Improving a required course in our curriculum that has proven to be a challenge for our students was the focus of this study. Surveys of both students and instructors attempted to identify specific problem areas. Using the information from these surveys, the researchers developed a series of videos to explain vital course concepts and deployed these into the course sections. The purpose of the videos is to provide consistency across the multiple modalities in which we offer our courses (including online, classroom and via videoconferencing) and to improve overall student understanding. This project seeks to determine how supplemental content focusing on material identified as “difficult,” by students and instructors, can impact student performance. Challenges include the deployment of the videos across various modalities and obtaining sufficient student feedback.

This research aims to reveal the first-year experiences of social studies teachers who have just started their profession in the public sector. Also, it aims to reveal what awaits teachers in the school environment and the current experiences of teachers at the beginning of the profession. Case study design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 34 social studies teachers working in secondary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (Turkey) in the districts of Ankara. Participants were selected on an equal basis from all districts of Ankara province. Purposeful sampling, one of the non-random sampling methods was used in determining participants. In addition, criterion sampling was also used in the purposeful sampling phase. The obtained data were subjected to the content and descriptive analysis. As a result of the research, following the latest changes and developments and developing their basic knowledge and skills seems important for teachers who started their profession in the public sector. The multidisciplinary of the social studies branch, attractivity, and the fact that there are no alternatives comes to the fore in teachers' decision-making process to become social studies teachers. In addition, teachers participating in the research suggested to new teachers that they should master their fields, maintain their personal development, get to know the target group, and maintain strong communication in school.

In a situation where life is insecure and the future seems to hang by a thread, motivating students to learn a second language that has no immediate need in their daily lives could be challenging. This article explores the motivation to learn English as a second language of students and the use of motivational strategies of English teachers in one state of Myanmar, which has undergone civil wars for more than seventy years. Sequential explanatory mixed-method research was employed to investigate this complex phenomenon. Questionnaires, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. A pleasantly surprised finding showed that the students could still remain a certain level of motivation to learn English amidst great hardship and fear in everyday life. As for the teachers’ motivational strategies, most that were observed and reported did not tend to support students’ autonomy. The findings lend support to previous studies on the effects of unstable sociopolitical situations on students and teachers and highlight the needs for effective teacher trainings for pre-service and in-service teachers in such areas.

Digital storytelling has undergone extensive study in different content-areas, but its naturally-combined use with collaborative writing for skills development, and reflective practice remains underresearched in pre-service EFL teacher education. This study undertook joint tech-enhanced retelling of L2 texts by 56 Turkish EFL teacher candidates, rubric-based peer and teacher assessment of final products, comparative analysis of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) between outliers, and process evaluation using the significant learning taxonomy to explore impacts on L2 writing performance, academic learning, and personal growth. Despite assigning lower scores than the teacher-assessors, especially to the top-performers, the majority of peers successfully fulfilled the job, effectively performed the future reviewer role, and positively reacted to co-construction, and technology integration. CAF and reflection analyses indicated that the biggest difference between the highest- and lowest-scoring groups lay in grammatical accuracy, and lack of mutual interaction could account for the less cooperative group’s poorer performance. The classification of their post-task responses into six kinds of learning gains (foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn) also revealed that their collaborative digital storytelling experience (CDS) elicited more procedural, critical, creative and practical thinking on the academic learning front, while disciplinary and integrative thinking may have declined due to more immediate preoccupation with task achievement. Their critical thinking was mainly organised around consensus-reaching, fluctuating membership, and logistical challenges, and most demonstrated a clear understanding of the role of positive group dynamics in group outcomes. Despite heightened awareness of the performance-boosting, character-forming, and motivational benefits of collective scaffolding and multimodal meaning-making, a minority could also discern the instrumentality of innovative teaching techniques in their future classroom practices.

Revision constitutes an important component of the writing process that integrates text interpretation, reflection, and production. Although previous studies have offered useful insights into the revision behaviour of L2 writers at different levels of proficiency using off-line measures, little is known about the online processes of revision. In this study, I used keystroke logging to investigate longitudinal changes in the revision processes of postgraduate and undergraduate students in the context of an intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. Twenty-five postgraduate and 14 undergraduate students participated in this study. The keystroke logging program Inputlog was used during two essay writing sessions at the beginning and at the end of the course to observe how the participants revise their essays and to get insights into their on-line writing processes. Keystroke logging data were coded in terms of the orientation and location of revisions. The results revealed that postgraduates produced more content-oriented revisions at the end of the programme than at the beginning. The opposite trend was observed for the undergraduates, who revised their essays significantly less frequently at the end than at the beginning of the EAP program and made more mechanical revisions than postgraduate writers. The findings highlight fundamental differences in the developmental trajectories of revision processes between postgraduate and undergraduate students. These differences caused by previous academic writing experience and language proficiency should be considered in developing materials for EAP programs. In the paper, I also discuss benefits of using keystroke logging to investigate L2 writers’ revision processes.

E-learning has become a viable mean to both Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and Small Private Open Courses (SPOCs). Research has shown that the quality and effectiveness of these types of courses depend largely on the contextual factors that may impact the design and development of online courses. This study highlights a design framework for a SPOC offered at Sultan Qaboos University. It employs a design-based research methodology, which is a systematic research approach aimed to improve instructional practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation to produce contextually-sensitive design principles. The sample of this study consists of a diverse group of subjects including instructional designers, subject-matter experts, as well as students. The findings illustrate the importance of contextual logistics that need to be considered in the design and development of SPOCs. The findings also highlight the importance of the DBR as a suitable research methodology for similar developmental studies.

Today’s individuals are expected to have skills in many areas as a natural consequence of the advances that have been taking place in society and technology. Particularly in developed countries, these skills are also called 21^st century skills. Critical, creative and reflective thinking, problem solving and keeping up with the digital age (digital literacy) are some of these skills. Universities play a significant role in raising qualified individuals in our country. Updating the training programs, keeping up with the era and having a say in the digital world makes it a necessity for people who give education in these areas to be competent. From this point of view, this study aimed to explore the digital literacy levels of Turkish academics working in faculties of education and the perceptions of students towards technology integration competence of the academics. In this study, quantitative cross-sectional design was preferred. While selecting the participants, purposeful sampling method was used, and two different participant groups (academics and prospective teachers) were included in the process. Two scales with validity and reliability in the literature were used as data collection tools in the research. In the data collection process, firstly, a survey was administered to academics working in faculties of education, and then another one was conducted with prospective teachers. The results obtained were subjected to quantitative data analysis via SPSS 24 and AMOS 24 software, and descriptive and inferential statistics were generated. The results revealed that the variables of department, age and grade level created a significant difference in the digitalization of academics, whereas the gender variable significantly contributed only to the perceptions of prospective teachers.

The language, in the most basic sense, is a means of communication among people. Since the proper and effective use of people’s native language will shape the whole life of an individual, individuals are expected to have native language awareness. There is a strong bilateral relationship between the effective use of native language and native language awareness. All the teachers/preservice teachers and especially native language teachers/preservice teachers, who are role models as being instructors, are expected to have this awareness and help students to gain and transfer it to the future generations.  By this motivation, this study aims to examine language awareness of preservice teachers, an example from Turkey. Through phenomenological design of the qualitative research methods, it has been aimed to reach this goal.  Accordingly, the data were collected through semi-structured and structured opinion forms from 60 preservice teachers studying in a state university. In the study, it was seen that preservice teachers generally have this awareness. It has been revealed that the preservice teachers tend to correct their use of language that they think is wrong, they investigate the word they do not know the spelling when they are indecisive, and they mostly find it necessary to obey the language rules in multimedia. It was concluded that attention in the use of language emphasizes the negativities to be encountered in the dimension of providing social communication in daily life.

Contemporary studies related to teacher autonomy mostly deal with research into how autonomy is perceived by teachers and which variables it is associated with. On the other hand, there are very few studies dealing with how teachers’ instructional autonomy over the curriculum is reflected in the education process. The aim of this study is to reveal in depth the practices carried out in the context of instructional autonomy by science teachers who have different levels of autonomy. The study is based on data gathered from eight teachers employed at different schools in the province of Izmir in Turkey. Interviews, observations and documents were used for collecting the data. The results reveal that while teachers with high instructional autonomy successfully apply contemporary teaching methods, alternative evaluation techniques, high-order thinking skills and effective classroom management, teachers with low instructional autonomy fall short in all of these areas.

The purpose of the study is to examine pre-service teachers' impromptu speaking skills on the basis of the evaluations of the instructor, peers and their own. The study employed a descriptive case study design, one of the qualitative research methods. A total of 23 pre-service math teachers taking the course of Art of Effective Speech in a state university in Turkey in the 2016-2017 academic year participated in the study. The data of the study were collected through the observations of the researcher and pre-service teachers. Descriptive analysis was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the study, it was found that in most of the observation items, the pre-service teachers found themselves inadequate in terms of impromptu speaking skills while they were found to be adequate by their peers and instructor. In addition, it was revealed that the pre-service teachers found themselves inadequate in some items related to the use of voice while they found themselves adequate in most of the items related to articulation/diction and body language and in all of the items related to communication. However, while the instructor observed that the pre-service teachers were generally competent in all the sub-dimensions, she determined that they needed improvement in the sub-dimensions of eye contact, pausing at the appropriate place and speaking without repeating words.  

The early phase is the decisive period for the teachers’ career. Intellectual styles (particularly thinking styles) play a vital role in teachers’ professional development. With the purpose of measuring thinking styles of teachers at the early phase, this study was designed to validate a revised inventory of thinking styles (TSI-R2) for pre-service and early career teachers. A sample of pre-service teachers (n = 248) were invited to join the pilot study and a sample of teachers with one year work experience (n = 252) participated in the main study. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed. The results suggested that with slight modification, TSI-R2 was a reliable and valid instrument to measure thinking styles of pre-service teachers and early career teachers, which has some implications to enhancing teacher education and development.

During the pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), English as a foreign language (EFL) students have to study and submit their assignments and quizzes through online systems using electronic files instead of hardcopies. This has created an opportunity for teachers to use computer tools to conduct preliminary assessment of the students’ writing performance and then give advice to them timely. Hence, this paper proposed some indicators which were essay readability scored by Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), length of essays, errors in writing and a method to assist the teachers in providing writing feedback to the students. The results showed a large difference in FRE, the number of words, sentences, paragraphs and errors. The K-means clustering findings were applied to classify groups of students based on writing proficiency indicators. The findings also revealed that the number of words and sentences in the essays indicated some deficiencies. The concept of paragraph should be reinforced while some specific errors such as misspelling, grammatical and typographical errors found need to be eliminated. This study showcased that the computer tools should be integrated to process the students’ essays so that the teachers can pinpoint the problems and make suggestions to their students in appropriate time. Lastly, the results can be served as the guidelines for the teachers to develop and adjust teaching materials pertinent to writing to enhance the writing performance of EFL learners.

Learning engagement is one of the most important issues facing online learning, which has many distractions beyond the teacher’s control and management. This study examined teachers’ observations of their students’ engagement in online learning and their efforts to engage them. Teachers can evaluate different factors and conditions that affect students’ perceptions, engagement, motivation, and achievement. Language learning is influenced by several factors, such as teachers’ rapport and interaction with their students, students’ interaction and collaboration, and their engagement with social activities in learning situations. This qualitative multi-case study collected data from five language teachers by semi-structured interviews, teachers’ self-reports, and observational notes about their experiences of students’ engagement in their online lessons. It lasted for 15 teaching weeks in a Saudi intermediate school during the second semester of 2020-2021. The thematic analysis results in four main categories; (a) teachers’ challenges, (b) students’ responsibilities, (c) environment and system, and (d) attitude and excuses. These categories are built on 11 themes that provide insights into the factors, challenges, and threats, which influence learning engagement in online courses for teachers and students. The study recommends some techniques to maintain the learning engagement and provides some suggestions for future research.  

The purpose of the study was to identify how the designed instructional model moderated the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The methodological approach used in the study was aimed at controlling and manipulating variables which were as follows: The level of vocabulary anxiety related to communication in the media, cultural intelligence, and English vocabulary level. The study relied on quantitative and qualitative methods to gather the experimental data and answer the research questions. Insufficient vocabulary was found to be one of the key factors of anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The major sub-factors of the vocabulary-related anxieties in the students when they communicated in the media internationally (as perceived by the respondents) were spontaneous interaction with the native speakers, guessing the meaning of the words from the context, and paraphrasing ideas using synonyms. The instructional-purpose use of the predesigned vocabulary lists, learning them using the Telegram bot, talking to the foreign speakers in the media, self-analysis, and analysis by peers were proven to be capable to moderate the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicate in the media with the foreign speakers.

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.

The study discussed in this paper is a systematic literature review related to the role of dual language programme (DLP) in mathematics education which has been published within the last 5 years. This study was conducted to identify the distribution of DLP studies in terms of year of publication, the study context covered in previous studies, the context of study areas used, focus and trends of past studies, research methods used in previous studies and the role of language in school mathematics education. This review study followed the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) to analyze articles from Scopus and Web of Science. The findings of the study indicate that research trends in the implementation of the DLP on mathematics education for secondary school students showed an increase from 2017 to 2019. Most DLP-related articles are widely developed in the United States and Germany. The findings indicate that previous studies are more interested in studying the implementation of DLP in rural areas. Past studies have also preferred to use the design of either a qualitative study or a quantitative study to be implemented. Questionnaires, tests and interviews are among the research instruments that are often used for a study.

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.  

The purpose of the study was to identify the - interventions that can be adopted for teaching chemistry disciplines to the graduates majoring in Pharmacy (Mpharm) in Ukraine. The study employed a systematic review methodology and a qualitative approach to synthesising the sources. The triangular assessment method was used to rate the short-listed instructional interventions for feasibility, transferability, and duplicability in the settings of teaching chemistry disciplines to pharmacy graduates in Ukraine. The review found seven eligible publications for the analysis. It was identified that the shortlisted instructional models were technology-mediated and positively affected students’ skills and occupational knowledge. Three out of seven instructional models used chatbots and AI to automate the process of management of students learning activity which suggested that automation of the process of educational content delivery was becoming an emerging trend in instructional design. Having performed the triangular assessment method (TAM) analysis, three instructional models were given preference in terms of their use in medical education settings in Ukraine. These models were as follows: a) PhET simulations-based model, b) the model based on automated delivery of the course using the Smart Sender platform and c) the model based on automation of the Moodle-driven e-course using Dialogflow chatbot.

This study examines how visual thinking may affect Jordanian female ninth-graders reading abilities. The design had an experimental feel about it. The study included 66 ninth-grade female students who were studying English as a foreign language (EFL). An instructional program was created and put into place, and a pre-post reading exam was created to help the study reach its objective. The results were examined using SPSS. The findings show that there are statistically significant changes in the steps of the visual thinking strategy (VTS) modality between the two groups, with the experimental group benefiting more. VTS has been proven to be a successful strategy for greatly enhancing student attainment of good marks and having an impact on student achievement of course learning outcomes. This study triggered the following reading sub-skills: vocabulary acquisition, imaging, building and activating schema, identifying the main idea and details, questioning, inferring, communicating through oral language, and comprehension. VTS has a real impact on teaching reading sub-skills, which is important for both teachers and curriculum designers. Longitudinal research data is required to further analyze and refine this teaching strategy.