Teachers' adoption of inquiry-based learning activities : the importance of beliefs about education, the self, and the context

Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers' beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers' adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers' use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers' decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers' use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed

Development of pre-service mathematics teachers’ professional knowledge and identity in working with information and communication technology

This paper describes the work undertaken in a course in communication and information technology in a pre-service program for secondary school mathematics teachers. This course aimed to help pre-service teachers develop a positive attitude regarding ICT and use it confidently. It focused on the exploration of educational software and of the Internet’s potential as a means of research and production of web sites. We discuss how the pre-service mathematics teachers evaluate their work concerning their commitment, difficulties they found, learning they identified, and personal relationship. We also analyse the effects of the course on the development of their professional knowledge and identity

Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

Exploring ‘unknown worlds’: The lives and careers of non-native speaking teachers of English in Asia

It is a decade since Richards remarked that “How the teacher believes, thinks, acts and reacts is central to educational endeavour, but about the EFL (English as a foreign language) language teacher we know almost nothing” (1997:243), going on to suggest that the world of the teacher of English as a foreign language was terra incognita (1997:251). Regrettably, this remains particularly true of non-native speaking teachers of English working in their own state educational systems. Even within particular countries the experiences of ‘ordinary’ teachers – who are far from ‘ordinary’ in so many ways – is given little prominence in debates about educational innovation and improvement. We hear so much about methods and materials in English language teaching but too little about the teachers who work with these in their classrooms on a daily basis. This paper argues, then, that much greater importance needs to be given to investigating and understanding the contexts of English language teaching in all their variety, within countries and across countries, from the perspective of teachers themselves. It will draw on life history interview data from teachers in Sri Lanka and Thailand to illustrate what may be gained from such research in three important areas: as a means of extending the knowledge base of English language teaching worldwide; as a means of redressing western – non-western imbalances in status, power and prestige within ELT; and as a means of enabling teachers to reflect on their own lives and careers as a means of professional self-realisation and self-empowerment. It is surely time that the voices of classroom teachers were heard more widely, their experiences and perceptions given greater prominence in our professional thinking and this paper hopes to contribute to that process

Towards humanising creativity?

Within the context of developing creativity discourse and policy, this paper begins by exploring a number of the tensions that emerged from research using an interdisciplinary framework to investigate creativity with English expert specialist dance teachers. The paper then interrogates and articulates the productive dynamics of one of these tensions that occur between individual, collaborative and communal creativity. This tension is discussed within the wider debate of individualised versus collaborative/communal creativity and the encouragement of the former by individualised, marketised creativity policies. It is argued that one constructive product of articulating how dance professionals negotiate this tension within education is a pertinent and helpful example of a more humane framework for creativity than that espoused by the individualised marketisation agenda. In turn the paper draws out the idea of humanising creativity as a productive process that has the potential to challenge aspects of the dominant policy discourse in an emergent way

'Great Expectations': The motivational profile of Hungarian English language students.

In this article we investigate what characterizes the language learning motivation of Hungarian English language students in terms of Dörnyei and Ottó's process model of motivation (Motivation in Action, 1998). We used a mixed-method research design, in which qualitative interviews conducted with 20 students were supplemented with questionnaire data gained from 100 participants in order to have a better understanding of the apparent discrepancy between students' and society's expectations of teaching English Language at tertiary level and the present educational system in Hungary. The ambivalent nature of English language students' motivational profile was found to reflect this situation. The interview data revealed that the respondents had very favourable motivational characteristics but they did not invest sufficient energy in maintaining and improving their language competence. This is explained with reference to a low level of learner autonomy primarily caused by teacher-centered instruction

EFL secondary school teachers’ conceptions of online assessment in emergency remote teaching: A phenomenographic study

The investigation of teachers' conceptions of online assessment during a global pandemic has received relatively scarce attention in the current literature. Situated in an emergency remote teaching, this phenomenographic study aims at identifying and describing EFL secondary school teachers' qualitative different ways of understanding online assessment. A cohort of fifteen EFL teachers from different Indonesian secondary schools were recruited purposively using a set of criteria. They were invited to involve in online semi-structured interviews to explore their online assessment conceptions. Then, the interview data were analyzed qualitatively in an iterative process to discern categories of description and an outcome space. The findings point out five categories of teachers' conceptions. The participants view online assessment in emergency remote teaching (ERT) as a means of (1) measuring knowledge, (2) checking learning targets, (3) enhancing online interaction, (4) facilitating authentic tasks, and (5) reflecting the teaching and learning process. Furthermore, an analysis of relationships among those categories is reported hierarchically, ranging from accountability to enhancement assessment purposes. Some implications promote our understanding to consider several mediating factors affecting teachers' conceptions. Although emergency remote teaching situation is provisional, the findings bring out the possibility of implementing assessment for learning, as an alternative to assessment of learning, in the context of online assessment after the pandemic

A review of the research literature relating to ICT and attainment

Summary of the main report, which examined current research and evidence for the impact of ICT on pupil attainment and learning in school settings and the strengths and limitations of the methodologies used in the research literature