Environmental learning in the 21st century requires students to have Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The purpose of this study was to measure HOTS students using Higher Order Thinking Skills Assessment based on Environmental Problem (HOTS-AEP). The research method used in this study was descriptive method with a total sample of 248 students consisting of Elementary School (ES), Junior High School (JHS), Bachelor Program (BP), and Master Program (MP). The results showed that students overall have a very low HOTS category. HOTS scores scale of 0-100 on ES (22.3) are still higher than JHS (20.2). Whereas at the university level, BP scores (19.9) are lower than MP (21.4). This showed that learning must be oriented towards increasing HOTS through various media development learning, learning materials, learning models, and strategies. This study concludes that the HOTS score of students was still very low and needs to be improved.

This article presents an empirical study on the perceptions of university students toward the development of the teaching practicum, using the CourseSites platform as a communication and support tool for their training. The opinions of the students were collected through a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1500 students who were registered in the degrees of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Pedagogy (2008-2018). A descriptive, inferential and multi-level analysis was conducted, which confirmed that future teachers had activated their professional competences, as they had the chance to share their internship experiences with their faculty members and with their own classmates.

This study investigates the emotional responses of EFL student teachers to various affective situations during practicum and their coping strategies to enhance positive emotions and reduce negative emotions. Seventy female EFL student teachers participated in this study. To collect quantitative and qualitative data, two instruments were used: an emotional reflective diary and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study revealed that the practicum is an emotionally positive experience. The frequency of occurrence of pleasant affective situations was more than that of unpleasant ones. In the decreasing order of frequency, the most frequent emotional responses were happy, angry, and stressed and the least frequent ones were lost, influential, and shamed. Furthermore, the results indicated that student teachers adopted many regulation strategies to manage their emotions. The study recommends that teacher education programmes increase the focus on teachers’ emotions and training student teachers to manage their emotions to build future professional identities.

This article analyzes the impact of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on students with Down syndrome through the consult of scientific articles published during the 2008 to 2018 period, in five scientific journal databases utilized in the academic world. Through a descriptive and quantitative methodology, the most significant bibliometric data according to citation index is shown. Likewise, a methodology based on the analysis of co-words and clustering techniques is applied through a bibliometric maps, in order to determine the fields of scientific study. The results show that articles published have a medium-low index of impact. There are linked with the importance of using ICT with these students, from educational inclusion and accessibility perspective.

Each child has a different personality type of tendency. Personality type is closely related to emotional intelligence. Through this study, we report the analysis results of the effects of personality type tendencies and the application of learning strategies in controlling the emotional intelligence of elementary school students. This study uses the quasi-experimental method with a 2x2 factorial design in data collection. Data analysis used was a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. Research findings show that students with extrovert tendencies personality are better than students with introvert personality types. The application of inquiry strategies in learning is better at controlling emotional intelligence than the application of expository strategies.

As we have seen from the current COVID-19 pandemic, misconceptions concerning viruses can lead to disease spread and panic. Therefore, it is imperative to determine misconceptions held concerning epidemics and pandemics. One virus that warrants study of misconceptions, albeit given limited attention in the West, is the Ebola virus. An assessment of college students’ knowledge and misconceptions about the Ebola virus was created and validated using data from 203 non-science majors at a Midwestern United States university. The data were analyzed using both classical and Rasch measurement methods to make a case for the validity of the assessment and to explore students’ misconceptions. The assessment was shown to be a valid and useful measure for students’ knowledge and misconceptions concerning Ebola. Integrating a confidence scale into students’ responses made the scale more reliable and assisted in identifying students’ tenacious misconceptions. Students displayed multiple misconceptions about viruses, including confusion between the characteristics of viruses and prokaryotes.  Students also displayed misconceptions about Ebola itself, including the overestimation of the number of Ebola strains and the number of patients who experience massive blood loss, misunderstandings about the incubation period, and overestimation of the mortality in comparison to other diseases like Influenza and Anthrax. This assessment can be used as a starting point in future studies to determine what misconceptions people have about Ebola and which types of educational and behavioral interventions need to be undertaken.

Despite its well-documented benefits for training a wide range of professionals, including teacher candidates in almost all content areas, the incorporation of service-learning into foreign language teacher education is relatively new, and most research only dealt with narrative accounts of non-work-related charitable activities. Consequently, this study sought to investigate the impact of the 20-hour peer-tutoring project on the teaching beliefs, community service attitudes, personal and professional development of 14 Turkish EFL teacher candidates. A comparison between their pre- and post-service metaphors revealed a conceptual shift not only in their teaching perspectives from the behaviorist to constructivist paradigm for knowledge acquisition, but also in their community partnership approaches from the unidirectional to reciprocal pattern of altruism towards their tutees. The classification of their written reflections into six types of significant learning demonstrated that despite a relatively greater focus on expressing their foundational knowledge and application practices, a more balanced distribution of learning gains was achieved between the two overarching spheres of academic learning and personal growth, when coursework engagement and multimodal reflections were co-implemented. They reported developing effective teacher dispositions, interpersonal skills and social responsibility, valued intrinsic rewards for their contributions to the youth well-being, and also appreciated the informal professional learning opportunities the peer-tutoring service offered, though without establishing their own learning agendas.

Achieving educational goals is based on the skills and competence of teachers; therefore, professional development of teachers is important to policy and decision-makers. Worldwide, the percentage of teachers who leave the profession within their first years of teaching is high therefore, professional support is essential to ease on their integration. Previous research indicates a positive and significant correlation between teachers' self-efficacy and their attitudes toward the teaching profession. Our study included three hypotheses: 1) teachers' pedagogical applications serve as mediators for the relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their attitudes toward the profession; 2) participating in a professional development school (PDS) training program interacts with teachers' self-efficacy in predicting their attitudes toward the profession; and, 3) participation in a PDS training program will positively affect the two variables. A close and open-ended questionnaire was replied by 300 novice teachers, some of whom participated in the PDS program and others who did not. Findings indicate that the relationship between teachers' sense of self-efficacy and their attitudes towards the teaching profession was partially mediated by: applying constructivist pedagogical practices; matching to differences between learners; collaboration between fellow teachers; accountability; planning and teaching management; and academy-community relationships. Participation in a PDS program was not found as a moderator variable for this relationship, but novice teachers who participated in this program had a significant higher sense of self-efficacy and more positive attitudes towards the teaching profession. Findings are important for designing novice teacher training programs with an emphasis on the implementation of specific pedagogical practices.

This study aims at exploring the problem of the readiness and competence of new teachers to teach in primary schools. This study specifically focuses on identifying the readiness of new teachers to conduct teaching professionally, and analyzing their competence in conducting teaching. This study employs a mixed-method research design with data collected from two different approaches: a qualitative approach by conducting interviews and observation, and a quantitative approach by conducting a survey. The data were collected from lecturers, graduate teachers working as teachers, graduate teachers working not as teachers, and users of graduate teachers. The results of data collection and analysis were made into several themes. The results showed that the majority of graduates were ready to join the workforce as professional teachers with the risk that they had to accept the lack of welfare and legitimacy as unprofessional teachers because they had to attend further professional education programs. The education provided by the lecturers during their study in their institution in the aspects of knowledge and skills in the field of study and pedagogy became the foundation for new teachers in starting their careers as professional teachers in schools. A good educational process had produced teachers who have competencies with good categories in various aspects.

Teacher education has been innovated in Brunei to support the ongoing inclusive education and curriculum reforms. This survey investigated the development of essential instructional skills in initial Brunei trainee teachers. The sample consisted of 109 student teachers (71 females and 38 males). Significant mean scores (Mean ≥ 4, p< .05) and 95% confidence intervals were used to identify the levels of proficiency and enablers of success in teaching. Participants were proficient on 15 of the 28 skills measured by the Teacher Behaviors Checklist (Approachable; Confident; Effective communicator; Encourages; Enthusiastic; Flexible; Good listener; Humble; Prepared; Professional; Rapport; Respectful; Sensitive; Striving to be a better teacher; Understanding). From independent groups, T-tests and One-Way ANOVA analyses, other significant trends in participants’ performance emerged at p< .05 level of evaluation. Females scored highest on Humble and Realistic expectations while males scored highest on Understanding. Trainee teachers aged 31-35 scored highest on: Promoting critical thinking; and Providing constructive feedback, than counterparts. Participants with higher degrees (e.g. Master of Arts) scored higher on Authoritative skills than those with lower degrees (e.g. Bachelor of Arts). Trainees with teaching experience scored significantly higher on: Accessible; Knowledge about the subject matter; and Technological competence, than those with no experience. The findings suggest the need to help pre-service teachers to gain proficiency in all teacher skills to improve the quality of education in the country. Further research was recommended.

The identification of students’ mental models is crucial in understanding their knowledge of scientific concepts. This research aimed to develop a Mental Models Representation Instrument on Newton's Laws (MeMoRI-NL). The ADDIE (Analyzing, Designing, Developing, Implementing and Evaluating) model was used as a research method. The sample consisted of 30 students of 15-16 years-old at one of senior high school in Tatar Pasundan. The data was examined using Rasch analysis on validity, reliability, level of difficulty, and distributions of students’ mental models. Students’ mental models were classified as Scientific (SC), Synthetic (SY), Synthetic almost Misconception (SYM), and Initial (IN) model. Based on the evaluating stage, students’ mental models are mostly in the SYM and IN model. Consequently, it can be concluded that the Mental Models Representation Instrument on Newton's Laws (MeMoRI-NL) can be developed using the ADDIE model and most of the students' mental model has not been following scientific knowledge. Based on this research, teachers or educators should enhance students' mental models, especially for female students.

Self-efficacy and critical thinking represent two vital components for university graduates in the 21st century learning. However, several studies reported that these two important outcome predictors were unsatisfactory. This study aimed at investigating the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy and critical thinking. A quasi-experimental nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design was utilized. A total of 44 pre-service elementary school teachers (aged 19-22) at a private university in Indonesia were assigned as experimental (n = 22) and control (n = 22) groups. The experimental group learning received PBL, while the control group learning with traditional college instruction. The Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) and the Critical Thinking Questionnaire (CTQ) were administered before and after the intervention in both groups. Independent and paired samples t-tests were employed to analyze the pretests and posttests data. The results indicated that PBL was more effective in increasing self-efficacy and critical thinking of pre-service elementary teachers than traditional teaching. It is suggested that PBL should be used more frequently in science learning to further enhance students’ self-efficacy and critical thinking skills in higher education.

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.

Research on critical thinking skills has been frequently carried out, but it has not shown maximum results. This problem is exacerbated by the differences in pre-service teachers’ academic abilities. A new learning model that can improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills and reduce the gap in critical thinking skills among the upper, middle, and lower academic ability pre-service teachers is needed. This research aims at exploring the potential of the QASEE learning model on the critical thinking skills of different academic ability. This quasi-experimental research involved 107 pre-service teachers of Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Fatah, Indonesia. The research classes were divided into three classes, namely the QASEE class (experimental class), the RQA class (positive control class), and the conventional class (negative control class). Each class was further divided into upper, middle, and lower academic categories. The data were collected using an essay test supported by a critical thinking skill rubric. The data were analyzed by using ANCOVA and followed by LSD test. The research results show that the QASEE (Questioning, Answering, Sharing, Extending, and Evaluating) learning model can improve and equalize the critical thinking skills of pre-service teachers with various academic levels. Thus, the QASEE learning model can be used as a new reference to improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills, especially the lower academic ability.

The current offer of training courses for university teachers is due, among other needs, to the implementation of an educational model based on student learning, promoting the use of active methodologies for their motivation and academic performance. An exploratory-descriptive and ideographic study is presented where the main technique is the analysis of content. To this end, 15 Spanish universities with the greatest prestige were analyzed according to the parameters of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in relation to the topics related to active methodologies and the profile of university teachers. The results show the different teacher training courses that have been carried out during the 2019/2020 academic year. We find that there are more universities that present more training of this type than others, and who this type of training is aimed at: new teachers and teachers with professional experience. The conclusions are related to the importance of the courses for the professional development of university teachers, since they should not be anchored in the same methodology, but should be open to new challenges and always taking into account the students, enhancing their motivation and academic performance.

Environmental learning in the 21st century requires a high level of thinking ability, especially to solve environmental problems when COVID-19 pandemic. This was to develop a new level of thinking, namely Higher Order Thinking Skills of Environmental Problem (HOTSEP) which is a revision of Anderson's Taxonomy. The purpose of this study was to measure students HOTSEP in the context of environmental problems related to COVID-19. The research method used in this research was descriptive. The sample used 277 university students from several cities in Indonesia. The instrument used HOTSEP which has 3 categories of thinking level start from develop innovation about environment (C6), solve environmental problem (C5), criticize environmental problem (C4). The results showed that students HOTSEP were still in the very low category (33.64). This study concludes that the HOTSEP of students was still low and needs to be improved to the understanding of COVID-19 concept in environmental learning. Suggestion for further research was HOTSEP need to implement in school or university for several environmental learning topics in many subjects/courses start from Natural Science, Social Science, Engineering, and others relevant subject. HOTSEP can be measured not only in school or university, HOTSEP can be implement in community and public.

New Inquiry-Based Learning (NIBL) was developed to improve students’ multiple higher-order thinking skills (MHOTS), such as thinking critically, analytically, creatively, and practically (CACP). This study aimed to examine the increase of students’ MHOTS ability, their perceptions of the NIBL model, and the contribution of the NIBL model to the learning outcomes.  A quasi-experiment of the nonequivalent control group design was implemented in this study. Research subjects were university students majoring in chemistry education and enrolling in the Organic Chemistry course. The experiment and the control groups consisted of 34 and 32 students, respectively. The collected data were analyzed by using t-test and ANCOVA procedures. N-Gain scores were calculated to measure the differences in the increase in learning outcomes. Eta square values measured the contribution of NIBL. The results of this study revealed that there were differences in the learning outcomes of the experiment and control group. The CACP thinking skills and the mastery of organic chemistry concepts of the experiment group increased significantly. The N-Gain scores of practical thinking skills aspect were on medium category, and for critical, analytical, and creative thinking, as well as for mastery of organic chemistry concepts were on high categories. For the control group, the N-Gain scores of all categories were on low or medium categories. The NIBL model effectively improved the prospective chemistry teachers’ M-HOTS in terms of CACP thinking skills and contributed significantly to the increase in the students’ mastery of organic chemistry concepts.

Owing to the rapid expansion and development of newly upgraded undergraduate colleges and universities in China, the Ministry of Education implemented the College English Language Teaching Reform (CELTR) to improve College English language teaching and learning at higher institutions. This reform aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The present study aims to identify potential factors influencing the EFL teachers’ professional development in the context of the College English language curriculum reform in mainland China. In total, 92 EFL college teachers from a newly upgraded university located in Nanyang City, Central China participated in this study, and data were collected using a survey questionnaire. Overall, the findings indicate that the EFL teachers’ professional development improved during the implementation process of CELTR and the potential factors that contributed to their professional development were teachers’ understanding, self-reflection, and teaching practice.

Current research on self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching indicates shortcomings in facing recent teaching challenges in secondary education and corresponding valid instruments. Thus, we designed the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Interdisciplinary Science Teaching (SElf-ST) instrument based on a pedagogical content knowledge model for science teaching. We ensured the factorial validity of ten factors. To bring construct validity down to a round figure, we examined convergent and divergent validity in this paper. For answering the overall research question regarding arguments for the convergent and divergent validity of the interpretation of the SElf-ST instrument’s test values (and related hypotheses), we analyzed data of pre-service, trainee, and in-service biology, chemistry, and physics teachers (n = 590) in a cross-sectional study. While the strong latent correlations of the ten SElf-ST factors with self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in primary education (r = 0.40 – 0.63, p < 0.01) indicate convergent validity, the rather weak correlations with self-efficacy beliefs of general teaching (r = 0.17 – 0.54, p < 0.01), self-rated content knowledge in science (r = 0.13 – 0.40, p < 0.01), and perceived stress (r = -0.13 – -0.19, p < 0.01) support different divergent validity intensities. Thus, assumed relations within the nomological net surrounding the self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching construct were confirmed for secondary education. In sum, we shed light on a rarely explored aspect of construct validity in science education research regarding self-efficacy beliefs. Doing so, we gained strong arguments that the SElf-ST instrument’s test values can serve as indicators of self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in secondary 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.