Teaching Of Subject Areas Research Articles

Secondary School Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Online Learning Tools: Teachers’ Behaviour in Distance Education

Secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards online learning tools have been modified by systemic measures adopted in the school network as a result of COVID-19. This unexpected crisis situation forced schools to quickly implement digital infrastructure and look for optimal methods of online education. The aim of this study is to investigate on which factors (gender, age and subject area taught) the use of online tools for teaching activities depends. The aim is also to explore the subjective emotional experience of teachers when using online tools and the reasons of their perceived stress in distance education in the Covid era. The factors influencing the use of online tools for teaching, teachers’ subjective emotional experiences of using online tools, and the reasons for teachers’ perceived burden in distance education in the COVID era are analyzed using Welch’s ANOVA test and Games-Howell’s Post-Hoc test. The correlation values focused on teachers’ perceived feelings using online teaching tools are calculated by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The results are directed towards the level of teachers’ emotional experience in the context of using online tools for the respective activity. Satisfaction and well-being are experienced by teachers when explaining, activating students, assigning written work, and providing information resources. The study identified a major problem in education, which is the use of online tools for oral examinations. Another problem is the integration of homework into online education. The study has practical impact on the integration of teachers’ digital competences. A holistic approach should be developed in teacher training, seeking to fully integrate digital competences, and social and health aspects should also be taken into account.

The Feasibility of Socratic Teaching in Theory and Practice

There have been extensive research on Socratic teaching in various subject areas in China, most of which are about the application of Socratic method in teaching and its enlightenment to the teaching classroom. Many authors have studied Socratic teaching through experiments and achieved good results. This paper reviews the theoretical and practical feasibility of Socratic classroom teaching in different fields. This paper introduces several common teaching methods, such as the lecturing teaching method, inquiry teaching method, practice teaching method and example teaching method. There are some similarities and differences between Socratic teaching method and these common teaching methods. Compared with these common teaching methods, the Socratic teaching method is an innovation in teaching. Some theoretical and experimental arguments can be obtained from the literature to prove that Socratic teaching is feasible in both theory and practice. Socratic teaching is of great significance to the education of most scholars, who can get some experience from it. Through the experience of Socratic teaching mode in the classroom, this study hopes to inspire teachers to be student-centered and pay attention to the guidance of students in teaching rather than indoctrination.

In-Service Science Teacher’s Perceptions Towards the Use of Information Communication Technology Tools in Teaching and Learning in a COVID-19 Environment

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have been growing incredibly for the past twenty years in most sectors; however, much needs to be achieved within the education fraternity itself. Teachers are still relying on traditional teaching methods and Botswana is currently far behind in benefiting from ICT usage in the classroom. This study critically analysed the ICT infrastructure found in Botswana’s secondary schools, assesses teachers’ skills, knowledge, confidence, and their perception of the integration of ICT in teaching and learning. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect data from 350 respondents. The results revealed that ICT use and integration in Botswana secondary schools during the Covid – 19 period posed some challenges even though it was beneficial to an extent where there was learner academic improvement. This has been influenced by factors such as lack of skills, lack of confidence in the use of technology by teachers, and lack of ICT equipment in schools. The study recommends that schools should be equipped with the relevant ICT infrastructures, have adequate resources, and that facilitators should be trained on the right pedagogies and use of ICT in teaching and learning. Furthermore, curriculum developers should integrate ICT teaching in subject areas. The findings of this study will contribute to the correct pedagogies and best practices of teaching, and how issues teachers found in technology use can be solved and addressed amicably for the benefit of the greater masses. The educational stakeholders can make use of these findings to improve knowledge and attitudes toward the successful adoption and implementation of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning during the pandemic. Keywords: technology adoption, in-service teachers, perceptions towards

DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE THROUGH CULTURAL TEXT-BASED TEACHING

Teaching a foreign language needs to include its relevant culture as the context of the language use. However, studies indicate that many English lecturers in Indonesia have not integrated culture yet in their teaching materials, resulting in students’ low intercultural communicative competence (ICC). This three-cycle class action research was aimed to improve the ICC of first semester students majoring in metallurgy engineering through cultural text-based intercultural teaching. It was designed to overcome problems related to the limited opportunity for speaking practice and insufficient cultural contents in the English materials. Classroom observations and interviews with 22 students and the lecturer revealed that this cultural text-based intercultural teaching was practical to improve the students’ ICC. The integration of cultural texts in various forms: pictures, mind-maps, reading passages, and videos relevant to the subject field, enables the students to interact indirectly with the cultures of people from diverse communities. Answering questions and discussing language and cultural elements as well as the contents of the texts shapes their critical thinking. Their achievement in the role-play is the reflection of their improved ICC and shows their enhanced English skills. Nevertheless, the students’ limited grammatical knowledge and lack of writing practice became constraints during their writing test. Further studies might investigate the solution for this problem, especially related to the effectiveness of this intercultural teaching in other subject areas.

Transforming Research Tasks to Avoid Plagiarism

In 2006-2007, Scotch College, along with 3 other schools was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to undertake research into how students use information – “Generating knowledge and avoiding plagiarism: Smart information use by secondary students”The research involved collaboration between teachers and teacher librarians to develop models of teaching in various subject areas which encourage students to generate new knowledge and avoid plagiarism.This paper will outline steps towards building a culture of collaboration and team work; strategies employed by teacher librarians to reduce plagiarism; and reflections from teachers, teacher librarians and students.

Peer teaching: Students teaching students to increase academic performance

AbstractPeer teaching among students has a powerful role in the learning process and has been studied and recognized as an effective teaching method. Research on peer teaching applied in different contexts has shown that learning through the process of teaching others increases students' academic performance. In Indonesia, some research on peer teaching has been conducted, but there has been no research on peer teaching in the context of theological studies. Hence, this empirical study aims to verify whether peer teaching is effective when applied in a theological school setting. In this study, students of a homiletics course were the research sample. Results show that peer teaching had a positive effect on students' academic performance. However, further research is recommended on the application of peer teaching in other subject areas to confirm the effectiveness of peer teaching in a theological school context.

Remaining the Vocational Professional: A Grounded Theory Study of IVET Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development

The Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST), Malta’s leading VET provider, opened its doors in 2001 and has since invested heavily in recruiting industry professionals to teach a variety of vocational subjects. New full-time educators commit to complete an in-service pedagogy course within the first five years of employment. However, as full-time IVET educators become seasoned teachers and academics, they run the risk of losing technical competences related to their former vocational profession or discipline. The aim of this grounded theory study is to explore Continuing Professional Development (CPD) practices that enable IVET educators to maintain and update subject-related technical competences. Five in-depth interviews were carried out with IVET lecturers within the Institute of Business Management and Commerce (IBMC) at MCAST. The findings show that, whilst the notion of what constitutes CPD was interpreted differently, all participants had participated in some form of technical CPD at their own initiative, ranging from reading, conferences, seminars, and courses, or practising in the subject-specific area. However, all teachers agreed that the value derived from work placements cannot be replicated by other forms of CPD. Teachers also expressed the need for individually tailored technical CPD, depending on the stage of professional development and subject area taught. Finally, the findings suggest that those teachers who are bound to carry out CPD to meet the requirements set by a professional board (e.g. Accountancy Board or Chamber of Engineers) engage in CPD more systematically and mindfully, highlighting the need for MCAST’s own career planning and CPD policy.

Teacher Hiring and Fit Within A Diverse School District

ABSTRACT Research examining the teacher hiring process is scant and has largely ignored the principal’s role. This qualitative, comparative case study uses Person-Environment fit to explore teacher hiring in two high schools with divergent characteristics in the same district. Findings suggest that fit is a dynamic quality, depending on school context and evolving through the phases of hiring and into job performance. Moreover, the dynamic of fit hinges on teacher experience and subject area taught. Awareness of varied trajectories of fit are crucial to the ability of the principal to design an approach to hiring appropriate to her or his school.

Language Diversity in the Classroom and Different Subject Teachers’ Professional Competence: Some Problems and Solutions

The relevance of research findings is connected to the problem that over the past decade Latvian schools and schools for national minorities have grown considerably with respect to their linguistic and ethnic diversity. Students who are beginning to learn the national language can be grouped into two categories, one for whom Latvian is the mother tongue and one for whom Latvian is a second or foreign language. Subject-area teachers must engage in further professional development on how to deal with the linguistic and ethnic diversity of their students; they need to help them to become familiar with the content of the different subjects. This study aims to highlight the work needed in the different subject areas and to suggest some potential realistic solutions for teachers’ professional development. Helpful in this respect are materials and methods of language theory and linguodidactics, cultural theory as well as some empirical observations of teaching in different subject areas. The professional competence of teachers with respect to linguistic and ethnic matters is connected with the necessity to recognize the individuality of students and to find out about similarities and developments in different ethnicities and cultures. It is equally important to keep in mind the balance between language and content in each subject, the organization of students’ extra-curricular time and their meaningful use of information materials and media (TV, computer, mobile phones, games with special computer programs, interactive whiteboards, etc.).

Educação inclusiva: apontamentos sobre a história, políticas e práticas de inclusão na escola

This study aims to discuss theoretically supported in the global and national levels policies in special education, covering its history in Brazil. Seeking to get some notes so that you can qualify the process of school inclusion of students with special educational needs supported in relation to the activities developed in special education from the PIBID education, Federal University of Pampa, Jaguarao Campus - RS, subject area teaching modes: special Ed and EJA. We hope that through this text, we can think of special education and its inclusive context in order to effectively integrate students in the regular school system.

Technology practices: Confirmatory factor analysis and exploration of teachers' technology integration in subject areas

It is thought that gains in student learning from the use of digital technologies are more likely to be related to teachers' practice than the technology itself. In secondary schooling, a key aspect of this is concerned with understanding how digital technologies are used to support teaching and learning in specific subject areas. Subject areas have their own conventions and expectations for learning that will influence teachers' technology use and technology-supported student tasks. The aim of this paper is to present confirmatory factor analysis of a scale considering common technology-related tasks in three subject areas. Data included in the current analysis are teacher questionnaires collected in 2010 (N = 3624), as part of a large-scale one-to-one laptop initiative in Australia. Results from the 2010 data confirm a five-factor structure revealing significant differences in teachers' professional and instructional uses of digital technologies among three core subject areas: English, Mathematics and Science. Trends are confirmed through a second teacher data set collected in 2011 for Wave 2 of the same one-on-one laptop initiative. Implications of these findings in relation to understanding and supporting effective technology integration and areas of future research are discussed.

Re-envisioning Multicultural Education in Diverse Academic Contexts

Abstract The authors, who respectively represent a large research institution and a small Liberal Arts college located in different geographic and sociocultural contexts, compare and contrast institutional multicultural education policies and practices. Drawing from their current research and the vast literature focusing on equitable and inclusive education, they articulate recommendations for re-envisioning multicultural education to enhance teaching and learning in all subject areas and across diverse academic contexts.

Blogging for Teaching and Learning: An Examination of Experience, Attitudes, and Levels of Thinking

Blogs have been widely used in education since their emergence. Educational researchers and practitioners have integrated blogs into teaching and learning in different subject areas, but does blog use encourage critical thinking? This paper presents a study, which explores peer commenting for critical thinking in blog writing. In order to discover blogging for skill development, survey method and focus group were employed in this study. Results of blog content analysis indicate levels of critical thinking remain constant with or without peer commenting. Based on the findings, recommendations are provided for effective use of blogs for instruction.

Inexpensive Videodisc for Proficiency: A Teaching Model Based on Bruner's Learning Hierarchy

A classroom scenario provides a specific example of how a teacher implements the inexpensive videodisc model of instruction to enhance proficiency in the classroom. With this model, a teacher uses the remote control unit of the videodisc to operate the disc player much like a remote controlled television with the additional benefit of random access. The theoretical underpinnings for this model are provided by Bruner's learning hierarchy consisting of the iconic, enactive, and symbolic stages, which are related to the steps of the teaching model. The model is also supported by the "effective teaching literature" and allows the teacher to remain in control of the classroom while directing activities that encourage creative dialogue production integrating previously introduced lexical items. Moreover, this model lends itself to the teaching of other subject matter areas.

Social and Emotional Learning Research: Intervention Studies for Supporting Adolescents in Turkey

This study is a systematic literature review that examines intervention research on social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in secondary schools of Turkey. Overall, 12 intervention studies were identified that had examined school programs on SEL-related topics. These topics included values development, conflict resolution, anger management, self- esteem enhancement, peer mediation, and several classroom-based interventions within subject area teaching. Findings suggest gaps in the publication of high quality research on intervention programs for supporting social and emotional learning in secondary schools of Turkey, along with inattention to how such programs influence academic achievement.

A survey of exemplar teachers' perceptions, use, and access of computer-based games and technology for classroom instruction

This research reports and analyzes for archival purposes surveyed perceptions, use, and access by 259 United States based exemplar Primary and Secondary educators of computer-based games and technology for classroom instruction. Participating respondents were considered exemplary as they each won the Milken Educator Award during the 1996-2009 computer era. Overall perceptions are reported along with trend, differences in perceptions by subject area taught, and differences in perception by Primary and Secondary teacher population categories. Overall game usage is reported along with association of perceptions with game usage as well as usage differences due to grade category. Among other findings, adoption of computer-based games for educational use in the classroom by exemplar Primary teacher populations appeared to be in the Late Majority stage of the Rogers Technology Adoption Curve while adoption in the classroom by exemplar Secondary teacher populations appeared to be in the beginning of the Early Majority stage.

The Higher The Quality Of Teaching The Higher The Quality Of Education

The higher education plays as leadership role in the system of education. Quality education can ensure security, welfare and prosperity of a nation. The key factors influencing the quality of higher education is the quality of faculty, curriculum standards, technological infrastructure available, research environment, accreditation regime, administrative policies, financing, evaluation and good governance. The main objectives of the study were (1) To evaluate the indicators of good teaching. (2) To examine the institutional policies for valuing the teaching. (3) To examine the contribution of teaching towards professional development of teachers. (4) To find out institutional efforts for enhancing the professional development of teachers. For study purposes five federal universities of Islamabad were taken and their faculties were included in the population. Twenty teachers of each university were taken as the sample of the study. This sample was selected with the help of the students from each department. As students are considered tougher evaluators of the teachers so the selection of the good teachers was completed on the basis of the five common competencies such as competencies related to subject and subject area teaching, competencies related to teaching and learning, competencies in research work and competencies related to professional behaviour .This survey type study was conducted through a questionnaire. The study concluded that good teaching does not pay any benefit to teachers except self-satisfaction and also finding that the requirements for quality teaching are not available in universities. The present study recommends the higher quality of teaching may be ranked and recognized at local, national and international level.

No One Has Ever Seen God: The Use of Religious Archives for Nonreligious Purposes

The use of religious archives for nonreligious purposes is not a recent trend. A trend that has emerged recently is the extent to which religion-oriented archives and special collections have profoundly affected research and teaching in subject areas having little or nothing to do with religiosity. Not only have religious archives contributed to pedagogy in these areas in a profound way, but recent trends have transformed them from religious family history/genealogy centers and institutional memory repositories into secular teaching and learning centers. The article observes the use of religious archives and other religious materials in recent years. The natural assumption to expect primarily religious research to be occurring in religious archives and to find primarily religious topics in the religious literature is not often the case. Has the potential to research religious subjects in religious archives been exhausted? The use of religious archives and religious materials for nonreligious purposes is continuing and growing. Is this trend the future for religious archives?

Didactics — Learning and Teaching in Europe

The place of didactics, learning and teaching has been the subject of discussion within the European Educational Research Association (EERA) for several years. Significant steps were taken in 2006 at the conference in Geneva to advance this work through the organisation of an Invited Plenary Panel and an Opening Symposium as the first steps towards establishing a new EERA Network in this field. These initiatives received strong support and led to the establishment of Network 27 on Didactics – Learning and Teaching. The articles in this special issue of EERJ are based on contributions made by the authors to the Opening Symposium and Plenary Panel at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Geneva in 2006. Whilst issues related to teaching, learning and subject content are central to pedagogical practices, associated discussions have tended to be fragmented. This fragmentation can be reinforced by institutional structures, particular policy initiatives, the strength of some discourse communities and the relative weaknesses of others. EERA Network 27 on Didactics – Learning and Teaching has been established with the aim of providing a space for dialogue for integrating such discussions, and this issue of EERJ is intended to provide a record of the starting point and to support the process of widening the debate. We hope this space will attract interest from educational researchers with interests in pedagogical practices, curriculum, student learning and the teaching of specific subject areas. This issue of EERJ comes at a time of growing interest in teaching and learning at an international level, including particular interest in questions related to associated research and scholarship. Against this background are the long traditions within continental Europe when it comes to such questions. For example, the tradition of Didaktik can be traced back to John Amos Comenius in the seventeenth century though there is little discussion of didactics as such in the English-speaking educational community. Discussions about the nature of didactics, learning and teaching have taken on different characteristics in different national contexts and development has been especially strong in the domain of subject didactics. Furthermore, associated ideas have influenced the development of teacher education significantly in several countries within continental Europe over recent years. For these reasons we believe that it is timely to create a space for dialogue in order to share perspectives and questions collectively as an EERA community in relation to the advancement of research and scholarship in the field of didactics, learning and teaching. This issue includes articles based on the presentations made at the ECER in Geneva by Stefan Hopmann, Michel Caillot, Yves Chevallard, Brian Hudson, Kirsti Klette and Meinert A. Meyer. Stefan Hopmann traces the origin of Didaktik back to the ideas of students’ activity (Socrates), in a disciplinary setting (Hugh of Saint Victor), with a certain order of knowledge (Thomas Aquinas) and necessary choice of subject matter (Comenius). In the German context, Didaktik, in its different forms, can be described as systematic reflection about how to organise teaching in a

Teaching Styles among Shanghai Teachers in Primary and Secondary Schools

This study had two aims. The first was to validate further Sternberg’s theory of mental self‐government in a Chinese cultural setting. The second was to investigate the relationship between teaching styles and teachers’ characteristics. Two hundred and three (64 males, 139 females) primary and secondary school teachers from Shanghai, mainland China, participated in the study. Research participants responded to the Chinese version of the Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory (TSTI), based on Sternberg’s theory of mental self‐government. They also provided a range of demographic information including gender, age, educational level, number of years of teaching experience, subject area taught, and grade taught. The results showed that the TSTI is basically a reliable and valid inventory for assessing the teaching styles of primary and secondary school teachers in Shanghai. The results also found that some teaching styles differed statistically in relation to teachers’ particular personal variables, and partially supported the viewpoint that thinking styles are socialised. The general implications of these findings for teaching in primary and secondary schools are discussed.