Fostering Students\u27 Civic Skills: Education for Sustainable Democracy

This qualitative study explored factors that supported teachers in their efforts to promote students’ critiquing, communicating, and collaborating skills. Despite the various challenges that public schools face today, they are most likely the very institutions to play a critical role in individuals’ civic skills development. Individual in-depth interviews were the primary method used to understand the participants’ perspectives on instruction and the factors that foster students’ civic skills. Factors that supported the participants in their efforts to promote civic skills among their students were found to be teacher collaboration, planning, and teacher motivation. Details and the implications of the findings were discussed

FACTOR ANALYTIC INSIGHTS INTO MICRO-TEACHING PERFORMANCE OF TEACHER CANDIDATES

This study investigated the factor structure of the intern keys teacher candidate assessment instrument used to assess micro-teaching performance of teacher candidates. In other words, the purpose of the current study was to explore the construct validity of the assessment tool which is considered to consist of one overarching construct: teaching effectiveness. To this end, an exploratory factor analysis in addition to a parallel analysis were employed using the ratings of 116 faculty members at various U.S. universities who supervised the teacher candidates’ performance in their final semester. The results indicated a one-factor structure and high reliability indices. All these findings align with theoretical assumptions and call for further factor analytic studies on the instrument using different samples

What U.S. K-12 Educators Think About the Sudbury Approach: A Mixed Methods Study

The aim of the study is to see the power of both research traditions. This study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to see the correlation between these two traditions. The study covers both a critique of the United States K-12 education and an evaluation of the current democratic school settings. Specifically, the research included in this study includes a short review of democratic school systems, specifically Sudbury School System and how teachers and administrators perceive the concept of democratic school system. Data is collected first quantitatively, and a second stage of data collection follows in a qualitative research tradition. We believe the mixed methods nature of this study will enhance internal validity of the study. Effects and implications of using both research traditions are presented

Validity and reliability study of Quality of School Work Life (QSWL) scale

QSWL in psychosocially manner defined as “the effect of the workplace on satisfaction with the job, satisfaction in non-work life domains, and satisfaction with overall life, personal happiness, and subjective well-being”. This research aimed to develop a valid and reliable measurement instrument that is designed to measure QSWL based on literature, expert and practitioner teachers’ knowledge. 784 teachers were participant of this research. Draft scale included 30 items of the instruments. To validate the scale exploratory factor analysis followed by confirmatory analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that QSWL scale is composed of five dimensions. Confirmatory analysis revealed that χ2 / sd ratio were in intermediate level, value of RMSEA and RMR were in represents of acceptable fit whereas GFI and AGFI indexes were in weak level and finally NNFI and CFI were in sufficient value. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient values for QSWL subdimensions were ranged between .62 and .85 whereas this value was .87 for composite scale. Consequently, this newly developed scale is a valid and reliable instrument that serves to measure and describe schools' quality of work life

Atrioventricular Septal Defects Repair: Comparison of Classic Single Patch and Double-Patch Techniques

Objective: Different patch techniques were virtually always used in the surgery of pediatric patients with complete atrioventricular septal defects. In this study, we described our single center, single surgeon experiences and results about the classic single patch and double patch techniques to repair complete atrioventricular septal defects. Materials and Methods: This retrospective descriptive study included 30 patients who underwent intracardiac repair of complete atrioventricular septal defect in Ankara Bilkent City Hospital Department of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery. The study was conducted between February 2019 to December 2021. Patients in group S underwent surgery using the traditional single-patch method, while group D included patients who underwent repair using the double patch approach (n = 10). Patients’ demographic and clinical information was taken from institutional databases and medical records. Postoperative complications were recorded. Results: When the preoperative/postoperative insufficiency levels of the valves were compared with the Wilcoxon Signed rank test, the findings were not statistically significant for the left atrioventricular valves, but were statistically significant for the right atrioventricular valves. (p=0.02) When we compared postoperative valve regurgitation of both techniques with the Kruskall-Wallis test, no significant difference was found between postoperative valve regurgitation and function, independent of preoperative findings. Conclusion: Both operation techniques did not make a difference between operative or late mortality and morbidity. Depending on the surgeon’s experience, ventricular septal defect size does not play a restrictive role in the selection of the technique to be used. The single-patch and double patch method as described here is methodical, comprehensible, repeatable, and reasonably long-lasting

The-self reflection: How looking through qualitative lenses changed a Researcher

I had chosen a mixed-methods research framework for my dissertation, and that is when I needed to learn more about qualitative methodology. I propose that each and every researcher should understand themselves before they attempt to understand a phenomenon or other people even if it is a quantitative study. Struggling for an objective perspective is not more than a bluff. I saw myself both biased and reactive in my study, and I embraced them instead of fighting against them. I want to tell more about it

Fostering Students' Civic Skills: Education for Sustainable Democracy

This qualitative study explored factors that supported teachers in their efforts to promote students’ critiquing, communicating, and collaborating skills. Despite the various challenges that public schools face today, they are most likely the very institutions to play a critical role in individuals’ civic skills development. Individual in-depth interviews were the primary method used to understand the participants’ perspectives on instruction and the factors that foster students’ civic skills. Factors that supported the participants in their efforts to promote civic skills among their students were found to be teacher collaboration, planning, and teacher motivation. Details and the implications of the findings were discussed

A Construct Validity Study of a Measure of Pre-Service Teachers%252339%253B Micro-Teaching Performance

The purpose of the present study was to examine the construct validity of an instrument used to measure the micro-teaching performance of teacher candidates by their supervisor teachers. To serve this purpose, this study employed an exploratory factor analysis and a parallel analysis in addition to a final confirmatory factor analysis conducted with two different samples of supervisor teachers who rated pre-service teachers performance. Overall, 477 mentor teachers participated in this study. The current results revealed a strong one-factor structure accompanied by high reliability statistics, which is in line with earlier research and theoretical insights. The identified one factor can be named as teaching effectiveness as measured by the participating mentor teachers