Teaching Load Research Articles

The analysis on teaching skills and learning effectiveness of internship students

The effectiveness of implementing Pengenalan Lapangan Persekolahan, a new program of introduction to teaching internship, for PE students, is still questionable, starting from its impact on teaching skills, learning effectiveness, and students' teaching load. Meanwhile, this point is significant in Kurikulum Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM). For this reason, this analytic study will criticize MBKM by providing evidence of the effectiveness of existing internships in the form of teaching skills, learning effectiveness, and students' teaching load. A total of 32 students were selected using consecutive sampling. Teaching skills were measured by observing 12 indicators and learning effectiveness was measured using Formative Class Evaluation (FCE) instrument. Anova Repeated Measure was used to analyse the data. The results show that the new program of introduction to teaching internship is not practical, proved by the progressive improvement of teaching skills followed by the ineffectiveness of the learning process. Students feel they have an overload teaching schedule, so that self-development activities are minimal, even though the tutor teachers have guided optimally. It can be concluded that the new program of introduction to teaching internship is less effective because of the overload teaching schedule in such limited time. It is then expected that the longer internship duration would enrich students' experiences under supervision and more comprehensive teaching load regulation.

Publishing more than reviewing? Some ethical musings on the sustainability of the peer review process

Based on our editorial experience, and acknowledging the regular editor grievances about reviewer disengagement at professional meeting and conferences, in this article we argue that the review system is in need of significant repair. We argue that this has emerged because an audit culture in academia and individual incentives (like reduced teaching loads or publication bonuses) have eroded the willingness of individuals to engage in the collective enterprise of peer-reviewing each others’ work on a quid pro quo basis. In response to this, we emphasise why it is unethical for potential reviewers to disengage from the review process, and outline the implications for our profession if colleagues publish more than they review. Designed as a political intervention in response to reviewer disengagement, we aim to ‘politicise’ the review process and its consequences for the sustainability of the scholarly community. We propose three pathways towards greater reviewer engagement: (i) senior scholars setting the right kind of ‘reviewer’ example; (ii) journals introducing recognition awards to foster a healthy reviewer progression path and (iii) universities and accreditation bodies moving to explicitly recognise reviewing in workload models and evaluations. While all three proposals have merit, the latter point is especially powerful in fostering reviewer engagement as it aligns individual and institutional goals in ‘measurable’ ways. In this way, ironically, the audit culture can be subverted to address the imbalance between individual and collective goals.

The effect of real-time pose recognition on badminton learning performance

ABSTRACT Badminton is a very popular subject in Physical Education (PE). Many students enroll badminton courses in every semester which pose a tremendous teaching load to the instructors. The one-on-one guiding/feedback time provided by the instructor to each student is also greatly reduced. To overcome this challenge, some studies have tried to adopt pose recognition technique in teaching badminton. However, the lack of mobility and recognition accuracy problems hinder its applicability. To address this issue, a new pose recognition technique, OpenPose, was employed to develop a real-time pose recognition badminton teaching APP in this study. The APP was then installed on a mobile device to enhance badminton smash skill learning performance. The scores distribution of the experimental group shows majority of students achieved satisfactory performance, this implies the badminton teaching APP is helpful to all students no matter what their initial skill levels are.

The Italian American Studies Association at Fifty-Five: 1966–2021

The Italian American Studies Association at Fifty-Five: 1966–2021

Classroom Performance and Ancillary Functions Among Secondary School Teachers in the Third District of Bohol

Classroom performance is measured through classroom observation, both announced and unannounced. Ancillary functions are additional responsibilities other than the mandated teaching load mandated by the department manual. The study looked into classroom performance and ancillary functions among secondary school teachers in the 3rd district of Bohol. It also determined if a correlation exists between the two variables. It utilized the descriptive-normative method with a survey tool to gather data from administrators, coordinators, and faculty among selected secondary public and private schools in the 3rd congressional district, Bohol. Overall, there was a 440-sample size from a 505 population with a 1.68 margin of error at a 95 percent confidence interval. It used frequencies, percentages, weighted mean, and nonparametric statistical treatment utilizing Spearman Rho, Fisher’s Exact Test, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, and Paired Sample Test. Freidman Test of Difference. Findings revealed that the overall performance in announced observation was “Outstanding” while unannounced observations were rated “Satisfactory.” Results revealed that teachers were partially involved in ancillary functions. A significant correlation was found between each of the nine indicators of classroom performance and the level of ancillary functions. Hence, when the given indicators of classroom performance are leveled up, the teachers are more likely to be engaged in ancillary functions. Teacher respondents in private schools obtained higher ratings in unannounced classroom observations.

Peer feedback and teacher feedback: a comparative study of revision effectiveness in writing instruction for EFL learners

ABSTRACT This study investigated the revision effectiveness of peer feedback in comparison with teacher feedback, before and after a peer feedback training intervention that was designed to be implementable in large teaching load contexts and with EFL students. Fifty-six EFL students across two different class sections received teacher or peer feedback before and after training across five different writing assignments, with feedback conditions manipulated within and between class sections. Results show that EFL peer reviewers can provide more meaning-focused feedback than do teachers and that the impact of each piece of feedback on revision quality improves after training.

Maintaining Essential Course Features When Moving Introductory Physics Labs Online

The sudden transition to online teaching due to the pandemic in spring 2020 provided us the opportunity to experience firsthand the challenges involved in delivering labs online. After learning that our introductory lab courses would be taught online fall 2020 and spring 2021, which involve over 2200 students, the decision was made to invest significant effort into redesigning the labs for online delivery, and this effort became part of the teaching load for the first author. This paper discusses the decisions made, innovations implemented to maintain essential features of our in-person labs, and lessons learned.

University professors' mental and physical well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and distance teaching.

Strict strategies including lockdowns and working from home were adopted worldwide during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. University professors suddenly shifted to work from home adopting distance teaching. This study aimed to investigate Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and its associated occupational and health factors during COVID-19 among university professors. A cross-sectional design targeted university professors of all majors in Jordan. The study self-administered survey included demographics and lifestyle data, 12-item Short Form health survey (SF-12), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21), professor' evaluation of distance teaching, Neck Disability Index (NDI), and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Descriptive analyses were conducted to demonstrate primary outcome measures data. Factors associated with HRQoL were determined using a multiple variable linear regression analysis. A total of 299 university professors successfully completed the study. Participants' SF-12 physical health component score was 74.08 (±18.5) and 65.74 (±21.4) for mental health component. Higher depression, stress, neck disability, and weight change were significantly associated with lower HRQoL level. While higher satisfaction with distance teaching, health self-evaluation, and work load change were significantly associated with higher HRQoL level. The regression model explained 66.7%of the variance in professors' HRQoL (r2 = 0.667, F = 82.83, P < 0.001). Jordanian university professors demonstrated good HRQoL and mental health levels during COVID-19 lockdown. Factors associated with professors' HRQoL should be considered by academic institutions in determining the best occupational setup of teaching activities in future pandemics.

School Teachers’ Perceptions of Similarities and Differences between Teaching English and a Non‐Language Subject

AbstractTeaching a language subject in school is often referred to as being different and unique compared to teaching a non‐language subject. However, the few existing studies examining this claim have mainly investigated the viewpoints of teachers who only teach one language, thus failing to achieve a comparison based on teachers’ actual lived experiences of teaching two different subjects. The present study was designed to address this gap by exploring 11 upper secondary school teachers’ perceptions of similarities and differences between teaching English and a non‐language subject. Austria and Norway were chosen as contexts for the study since both countries qualify state secondary school teachers to teach a minimum of two subjects simultaneously as part of their regular teaching load. The analysis of the semi‐structured interviews revealed that the teaching of various subjects shares some similarities but is highly influenced by contextual factors. The most striking finding was the perceived different status of subjects across contexts and the consequences of this for teachers and learners. The findings underline the importance of contextualizing data and understanding the ecology in which teaching and learning of any subject or any language takes place.

Future‐proofing IJMR as a leading management journal: Reach, relevance and reputation

Future‐proofing <i>IJMR</i> as a leading management journal: Reach, relevance and reputation

E-teaching Skills among Faculty Members of Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University (PSAU) Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT This research aimed at identifying the level of practice of electronic teaching skills among the faculty members of PSAU and detecting the effects of the following research variables: Teaching Load, Students Number, and Teaching Experience, through surveying (153) faculty member in PSAU in 2020. The results showed that the faculty members agreed that e-teaching skills are highly practiced in technology, design, and management fields in PSAU. The results also proved that there were no statistically significant differences to (design and management fields, and overall skill) according to the ‘Teaching Load’ variable. There were also statistically significant differences to (the technology field) according to the ‘Teaching Load’ variable in favor of those with ‘lighter teaching load with administrative duties’. However, there were no statistically significant differences to (design and management fields, and overall skills) according to the ‘Student Number’ variable.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES FACING SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS IN TULKAREM DIRECTORATE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS THEMSELVES

The study aims to identify the organizational challenges facing school administrators in Tulkarem directorate from the point of view of the school principals themselves. In addition, it shows the impact of the variables related to the gender, qualification, experience and geographical location on organizational challenges. An online questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data. The study sample consisted of 138 male and female principals selected randomly. Moreover, the descriptive analytical approach was used to analyze the data through the SPSS statistical analysis software, and to draw the conclusions. The results of the research have shown that the section stating the principals' lack of familiarity with new developments in management science and the lack of valid basic data needed to prepare plans was great. In addition, the arithmetic average was very big for the sections stating the following: the proliferation of generalizations and decisions in such a way which makes following up their implementation take time and effort at the expense of other work, obligating schools to follow rules and instructions to the letter, poor cooperation between the school administration and senior levels of administration, and the regulations established on ideal grounds are difficult to be realistically complied with at schools. Moreover, the results have indicated that there were no individual differences in the most common organizational administrative challenges among public school principals in Tulkarem governorate according to gender, specialization, qualification and years of experience. The researcher recommends that schools should be provided with integral administrative staff, schools should be also provided with equipment and materials, principals should be given more authority especially with regard to students' problems, teachers should be provided and their teaching loads should be reduced, accurate scientific criteria should be established for selecting and training members of school administration, overlapping of school administration specialties should be avoided, and communication channels should be established between the school administration and educational administration.

Identifying learning styles and cognitive traits in a learning management system

Investigating learner behavior is an increasingly important research topic in online learning. Learning styles and cognitive traits have been the subjects of research in this area. Although learning institutions use Learning Management Systems such as Moodle, Claroline, and Blackboard to facilitate teaching, the platforms do not have features for analyzing data and identifying behavior such as learning styles and cognitive traits. Instead, they only produce certain statistical reports from the daily access records. Even though complex models have been proposed in the literature, most studies are based on a single behavior such as learning styles or cognitive traits but not both. Only a few have investigated a combination of cognition-based theories such as working memory capacity and psychology-based ones such as learning styles. Thus, this study sought to answer the research question of whether it was possible to establish a methodology for the estimation of learning styles and cognitive traits from a learning management system. The study combined the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model and Cognitive Trait Model as theoretical frameworks to identify behavior in a Learning Management System. This study designed a model for extracting records from Learning Management Systems access records to estimate learning style and cognitive traits. From this, a prototype was developed to estimate the learning style and cognitive traits for each student. The model was evaluated by administering manual tools to students in a classroom environment then comparing the results gathered against those estimated by the model. The results analyzed using Kappa statistics demonstrated the interrater reliability results were moderately in agreement. Taken together, these results suggest that it is possible to estimate the learning styles and cognitive traits of a learner in a Learning Management System. The information generated by the model can be used by tutors to provide a conducive online learning environment where learners with similar behavior ask each other for help. This can reduce the teaching load for online tutors because learners themselves act as a teaching resource. Information on learning styles and cognitive styles can also facilitate online group formation by isolating the individual factors that contribute to team success.

Perceptions of elementary teachers about physical activity breaks in the classroom

The purpose of this study was to explore classroom teachers’ perceptions in providing physical activity breaks during their regular lessons in their classrooms. Twenty-two randomly selected school teachers (6 men and 16 women) from public urban elementary schools participated in this study. Data collection took place in the participating school settings during regular school time and included 30-minute semi-structured interviews, teachers’ reflective journals and field notes taken for classroom facilities, number of students in each class, available space in each class, etc. Data were analyzed inductively by conducting a systematic search for similar patterns that occurred across the collected data. According to the results, teachers identified barriers to implementation of activity breaks, such as a) had a hard time for class management when movement activities were included, b) did not have a minimum repertoire of activities to implement in class, c) had limited pedagogical knowledge in implementing the activity breaks, d) had difficulties in re-starting the class, e) had a limitation of time, due to the additional workload, beyond their regular teaching load in class and other school responsibilities and f) had limited space to implement physical activity breaks in the classroom. As far as the content, results showed that teachers prefer activity breaks relevant to the lesson, enjoyable to students, or waking up students to attend the rest of the lesson effectively. These findings may have practical implications regarding physical education teacher education and professional development for classroom teachers.

Coping strategies of Vietnamese overseas-trained returnees to do research in home university contexts

PurposeThis study focuses on Vietnamese international students who returned from their overseas doctoral education to home universities in Vietnam (henceforth Vietnamese overseas-trained returnees). The purpose is to explore the experience of these returnees “doing research” (i.e. being research active) when resuming a lecturing role at a Vietnamese regional university. In the context of research now receiving heightened attention in both the wider global higher education (HE) discourse and the Vietnamese HE sector, this study is timely and provides valuable insights.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 76 Vietnamese overseas-trained returnees from varied disciplinary backgrounds completed a questionnaire on their research motivation and their perceived constraints doing research. Eighteen subsequently took part in semi-structured interviews. The study draws on the notion of human agency from the sociocultural perspective to understand the coping strategies of the Vietnamese overseas-educated returnees in response to the challenges they encountered.FindingsThe results show that the returnees' motivations to conduct research varied, fuelled by passion, but constrained by multiple factors. Time constraints, heavy teaching loads, familial roles and lack of specialized equipment are key inhibiting factors in re-engaging in research for these returnees. Addressing them necessitated a great deal of readaptation, renegotiation and agentive resilience on the part of the returnees in employing different coping strategies to pursue research.Practical implicationsThe paper argues for a subtle understanding of the returnees' experience of re-engaging in research that is both complex and contextual. Implications are drawn for research development in the regional Vietnamese HE context and perhaps in other similar settings.Originality/valueThere is little empirical knowledge about how Vietnamese returned graduates – university lecturers – continue doing research after their return. Also underexplored in global discourse is research on foreign-educated returnees doing research, while they are an important source of human resources. The present study, therefore, fills these research gaps.

The Health of the Classics Job Market during the Pandemic: A Long-Term Perspective

The pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a 60% decline in the scale of the academic job market in classics in Canada and the United States. Review of online job posting data stretching back to the mid-1990s shows that the health of this market correlates closely with that of the economy at large. While minor year-to-year economic fluctuations have a minimal impact on the job market in the long term, recessions fundamentally alter its character, with the market remaining depressed for years after the economy itself has recovered. Compounding this problem is the oversupply of PhDs flooding the market at present, a consequence of the long training period of graduate school, which keeps PhD output high for many years after a wave of undergraduate enrolment peaks. A third factor is the trend in academia to short-term positions with high teaching loads, which leads to fewer openings for permanent jobs and a diminished need for faculty. Taken together, current trends bode ill for the future of our discipline and pose an existential threat for many smaller programs.

July 2021 Placement Ads

July 2021 Placement Ads

Academia is racist: Barriers women faculty face in academic public contexts

AbstractThrough addressing four public universities in Egypt, the author of this paper aims to uncover the main barriers women faculty face when fulfilling their academic roles. The author employed a qualitative research method through conducting semi‐structured interviews with 40 female academics. Moreover, he subsequently used thematic analysis to determine the main ideas in the transcripts. The author of the present study has identified the poor representation of women faculty at both professorial levels and in managerial academic positions. The study indicated that heavy teaching loads, lengthy working hours, accusations of low productivity, growth of masculine power distance and limited empowerment opportunities are the main barriers hindering the status and representation of women faculty in the addressed universities. The findings also showed that social realities, which include the implicit relations among humans (male and female faculty in this case) in the workplace and also relations between humans and their surrounding natural world (stakeholders in the surrounding environment in the present case) decide the volume of knowledge and level of power women might attain. This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management and higher education, in which empirical studies on the status of women faculty and the barriers they face have been limited so far.

Distance education during COVID 19: an Italian survey on the university teachers\u2019 perspectives and their emotional conditions

BackgroundFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education (DE) replaced traditional “face-to-face” teaching and has become the main method of teaching. The aim of this study was to 1) evaluate the impact of DE by teachers in our department during the second semester of the 2019–20 academic year following the March–May 2020 Italian national lockdown and 2) evaluate the relationship between DE and the emotional well-being of teachers during the period of home confinement.MethodsNinety-seven university teachers (51.5% women; most represented age group 60–69 years range, 40.2%) responded to an anonymous online cross-sectional survey between July 15 – September 30, 2020, on the advantages and disadvantages of DE, developed by one online teacher focus group. The emotional conditions were assessed by a short version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). The internal consistency reliability survey and the 10-item BDI-II were measured by Cronbach’s alpha. A correlation analysis (r-Pearson) was conducted between the overall evaluation of the experience of DE and the variables included in the study.ResultsTeachers reported difficulties in technical aspects, and in psychological factors, as the discomfort of “speaking in the void” (64.7%). The absence of “face-to-face” eye contact with the students was complained by 81% of teachers.Significant impairments in sleep patterns and loss of energy were reported, with female teachers having greater difficulty concentrating than their male colleagues. A quarter of teachers showed depressive symptoms of varying severity.The most satisfied teachers were those most stimulated by DE (r = 0.752, p < 0.000), who showed a lower impact of depressive symptoms (r = − 0.289, p = 0.005). The teaching load in hours influenced the perception of disadvantages (r = 0.214, p = 0.035) and contributed to a lower appreciation of the challenges of DE.The more significant the manifestation of depressive symptoms during the lockdown was, the greater the subjective recovery of a good emotional condition once the domestic confinement was over (r = 0.344, p = 0.001), despite maintaining DE.ConclusionsOur study highlights the impact of technical, didactic, and psychological difficulties of DE, reported by our teachers. The appreciation of their new learning promoted by DE seemed related to better emotional well-being of university teachers accepting this “challenge” in their important role in the high-education system, influencing good learning and promoting students’ professional success.

Stress Management Amidst of the Covid-19 Pandemic of Public Junior High School Teachers in Selected High School of Aborlan North District

This study was conducted from February 2021 to March 2021 to determine the stress management amidst the covid - 19 pandemics of the junior high school teachers in selected high schools of Aborlan North. The descriptive research design, specifically the survey method, was used in this study. Data were gathered through survey questionnaires. A total of 39 permanent teachers were enumerated from the selected high schools as the respondents of the study. The result showed that most of the respondents were married females in their middle age. They had been in the service for a mean of 11.3 years and almost three fourth (74.4%) of them were Secondary School Teacher I with a mean teaching load of 26.4 hours per week. The perceived sources of stress such as work, family, personal, and environmental were considered distinctly part of the respondents’ lives. The level of perceived stress of the respondents was noted to be “high stress”. The activities engaged in very often to manage stress by a majority of the respondents were walking, praying, attending church/religious service, planting, gardening, and watering plants, washing domes, cooking/baking, evaluating oneself, watching the news, watching entertainment programs, watching “teledramas”, “telenovelas”, listening to music, texting, going to the internet, and talking with a family member.