In general, teacher educators are considered to be educational specialists whose main task is to communicate content-based concepts to prospective teachers. However, unfortunately, most studies on teacher professional development overlook this specific language-oriented aspect of content-based teaching. Therefore, we address the aforementioned research gap and argue that teacher educators’ evaluation of their language-oriented performance in educational communication enhances the quality of their content-based teaching. Accordingly, we examine how the language-oriented performance of teacher educators is evaluated by both individual teacher educators (sample size N=3) and their students (N=32) in a small-scale intervention study. The findings of the study reveal that there is a relationship between the order of application of five language focus areas (i.e., language awareness, active listening, formalizing interaction, language support, and language and learning development, as noticed by the students), and teacher educators’ ability to apply these areas in accordance with their objectives related to content-based teaching.

This study describes the development and validation of a psychometrically-sound instrument, the Active Learning Strategies Inventory (ALSI), designed to measure learners’ perceptions of their active learning strategies within an active learning context. Active learning encompasses a broad range of pedagogical practices and instructional methods that connect with an individual learner's active learning strategies. In order to fulfill the study's goals, a conceptual framework on learners’ active learning strategies was developed and proposed, drawing upon the research literature on active learning. The development and construct validation of the Active Learning Strategies Inventory (ALSI), based on the conceptual and methodological underpinnings, involved identifying five scales of learners’ active learning strategies: engagement, cognitive processing, orientation to learning, readiness to learn and motivational orientation. An item pool of 20 items was generated following an extensive review of the literature, standardized card sorting procedures including confirmatory factor analysis and scale validation of a pilot (n = 407) survey. The ALSI scale demonstrated strong internal consistency and reliability with a Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.81 to 0.87. High item loading scores from the factor analysis provided initial support for the instrument's construct validity of the five-factor model. The ALSI scale provides a reliable and valid method for researchers and academicians who wish to measure learners' perceptions of their active learning strategies within an active learning context. Finally, we discuss the implications and address the limitations and directions for future research.

The purpose of the current study is to determine pre-service teachers’ perception of individual entrepreneurship and opinions about their critical thinking tendency. As the data collection tools, the Individual Entrepreneurship Perception Scale and the Marmara Creative Thinking Tendencies Scale were used in the current study. The participants of the study are 469 freshman, sophomore, junior and senior students attending the Departments of Pre-school Teacher Education and Primary School Teacher Education. In the analysis of the collected data, frequencies, percentages, independent samples t-test, Mann Whitney U test and correlation analysis were employed. The findings obtained from the analyses have revealed that the pre-service teachers’ individual entrepreneurship perceptions and creative thinking tendencies vary significantly depending on the variables of gender and whether they took a course/seminar on entrepreneurship. The pre-service teachers’ individual entrepreneurship perceptions and creative thinking tendencies were found to be not varying significantly depending on the department attended. The pre-service teachers’ personal entrepreneurship perceptions and creative thinking tendencies were found to be above medium. A highly positive and significant correlation was found between the pre-service teachers’ individual entrepreneurship perception and creative thinking tendency total scores. The pre-service teachers can be encouraged to take the course “Economics and Entrepreneurship” and to participate in certificate programs on entrepreneurship.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language. The sampling of the current study consists of 990 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school students attending state middle schools in the Mentese district of the city of Mugla, Turkey in school year 2018-2019. As the data collection tools, the Perceived Self-Regulation Scale and the Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Foreign Language Scale were used. In the analysis of the collected data, frequencies, percentages, independent-samples t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), Post-Hoc Tests (Tukey and Dunnett’s C) and correlation analysis were used. The findings of the present study have revealed that the middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language are over the medium value. The middle school students’ self-regulation skills and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language were found to vary significantly depending on gender, grade level, father-mother attitude and level of interest in English course. A medium, positive and significant correlation was found between the middle school students’ total scores of self-regulation strategies and vocabulary learning strategies in foreign language.

The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast faculty and graduate students’ perceptions of engaging online courses. This mixed-methods study occurred in a mid-sized state university in northeastern United States. Data from an online survey and semi-structured interviews indicated that graduate students and faculty perceived similar online course elements in the areas of social and teaching presence as engaging: interpersonal connections, structured learning environments, and variety in course activities and type of technology used. Both believed that poor organization was unengaging. Subtle differences in perception were illuminated by the qualitative analysis. The results have implications for online course pedagogy and research methodology.

This paper sought to investigate the mathematics teachers’ reflection on the role of Productive Pedagogies’ framework in festering effective classroom instruction. Two research objectives were used to discuss the reflection of the four mathematic teachers. A qualitative case study was adopted as the design of the study. Classroom observations, Research Journal and Reflective Interviews were organised to collect data for the study, while the narratives approach to data analysis was used to analyse the data collected. From the study, the mathematics teachers were able to gradually adjust to the new framework through effective reflective meetings with their colleagues and with the support of the researcher. They (mathematics teachers) reflected that, the framework helps them developed confidence, positive attitude and interest to their teaching practice. It helped fostered effective collaboration and created an atmosphere of trust between the mathematics teachers and their students. The study also suggested that the pedagogy influence the mathematics teachers to provide and received feedback from their colleagues and from their students. They were also of the view that there was a gradual shift from the traditional teacher centred instruction they are more conversant with to a more student-centred pedagogy. The implication of the study suggests the need to adopt the Productive Pedagogies framework into the Nigerian mathematics classroom to improve mathematics teacher’s classroom instruction.

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.

This study explores the impact extended participation in literature circles had on the reading attitudes of university-age pre-service teachers following their involvement in literature circles for one academic year, as part of their training. The participants of the study consisted of 21 pre-service teachers with a low or moderate level of reading habits and reading attitudes. The research was conducted through a mixed methods approach. Although both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the study, particular emphasis was given to the data collected from the qualitative part (quan+QUAL). In line with the quantitative data, it was concluded in the study that extended involvement in the literature circles had a positive effect on the reading attitudes of the pre-service teachers. The qualitative data, which was obtained through interviews, revealed four themes. The themes emerged as love and desire for reading, benefits of reading, importance of reading and reading habits as a result of the analysis. The results obtained from the research are important in terms of contributing to the improvement of pre-service teachers who will play important roles in Turkey’s becoming a literate society.

Technical and pedagogical counseling as accompaniment benefits teachers’ development. However, there are information gaps on the specific impact of counseling with a socio-formative approach on both professionalization and the improvement of teaching practice. The objective is to analyze the relationship between these three elements. A cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach was employed. A validated questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of 212 teachers. The information analysis was carried out through statistics: descriptive, correlational, and linear regression, whose level of significance was: <.01-. 05. Teachers consider that technical and pedagogical counseling from socio-formation fosters the development of an ethical life project, promotes problem solving in their educational practice, collaborative work, metacognition, and entrepreneurship (92.78 ± 14.3). The correlational analysis showed a significant relationship between socio-formative pedagogical technical counseling and teaching practice, the latter of which was enhanced by the former. In the linear regression analysis, the best model of pedagogical technical counseling is made from socio-formation, which predicts a 71% improvement of teaching practice. As a result, this form of counseling benefits both professionalization and teaching practice through metacognition.

Technological advances and the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have forced higher education institutions to be innovative in delivering education in their countries. E- assessment using e-portfolio illustrates the importance of assessment practices that promote constructivist perception, allowing students to create their own learning as active participants through innovative learning and assessment activities. The purpose of this paper was to explore lecturer’s understandings on the functionality of e-portfolio as an alternative assessment in an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL). For this qualitative study, within an interpretative paradigm, interviews were conducted with four lecturers using thematic approach. The findings revealed that e-portfolio is beneficial for assessment in the ODeL as it allows students the opportunity to self-embrace their learning, e-portfolio enhances student-centeredness through authentic assessment practices. However, e-portfolio is not implemented to its potential due to challenges and constraints experienced by lecturers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that training workshops beneficial for lecturers should be conducted at the beginning of the course/module on how to create their e-portfolios. Furthermore, an e-portfolio assessment framework to be facilitated for the successful implementation of e-portfolio assessment strategy.  

Through an exploration of language practices in an early years setting, this paper aims to examine discourses about transforming monolingual practice generated during an internally driven action research. Based on a small private nursery in an affluent part of London, this action research was conducted with the intention of reviewing internal practices that support young children who speak English as an additional language (EAL). Parents and practitioners took part in an initial questionnaire (n=21). This was followed by semi-structured interviews (n=3) and a focus group (n=5) with practitioners. The data was analysed considering some of the theoretical points proposed by Bourdieu and the discourse analysis tools suggested by van Leeuwen. Despite the recognition of potential barriers, encouraging positive dispositions towards language diversity were identified. The most significant feature of our examination was the value of local knowledge and the diverse language repertoires encountered in the setting. Our analysis evidence that action research can empower practitioners to challenge monolingual mindsets and to move towards an exploration of alternative (plurilingual) ideas, despite the monolingual ethos imposed by the curriculum and other external regulatory forces.

The objective of this study was to promote the use of metaphorical stories based on classical Greek myths in academic teacher training. The aim is to favour processes of personal assemblage and the constitution of teacher identity. Based on 8 classical myths, 4 of them featuring a female character and another 4 a male character, the group of participants narrated positive as well as disappointing experiences they had lived through during their academic training. Moreover, they selected the myths, among those proposed, that provided the metaphors that best described their specific personal trajectories. Adopting a qualitative approach, we followed a narrative-biographical tradition and collected 37 stories. This narrative corpus was analysed using the AQUAD software. The results showed that classical Greek myths contain and provide a powerful and illuminating narrative scaffolding, helping students to adopt a different perspective in the narration of their own academic trajectories. The myths equally helped them to become more aware of the most genuine life and personal experiences that shaped their own teacher identity.

The purpose of this qualitative research is to analyze the reflective thinking process of prospective elementary teacher in numeracy problems in terms of their mathematical disposition. The subjects in this study were 26 prospective elementary school teachers who had attended elementary mathematics lectures. The focus in this research is the process of mathematical reflective thinking in solving story problems of a two-variable linear equation system in terms of the level of mathematical disposition. The research instrument consisted of a disposition questionnaire, a reflective thinking ability test and the researcher himself as the main instrument. Good mathematical reflective thinking skills are supported by disposition, by constantly monitoring one's own performance, reflecting on one's own performance, reasoning on one's own performance, considering the overall situation, the habit of analyzing the relationship between variables, being flexible in various alternative solutions to mathematical problems and trying to solve mathematical problems. From the results of this study, lecturers can develop learning media, scaffolding, or teaching materials that accommodate different dispositional abilities of prospective teachers that can be used to improve the reflective thinking process.

A transition from pre-service training programs to teaching is a dramatic and somehow painful experience for novice teachers. The question is what difficulties novice teachers face and how they negotiate their professional identity to cope with difficulties and find joys in their career. This study is aimed to investigate novice teachers’ professional identity reconstruction, from their imaged-identities to their practiced identities. The use of semi-structured interviews collected data from four Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) novice teachers. According to the data, cue-based was the most common type of novice teachers’ imagined identity. Regarding the practiced identities, the interviewees reported different professional identity reconstructions in the first five years of teaching practice. The participants’ excerpts enlisted some challenges that the novices faced such as students’ learning attitudes, working environments, or unorganized colleagues. Based on the research findings, some solutions were proposed in order to help novice teachers get through their difficult times at the very beginning of their career.

The aim of this research is to find out how higher education (HE) teachers reflect on the possibilities of personal development and evaluate the institutional promotion of academic teaching in an HE community. The purpose was thus to understand how university employed teachers experienced and reflected on the benefits of their pedagogical education and pedagogical fellowship during and after the studies. To obtain information regarding the current situations and prospects for the future of the research persons, questionnaires were used, and unstructured essays were written through their study time and subsequently. The research methods were qualitative content analysis and deep analysing methods. The teachers possess cognitive thinking skills of the highest level. Pedagogical and transformative thinking are not at the same level. The research persons express their views tactfully when outlining how teaching should be realized in the future. Still, they criticized the resistance to changes in academic teaching, especially before they themselves were part of the administration.

Teachers face situations that are difficult to solve, which affect their practices in the classroom. Teachers´ability to face problematic situations been related to educators' adaptive and metacognitive capacity. This study aimed to contrast the recent literature on classroom problems with reports from Chilean teachers regarding what they mean today as critical situations in the classroom. The major problems with the highest prevalence were categorized based on a literature review. Subsequently, teachers from three educational levels (pre-school, primary and secondary) were asked to relate situations in which they had experienced a crisis in their profession. After a filtering based on the relevance and textual richness present, the stories (n=145) were subjected to a thematic analysis and contrasted with the categories obtained from the reviewed literature. The results show a low proportion of problems associated with learning management in the classroom and, on the other hand, a high proportion of behavioral problems in students focused on situations of aggression towards the teacher. These conclusions are discussed to reconsider the concept of "classroom problem situations" and, based on this, questioning the role of teacher training in the development of skills for the management of authentic problem situations.

This research aims to prove the influence of teacher efficacy on learning quality with quantitative meta-analysis. The eligibility criteria in this study include: (a) The publication can be searched in Google Scholar, ERIC, DOAJ, Research Gate, and or ScienceDirect; (b) The publication is indexed in Scopus, WoS, SINTA (a portal indexing journal managed by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, equivalent to DOAJ and Index Copernicus), DOAJ, Index Copernicus, and at least they must be indexed in Google Scholar; (c) The topic of the studies must be relevant; (d) The studies must be carried out in the 2014-2023 year range; (e) The publication must have a value of (r), (t) or (F); (f) The studies have a magnitude of N ≥ 20. This study used the JASP application for data analysis. The results showed that: (a) the 40 studies analyzed were heterogeneous and normally distributed; (b) the influence of teacher efficacy on education quality is classified as strong (p < 0.05; rRE = 0.800); (c) publication bias was not detected. This study concluded that there is a strong influence of teacher efficacy on education quality.