Scientific literacy has been increasingly considered a major goal of science education. While textbooks remain the most widespread tools for pursuing this goal within classrooms, they have been slow to adapt to the most recent epistemological paradigms, often still conveying distorted views of science and technology. Accordingly, we present herein a theoretical framework specifically intended to highlight the potential of textbooks to promote students’ scientific literacy. It is additionally argued that, often, the misconceptions conveyed by textbooks represent obstacles to the acquisition of a fair image of science and, therefore, to the acquisition of scientific literacy. Finally, a textbook analysis is suggested.

Effective school administrators and teachers are those who provide the least restrictive learning environments for all students. The main goal of this study was to analyze the effects of inclusive science education on the general education population of middle school students’ scientific conceptual understandings. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental model and conducted in a middle school in a large urban school district in Midwestern US. Approximately 4% of students in the school were receiving special education services. The participants in the study were selected through non-random selection. The participants of this study included 20 students without disabilities in each classroom with a total number of 120 students from a total of six different middle school classrooms. The study included two classrooms (one inclusive and one non-inclusive) for each grade level (6, 7, and 8). The conceptual change of students without disabilities was measured using the Density Assessment, which included 20 multiple choice questions. SPSS program was used for data analyses. Paired samples t-test and a multivariate group analysis test were conducted to investigate significant differences on students’ conceptual understandings. The findings showed that the effect of inclusive education was significant and positive on the conceptual understanding of students without disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.

This study attempts to reveal pre-service teachers’ conceptions, definitions, and understanding of quadrilaterals and their internal relationships in terms of personal and formal figural concepts via case of the parallelograms. To collect data, an open-ended question was addressed to 27 pre-service mathematics teachers, and clinical interviews were conducted with them. The factors influential on pre-service teachers’ definitions of parallelograms and conceptions regarding internal relationships between quadrilaterals were analyzed. The strongest result involved definitions based on prototype figures and partially seeing internal relationships between quadrilaterals via these definitions. As a different result from what is reported in the literature, it was found that the fact that rectangle remains as a special case of parallelogram in pre-service teachers’ figural concepts leads them not to adopt the hierarchical relationship. The findings suggested that learners were likely to recognize quadrilaterals by a special case of them and prototypical figures, even though they knew the formal definition in general. This led learners to have difficulty in understanding the inclusion relations of quadrilaterals.

The aim of the present study was to elucidate Mexicans teachers’ attitudes toward school inclusion and disability.  To achieve this goal, 119 regular education and 88 special education teachers answered The Opinions Relative to Integration of Students with Disabilities scale.  Subsequent analyses revealed that attitudes to both groups were similar in terms of direction but dissimilar in magnitude factor. In addition, while the attitude structure in both samples involved three factors, these were unique to each group: Regular education teachers (Perceived Benefits and Negative Effects inside the Inclusive Classroom/Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom, Teaching Ability/Education System, Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom/Education System) and the special education teachers group (Perceived Benefits inside the Inclusive Classroom/Education System, Teaching Ability/Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom, Perceived Benefits and Negative Effects inside the Inclusive Classroom/Performance inside the Inclusive Classroom). Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lessons conducted in out-of-school learning settings on 5th graders science achievement within the scope of a guidance material that was prepared to be used in out-of-school learning settings in accordance with the “Let’s Solve the Riddle of Our Body” chapter objectives. The pretest / posttest equalized control group design, which is one of the quasi-experimental designs, was used in this study. The sample of this study was composed of a total of 31 5th grade students (15 were in experimental group, 16 were in control group) that were selected from secondary schools in the first semester of the 2015-2016 academic year in Tokat Province. Let’s Solve the Riddle of Our Body Chapter Achievement Test (LeSROBAT) was administered before and after the implementation of the guidance material to measure the students’ achievements and retention. The lessons were conducted as suggested by the current curriculum in the control group. The data were analyzed using independent samples t-test and covariance analysis (ANCOVA). As a result of the analyses, it was found that the LeSROBAT post-test scores of experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Within this context, it was concluded that the out-of-school learning settings positively contributed to academic achievement and the guidance material that was developed within the scope of this study was effective. The results of retention test analyses didn’t reveal any significant difference between the posttest and retention test scores of experimental and control groups. When the LeSROBAT retention test scores were examined, it was observed that the scores of experimental group was higher than the control group.

Participation is recognised as an important indicator of school inclusion and educational success of children with and without disabilities and one of the fundamental human rights. In particular, the participation in leisure activities plays a vital role in children’s life and needs to be given a higher attention. The aim of the present exploratory study was to reflect on the inclusion of children with disabilities in Portuguese schools, by portraying and comparing their participation profiles in leisure activities to those of typically developing peers. The participation patterns in leisure activities of 61 children with disabilities and 114 children without disabilities were assessed. Results indicate that the pattern of participation of children with and without disabilities differs whether they are school or community-based activities. Regarding school-based activities, findings reveal that children with disabilities participate more frequently in these activities, but in solitary and constrained spaces at school compared to children without disabilities. For community contexts, our findings indicate that children with disabilities participate in less diverse activities than children without disabilities. In addition, the range of activities is correlated to their level of independence. This exploratory study contributes to an understanding of the pattern of participation of children with and without disabilities.

This descriptive and regression research was conducted to determine the influence of empowerment on organizational behaviors of 215 teachers in Catholic Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines. The results revealed that Catholic teachers have high levels of teacher empowerment. Specifically, they have very high level of status, professional growth, self-efficacy, and impact and high level of decision-making and autonomy in scheduling. Meanwhile, they also high level of organizational behaviors. Furthermore, three of the subscales of teacher empowerment tend to predict almost all dimensions of organizational behaviors of teachers in the school. The research concludes that Catholic Higher Education teachers are empowered to their organization as they feel respected, have opportunities for professional growth, feel efficient and effective in the classroom, and have the capacity to influence students and the school life. However, they do not have enough avenues to be involved in the decision-making process of their institution and do not have enough freedom and opportunities to choose their own schedules and teaching loads. Furthermore, they exhibit positive organizational behaviors in their institutions as manifested in their strong attachment to their organization, high level of involvement to their work, harmonious relationship with their supervisors and middle level managers. Also, they exhibit discretionary actions that goes beyond their functions, and have a desire and passion to continue and uphold the teaching profession.

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of music teacher candidates on computer self-efficacy perceptions and digital technology according to different variables. In this research, correlational survey model is used as a general survey model and also during data collection process of research, criterion sampling is used as purposive sampling.   The focus group of the research consists of 102 students studying music education at Ondokuz Mayis University in the 2018-2019 academic year. Computer Self-Efficacy Perception Scale and Attitude Scale towards Digital Technology Scale were used as data collection tools for the study. According to the results of the study, it was found that there was a significant relationship between the levels of computer self-efficacy perception and the attitudes towards digital technology of the music teacher candidates who participated in the research. The self-efficacy perceptions of the students significantly differed according to their gender, to have a personal computer and the time they first used the computer for educational purpose and their attitudes towards digital technology significantly differed according to their gender, class level and computer ownership.

A sample of 327 engineering bachelor students from a public university in Mexico took part in an information integration study to explore systematic thinking underlying propensity for cheating during a course exam. All study participants were provided with written descriptions of 12 scenarios pertaining to the academic evaluation criteria and were asked to rate the likelihood that they would cheat under such circumstances. The 12 scenarios reflected the experimental manipulation of three orthogonal factors: teacher’s teaching style, type of exam, and modality of assessment. Analysis results revealed four distinct attitudes toward cheating among students, two of which were independent of context (low and high desire to cheat) while the remaining two were context-dependent (low and moderate desire to cheat). All groups showed systematic thinking underlying their possible desire to cheat that was typified by the use of a summative cognitive rule for integrating information related to academic cheating. However, evaluation of factor relevance varied across the groups.

Since the 2008/2009 school year, every primary school in Slovenia has had to prepare its own “school moral education plan” and undertake its moral education activities on the basis of this plan. Although the basic content areas of the moral education plan are prescribed by law, the openness of the legal provisions allows schools to exercise professional autonomy. After a decade of the implementation of moral education plans we conducted an empirical quantitative-qualitative study aimed at analysing them in terms of content. The objective was to determine the extent to which the plans include and how they define the prescribed content areas, as well as the extent to which they include and how they define additional content areas that are not prescribed by law but could be included by schools depending on their individual particularities and the specific challenges of their environment. Data were collected through publications on the websites of a representative sample of randomly selected schools and analysed with a specially prepared instrument. The research shows that upgrading moral education activities through the school moral education plan would require (1) reconsideration and upgrading of the concept, (2) continuous state support for the self-evaluation of schools specifically in this area, and (3) support for schools to gain a deeper professional understanding of current moral education challenges and of forming moral education strategies that differ with regard to the content differences in the reasons for individual moral education challenges.

Inclusive education as a curricular trend is implemented by countries as an action taken in response to the collective call of the Salamanca Statement. It carries the tenet that all learners should be educated alongside their peers regardless of physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and economic, language, cultural, and other perceived differences. School children, as peers of children with special needs, are co-implementers of the inclusive agenda. Young children are competent, possess their views and agencies, and have nascent characteristics that promote inclusion. As such, it is essential to explore how knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and ethics can further be developed and refined for the sake of creating an inclusive community through integrating them in the school curriculum. This paper sought to analyse the articulation of inclusive concepts and expressions in the K-curriculum and strategies utilized by the teachers to reinforce them. Two documents were analysed in this study to address the research questions: (a) prescribed k-curriculum currently used in the Philippines (b) interview transcripts of the key informants. Through content analysis, results of the study revealed that several inclusive concepts and expressions are articulated in the kindergarten curriculum across domains and are reinforced by teachers using varied strategies. Recommendations of the study are discussed.

Mathematics is one of the most challenging subjects for many students. A similar problem is faced by special needs students, such as students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Various instructional strategies are implemented by specialists to help ASD students understand mathematics in schools. To explore the impacts of an instructional strategy of mathematics on ASD students, the authors conducted a review of literature from 2011 to 2017 using various databases including ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses Full Text, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. A total of 39 articles were found. Most of the instructional strategy aimed to assist ASD students in solving mathematics problems. The implications of the study are also discussed in this literature review, which indicates that teachers need to use the appropriate instructional strategy to meet the needs of students with ASD and maximize their mathematics learning outcomes in schools.

After more than two decades of the Salamanca Statement, discrimination and marginalization still exist. There is a need to implement inclusion to promote educational accessibility, quality, and equity for all to combat exclusion. As a result, inclusion challenged educational systems, especially teachers who are its primary implementers. Understanding the significant role of teachers in the parlance of the inclusive agenda is an essential area of inquiry; however, relatively less is known about it. This paper addresses the chasm by looking more profoundly into the teachers’ skills and dispositions about inclusion. Through a cross-sectional survey, this paper examined and compared the Filipino and Thai in-service teachers’ efficacy and attitudes about inclusion and its association with their intentions for inclusive practices. Data revealed that Filipino teachers have a generally higher level of positive attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices than their Thai counterparts. Also, there is a significant and positive correlation between the respondents’ attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices. Considering the historical and cultural contexts, the results of the study construed a deeper understanding of the teachers’ inclusive practices. Insights gathered from the study are instrumental in the examination and understanding of the teachers’ role in the inclusive agenda.

The Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practice (TEIP) scale is an instrument created by Sharma et al. to assess efficacy of instruction in inclusive settings. Despite its increase in use, the TEIP has not been validated with a Spanish teacher population. The aim of this study was to: (1) analyze the psychometric properties and factor structure of the TEIP scale in a sample of Spanish preservice teachers (N = 475; 80% female, 20% male), and (2) examine the level of self-efficacy for inclusive practices that teachers experience when they graduate from their training programs. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicate that a Spanish version (TEIP-ES) consisting of 15 items with a three-factor construct explains 61.34 percent of total variance. Item total-correlations ranged from .488 to .778, and factor loadings from .590 to .790. Convergent validity with measures of quality of teacher education (TE) programs and self-report of preparedness to teach in inclusive settings was good. In contrast, self-efficacy for inclusive practices was rated moderately low. Overall, these findings support the construct and convergent validity of the TEIP-ES and suggest that it is a useful instrument to measure self-efficacy for inclusion in Spanish preservice teacher populations. This manuscript reports the findings, discusses the implications for the improvement of TE programs, and suggests possible avenues for future related research.

The aim of the study focused on assessing the relationship between student's financial knowledge and their relationship with the use and application of financial instruments. The test designed by Garcia-Santillan, Contreras-Rodriguez and Moreno-Garcia which integrates topics on money management, savings and investment, spending, credit and budgets, was used. 333 high school students were surveyed face to face and only 305 were validated. The internal consistency Cronbach’s Alpha of the scale was of α=.860 (34 items) and α=.855 (7 dimensions). For the hypothesis test, exploratory factor analysis and canonical correlational analysis were used. The main findings show the existence of three factors that explain the structure that underlies the phenomenon of financial knowledge and the use of financial techniques, and a significant relationship was found between the constructs of financial knowledge and the use and application of financial products.

This study examined the perspectives of teachers of immigrant youth in a high performing school, Gymnasium Baden (a pseudonym), in the southern region of Germany. Academic success in the region has been traditionally designated for ethnic Germans and non-natives who suppress their culture and assimilate into normative German culture. The consequences of failed intercultural education in Europe have prompted increased demands to consider diversity in teacher training and to provide more equitable opportunities for immigrants. In a broader context of limited access and opportunity to higher education among immigrants, this study documented the voices of teachers of high performing immigrant youth. The perspectives of culturally responsive teachers were documented through interviews, within a broader conservative region that has experienced dilemmas of integrating immigrants into school and society. An examination of interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes of student interactions revealed teachers who were overwhelmingly supportive and responsive to immigrant youth.

In the present study, perceptions of Turkish school administrators and teachers towards Syrian refugee children were examined through metaphors. 71 school administrators and 242 teachers from 27 different provinces of Turkey participated in the study. As a result of the study, the metaphors produced by school administrators were grouped into four categories: “child with cultural adaptation and belonging problems”, “fragile and needy child”, “child who is no different from other children” and “problematic child”. The metaphors produced by teachers were grouped into six categories: “child with cultural adaptation and belonging problems”, “child who is no different from other children”, “fragile and needy child”, “problematic child”, “child who can reveal her/his potential with interest” and “compatible child”. Participants' perceptions of refugee children were not related to gender but there was a significant relationship between professional seniority and the number of refugee children at school. Although school administrators and teachers have positive perceptions about refugee children, their negative perceptions are largely due to the lack of professional experience and the high number of students at school. Providing vocational support to teachers and administrators, planning the number of students in schools, and providing resources to schools will improve positive perceptions about refugee children.

The Arduino microcontroller enables ordinary people to perform professional tasks that only traditional engineering professionals could perform. Recently, several educational cases have been applied to primary and secondary schools, which is a desirable attempt to popularize engineering education. This study meta-analyzed the effects of Arduino-based education in primary and secondary schools in Korea from the perspective of engineering education. Accordingly, 16 academic journals and dissertations were selected that verified educational effects by Arduino-based education to primary and secondary students in Korea, and 31 effect sizes were confirmed. According to the results of this study, the overall average effect size was 0.656, which confirmed that Arduino-based education had a positive educational effect. Furthermore, this study calculated the effect size as measured by categorical and continuous variables such as school level, the inclusion of curriculum, giftedness, publication status, the programming language used, publication year, number of sessions, and number of students. Implications were suggested from the perspective of engineering education. This study is meaningful because it suggests the application of Arduino to primary and secondary schools in engineering education by confirming the positive educational effect of Arduino-based education.

This longitudinal study focuses on evaluating grade 7-9 school students’ perceptions of intervention modules intended to be relevant, as well as promoting learning attributes to raise awareness of science-related careers. Students are taught through six purposely developed and designed career-related teaching–learning modules (C-TLMs). Each module is initiated by means of a career-related scenario, followed up by promoting conceptual science learning plus drawing attention to careers to which each module intends to relate. Student perceptions are obtained by means of a questionnaire after each module with respect to its relevance and also the mean by which the learning environment raise interest, enjoyment and motivation associated with career awareness. Outcomes show that, in general, students participating in this study agree that the developed C-TLMs are relevant and students value the learning experienced through the different module contexts. Nevertheless, student appreciation of the specific inclusion of career awareness components in the modules is mixed.

This study examined information integration cognitive mechanisms underlying the test anxiety judgments of 474 engineering students. The experimental design considered the orthogonal combination of three factors (teaching style, exam type, and test mode), resulting in 12 experimental scenarios. During the experiments, participants were provided one scenario at a time and were asked to rate their anticipated anxiety level in the described situation. Subsequent analyses failed to reveal statistically significant differences in the anxiety levels reported by females and males. However, the factor selection and valuation female students adopted to make their anxiety judgments differed from those employed by their male peers. Cluster analysis identified three groups based on the anxiety level (low, medium, and high). The most relevant factor for all clusters was test mode, and only the medium anxiety group considered a second factor (exam type) to make their anxiety judgments, which was integrated through an additive cognitive rule. These findings suggest that participants place a higher weight on the examination context than its type when making their test anxiety judgments. Identifying these cognitive mechanisms underlying test anxiety could help regulate conditions that undermine the students' ability to cope with test anxiety.