The purpose of this study is to evaluate the psychometric and structural instruments of the Physics Metacognition Inventory (PMI) developed by Taasoobshirazi, Bailey, and Farley (2015). The PMI consists of 26 items in six factors. The English and Indonesian versions were tested on an English course (N = 37) in the Geophysics study program at Tadulako University. The trials were conducted separately within a two-week interval. The data collected from 364 students of the Physics Education Department, University of Tadulako were analyzed using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Later, data were collected from 351 students of some Indonesian universities which have physics education study programs, and the data were analyzed using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The EFA result reveals six factors based on the rotation result with the maximum loading factor. The CFA result shows the RMSEA values of .018, 2 (284) = 316.32 (χ2 / df = 1,11), GFI = .93, CFI = .99, AGFI = .92 and NFI = .93 which meet the cut-off statistic value, and therefore, the model is considered fit, with the Construct Reliability Estimation (CR) of .93, Composite Reliability of  = .95, and maximum reliability of Ω = .96. The results obtained reveal that the PMI scale has good, valid and reliable psychometric properties. Therefore, PMI can be used to measure the level of metacognition of students when solving physics problems. Future studies using PMI are also discussed.

This research study presents the PGBE model for teaching and learning percentages with students of Grade 7 when their cognitive development enables the conceptual understanding of percentages as proportional statements, and offers the possibility for more effective matching of them with fractions and decimal numbers. The abbreviation PGBE presents the interrelation of the poster method and three instructional models through which different types of students’ mathematical knowledge about percentages can be built. Hence, P stands for the poster method through which the recognition of students’ previous knowledge about percentages can be done, G represents different grids that can be used for building concrete type of knowledge about them; B signifies the bar model for developing students’ proportional understanding of percentages, and E represents the extended bar model for fostering students’ principled-conceptual understanding of percentages. The effectiveness of the implementation of the PGBE model is assessed by organizing two cycles of piloting and conducting the experimental method with 263 students of ten Grade 7 classes. The results of the study show that the implementation of the PGBE model has had an impact on the learning of students, stimulating an in-depth learning and a long lasting knowledge about percentages for this cohort of students.

Stress is inevitable in the world of teaching and practicum training and therefore, student teachers naturally incur a certain level of stress due to the demands for them to use various knowledge and skills in real school and classroom environment. Hence, practicum stress needs to be addressed accordingly. The central focus of this study is using a partial least square-structural equation modeling to explore the inter-relationships among the student teachers’ personal resources to mitigate practicum stress. A sample of 200 student teachers selected by purposive sampling from teacher education institutions in Sabah, Malaysia was used in this study. This study collected data via survey methods using a questionnaire developed from several existing scales. Findings showed that emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being were able to explain resilience with good predictive accuracy and relevance but poorly for practicum stress. These findings were suggestive of the need to include additional constructs to explain perceived practicum stress better in future exploratory research.

The syntactic complexities of English sentence structures induced the Indonesian students’ sentence-level accuracies blurred. Reciprocally, the meanings conveyed are left hanging. The readers are increasingly at sixes and sevens. The Sentence Crimes were, therefore, the major essences of diagnosing the students’ sentence-level inaccuracies in this study. This study aimed at diagnosing the 2nd-year PNP ED students’ SCs as the writers of English Paragraph Writing at the Writing II course. Qualitatively, both observation and documentation were the instruments of collecting the data while the 1984 Miles & Huberman’s Model and the 1973 Corder’s Clinical Elicitation were employed to analyse the data as regards the SCs produced by the students. The findings designated that the major sources of the students’ SCs were the subordinating/dependent clauses (noun, adverb, and relative clauses), that-clauses, participle phrases, infinitive phrases, lonely verb phrases, an afterthought, appositive fragments, fused sentences, and comma splices. As a result, the SCs/fragments flopped to communicate complete thoughts because they were grammatically incorrect; lacked a subject, a verb; the independent clauses ran together without properly using punctuation marks, conjunctions or transitions; and two or more independent clauses were purely joined by commas but failed to consider using conjunctions. In conclusion, the success of the Indonesian and or other EFL students constructs sentences rests upon the knowledge, sensitivity and the mastery of complex syntactic structures through transformational/structural grammar.

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.

Summative assessment of students' writing predicts not only the extent to which the course learning objectives have been achieved but also reveals the relevance of the assessment design with the construct of writing being assessed. Any dichotomy between the assessment criteria and the construct of writing or between the assessment criteria and test scoring procedures can produce unreliable and invalid interpretations of the students' writing proficiency. Assuming cohesion as a measure of writing quality, the present study chose samples of academic writing which did not specify cohesion as a descriptor in the assessment scale. A cohesion index was, therefore, developed to investigate how cohesive devices created texture in the sample texts and correlated with the test scores. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric correlation analysis revealed that cohesive devices were positively associated with appropriate use to create texture; however, they only weakly correlated with the test scores. The findings imply that there is the need for developing assessment criteria which consistently measures the text-forming resources to reliably ascertain the writing proficiency of the students. The study recommends a research initiative based on an analytical assessment criteria to ensure a more accurate analysis of the role of cohesion in text-formation and writing quality.

The purpose of this research is: 1) to develop the model and produce the assessment of creative curriculum-based learning program multiple intelligences (MI), 2) to know the characteristics and impacts of developed product models. Research using multi-years by method R & D (Research and Development) with two phases; First phase: 1) Preliminary survey stage, 2) definition stage, 3) design phase, 4) trial stage, and 5) development stage; The second phase: 1) the instrument design stage through the Forum Group Discussion, 2) the product trial phase of 100 children in Sleman Regency, 3) wide-scale implementation of 200 children in Yogyakarta Province, 4) the evaluation phase with construct analysis and achievement of research subjects' performance, 5 ) the stage of measuring the effectiveness of the product with user perception. The subject comprises 200 children of early childhood and 20 kindergarten teachers in 10 kindergartens in the Yogyakarta province in Indonesia, by the approach of Reflective Measurement Theory (RMT). The results showed that: 1) the MI-based creative curriculum assessment model was developed to meet valid, reliable and conformity criteria of an empirical data model, 2) The implementation of the assessment model had fulfilled the requirements worthy of using three criteria  aspect; 1) The results of the assessment using creative instruments based on multiple intelligences on children get "very good" results, 2) the readiness of the teacher in learning is included in the "good" category; 3) teacher performance appraisal shows the "very good" category, and 4) the benefits of the products developed are in the "very good" category. It was concluded that the developed product had tested empirically and practically so that it was useful in learning in early childhood.

Developing Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ structural knowledge presents a number of complexities especially in the bilingual context. This study aimed to determine how the structural knowledge patterns of Indonesian EFL students is, and it specifically explored various aspects that make structural knowledge representation difficult. The research also aimed to formulate an accommodative assessment model for the development of students' structural knowledge. Using a case study design, this study involved 120 English literature students (N=120) taking the Psycholinguistics class at one of the tertiary institutions in Malang, Indonesia. The research instruments included essay tests and questionnaires. The research findings showed that students in bilingual contexts have certain diversity and patterns in their structural knowledge. Second, students’ structural knowledge could be influenced by a number of aspects such as topic mastery and the flow of thought. Furthermore, students’ structural knowledge can be accommodated in an adequate evaluation model that measures structural knowledge and critical thinking skills. Further research in the area of content and language assessment will complete the study of the significance of structural knowledge in a bilingual context.

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.

This study aims to determine the effect of the application of the Search, Solve, Create, and Share (SSCS) learning model to the mathematical reflective thinking skills and the students' mathematical problem-solving abilities. This research is a type of Quasi-Experimental Design research with a 2x2 factorial research design. Data collection techniques in this study in the form of documentation and tests at Private school in Bandar Lampung with 28 students of experiment classes and 28 students of control classes. Data analysis techniques used are the normality test and homogeneity test. Testing the hypothesis in this study using the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) test. Based on the results of the study, The calculation of the MANOVA test, it was concluded that there was an influence on the application of the SSCS learning model to students' mathematical reflective thinking skills. The application of the SSCS learning model to the mathematical reflective thinking ability has an influence percentage of 91.9%. The application of the SSCS learning model to mathematical reflective thinking skills and mathematical problem solving abilities has a relatively high level of effectiveness.

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.

Learning models that can improve critical thinking, skills collaborate, communicate, and creative thinking are needed in the 21st-century education era. Critical and creative thinking are the two essential competencies of the four skills required in the 21st century. However, both are still difficult to achieve well by students due to a lack of thinking skills during mathematics learning. This study was conducted to determine the model of learning that is appropriate to develop students' critical and creative thinking skills. The study used three-class samples from eighth grade. The first class is given the problem-posing lesson; the second class is given contextual learning and third class as a control class. The results of the study indicate that improving students' critical and creative thinking skills are included in the moderate category for types using contextual learning and problem-posing. Also, it is found that contextual learning is more effective for improving critical thinking skills when compared with learning problem posing and expository learning. Meanwhile, learning problem posing is more useful to enhance creative thinking skills compared with contextual and expository learning.

In the last decade, learning from computer-supported collaborative technologies has been combined with social media (SM) and this has gotten a lot of attention. Also, there is a growing body of literature that suggests that SM is gaining a lot of attention because it has the perceived pedagogical affordances that could be used as a potential tool for teaching and learning. These perceived pedagogical affordances allow people to interact, communicate, collaborate and share resources among others. Most of the studies published on SM in education have focused on higher education (colleges and universities) with a relatively small body of literature on secondary education. Despite the wide use of SM in education, its benefits are still not clear across studies. We conducted a systematic literature review using the EBSCOhost database. Screening of abstracts and full texts resulted in the selection of 10 papers for the review. Seven approaches to using SM in learning in high schools have been identified: (1) interaction, (2) information dissemination, (3) communication, (4) collaboration, (5) teaching, learning, and resource sharing, (6) socialization, and (7) entertainment. Most of the articles claimed that the educational use of SM has a strong positive effect on social skills, but the evidence presented was rather weak. Subject-specific outcomes were not in focus in using SM in education. All studies followed a constructivist philosophical perspective. Based on this we provide a theory-based scenario for using SM in learning social skills and subject-specific outcomes.

Investigating critical incidents is one way to assist prospective teachers in expressing any developmental stage when accomplishing the teaching practice program. It is a significant component of reflective teaching in an educational framework related to continuing professional development (CPD), particularly self-directed learning. This study aims at exploring EFL prospective teachers’ field experience in cultivating their teaching competence through a critical incident analysis. A qualitative approach was applied. Three participants with different levels of English proficiency took part in this study by sharing their experiences through participating in and answering an interview and an opinionnaire. To analyze the data from the instruments, this study used descriptive analysis and coding techniques respectively. Results indicate that both negative and positive critical incidents contribute to the participants’ teaching development. The incidents support the learning process towards becoming a teacher and assist shaping their awareness of teacher identity. Further, the result of this study reveals that English proficiency level seems to take part in the strategy used for identifying critical incidents. This study implies that critical incidents provide a chance for prospective teachers to be more reflective. Thus, teacher education program stakeholders need to support critical incident analysis by giving relevant assignments while they are doing teaching practice, which in turn builds professional development in the context of prospective teachers.

The present study aims at investigating some English speaking problems found by the students of English language education department at State Islamic Institute of Kudus and exploring some implications for speaking curriculum development of English language education department. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach and the data were taken from semi-structured interviews, observation and focus group discussion (FGD). The results of the analysis reveal that the problems encountered by the students in English language education department in speaking English cover the lack of appropriate vocabulary, the lack of grammar mastery, the lack of correct pronunciation, the lack of input of English outside the class, the lack of confidence and the lack of English speaking curriculum development. There have been some implications for developing English speaking curriculum. First, the curriculum of speaking should be well designed. Second, lecturers should design English speaking curriculum integrated by technology and social media that makes students to enrich some culture, knowledge and experience around the world. Third, lecturers should facilitate the English speaking curriculum with the English speaking community so that the students will have more chance to speak English inside and outside the class.

There is a national trend on the declining percentage of school performance in the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Licensure Examination in the Philippines. This report aims to present the result of this licensure exam in regional level between private and public schools. Quantitative descriptive type of research was utilized in the study using documentary analysis from the result of the Licensure Examination including almost 415 accountancy schools in the country with first takers. Results showed that large number of examinees did not contribute much to increase the record of passing percentage of a certain region but instead it pulls down the passing rate. Public schools in eight (8) regions of the country have significantly higher passing rate than private HEIs. Private HEIs had been consistent in terms of having higher percentage of institutions with zero percent performance rating among first takers. However, private universities produced more top performing examinees than other private colleges and public schools in the country. Findings of the study may provide insights to educational leaders in ensuring the quality on the delivery of instruction through maintaining qualified teachers with relevant knowledge and competencies necessary to prepare the accountancy graduates for licensure examination.