The value of CK,PK, and PCK in professional development programs predicted by the progressive beliefs of elementary school teachers

Teachers’ professional development (PD) receives a great deal of attention in current educational settings. However, research has shown that many teachers hesitate to attend PD programs. In this study, data were collected from 270 elementary school teachers and were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to examine their intention to attend the weekly PD programs on Wednesday afternoons (PDWAP). The results revealed that the participants value the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) more than they value pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK) because of the expected usefulness of each for teaching. Moreover, the results of this study have implications for PD program design, and call for a stronger focus on PCK.

AbbreviationAdjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI); Analysis of Moment Structures(AMOS); average variance (AVE); Chi-square(); content knowledge (CK); continuing professional development (CPD); Comparative Fit Index (CFI); degree of freedom (df); expectancy-value theory (EVT); Goodness of Fit Index (GFI); Incremental Fit Index (IFI); Mean(M); Parsimonious Goodness of Fit Index (PGFI); Parsimonious Normed Fit Index (PNFI); Parsimonious comparative-fit-index (PCFI); pedagogical content knowledge (PCK); pedagogical knowledge (PK); professional development (PD); professional development programs on Wednesday afternoons (PDWAP); Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA); standard deviation (SD); structural equation modeling (SEM); square of multiple correlation coefficients (R2); Teaching Beliefs Survey (TBS); theory of planned behavior (TPB); Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI); United Kingdom (UK)     

Browsing software of the Visible Korean data used for teaching sectional anatomy

The interpretation of computed tomographs (CTs) and magnetic resonance images (MRIs) to diagnose clinical conditions requires basic knowledge of sectional anatomy. Sectional anatomy has traditionally been taught using sectioned cadavers, atlases, and/or computer software. The computer software commonly used for this subject is practical and efficient for students but could be more advanced. The objective of this research was to present browsing software developed from the Visible Korean images that can be used for teaching sectional anatomy. One thousand seven hundred and two sets of MRIs, CTs, and sectioned images (intervals, one millimeter) of a whole male cadaver were prepared. Over 900 structures in the sectioned images were outlined and then filled with different colors to elaborate each structure. Software was developed where four corresponding images could be displayed simultaneously; in addition, the structures in the image data could be readily recognized with the aid of the color-filled outlines. The software, distributed free of charge, could be a valuable tool to teach medical students. For example, sectional anatomy could be taught by showing the sectioned images with real color and high resolution. Students could then review the lecture by using the sectioned and color-filled images on their own computers. Students could also be evaluated using the same software. Furthermore, other investigators would be able to replace the images for more comprehensive sectional anatomy.     

Did library learners benefit from m-learning strategies? Research-based evidence from a co-citation network analysis of the literature

Educational technology research and development - Mobile learning strategies have been employed for social learning activities, including library- and museum-supported learning. Previous studies...     

Chinese and Singaporean sixth-grade students’ strategies for solving problems about speed

This study examined 361 Chinese and 345 Singaporean sixth-grade students’ performance and problem-solving strategies for solving 14 problems about speed. By focusing on students from two distinct high-performing countries in East Asia, we provide a useful perspective on the differences that exist in the preparation and problem-solving strategies of these groups of students. The strategy analysis indicates that the Chinese sample used algebraic strategies more frequently and more successfully than the Singaporean sample, although the Chinese sample used a limited variety of strategies. The Singaporean sample’s use of model-drawing produced a performance advantage on one problem by converting multiplication/division of fractions into multiplication/division of whole numbers. Several suggestions regarding teaching and learning of mathematical problem solving, algebra, and problems about speed and its related concepts of ratio and proportion are made.     

The effects of computer-supported self-regulation in science inquiry on learning outcomes,learning processes,and self-efficacy

Recently, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of technology-enhanced science inquiry activities. To improve students’ self-regulation and assist them in controlling their own learning pace through inquiry activities, in this study, a self-regulated science inquiry approach was developed to assist them in organizing information from their real-world exploration. A quasi-experimental design was conducted in an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the students’ performance using the proposed learning approach. One class assigned as the treatment group learned with the self-regulated science inquiry approach, while the other class assigned as the control group learned with the conventional science inquiry approach. The students’ learning achievement, tendency of information help seeking, tendency of self-regulation, and self-efficacy were evaluated. The results of the study revealed that the self-regulated science inquiry approach improved the students’ learning achievement, especially for those students with higher self-regulation. In addition, the students who conducted inquiry with the self-regulated learning strategy increased their tendency of information help seeking, self-efficacy, and several aspects of self-regulation, including time management, help seeking, and self-evaluation. Accordingly, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the self-regulated learning strategy, an approach with high learner control, in terms of improving students’ learning achievement and their self-regulation.     

Impacts of flipped classrooms with peer assessment on students’ effectiveness of playing musical instruments – taking amateur erhu learners as an example

ABSTRACT

Amateur musical instrument learners are usually taught in a one-to-many learning mode owing to the cost consideration; therefore, it is difficult for the teacher to address individual students’ problems. This results in a lack of knowledge internalization. The flipped classroom enables the teacher to have more in-class time to interact with individual students. However, when the teacher guides a learner in the flipped class, the other learners usually practice on their own rather than engaging in critical thinking or reflective thinking activities. Therefore, this study uses the peer assessment strategy to increase the effectiveness of musical instrument flipped teaching. However, conventional peer assessment flipped teaching (CPA) has some disadvantages. So, we present another method in which the peer assessment is performed by online video sharing (VSPA). The VSPA method can further extend the learning time until after class. It lets teachers have more time to solve the problems of individual students. Besides, it can reduce the students’ nervousness. The experimental results showed that both of the two teaching modes can help progression, but there is no significant difference in the learning effectiveness. As for learning preference, we found that the learners preferred CPA to VSPA.     

Culturing conceptions: From first principles

Over the past three decades, science educators have accumulated a vast amount of information on conceptions––variously defined as beliefs, ontologies, cognitive structures, mental models, or frameworks––that generally (at least initially) have been derived from interviews about certain topics. During the same time period, cultural studies has emerged as a field in which everyday social practices are interrogated with the objective to understand culture in all its complexity. Science educators have however yet to ask themselves what it would mean to consider the possession of conceptions as well as conceptual change from the perspective of cultural studies. The purpose of this article is thus to articulate in and through the analysis of an interview about natural phenomenon the first principles of such a cultural approach to scientific conceptions. Our bottom-up approach in fact leads us to develop the kind of analyses and theories that have become widespread in cultural studies. This promises to generate less presupposing and more parsimonious explanations of this core issue within science education than if conceptions are supposed to be structures inhabiting the human mind.

Impacts of a dynamic grouping strategy on students' learning effectiveness and experience value in an item bank-based collaborative practice system

Past research has pointed out that a good grouping strategy can improve the learning effectiveness of collaborative learning. However, the grouping strategy adopted in most past research is static grouping. This results in some disadvantages. Therefore, this study developed an item bank-based collaborative practice system and proposed a dynamic grouping method which uses the concepts of weighted quizzes and bit coding as the rule of a regrouping algorithm. The method and the traditional static method were applied to two classes of sophomore students of a university of science and technology in the central region of Taiwan. There were 76 valid samples which included 38 students of the experimental group and 38 of the control group. The control group adopted the static grouping method, and the experimental group adopted the dynamic grouping method. The experimental duration was 9 weeks of 3 hours per week. Experimental results showed that the collaborative experience value and the learning effectiveness of the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the control group. This indicates that the experimental group students made more efforts to conduct coordination, discussion and finally reach consensus with their partners, and made greater progress than the control group students.