ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
From Conception to Curricula: The Role of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in Integrated STEM Units
Author: Ring-Whalen, Elizabeth
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: STEM Education,Science Teachers,Photography,Pictorial Stimuli,Interviews,Curriculum Development,Engineering,Design,Models,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Faculty Development

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the conceptions of integrated STEM education held by in-service science teachers through the use of Photo Elicitation Interviews (PEIs) and to examine how, if at all, those conceptions were reflected in teacher-created integrated STEM curricula that include an engineering design challenge. Our findings suggest that different conceptual models of integrated STEM held by teachers lead to different ways of creating, developing, and writing integrated STEM curricula. Additionally, we found that the use of a STEM integration framework and a Framework for Quality K-12 Engineering Education, which guided the NSF-funded project and contextualized this study, were also reflected in the teacher-created curricula. While the process of developing the curricula was not examined, our findings indicate that teacher conceptions of integrated STEM and the frameworks that guided the curriculum development process play a significant role in what teachers decide to include and emphasize in units they create.
Pre-Service Teachers&apos; Use of Visual Representations
Author: Özsoy, Gökhan
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Visual Aids,Accuracy,Word Problems (Mathematics),Spatial Ability,Visualization

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the type and accuracy of the visual representations that the pre-service teachers generate in the pedagogical solution of the word problems. The data on participants' spatial competence levels were obtained through Purdue Spatial Visualization Test and the data on the type of visual representations were obtained by coding the data obtained from the solution of a word problem given to the participants. In the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis and content analysis were applied. As a result of the research, the visual representation types (schematic and pictorial) generated by the pre-service teachers have been determined. The results suggest that the pre-service teachers with high spatial skills can generate the structured schematic representations correctly whereas those with low spatial skills have tendency to generate pictorial representations. Some suggestions for teacher education are presented.
Prevalence of Autism/ASD in the Capital City of Oslo, Norway
Author: Özerk, Kamil
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Incidence,Children,Adolescents,Municipalities,Preschool Children,Clinical Diagnosis,Disability Identification,Gender Differences,Age Differences

The prevalence of autism/autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing across the world. Previous studies in Norway reported, that the prevalence rate for 0-10-year-old children is 1 in 166, and in the case of 11-year-old children it is 1 in 125. Moreover, another nationwide study discovered that 1 in 192 males and 1 in 695 females between the ages of 1-16 years had autism in Norway in the year 2016. This study is underpinned by the data from the National Patient Registry (NPR) for registered incidences of autism/ASD (ICD-10: F84.0 Childhood autism and F84.5 Asperger syndrome). The results show that the prevalence rates of autism/ASD in the capital city of Oslo increased from 2012 to 2016 and the number of children with autism/ASD doubled during this period. Furthermore, in 2016 the results revealed that that 1 in 349 males and 1 in 1594 females between the ages of 1-5 years old had Autism/ASD. Similarly, among the age group of 6-16 years, 1 among 157 males and 1 among 544 females had autism/ASD in the capital city of Oslo in 2016. These findings suggest a 'school-age-effect' in the increase of prevalence rates among the school-age children compared to the preschool-age children. In the following study, the results are presented and discussed along with some suggestions for the educational and healthcare authorities.
Student Justifications in Engineering Design Descriptions: Examining Authority and Legitimation
Author: Jung, Karl G.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Elementary School Students,Engineering Education,Design,Grade 5,Elementary School Science,Science Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Power Structure,Value Judgment,Urban Schools

The process of design is a key component of engineering that relies heavily on student collaboration and language use. One important aspect of design is the need for designers to develop solutions capable of solving specific engineering problems. Engineers enact recognizable epistemic practices and often rely on data as a means for justifying their designed solutions. Indeed, when striving to meet a specific client's requests, engineers must make claims that rely on collected data as a means for justifying their design decision. This study examined how two groups of elementary students engaged with this specific practice (i.e., using data to support design decisions) by investigating the justifications for their espoused design decisions during an engineering design challenge. Using discourse analysis methods, this ethnographic microanalysis examined the ways in which students legitimized their design choices, in addition to investigating how those justifications were or were not validated by the classroom teacher. Findings indicated students used either their personal authority, or the data and expert authority it provided to support their engineering design decisions. Additionally, the classroom teacher mostly validated student justifications constructed using applicable sources of data while providing few opportunities for students to enact their personal authority. Findings highlight the need for instruction that purposefully connects students' personal authority with specific aspects of the design problem space so students can feel empowered to pursue and test the validity of their initial design ideas using applicable data.
Understanding School in Rural Cambodia: Portraits of Elementary Teachers
Author: Hart, Kathy E.
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Rural Schools,Foreign Countries,Elementary School Teachers,Rural Areas,Teacher Attitudes,Beliefs,Instructional Materials,Classroom Techniques,Teaching Methods

Few educational qualitative studies have been done in Cambodia, a country held hostage by the murderous Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Still struggling to recover from these atrocities, Cambodia looks to education to aid in its redevelopment. This ethnographically-informed case study seeks to understand the beliefs and practices of today's teachers. Four practicing teachers were interviewed and observed to help describe the richness of their classrooms, and their practices in the face of crowded classrooms with few supplies. Interviews uncovered their strong beliefs in education. Alongside this is the teacher propensity to see themselves and their practice through a deficit lens. The article describes forces that impact literacy development, including well-meaning gifts from abroad.
Supporting Engineering Design Ideas with Science and Mathematics: A Case Study of Middle School Life Science Students
Author: Mathis, Corey A.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Engineering Education,Middle School Students,Grade 7,Scientific Concepts,Mathematical Concepts,Design,STEM Education,Teamwork,Science Activities,Genetics,Biochemistry,Cytology,Females,Science Education

Although engineering design is dependent upon the use of science and mathematics, the actual prototype, model, or solution that pre-college students generate can be accomplished without the students explicitly using scientific or mathematical concepts. It is therefore important to explore how students apply science and mathematics concepts when engaged in a curriculum that was purposefully developed to foster student understanding of standards-based content. The purpose of this research is to apply the case study method to explore the following research question: &quot;How do middle school students use scientific and mathematical concepts that were explored during the problem scoping lessons of an engineering design-based STEM integration unit to generate ideas and make design decisions?&quot; Researchers collected data from one 7th-grade team during an integrated STEM unit and applied qualitative content analysis methods to examine the data. The findings show that students meaningfully used science and mathematics concepts taught within the unit to defend their engineering design ideas/decisions. It also revealed incomplete understanding of certain concepts. Engineering design can provide opportunities for teachers to assess how well students have learned scientific and mathematical concepts, provided that the curricula are carefully designed to prompt students' use of content to make design decisions.
The Impact of Social Strategies through Smartphones on the Saudi Learners&apos; Socio-Cultural Autonomy in EFL Reading Context
Author: Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Telecommunications,Handheld Devices,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Foreign Countries,Social Influences,Cultural Influences,Reading Instruction,Teaching Methods,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Student Attitudes,Undergraduate Students

This study investigated the impact of social strategies mediated by smartphone features and applications on socio-cultural autonomy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading context among undergraduates in Saudi Arabia. Two EFL reading classes of 70 students acted as an experimental and a control group participated in this study. A questionnaire was administered to collect the quantitative data from the participants prior to and post the interventional programme. The experimental group utilised their own smartphone features and applications (dictionaries, WhatsApp, camera, internet search engines, notes, and recorders) to employ the social strategies of asking for clarification and correction, cooperating and empathising with others inside and outside the classroom for 12 weeks whereas the control group learned using the traditional methods. The findings of the study revealed that the employment of social strategies mediated by smartphone features and applications promoted the learners' socio-culturally autonomous learning characteristics of interaction, interdependence, self-regulation, self-worth, mutual support, and understating in EFL reading context. It is recommended strategy use training programmes and smartphones integration in language learning should be highly considered in curricula design, teaching and learning methods, training programmes in order to empower learners to take more responsible roles in the learning of EFL reading skills.
Developing Pre-Service Teacher Professional Capabilities through Action Research
Author: Kennedy-Clark, Shannon
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Preservice Teacher Education,Field Experience Programs,Practicums,Action Research,Placement,High Schools,Educational Benefits,Research Skills,Skill Development,Reflective Teaching,Accountability,Student Teacher Evaluation,Foreign Countries,Case Studies

There is a growing interest in pre-service teacher education programs on how to maximise the learning benefits of professional experience. This study attempts to discover how action research can be used as a vehicle to bridge the divide between theory and practice and to support pre-service teachers in the development of authentic professional knowledge. In this paper, we share the experiences of four pre-service teachers who undertook an action research study whilst on a ten-week professional experience placement in an Australian High School. The findings of the study indicate that pre-service teachers see the benefit of being able to conduct an authentic study not only in terms of developing research skills, but also in order to reflect upon their strengths and areas of development in their own teaching. We argue that with a growing attentiveness to raising accountability across the sector, this approach prepares pre-service teachers for the Teacher Performance Assessment and the classroom.
Factors That Determine Preschool Teacher Self-Efficacy in an Urban School District
Author: Infurna, Charles J.
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preschool Teachers,Self Efficacy,Urban Schools,School Districts,Predictor Variables,Job Satisfaction,Teaching Experience,Early Childhood Education,Outcomes of Education

The aim of the present study is to determine what teacher variables are predictive of preschool teacher self-efficacy in an urban school district. A total of 83 preschool teachers participated in the study. Teacher variables, such as years of teaching experience, job satisfaction, location of employment, age, and self-efficacy were included in a series of ANOVA analyses. Linear regression modeling reported years of teaching experience outside the birth-2nd grade setting (ß= -0.232, t(1,79) = -2.124, p&lt; 0.05) and job satisfaction (ß = 0.294, t(2,78) = 2.793, p&lt; 0.01) were statistically significant predictors of preschool teacher self-efficacy. This study found that teachers with a greater amount of teaching experience outside of the birth-2nd setting feel less efficacious about themselves and their abilities to positively influence student achievement and outcomes in the preschool classroom. Further policy implications, such as hiring practices are discussed.
Investigation of Elementary Education Students&apos; Attitudes towards the Use of Smart Boards
Author: Gurbuzturk, Oguz
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Elementary Education,Student Attitudes,Elementary School Students,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Positive Attitudes,Bulletin Boards,Educational Technology,Interactive Video,Models,Secondary Education

The purpose of this research is to investigate the attitudes of elementary education students towards the use of Smart Board (SB) in lessons. The study is based on the associational survey model from quantitative research methods. The study was conducted on students attending at 4th to 8th grades of three schools, both primary and secondary stages, in Malatya province during 2016-2017 academic year. &quot;Smart board attitude scale-SBAS&quot; by Sad (2012) composed of 10 items and 5-point Likert scale was used in order to collect data. The result of the study revealed that elementary education students have a positive attitude on smart board usage in general. There was no significant difference in terms of gender while there was a significant difference in terms of the number of students in the classes, school type and grade.
Implementing an Interactive Reflection Model in EAP: Optimizing Student and Teacher Learning through Action Research
Author: Kizilcik, Hale
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English for Academic Purposes,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,College Faculty,Reflection,Writing (Composition),Faculty Development,Learning Processes,Constructivism (Learning),Teacher Researchers,Cooperation,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Oral Language,Written Language,Diaries,Instructional Effectiveness,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries

In this article, the authors, a teacher-researcher and an English Language Teaching (ELT) professor, report on a colloborative action research study which investigated how integrating systematic reflection into academic English courses at the tertiary level fostered both teacher and student learning. Using constructivist theory as a framework, they developed an interactive reflection model in which the students and teacher engage in a two-way process of reflection to improve their performance. Through reflective dialogue and reflective writing tasks, students explored their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the tasks they performed. Reflecting with students and on students' reflections became a journey of discovery for the teacher-researcher and contributed to her professional development. Drawing on data from students' oral and written reflective work, the teacher's reflective journal and students' evaluation of the effectiveness of the reflective tasks, the authors identify how adopting an interactive reflection model contributes to the learning process.
Theatrical Play and Social Skills Development: Teachers&apos; Perspectives on Educating Autistic Students
Author: Bella, Maria
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Dramatic Play,Interpersonal Competence,Skill Development,Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Elementary School Students,Teaching Methods

The pedagogy of theatrical play is a relatively new educational approach within the school system. Aim is to examine teachers' opinions of theatrical play as a method which can provide opportunities for students with autism to interact with others in a fun and supportive environment. Twelve teachers who are selected by purposive sampling (M = 40.6 years) are teaching students with autism in general primary schools in Northern Greece and participated in semi-structured interviews which lasted 45 minutes. The protocol of interview consisted of 13 open-closed questions. The answers were collected through a recording device. A depth-analysis of teacher's responses was used to analyse their patterns and relationships. Teachers believe that theatrical play with appropriate curricular decisions and knowledge can hold an essential place in the classroom and supported the hypothesis that it is especially effective in developing and improving the duration and frequency of autistic students' social interactions.
Comparing Two Approaches to Engineering Design in the 7th Grade Science Classroom
Author: Goldstein, Molly H.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Grade 7,Middle School Students,Secondary School Science,Engineering Education,Design,Achievement Gains,Instructional Effectiveness,Student Projects,Science Projects

In schools, design projects can be implemented at a variety of ways and with varying degrees of resources from teachers and schools. However, little work has been done on the differences between student learning outcomes and the type of design projects. This study compares two design projects implemented in 7th grade classrooms (n=677) at two different schools to explain affordances of each approach based on differences in project authenticity, scale, and depth of context in supporting student learning outcomes. The main data sources were an engineering science test and a design reasoning elicitation problem, administered at each school before and after the design project. To understand the relationship between students' science learning gains and school implementation, we conducted a sign test to compare between-group differences and a Mann Whitney Test to compare within-group differences. Then, we performed a content analysis to examine students' design reasoning and a two-way contingency table analysis to understand if a student's school implementation was related to the changes in design trade-off reasoning. Students at both schools exhibited statistically significant but small gains on their engineering science test scores. While students at the school with a more interdisciplinary, more authentic design project had higher scores on the engineering science test, students at the school with a smaller scale implementation discussed more trade-off factors in their design reasoning elicitation problem. These findings suggest that differences in project implementation appear to be associated with different learning outcomes, and there are potential benefits to both authenticity and simplicity in design projects.
To STEM or Not to STEM? That Is Not the Question
Author: Kubat, Ulas
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,STEM Education,Educational Benefits,Interdisciplinary Approach,Skill Development,Creativity,Critical Thinking,Thinking Skills,Problem Solving,Integrated Curriculum,Technology Integration,Curriculum Development

The aim of this study is to identify the faults in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and to provide an approach to how these deficiencies can be eliminated. The STEM approach can provide students with an interdisciplinary point of view to gain creativity, critical thinking, high-level skills of thinking and problem-solving. STEM abbreviation consists of the initials of the words 'Science', 'Technology', 'Engineering' and 'Mathematics'. Conventional educational systems dictate student to learn specific topics separately and expect from them to make these knowledge and experience useful, functional in their life. In this research, a qualitative research method was used. This study was performed by using document analysis method. A novel, integrated education system called as the STEM is investigated with its methodology and problems in application outcoming so far. The importance of such an integrated programme is highlighted and some remedies to create an effective integrated education programme are emphasised.
Views of Instructors about Academic Productivity
Author: Karadag, Nazife
Date: 2018-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teacher Attitudes,Productivity,Writing for Publication,Periodicals,Foreign Countries,Faculty Publishing,College Faculty,Teacher Motivation

The purpose of the study is to determine the views of the instructors about the experiences they have during the international publishing in terms of academic productivity. The study aims to reveal the problems the instructors experience during the publication process in international journal indexes and in the journals like SSCI, SCI and AHCI and to determine the needs of the instructors in order them to succeed in this process. In the study, one of the qualitative methods, phenomenological research design was used. The study group consists of 15 instructors determined by criterion sampling within the purposive sampling methods. The basic criterion in determining the study group is that the instructors should complete the doctoral degree in Turkey in the last 10 years or abroad and they should have international publications. The data of the study were collected with semi-structured interview forms. based on the sub-problems of the study and the interviews with the instructors, the following issues were discussed about: the purposes of the instructors in overseas publishing, their experiences in international publishing, the factors motivating themselves for international publishing, if there is, the reason why they didn't want to publish in foreign countries and somehow the reason why they didn't want to publish in the journals in the country, the difficulties they encountered with during the process of international publishing, the strategies they followed during the publication and their recommendations for the researches who wish to make publishing abroad.