Using unplugged coding activities to promote computational thinking (CT) among secondary learners has become increasing popular. Benefits of using unplugged coding activities involve the cost-effective implementation, the ability to promote computer science concepts and self-efficacy in learning computer programming, and the engaging nature of active learning through collaboration. However, there is insufficient information regarding qualitative investigation on how learners develop their CT skills while working on unplugged coding tasks. This study therefore developed unplugged coding activities using flowcharts for high school students to learn computer science concepts, and to promote their CT skills. The activities consisted of five missions encompassing the concepts of sequence, repetition, input & variable, condition, and loop with condition. The data collection was carried out with 120 high students whose participation was video recorded and observed. A thematic analysis revealed that patterns of CT development started from initially developed, to partially developed and fully developed stages, respectively. The various stages were derived from different abilities to apply the computer science concepts to complete the missions with different expressions of CT skills. In addition, the study proposed a 3S self-directed learning approach for fostering the CT development, composing of self-check (in pairs), self-debug (in pairs), and scaffolding. It is therefore suggested to use the 3S model integrated with the unplugged coding activities for developing CT among high school learners.

This study was to support the understanding of the set structure, binary operations, and their properties as a prerequisite of group theory material categorized as 9 structure senses. This study aimed at investigating the process of students’ structure sense in recognizing the structure of mathematical properties or objects as a prerequisite of group theory material. A task-based case study by exploring 9 categories of structure senses through three integrated process frameworks in the questionnaire was employed in this study. It involved 26 students who had obtained a prerequisite of group theory material and would take abstract algebra course. The choice of subjects was determined based on the results of the questionnaire, in which it identifies the type of structure sense processes. There were 6 out of 26 subjects were chosen. The 6 subjects consisted of 2 subjects from the first path process, 2 subjects from the second path process, and 2 subjects from the third path process. Then, the 6 subjects were interviewed. The choice of 2 subjects for each path process was because it used a fixed comparison theory. Then, the data were validated by using triangulation methods by comparing the students’ work on assignments and questionnaires as well as audio recordings of interviews. The results show the tendency of the process of structure sense was more dominated by students from the second type of path process, in which the subjects still depend on the well-known structure of the properties or mathematical objects in the form of sample questions. The subjects were unable to understand definitions in order to construct structures of properties or mathematical objects.

The study aims to investigate the evaluation model of professional leadership and the characteristics of successful principals at an Indonesian secondary school. It is to further realize the effective learning and to produce instruments that meet the validity and reliability tests. It also aims to discover the correlation and the significance of the independent variables on the dependent variables, and the percentage of influence on the indicators in shaping the model of principals’ leadership. Quantitative data were obtained by distributing questionnaires to 100 students. The number of respondents was determined using a simple random sampling technique. The research findings showed that there was a significant correlation among the principals’ leadership, characters, and effective learning. It indicated that leadership evaluation influenced the school leadership and the principals’ characters on effective learning. The results of the measurement on formative relationships showed that the indicators of behaviour and actions of school principals who manage the teachers to conduct learning activity seriously in the classroom became a determining factor in shaping the effective learning paradigm in secondary schools.

The purposes of the current study were to develop students' spatial orientation skills using Virtual Mathematics Kits (VMK) and to evaluate VMK as a form of digital media in terms of spatial orientation. This study involved 42 lower-class and 47 higher-class elementary school students as the intervention group and 36 lower-class and 41 higher-class students as the control group. The intervention group was administered spatial orientation activities for 10 weeks. These activities were performed using a VMK to facilitate solving spatial problems. In the end of activities, spatial orientation instruments administered to compare spatial orientation ability on each group. The findings of this study, spatial orientation activities using a VMK improved students' spatial orientation skills. More specific, VMK provides more significant effect on higher-class students. Finally, VMK allows students to explore many ideas and perspectives to solve various spatial problems. VMK can be used as a digital media that helps students to develop spatial reasoning.

This study determined the challenging learning experiences of engineering students while completing their degree program as factor that might influence to their changing attitude towards achieving higher academic performance. Mixed method of research was utilised in the study considering the total population of 75 graduating students for quantitative and 12 students for qualitative part of the study using focus group discussion. Results showed that engineering students have significantly higher level of positive attitude towards academic performance during their junior level but significantly lower after taking professional courses. Attaining high academic performance still really matters for the engineering students during their junior level but continuously changing their perspective due to encountered challenging experiences while taking the professional courses. Performance in General Engineering courses describes the attitude of the students towards academic performance in personal aspect while professional courses define their attitude in professional aspect. The finding of the qualitative research revealed that there are three themes emerged in the challenging experiences of the engineering students and these are: Abandoned Social Freedom, Survival of the Fittest and Future Oriented Mindset which contributed to the changing perspectives of the engineering students.

The ability to think critically and creatively is essential for students to be able to face the challenges of the industrial revolution 4.0. Lectures must be designed to enhance students’ critical and creative thinking skills. This study aims to examine the implementation of problem-based learning in learning management information systems courses to improve students critical and creative thinking skills. The research design carried out was classroom action research. The subject in this study was students of Economics Education, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Semarang. The research was conducted in April-May 2019. The procedure for implementing class action research are two cycles (plan, action, observation, and reflection). The research data was taken by observation and interview methods. The data analysis method used is descriptive quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that two class action research cycles were well implemented. The application of the problem-based learning method can improve students’ critical and creative thinking skills. Students are able to solve a given case by doing the right analysis and being able to provide alternative solutions. Students consider the learning process to be more exciting and challenging. Students can express their opinions well in front of the class. The implication of this research is that lecturers can apply PBL with various combinations of learning strategies to improve students' critical and creative thinking skills.

This study aims to investigate students’ attitudes towards e- book use, and its relationship to self-efficacy and academic motivation in Omani higher education institutions. The sample of the study, which was chosen based on the stratification random method, consisted of 200 students from both genders and different colleges and academic years. To achieve the aims of the study, a descriptive correlational approach was adopted using attitudes, academic motivation and self-efficacy scales developed by the researchers, and administered to the study sample after assessing their psychometric properties. Findings show generally a positive significant correlation between students’ attitudes towards e-book use, self-efficacy, and academic motivation.

Previous research suggests that non-cognitive factors play an important role in promoting success at school and beyond, aligning with the multifaceted goals of education. Enhancing students’ attitudes to learning in school is expected to have positive impacts on various schooling outcomes. To date, very few studies have focused on measuring and understanding students’ attitude to the arts. This study aims to address a gap in current research in this area by introducing instruments designed to measure attitude to dance, drama, music and visual arts. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analyses are employed to examine the factorial validity and measurement equivalence of the scales of attitude to the arts disciplines for different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Findings support the utility of the scales as valid measures of attitude to dance, drama, music and visual arts. Noticeable differences are reported among New Zealand European, Maori, Pasifika and Asian students regarding their attitudes to dance, drama, music and visual arts.

Covid-19 has accelerated the speed of technocratic transformation in teaching and learning. Previous researches on whether technology enhances students’ motivation towards learning or burdens them with additional layer of anxiety in learning the nitty gritty of technology itself have mixed results. The purpose of this study was to explore early undergraduate students’ beliefs about learning mathematics with technology. These research participants were first-year female undergraduate students in a public university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study comprised of phase one with qualitative task-based interviews with four female first-year undergraduate students. Phase two included a quantitative belief survey with a sample of 62 students from the same institution. I constructed four major belief categories from the iterative process of interview data analysis– technology for computing and graphing, technology for speed and accuracy, technology for a short-cut but not for meaning, and affective aspects of beliefs. The quantitative survey result demonstrated that a majority of participants (about 75.8%) were found to be using some kinds of technological tools while learning mathematics. About 90% of them reported using a calculator while learning mathematics. A majority of participants (54.9%) believed that technology helps them in learning mathematics, and about 50% of them also believed that the use of technology improves their learning of mathematics.

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.

The development of information technology rapidly has an impact on the changing paradigm of education. On the other hand, education holds an important responsibility to create students who have a good and strong character. This research aims to: 1) describe the concept and framework of interactive multimedia courseware; 2) test the feasibility of interactive multimedia courseware by experts and practitioners; 3) test student responses to the use of interactive multimedia courseware. This research and development involved experts, teachers, and students. The data were collected using expert validation sheets, teacher questionnaires, and student questionnaires. They were then analyzed using the descriptive statistics analysis based on mean and percentage. This research yielded interactive multimedia courseware called IMONEC (Interactive Multimedia courseware integrated with Bandura’s Observational learning model and National historical Event to strengthen students' Character) that integrates three important components: the principles of interactive multimedia learning; Bandura's observational learning model; and the noble values and messages of national historical events to strengthen students' characters. The framework of the interactive multimedia courseware consists of the title, user instruction, home, core competency and basic competency, concept map of material, learning material, and quizzes. The results of the expert validation, teacher questionnaire, and student questionnaire showed that the interactive multimedia courseware is feasible for use in learning and effective in strengthening students’ characters.

This study aims to analyze students’ creative thinking skills in answering the problem-solving questions. This study employs qualitative design, involving 110 fifth graders in Malang Municipality and Regency as the subjects. The obtained data were analyzed using the descriptive-explorative approach. The findings reveal that the high-achievers in Mathematics showed good skills in the aspects of fluency and flexibility, but were still struggling in the novelty aspect.  The average-achievers showed good skills in flexibility aspects but were lacking in the fluency and novelty aspects. They showed an understanding of Mathematics problems but found it difficult to decide the solving strategies, and thus their answers were lacking in structure and less systematic. When solving a problem, the calculation made seemed rushing, was less careful, and frequented with trial and error strategy. The low-achievers showed difficulties in understanding the problems. Their answers were not systematic, not well-structured, and not detailed. This indicates that the low-achievers had not shown creative thinking skills in fluency, flexibility, and novelty aspects.

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.

The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRaD structure) is a structure used by many journals and publishers in its publications since the early twentieth century. This research aims to survey and analyze some prestigious Open Access journals in the field of educational science in the world and in Vietnam on the use of IMRaD structure in presenting research results. We selected 05 open journals with the highest IF in the 2018 Scopus list and 05 prestigious journals in this field in Vietnam to conduct analysis of the articles in the latest 03 issues of these journals. The results of the survey of manuscript draft requirements and the frequency of articles written according to the IMRaD structure of the above journals show that: the IMRaD structure is commonly used in the articles in the field of Educational science in the world. However, in Vietnam, there is no journal that fully meets the contents compared to the basic IMRaD structure. The analysis of the content of articles published in journals in Vietnam shows that the weakest point of the researches is that the research methodology section is almost absent. Finally, we propose some solutions to improve scientific editing in Educational science journals in Vietnam to meet international publishing standards.

Descriptive correlational research was conducted to discover misconceptions on Rate of Reaction (RR) that impact on Chemical Equilibrium (CE) misconceptions. This research was conducted to 245 eleventh-grade students of High School in Gowa, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, that have been studied the RR and CE topics. Misconceptions data were collected using three-tier tests and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using descriptive and correlational analysis. Description of RR misconceptions that impact on CE misconceptions are determined with the percentage of students who consistently experience misconceptions about RR and CE. There were six misconceptions in RR that have an impact on CE, which are: Misconceptions related to changes in the reaction rate with time; The effect of temperature on the rate of reaction; The effect of adding catalysts to the activation energy; and the mathematical affect relating to the rate of reaction and number of moles. Misconceptions in RR and CE have 0.39 correlation coefficient, based on Spearman's formula. These results indicate that the impact of misconception in RR on CE is moderate. This study suggests that education practitioners should eliminate the misconception of prerequisite concepts before teaching the next related concepts.

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 study aimed at analyzing the implementation of authentic assessments and constraints faced by junior high schools' teachers in mathematics teaching. A qualitative approach was applied in the study. The data on the implementation of authentic assessments and constraints were obtained from 50 mathematics teachers in several public junior high schools in Malang City, East Java Province-Indonesia, trained by the 2013 curriculum. Documentation, questionnaires, observations, and interviews were used to collect the data. The study results showed that most teachers implemented authentic assessments in mathematics teaching as designed in the learning plan. The obstacles faced by the teachers in the implementation of the authentic assessment included the time limit and accuracy. The efforts made by the teachers varied, but the teachers tried to administer the authentic assessment properly following the demands of the curriculum.

This article highlights the main ideas that underlie the differences in potential pragmatic knowledge constructs students experience when solving problems, between the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and the zone of potential construction (ZPC). This qualitative research is based on a phenomenological approach to finding the meaning of things that are fundamental and essential from the ZPD and ZPC phenomena. Researchers observed mathematics learning by a teacher on 24 fourth-grade students who were divided into groups A (high IQ) and B (low IQ). Data collection through tests, observation, and interviews. While the validity of the data is done through triangulation of methods and triangulation of sources. The results showed that students of the Upper (A) group had high IQ but small ZPD and ZPC. In contrast, students in the Lower (B) group have low IQ but large ZPD and ZPC. This result means that intelligence (IQ) is measured not only logically-mathematically but also in the verbal-linguistic and spatial-visual fields. The conclusion is that there are differences in the construction of students' knowledge in the learning zone. This difference occurs because the knowledge constructs that the students have previously had an effect on the accommodation process of the schemes that students have built while in the proximal development zone (ZPD) where scaffolding works. Meanwhile, the potential construction zone (ZPC) is not sufficient to describe the real development of students. However, it only reflects what students have accomplished.

The implementation of Lesson Study (LS) varies considerably across countries and institutions and is still in a phase of adaptation and experimentation. This article explains the result and the process of a school-based initiative endeavor to implement LS at a suburban elementary in Padang, Indonesia. The study involved 13 teachers, the principal and 6 classes of students. The data were collected through observation and interview. They were classified on the basis of three noticeable emerging themes- teacher collaboration, scaffolding, and reflection. The data were analyzed qualitatively. The results of data analysis reveal a promising improvement in these aspects. Implementing school- support LS increased by weaving the concept into practice helped teachers develop their professionalism gradually. It was obvious that the teachers felt more at ease to work collaboratively when they designed the lesson. This also affected their design which showed more meaningful learning activities and challenging tasks. Then, the teachers improved the way they scaffolded the pupils. The content of reflection and the way the results of reflection were conveyed became better. The principal’s support and the teachers’ strong willingness to elevate their quality apparently took an important role. In spite of that, there were some challenges in carrying out collaboration, providing appropriate scaffolding, and doing reflection. Changing the teachers’ common practice to LS apparently needs some adjustment and time.

The aim of this study is to analyze and explain the mathematical connection process for students with a high mathematical ability to solve problems in terms of gender. Explorative descriptive research with a qualitative approach was used in this study. Data was collected through written tests and interviews conducted to a male and female student of class X Mathematics and Natural Sciences with high mathematical abilities. Data credibility is obtained through triangulation of methods and time. Furthermore, the data are analyzed with a flowchart which includes data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results showed that there were similarities and differences in the mathematical connection processes of male and female students. Similarities in the process of mathematical connections occur when making mathematical connections with other sciences and with everyday life in each of Polya's stages. In addition, the similarity of the connection process also occurs when connecting in mathematics during the re-checking stage. While the difference in the connection process in mathematics between male and female students is done at the stage of understanding the problem, solving strategies and implementing problem solving.