Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs Toward Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Jordan

The objective of this study was to examine the beliefs of Jordanian kindergarten teachers toward developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). The sample consists of 285 (14.9%) randomly selected teachers working in public and private kindergartens. A questionnaire with two parts, (1) general information and (2) teachers’ beliefs regarding DAP, was developed to answer the research questions. The items were distributed into the five dimensions of early childhood professional practice that were published by the National Association for the education of young children (NAEYC). The findings indicated that the overall mean score of kindergarten teachers’ beliefs on the five dimensions was 4.08, indicating high beliefs toward (DAP). Teachers endorsed DAP on all dimensions except establishing reciprocal relationships with families. The findings also indicated that there are no significant differences between the means of teachers’ beliefs toward teaching children according to teachers’ level of education, years of experience, or teacher’s age (except in the caring community of learners and the development and learning domains). In the light of the findings of this study, some recommendations are presented.     

Promoting more future-ready anatomy education after the Covid-19 pandemic: A scoping review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic caused an abrupt transition from face-to-face to online anatomy teaching, learning, and assessment. Although online education has ensured the continuity of anatomy education during the pandemic, its implementation has been challenging, and its effectiveness has been questioned. Therefore, literature pertinent to online anatomy education during the pandemic is crucial to explain Covid-19's disruptions to this field. Accordingly, this scoping review explored changes, disruptions, and gaps in anatomy teaching and assessment during Covid-19 using an enhanced version of Arksey and O′Malley's six-stage protocol. Five online databases were searched for articles that described changes and disruptions in anatomy education. Three independent researchers were involved in titles, abstracts, and full texts screening, while another four researchers were independently involved in data extraction, charting, and synthesis. This review revealed six themes: immediate strategic plans and actions, teaching and learning changes, online assessment practice, students' and educators' receptivity and adaptability, online learning and assessment effects, and future directions. It also revealed four gaps: non-future-ready curricula, learning obstacles, administrative and teaching challenges, and online education ethical issues. The results were reported in tabular and narrative forms, following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR guidelines). Understanding the evolution and gaps in anatomy education during the Covid-19 pandemic will help anatomists design future-ready, adaptable curricula.