Vol. 6 No. 1 (2024): Teachers’ Roles and Practices in Changing Worlds Current Issue
Rapid social, economic and technological changes, as well as successive crises, are posing major challenges for today's schools. If we are aware of this process, it can also lead to a dynamic development of education. The task of educational research has increased, as teachers and school leaders need reliable research evidence on what teaching and assessment strategies, procedures, practices and school organisation and management models are effective in supporting teacher and student achievement. Education is deeply embedded in social and cultural contexts, and the task of research is multiplied by the need to identify, compare and discuss evidence relevant to different contexts. Our thematic studies focus on examining changing educational contexts and practices.
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Thematic articles
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Teachers’ Practices in Fostering Children’s Critical Thinking at Pre-Primary Level in Kongwa District
1-9Views:96Critical thinking skills is one of the most important 21st century skills and one of the most vital indicators of the quality of education children are receiving. In enhancing these important skills, it is very important to unfold teachers’ practices in fostering children’s critical thinking skills. Therefore, this study investigated teachers’ practices in fostering children’s critical thinking skills in pre-primary level in the Kongwa District of the Dodoma Region, Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative research approach with a phenomenography research design. The total sample of the study was 35 respondents, selected through the criterion purposive sampling technique. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and classroom observation. Data analyses were done through the thematic analysis framework of Braun and Clarke (2021). The findings revealed that teachers’ practices which include teachers’ preparations, the use of instructional strategies, social activities, teaching and learning materials, and creating classroom learning environment helps children to think critically. The study recommends the quality assurers should maintain monitoring and supervision of teachers’ classroom practices in promoting the critical thinking skills of children.
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Secondary School Biology Teachers’ Knowledge and Practices of Formative Assessment in Tanzania
10-19Views:108Using formative assessment (FA) practices in teaching and learning is essential to understanding students’ learning and making informed decisions about students’ academic performance. This study examined secondary school biology teachers’ knowledge and practices of FA in Tanzania. Using a mixed-methods research approach and convergent mixed-methods research design, the study employed simple random and purposive sampling techniques to select the study area and teachers, respectively. A questionnaire and observation checklist used to collect data from 55 teachers in secondary schools. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 was used to compute descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that though teachers had theoretical knowledge of FA practices, they failed to implement them, particularly Socratic questioning, portfolios, and constructive feedback. This study concludes that teachers did not implement FA practices in the surveyed schools. Thus, there is a need of regular in-service training to develop teachers’ practical competences in FA practices to enhance classroom teaching and students’ learning in biology.
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Teaching English for Students with Special Educational Needs During the Pandemic
20-31Views:99This research aimed to examine the impact of distance learning on SEN students’ English language education, parental involvement in the education of these children, as well as the ICT tools used for their development. There is little information about the difficulties and trials these students and their teachers had to face during the COVID-19 epidemic. Moreover, parental involvement plays a significant role in school performance, but there is little information about how this was realized during distance learning. We assumed that the biggest problem was the transition from face-to-face education to the online sphere. To examine this, we conducted semistructured personal interviews with elementary school English teachers from north-eastern Hungary. The most important result of our research is that during this period only a few SEN students could receive special, individual lessons, and differentiated education was implemented to a somewhat limited extent. To conclude, more programs should be created that meet the different needs of SEN to properly educate these children, and that as many development specialists as possible, who could provide group or individual lessons, should be recruited.
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The Impact of The Prestige of Institution Type on Professional Satisfaction
32-38Views:60Teachers are doing their job despite notoriously low pay, and the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that keep them in the profession are the subject of national and international research. In the present study, we investigate the subjective sense of professional success of teachers in secondary vocational education in the light of the type of institution in which they teach. Their questionnaire survey was carried out online (N=166) during the pandemic period, having been adapted to the situation. We wanted to assess factors of their sense of professional success, which are partly related to the classical role of a teacher, such as knowledge transfer, education of or cooperation with other actors in education, but also to hypothetical factors such as self-training and creativity. Our hypothesis that the prestige of the institution type and the professional satisfaction of the teacher are related was not confirmed, but the identified factors played a different role to varying degrees.
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Exploring the Prerequisites for Transforming School as a Learning Organization
39-52Views:75The organization model has shifted from treating the workforce as machines to improving human centricworking environments. The Learning Organization is conceptualized as an organism that evolves through continuous learning to adapt with a constantly changing environment. School is a typical organization and many scholars argued to reconceptualize school as a learning organization. The Integrated Model of School as a Learning Organization (Kools & Stoll, 2016)) has been widely studied and tested in European schools, particularly in Wales. However, there is a gap in the research needed to understand the prerequisites of SLO transformation and thus to better prepare for reform. To explore the prerequisites of SLO, a researcher applies a qualitative approach to purposely collect secondary data from the eight empirical studies in Wales, Greece, Latvia, Spain, Bulgaria, Türkiye, and Italy. To conduct data analysis, a data coding strategy is employed to create the prerequisites and assign them to the main themes- System Level and School Level. To achieve the SLO transformation, the researcher then recommends a systematic reform that involves the education stakeholders, both at system level and at school level - to put forward the practice of the SLO seven actionoriented dimensions. Further meta-analysis research is recommended to widen the scope of conceptualizing antecedents of SLO transformation.
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Focus on Teacher Motivational Factors: Increasing Innovation Efficiency, Retention in the Teaching Profession
53-63Views:88The shortage of teachers and the challenge of popularizing the teaching profession are some of the most pressing problems in education today. Finding a solution to these issues is a priority task. Our research focuses on which teacher motivational factors improve professional life, create a better school atmosphere, and ensure new career paths, avoiding the harmful consequences of stress and burnout. In interviews with teachers teaching in disadvantaged schools, we tried to identify the motivational factors established by the literature, and we were curious about what factors influence someone’s becom1ing an innovative teacher. All this knowledge can be useful information for teacher training, and help to develop an incentive system for teachers in the field, preventing them from leaving the occupation. During our empirical research, we analyzed 24 interviews with Atlas ti. Our main research question was what are the motivational factors that enable teachers to make adequate professional decisions, and why their pedagogical problem-solving ideas and innovations do not remain isolated data. We investigated which motivational factors can be identified as drivers and which as barriers to the development of innovations, and which are responsible for retention in the teaching profession.
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Research papers
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The Effect of Psychological Capital on Academic Success of College Students Mediated Through Student Engagement
64-80Views:115Although psychological capital is theorized to enhance academic success of college students, there is a lack of sufficient empirical evidence supporting this claim. Given this gap, the present study was conducted to explore the role of psychological capital in academic success of college students, mediated through student engagement. Undergraduate and postgraduate diploma students (N=502) were selected using a convenience sampling technique. The participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing their psychological capital, student engagement, and academic success. To determine the statistical significance of the prediction, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. PROCESS macro for SPSS was utilized for analyzing the mediation effect. Results obtained from the regression analyses revealed that psychological capital was positively and significantly related to both engagement and academic success. Notably, the mediation results also demonstrated that student engagement partially mediated the relationship between psychological capital and academic success. The results of the present study might contribute to the existing literature related to the importance of positive psychology in education by providing insight into the complicated relationship between psychological capital, student engagement, and academic success.
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Book reviews
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International Perspectives on Inclusive Education In the Light of Educational Justice
81-84Views:50Bibliography of the reviewed book: Norwich, B., Seitz, S., Mackenzie, A., Magnússon, G., & Barow, T. (2024). International perspectives on inclusive education: In the light of educational justice. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 39(2), 327–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2023.2299148
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Navigating the Return-to-Work Experience for New Parents Maintaining Work-Family Well-Being
85-87Views:85Bibliography of the reviewed book: Karanika-Murray, M., & Cooper, C. (Eds.). (2020). Navigating the Return-to-Work Experience for New Parents: Maintaining Work-Family Well-Being (1st ed.). Routledge.
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Innovation in Social Science
88-90Views:45Bibliography of the reviewed book: Márkus, E., Boros, J., & Kozma, T. (2022). Sustainability of innovation. Debrecen University Press
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