Search results for: teachers’ gains and drawbacks

Authors: Steffany Anne Poblador, Ruben Jr. Tagare

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The Philippine Education System is now undergoing transition as a result of the implementation of Republic Act 10533, commonly referred to as the Enhanced Basic Education Act. Since its implementation in 2013, researchers have been examining the initial impact of this transition; however, investigations into the gains and drawbacks of the Philippine Senior High School Sports Track Program based on teachers’ assessment were scarcely adequate. As a result, this research used a Qualitative Phenomenology Research Design to elicit information on the gains and drawbacks faced by these instructors. Focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and extensive field observation were conducted with participants from selected schools in Cotabato Province. During the triangulation of the data, five (5) significant themes for gains and six (6) concerns from the research participants emerged. The findings were then used to provide recommendations for a more effective implementation of the Sports Track Program in the Philippine Senior High School program.

Keywords: teachers’ gains and drawbacks, Philippine K to 12 problems, K to 12 transition years, favorable experiences, phenomenology

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Authors: Todd Pennington, Carol Wilkinson, Keven Prusak

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Traditional models of student teaching practices typically involve the placement of a student teacher with an experienced mentor teacher. However, due to the ever-decreasing number of quality placements, an alternative triad approach is the paired placement of student teachers with one mentor teacher in a community of practice. This study examined the paired-placement of student teachers in physical education to determine the benefits and drawbacks after a 14-week student teaching experience. PETE students (N = 22) at a university in the United States were assigned to work in a triad with a student teaching partner and a mentor teacher, making up eleven triads for the semester. The one exception was a pair that worked for seven weeks at an elementary school and then for seven weeks at a junior high school, thus having two mentor teachers and participating in two triads. A total of 12 mentor teachers participated in the study. All student teachers and mentor teachers volunteered and agreed to participate. The student teaching experience was structured so that students engaged in: (a) individual teaching (one teaching the lesson with the other observing), (b) co-planning, and (c) peer coaching. All students and mentor teachers were interviewed at the conclusion of the experience. Using interview data, field notes, and email response data, the qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparative method. The benefits of the paired placement experience emerged into three categories (a) quality feedback, (b) support, and (c) collaboration. The drawbacks emerged into four categories (a) unrealistic experience, (b) laziness in preparation, (c) lack of quality feedback, and (d) personality mismatch. Recommendations include: providing in-service training prior to student teaching to optimize the triad experience, ongoing seminars throughout the experience specifically designed for triads, and a hybrid model of paired placement for the first half of student teaching followed by solo student teaching for the second half of the experience.

Keywords: community of practice, paired placement, physical education, student teaching

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Authors: Alhanouf Alharbi, Wafa Alotaibi

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This study aims to analyse students’ and teachers’ perceptions of using Plickers as a formative assessment tool in EFL classrooms. The study implements a mixed methods approach. First, a questionnaire was administered to 64 students from two schools in Almadinah, a Saudi city. Then, in structured interviews, two English teachers provided their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of integrating Plickers into their classrooms. The findings reveal that both teachers and students believe that using Plickers positively impacts students’ learning. Moreover, the findings encourage teachers to integrate technology-based formative assessments in EFL classrooms. However, there are some drawbacks to using Plickers, such as technological issues. Finally, English teachers are recommended to engage all their students in a daily formative assessment by implementing Plickers in their classes.

Keywords: plickers, formative assessment, technology, students, EFL classroom

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Authors: Ercan Yilmaz, Ali Murat Sünbül

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The aim of the study is to investigate teachers’ self-efficacy with regards to their emotional intelligence. The relational model was used in the study. The participant of the study included 194 teachers from secondary schools in Konya, Turkey. In order to assess teachers’ emotional intelligence, “Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-short Form was implemented. For teachers’ self-efficacy, “Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale” was used. As a result of the study, a significant relationship is available between teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and their emotional intelligence. Teachers’ emotional intelligence enucleates approximate eighteen percent of the variable in dimension named teachers’ self-efficacy for the students’ involvement. About nineteen percent of the variable in dimension “self-efficacy for teaching strategies is represented through emotional intelligence. Teachers’ emotional intelligence demonstrates about seventeen percent of variable aimed at classroom management.

Keywords: teachers, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, education

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Authors: Hsiaoping Wu

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With the wide use of Internet, learners are exposed to the wider world. This exposure permits learners to discover new information and combine a variety of media in order to reach in-depth and broader understanding of their literacy and the world. Many paper-based teaching, learning and assessment modalities can be transferred to a digital platform. This study examines the use of e-portfolios for ESL (English as a second language) pre-service teacher. The data were collected by reviewing 100 E-portfolio from 2013 to 2015 in order to synthesize meaningful information about e-portfolios for ESL pre-service teachers. Participants were generalists, bilingual and ESL pre-service teachers. The studies were coded into two main categories: learning gains, including assessment, and technical skills. The findings showed that using e-portfolios enhanced and developed ESL pre-service teachers’ teaching and assessment skills. Also, the E-portfolio also developed the pre-service teachers’ technical stills to prepare a comprehensible portfolio to present who they are. Finally, the study and presentation suggested e-portfolios for ecological issues and educational purposes.

Keywords: assessment, e-portfolio, pre-service teacher, reflection

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Authors: Masood Monjezi

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The English teachers’ pedagogical identity construction is the way teachers go through the process of becoming teachers and how they maintain their teaching selves. The pedagogical identity of teachers is influenced by several factors within the individual and the society. The purpose of this study was to compare the imagined social world of the pre-service teachers with the real experiences the in-service teachers had in the context of Iran to see how prepared the pre-service teachers are with a view to their identity being. This study used a qualitative approach to collection and analysis of the data. Structured and semi-structured interviews, focus groups and process logs were used to collect the data. Then, using open coding, the data were analyzed. The findings showed that the imagined world of the pre-service teachers partly corresponded with the real world experiences of the in-service teachers leaving the pre-service teachers unprepared for their real world teaching profession. The findings suggest that the current approaches to English teacher training are in need of modification to better prepare the pre-service teachers for the future that expects them.

Keywords: imagined professional world, in-service teachers, pre-service teachers, real experiences, community of practice, identity

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Authors: Tanimola Kazeem Abiodun

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In Nigeria, both formal education and distance learning opportunities are used in teacher training. Practical courses aim to improve the skills of teacher candidates in a school environment. Teacher candidates attend kindergarten classes under the supervision of a teacher. In this context, the guiding skills of teachers gain importance in terms of shaping candidates’ perceptions about teaching profession. In this study, the teachers’ perceptions related to the guiding skills within the practical courses were determined. Also, the perceptions and applications related to guiding skills were compared. A Likert scale questionnaire and an open-ended question were used to determine perceptions and applications. 120 questionnaires were taken into consideration and analyses of data were performed by using percentage distribution and QSR Nvivo 8 program. In this study, statements related to teachers’ perceptions about the guiding skills were asked and it is determined that almost all the teachers agreed about the importance of these statements. On the other hand, how these guidance skills are applied by teachers is also queried with an open-ended question. Finally, thoughts and applications related to guidance skills were compared to each other. Based on this comparison, it is seen that there are some differences between the thoughts and applications especially related with time management, planning, feedbacks, curriculum, workload, rules and guidance. It can be said that some guidance skills cannot be controlled only by teachers. For example, candidates’ motivation, attention, population and educational environment are also determinative factors for effective guidance. In summary, it is necessary to have prior conditions for teachers to apply these idealized guidance skills for training more successful candidates to pre-school education era. At this point, organization of practical courses by the faculties gains importance and in this context it is crucial for faculties to revise their applications based on more detailed researches.

Keywords: teacher training, guiding skills, education, practical courses

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Authors: Verónica Diaz Quezada

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This research examines the teaching models used by secondary math teachers when teaching logarithmic, quadratic and exponential functions. For this, descriptive case studies have been carried out on 5 secondary teachers. These teachers have been chosen from 3 scientific-humanistic and technical schools, in Chile. Data have been obtained through non-participant class observation and the application of a questionnaire and a rubric to teachers. According to the results, the didactic model that prevails is the one that starts with an interactive strategy, moves to a more content-based structure, and ends with a reinforcement stage. Nonetheless, there is always influence from teachers, their methods, and the group of students.

Keywords: teaching models, math teachers, functions, secondary education

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Authors: Wesal Maash

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This paper is part of a PhD mixed-method project currently conducted in the Saudi context. This paper explores the challenges novice Arabic language teachers (ALT) face when starting the teaching profession through semi-structured interviews with ten teachers and a questionnaire with 208 teachers. The data provided details of the challenges faced by those teachers and reasons why they face such a challenge. From the data, it can be deduced that schools are advanced and updated continuously, and the preparation program does not cope with that. This situation makes teachers struggle to cover the gap between what they learnt in their preparation and what is expected from them as teachers when they started their teaching profession. This paper suggests conducting further research to better understand this phenomenon by shedding light on the content of teachers' preparation programs.

Keywords: educational technologies, novice teachers, arabic language teachers, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Ke Fan, Edwin H. W. Chan

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Economic incentives of green building (GB) have been implemented to promote green building and address the market barriers. However, if developers could gain from the incentives, why not all the buildings are green? This paper aims to study this problem and provide a new perspective to look at the economic incentives. The theories of Transitional Gains Trap (TGP) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) are employed to explain the developers’ gains and losses from the economic incentives. This paper takes the GFA (gross floor area) concession incentive in Hong Kong, which is one of the most popular incentives, as the case to conduct in-depth case study and it did interview to validate the results. The results show that after implementing the GFA concession scheme, the benefit of the GFA concession is capitalized into land value. Therefore, developers have to bear the increased land cost, which supports the theory of the TGP. Even though, some developers are still not willing to participate in the incentive scheme because of high transaction costs (TCs).

Keywords: green building, economic incentives, transitional gains trap, transaction cost

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Authors: Ali Adamu

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Teachers’ background characteristics as a correlate of students’ achievement in Mathematics were studied in Gombe State. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used for the analysis. Five Hundred and Twelve (512) students and 20 teachers from 12 schools in Gombe State of Nigeria were used for the study. Students’ Achievement Tests and Mathematics Teachers’ backgrounds were instruments for the study. The findings indicated that teachers’ qualifications, experience of the teacher, and teachers’ personalities had a positive correlation with students’ achievement. Recommendations are made, which include allowing the teachers to go for training as well as the government should ensure recruiting teachers that have experience in the teaching job.

Keywords: achievement-test, teachers’ personality, teaching mathematics, teacher-background

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Authors: Shu-Chen Wu

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This qualitative study investigated Chinese teachers’ perspectives on learning at play. Six kindergarten teachers were interviewed to obtain their understanding of learning at play. Exemplary play episodes from their classrooms were selected with the assistance of the participating teachers. Four three-minute videos containing the largest amount of learning elements based on the teachers’ views were selected for analysis. Applying video-stimulated interviews, the selected video clips were shown to eight teachers in two focus groups to elicit their perspectives on learning at play. The findings revealed that Chinese teachers have a very structured representation of learning at play, which should contribute to the development of professional practices and curricular policies.

Keywords: learning at play, teachers’ perspectives, co-constructed views, video-stimulated interviews

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Authors: Belkhadir Radouane

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In this study, author tried to explore the beliefs of some Moroccan teachers working in the delegations of Safi and Youcefia about the usefulness of first and second languages in learning the third language. More specifically, author attempted to see the extent to which these teachers believe that a first and second language can serve students in learning a third one. The first language in this context is Arabic, the second is French, and the third is English. The teachers’ beliefs were gathered through a questionnaire that was addressed via Google Forms. Then, the results were analyzed using the same application. It was found that teachers are positive about the usefulness of the first and second language in learning the third one, but most of them rarely use in a conscious way activities that serve this purpose.

Keywords: Bilinguilism, teachers beliefs, English as ESL, Morocco

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Authors: Hosam Mohamed Darwish

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In 2008, the Egyptian Ministry of Education introduced a new national coursebook ‘Hello for Secondary Schools, which recommends a shift in EFL teachers’ instructional practices. Since then, very little attention has been paid to teachers’ techniques in EFL writing classes. Hence, this study aimed at investigating teaching writing practices in secondary schools and exploring the teachers’ attitudes towards EFL writing skill in addition to exploring the difficulties that teachers encountered in EFL writing lessons. The study depended on data triangulation through administering two questionnaires: one to 44 teachers and the other to 24 students, and conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers. Both teachers and students were asked to describe teaching practices in EFL writing classes while the open-ended questions and interviews collected data about the teachers’ difficulties in writing lessons. The questionnaires indicate that teachers have negative attitudes towards teaching writing, and most of their practices are still traditional. Five factors have influenced teachers’ practices: backwash of the test, teachers’ professional development, students’ culture of reading and large classes. The study recommends there has to be a necessary change in the students’ examination system, and ongoing teachers’ professional development should be considered. Finally, a teaching model and implications are suggested.

Keywords: EFL writing, Egyptian secondary schools, teachers’ attitudes, teachers’ techniques

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Authors: Gulderen Saglam

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This study explores the elements of personal motivation which influence professional motivation of in-service English language teachers in Bursa in Turkey. Fifty English language teachers participated in a seminar held on ‘teachers’ motivation’ for the length of six hours in two days, which were organized by the local Ministry of Education. During the seminar, teachers firstly aimed to share cornerstones of their professional motivation. Later, those teachers stated the significance of their personal motivation. Two months’ later, those teachers were given the questionnaire including both closed and open-ended questions involving those two types of motivational acts of teachers. Questionnaire items were tested by Crombah’s Alfa Reliability Statistics. Responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by factor analysis and test of normality. The results were also tested by non-parametric and parametric tests. As a result, it was found that language teachers who were personally motivated reported higher professional motivation of theirs in teaching profession in-service.

Keywords: influencing factor, in-service-teachers, personal motivation, professional motivation, in-service-teachers, influencing factor

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Authors: G.S. Patel

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In this research paper the discussion have been made on teachers work mental stress and coping strategies. Stress Measurement scale was developed for school teachers. All the scientific steps of test construction was followed. For this test construction, different factors like teachers workplace, teachers' residential area, teachers' family life, teachers' ability and skills, economic factors and other factors to construct teachers stress measurement scale. In this research tool, situational statements have been made and teachers have to give a response in each statement on five-point rating scale what they experienced in their daily life. Special features of the test also established like validity and reliability of this test and also computed norms for its interpretation. A sample of 320 teachers of school teachers of Gujarat state was selected by Cluster sampling technique. t-test was computed for testing null hypothesis. The main findings of the present study are Urban area teachers feel more stressful situation compare to rural area teachers. Those teachers who live in the joint family feel less stress compare to teachers who live in a nuclear family. This research work is very useful to prepare list of activities to reduce teachers mental stress.

Keywords: stress measurement scale, level of stress, validity, reliability, norms

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Authors: Odette Umugiraneza, Etienne Nzaramyimana

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Confidence and beliefs are the main contributors to the improvement of teachers’ mathematical knowledge. The objective of this study was to investigate teachers’ confidence and beliefs towards technology use in teaching mathematics subjects in the Musanze District. The data were collected using closed and open questions. These were distributed to 118 secondary school senior 1 to 6 mathematics teachers in Musanze district. The findings revealed that the teachers’ confidence about the use of technology in teaching mathematics needs improvement. Apart from confidence, almost a third of the teachers convoyed negative beliefs that technology plays great importance in promoting the understanding of mathematics. Teachers as knowledge transmitters are required to join various professional courses towards technology integration in the teaching of mathematics, to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

Keywords: knowledge, technology, teachers’ confidence, beliefs, barriers of technology use

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Authors: Thi V. S. Nguyen, Kevin Laws

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This study investigates the construction of higher education teachers’ roles from the perspectives of participants in a compulsory teachers’ professional development for Vietnamese higher education teachers. Constructivist grounded theory was used as methodology and analysis of the study. Fifteen program participants were semi-structured interviewed before they started the professional development program for higher education teachers. Five trainers of the program were interviewed and documents related to teachers’ standards in Vietnam were analysed to supplement participants’ perspectives. Standards and roles of higher education teachers emerged as two categories grounded from data. Standard category involves moral and professional criteria, whereas roles of higher education teachers category consists of specific roles related to guiding student learning, and advising their academic, moral and social activities. A model of higher education teachers’ conceptions of their roles in a Vietnamese context addressing both professional (techne) and moral (praxis) responsibilities is constructed from this study. A discussion on teachers’ roles in higher education is put forward and insightful implications for the design and possible restructure of teachers’ professional development for early career higher education teachers is suggested.

Keywords: higher education teachers' roles and standards, moral roles, teachers' professional development, teachers' conceptions of their roles

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Authors: Zafer F. Alshehri

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This paper investigated mathematics teachers' knowledge of the effective teaching strategies at the Southern Region of Saudi Arabia. Specifically, it aimed to identify a list of the effective strategies of teaching mathematics; the extent of mathematics teachers' knowledge of these strategies; and the differences (if any) of mathematics teachers' knowledge of these strategies regarding scientific degree, teaching experience, and educational sage. To achieve that, the researcher used the descriptive approach for preparing a list of effective mathematics teaching strategies and developing a questionnaire of a sample of (240) mathematics teachers. As a result, there were differences in teachers' knowledge of the effective teaching strategies, which ranked as a low, and the highest knowledge was in favor of higher degrees. In addition, there were a few recommendations and suggestions for developing mathematics teachers' knowledge of effective teaching strategies, such as involving in workshops of mathematics teaching strategies, integrating technology into mathematics teaching, and using research findings in the instruction process.

Keywords: mathematics teaching knowledge, mathematics teachers, effective mathematics teaching strategies

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Authors: Thiru Vandeyar

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The present study set out to determine how Q methodology may be used as an inclusive education policy development process. Utilising Q-methodology as a strategy of inquiry, this qualitative instrumental case study set out to explore how teachers, as a crucial but often neglected human resource, may be included in developing policy. A social constructivist lens and the theoretical moorings of Proudford’s emancipatory approach to educational change anchored in teachers’ ‘writerly’ interpretation of policy text was employed. Findings suggest that Q-method is a unique research approach to include teachers’ voices in policy development. Second, that beliefs, attitudes, and professionalism of teachers to improve teaching and learning using ICT are integral to policy formulation. The study indicates that teachers have unique beliefs about what statements should constitute a school’s information and communication (ICT) policy. Teachers’ experiences are an extremely valuable resource in and should not be ignored in the policy formulation process.

Keywords: teachers, q-methodology, education policy, ICT

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Authors: Cachanda K. Orellana

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This study examined preservice teachers’ perceptions of their role in digital citizenship education. Data was gathered via surveys and coursework from the preservice teachers’ instructional technology course. Pre-service teachers were asked about their role in digital citizenship education during a unit on digital dilemmas. Findings suggest that teacher education programs should consider digital citizenship education as more than the acquisition of a set of skills and behaviors and prepare preservice teachers to support students’ ability to engage in ethical decision-making in digital spaces.

Keywords: digital citizenship, digital dilemmas, pre-service teachers, teacher education

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Authors: Hema Vanita Kesevan

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This study investigated the impact of teacher’s language ideology on their classroom discursive practice in ESL / EFL classrooms. It examines teachers’ perceptions of the use of local variety of Malaysian English in the classroom. The investigation shows that although teachers and students are against its use in the classroom, it is widely employed. The participants of this study consist of two Malaysian non-native English teachers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This study employs a comparative case study approach which focuses on the teachers and their classroom discourse practice. There are two modes of inquiry used in this study: classroom observation and semi-guided interviews. The findings are of interest to ESL / EFL teachers, policy makers and language researchers in the Malaysian and other similar ESL / EFL contexts.

Keywords: language ideology, Malaysian English, native teachers, non-native teachers

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Authors: Mehrab Karimian

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The present study was designed to find the relationship between Iranian teachers' motivation, their creativity and their job stress. To achieve such goals, 101 EFL teachers, through convenient sampling from different institutes of Shiraz and Fasa, took part in this study. The researcher utilized three instruments, including the Motivation to Teach Questionnaire (MTQ), the Teacher Creativity Questionnaire, and the Job Stress Questionnaire. By running the Pearson correlation coefficient, the findings emphasized that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' motivation and their creativity. Moreover, the finding of this study revealed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' motivation and their job stress. Also, according to the results of this study, there was no statistically significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' creativity and their job stress. Besides, by utilizing multiple regression analyses, the finding highlighted that just teachers' creativity was able to strongly predict the variance in teachers' motivation. Each of the other variables, namely gender, teachers' job stress, and years of teaching experience individually and collectively, did not predict teachers' motivation. The pedagogical implications of the findings are thoroughly presented.

Keywords: creativity, job stress, gender, years of teaching experience

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Authors: Zahra Mirsanjari

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Research in the field of education has widely documented that teachers’ sense of efficacy has strong impacts on various aspects of teaching and learning. The present study is an attempt to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ degree of self-efficacy for teaching English. The data required for the study was gathered from Iranian EFL teachers teaching English as a foreign language in different schools and language institutes in Iran. Data were collected using Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). Results identified four dimensions of teachers’ English teaching-specific sense of efficacy: instructional strategies, classroom Management, Student Engagement, and Oral English Language Use.It was also found that teachers rated their self-efficacy in teaching English at a moderate level in the dimensions of instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement. Results have implications for language teachers and practitioners.

Keywords: self-efficacy, English Language teaching, EFL teachers, language teachers and practitioners.

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Authors: Collins Augustine Ekpiwre

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Both the National Policy on Education (NPE) and the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) gave the directive that all teachers in Nigerian schools should be trained teachers to enable them to be more effective in their teaching responsibilities. This applies to university teachers as well; they are required to acquire teacher qualifications such as Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) or Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) or Technical Teachers Certificate (TTC) or at least, National Certificate of Education (NCE) in addition to possessing academic qualifications in their specialized areas of study. It is on this ground that this study carried out an assessment of university teachers’ qualification status in Bayero University, Kano. The population of the study comprised all the teachers in the university. Data was collected through an examination of the documented official records of the qualification profile of all the teachers in the university obtained from its various faculties. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive statistic of simple percentage and frequency. Based on the findings of the study and in order to strengthen the teacher qualification status of teachers in the university, a few recommendations, for example, special salary scale should be made available to university teachers with appropriate teacher qualifications, were offered.

Keywords: Teacher, university teacher, teacher qualification, university education

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Authors: Shahid Karim, Alfredo Bautista, Kerry Lee

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The association between teachers’ beliefs and practices has been extensively studied across the levels of education. Yet, there is a lack of context-specific evidence on the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and intentions regarding their interaction with children in early childhood education settings. Given the critical role of teachers’ beliefs in their practices, the present study examined Cambodian preschool teachers’ beliefs and intentions related to their interaction with children and what factors affect the relationship. Data was collected through a self-reported Beliefs and Intentions Questionnaire (BTQ) from preschool teachers teaching at different types of preschools in Cambodia. Four hundred nine preschool teachers teaching in public, private and community schools participated in the study through an online survey administered on Qualtrics. The quantitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers’ beliefs predict their intentions in preschool. Teachers’ teaching experience, level of education and professional training moderated the relationship between their beliefs and intentions. Differences existed between the groups of teachers teaching in different types of preschools and genders. Implications of the findings related to policy and preschool teachers’ professional development are discussed.

Keywords: teacher-child interaction, teaching beliefs, teaching intentions, preschool teaching accreditations, Cambodia

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Authors: Pei Xin Ker

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The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) on teachers’ perceptions of the levels of implementation of the NPSC. A total of 187 respondents were selected by using purposive homogeneous sampling to represent preschool teachers in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. This study involved a cross-sectional survey in which quantitative data were collected and analysed using descriptive statistics. The survey was containing 74 questionnaire items created using Google Form and distributed through online platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger. The results indicated a high level of overall self-efficacy among the preschool teachers and the overall teachers' perceived level of NPSC. The findings also showed a significant and positive relationship at a high level between TSE and teachers' perceptions of the level of implementation of NPSC. Student involvement was one of the TSE factors that had the greatest influence in shaping teachers' perceptions of the level of implementation of NPSC. The findings of the predictors to teachers' perceptions of the implementation of NPSC within this study can be used as an indication to the researchers to reassure the validity of this study by repeating with similar research settings. Further studies to include other factors are also encouraged to explore the possible factors that may influence the teachers' perceptions of the implementation of NPSC.

Keywords: teachers’ self-efficacy, national preschool standard curriculum, preschool teachers, preschool education

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Authors: Y. Alrubyli

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Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs), and more specifically, quadcopters need to be stable during their flights. Altitude stability is usually achieved by using a PID controller that is built into the flight controller software. Furthermore, the PID controller has gains that need to be tuned to reach optimal altitude stabilization during the quadcopter’s flight. For that, control system engineers need to tune those gains by using extensive modeling of the environment, which might change from one environment and condition to another. As quadcopters penetrate more sectors, from the military to the consumer sectors, they have been put into complex and challenging environments more than ever before. Hence, intelligent self-stabilizing quadcopters are needed to maneuver through those complex environments and situations. Here we show that by using online reinforcement learning with minimal background knowledge, the altitude stability of the quadcopter can be achieved using a model-free approach. We found that by using background knowledge instead of letting the online reinforcement learning algorithm wander for a while to tune the PID gains, altitude stabilization can be achieved faster. In addition, using this approach will accelerate development by avoiding extensive simulations before applying the PID gains to the real-world quadcopter. Our results demonstrate the possibility of using the trial and error approach of reinforcement learning combined with background knowledge to achieve faster quadcopter altitude stabilization in different environments and conditions.

Keywords: reinforcement learning, Q-leanring, online learning, PID tuning, unmanned aerial vehicle, quadcopter

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Authors: Fred Mageto

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A great number of children in mainstream schools across Kenya are currently living with emotional, behavioural difficulties. This study aims to explore teachers’ perceptions of children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) and their attributions of the causes of EBD. The relevance of this area of study to current educational practice is illustrated in the fact that primary school teachers in Kenya find classroom behaviour problems one of the major difficulties they face. The information presented in this study was gathered from 182 teachers that responded back to the survey, of whom 27 teachers were later interviewed. In general, teachers’ perceptions of EBD reflect personal experience, training, and attitudes. Teachers appear from this study to use words such as indifferent, frightened, withdrawn, aggressive, disobedient, hyperactive, less ambitious, lacking concentration, and academically weak to describe pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). The implications of this study are envisaged as being extremely important to support teachers addressing children’s EBD and shed light on the contributing factors to EBD for a successful teaching-learning process in Libyan primary schools.

Keywords: teachers, children, learning, emotional and behaviour difficulties

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Authors: Shu-Chen Wu

Abstract:

This paper will present a study by the author which investigates Chinese teachers’ perspectives on learning at play and their teaching activities in the designed play activities. It asks the question of how Chinese teachers understand learning at play and how they design play activities in the classroom. Six kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong were invited to select and record exemplary play episodes which contain the largest amount of learning elements in their own classrooms. Applying video-stimulated interview, eight teachers in two focus groups were interviewed to elicit their perspectives on designing play activity and their teaching activities. The findings reveal that Chinese teachers have a very structured representation of learning at play, and the phenomenon of uniformity of teachers’ act was found. The contributions of which are important and useful for professional practices and curricular policies.

Keywords: learning at play, teacher involvement, video-stimulated interview, uniformity

Procedia PDF Downloads 104