ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
STEAM-Learning to Mars: Students&apos; Ideas of Space Research
Author: Piila, Erna
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,STEM Education,Art Education,Interdisciplinary Approach,Astronomy,Elementary School Students,Scientific Literacy,Science Achievement,Gender Differences,Science Instruction,Instructional Effectiveness,Scores,Hands on Science,Inquiry,Thinking Skills,Outcomes of Education

Multidisciplinarity and the enrichment of science and mathematics education toward the so-called STEAM-approach where the A stands for art, has raised a lot of academic interest in the past decade. In this study, 5th and 6th graders from the greater Helsinki area (N = 390) participated in a several months long, Mars-colonization themed STEAM-learning intervention. Testing the students' science knowledge using pre- and post-tests, their learning outcomes were compared to those of 5th and 6th graders from a control school (N = 119), who during the same period studied STEM-subjects in a more traditional manner. The main factors that were taken into account during the comparisons were gender and academic achievement level. Based on only whether there was any improvement between the pre- and post-test scores, girls were found to have benefitted from the Mars-module more than boys did. While also considering the magnitude of the said improvement, no significant difference in the effectiveness of the learning module was found between genders. The group of academically highest-achieving students improved their test scores the most after participating in the STEAM-learning module. This is an important, somewhat surprising finding, as often informal, outside of school learning has been found to benefit especially students with lower grade point averages.
Rethinking Race, Ethnicity, and the Assessment of Intercultural Competence in Higher Education
Author: Punti, Gemma
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Race,Ethnicity,Cultural Awareness,Socialization,Intercultural Communication,Measures (Individuals),Social Class,Validity,Social Differences,Racial Differences,Minority Group Students,American Indian Students,African American Students,Empathy,Student Diversity,Living Learning Centers,Institutional Characteristics,Health Sciences,Majors (Students),Undergraduate Students,Student Attitudes

This qualitative study aims to explore the limitations of using a cultural assessment tool in higher education with the goal of preparing students to thrive in a highly demanding, diverse, and global community. Colleges and universities are potentially important sites of cross-cultural and cross-racial engagement and socialization, and cultural competence is arguably one of the critical skills that many higher education institutions are embracing to prepare students for our diverse, but increasingly polarized, global society. In particular, this study discusses the use of the intercultural development inventory (IDI), a cultural assessment tool that has not been validated in the U.S. for racial, ethnic, or social class differences, and which leaves out the role of structural inequalities in intercultural relationships. Findings reveal that interview data from black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) did not align with their IDI results and that the tool dismisses the complex experiences of BIPOC students. These findings jeopardize the tool's purpose and validity. Finally, this study reveals the importance of educating students about structural competence to improve empathy and understanding of a diverse student body.
Supporting Teachers on Their STEAM Journey: A Collaborative STEAM Teacher Training Program
Author: Boice, Katherine L.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Art Education,STEM Education,Professional Development,Teacher Education,Summer Programs,Program Effectiveness,Teacher Collaboration,Curriculum Implementation,Active Learning,Student Projects,Inquiry,Partnerships in Education,Self Efficacy,Elementary School Teachers,Middle School Teachers,High School Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Universities,Community Organizations

There is growing enthusiasm for STEAM education in preparing students for an increasingly complex world. However, implementing STEAM in the classroom can be challenging for educators, as it may require collaboration across disciplines, increased workload, and understanding the nature of STEAM integration. This paper details a mixed-methods evaluation of a year-long STEAM teacher training program, in which a STEM teacher and an arts teacher collaborated to design and implement integrated STEAM lessons at each of the nine participating schools (n = 17). The training program consisted of a 5-week summer professional development experience, followed by ongoing financial, material, and pedagogical support during the school year, made possible by the partnership of the schools, a university, and community organizations. Findings from surveys, focus groups, and written reflections suggest that, despite certain challenges, aspects of the training program supported teacher implementation of STEAM. Participation in the program impacted teachers' collaboration, pedagogy, self-efficacy, and arts integration practices. The findings offer insight into the forms of support that teachers deem important in STEAM teacher training programs and the benefits of such a program for teachers' professional development.
Design and Initial Validation of a Questionnaire on Prospective Teachers&apos; Perceptions of the Landscape
Author: Fernández Álvarez, Rubén
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Test Construction,Test Validity,Test Reliability,Questionnaires,Attitude Measures,Student Attitudes,Undergraduate Students,Preservice Teachers,Factor Analysis,Scores,Physical Geography,Geography Instruction

This research focuses on the design, construction, and validation of a questionnaire that seeks to analyse the perception of the landscape amongst undergraduates studying for a Degree in Primary School Teaching at Salamanca University. The process has involved using both qualitative and quantitative techniques to test the content's validity and the construct's reliability and suitability through the participation of a panel of expert judges and a sample of 432 subjects. This has been followed by the introduction of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the data provided by the cohort that has led to a study of the questionnaire's core characteristics, a reduction in its size, and the validation of its pertinence.
Assessing the Differential Effects of Peer Tutoring for Tutors and Tutees
Author: Thurston, Allen
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Tutors,Tutoring,Peer Teaching,Cooperative Learning,Instructional Effectiveness,Early Adolescents,Secondary School Students,Disadvantaged Environment,Socioeconomic Status,Reading Comprehension,Reading Improvement,Reading Strategies,Error Correction,Foreign Countries

There is strong evidence that peer tutoring, as a form of cooperative learning, has a positive impact on tutor and tutee outcomes. However, little previous research has been reported as to the differential effects of engaging in cooperative learning in dyads for peer tutors and peer tutees, respectively. A randomised controlled experimental study was undertaken involving 295, 11- to 13-year-old students, drawn from 12 classrooms, across three secondary/high schools situated in areas of low-socio-economic status, in the north east of England. In total, 146 students engaged in cooperative learning for a period of 12 weeks, and 149 students served as a comparison group. Gains were significantly greater on independent standardised reading comprehension tests for those engaged in cooperative learning than those in comparison classes, and greater for tutors than tutees. The results are explored by critically reflecting on the underlying theories of education that may be at play in classrooms using this form of cooperative learning.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Learning: Investigating EFL Learners&apos; Engagement in Online Courses in Saudi Arabia
Author: Oraif, Iman
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Online Courses,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Teaching Methods,Females,COVID-19,Pandemics,Foreign Countries,Electronic Learning,Student Attitudes,High School Students,Educational Improvement

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most learning around the world has been transferred online. Learners who previously engaged in traditional learning now face a new challenge, a distinctive rise in e-learning. This drastic change could impact their learning behavior and acceptance of the change. As a result, their learning engagement could be affected massively. The present study therefore explores learners' level of engagement in online courses using a designated school platform within the context of Saudi Arabia. A reliable measure was implemented in the study based on the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ). A survey was consequently conducted in a high school in Saudi Arabia, with a sample of 379 female English as a foreign language (EFL) learners studying a general English language course. The results revealed a high level of engagement among EFL Saudi learners. This helped to generate recommendations to improve EFL practices, primarily through the use of an online environment either at the national level in the Saudi context or the international level.
Opening the &apos;Black Box&apos; of Cooperative Learning in Face-to-Face versus Computer-Supported Learning in the Time of COVID-19
Author: Yu, Shu
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Cooperative Learning,Conventional Instruction,Educational Technology,Distance Education,Thinking Skills,Knowledge Level,Entrepreneurship,College Students,Creative Thinking,Instructional Effectiveness,Interaction,Student Behavior,Interpersonal Competence,Majors (Students)

This paper aims to identify the changes in student behaviors that resulted from the switch from face-to-face (F2F) learning to computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We constructed a triple-dimensional index with &quot;thinking ability improvement&quot;, &quot;horizontal knowledge construction&quot;, and &quot;vertical social relationship evolution&quot; to make comparisons. According to majors, we selected 23 students who registered for entrepreneurship courses from March to June 2019 in F2F and 23 students from March to June 2020 in CSCL formats. We utilized mixed methods, including experimental, content-based, and social network methods, to conduct evaluations. The results show the following: (1) Cooperative learning is beneficial in cultivating creative thinking for both F2F and CSCL groups. (2) The level of knowledge construction was slightly higher in F2F than that in CSCL in general. The effect of F2F learning in the early stage of the course was better, and in the later stage of the class CSCL attained a higher value. (3) For social abilities, the interactions in CSCL were closer than those in the F2F group. F2F cooperative learning was more prone to &quot;fake cooperation&quot; and free-riding behavior, whereas CSCL led to &quot;pan-cooperation&quot; and lacked the in-depth exploration of knowledge. Therefore, this pandemic provides opportunities for cooperative learning with in-depth exploration. CSCL offers sustainable and more hybrid learning activities that allow for the combination of online and offline learning to be experienced according to course contents.
Nature of Science (NOS) Being Acquainted with Science of Science (SoS): Providing a Panoramic Picture of Sciences to Embody NOS for Pre-Service Teachers
Author: Koponen, Ismo T.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Scientific Principles,Data Use,Content Analysis,Scientific and Technical Information,Preservice Teacher Education,Science Education,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Instructional Effectiveness

Understanding about nature of science is important topic in science education as well as in pre-service science teacher education. In science education, Nature of Science (NOS), in its different forms of educational scaffoldings, seeks to provide with students an understanding of features of scientific knowledge and science in general, how scientific knowledge changes and becomes accepted, and what factors guide scientific activities. For a science teacher, deep and broad enough picture of sciences is therefore of importance. This study attempts to show that the research field called Science of Science (SoS) can significantly support building such a panoramic picture of sciences, and through that, significantly support NOS. The SoS approaches the structure and dynamics of science quantitatively, using scientific documents (e.g., publications, reports, books and monographs and patent applications) as trails to map the landscape of sciences. It is argued here that SoS may provide material and interesting cases for NOS, and in so doing enrich NOS in a similarly significant way as history, philosophy and sociology of science (HPSS) scholarship has done thus far. This study introduces several themes based on SoS that are of relevance for NOS as they were introduced and discussed in a pre-service science teachers' course. The feedback from pre-service teachers shows that introducing SoS, with minimal additional philosophical interpretations and discussions, but simply as evidential facts and findings, sparks ideas and views that come very close to NOS themes and topics. Discussions related to nature of science, and specific educational NOS scaffoldings for it, can find a good companion in SoS; the latter providing facts and evidence of thee structure and dynamics of sciences, the former providing perspectives for interpretations.
Teachers&apos; Use of Descriptive Assessment in Primary School Mathematics Education in Iran
Author: Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Marja
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Elementary School Mathematics,Student Evaluation,Evaluation Methods,Grade 4,Mathematics Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Educational Change,Elementary School Teachers,Formative Evaluation,Feedback (Response),Beliefs,Data Collection,Peer Evaluation,Observation,Documentation,Report Cards,Teaching Methods

In many countries, assessment and curriculum reforms came into being in recent decades. In Iran, an important educational assessment reform took place called Descriptive Assessment (DA). In this reform, the focus of student assessment was moved from a more summative approach of providing grades and deciding about promotion to the next grade to a more formative approach of providing descriptive feedback aimed at improving student learning. In this study, we evaluated how seven fourth-grade mathematics teachers used the principles of DA. Data were collected by a questionnaire on assessment practices and beliefs, lesson observations, and interviews. Although the teachers varied in how they assess their students, in general their assessment practice is by and large in line with the DA guidelines. Nevertheless, in some respects we found differences. When assessing their students, the teachers essentially do not check the students' strategies and when preparing the report cards, they still use final exams because they do not sufficiently trust the assessments methods suggested by DA. The guideline to use assessment results for adapting instruction is also not genuinely put into action. The article is concluded by discussing dilemmas the teachers may encounter when implementing DA.
Multi-Class Assessment Based on Random Forests
Author: Berriri, Mehdi
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Evaluation,Artificial Intelligence,Classification,Foreign Countries,College Freshmen,Academic Failure,Models,Accuracy,Computer Science Education

Today, many students are moving towards higher education courses that do not suit them and end up failing. The purpose of this study is to help provide counselors with better knowledge so that they can offer future students courses corresponding to their profile. The second objective is to allow the teaching staff to propose training courses adapted to students by anticipating their possible difficulties. This is possible thanks to a machine learning algorithm called Random Forest, allowing for the classification of the students depending on their results. We had to process data, generate models using our algorithm, and cross the results obtained to have a better final prediction. We tested our method on different use cases, from two classes to five classes. These sets of classes represent the different intervals with an average ranging from 0 to 20. Thus, an accuracy of 75% was achieved with a set of five classes and up to 85% for sets of two and three classes.
Technology as Thirdspace: Teachers in Scottish Schools Engaging with and Being Challenged by Digital Technology in First COVID-19 Lockdown
Author: Brown, Jonathan
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Information Technology,Teaching Methods,Learning Processes,Elementary School Teachers,COVID-19,Pandemics,Teacher Attitudes,School Closing,Educational Change,Foreign Countries,Family Work Relationship,Teacher Student Relationship,Distance Education

This paper looks at the impact of digital technology on teaching and learning in primary schools in Scotland during the first COVID-19 lockdown from March to June 2020. The pandemic has challenged our understanding of schooling as, for the first time in many years, schools as we know them were shut and the school building was removed as the site of teaching and learning. This paper uses the concept of Thirdspace as developed by Edward Soja (1996), where Thirdspace is understood as an in-between space between binaries that enables the possibility to think and act otherwise. Drawing from qualitative data from interviews with primary school teachers, this paper explores how the lockdown in general, and digital technology in particular, facilitated a Thirdspace in the first COVID-19 lockdown. Findings from the study indicate that engaging with digital technology offers the teacher more possibilities than they have come to expect in the physical space of traditional schooling.
A Scoping Review of Organizational Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Schools: A Complex Systems Perspective
Author: Khanal, Puspa
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Educational Change,Adjustment (to Environment),Educational Practices,Organizational Change,Systems Approach,Intervention,School Administration,Online Courses,Responses

This study is a scoping review of the literature on organizational adaptation in school settings during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dramatic and unexpected environmental changes raise questions about the capacity of schooling organizations to adapt to in response to the pandemic. Different management practices have implications for the selection of organizational behaviors, electively in school settings. The research literature on school responses is analyzed from a selectionist perspective. The aim of this study is to identify and describe three constituting elements of this perspective: variation, interaction, and selection. An additional element is considered in this analysis and comprises the mechanisms of exploration and exploitation in the context of organizational adaptation. Sixteen studies met the selection criteria of describing emergent processes in schools. The findings highlight the emergence of exploration, as teachers actively experimented with a range of strategies and methods in order to maintain educational activities in the complex and uncertain context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, several questions are raised regarding the effects and maintenance of new practices in the post-pandemic scenario. Management practices that facilitate variation and open communication about learning processes can contribute to the process of organizational adaptation.
Understanding and Addressing the Deficiencies in UK Mathematics Education: Taking an International Perspective
Author: Skipp, Charlotte S.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mathematics Education,Foreign Countries,Achievement Tests,Secondary School Students,International Assessment,Comparative Education,Teaching Methods,High Stakes Tests,Mathematics Tests,Teacher Effectiveness,Professional Autonomy,Faculty Development,Achievement Gap,Teacher Expectations of Students,Mathematics Curriculum,Mathematics Achievement

This paper reflects on UK mathematics education following the poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) metric, which compares reading, science, and mathematics across 27 countries. We compared a range of features within secondary school mathematics in the UK with the countries outperforming the UK. We note disparities in the depth of the curriculum and the use of high-stakes testing which could be disadvantaging UK students. We also reflect on key factors that may underpin teacher effectiveness in the UK, including teacher expectations, in part driven by early use of ability sets, a lack of teacher autonomy, and poor continuous professional development. On this basis, we make several recommendations to strengthen UK mathematics education.
Does Postsecondary Education Attainment Matter in Community Service Engagement? Evidence from across 18 OECD Countries
Author: Gong, Hee Jung
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Attainment,Postsecondary Education,Citizen Participation,Community Involvement,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,Predictor Variables,International Studies,Volunteers,Foreign Countries

This study is concerned with the central issues of community service engagement (CSE) in 21st century democratic societies around the world. To examine the factors influencing postsecondary education attainment's relationship to CSE, this study utilized data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries using ordinary least square (OLS) and two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) methods, including various factors for each country's individual and country levels. The results show that attainment in postsecondary education at the individual level and investment and enrollments in tertiary education both have an influence on increasing CSE in 18 OECD countries. The present study is expected to contribute to an understanding of the relationship between postsecondary education and CSE across the world.