ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Mini and Midi Anchor Tests on Test Equating
Author: Arikan, Çigdem Akin
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Equated Scores,Comparative Analysis,Item Response Theory,Tests,Sample Size,Difficulty Level,Test Items,Bias,Statistical Analysis

The main purpose of this study is to compare the test forms to the midi anchor test and the mini anchor test performance based on item response theory. The research was conducted with using simulated data which were generated based on Rasch model. In order to equate two test forms the anchor item nonequivalent groups (internal anchor test) was used in this research. The data were generated and analyzed using the R software. 100 replications were done for each different condition. The results obtained from this simulation study were evaluated according to the equating error (RMSE) and bias (BIAS) criterions. In the study, midi anchor generally produced better equating results than the mini anchor test with a few exceptions for most conditions.
Examining High School Teachers&apos; Attitudes towards ICT Use in Education
Author: Semerci, Ali
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Secondary School Teachers,High Schools,Teacher Attitudes,Technology Integration,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Gender Differences,Age Differences,Teaching Experience,Technological Literacy,Familiarity,Training,Foreign Countries,Teacher Surveys,Statistical Analysis,Anxiety

The present study aimed at examining high school teachers' attitudes towards ICT use in education. With this regard, we examined whether the teachers' attitudes significantly differ according to their gender, age, teaching experience, ICT experience, ICT skills and ICT training. The participants consisted of 353 teachers working in different high schools in Ankara in the academic year 2016-2017. Research results illustrated that teachers have a high level of positive attitude towards ICT use in their classes, yet there is no significant difference between teachers' ICT willingness by their gender, age, teaching experience, ICT experience, ICT skills and ICT training. However, they have significantly different negative attitude (ICT anxiety) towards ICT use in education by their ICT experience, ICT skills and ICT training.
Prospective Teachers&apos; Perceptions on Education Policy: A Metaphor Analysis
Author: Sezer, Senol
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Educational Policy,Figurative Language,Foreign Countries,Phenomenology,Qualitative Research,Data Collection,Focus Groups,Interviews,Program Implementation

This study aiming to determine the metaphorical perceptions of prospective teachers regarding Turkey's education policies was modelled in the 'phenomenological pattern' which one of the qualitative research methods. The study group was 150 prospective teachers. Data was collected using a metaphor form and via focus group interviews. Descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques were used for data analysis. Prospective teachers produced 135 valid metaphors. The most frequently repeated metaphors were chameleon, jigsaw puzzle, play dough, exchange rate, seasons, Black Sea's weather, domino stones, human life, Indian silk, swamp, traditional agriculture, tuning of the oriental instrument, vegetable soup, and weather forecast. The main categories were uncertainty, changeability, inevitableness, subjectivity, anxiety, desperation, instability, inconsistency, and awareness. The metaphors and focus group interview results show that the prospective teachers perceive negatively the frequent changing policies and educational practices.
A Mentoring Experience: From the Perspective of a Novice Teacher
Author: Gholam, Alain
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Beginning Teachers,Beginning Teacher Induction,Qualitative Research,Case Studies,Teacher Attitudes,Practicums,Questionnaires,Summer Programs,Barriers,Mentors,Teacher Effectiveness,College Faculty,Foreign Countries,Masters Programs,Interviews,Student Teachers

Beginning teachers experience a variety of challenges and difficulties as they struggle to develop and progress in their teaching career. The following qualitative case study focused on a novice teacher's perceptions concerning the mentoring experience she received in her practicum course at the American University in Dubai. The study was guided by the following two research questions: (1) What difficulties and challenges did the novice teacher face during her first year of teaching? and (2) What were the novice teacher's perceptions of the mentoring strategies implemented in her practicum course? A questionnaire was sent to the participant during the summer break, and she was asked to answer demographic questions regarding the school and classroom she was teaching in. She was also required to answer in-depth questions regarding the difficulties and challenges she faced as a beginning teacher, the follow up sessions with her mentor, and her perceptions of the mentoring experience. Analysis of the data revealed three themes: difficulties and challenges of a new teacher, lessons from a mentoring experience, and characteristics of an effective mentor. The findings associated with this study are crucial in raising the awareness of school leaders to the needs of beginning teachers. This is an essential step towards working on designing and implementing effective mentoring programs that meet the needs and concerns of beginning teachers.
Perceptions of Prospective Teachers about School Principals: Prejudice or Real
Author: Tosun, Figen Çam
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Principals,Bias,Mixed Methods Research,Questionnaires,Foreign Countries,College Students,Phenomenology

The aim of this study is to reveal prospective teachers' thoughts and observations about school principals. In the study, the qualitative and quantitative research methods were used together. In quantitative research method, a questionnaire was developed and survey research was conducted with the help of this questionnaire. In the qualitative method, the study of the phenomenology was preferred in order to reveal the experiences and meanings related to the phenomena. The sample of the study consists of 60 senior students at Bayburt University Faculty of Education departments of Primary Education and Science Education. The &quot;Questionnaire of Perceptions of Prospective Teachers About School Principals&quot; developed by researcher was used in this study. In addition, other data collection tool was the observation reports that prospective teachers observe and then write a day of school principals. SPSS package program was used in analysis of the quantitative data. Content analysis was used in analysis of the qualitative data. Perceptions of prospective teachers about school principals were found to be positive and the study showed that gender and department didn't affect the thoughts of prospective teachers.
Effects of Formative Assessment on Prospective Teachers&apos; Achievement, Attitudes and Self-Regulation Skills
Author: Kincal, Remzi Y.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Preservice Teachers,Academic Achievement,Student Attitudes,Student Evaluation,Self Management,Quasiexperimental Design,Pretests Posttests,Randomized Controlled Trials,Comparative Analysis,Foreign Countries,Summative Evaluation,Learning Strategies,Questionnaires,Attitude Measures,Statistical Analysis

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of formative assessment on prospective teachers' academic achievement, attitudes towards educational measurement and self-regulation skills. In the study, quasi-experimental design including non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group. There are 40 prospective teachers in each one of the experimental and control group which implemented in the scope of measurement and evaluation course in education faculty. Formative assessment was implemented within the 14-weeks in the experimental group, and summative assessment practices were done in the control group. According to the research results, it is determined that academic achievements of prospective teachers in the experimental group have differentiated significantly to academic achievements of prospective achievement in the control group. There is no statistically significant difference between prospective students' attitudes towards measurement and self-regulation in the experimental and control group. However, it has been made out those prospective teachers' attitudes towards measurement and self-regulation skills in the experimental group have been higher than the others' in the control group.
Effect of Multi Modal Representations on the Critical Thinking Skills of the Fifth Grade Students
Author: Öz, Muhittin
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Elementary School Students,Grade 5,Critical Thinking,Thinking Skills,Mixed Methods Research,Writing (Composition),Foreign Countries,Pretests Posttests,Cognitive Tests,Visual Aids,Experimental Groups,Control Groups

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of multi modal representations within writing to learn activities on students' critical thinking. Mixed method was used. The participants included 32 students 5th grade from elementary school. The groups were randomly selected as a control group and the other class was selected as the experimental group. Data collection tools has been Critical Thinking Test (CTT) and writing actives. The students were asked to tell their peers about the subjects in the unit with a writing activity using the summary writing type. The students performed three writing activities, one preparation and two real practice activities, in this process. The most basic dissimilarity between the groups is the request of the use of multimodal representations asked from the students in the experimental group. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficent of the CTT was determined as 0.72. The results of this study show that the use of the multi modal representations in writing to learn activities improved the scientific critical thinking of the students.
Hannah Arendt&apos;s &quot;The Human Condition&quot; in the Realm of Early Childhood Education: Perceptions and Reality
Author: Lau, Grace
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Educational Sociology,Play,Psychological Patterns,Social Change,Foreign Countries,Curriculum,Teacher Role

This article is an academic commentary on the concept of sociology of education. The authors have ventured through the lens of Hannah Arendt's &quot;The Human Condition&quot; and discuss its impact might have had if the corresponding mode of education and pedagogy be carried out in reality according to what Arendt had inspired her readers. A cross reference has been made on the recent 2017 early childhood reform document in Hong Kong on Play with the anticipated forms of education which the authors have perceived in Arendt's &quot;The Human Condition,&quot; namely the 'labor,' 'work' and 'action.' Since &quot;free play&quot; is highly promoted in the latest early childhood reform document and is tempered by the role of the teacher. As teacher is endorsed to perform the role of &quot;feedback-giver&quot; in the process of play, it has matched precisely with Arendt's perception of &quot;works of art&quot; and eventually paving the way to &quot;action-vita-activa&quot; as forms of education for the promotion of democratic collaborative learning. Since &quot;Sociology&quot; has an intimate connection with politics, it is anticipated that following the implementation of free play for young children in the early childhood classroom and by the tactic guide of the teachers, the educational landscape of the early years education in Hong Kong will be changed significantly. The impact of this on the society at large has yet to be examined in the long run.
What Does It Mean to Teach? Redifining the Teacher in an Era of Misconception
Author: Niedermeyer, W. Jason
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Misconceptions,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Role,Instruction,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Caring,Student Evaluation

It seems that in the mind of the public, teachers have come to be defined by what they solicit (protection in the form of a union) and what they fail to elicit (passing scores for students on standardized tests) as opposed to what it is they do, which is teach. This misinterpretation may very well arise from the lack of clarity in defining the practice of teaching. Using the emerging recognition of non-human animals as social transmitters of information to provide insight into what teaching is from an evolutionary perspective, this paper explores the inextricable link between biology and educational philosophy. Using Dewey's (1902, 1944, 1953) polymathic approach to investigating and understanding education as both a model and a foundation, this paper identifies nexus points between pedagogical theory, cognitive neuroscience, and ethology. The result is a redefinition of both the teacher and the act of teaching that has the potential to bring clarity to the purpose of a profession that has long suffered from public--and political--misperception.
Learning Analytics for Language Learning and Teaching
Author: Reinders, Hayo
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Data Collection,Data Analysis,Language Teachers,Learner Engagement,Student Participation,Comprehension,Progress Monitoring,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Information Management,Synchronous Communication,Asynchronous Communication

If only we could know what our students were up to at any given moment in class. Who is paying attention, and who is falling asleep? Who understands the past perfect and who thinks it is about something wonderful that happened yesterday? And wouldn't it be great if we knew who is motivated and who is ready to drop out of the course? Language teachers perhaps struggle with these questions even more than teachers in other domains, because their students are not able to communicate their preferences and needs as well as L1 speakers. Learning analytics involves monitoring student engagement and comprehension and can be used as a way to identify potential problems early on in a course. In this short article I will describe what learning analytics is, how it can work in practice, as well as its potential benefits and drawbacks for language learning and teaching.
The Relationship between Willingness to Communicate and Social Presence in an Online English Language Course
Author: Le, Thinh Van
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,High School Students,Student Attitudes,Social Media,Online Courses,Student Experience,English (Second Language),Language Usage,Telecommunications,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Computer Mediated Communication,Asynchronous Communication,Synchronous Communication,Teaching Methods,Semi Structured Interviews,Psychological Patterns,Language Proficiency

Vietnamese high school students have few opportunities to use English outside class and they are often reluctant to speak in class. This paper describes and explains the students' willingness to communicate (WTC) and relates this to varied perceptions of social presence. Eighteen high school students in Vietnam took a six-week online course using Facebook and Skype. They were interviewed individually before and after the course about their experiences, focusing on their perceptions of their own WTC. The results show that the students were more willing to use English spontaneously in the online environment in contexts where they perceived that they had less social presence. Text and audio chat were felt to be less face threatening than video chat, and consequently, students were more willing to speak in conditions of lower social presence. It can be concluded that the more social presence students felt they had in the online environment, the less their WTC. This was true for both synchronous and asynchronous online environments. Allowing students to control their social presence in online communication can embolden shy students and increase their WTC.
Native English-Speaking Teachers&apos; Perspectives on Using Videoconferencing in Learning English by Taiwanese Elementary-School Students
Author: Yu, Li-Tang
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Videoconferencing,Elementary School Students,English (Second Language),Teacher Attitudes,Technology Uses in Education,Teaching Methods,Qualitative Research,Teacher Surveys,Second Language Instruction,Usability,Academic Achievement,Learning Activities

With the rapid development of computer technology, videoconferencing has been widely applied for social and educational purposes. Issues relevant to the use of videoconferencing in second-language instruction have been raised and researched. However, little attention has been paid to videoconferencing projects implemented outside class for elementary school students, particularly in the EFL context. To fill the gap, the current study aims to contribute to our understanding of the out-of- class videoconferencing language-learning activities for young learners by exploring how 40 native English-speaking teachers perceived out-of-class videoconferencing in learning English by elementary school students in Taiwan. Data consisted of teacher responses to a post-videoconference survey with open-ended questions. Through qualitative, inductive, and interpretive analysis of the data, the study identified three emerging themes: uneven student performance, technical issues, and suggestions for the videoconferencing activity. The study contributes to our understanding of the videoconferencing experience of language teachers and broadens our understanding of implementing videoconference activities. Further research could explore teacher metacompetence (Guichon, 2009) by analyzing videotaped videoconferencing sessions.
Significant Predictors for Effectiveness of Blended Learning in a Language Course
Author: Wichadee, Saovapa
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Blended Learning,Undergraduate Students,Predictor Variables,English (Second Language),College Second Language Programs,Questionnaires,Student Satisfaction,Likert Scales,Student Attitudes,Faculty Workload,Media Literacy,Educational Quality,Foreign Countries,Regression (Statistics),Statistical Analysis

A wide variety of technologies combined with traditional classroom methods can make learning easier in the digital age. This paper studied undergraduate students' learning performance and satisfaction after they had studied in a blended setting and investigated if variables of learner characteristics and course features would be predictors for effectiveness in a blended course. Data were gained from 149 students enrolled in a fundamental English course at a private university in Thailand, using a 5-rating scale questionnaire. The results of the study demonstrated that students were satisfied with instructor, interactivity and course design, and the mean score of performance was higher than the criterion. It was found that attitudes toward blended learning, face-to-face support and digital literacy were three variables predicting learning performance while only two variables including face-to-face support and attitudes toward blended learning were two predicting variables of satisfaction with the course. However, workload management and online learning tools quality were not predictors of learning performance and satisfaction with the course. When designing future blended courses, instructors should pay more attention to face-to-face support, attitudes toward blended learning and digital literacy since these factors may have an impact on the course success.
Neural Machine Translation Tools in the Language Learning Classroom: Students&apos; Use, Perceptions, and Analyses
Author: Briggs, Neil
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Translation,Computational Linguistics,Korean,Accuracy,English (Second Language),Student Attitudes,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,College Students,Student Surveys,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries,Scores

Web-based machine translation (WBMT) tools have long been used by language learners, but until recently, their value as learning tools was limited by the limited accuracy of their outputs. In the past few years, however, the advent of neural machine translation has drastically improved the accuracy of WBMT, considerably increasing their attractiveness to language learners. Accordingly, the present exploratory study seeks to delve into students' attitudes and beliefs regarding the use of WBMT tools for English language learning. Surveys are used to collect data from 80 upper-year Korean-speaking university students regarding their use of and attitudes toward using WBMT tools. The results indicate that the majority of students use them to support their language studies both at home and at school, and for a range of purposes. Most students reported having limited trust in the accuracy of the outputs, but in general, the results reveal disparities among students in terms of their dependency upon and perceived value of such tools. Furthermore, the students evaluated the output of two popular WBMT tools, revealing evidence of struggle in terms of their ability to critically analyze their outputs. The pedagogical implications associated with this issue are discussed.
The Examination of Alignment between National Assessment and English Curriculum Objectives Using Revised Bloom&apos;s Taxonomy
Author: Kozikoglu, Ishak
Date: 2018-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Classification,Taxonomy,Grade 8,English Curriculum,Standardized Tests,Qualitative Research,Foreign Countries,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Documentation,Content Analysis,Educational Objectives,Language Skills,Thinking Skills,Alignment (Education),Knowledge Level

Bloom's taxonomy for the classification of the objectives in cognitive domain was developed in mid 1950s and this taxonomy was revised by a group with Anderson and Krathwohl by making some changes and revisions. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the objectives of 8th grade English curriculum and TEOG exam questions (national assessment exam) according to Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. This was a descriptive study using qualitative research method. English curriculum and TEOG exam questions were gathered from the website of Ministry of National Education (MONE). The data were obtained by document analysis technique. In the analysis of data, two-dimensional chart was used based on the classification in Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. And, frequency and percentage were used in presentation of the data. The results of the study showed that in 8th grade English curriculum more than half of the objectives are at the &quot;apply&quot; level and half of the objectives are intended for applying procedural knowledge. There is not any objective including metacognitive knowledge. 23% of the objectives are intended for higher order thinking skills such as analyze, evaluate and create level. However, it was found that most of the English course questions in TEOG exam were designed at lower order thinking skills such as &quot;remember&quot; and &quot;understand&quot; level. There are no alignments between objectives of English curriculum and English course questions in TEOG exam. So, alignment between curriculum objectives and assessment is suggested.