Public Elementary Classrooms Research Articles

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

Teaching Stimulus Control via Class-Wide Multiple Schedules of Reinforcement in Public Elementary School Classrooms

In elementary school classrooms, students commonly recruit teacher attention at inappropriately high rates or at inappropriate times. Multiple schedule interventions have been used to teach stimulus control by signaling to students when reinforcement is and is not available contingent on an appropriate response. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a class-wide multiple schedule on differentiated rates of student recruitment of teacher attention in two public elementary classrooms. General education teachers implemented the multiple schedule intervention in the context of a common instructional routine (i.e., small group rotations among reading centers). Results indicated that the multiple schedule intervention was effective at decreasing disruptive bids for attention when teacher attention was not available. Additional research on teacher implementation of class-wide multiple schedules is needed to evaluate whether this intervention may be identified as an effective supplement to Tier 1 classroom management strategies within multi-tiered systems of support.

English Language Teaching in Japan

This paper describes Japan's most recent attempts to improve English teaching and learning at all levels of the education system both for students and teachers as well as for the public in general. Based on policy recommendations by several advisory committees, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has developed a five-year strategic plan to cultivate ‘Japanese with English Abilities’. One important issue is whether or not English should be introduced in public elementary classrooms as a subject. Various districts, nationwide, have implemented this primary English program with the government’s approval. This paper deals with the issues involved in implementing the new awareness of the importance of English as a Japanese language for international communication within the country as well as abroad.