 5 TSC officials while simple random sampling for 300 teachers. Questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect data. The findings for the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between principals’ checking on professional documents and teachers’ job satisfaction using Chi square test was (df=16, Pearson X 2 = 92.826, p=0.005 at 0.05 significance level). Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected hence there is a relationship between principals’ checking on professional documents and teachers’ job satisfaction. The null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between principals’ class visitation and teachers’ job satisfaction using Chi square test was (df=16, Pearson X 2 = 103.379, p=0.005at 0.05 significance level). The null hypothesis was rejected. Hence there is a relationship between principals’ class visitation and teachers’ job satisfaction. The study concluded that principals checking on professional documents and principals class visitation influenced teacher job satisfaction. The study recommended that Principals should be equipped with the required supervision knowledge and skills that would lead to improved teachers’ job satisfaction. QASOs should ensure increased teachers’ job satisfaction by regular supervision to secondary schools, guide, monitor principals and receive regular updates on progress of class visits and lesson observations to enhance the exercises of instructional leadership conducted by the principal and advise. Keywords: Principals’ supervision, principals checking on professional documents, principals’ class visitation, teachers’ job satisfaction, secondary schools DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-14-05 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

Benefits of Communicative Method of Teaching Grammar in a Bhutanese Higher Secondary School: A Qualitative Study

The effective method to teach grammar to students has been a point of disputation between advocates for language acquisition and linguistics. The study investigated the benefits of the Communicative Method of Teaching Grammar (CMTG) in a Higher Secondary School under Thimphu Thromde. The study was based on the constructivist paradigm and adopted a qualitative case study research design. The study involved twelve students and three English teachers selected purposefully from a Higher Secondary School in Thimphu. The data was collected through one-on-one interviews, Focus group discussions (FGDs), and lesson observations. The data collected was analysed employing the thematic analysis procedure of Creswell & Creswell [1]. The findings revealed the benefits of CMTG. The results showed that the benefits of CMTG included enhancing speaking abilities, fostering creativity, comprehensible input, and the ability for effective communication. This study recommends that English teachers pursue professional development in the Communicative Method of Teaching Grammar (CMTG) and maintain an average class size of 20 to 25 students. This study also suggests providing classrooms with a sufficient variety of technologically advanced instruments. The CMTG should be used to teach grammar to students, and relevant stakeholders in education should provide policy recommendations on how to train in-service and pre-service teachers on its use. The benefits of CMTG could be thoroughly investigated in future studies utilizing a quasi-experimental design.

Exploring Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teachers: a Paradigm For Measuring Teacher’s Effectiveness

When considering the present and the future of education, it is hard to ignore the importance of teachers' subject-matter expertise. Educators' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is crucial to the development of effective teaching practises and the implementation of effective curricula. Since PCK permits the integration of content and pedagogy, it has the potential to have a profound and long-lasting effect on students' academic performance. For educators to do their jobs well, they need to have a firm grip of relevant information, concepts, principles, and methods. This understanding will serve as a guide for appropriate pedagogical thinking and decision making. The pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that is part of both the art and science of teaching, however, can be difficult to understand and evaluate. Classroom observations, content representations (CoRes), pedagogical and professional experience registries (PaP-eRs), structured and semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall interviews, artefacts from teachers' tasks, concept mapping, reflective journals, tests, and lesson observations are just a few of the complex and specialised procedures required to measure PCK. Paper and pencil assessments have been hailed as a potentially useful instrument for determining PCK due to the fact that they are a trustworthy, objective, and valid procedure that may be utilised with a greater volume of samples. The easiest way to obtain PCK data for triangulation purposes from several sources is to use a combination of these approaches.

IMPLEMENTATION OF LESSON STUDY AS AN ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS

Lesson study is a classroom learning system in which several teachers collaboratively plan, teach, observe, revise, and deliver the output from one class. Regarding the lesson study implementation, teachers wisely explore how students learn, think, and change their behavior as an outcome of learning. Lesson Study implementation may lead to teaching improvement as teachers become more knowledgeable on how their students learn and think as well as how the instruction affects their students’ thinking. During the lesson design phase, teachers exchange ideas about how students might react to each part of the lesson. This paper presents a series of codes theoretically based on systematic documentation from teachers’ various learning and change aspects (knowledge and beliefs, professional learning communities, resources) in the cross-context lesson studies. Following the lesson observation research, teachers critically analyze collected data regarding the students learning and draw evidence-based implications to improve teaching instruction. This paper describes the influence of Lesson Study as an attempt to improve third-grade students’ writing skills. Data are collected through observation, interview, field notes, and direct practice. The implementation results of the Lesson Study for the third-grade students from February 2nd to March 7th, 2023, indicate that writing enhancement with capital capability increased to 12.68%, the use of punctuation was 21.43%, and the formation of simple patterned sentences was 1,12%. Nevertheless, the use of standard vocabulary decreased to 0.39%. Meanwhile, the observations during the process indicate the overall data of Lesson Study implementation as an attempt to increase students’ writing skills at 3.11%. The learning process that explores students' learning potential in improving their writing skills implies a positive result in their progress. Habit and practice on an ongoing basis can improve students' writing skills.

Spatial Thinking and Geometric Systems: Analysing Cognitive Demand in School Mathematics Tasks

Background : The research context is the synchronous teaching of a mathematics visualised through signs, as is the Colombian sign language, which is publicly accessible, especially for the schooled deaf. Objectives : To analyse the cognitive demand of four school mathematical tasks developed as synchronous geometry lessons proposed for the deaf schooled population in Colombia. Design : Qualitative research within the interpretative paradigm, in which the teaching phenomenon of synchronous geometry classes is interpreted from the content analysis of the cognitive demand from the theoretical model of school mathematics task on the classes. Setting and Participants : The research is developed under the non-participant observation of the video lessons hosted on the public channel of the National Institute of the Deaf in Colombia. The classes are taught by a single teacher, in which one hundred people participate, who followed the teacher’s signs. Data collection and analysis: Of the twenty-nine synchronous lessons hosted on the channel, we selected the ones that focused on the teaching of two-dimensional geometry (triangles, their characteristics and their properties, similarity, congruence, and Pythagoras theorems) in a way that allows analysing the scholastic meanings of concepts, definitions, and procedures from the cognitive demand on these. Results : The results point to the development of thirty tasks centred on memorisation and using procedures without connections. Conclusions : The need to reflect on the lesson plans, especially for the deaf population, is evidenced, besides the search for tasks that motivate the use of procedures with connections and the construction of mathematics. Moreover, it is necessary to include the exploratory-investigative in geometry teaching.

Teachers’ Views on Providing Motivation Based on ARCS Model in Online Musical Instrument Education

The aim of this study is to reveal the applications for the tools, methods, and strategies used to provide motivation in online instrument education in line with the opinions of instrument educators. In the study, interview, observation, and literature review, which are among the qualitative research methods, were used. Within the scope of the research, 41 teachers who provided online instrument training were interviewed, and 10-hour lesson observations were made. In the content analysis based on the Arcs model, it was observed that teachers used technological tools and applications to provide motivation in their lessons, included games, and planned their lessons according to age groups and individual differences of students in online instrument education. To provide motivation in the context of the Arcs model, it was seen that they applied the most to establish interest and the least to the satisfaction dimension. Based on this research, it has been proposed to use methods and strategies that motivate students in online courses and to develop online pedagogical approaches and technological course programs.

Impact of teacher collaboration on teachers’ practices and classroom interaction in EMI in higher education

In English medium instruction (EMI) contexts, students often encounter difficulties when learning content knowledge through their second/foreign/additional language (L2). Teacher collaboration (TC) between content and language specialists has been regarded as a potential approach to facilitating student learning in these contexts, since during collaboration, teachers can become more language aware and subsequently better integrate content and language teaching. While previous research has revealed the impact of TC on student learning, little attention has been paid to how it may affect teachers’ instructional practices and classroom interaction. To fill this research gap, this quasi-experimental study invited a drama course instructor and a language instructor at a Chinese university to collaborate to revise the course objectives and instructional activities. The drama instructor then used the revised materials with the experimental class (25 students) while practising her normal content-oriented teaching in the control class (25 students). Data were collected with lesson observations and recordings in the two classes, as well as semi-structured interviews with the two teachers and selected students. Drawing on the notion of language-related episodes (LREs), this study reported the differences in classroom interaction patterns between the two classes. The findings show that through collaboration with the language teacher, the drama instructor incorporated more LREs in different aspects, especially in vocabulary and text structure, in the experimental class than in her control class. These findings yield pedagogical implications for TC and for promoting classroom interaction in the EMI classroom.

Teachers’ perceptions of letter learning among adults: The case of basic literacy education in Swedish for immigrants

This article sets out to examine teacher perceptions of letter learning in literacy programmes for L2-adults with limited earlier schooling, as demonstrated in their teaching. The theoretical frame is taken from New Literacy Studies, with literacy perceived as socially shared and organised. The study draws on occasions during lesson observations where teachers addressed the issue of coding and decoding of letters. Findings suggest that these teachers follow patterns that build on assumptions and traditions with roots in the teaching of L1 children and use the material that they have at hand. The teachers’ prosodic knowledge in relation to letters and spelling was insufficient. We argue that when teachers are not aware of the phonetic and phonological challenges facing adult L2 learners, they may not give students enough support in their development of early literacy skills. Although explicit letter teaching represents only a small part of overall teaching, if teachers miss out on phonetic and phonological knowledge, they may not be able to identify difficulties for students and may even create unnecessary stumbling blocks for them. We conclude that there is a strong need for the development of basic literacy education for L2-adults to include both teacher knowledge and teaching aids.

The Transitioning of Learners from Zambian Language Literacy to English Literacy in Grade Three in Livingstone District of Zambia: Were teachers prepared to manage it?

The purpose of this study was to establish whether teachers were adequately prepared to transition learners from Zambian language literacy to English literacy in Grade three in Livingstone district. In line with this, it sought to establish the methods the teachers were using in teaching English literacy in Grade three and establish the challenges faced by teachers in managing the transition from Zambian language literacy to English literacy in Grade three. The study employed a mixed method descriptive design which involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data was collected using questionnaires, lesson observations, interviews and document analysis. A random selection and a purposive sampling were used to select respondents for the study. The study found that the teachers were not adequately trained during in-set programmers such as workshops, Continuous Professional Developments and TGMs.. Another finding was that the teacher’s attitude to the introduction of English in grade three differed. Some felt that English should be introduced in grade one, while others felt that it should be delayed at least up to grade four or five. Lack of funding at the school level to organize the school inset programs was another issue revealed in the study. it is recommended that the Ministry of Education (MOE) should introduce English literacy courses in colleges, specifically for the transition. It is also recommended that the MOE should provide Grade three English literacy materials and fund in-set programs in schools.