Female Teachers’ Professional Development through Action Research Practice

This is a study on teachers’ professional development through action research practice. The participants of the study were 23 English Language Teachers (ELT) who teach in high schools, preparatory schools and colleges in Debre Markos, in Dessie and around in 2014. The methods of data collection were teacher reflection, and in-depth interview. The ELT teachers felt that the Action Research (AR) involvement helped them develop their profession. Because of their involvement in the inquiry, they changed their perception of research and their role as teachers and researcher. Their interest towards action research develops as they do the research. Their consciousness about EFL teaching rises when they research on their own classroom and environment in relation to English language teaching. The teachers felt that AR brings opportunity especially for female teachers who have other responsibilities at home and in the surrounding. The teachers’ perception shows that they are comfortable with doing action research. In-service action research is economical, effective and efficient method of professional development. The teachers read and explore literature to enrich their research. This implies that some push factor should be there to break the silence of teachers who have developed comfort with what they have. Researching pushes teachers to read the academic literature, update themselves, write and contribute to the intellectual world by adding knowledge backed with experience and expertise. Keywords: action research, professional developmen

IMPLEMENTASI PEMBELAJARAN KOOPERATIF UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PRESTASI MATA PELAJARAN KMKE SISWA SMK N 2 PENGASIH

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui peningkatan prestasi belajar siswa yang diajar dengan metode pembelajaran kooperatif pada mata pelajaran Kelistrikan mesin dan Konversi Energi. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian tindakan kelas. Subjek  penelitian ini adalah siswa jurusan teknik mesin kelas X berjumlah 32 siswa. Data dikumpulkan menggunakan tes tertulis. Data dianalisis menggunakan deskritif kuantitatif.         Hasil penelitian ini adalah metode diterapkan dengan membuat kelas menjadi berjumlah 16 siswa. Siswa  dituntut untuk belajar berbicara, guru menunjuk seorang siswa untuk menerangkan sebuah materi, materi ditentukan dan diambilakan dari slide media pembelajaran. Siswa menerangkan kepada teman satu kelasnya, jika  penjelasan siswa belum bisa dipahami oleh seluruh siswa, guru menjelaskan hingga materi dapat dipahami. Semua siswa akan mendapat kesempatan maju kedepan menjelaskan materi. Siklus I ada peningkatan prestasi belajar siswa sebesar 8,89 %. Siklus II, ada peningkatan prestasi belajar siswa sebesar 2,92%. Siklus III ada peningkatan prestasi belajar siswa sebanyak  4,46 %

Contributions to teaching practice of an online community of practice of teachers and researchers

Communities of practice (CoP) have the potential to promote teachers’ professional development (PD) and change practices. However, empirical evidence is still scarce. This study aims to contribute to address this shortcoming by analysing an online CoP. A qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory single case study was performed. It focused on both the teaching practice and the CoP’s dynamics of interaction. Data collection included online platform information (statistic data and posts automatically recorded) and documents. Data analysis was based on content analysis and was organized accordingly the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth that Clarke and Hollingsworth proposed in 2002. The analysis was made on: (a) the external domain and domain of practice of curricular development (CD), in other words, their dynamics of interaction; (b) the domain of the consequences in the teaching practice, regarding the developed science teaching strategies; (c) evidence of their innovative nature; and (d) the principles of curricular development (CD) enacted. The results show that (a) the members’ participation varied during the interaction period and their dynamic fits an adaptation of the stages of development of a CoP proposed by Wenger et al. in 2002, with two cycles of action-research; (b) the CoP developed diverse teaching strategies, usually not explored by teachers, and coherent with commendations in the literature; (c) the teaching practice was innovative, in a challenging way; and (d) the CoP enacted several principles of CD recommended in literature, namely flexibility and differentiation. The empirical results also allowed to validate the dimensions of the Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model, as well as to adapt it to the specificity of the analysed case

Insider Action Research On AI Needs Within The EIT Innoenergy Ecosystem

This practice paper describes an ongoing insider action research within the EIT InnoEnergy ecosystem. Its goal is to inspire teaching staff from the seven EIT InnoEnergy double degree Master of Science programmes to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and knowledge into their courses based on joint learning. This insider action research runs from 2023 to the end of 2024. In late 2022, a problem statement of ‘AI tools for Education’ was identified by EIT InnoEnergy teachers as being crucial for their future learning and teaching processes. To align the needs of teaching staff with the complexity of emerging AI tools, a decision was made to plan a hybrid insider action research method. The outcome of this research will be twofold: one resulting in an AI toolkit covering three teaching staff needs, and two getting a better understanding of the processes involved in taking up a learning innovation at different engineering partner universities spread across Europe within the EIT InnoEnergy ecosystem. This paper shares the first phases of the insider action research and an overview of the individual AI initiatives taken by teaching staff at different partner universities that is the result of a first qualitative data analysis coming from initiatives shared by the insiders (i.e., teaching staff). Action research methodology was chosen to inspire teaching staff to take an investigative and experimental attitude to the new AI technologies while allowing all actors to support each other and grow towards an AI integration in courses and curricula

Speaking tasks in face-to-dace and online EFL classrooms: an action research approach

The present thesis concentrates on the study of speaking tasks in face-to-face and synchronous online classrooms which was done among seventh graders in a basic school in Tartu. The aim the thesis is to find techniques that encourage students to speak in the target language in English as a foreign language (EFL) lessons, see how speaking in pairs and groups affects practicing speaking skill, and to find solutions to issues which might occur while conducting speaking tasks either in face-to-face or online classrooms.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5461594*es

Review and synthesis of evidence on the (mechanisms of) impact of school inspections

The review was commissioned by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education to inform their strategy development ‘Toezicht 2020’, The purpose of this review was to identify and summarize findings from international empirical research on the impact and mechanisms of impact of school inspections

Autonomous learning style - an expression of modern concept in education

Secția Pregătire Preuniversitară, USMF „Nicolae Testemițanu” Catedra Limba Română și terminologie medicală, USMF „Nicolae Testemițanu”This article proposes various definitions of the concept of autonomy of learning, making clear the distinction between this concept and the autonomous learning. The notion of autonomy requires the user's ability to determine its own rules, to identify individualized efficient means of study of the language, establishing thematic area consistent with the motivational aspect of learning. Autonomous learning style requires knowledge of the user's individual learning style and its consistency with the individual teaching style of the teacher. Information necessary to perform this teaching activity will be collected from the questionnaires by both sides involved in the instruction. Adequate interpretation of the obtained data is a foundation for developing the didactic discourse. Articolul propune diverse definiții ale conceptului de autonomie a învățării, realizând clar distincția dintre acest concept și cel de învățare autonomă. Noțiunea de autonomie presupune capacitatea utilizatorului de a stabili propriile reguli, de a identifica modalitățile eficente propriide studiere a unei limbi, de a stabili arealul tematic în concordanță cu aspectul motivațional al învățării. Stilul autonom de învățare presupune cunoașterea stilului individual de învățare a utilizatorului și armonizarea acestuia cu stilul individual de predare a profesorului. Informațiile necesare realizării acestei activități didactice vor fi colectate din chestionarele efectuate de ambele părți implicate în procesul de indtruire. Interpretarea sadecvată a datelor obținute este un fundament pentreu elaborarea discursului didactic