This research aims to determine second-year university students’ understanding in interpreting and representing fractions. A set of fraction tests was given to students through two direct learning interventions. An unstructured interview was used as an instrument to obtain explanations and confirmations from the purposive participants. A total of 112 student teachers of primary teacher education program at two private universities in Indonesia were involved in this research. A qualitative method with a holistic type case study design was used in this research. The results indicate that a significant percentage of the participants could not correctly interpret and represent fractions. In terms of interpretation, it is found how language could obscure the misunderstanding of fractions. Then, the idea of a fraction as part of a whole is the most widely used in giving meaning to a fraction compared to the other four interpretations, but with limited understanding. Regarding data representation, many participants failed to provide a meaningful illustration showing the improper fraction and mix number compared to the proper fraction. Improvement of fraction teaching at universities - particularly in primary teacher education programs - is needed so that students get the opportunity to develop and improve their knowledge profoundly. We discuss implications for teaching fractions.

Algebraic knowledge transfer is considered an important skill in problem-solving. Using algebraic knowledge transfer, students can connect concepts using common procedural similarities. This quasi-experimental study investigates the influence of algebraic knowledge in solving problems in a chemistry context by using analogical transformations. The impact of structured steps that students need to take during the process of solving stoichiometric problems was explicitly analyzed. A total of 108 eighth-grade students participated in the study. Of the overall number of students, half of them were included in the experimental classes, whereas the other half were part of the control classes. Before and after the intervention, contextual problems were administered twice to all the student participants. The study results indicate that the students of the experimental classes exposed to structured steps in solving algebraic problems and the procedural transformations scored better results in solving problems in mathematics for chemistry compared to their peers who did not receive such instruction. Nevertheless, the result shows that although the intervention was carried out in mathematics classes, its effect was more significant on students' achievements in chemistry. The findings and their practical implications are discussed at the end of the study.

Translanguaging enables students to communicate in multiple languages in an English-dominant classroom. It has received considerable attention from scholars in content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Its implementation in primary schools in European countries has been adopted in Asian countries, including Indonesia. This study employed a narrative inquiry investigating a teacher who taught first graders both content matter and English during the COVID-19 forced-remote learning. Furthermore, data were gathered using semi-structured interviews to guide the participant in narrating CLIL science teaching experiences. Virtual observations were carried out eight times to obtain evidence of translanguaging practiced. Due to forced-remote learning, the results indicated that the teacher had to find the most convenient ways to instruct the young students without adding to their burden. Furthermore, it was reported that scaffolding by translanguaging was planned systematically by valuing the students’ L1 and alternating it with English as the target language. The findings also discussed the practical implications of this study to maintain young learners' (YLs) engagement through translanguaging strategies.

The loss of direct experiences with nature among today's children is of concern as it affects their conservation willingness (CW). While little is known about the influence of live experiences on CW, much less is known about how these events are related. This study aimed to examine the serial mediating effects of biodiversity knowledge (BK) and affective attitudes (AA) on the relationship between live experiences with species and CW. An online questionnaire was administered to 429 school children (11-12 years) in the Maldives. A two-serial mediation analysis revealed that live experiences exerted significant negative direct and positive indirect effects on CW. Thus, although a predictive sequential pathway from live experiences to BK to AA to CW was confirmed, partial mediation involving other mediators or moderators is likely. The direct effects of live experiences on BK and AA and of BK on AA suggest that experiential learning that stimulates AA is necessary to achieve overall positive impacts on CW. Therefore, educators and policymakers are critical in providing first-hand experiences to instill positive biodiversity conservation traits in children, enabling successful education for sustainable development and long-term biodiversity conservation.

Academic failure and school dropout, or early school leaving, are two of the situations that most concern countries and educational institutions worldwide, because of their prevalence and also their economic and social implications. Despite this prominent role that academic failure and school dropout have in societies, there seems to be no consensus on the literature on their conceptualization, definition, and relationship. Moreover, it is frequent to observe how both concepts are confused or overlap in the scientific literature and how many authors avoid defining these constructs, using them indistinctly. Therefore, this work analyses whether educational research considers them as two different concepts or if they are used indistinctly. For this purpose, 2,051 keywords from 450 articles were subjected to a systematic review and classified into the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) thesaurus´ descriptors. The results reveal statistically significant differences in the descriptors according to the type of paper to which they correspond (academic failure or dropout). Thus, academic failure is associated with sociocultural, personal, and academic factors, while dropout is linked to employment and educational trajectories. These differences evidence that, although academic failure and school dropout refer to closely related educational problems, there are remarkable differences between them and between the treatment given to each of them in the scientific literature. Therefore, they should be considered as two different concepts. For all this, keyword analysis has proved to be a relevant element for the study of the structure of knowledge, allowing to clearly establish the differences between the two closely related concepts.

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of social skills, digital literacy disposition, and mathematical literacy abilities of 49 students; to analyze the theoretical model of the direct and indirect influence of digital literacy skills and social skills on mathematical literacy skills. The number of samples is 49 of the 12th-grade students at state high school #1 Southern Konawe. The research instruments consisted of a mathematical literacy ability test, a social skills questionnaire, and a digital literacy disposition questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and structural equational models (SEM) with a Smart PLS 3.0 application. The results showed that students' mathematical literacy skills tended to be better on content and context indicators but they are weak on competency and process indicators. Students' social skills tend to be better on indicators of peer-relationship skills and self-management skills, but are also weak on indicators of academic skills and compliance skills. Mastery of the digital literacy disposition tends to be better on the internet searching, content evaluation, and information sharing indicators but is still weak on knowledge assembly. Furthermore, it was found that (a) social skills have a direct effect on digital literacy disposition but do not directly affect mathematical literacy skills; (b) the digital literacy disposition has a direct effect on mathematical literacy skills.

Development research demands a improvement in the implementation of learning by developing products based on learning needs. The products of this development are teacher book and student book based on the realistic mathematic education (RME) approach for package A in statistics material. Validity testing in this study includes instrument validation, self-evaluation, expert validation, one-to-one evaluation. Aiken's V and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) are used to determine the validity and reliability of the product. The result of research shows that the instruments and prototype are valid and feasible. Then, the ICC obtained moderate stability, it also categorize reliable. In terms of context and hypothetical learning trajectory (HLT) developed, the products should be revised to achieve meaningful learning.

‘Panic-gogy’ is a term that describes the educational situation during the pandemic due to the transformation phenomenon from face-to-face learning to distance learning. Various types of research are used to uncover the constraints of this phenomenon, but not many researchers use phenomenological studies with parents as participants. Therefore, we used a phenomenological study to describe parents’ views on the constraints, expectations, and approvals regarding the preparation of distance learning modules at the junior high school level (aged 13-15 years). Data collection was carried out using semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using NVivo-12-assisted thematic analysis. The main findings are that most parents experience problems. Namely, children do not understand mathematics material, incomplete explanations of material from teachers, internet disturbances, and quota limitations, and children cannot learn mathematics optimally during the distance learning period. Most parents want face-to-face learning to be carried out immediately, teachers to provide detailed explanations, and use digital learning platforms. In addition, 85% of parents agree that mathematics teachers should develop distance learning modules. However, because the pandemic is still not over, this study recommends using blended learning to maintain the quality of mathematics learning.

This research aims to describe secondary school students' functional thinking in generating patterns in learning algebra, particularly in solving mathematical word problems. In addressing this aim, a phenomenological approach was conducted to investigate the meaning of functional relationships provided by students. The data were collected from 39 ninth graders (13-14 years old) through a written test about generating patterns in linear functions. The following steps were conducting interviews with ten representative students to get detailed information about their answers to the written test. All students' responses were then analyzed using the thematic analysis software ATLAS.ti. The findings illustrate that students employed two types of approaches in solving the problem: recursive patterns and correspondence. Students favored the recursive patterns approach in identifying the pattern. They provided arithmetic computation by counting term-to-term but could not represent generalities with algebraic symbols. Meanwhile, students evidenced for correspondence managed to observe the relation between two variables and create the symbolic representation to express the generality. The study concludes that these differences exist due to their focus on identifying patterns: the recursive pattern students tend to see the changes in one variable, whereas the correspondence ones relate to the corresponding pair of variables.

This study aimed to compare and examine the effectiveness of interactive STEM learning and paper-and-pencil STEM learning in terms of mathematical literacy skills of elementary school students. This research is of a quasi-experimental type with a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design. Sampling was carried out on the elementary school populations in Bengkulu and South Sumatra Provinces in two stages. In the first stage, schools in rural and urban areas were selected, and in the second, classes in each school were randomly selected. The selected sample consisted of fifth-grade students of the Public Elementary School of Terawas, Musi Rawas, with an experimental class A (n = 20) and an experimental class B (n = 19), as well as fifth-grade students of the Public Elementary School of Bengkulu City, with an experimental class A (n = 25) and an experimental class B (n = 22). Data collection was conducted using mathematical literacy skills tests in reference to the PISA and Minimum Competency Assessment (level 1–3). Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics; it employed an independent t-test for the comparative testing and an N-gain test for testing the effectiveness of STEM learning. The results showed that there were differences in math literacy skills between interactive STEM and paper-and-pencil STEM for students in urban schools, but not significantly different for students in rural schools. General STEM learning was effective in increasing the literacy of elementary school students, and interactive STEM in particular demonstrated the highest level of effectiveness in the urban school.

In recent years, educational robotics has gained ground in educational policy around the world, and primary education is no exception. However, there has not yet been a thorough synthesis of methodologically appropriate empirical research on the effects of robotics upon cognitive performance among primary school students, which this paper attempted to do. Following literature screening, a total of eight studies published between 2018 and 2022 with a sample size of 567 children met inclusion criteria and were meta-analyzed. Resultantly, a medium aggregate effect size in favor of robotics experiments emerged (standardized mean difference of .641), which was significantly higher compared to non-robotics learning (p <.01). No between-study heterogeneity was detected. Subgroup analysis revealed a slightly larger overall effect for interventions on first- to third-graders rather than those in grades 4-6. Additionally, the analysis indicates that in order to enhance cognitive abilities in primary students, robotics interventions should be no longer than four weeks and involve robot construction. Based on the findings, implications, and suggestions are outlined for future research and practice.

This study aimed to determine Indonesian students’ perspectives on digital citizenship skills. Digital literacy is one of the most important needs in the community and the school environment. As educational institutions, universities are expected to integrate and develop an IT-based learning environment to help students develop digital skills. This study used social media and knowledge of rights and responsibilities in cyberspace to examine university students' digital-based skills. A descriptive method with a qualitative approach was also used to describe the perspectives of students about their rights and responsibilities. Participants included 12 students from state universities in Jakarta and Lampung. Data was collected through interviews and 90-minute focus group discussions (FGD). The results showed that the top three considerations that emphasized ethics in cyberspace were maintaining privacy, not spreading fake news, and respecting the Internet community. In this context, individuals must uphold their rights and responsibilities in the virtual world, and university students are expected to apply digital ethics appropriately.

Students in mathematics classes do not understand the importance of sociomathematical norms in learning mathematics. This causes sociomathematical norms not to be teachers' focus when learning mathematics. Besides, there is no standardized instrument for assessing this norm, so developing this instrument is necessary to measure socio-mathematical norms in learning mathematics. This study aims to create and verify the psychometric validity of the sociomathematical norm scale. This research used a survey method with 505 senior high school students from Jakarta and West Java as respondents. The results showed that 25 items had convergent validity, with a loading factor value of > 0.700, meaning they could be declared valid. Concurrent validity indicates that each sociomathematical norms indicator is valid as a whole. Discriminant validity shows that the average variance extracted value on the diagonal is higher than the other values, so each item is declared valid. It was concluded that each item of the sociomathematical norms instrument has accuracy in its measurement function. The reliability test shows that each sociomathematical norms item is declared reliable. The reliability value of the sociomathematical norm item is .99, and the person's reliability is .86. Thus, the instruments developed can measure sociomathematical norms in learning mathematics.

In this article, we present the results of empirical research using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodology, in which we examined the achievements and difficulties of sixth-grade Slovenian primary school students in decimal numbers at the conceptual and procedural knowledge level. The achievements of the students (N = 100) showed that they statistically significantly (z = -7,53, p < .001) better mastered procedural knowledge (M = 0.60, SD = 0.22) than conceptual knowledge (M = 0.37, SD = 0.17) of decimal numbers. Difficulties are related to both procedural and conceptual knowledge, but significantly more students have difficulties at the level of conceptual knowledge. At the level of procedural knowledge, or in the execution of arithmetic operations with decimal numbers, we observed difficulties in transforming text notation into numerical expressions, difficulties in placing the decimal point in multiplication and division, and insufficient automation of mathematical operations with decimal numbers. At the level of conceptual knowledge of decimal numbers, the results indicate difficulties for students in understanding the place values of decimal numbers, in estimating the sum, product and quotient of decimals with reflection and in mathematical justification. In relation to difficulties in justification, we observed an insufficient understanding of the size relationship between decimal numbers and difficulties in expressing them in mathematical language. The results indicate that to overcome such difficulties in the learning and teaching of mathematics, more balance between procedural and conceptual knowledge is needed.

Understanding graphs in the dynamics of market (DM) is a challenge to learners; its teaching demands a specific kind of teacher’s knowledge. This study aims to examine the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) of experienced economics teachers in teaching graphs in DM to enhance learners’ understanding of the topic. It reports using a qualitative approach underpinned by the TSPCK framework for teaching specific topics developed by Mavhunga. Data were collected through classroom observations and analyzed thematically using a case study of two economics teachers. The study revealed that adopting a step-by-step approach and the use of worked graphical examples promote an understanding of graphs in DM. It also established that active learning is preferable to the predominant chalk-and-talk (lecture) method of teaching graphs in DM. The study proposed a Dynamics of Market Graphical Framework (DMG-Framework) to enable teachers, particularly pre-service teachers in lesson delivery, to enhance learners’ understanding of graphs in DM. The result of this study will broaden the international view in the teaching of graphs in DM.

Critical thinking is a skill that enables individuals to keep pace with changes and enhances crucial competencies for contemporary competitiveness. Many researchers have studied learning management approaches to develop students' critical thinking, resulting in a substantial body of knowledge but lacking clear systematic summaries. The researchers aimed to (a) examine the effect sizes and research characteristics influencing students' critical thinking, and (b) compare the effect sizes of learning management approaches after adjusting with propensity score matching from 108 graduate research published between 2002 and 2021. Data were collected using research characteristics recording forms and research quality assessment questionnaires. Effect sizes were calculated using Glass's method and analyzed through random effect, fixed effect, and regression meta-analysis. Findings revealed that (a) research on developing learning management approaches influences students' critical thinking at a high level (d ̅ = 1.669), with nine research characteristics, including the field of publication, courses, total duration, teacher learning process, learning media, measurement and evaluation, research design, research statistics, and research quality, statistically significantly influencing students' critical thinking, and (b) after adjustment, inquiry-based learning significantly influences students' critical thinking. Recommendations for developing students' critical thinking include learning activities that encourage problem exploration, expanding thinking through collaborative analysis, and applying diverse media and activity sheets tailored to context suitability.
 

This research attempts to map the trend of research related to differentiated instruction (DI). The research was conducted in May 2023 by researching research articles in the Scopus database. The search data from Scopus used title, abstract, and keyword searches. Research articles were analyzed descriptively based on year of publication, journal name, affiliation, country, and researcher name. The article database from Scopus was analyzed through VOSviewer and RStudio software so that a bibliometric map could be depicted in research related to DI. Based on the Scopus analysis results, it showed that publications of articles related to DI had increased from 2011 to 2021, although it decreased in 2016. The journal with the largest contributor to the publication of research articles related to DI was the Teaching and Teacher Education Journal. Vrije Universitiet Brusel was the university with the most published articles on DI. The country that contributed the most to the research articles related to DI was the United States. Struyven was the most productive scholar related to DI. Through network visualization, it was revealed that the evolution map of research related to DI was divided into five clusters.

Given curiosity’s fundamental role in motivation and learning and considering the widespread use of digital stories as educational tools from the preschool age, we pursued measuring preschoolers’ curiosity when interacting with digital stories. Using 129 toddlers and preschoolers as a sample, three groups (one for each class) were given different versions of the same digital story to listen to: interactive, non-interactive, and animated. Toddlers' verbal and nonverbal behaviors were utilized to quantify curiosity as a condition brought on by the app. The participants' verbal and nonverbal behaviors were recorded during the digital reading aloud. Every child's data was encoded at one-minute intervals to examine concurrent behavior, and the results were then compiled. The findings show that interactive presentation formats encourage more touching and language use but less noise production and that interaction and the creative use of hot spots in digital illustrations are key elements in piquing viewers' curiosity while contributing to the strengthening of the engagement to the activity and the cultivation of critical thinking, creativity, and imagination.