STEM education is a pedagogical philosophy which aims to draw the interrelationship between science, technology, engineering and mathematics to solve complex problems in real life situations. In order to use STEM education to foster students’ learning, the researchers designed STEM activities for middle school students related to the concept of force and motion in three different approaches: a linear model, a jigsaw learning and a stand-alone engineering design activity. To compare the effectiveness of the three approaches, the researchers analysed students’ reasoning and problem-solving scores gained before and after doing the activities. The result showed students participating in the linear model and in the jigsaw learning significantly outperformed those in the stand-alone engineering design activity. In addition, when comparing conceptual development between those attending the linear model and jigsaw learning, the result showed that the former significantly outperformed the latter. It is therefore suggested that to maximise the effectiveness of STEM activities in promoting conceptual understanding as well as reasoning and problem-solving skills, teachers should adopt the linear model. However, when instructional time is limited, the jigsaw learning can be considered as an alternative approach. The stand-alone engineering design activity although can promote students’ enthusiasm to learn, it may not sufficiently lead to the development of reasoning and problem-solving skills as expected.

The study's goal was to examine the correlation between the computer programming self-efficacy and computational thinking skills of gifted and talented students. The capacity of the computer programming self-efficacy of gifted and talented students to predict their computational thinking skills were also examined. The relational screening model has been implemented in the research. The participants of the study were composed of 106 secondary school gifted and talented students studying the Individual Ability Recognition Program (IAR) at the Science and Art Center in the city center. Typical case sampling was applied for the student identification of the participants, 46 are female and 60 are male. Gifted and talented students' computational thinking skills were assessed using the "Computational Thinking Skills Scale” and the computer programming self-efficacy was measured by using the "Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale". Data were analysed by Pearson correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis in statistical software SPSS 22. Research results found that there was a positive and high correlation between the computer programming self-efficacy and computational thinking skills. The gifted and talented students' computer programming self-efficacy demonstrated 31.5% of the total variance in computational thinking skills. This finding supports the claim which is present in the literature that self-efficacy in computer programming is the affective aspect of computational thinking skills. To predict computational thinking skills, it may be recommended to build multiple models for cognitive and affective skills of gifted and talented students.

This article examined the role of Lesson Study in a center school located in the southeastern United States through an analysis of a narrative by the school principal. This methodology allowed a level of reflexivity across the research team, who appreciated hearing about the powerful first-hand enactment of the initiative. The paper begins with an analysis of Lesson Study, particularly in special education, and the key tenets of Lesson Study followed by a narrative account of the principal. Subsequent to her story, we explored lessons learned in relation to implementing a system change in a school, namely Lesson Study. We learned that a deeper understanding of school culture, sustaining professional development, and collaborative practice, were significant factors enabling the principal and teachers at the center school to embrace, plan, and implement a successful Lesson Study for learners with significant disabilities. In addition, we learned that Lesson Study plays an important role in teacher and student engagement in teaching and learning at the center school and supports teachers to design lessons that are efficacious in meeting the individual needs and higher expectations of students.

Adversity Quotient is a person's response to overcoming obstacles or problems. Barriers experienced, and the ability to overcome these obstacles vary in each person. This study was a literature review study focusing on adversity quotient in the field of education. This study reviewed several manuscripts that concentrated on research design, type of participants, and the critical role of adversity quotient in the field of education. A total of 18 articles were analyzed by exploring and reviewing manuscripts from trusted database journals, namely Scopus, Science Direct, and ERIC. This review explored three aspects of educational adversity quotient publications, including 1) the type of research design used in research related to adversity quotient in the field of education, 2) the types of participants chosen in research related to adversity quotient, and 3) the role of adversity quotient in education. Based on the results of manuscript reviews, adversity quotient research shows a great influence in the field of education. Research on adversity quotient shows that 1) descriptive and experimental research is the most commonly used design; 2) research participants in adversity quotient research are dominated by students, especially university students; 3) the role of adversity quotient is much shown in learning outcomes in the field of skills.

Satellite remote sensing has been largely adopted in all kinds of environmental applications as it has proved to be an excellent tool for research and decision-making purposes. It has also been recognized as an important educational tool in the past years. However, it has been insufficiently incorporated in school practice, especially at the elementary level. This article describes the use of remotes sensing as a tool to present science topics in the elementary classroom. A phenomenon-based approach was adopted to introduce the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) to eighty-one second and third-grade students. The students’ experiences in their learning environment were collected with the use of a questionnaire developed for that purpose. The pedagogical approach encouraged the students’ critical thinking and individual observations to try to explain the phenomenon working with the other students and the adults in the class- room. The phenomenon-based approach, along with the powerful visualizations of the remotely sensed data kept the students motivated and active. Seventy-one percent of the students reported that this was an engaging activity, and seventy-eight percent said that they would like to participate in similar activities in the future. The rest of the responses were neutral. None of the students were previously familiar with remote sensing or the UHI. This experience showed that it is critical to have adequate and appropriate resources readily available, as well as efficient facilitation in order to tackle this pedagogical approach. The activity was organized for Earth Observation Day (EOD), 2016, in the framework of a West Virginia View funded project. EOD is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational outreach event that occurs yearly and during which scientists, all of whom are experts in remote sensing and related geospatial technologies, are available to support teachers in their respective states.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Personalized Book Advice Smart Application on secondary school students’ motivation as well as determining the views of students, teachers, and parents regarding the application. In the research, a mixed method approach, in which quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis methods are used together, was adopted. In the quantitative part, 585 secondary school students, 300 of whom are in the experimental group and 285 in the control group; In the qualitative part, 105 students, 6 teachers and 247 families were included in the research. Similarly, the qualitative of the study involved 105 students, 6 teachers, and 247 parents. In the quantitative part of the research, data collected with the Reading Motivation Scale developed by Durmus. In the qualitative part, the data were collected through a questionnaire. The quantitative data were analyzed using parametric descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings obtained from the research, there is a significant difference in reading motivation of secondary school students in terms of post-test scores. It is seen that the students like to read adventure books and think that the books proposed by the application are suitable for their interests. Teachers state that they find the application successful, and they like that the application forms reading habits, and recommends books according to their interests, moreover, the recommended books are suitable for the students’ levels. On the other hand, the teachers think that teacher control is necessary. Additionally, parents state that they like the application because it recommends books according to the children’s interests and those recommended books were suitable for their levels, however, they added that the number of the books needs to be increased.

The goal of the study is to reveal the effect of activity-based media education on students' critical media literacy levels. A case study with fifth grade students was used in the study. A total of 18 students from a public school were participants. The data was gathered by a rubric and semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that students have media literacy ability. Based on the result of the study, it can be suggested that either an independent media literacy course or a media literacy education integrated into other courses should be provided from the first grade. Furthermore, because of the fact that media literacy is closely related to critical thinking, teaching methods and activities in which students can gain critical questioning and thinking skills should be preferred.

The aim of this study is to identify whether high school students encounter any difficulties in mathematics and reveal the reasons for such difficulties. The participants of the study, which was a descriptive case study based on qualitative understanding, were a total of 164 students, including 85 students from Anatolian High Schools and 79 students from Science High Schools. Approximately 11% of the participants said they had no difficulties in math, whereas 99% of the students from Anatolian High Schools and 78% of the students from Science High Schools said they had difficulties in mathematic. Their thoughts about the reasons for such difficulties were analyzed by content analysis method considering the type of high school they attended. The findings obtained revealed that the difficulties encountered by the participants in mathematics were teacher-, content- and student-based. Anatolian High School students stated that they intensely faced teacher-based difficulties, whereas Science High School students stated that they faced content-based difficulties. It's expected that the results of this study may contribute to studies to be conducted to increase student success in mathematics education and provide ideas for further studies.

E-learning has become a viable mean to both Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and Small Private Open Courses (SPOCs). Research has shown that the quality and effectiveness of these types of courses depend largely on the contextual factors that may impact the design and development of online courses. This study highlights a design framework for a SPOC offered at Sultan Qaboos University. It employs a design-based research methodology, which is a systematic research approach aimed to improve instructional practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation to produce contextually-sensitive design principles. The sample of this study consists of a diverse group of subjects including instructional designers, subject-matter experts, as well as students. The findings illustrate the importance of contextual logistics that need to be considered in the design and development of SPOCs. The findings also highlight the importance of the DBR as a suitable research methodology for similar developmental studies.

Speaking is considered as a challenging skill to improve as it is a productive one which requires the learners to be unique and creative in the way they express themselves. Therefore, teaching speaking takes the attention of the researchers in the field of English language teaching. Therefore, the way “speaking” was integrated into the curriculum of a School of Foreign Languages in one of the state universities in Istanbul was investigated by the researcher to find out whether the speaking component of the program helped students improve their oral language proficiency and to learn both efficiency and sufficiency of it from the perspectives of the students as well as the instructors in that institution. For this purpose, eight students within the program were taken into five different speaking tests in five different weeks sequentially and were interviewed by the researcher afterwards. Additionally, six students who had taken this program of the school previously and were taking their departmental courses at the time of the study were also interviewed to give them the chance to reflect back on their past experiences as learners who applied the knowledge they had acquired from this school. Six different instructors working in this institution were also interviewed. One of them was also observed in her real class environment. Results showed that the program was found “efficient” in some aspects such as the importance given to “speaking” but there were some points that needed consolidation just like the materials.

Contemporary studies related to teacher autonomy mostly deal with research into how autonomy is perceived by teachers and which variables it is associated with. On the other hand, there are very few studies dealing with how teachers’ instructional autonomy over the curriculum is reflected in the education process. The aim of this study is to reveal in depth the practices carried out in the context of instructional autonomy by science teachers who have different levels of autonomy. The study is based on data gathered from eight teachers employed at different schools in the province of Izmir in Turkey. Interviews, observations and documents were used for collecting the data. The results reveal that while teachers with high instructional autonomy successfully apply contemporary teaching methods, alternative evaluation techniques, high-order thinking skills and effective classroom management, teachers with low instructional autonomy fall short in all of these areas.

In the field of education, globally, teachers are recognised as important contributors in shaping learners’ interaction in a cooperative learning environment through effective lesson planning. There is a plethora of research conducted internally on lesson planning, as a critical instructional competency for good teaching and as a purposeful activity that precedes the delivery of instruction. This study aimed to explore Life Orientation teachers’ lesson planning incorporating a cooperative teaching and learning approach in secondary schools in De Aar, South Africa. The researchers adopted a mixed-methods phenomenological research design. Seven Grade 10 Life Orientation teachers were purposely selected to collect semi-structured interviews data, non-participatory observation, and document analysis. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and supported with the literature review and the theory underpinning this study. This paper suggests an enactment between teachers’ subject and pedagogical content knowledge and instructional material. Lastly, it is also evident that many teachers lack knowledge, insufficient instructional resources, and an understanding of effective lesson planning to implement a cooperative teaching approach.

The early phase is the decisive period for the teachers’ career. Intellectual styles (particularly thinking styles) play a vital role in teachers’ professional development. With the purpose of measuring thinking styles of teachers at the early phase, this study was designed to validate a revised inventory of thinking styles (TSI-R2) for pre-service and early career teachers. A sample of pre-service teachers (n = 248) were invited to join the pilot study and a sample of teachers with one year work experience (n = 252) participated in the main study. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed. The results suggested that with slight modification, TSI-R2 was a reliable and valid instrument to measure thinking styles of pre-service teachers and early career teachers, which has some implications to enhancing teacher education and development.

During the period of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the boundaries between the home and the school as study spaces were blurred. School studies entered the home, with the parents present and observing their children’s e-lessons and the teachers’ teaching methods. The purpose of the current study was to explore the explicit and implicit attitudes of the lesson partners: teachers, parents, and students, to e-learning. The study explores whether and to what degree the attitudes of teachers, students, and parents to e-teaching are compatible, and what are the implications for the future. The study shows that although in recent years the relationships between parents and the school and between teachers and students have waned, with regard to the separation of authorities between the home and school, the period of the COVID-19 crisis clarified the need to enhance the relationship and cooperation between the home and the school as two meaningful study spaces for independent learners. The research findings raise the paradox that not only does technology not increase the distance rather it has the potential to strengthen the relationships between parents, teachers, and the school. The study points to the need to prepare holistic guidance sessions and professional development courses.

The objective of this study was to promote the use of metaphorical stories based on classical Greek myths in academic teacher training. The aim is to favour processes of personal assemblage and the constitution of teacher identity. Based on 8 classical myths, 4 of them featuring a female character and another 4 a male character, the group of participants narrated positive as well as disappointing experiences they had lived through during their academic training. Moreover, they selected the myths, among those proposed, that provided the metaphors that best described their specific personal trajectories. Adopting a qualitative approach, we followed a narrative-biographical tradition and collected 37 stories. This narrative corpus was analysed using the AQUAD software. The results showed that classical Greek myths contain and provide a powerful and illuminating narrative scaffolding, helping students to adopt a different perspective in the narration of their own academic trajectories. The myths equally helped them to become more aware of the most genuine life and personal experiences that shaped their own teacher identity.

Students' intercultural competence and reading ability are an essential aspect of their education. Intercultural competence, defined as respect for the cultural views, beliefs, and traditions of others, is a necessary skill for effective and appropriate communication. Using a multidimensional model, this study investigated the effect of intercultural competence among Thai junior high school students on their resilience, well-being, and attitudes toward reading. A 2018 Program for International Student Assessment data set relating to 7,411 students from 289 schools in Thailand was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The research findings suggest that improved intercultural competence strengthens resilience, well-being, and attitudes toward reading.

Due to the pandemic in many countries, schools were closed in 2020. Therefore, education was suspended, and distance education was started. During the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, teachers gave lessons online in virtual classrooms. In this study, Scale of Attitudes Towards Online Formative Assessment (S-AOFA) for teachers conducting online and distance courses was developed, and the teachers' attitudes were examined with respect to demographic variables. In the study conducted in the mixed-design method, qualitative and quantitative data were collected for the scale development and survey. Data were obtained from 369 teachers (science teacher, mathematics teacher, classroom teacher, and teachers in other fields) working in school in Turkey. S-AOFA was made up of 20 items and two factors as a five-point Likert-type. When the teachers' attitudes towards online formative assessment (AOFA) was examined, it was found that the mean for the factor of "Assessment Systems" was lower than that of the "Assessment Approaches". In addition, the findings revealed that there was no significant difference in the teachers' AOFA in terms of gender and that no significant difference existed in AOFA with respect to the school levels of the teachers (elementary, secondary and high school). Moreover, the results demonstrated that there was a low negative significant relationship between the teachers' AOFA and the number of students in which virtual lessons were given online. Lastly, there was a low level positive significant relationship between the teachers' AOFA and the in-class participation percentages of the students who were taught online in virtual classrooms. S-AOFA could be used by researchers in different studies in future.

Learning engagement is one of the most important issues facing online learning, which has many distractions beyond the teacher’s control and management. This study examined teachers’ observations of their students’ engagement in online learning and their efforts to engage them. Teachers can evaluate different factors and conditions that affect students’ perceptions, engagement, motivation, and achievement. Language learning is influenced by several factors, such as teachers’ rapport and interaction with their students, students’ interaction and collaboration, and their engagement with social activities in learning situations. This qualitative multi-case study collected data from five language teachers by semi-structured interviews, teachers’ self-reports, and observational notes about their experiences of students’ engagement in their online lessons. It lasted for 15 teaching weeks in a Saudi intermediate school during the second semester of 2020-2021. The thematic analysis results in four main categories; (a) teachers’ challenges, (b) students’ responsibilities, (c) environment and system, and (d) attitude and excuses. These categories are built on 11 themes that provide insights into the factors, challenges, and threats, which influence learning engagement in online courses for teachers and students. The study recommends some techniques to maintain the learning engagement and provides some suggestions for future research.  

This study aimed to determine the influence of critical thinking skills on misconceptions using a five-tier instrument in mixed-method research. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling. The data collection instrument used a critical thinking skills questionnaire, a misconception test of electric field material, and interviews. Data collection begins with quantitative data, providing a misconception test sheet and a critical thinking skills questionnaire. After that, the researcher took qualitative data in the form of interviews to strengthen data that had been obtained previously. Then from the results of the regression coefficients, there is an influence of critical thinking skills on misconceptions. The descriptive results of critical thinking skills data show that the mean of critical thinking skills is 68.50, which means that students' critical thinking skills are in a good category. Then from the results of the regression coefficients, there is an effect of critical thinking skills on a misconception, with the probability number obtained being significant. The limitations of this study are only to identify and see the impact.

There are different strategies to analyze teacher and student performance when they interact with each other in class. The most used strategies are direct observation and verbal reports. Even though what is observed or reported depends on theoretical frameworks regarding didactic interactions, these must be related to teacher functions such as supervision, providing feedback, and evaluation of student performance. In this study, instruments for observational recording and verbal reports were developed and validated considering teacher functions and their student performance counterparts to compare the degree of correspondence or divergence between data gathered from both strategies. 135 students enrolled in a science class and their teachers participated. The class was taught in a public high school located in center/south Mexico. Classes were videotaped and the corresponding observational records were analyzed. Two months later, verbal reports were administered to students and teachers. Coincidences and differences that were found revealed that observer-observe interaction is conditioned by social norms. These results were interpreted considering the notion of silence as a communicative element.