An evidence-based, interactive teaching method peer instruction (PI) is promoted to support effectiveness over more commonly used teaching methods. Usually it is proposed for the university and upper secondary school. The research reports on the implementation of the PI approach in teaching subject Science and Technology (S&T) in the 4th grade of primary school. The aim of this research was to verify the feasibility of this approach for much younger students in primary school by evaluating the students’ progress in the subject S&T, identifying the differences in individual progress in relation to students’ general learning success, and determining students’ opinions about the approach and where no desired progress has been made. In a selected Slovenian primary school, a classroom with 26 students (age 9 – 10) was included in the study and 5 different content areas (Earth’s motion, Matter, Magnetism, Forces and motion, and Electricity) were taught using this PI approach. Results show that students made progress in all content areas and no differences were identified in the progress of individual students in terms of general learning success. Students were satisfied with the approach, although more than half of them found the multiple-choice questions as too difficult. Although the PI approach is successful, teachers must be aware that some persistent and widespread misunderstandings may still remain and require additional intervention.

The progressive integration of mobile technology in the classroom is generating new scenarios to innovate teaching methods. The aim of this study was to analyse the perceptions of university students toward the use of Socrative and its implications in gamified learning situations. This is a descriptive-survey investigation, complemented with content analysis techniques. The data were collected using a questionnaire designed ad hoc by Quiroga-Estévez et al. and structured interviews. The sample consisted of undergraduate students (n=472) of the degree of Primary Education from the Faculty of Education Sciences of a Spanish university. The results show significant changes in the learning process of the students, in social relations and in the teaching methodology.

This research seeks to evaluate the degree of inclusion of the gender perspective and the promotion of education in and for equality in the historical narratives of students in Chilean Secondary Education (n = 105). The study focuses on the analysis of the discursive-narrative mechanisms employed by the students and, in particular, of their representations of gender relations. To this end, the place given to men and women in past and present societies is analysed in the narratives generated by the students (n = 780). A mixed methodology is applied, combining quantitative (descriptive and inferential) and qualitative analyses of the manifest content. The results obtained report the persistence of stereotypical, exclusionary and androcentric perspectives, evidenced in hegemonic gender attributions and in the maintenance of the sex/gender system. These data confirm the need to implement specific teacher training programmes aimed at the acquisition of critical competences and the effective inclusion of the gender perspective in history education.

The mastery of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is very important for teachers in order to achieve qualified learning. Analyzing the mastery of TPACK by teachers in Indonesia seems to be imperative to provide baseline data to Indonesian government. This study aimed to examine the mastery of TPACK, in particular among biology teachers in terms of their teacher certification status, educational level, and academic background. This research involved 68 biology teachers obtained through proportional random sampling in five districts of Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. The data collection was conducted through a multiple-choice test consisting of 33 items. The results showed that although the teacher’s mastery of TPACK was categorized as fair (60.13), it does not meet the work performance standards as a good teacher in Indonesia which has a minimum score of 76.00. Using Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis Tests (p< 0.05), the evidence revealed that the mastery of TPACK among biology teachers is likely influenced by the academic background, educational level, and teacher certification status.

This research is motivated by a linear equations system, which is the basis for studying necessary linear algebra materials, such as rank, range, linear independent/dependent, linear transformations, characteristic values and vectors. There are still prospective mathematics teachers who have difficulty solving linear equations system and understanding the form of row echelon and reduced row echelon forms. In this study, subjects were three prospective mathematics teachers from Swadaya Gunung Jati University Cirebon who were taking matrix algebra courses. This study aims to reveal the conceptual understanding of prospective mathematics teachers in determining the solution to systems of linear equations. The results show that there are still prospective mathematics teachers who only use memory about the properties and procedures in determining whether a matrix is said to be a row echelon form or a reduced row echelon form. Then, there is still weakness in building the algorithms' relationship due to the immature knowledge of the concepts. Researchers found that many prospective mathematics teachers were more comfortable solving problems that were performed procedurally. Further research is needed to determine how the mental construction process and mathematical conceptual knowledge of prospective mathematics teachers are through meaningful learning so that conceptual understanding is maximized.

A large number of articles in the field of science education reflect on scientific literacy as the main goal of science education (SE), although often with varying viewpoints. Nevertheless, researchers have begun to highlight subject-specific teaching practices that are expected to specifically enhance science subject teaching, including biology. The main aim of this theoretical article is to come on consensus and to conceptualise the term biological literacy (BL) more clearly and to present a theoretical concept of BL, composed on the basis of systematically analysed articles. This theoretical concept includes two dimensions of BL: (1) cognitive (cognitive skills, conceptual understanding, biological inquiry) and (2) affective dimension, based on systematic literature review (SLR). This theoretical concept also includes in addition four dimensions of BL: (3) sustainability; (4) interdisciplinarity, (5) career awareness and (6) nature of biology (NOB), based on literature review (LR) of recent decades, that was conducted to write theoretical overview of this research.

Many problems in real life are full of uncertainty. Probabilistic thinking is one way to solve this uncertainty problem. The personality abilities that are interesting to examine include how independent the students are in facing probabilistic solutions. For this reason, it is necessary to study the probabilistic thinking profile of prospective mathematics teachers in solving probabilistic problems in terms of learning the self-regulation. The research method used in this research is qualitative research. In this study, the researcher conducted an analysis of students' probabilistic thinking with the scope of the probability material related to the sample space, the probability of events, and the probability of the random variable space. The profile of the level of probabilistic thinking is influenced by cognitive factors in the form of probabilistic knowledge obtained by students and personality in the form of self-regulated learning. Student learning self-regulated influences the mental activity in decision making. By studying the profile of probabilistic thinking, students are better prepare to face uncertainty with various aspects that influence it.

Creative thinking is the highest level of the kind of high order thinking. In observations at the schools in Indonesia, teachers overly equate all levels of achievement of students' creative thinking to obtain higher order thinking skill improvements in mathematics learning. This condition results in an imbalance in learning practices. Therefore, this research fills the gap of this imbalance by describing the student’s creative thinking profile as a high order thinking skill in the improvement of mathematics learning. These results can contribute knowledge to educators to manage teaching strategies that can improve mathematics learning which refers to high order thinking skill for all levels of their creative thinking. This research is qualitative descriptive research. The subject were junior high school students in Malang, Indonesia. Data collection methods are tests, observations, and interviews. Data analysis is conducted by reducing data, present data, and conclusions. These research results are descriptions of student’s creative thinking profiles as a high order thinking in mathematics learning improvement, namely students have problems planning problem solving; students take a break to make plans; identify the essence of the problem, provide original ideas, provide alternative problem-solving plans, combine previous ideas with problem questions; operate and implement their plans by creating various original solutions.

Multicultural education improves educators’ understanding of the complexities of different cultures and the inherent intersectionality of race, gender, class, and exceptionality to liberate students from oppressive structures within society. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the perceptions of educational leadership graduate students regarding multicultural education and transformative leadership through the lens of critical pedagogy. During this qualitative case study, the researchers used course materials, including discussion and responses, book reviews, and presentations, to answer these research questions: What factors drove the graduate students to want to seek out further experiences for them or their students with multicultural education? What did the participants perceive as potential barriers to influencing educational reform? In what ways did the perceptions of the graduate students regarding multicultural education change over the course of a semester? Three themes emerged from the analysis, the illusion of inclusivity, cultural awareness, and the disconnection between theory and practice. This research could impact current and potential future educational leaders and provides information that would benefit school districts, teachers, and students.

Teaching mathematics in general and instructing mathematics at junior schools in particular not only create favorable conditions for students to develop essential and core competencies but also help students enhance mathematical competencies as a foundation for a good study of the subject and promote essential skills for society, in which mathematical communication skill is an important one. This study aimed to train students in mathematics communication by presenting them with topics in line with the structure's congruent triangles. An experimental sample of 40 students in grade 8 at a junior school in Vietnam, in which they were engaged in learning with activities oriented to increase mathematical communication. A research design employing a pre-test, an intervention, and a post-test was implemented to evaluate such a teaching methodology's effectiveness. For assessing how well the students had progressed in mathematical language activities, the gathered data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Empirical results showed that most students experienced a significant improvement in their mathematical communication skills associated with congruent triangles. Additionally, there were some significant implications and recommendations that were drawn from the research results.

The changes brought about in higher education by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic require effective action. Teachers must be trained to work on university platforms. The study allows us to analyse the current educational problems, which are found in many countries, not only in Ecuador. The research aimed to determine the virtual andragogical competencies of Ecuadorian university education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed research approach was used. A quantitative analysis was applied first, followed by a qualitative analysis. The sample selection was participatory and non-probabilistic. The sample consisted of 1003 active higher education teachers in Ecuador. A questionnaire of 106 questions divided into four variables was applied. A multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed. The analyses demonstrated the need to apply four integral competencies. First the teacher must "Know how to be", through continuous ICT training. After the teacher has been trained, he/she must "Know". This process involves mastering educational technology. After updating knowledge, they must "Know how to live together". Develop critical and constructive communication. Then "Know how to do" by applying an effective guiding methodology. Teacher training under the competency-based approach is seen as a viable alternative.

While previous studies on assessments focused on measurement of principles and constructs, existing attention is given to content validation involving vocational education and skills. The emphasis on content validation has prompted a holistic perspective of teaching and learning to demand alternative research approaches. Using evidence of content validity based on expert judgment and assessment items, this paper argues that vocational knowledge and skills could be determined via constructs and construct functions. Content validity analysis was studied in two major phases, namely, through an assessment of an electrical technology course at a Malaysian higher education institution and expert panels’ examination of items. It was found that to increase confidence in providing reliable instruments for future empirical studies, a careful process in item development and content validity analysis was considered important. Therefore, applying these findings on item analysis and expert panels to reflect content validity can enhance the validity of assessment items.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is regarded as one of the formulas to embracing many of our imminent challenges. STEM education benefits the learners by encouraging interest in STEM disciplines. This daunting task needs everyone’s concerted efforts in creating and innovating mathematics teachers’ classroom practices Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to identify best practices for STEM education following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) by Moher et al. (2015). The reviewed articles were published from 2016 to 2020 and accessed using the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. Three themes for best practices were identified namely (a) core competencies encompassing 21st-century teaching skills; (b) instructional designs; and (c) requisite STEM execution. Results of PRISMA determined the dominant STEM practices were critical thinking, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, research-based pedagogy, problem-based learning and project-based learning, technological integration, accessibility, professional development and learning support, evidence of effectiveness, access to materials and practitioner support, and scalability. Mathematics teachers should determine the best STEM practices to employ even though there is a lack of studies on integrated STEM domains. When more students are interested in venturing and exploring into the field of STEM, the high demand for STEM related careers could be met by the younger generation.

Problem-solving is considered one of the thinking skills that must be possessed in 21^st-century education because problem-solving skills are required to solve all problems that arise. The problem-solving stages that can be used are Polya's four steps, namely, understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and looking back. Problem-solving skills are essential for solving word problems. Word problems based on arithmetic operations are divided into three types: one-step, two-step, and multistep. This qualitative research aimed to see problem-solving skills viewed from the type of word questions and elementary school students’ third, fourth, and fifth grades. A purposive sampling technique with 22 third-grade students, 28 fourth-grade students, and 21 fifth-grade students was used. The data were collected using documentation, testing, and interview methods. The findings of the study showed that fourth-grade students’ problem-solving skills are better than those of third-grade students, and the problem-solving skills of fifth-grade students are better than those of fourth-grade students. The percentage of Polya's steps always decreases because not all students master problem-solving. Based on the types of questions, the percentage of the one-step word problem is better than that of the two-step while the percentage of the two-step word problems is higher than that of the multistep.

Assessment is a topic that continues to be developed in science education research. Assessment evaluates not only students' cognitive abilities but also their thinking skills. Therefore, in this study, an assessment that could measure students' chemical literacy was developed. Chemical literacy is a thinking skill that students must develop as part of their chemistry learning. The goal of this study was to assess item' quality, as well as student’ chemical literacy on the concept of chemical rate. The Rasch model was employed to analyze the data in this study. The results of this study depict that the developed assessment had sufficient reliability and validity to be used to assess students' chemical literacy. Furthermore, the analysis of the students’ responses to the items revealed that many students did not understand or were unaware of the context presented. These findings suggest that students' chemical literacy in the material for the reaction rate is still lacking and needs to be improved. As a result, the teacher's role in assisting students in improving their chemical literacy through chemistry learning is critical.

Several concerted movements toward mathematical modeling have been seen in the last decade, reflecting the growing global relationship between the role of mathematics in the context of modern science, technology and real life. The literature has mainly covered the theoretical basis of research questions in mathematical modeling and the use of effective research methods in the studies. Driven by the Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) theory and empirical evidence on metacognition and modeling competency, this research aimed at exploring the interrelationships between metacognition and mathematical modeling and academic year level as a moderator via the SEM approach. This study involved 538 students as participants. From this sample, 133 students (24.7%) were from the first academic year, 223 (41.4%) were from the second and 182 (33.8%) were from the third. A correlational research design was employed to answer the research question. Cluster random sampling was used to gather the sample. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized moderation employing IBM SPSS Amos version 18. Our findings confirmed the direct correlation between metacognition and mathematical modeling was statistically significant. Academic year level as a partial moderator significantly moderates the interrelationships between the metacognitive strategies and mathematical modeling competency. The effect of metacognition on mathematical modeling competency was more pronounced in the year two group compared to the year one and three groups.

The purpose of the study was to identify how the instructional model that converges professional training and foreign language learning can influence the students’ professional mobility and students’ readiness to build their careers. The study used the methods of a quantitative kind for the evaluation study and descriptive research. The variables for the study were as follows: levels of student professional mobility skills proficiency that included students’ competence in their professional field, foreign language proficiency, students’ networking skills, personality qualities, and sampled students’ satisfaction with the reshaped course. The field phase of the study found that the Erasmus and Work-and-Travel programmes contributed to the former students’ adaptability and flexibility, the experience of work abroad, and practical specialism-related experience gained during study. The students developed their abilities to project a positive social image, ability to build and maintain relationships, foreign language proficiency, proficiency in presenting and negotiating, and theoretical knowledge. The English Language-delivered Professional Mobility course brought shifts in the levels of students’ professional mobility skills. The experimental group students reported that they improved their competence in their professional field, foreign language proficiency, networking skills, and personality qualities. The experimental group students’ judgements concerning the quality of the course were complimentary.

Understanding phylogenetic trees representing evolutionary relationships of living organisms is essential in school biology. Traditional instructions based on lectures and textbooks with pictorial presentations have been proven ineffective to promote students’ understanding of the concept. This study, therefore, developed a game-based learning activity called the VERT card game to enhance students’ learning of the phylogenetic taxonomy of chordates. The VERT card game was designed to lay the foundation for different characteristics of chordate classes, as well as to allow students to construct and interpret their evolutionary relationships based on the phylogenetic tree. The effectiveness of the VERT card game was verified by a pre-test and post-test design with 109 middle school students in Thailand. The statistical result revealed that students’ mean scores increased significantly in the post-test, compared to the pre-test, indicating their improved understanding. In addition, after participating in the learning activity, the student participants were found to increase their self-efficacy to learn evolutionary biology statistically. Also, it showed positive views towards the usefulness of the developed card game as a large number of them expressed that they would like to use it for their lesson reviews and wished to have this form of learning activity in other topics in biology.

In contemporary school systems, the concept of a teacher is defined as a socially and emotionally intelligent, pedagogically, and psychologically competent school leader. This would mean that not only the teacher's subject knowledge is sufficient, but also good knowledge of general pedagogical-psychological skills, knowledge, and management of the didactic approach, etc. Social and emotional skills/intelligence (SEI) restore the value of teachers as creators of learning and connect education to the larger social world in which SEI plays the most important role. This paper highlights the importance of social and Emotional Intelligence (SEI) in teacher education, examining the current state of research and the most important role of SEI in students' personal, social, and academic achievement, as well as teacher effectiveness and personal growth. By presenting the scientific evidence of SEI in teaching and teacher education, this study assesses the SEI level of student teachers at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, Slovenia. SEI is examined, through its main components: Self-awareness, Self-management, Social Awareness and Social Skills. In conclusion, this paper aims to show the need to develop SEI in future teacher education in Slovenia.

The cooperative learning (CL) is an advanced instructional approach that uses different motivational procedures to make instruction significant and learners more responsible. This study aimed to investigate the effects of cooperative learning on students' achievement in chemistry among the advanced level in 12-year basic education schools; it engaged a quasi-experimental design with one treatment group and a comparison group (control); the first applied cooperative learning in teaching organic chemistry while in the control group, organic chemistry was taught by the conventional teaching methods (CTM). A sample of 257 students participated in the study. The data collected used an organic Chemistry Achievement Test, and its data were analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 and MS Excel 2016. The ANCOVA results showed that learners taught using cooperative learning achieved better than their counterparts in the control group (F=78.07, df=1, 256, p<.001) with the learning gains of 16.0% in traditional methods and 53.6% of cooperative learning approach, respectively. However, there was no statistically significant difference in gender of students. It is recommended that chemistry teachers be trained on cooperative learning and encouraged to apply it in their teaching methods to enhance students' academic achievement.