The study focused on languages of education in Nigeria and extent of implementation in the (UBE) Schools in Ebonyi State. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study constituted all the Universal Basic Education teachers in the 13 LGA of the State. A sample study of 555 respondents was selected using proportionate stratified random sampling technique which reflected teachers in the urban and the rural schools. The instrument used was questionnaire which was validated and trial tested for reliability and a value of 0.84 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t- test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significant. Findings showed that languages in education were implemented to a low extent and that extent of materials that enhance languages’ effective implementation were made available to a low extent which were more experienced in schools in rural areas. It was recommended that teachers should embrace stipulations of the Government based on the National Policy on Education and that the government should embark on training and retraining of teachers on different languages in Nigerian Education and provide other resources for effective language implementation.

Improving a required course in our curriculum that has proven to be a challenge for our students was the focus of this study. Surveys of both students and instructors attempted to identify specific problem areas. Using the information from these surveys, the researchers developed a series of videos to explain vital course concepts and deployed these into the course sections. The purpose of the videos is to provide consistency across the multiple modalities in which we offer our courses (including online, classroom and via videoconferencing) and to improve overall student understanding. This project seeks to determine how supplemental content focusing on material identified as “difficult,” by students and instructors, can impact student performance. Challenges include the deployment of the videos across various modalities and obtaining sufficient student feedback.

This study aims to understand the opinions of middle school and high school students about language learning and studying other content in an additional language in the school settings where English is used as the medium of instruction to teach more than 50% of the curriculum. For this end, 261 students from three different schools were administered a questionnaire.  Results indicate students generally have very positive opinions about learning languages and studying content in their non-native language. There is no statistically significant difference between the students’ opinion and their school level, and the years that they have been learning a language and studying content in an additional language. However, the students who have a negative opinion about the school have negative opinions about learning languages and studying content in an additional language. The possible reasons for these were evaluated from the perspective of language learning context but further study would be needed to establish causality.  

The fact that the prospective Turkish teachers’ having a command of different methods and techniques as being Turkish teachers of the future is important in terms of its positive effects on the comprehension and expression skills of the middle school students. This study used the case study design and the qualitative approach. The aim of the research was to test the effectiveness of literature circle method and contribute to the field in theoretical and practical context. Fourty-six prospective Turkish teachers were conveniently sampled from the state university in Istanbul, to participate in the study. During six weeks, the opinions of prospective Turkish teachers who applied literature circle method were collected through unstructured interview forms. The data collected were subjected to a content analysis. It was concluded that prospective Turkish teachers found the method of literature circle favorible, in terms of cooperation, solidarity, gaining different perspectives, revealing hidden talents, developing self-confidence, aesthetic pleasure, enriching vocabulary and catching the details.

Collecting data among participants belonging to a group, community or organization is a crucial step in social research. However, generally speaking, in the social sciences, the issue of access to the research field has not been widely or systematically studied and remains under-theorized. The goal of this study is to draw the participants’ perspective on the question of accepting research into their classrooms and participating in it, an object that has usually been overlooked in studies on research field access. This article presents the results of a qualitative, exploratory study aimed at documenting teachers’ representations relating to whether or not they wish to participate in research projects, when requested to do so by researchers. The analysis brought out a system comprising five categories of representations relating to participation or non-participation in an educational research project. These representations are related to 1) the teacher’s daily tasks; 2) the teacher's professional development; 3) the teacher's professional identity and professional ideal; 4) the institutional and collegial context; and 5) the teacher's responsibility toward students. We discuss these categories and their implications for further research. 

The study aims to determine the reason for choosing the teaching profession identifying how history teacher candidates perceive the concepts of "teacher" and "teaching". The study was conducted with 115 history teachers enrolled in an initial teacher training programme in a university located in Turkey’s Central Anatolia Region in the 2014-2015 academic year. To investigate the candidate teachers’ perceptions of the teaching profession, the research participants filled in blank space from a questionnaire administered by the researchers. The collected data was analysed using the content analysis method and this gave rise to specific metaphors with associated categories. Thus, 19 metaphors and 6 categories for the teacher concept; 26 metaphors and 7 categories for teaching; 15 reasons and 3 categories for the reasons of choosing the teaching profession emerged. Research findings illustrate that the candidate history teachers’ perception of the teaching profession are positive. However, the participants used predominantly negative metaphors, in describing the difficulties history teacher candidates encounted regarding “teaching”. In relation to teaching profession choices, the most occurring reason was the love for the profession; other factors affecting the candidates’ preference were the reasons articulated in the categories of “need” and “responsibility”.

This pilot study focuses on the impact of academic conferences from a gender-based perspective. What motivates faculty members to attend conferences? Which conferences do they choose? Can differences be found between men and women in their attitude to the effect of the conference and its contribution to their academic work, in light of many studies on the significance women attach to the value of family and its prioritization over their career? The study dealt with a case study of one university in Israel. Ninety four academic faculty members from a variety of departments completed a questionnaire, including 60.9% women and 39.1% men. The main finding is that, among both men and women, academic conferences are perceived as contributing to their professional development. Faculty members addressed the contribution of conferences to their professional development. Findings showed that professional focusing during conferences results in publications and develops interest in the conference – and not vice versa, i.e., it is not interest in the conference that leads to publications. It was also found that the size of the conference predicts the significance of the focus on professional aspects. From a gender perspective, women prefer small conferences. In addition, for women, although they prefer small conferences they attach significance to collaborations that lead to professional focusing on their fields of research. Women appear to bring their "family-oriented patterns" to their work, explaining their inclination to small and more intimate conferences. The research findings might have an impact on the consideration given to planning academic conferences in order to reach the academic outcomes expected by faculty members who perceive conferences as an essential platform for their professional development.  

Spiritual growth and development is frequently cited as an outcome of participation in service-learning projects.  However, little research has focused on measuring the students' ability to understand the connection between the service-learning experience and their personal faith and the ability to live out their Christian values in the field.  Notably missing from this particularly limited area of study is the Christian values convergence of being able to understand the worth of all people and a desire to be engaged in serving the community. Encompassing both quantitative and qualitative research methods, this study investigates undergraduate business students’ perceptions of the impact of a semester-long urban service-learning project on their spiritual lives and faith formation.  Specific attention is given to exploring the students' perception of faith as demarcated by the Christian praxis of the students' relationship with God and with others.

The aim of this study is to collect and analyze children's comments on the pictures in children's story books. Four students studied in the first grade of a public primary school in Adana participated in the study. The research model is an example of phenomenology among qualitative research patterns. Focus group method was used as the data collection tool and observation method was used in a second exercise to support the first method. In focus group discussion "The City on the Wind" by Behic Ak, selected as the Book 1, was reviewed along with 4 participating students. In the second exercise, the book named "The Little Match Girl" selected as Book 2 was reviewed. Descriptive analysis and document analysis methods were used in the analysis of the research data. Students' comments on the pictures were collected under four different themes. "Description" among these themes was the most common in student expressions. The sentences for the themes of superficial interpretation, imaginative interpretation and critical understanding were less frequently used by students. Another finding of the study is the number of words students used to describe the picture. Students built short sentences not exceeding 2-3 words.  

Pictologics (PLS) is a language teaching method which relies on imaginative usage of pictures. The current paper reports the effects of applying this method on enhancing critical thinking ability of the Malaysian students. 69 students (32 boys & 37 girls) in two classes in a public primary school in Penang, Malaysia participated in this study. The experiment covered ten 1-hour sessions which were all audio-recorded and video-taped. The main objective was to engage the students in short conversations in English by using new words that they were learning via PLS. The following qualitative instruments were employed in this study: interviews with the teachers, focus group interviews with the students, a group interview with students’ parents, class check-list of the students’ behavior during the sessions, photos, and video footages. The findings reveal significant patterns of critical thinking among the students such as recognizing and criticizing assumptions, giving reasons to support a conclusion, incorporating isolated data into a wider framework, and using analogies to solve problems. The author strongly recommends application of adopted PLS techniques to be used either alone, or combined with the other conventional language teaching methods.

Child maltreatment is a serious problem, worldwide. Children and young people who have experienced maltreatment face multiple physical and mental health challenges which hinder their success at school and these adverse experiences makes them more challenging to teach than their non-maltreated peers. Increasingly, teachers are considered as an important part of the wider the child protection workforce as they are well-placed to intervene and prevent further harm. To fulfil this role effectively, teachers require requisite training beginning in initial teacher education programs. This paper is a protocol for a systematic scoping review that asks: “What is known about preservice/initial teacher education for child protection?”  Systematic scoping reviews are worthwhile and necessary in fields where research is diverse and needing of synthesis to identify strengths in the body of evidence and identify gaps to set new research directions. We will draw on Askey and O’Malley’s six-stage scoping review methodology to assess the scope, range, and nature of research activity on this topic. We will add an innovative seventh stage involving a commitment to disseminating and applying knowledge generated from the review. The research question has been established, and key terms defined (Stage 1). The search strategy has been devised, and searches have been run (Stage 2). Round 1 screening of titles and abstracts is completed and full text screening is currently in progress (Stage 3). To our knowledge this is the first attempt to systematically map the empirical literature on child protection in pre-service teacher education. When completed, this systematic scoping review will offer a comprehensive, transparent, and replicable way to assess the full scope of empirical research on this important topic of utmost educational relevance.

The aim of this research is to investigate ability of sixth grade students’ comprehension the listened story text. The research is the survey type of quantitative research methods. The population of the study consisted of the sixth grade students of the middle schools in the city center of Yozgat, Turkey in the 2018-2019 academic years. A simple random cluster sampling method was used in the selection of the sample. A total of 369 sixth grade students are sample. As a data collection, a story text entitled “Hero of the Town” was used. Data were collected in October 2018. SPSS 21 program was used to analyze the data. The level of listening comprehension the sixth grade students to the story text is 77.46%. It is seen that the sixth grade girl students’ listening comprehension are better than boy students. The girls’ listening comprehension is higher than boys’ %8. 

This study aims to conduct Turkish adaptation, validity and reliability studies of the Teacher Rating Scales of Early Academic Competence. This study also aims to examine and improve early academic competence thoroughly on the basis of teachers’ ratings in Turkey, and lastly to contribute an assessment and measurement instrument to the literature which will enable to conduct further research in the field. This study was designed in a general survey model. The study included normally developing 619 36-72 month-old preschoolers attending to nursery classes and kindergartens affiliated to Afyonkarahisar Ministry of National Education in 2015-2016 academic year. The validity and reliability studies of the data obtained following the implementation of TRS-EAC, was completed. The Cronbach Alpha, split half test, test-retest reliability of the scale and its subscales were measured. TRS-EAC was found to be valid and reliable for 36-72 month-old children. It can be considered that the various studies that can be used TRS-EAC in Turkey will provide important contributions to the measurement power of this test.

In general, teacher educators are considered to be educational specialists whose main task is to communicate content-based concepts to prospective teachers. However, unfortunately, most studies on teacher professional development overlook this specific language-oriented aspect of content-based teaching. Therefore, we address the aforementioned research gap and argue that teacher educators’ evaluation of their language-oriented performance in educational communication enhances the quality of their content-based teaching. Accordingly, we examine how the language-oriented performance of teacher educators is evaluated by both individual teacher educators (sample size N=3) and their students (N=32) in a small-scale intervention study. The findings of the study reveal that there is a relationship between the order of application of five language focus areas (i.e., language awareness, active listening, formalizing interaction, language support, and language and learning development, as noticed by the students), and teacher educators’ ability to apply these areas in accordance with their objectives related to content-based teaching.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a predictive power of prospective teachers’ self-efficacy sources on their teaching self-efficacy and attitude towards the teaching profession. Design of the study was the correlational research. The study was conducted on 315 prospective teachers studying pedagogical formation education in a 2017-18 academic year. Instruments were “Prospective Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Sources Scale”, “Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale” and “Attitude Scale of Teaching Profession”. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and PATH analysis methods were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that emotional states, mastery experience, and verbal persuasion were significant predictors of prospective teachers’ teaching self-efficacy and attitudes towards teaching profession. 

The aim of the study is to examine the pre-service teachers’ problem solving skills and curiosity levels according to different variables and to determine whether there is a relationship between them. The research was designed as a descriptive study in the survey model. The sample of the study consists of 1st and 4th grade pre-service teachers in the departments of German, Science, English, Mathematics, Music, Pre-school, Painting, English, Mathematics, Turkish Language Teaching at a university in Turkey. “Curiosity Scale” adapted into Turkish by Demirel and Diker Coskun, “Problem Solving Inventory” adapted into Turkish by Sahin, Sahin and Heppner  and “Personal Information Form” prepared by the researcher were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data obtained, SPSS-Windows 22.00 package program was used and descriptive statistics and parametric tests were applied in accordance with the sub-problems of the study. In addition, a correlation analysis was conducted to determine whether there was a relationship between pre-service teachers’ problem solving skills and curiosity levels. Based on the findings, suggestions about the problem solving skills and curiosity levels of the prospective teachers were presented.

This research examines the English language teachers’ motivations related to the usage of role-playing on English language practice in rural secondary schools in Ecuador. The sample consists of 45 English language teachers who work in public schools located in the rural and urban areas of the province of Manabi. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative research approaches is applied to analyze teachers’ motivations about using role-plays in English class and analyze the relationships between teaching motivations and the factors: teachers’ gender and work location. The instruments are (1) Focus group guide to collect participants' voices about the language practice at schools; and the (2) Likert questionnaire created by the research team, titled: Teachers' perceptions about role-play contribution on the foreign language acquisition process. The statistical analysis shows significant relationships between teachers’ perceptions and the factors in gender and work location. It is concluded that English teachers, both female and male from rural and urban locations in Ecuador, are highly motivated to use role-play in secondary schools as a teaching strategy, in spite of the demand of extra time and energy required, because it promotes in teachers and students the collaborative and creative learning; and improves their confidence to express their ideas and feelings using English as a foreign language.

In the current study we examined the relationships between student evaluations of lecturers (teaching surveys) and faculty members' perceptions of these surveys as capable of blocking and limiting their professional advancement. Faculty members are judged and evaluated by academic authorities for their academic performance in research and teaching. 178 questionnaires were collected from the faculty of several academic institutions. We employ a mix method analysis, and form a model that reflects the factors perceived by faculty members as having the potential to block their professional advancement in academia. The research findings show that lecturers are of the opinion that teaching load has a detrimental effect on students' evaluations in the surveys. Lecturers at the beginning of their academic life, those in lower ranks: senior teacher and senior lecturer, address the negative aspects of the surveys more than others. The research findings indicate that although more hours are taught in colleges than at universities, it is harder to receive positive survey ratings at colleges. Moreover, since in Israeli academia research is still the main criterion for promotion – faculty members born in Israel were found to teaching less than those born elsewhere. Hence, faculty members think that student surveys are destructive and entail risks for their professional advancement. Assuming that students' voice and opinions on teaching are important – how can a balance be achieved between the research achievements of faculty members and student satisfaction?

Computational thinking is a way of thinking that covers 21st century skills and includes new generation concepts such as robotics, coding, informatics and information construction. Computational thinking has reached an important point especially in the field of science in line with the rapid developments in technology. Robotics applications, software-based activities, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education and problem-based studies are some of the areas where this thinking is used. In this study, which is based on this point, it is aimed to develop a scale for computational thinking. Exploratory sequential design, one of the mixed research methods, was used in the study. First of all, a detailed literature review was conducted and needs analysis was carried out. This study consists of two stages. In the first stage, exploratory factor analysis was performed and analyzed with SPSS 23 program. In the second stage, confirmatory factor analysis was performed and analyzed with LISREL 9.2 program. As a result of the study, the goodness of fit indexes of the scale was found. According to this; X²/df value 1.81; NNFI value 0.97; NFI value 0.93; CFI value 0.98; RMR value 0.05; SRMR value 0.04; AGFI value 0.91 and GFI value was found to be 0.93. When the reliability values of the study were examined, Cronbach’s Alpha value was found to be 0.86. As a result of the research, a computational thinking scale consisting of 3 factors and 30 items was developed. This scale was developed for prospective teachers and can be used at all levels of prospective teachers.

It has been well documented that oral language skills are precursors of the development of written abilities, meaning that improving oral language skills, e.g. vocabulary, listening comprehension, could have positive effects reading comprehension. The main aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of a training program focused on four components of comprehension ability provided in listening or written modality on first-graders’ reading and listening comprehension. The training programs were implemented by school teachers as part of the class’s normal school activities, under the supervision of experts. Their efficacy was compared with the results obtained in a passive control group. Our results showed that both the training programs produced positive effects on listening and reading comprehension (by comparison with a passive control group), and that the gains in reading comprehension were maintained at a five-month follow-up. Findings demonstrated specific improvements in listening comprehension with the listening modality program, as well as an improvement in the modality not directly trained. A similar cross-modality effect was found from the written modality training group, therefore confirming the strict relation between oral and written abilities. Reading comprehension performance of first graders can be improved with activities provided in listening and written modality. Hence, it is possible to enhance reading comprehension even before decoding and fluency in reading are acquired.