Subject Matter Knowledge Research Articles

Educational Improvement Science: The Art of the Improving Organization

Purpose To advocate educational improvement science (EIS) as an emerging transdisciplinary field, I reflect on the three major pathways of educational advancement in human history, discern the misuses and pitfalls of reform, and theorize how education can be improved to better serve its mission. Design/Approach/Methods Employing a multiperspectival approach, I critically re-examine educational reforms and improvements worldwide and conceptualize the emerging transdisciplinary field through an extensive literature review, etymological analysis, international comparisons, and socio-historical, -cultural and -philosophical reflections. Findings In this paper, I advance the concept of neo-improvementalism for EIS by elucidating its philosophical assumptions, disciplinary fundamentals, and theoretical frameworks through historical and comparative lenses. I identify and construct disciplinary knowledge of EIS comprising two categories, namely, subject matter knowledge and profound knowledge, adopted from improvement science. I then highlight three methodological approaches of EIS and the building of professional improvement communities empowering individual and institutional improvement capabilities. I propose that EIS is the art of the improving organization for classes, schools, and/or more broadly defined educational agencies. Originality/Value This study recognizes the significance of EIS and research thereon, especially discipline-building and exploration based on local characteristics in a global vision, and the cultivation of new frontiers of educational research and practices.

Slope conception as rate of change starter kit: Malaysian pre-service secondary mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge in rate of change

Past research on calculus has shown that students often struggle to understand derivatives due to an overemphasis on algebraic manipulation and procedures rather than grasping the underlying concept. A key factor contributing to this challenge is the lack of a solid understanding of slope as a rate of change. Conceptualizing slope as a rate of change is essential, as it serves as the basis for comprehending derivative concepts. To address this gap, our research explored subject matter knowledge of rate of change, specifically focusing on the slope concept, among Malaysian pre-service mathematics teachers. Our research followed a qualitative methodology, conducting task-based interviews with two pre-service mathematics teachers, Zheng and Amitha, who are majoring in mathematics. The interviews included seven tasks related to slope and ratio concepts. The findings revealed inconsistencies in their notion of rate of change, as they have a loose connection between rate of change and slope concepts, along with its multiplicative property. While they recognized that equivalent values of rate of change indicate a constant rate, they did not grasp that slope also represents a rate of change. Their knowledge appeared limited to viewing derivatives as a method to calculate rate of change, without conceiving the changes occurring between quantities and their multiplicative relationship.

Teachers' interpretation of curriculum as a window into ‘curriculum potential’

AbstractBen‐Peretz's (1975) concept of intended curriculum describes a version of curriculum that ‘official’ curriculum developers create to provide a detailed guide to what teachers are required to teach in schools. While some curricula are intended to guide learning, others give a more definitive regulation of what must be taught. Either way, they are a product of curriculum developers writing government policy that defines what is considered essential for students to know. The teacher then undertakes the technical task of interpreting these policy texts to discern how they will introduce the content to their students. Once the teacher receives the curriculum text, they begin a translation process. While the curriculum developer has a vision of how teachers will interpret the curriculum, the teacher's translation of the curriculum text is filtered through the teachers' understanding of the subject matter. This notion of ‘curriculum potential’ represents the culmination of the teacher's subject matter knowledge acquired throughout their education and career which serves as the reference point for curriculum interpretation. This article describes the process of curriculum interpretation used by primary teachers during the implementation of Australian curriculum reform. The study examined the interpretation process from the intended curriculum to the planned curriculum to the enacted curriculum used by the teachers and the influences impacting upon these processes. The analysis of the teachers' interpretations was demonstrated through a process for curriculum mapping developed for this study. This work will present the teachers' pathways to curriculum enactment as a hermeneutic interpretation of curriculum, revealing the teachers' curriculum potential. While frequently descriptions of curriculum potential focuss on subject matter knowledge, analysis of primary teacher curriculum interpretation necessitates a broader definition. The paper concludes that the primary teachers' interpretation process is drawn from a wider curriculum potential that intersects their knowledge of subject matter and knowledge of their students.

Portraying the developing PCK of Dutch pre-service geography teachers

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is used to describe the knowledge teachers use to teach a specific subject to a specific audience. Although PCK is linked to student success and motivation, relatively little is known about the PCK of geography teachers. Through a mixed methods approach, we surveyed a group of 73 Dutch pre-service teachers in their final year of geography teacher education. We used the PCK-consensus model to address both PCK-on action (teacher knowledge) and PCK-in action (teacher practice). We investigated the former through a CoRe-assignment and the latter through a quantitative survey. Teacher’s PCK-in action focussed on teacher-centred lessons with ample attention for visualisations, current events, and efforts to engage students. The results for PCK-on action confirmed the content dependency of PCK. Pre-service teachers chose different geographical topics and used different goals and strategies when teaching these topics. In this context, we also found that they experienced difficulties when teaching controversial issues. In a final step, we combined the results of both methods for 9 teachers in individual PCK portraits. These portraits show that coherence between PCK-elements and, therefore, PCK-quality is still weak for most pre-service teachers. Consequently, their fragile subject matter knowledge seems to influence their developing PCK.

Exploring Candidates' Initial Images of Similar Figures

This article investigates preservice candidates' knowledge of similar figures while engaged in teacher-related mathematical tasks (TRMT) with the primary goal of developing a lesson plan on similar figures. This investigation was part of a larger study investigating candidate knowledge of what and how to teach proportional reasoning concepts while engaged in TRMT. The data collection and TRMT cycle included individual discussions and reflections, group planning and discussions, and group presentations. Individual candidates also wrote their teaching philosophies and math autobiographies, which were reviewed. While candidates appeared to grasp many of the aspects of the concept of similar figures and similarity, there was a lack of precision and strength in their representations. The knowledge base of the candidates in both mathematics and teaching varied. As the study progressed, candidates relied heavily on their subject matter knowledge to justify their images and ideas.

Building Competencies Amongst Youth to Mainstream Knowledge and Soft Skills to Enable a Transformative Impact on the Society

The world is recognizing the relevance and scope of Sustainability Science (SS) as it integrates the disciplines ranging from pure sciences and social sciences and their specializations. Hence, a balance between policies, research, and direct action is integral to the field of SS. Interdisciplinarity is important for SS, and this is a relatively new area. Hence, experiments done within the scope of SS need to be recorded and intensive dissemination of lessons learnt (Haider, 2018). The youth of today should be aware of these new upcoming disciplines and be able to align their strengths to address environmental challenges with interdisciplinary skills. The future belongs to the youth, and they will also be impacted the most. Representative of vibrance and positive energies, young people are our future citizenry. The need of the hour is to enhance their knowledge of sustainability and improve their skill sets. This is achievable only when the capacity-building initiatives are planned with the right mix of pedagogy, limiting not only to subject matter knowledge but beyond, hence touching the sphere of SS. At TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), different permutations and combinations are tried to make learning creative and, at the same time, have the potential to apply learning in a larger setting. This paper presents the findings of a project run by TERI in partnership with NCSTC (National Council for Science and Technology Communication), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. TERI implemented TERI-NCSTC Eco Next Investigation for Youth, which comprised six trainings of five days each on local environmental issues. Along with core environmental learning, these workshops were also enriched with science communication and leadership training. Post this training; a few selected students worked on action projects that promised a transformative impact in their immediate neighborhoods. Through the program, TERI directly reached out to 175 students and also influenced 20 students to implement pathbreaking changes in their surroundings. The program helped students enhance their knowledge about issues related to nature conservation, eco-restoration, and nature-based solutions through tools that stressed cocreation, leadership skills, innovative approaches, and experimentation. The paper also stresses upon future research area on citizen science concept and ways in which a connect could be established with environmental education.

A teacher strategic mindset predicts efficacious and effective teaching

Efficacious, effective teaching markedly impacts students’ learning and academic achievement. How can we motivate teachers to feel efficacious, and hence teach effectively, amidst challenges? Our research introduced and tested the role of a ‘teacher strategic mindset’—an orientation towards construing teaching challenges as opportunities to step back and consider new, potentially more effective strategies. Teachers who had this strategic mindset felt more efficacious, and in turn, were more likely to report engaging in self-regulated behaviours and metacognition (Study 1). Moreover, instilling this teacher strategic mindset through a brief, online intervention causally increased teachers’ reported efficacy, and their intentions to engage in self-regulated behaviours and metacognition—specifically among those who had a growth mindset (Study 2). Beyond subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills, a teacher strategic mindset has practical value in motivating efficacious and thus effective teaching.

Subject(s) matter: a grounded theory of technology teachers’ conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology

Technology education internationally has for some time struggled to achieve continuity between what is depicted in policy and curricular documents and the reality of day-to-day practices. With its focus often articulated through the nature of activity students are to engage with, technology teachers are recognised as having significant autonomy in the design and implementation of their practices. From this, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs about technology education, as their conceptions of the subject will inform practice. As such, this study sought to investigate teachers’ conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology through reflection on their enacted practices. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was employed for the design of the study and analysis of data. According to our analysis, despite similarities between the nature of student activity that teachers designed and implemented, teachers represented the purpose of the subject in different ways. Three different conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology were identified; obtaining knowledge and skills for application, ability to act in a technological way, and ability to think in a technological way. Central to the three conceptions were contentions in the representations of what constituted subject matter knowledge in the subject, and the role that different application cases played in teaching technology. Without consideration and explicit articulation of the purposes for teaching technology, this lack of clarity and differences in rationale for teaching technology are likely to continue.

Public beliefs about good teaching

In this article, we describe public beliefs about the pedagogical approaches of very good teachers. Using an online survey of 334 adult participants and conducting an exploratory factor analysis, an analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis, along with descriptive statistics, we found that participants believed that very good teachers embraced predominantly caring and supportive pedagogical approaches and had strong subject matter knowledge. Further, they estimated that more than two-thirds of their teachers were good or very good teachers, and only 12% were bad or very bad. The best predictor for the level of agreement with the pedagogical approach that focused on relationship as opposed to delivery of the content was the proportion of very good teachers remembered by participants. Participants’ beliefs did not vary significantly across gender, race, and political orientation.

KEYS to Teaching Success: OER Supports Georgia’s Preservice Teachers

To earn teacher certification in Georgia, preservice teachers must pass an evaluation titled InternKEYS, which consists of ten professional standards assessing teachers’ pedagogical, subject matter and professional knowledge. Until 2022 Georgia’s teacher preparation programs  drew from varied texts and resources to teach these skills and concepts. With grant funding from Affordable Learning Georgia, a team from Georgia Southern University developed KEYS to Teaching Success, a digital OER designed to align directly with the InternKEYS assessment. This column outlines the multiple benefits of making this resource available to future educators. In addition to filling a gap in teacher preparation resources, KEYS to Teaching Success mitigates the high cost of preparing for a modestly-paid profession. It also fosters valuable professional relationships among those working on the development team.  Most importantly, as initial assessment data indicate, KEYS to Teaching Success effectively supports Georgia's preservice teachers as they prepare for initial certification.

Recent Methodological Trends in Epidemiology: No Need for Data-Driven Variable Selection?

Variable selection in regression models is a particularly important issue in epidemiology, where one usually encounters observational studies. In contrast to randomized trials or experiments, confounding is often not controlled by the study design, but has to be accounted for by suitable statistical methods. For instance, when risk factors should be identified with unconfounded effect estimates, multivariable regression techniques can help to adjust for confounders. We investigated the current practice of variable selection in 4 major epidemiologic journals in 2019 and found that the majority of articles used subject-matter knowledge to determine a priori the set of included variables. In comparison with previous reviews from 2008 and 2015, fewer articles applied data-driven variable selection. Furthermore, for most articles the main aim of analysis was hypothesis-driven effect estimation in rather low-dimensional data situations (i.e., large sample size compared with the number of variables). Based on our results, we discuss the role of data-driven variable selection in epidemiology.

Teacher Professional Qualification and Experience: A Requisite for Effective Classroom Teaching in Banadir Region, Somalia

This paper discussed teachers’ professional qualifications and experience as a requisite for effective classroom teaching in the Banadir region, Somalia. The paper discussed teacher professional qualifications as a person's academic or educational background or certificate that qualifies him or her to work as a teacher in a school and experience as the culmination of skill, exposure or training acquired over time that enables you to perform an existing job better or prepares you for a teaching position, others are years of teaching experience; teachers’ mastery of the subject; and teachers’ teaching or pedagogical skills as all the necessary cognitive knowledge for making teaching effective and to make suitable learning environments for learners. Several opinions of other authors were reviewed in this paper. The paper holds strongly that effective teaching is basically hinged on professional qualifications, years of teaching experience, subject matter knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge of the teacher. The paper notes with dismay that many teachers in Somalia still lack these requisite qualities. It was recommended therefore that pre-service teachers should be made to possess these core qualities such as, subject matter knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge so as to meet up with the current trend in national education. It also recommended that stakeholders in education develop a strategy for monitoring the establishment of related educational institutions in the country to ensure that the standard is not compromised.

Unpacking Language Awareness in Language Teaching

This study explores Language Awareness (LA) and its significance in language teaching. LA, a concept developed since the 1990s, plays a vital role in language learning and teaching. It involves recognizing language's nature, cultural ties, forms, and ideological implications. Teaching Language Awareness (TLA) is crucial for educators, especially within different teaching methods like "focus-on-form," "focus-on formS," and "focus-on-meaning." Challenges for educators in diverse contexts are discussed. The study addresses issues like the importance of subject-matter knowledge and educators' sensitivity to learner development. It emphasizes observation to identify language-related difficulties. Additionally, it highlights the gap between teacher education and classroom application, influenced by educator motivation and perceptions. In conclusion, this study advocates TLA's importance, identifies common challenges, and calls for further research on integrating LA into diverse teaching approaches.

Addressing Systematic Missing Data in the Context of Causally Interpretable Meta-analysis.

Evidence synthesis involves drawing conclusions from trial samples that may differ from the target population of interest, and there is often heterogeneity among trials in sample characteristics, treatment implementation, study design, and assessment of covariates. Stitching together this patchwork of evidence requires subject-matter knowledge, a clearly defined target population, and guidance on how to weigh evidence from different trials. Transportability analysis has provided formal identifiability conditions required to make unbiased causal inference in the target population. In this manuscript, we review these conditions along with an additional assumption required to address systematic missing data. The identifiability conditions highlight the importance of accounting for differences in treatment effect modifiers between the populations underlying the trials and the target population. We perform simulations to evaluate the bias of conventional random effect models and multiply imputed estimates using the pooled trials sample and describe causal estimators that explicitly address trial-to-target differences in key covariates in the context of systematic missing data. Results indicate that the causal transportability estimators are unbiased when treatment effect modifiers are accounted for in the analyses. Results also highlight the importance of carefully evaluating identifiability conditions for each trial to reduce bias due to differences in participant characteristics between trials and the target population. Bias can be limited by adjusting for covariates that are strongly correlated with missing treatment effect modifiers, including data from trials that do not differ from the target on treatment modifiers, and removing trials that do differ from the target and did not assess a modifier.

Developing and using a scalable assessment to measure preservice elementary teachers' content knowledge for teaching about matter

AbstractThere is strong agreement in science teacher education of the importance of teachers' content knowledge for teaching (CKT), which includes their subject matter knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge. However, there are limited instruments that can be easily administered and scored on a large scale to assess and study elementary science teachers' CKT. Such measures would support strategic monitoring of large groups of science teachers' CKT and the investigation of comparative questions about science teachers' CKT longitudinally across the professional continuum or across teacher education or professional development sites. To address this gap, this study focused on designing an automatically scorable summative assessment that can be used to measure preservice elementary teachers' (PSETs') CKT in one high‐leverage science content area: matter and its interactions. We conducted a field test of this CKT instrument with 822 PSETs from across the United States and used the response data to examine how this instrument functions as a potential tool for measuring PSETs' CKT in this science content area. Results suggest this instrument is reliable and can be used on large scale to support valid inferences about PSETs' CKT in this content area. In addition, the dimensionality analysis showed that all items measure a single construct of CKT about matter and its interactions, as participants did not show any differential performance by content topic or work of teaching science instructional tool categories. Implications for progressing the field's understanding of the nature of CKT and approaches to developing summative instruments to assess science teachers' CKT are discussed.

Comparative Analysis of TESOL Methods within the Context of English Language Education in Kuwaiti Universities

This research paper investigates the effectiveness of three prominent Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) methodologies—Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-Based Learning (TBL), and Content-Based Instruction (CBI)—within the context of English language education in Kuwaiti universities. The study aims to understand their impact on language proficiency development, student engagement, and long-term retention. Data were collected through interviews with experienced English teachers from diverse universities in Kuwait. The interviews provided insights into educators' experiences, perspectives, and practices employing these methodologies. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed distinct patterns for each methodology. CLT enhanced authentic communication and fluency, TBL emphasized task-oriented language use and collaboration, and CBI integrated language learning with subject matter knowledge. The study's findings highlight the significance of context-specific adaptations and offer practical implications for language education in Kuwait. Additionally, the research contributes to the broader field of TESOL by providing insights into the diverse impacts of these methodologies within a specific cultural and educational context.

<한국어교육실습 전 단계>에서 이루어진 모의수업 경험에 대한 인식 조사

This study attempted to seek measures for improving mock classes by empirically exploring how Chinese graduate students who completed “Korean Practicum” perceive the mock class of “Korean Pre-Practicum” and “Korean Practicum” experience. Based on the research, As for the PCK of pre-service teachers, the ‘class teaching method,’ ‘Korean language knowledge,’ and ‘ability to use Korean language’ were improved through the mock class experience. During “Korean Practicum,” components of the PCK of teachers, namely subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and situational knowledge, were enhanced evenly. and students showed high satisfaction with the two classes while feeling difficulties with the teaching plan and mock class. In particular, measures for improving mock classes were presented based on the self-evaluation process involving the analysis of the guidebook for teachers and reflective introspection in the mock class and based on the grammar teaching plan for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and instant feedback in “Korean Practicum.”

Scientific Approach to Learning Science in Elementary Schools

Science learning elementary schools aims to maximize the concept of science in helping daily life processes that aim to increase students' positive attitudes in solving problems in the community environment. Through the literature research method, the researcher will carry out the process of collecting literature data that has relevance to the research topic chosen by the researcher. The collected data will undergo categorization and analysis by researchers. Before drawing conclusions, a comprehensive review of the relevant literature will be carried out. The scientific approach to learning is a pedagogical method that aims to equip students with the ability to identify or find problems through observation, asking questions, formulating hypotheses, collecting data using various techniques, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and communicating findings, concepts, laws or principles. The scientific method has been developed to facilitate students' acquisition of knowledge and understanding of diverse subject matter. The scientific method allows the acquisition of information from a variety of sources, apart from one-way instructions from an educator. Utilization of the scientific method in the process of scientific learning is a scientific inquiry approach that is systematic and rigorous

Linear or smooth? Enhanced model choice in boosting via deselection of base-learners

The specification of a particular type of effect (e.g., linear or non-linear) of a covariate in a regression model can be either based on graphical assessment, subject matter knowledge or also on data-driven model choice procedures. For the latter variant, we present a boosting approach that is available for a huge number of different model classes. Boosting is an indirect regularization technique that leads to variable selection and can easily incorporate also non-linear or smooth effects. Furthermore, the algorithm can be adapted in a way to automatically select whether to model a continuous variable with a smooth or a linear effect. We enhance this model choice procedure by trying to compensate the inherent bias towards the more complex effect by incorporating a pragmatic and simple deselection technique that was originally implemented for enhanced variable selection. We illustrate our approach in the analysis of T3 thyroid hormone levels from a larger Galician cohort and investigate its performance in a simulation study.

An Analysis on Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Subject Matter Knowledge about Matrix

An Analysis on Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Subject Matter Knowledge about Matrix