The teaching and learning of mathematics in South Africa are conducted through the authorised Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). South Africa has eleven official languages, and English is a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) from the Intermediate and Further Education and Training (FET) Phase. This study explores teachers' views on code-switching as a communicative technique to enhance teaching mathematics in Grade 4 in selected primary schools in South Africa. This qualitative single case study employed the interpretivist paradigm and social constructivism theory. A convenient purposive sampling technique was used to sample six grade 4 mathematics teachers from three primary schools in the Alexandra township in South Africa. Researchers collected data through the use of semi-structured interviews, which were later analysed and discussed using themes. Findings indicate that teachers often code-switch from LoLT (English First Additional Language) into Home Language (H.L.) to enhance learners' understanding of the mathematics concepts. Researchers suggested the integration of code-switching into the curriculum policy and followed by in-service training for Grade 4 mathematics teachers in code-switching.

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.

For United States of America (USA) and other developed countries, science achievement gaps begin to emerge in elementary and primary school. Such gaps between USA student groups typically are connected to socio-economic status (SES) and issues such as students still learning the English language. Through an experimental design, this National Science Foundation funded study explores how integrating the arts into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum and leading with a more STEAM-first approach (e.g., curriculum which integrates science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) might provide more equitable science learning opportunities for elementary or primary grade level students. More specifically, the project’s research efforts seek to also examine how integrating the arts into science instruction might help emerging bilingual (EB) students who are simultaneously learning the English language and science. Although results provide somewhat conflicting findings of statistical significance with small to moderate effect sizes, outcomes provide initial evidence that leading with STEAM science instruction before STEM efforts can be beneficial to early readers, and for EB students this benefit is magnified. As the title of this study suggest, sometimes finding nothing is something.

Despite findings in the literature on its significance, the acclimatization of teachers into school units is not well organized. Hence, many newly appointed teachers fell as a “foreign body” into school, they do not interact with the other members of staff and they are not actively engaged in school life. This study aims to explore the factors involved in social behavior (collegial relations) among members of the educational community. These factors may affect the acclimatization/reception of teachers who, regardless of their teaching experience, are called to teach for the first time in a new school environment. According to the findings, it is essential the attitudes of teaching staff, in matters of cooperation, to be transformed and a collegial climate in schools to be established. To this end, fostering empathy among teachers through educational activities and enhancing opportunities for cooperation and teamwork inside and outside the classroom would be of significant contribution.

This study examined the effect of Yunnan’s ethnic minority college students’ acculturation on their academic achievement under the risk of the Matthew effect. Additionally, the role played by learning motivation in the relationship between ethnic minority college students’ acculturation and academic achievement was explored. A total of 403 valid questionnaires were collected from four areas in Yunnan province, China. Consequently, the Acculturation Scale, Academic Achievement Scale, and Learning Motivation Scale were used for measurement materials. These items of scales were evaluated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). SPSS (statistical package for the social sciences) and AMOS (analysis of a moment structures) softwares were used for data analyses. In addition, items were analyzed through item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis and regression analysis. These results indicated that ethnic minority college students with low acculturation and learning motivation or high acculturation and low learning motivation can become objects of the Matthew effect. However, this study also observed that in certain students, high acculturation and high learning motivation can prevent the Matthew effect. Thus, high acculturation is crucial for improving academic achievement in ethnic minority college students. A level of high learning motivation is a powerful moderator promoting the academic achievement of students with high acculturation.

Evaluation of the K-13 curriculum (2013 Curriculum) on the value of the national mathematics examination “Nilai Ebtanas Murni” (NEM) in every State Junior High School needs to be carried out thoroughly in order to improve the quality of education. This study uses spatial analysis to evaluate the curriculum and determine the development of NEM scores in the school year. Furthermore, the kriging interpolation method via surfer software was used to generate scores. The results showed that the 2015 K-13 mathematics curriculum did not give good results based on the 36-68 NEM score interval for the entire Pekanbaru area. In addition, the curriculum only gives good results for a small area in the north and south. In 2016, the curriculum which was accompanied by the entry of the new education unit level curriculum “Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan” (KTSP) showed a significant change in the NEM value. Although most of these areas experienced an increase in scores, the intervals still ranged from 36-68. The total revision of the K-13 curriculum carried out and used in 2017 showed a significant increase in scores for all regions with an interval of 68-84 scores. In conclusion, this study shows that the revision of the K-13 curriculum is the right step to produce quality mathematics learning.

This research’s aim was to explore the role of cognitive flexibility in mediating the effect of intrinsic motivation on the creativity of junior high school students. A creativity scale, an intrinsic motivation inventory and a cognitive flexibility inventory were utilized to investigate a sample of junior high school students in Shaanxi Province in western China. 765 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed using the structural equation model (SEM). The SEM analysis showed that intrinsic motivation and cognitive flexibility have significantly positive impacts on junior high school students’ creativity. Furthermore, a full model revealed that cognitive alternatives and cognitive control mediate the relationship intrinsic motivation and creativity, and the mediation effect of cognitive alternatives is significantly greater than that of cognitive control. In general, the current research suggests that the impact of intrinsic motivation on junior high school students’ creativity is mediated by cognitive flexibility, and its results amplify prior scholars’ research results and give educators an inspiration how to cultivate creativity for the middle school students.

Teacher professionalism is needed for quality education. The current practice for increasing teacher professionalism is to use skill applications. However, the implementation of skill applications has, in fact, not succeeded in significantly increasing teacher professionalism. This study aims to explain the importance of an effective skill application model coupled with a comprehensive approach to raise the level of teacher competence. This study is qualitative with its data derived from observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The paper's research findings show that existing programs are not sufficiently enhancing teacher competencies and professionalism. Various teacher professional development activities are conducted; however, there has been no continuous post-activity follow-up. These professional development activities tend only to fulfill the administrative requirements for teacher promotion. What is needed is a comprehensive and continuous teacher professionalism assessment model, which is underpinned by a system of mentoring. This study has implications for evaluating the teacher's professional competencies. More comprehensive skill applications need to be formulated as part of an integrated, sustainable, and mentoring [terpadu, sustainable, pendampingan-TSP] approach to develop teacher professionalism significantly.

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.

This study aims to develop a learning model based on 4C skills to improve high school students’ mathematical critical thinking skills. Research & development is the design used in this research by applying Plomp’s development theory which consists of three phases, namely needs analysis, design and implementation, and evaluation. This research was conducted at Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Parepare, South Sulawesi, Indonesia involving five experts, four teachers, and 20 students. Data collection and analysis were carried out qualitatively and quantitatively. Analysis of interviews’ data and observations qualitatively with the thematic analysis technique. We also analyse data from validation sheets, questionnaires, and mathematical essay tests with the help of SPSS 20.00. The results show that students and lecturers need a learning model to improve mathematical critical thinking skills. In addition, other findings stated that the learning model developed was proven to be valid, practical, and effective to be used in general. Developing your learning model can further improve students' learning outcomes and mathematical critical thinking skills because they are designed based on the actual needs and problems. For this reason, a teacher must be able to design his learning model.

Traditional houses are part of the culture of every country. Indonesia is a country that has a variety of traditional houses. The traditional Banyuwangi house is known as the Using house. This house can be explored in terms of ethnomathematics and used as part of learning mathematics. This research is focused on knowing and describing mathematics learning that integrates the ethnomathematics of Using house, thematic, and connected models. The research was also conducted to determine the effectiveness of the learning that has been carried out. The results showed that the use of the Using house in ethnomathematical-thematic-connected-based mathematics learning: (1) could be done using the trivium concept (literacy, matheracy, and technoracy); (2) can be done thematically by integrating four subjects (Indonesian, social sciences, fine arts, and mathematics); (3) can be connected by integrating two mathematical concepts (two-dimensional geometry and arithmetic); (4) through seven phases of learning; and (5) effective because 80% of students can solve problems as expected.

In this study, we aimed to determine the extent to which secondary school students practise environmental ethics. To this end, we used a questionnaire-based survey to accomplish the purpose of the study. The study’s variables included knowledge, value, care, and responsibility in environmental ethics. We selected a sample of 180 students using systematic random sampling from a population of 347 Form Four secondary school students studying geography in Papar, Sabah, Malaysia. The findings showed that all study variables, knowledge, value, care and responsibility were at high levels. Furthermore, a multiple regression analysis revealed that the value and care variable in environmental ethics influenced the responsibility variable which contributed 14.5% and 2.7%, respectively to student’s environmental ethics. Based on the findings, we concluded that students who incorporate environmental ethics into their daily lives will successfully fulfil their environmental ethics responsibilities. The study’s implications suggest that environmental education in schools exposes students to environmental ethics and helps them develop more ethical and disciplined attitudes towards the environment.

This study aimed to analyze the effect of game-based learning (GBL) through the use of Genially in English as a foreign language (EFL) online instruction. The participants were 61 EFL undergraduate students, who were distributed into an experimental group (32 students), and a control group (29 students). Their ages ranged from 22 to 56 years old, and their English proficiency level was B1, according to the Common European Framework of References (CEFR). The students were enrolled in two pre-intermediate courses that are part of an EFL Teaching program at a private university in southern Ecuador. The courses were delivered in an online remote learning environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study followed a quasi-experimental approach and it took place over a sixteen-week period. The instruments included a diagnostic survey, a pre-test, a post-test, a students’ perceptions survey, and a semi-structured interview. The main findings revealed that Genially games have the potential to enhance EFL learners’ academic performance in online instruction, particularly in aspects related to students’ knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in context. Besides, it was found that according to students’ perceptions, the implementation of games based on their real learning needs increases their motivation, especially when feedback is effectively provided.  

This research was aimed to determine the level of knowledge, skills and attitude of pre-service Mathematics teachers in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) towards higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) and whether the elements of HOTS were translated into the teaching courses. The research was also designed to analyze the relationship between the pre-service Mathematics teachers’ exposure to HOTS through the teaching courses and their level of knowledge, skills and attitude towards HOTS. The study utilized a quantitative approach by administration of a survey to a simple random sample of 110 pre-service Mathematics teachers from UPSI. A questionnaire with five different parts was used as the research instrument with a reliability value of .979. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics were used to determine the mean scores of the level of knowledge, skills and attitude among the pre-service Mathematics teachers, whereas inferential statistics using Pearson-r correlation was implemented to describe the relationship between the studied variables. The findings demonstrated that the knowledge and skills of pre-service Mathematics teachers towards HOTS were at a moderate level as opposed to their attitude and exposure to HOTS which were found to be at a high level. The data analysis using Pearson correlation illustrated a significant positive relationship with r = .727, r = .757 and r = .667 between the exposure to HOTS through the teaching courses and the level of knowledge, skills and attitude regarding HOTS of pre-service Mathematics teachers at UPSI, respectively. In conclusion, the research here indicates that pre-service Mathematics teachers in general, are positive towards the implementation of HOTS but they are lacking in terms of knowledge and skills. This research is useful in the field of Mathematics education as it can serve as a guidance to further enhance the knowledge, skills and attitudes especially for future Mathematics teachers in implementing HOTS effectively and improving the quality of the teaching program offered by the university indirectly.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the science learning skills of primary school teacher candidates and various variables. A correlational survey design was used in the study as a research methodology. With the correlational survey design, the relationships between the science learning skills of the primary school teacher candidates and some variables were examined and their effectiveness in predicting their science learning skills was determined. This study was conducted on 160 teacher candidates in the spring term of the 2019-2020 academic year. As a result of the study, a high level of correlation was found between the science learning skills of the primary school teacher candidates and their self-efficacy belief in science education. In addition, it was found that 38% of science learning skills were explained by attitudes and beliefs. In other words, it was seen that the affective characteristics of pre-service teachers about science significantly affected their science learning skills. In the light of these results, it is recommended to carry out studies in the education process to develop the necessary skills before considering the cognitive competencies of primary school teachers about science. They should also develop positive feelings towards science and gain the understanding that science is not a field of memorization, but a fun field necessary to make sense of the world.  

This research aims to examine the effect of coding education on the analytical thinking skills of gifted students. The participants are 18 students, 11 to 12 years old. An embedded experimental mixed design was used in the research. The data collection was carried out with the Analytical Thinking Skill Scale to determine the difference in the analytical thinking skills of the study group before and after the coding training; the Analytical Thinking Skill Observation Form to determine the analytical thinking skill levels during the implementation process; and the semi-structured interview form to get their opinions on the coding training. The data were analyzed with a pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design, descriptive analysis, and content analysis. The results show that coding education developed the participants' analytical thinking skills. The difference in the analytical thinking skills of the study group was not statistically significant in terms of gender. According to the students' views on the coding education application process, there was an improvement in the sub-dimensions of sorting, classification, comparison, and evaluation in analytical thinking skills; coding education developed problem-solving and thinking skills, was useful, encouraged students to choose a profession, and was entertaining, as well as negative opinions such as being difficult, boring, and requiring a lack of time.

The purpose of this study was to compile and statistically analyze the results of research studies that examined students' problem-solving skills in worksheets. The research method used was a meta-analysis. The study search was conducted from 2013 to 2022 in Google Scholar and the Garuda portal databases. The search yielded 40 studies that met the inclusion criteria for extraction from research and development, experimental, and quasi-experimental. From the extracted results, 45 comparisons of data were examined. Microsoft Excel was used to calculate the effect size of the problem-solving worksheet. This study yielded a value of 1.281 for the entire study, indicating that the worksheet had a significant and positive impact on students' problem-solving skills. The results indicate the need to develop worksheets to improve students' problem-solving skills.

Interdisciplinary teaching and learning is an approach that synthesizes the curricular objectives and methods of two or more disciplines or subjects focusing on a specific topic or issue. While it is being increasingly implemented in universities, at lower levels of education there are still countries where science subjects are taught and learned fragmentarily. To assess the significance of the interdisciplinary approach in primary school biology teaching, the paper aims at an experimental verification of the effectiveness of this method in relation to the quality and retention of student knowledge, compared to the monodisciplinary approach to teaching and learning biology. The paper also describes a scenario for teaching a topic in which biological and geographical contents correlate. The study applied a pedagogical experiment with parallel groups. In total, 180 students attending two primary schools in the city of Novi Sad participated in the experiment and were divided into an experimental and a control group. The findings suggest that the interdisciplinary approach improved the quality and retention of student knowledge. The experimental group was more successful in completing tasks that required comprehension and practical application of knowledge. The study thus emphasizes the need for a professional curriculum development that would enhance the interdisciplinary correlation of various disciplines.

This study aims to develop a schoolpreneur model appropriate for Malaysia's secondary school environment. The current study surveyed students participating in the Program Tunas Commerce (PROTUNe) and the Young Entrepreneurs Association (PUM) in the states of Perak, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan to accomplish these purposes. A survey-based technique was used to collect data, and 400 students participated. With a cross-sectional research design, this research uses a quantitative research methodology. This research employed exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) for statistical analysis. The study's findings show that six highlighted factors can be incorporated to develop a schoolpreneur model. These factors all significantly affect the schoolpreneur model. A significant correlation of the schoolpreneur model of more than 60% indicates the significance of talent skills, mentors, incubators, individual personality, role models, and family background in the development of the schoolpreneur model. As a result, secondary schools can conduct entrepreneurial activities better due to the development of the schoolpreneur model.

Considering the fact that learning difficulties are mostly related to academic learning, and students first encounter tasks related with academic learning during the pre-school, it is critical for early intervention that the first symptoms of students with potential learning disability are detected by the pre-school teachers. The aim of this research is to examine knowledge levels of pre-school teachers about the characteristics of learning difficulties that 3–6 years old students, in the pre-school period, may show. With this aim in mind, the development of the “Test for identifying characteristics of learning disabilities in pre-school students (3-6 years)” was completed with 471 pre-school teachers and pre-school teacher candidates of the last grade of pre-school education program. The research has been done in the survey model with a quantitative approach. The sample of the study consists of 291 pre-school teachers. The data have been collected by means of the “Test for identifying characteristics of learning disabilities in pre-school students (3-6 years)” and analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques. At the end of the research, it has been found that there are no statistically significant differences in knowledge levels of pre-school teachers regarding the cognitive, affective, social and motor characteristics of learning disabilities in terms of their gender, the program they have graduated from, having taken courses on special education, having taken courses on learning disabilities, the types of institutions they worked at, and their class sizes. It has been found that there are statistically significant differences in their knowledge levels about cognitive, affective, social and motor characteristics of learning disabilities according to the length of service, teaching students with learning disabilities, having inclusive students in their class, having a relative in need of special education, and teaching students with learning disabilities variables.