The main objective of this study is to examine the attitudes of preschool teacher candidates and teacher candidates in other branches towards scientific research in terms of some variables. Survey method was used. The study group consists of 547 teacher candidates studying in education faculty of a private university in the spring term of 2015-2016 in Istanbul province. Personal Information Form, Scale of Attitude towards Scientific Research were used as data collection tool. According to the results; Preschool teacher candidates’ levels of reluctance to help researchers and negative attitudes towards research are lower when compared to Turkish language teacher candidates. Preschool teacher candidates’ positive attitudes towards researchs and researchers are higher when compared to Turkish language teacher candidates. Guidence and psychological counselor candidates’ negative attitudes towards research are lower when compared to Turkish language teacher candidates. The levels of reluctance to help researchers of male teacher candidates are higher when compared to female teacher candidates. Negative attitudes towards research of the teacher candidates who do not take the course of scientific research methods are higher when compared to the teacher candidates who take the research methods course. The teacher candidates’ attitudes towards research do not vary by age, grade level and the academic success average.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate pre-service history teachers’ perceived self-efficacy and the effect of pedagogical formation training on this perception. The study is based on a one-group pretest-posttest research design, which is a type of pre-experimental design. For the purpose of the study, in the first week of the formation training, the “Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale” developed by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy and adapted to Turkish by Capa, Cakiroglu and Sarikaya was administered as a pre-test to a group of 178 pre-service history teachers who underwent pedagogical formation training in 2016-2017 academic year in two different universities in Turkey. The same scale was administered again as a post-test at the end of the 28-week training. The study has found out that the pedagogical formation training did not make a significant difference in pre-service history teachers’ perceived self-efficacy except for the classroom management subscale, in which the self-efficacy scores of pre-service history teachers decreased after the pedagogical formation training.

This study aims to determine the relationship between the self-efficacy perceptions of the prospective teachers and the levels of their professional competence. In the study, relational screening model is used and it is investigated whether prospective teachers' perceptions of academic self-efficacy and professional competence differed according to various variables. The population of the research constitutes 1430 university students (prospective teachers) who are educated in Inonu University Pedagogical Formation Education (PFE) Program in 2015-2016 academic year. In the sample of the study, there are 537 participants who were determined by random sampling method. The Ohio Teacher Competence Scale and The Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Turkish versions) are used as a data collection tool. In the analysis of the data, the standard deviation, frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean of respondents were calculated. One-way analysis of variance, ANOVA and Scheffe Test are used. The main result of this research is that the perceptions of academic self-efficacy of prospective teachers are "Moderate" but their perceptions of professional competence are in level "Very". According to this result, prospective teachers are of the opinion that the teaching profession can be achieved with “a moderate level of academic competence”.

The aim of this research is to determine the thoughts of the teachers about the concepts of "Smart Board", "Computer", "Internet" and "Social Media" from the Instructional technologies of the secondary school teachers with different branches through metaphors. In the research, a qualitative research model was used to identify teachers' thoughts in metaphor analysis from various branches about the use of instructional technologies in the national field. Within the scope of the qualitative research model, the phenomenology design was used. In order to find out what kind of thoughts teachers have about teaching materials from the participants "Smart Board / Computer / Internet / Social Media is like / similar to…..; Because ..." they were asked to complete their covenants. As a result of the research, 25 valid metaphors belonging to the concepts of smart board, computer, social media and 27 of internet concept were obtained from secondary school teachers. The most book (f = 4) metaphor for smart board concept, brain and memory (f = 2) metaphors for computer concept, most air (f = 3) and medicine, ocean, water (f = 2) metaphors for internet concept and the drug and virus (f = 2) metaphors related to the concept of social media. The metaphors of the concept of smart board are classified into 5 conceptual categories with common characteristics related to each other, 6 categories with common features related to computer and internet concepts, and 7 conceptual categories with social media concept related to each other. In the research, it was reached that the secondary school teachers expressed positive opinions about the concept of smart board and computer, partially negative about the concept of the internet but more negative opinions about the concept of social media.

The effectiveness of schools, that is, their ability to achieve their pre-determined goals depends on many variables but especially the effectiveness of the administrators who are responsible for the implementation of the educational programs and curricula. An administrator must have a healthy perception of being "an effective administrator" in order to be able to demonstrate expected roles successfully. Concerning school effectiveness, in addition to the emphasis of self-efficacy of administrator, the leadership role of the educational administrators has gained importance with modern educational administration approaches. If an administrator wants to be effective, he/she must act as a leader and convince followers. In this context, when questioning the effectiveness of schools, it is important to determine the level of self-efficacy perceptions of administrators and to determine the leadership styles displayed by them. In this study, it was aimed to examine whether there is a significant relationship between the perceived self-efficacy belief and leadership style. The results show that self-efficacy perceptions of the administrators make a difference in their leadership style and there is a relationship between the self-efficacy belief and exhibitors of transformational leadership behaviors; the more administrators feel themselves efficient, the more they exhibit transformational leadership behaviors.

This study aims to assess the effects of teaching programming with mBlock on self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes considering programming. Particularly, this study tries to research whether there is a gender difference in middle school students or not. The study was conducted in pre-test/post-test quasi experimental design. The participants of the study which was completed in twelve weeks were 82 middle school students. The data were collected through “Educational Computer Games Assisted Learning Coding Attitude Scale” and “Computer Programming Self-efficacy Scale”. The results of the research indicate that although the self-efficacy perceptions of boys towards programming were higher than the girls’ at the beginning of the research, this difference was closed at the end of the research. The results also show that teaching programming with mBlock to middle school students did not cause gender differences in self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes regarding programming. Although girls’ attitudes regarding programming were slightly higher than boys’, the difference was not considered to be significant. In addition, it was found that programming with mBlock significantly increased students' self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes towards programming. As a result, teaching programming with mBlock can provide similar possibilities for both genders in self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes regarding programming.

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of music teacher candidates on computer self-efficacy perceptions and digital technology according to different variables. In this research, correlational survey model is used as a general survey model and also during data collection process of research, criterion sampling is used as purposive sampling.   The focus group of the research consists of 102 students studying music education at Ondokuz Mayis University in the 2018-2019 academic year. Computer Self-Efficacy Perception Scale and Attitude Scale towards Digital Technology Scale were used as data collection tools for the study. According to the results of the study, it was found that there was a significant relationship between the levels of computer self-efficacy perception and the attitudes towards digital technology of the music teacher candidates who participated in the research. The self-efficacy perceptions of the students significantly differed according to their gender, to have a personal computer and the time they first used the computer for educational purpose and their attitudes towards digital technology significantly differed according to their gender, class level and computer ownership.

This study was conducted to analyze (a) the suitability of National Examination (UN) and national-based school examination (USBN) implementation, which has been running on the current guidelines and efforts to improve students’ achievements, (b) the final examination system that is relevant in measuring student competency achievement based on graduate competence standard. It employed descriptive quantitative evaluation by using CIPP (context, input, process of implementation and product) evaluation model. Participants included the head of the Education and Culture Department, Ministry of Religion, Principals / Madrasas, teachers, and students. To collect the data, questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, and documentaries were undertaken. Additionally, the data analysis technique used quantitative and qualitative descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that (1) implementation of the UN and USBN, which has been ongoing, is in accordance with the standard operating procedure (SOP) that has been established by the board of national education standard (BNSP), (2) implementation of UN and USBN can be used to improve performance (3) the final examination system that is able to measure achievement of graduates' competency on certain subjects nationally by referring to the Graduate Competency Standard is computer-based national examination (UNBK). The concluding remarks are an attempt to contribute to the growth of future research in the field of UN and USBN implementation in Indonesia.

This study considers the interaction between an e-learning system, the Blackboard system, and the students who use it in Saudi Arabia. While previous work exists, there is limited consideration of the assessment of the preferences of e-learning system usability variables based on students’ perspectives, especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. This paper attempts to fill the gap by investigating the relative importance of the design criteria developed for e-learning system usability evaluation from the students’ perspective in Saudi tertiary education. Based on reviewed literature, a set of usability principles was developed that have had an influence in the students’ learning process and use of the e-learning system. The list includes system navigation, system learnability, visual design, information quality, instructional assessment and system interactivity. An exploratory study was carried out to identify the most important usability design characteristics from a student’s perspective and then evaluate the overall usability of the current e-learning system, based on this subset. A quantitative approach was adopted to weigh usability design characteristics, based on 181 learners’ perceptions. The sample consists of undergraduates who are users of a web-based e-learning system in a university in Saudi Arabia. The research instrument was tested for construct validity and reliability. The analysed results have shown that information quality is the most important dimension followed by the navigation of the e-learning system. The study has also revealed that the system learnability and visual design came third and fourth in order of importance of e-learning system usability assessment. Finally, the least important design categories that influenced the e-learning system usability assessment were instructional assessment and system interactivity. The empirical results of this study may help to provide insights for designers and evaluators leading to a more effective approach to improve the usability and uptake of the e-learning system.

The study aims to promote relevant and effective environmental education (EE) through extracurricular clubs. For this, we studied the state of play of environmental activities (EA) carried out by 48 environmental clubs belonging to urban and rural areas of the Regional Academy of Education Fez-Meknes, Morocco. These extracurricular environmental clubs remain so far without formal environmental education programs. In this study, we identified the bulk of programs offered by extracurricular environment clubs, including types of scheduled activities and percentages of achievement and student beneficiaries in urban and rural settings. In addition, we have identified the main barriers to achieving certain environmental activities. The significant correlations detected between some of the variables studied allowed us to better explain the achievements and the weaknesses of these clubs. Finally, we have made recommendations to promote relevant and effective extracurricular environmental education.

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

The empowerment of metacognitive skills has an important role in increasing the capacity of critical thinking and active control of students' cognitive processes in learning. Metacognitive skills can be enhanced through the implementation of learning strategies involving higher-order thinking. The RQA, ADI, RQA integrated with ADI are constructivistic learning strategies that can accommodate these skills. The researches specifically examining the correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills at the implementation of RQA, ADI, and RQA integrated with ADI learning strategies are still rarely found. This research is a correlational research, aiming at revealing the correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills. The data of metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills are collected by using a valid and reliable essay test. The samples of this research are the fourth semester (IV) biology education students programming Animal Physiology course in the 2016/2017 academic year consisting of 109 students. The results of this research show that (1) there was a significant correlation between metacognitive skills and critical thinking skills at the implementation of the four learning strategies, (2) the regression equations analyzed using Anova obtain regression lines (not coincide), and non parallel regression lines (intersected); meaning that there is a difference in the increase rate and magnitude of the critical thinking skills influenced by the four learning strategies. It is expected that the teachers and the lecturers always strive to improve the quality of the learning process through the implementation of active and constructive learning strategies.

After more than two decades of the Salamanca Statement, discrimination and marginalization still exist. There is a need to implement inclusion to promote educational accessibility, quality, and equity for all to combat exclusion. As a result, inclusion challenged educational systems, especially teachers who are its primary implementers. Understanding the significant role of teachers in the parlance of the inclusive agenda is an essential area of inquiry; however, relatively less is known about it. This paper addresses the chasm by looking more profoundly into the teachers’ skills and dispositions about inclusion. Through a cross-sectional survey, this paper examined and compared the Filipino and Thai in-service teachers’ efficacy and attitudes about inclusion and its association with their intentions for inclusive practices. Data revealed that Filipino teachers have a generally higher level of positive attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices than their Thai counterparts. Also, there is a significant and positive correlation between the respondents’ attitudes, efficacy, and intentions for inclusive practices. Considering the historical and cultural contexts, the results of the study construed a deeper understanding of the teachers’ inclusive practices. Insights gathered from the study are instrumental in the examination and understanding of the teachers’ role in the inclusive agenda.

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.

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

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.

This research aimed at analyzing the influence of ‘Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning’ model assisted by realia media, in which it was to improve the scientific literacy and critical thinking skill of primary school students, especially for the material of energy. This quasi-experiment research used single factor independent groups design. The research sample of this research were fourth grade students of SD Inpres Oeba 2 Kupang City, East Nusa Tenggara Province, of which students were in the academic year of 2019/2020. The technique of sample collection was carried out purposive sampling for 2 classes. The IVA class was used as the experimental class (POGIL model assisted by the realia media), in which it consisted of 30 students and the IVB class was used as the control class (expository learning) that consisted of 28 students. The learning was carried out in four meetings. The data of scientific literacy and the results test of critical thinking were collected by means of objective test on the energy material. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data using significance level of 0.05. The results indicate that (1) There is a significant difference between the students’ scientific literacy who gain the POGIL learning assisted by the realia media and the students’ scientific literacy who get the expository learning; and (2) There is a significant difference between the critical thinking of students who get POGIL learning assisted by realia media and the students who get the expository learning. It can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the scientific literacy and the students’ critical thinking taught by the POGIL learning that assisted by realia media to the students who use expository learning. Since there is a significant difference, it means that the POGIL learning assisted by realia media has an influence on the students' scientific literacy and critical thinking.

The present study aimed to provide a digital story development experience for pre-service science teachers in the “instructional technologies and material development” course and to determine the impact of these experiences on their views on digital storytelling. Simultaneous parallel design, one of the mixed methods in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, was used in the study. Quantitative and qualitative findings are presented in different sections and both were interpreted in the discussion section. The quantitative study data were collected from 50 pre-service teachers, while the qualitative data were collected from 16 pre-service teachers. Quantitative data were collected by a survey and the qualitative data were collected in interviews. Descriptive/inferential statistics were employed in the analysis of the survey data. The steps of the analysis, coding, and categorization were adopted in the study for qualitative data. The positive effect of digital storytelling on the 21st-century skills of pre-service teachers was revealed by both quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, it was determined that pre-service teachers considered digital storytelling as advantageous since it provided meaningful and permanent learning, was fun and motivational; however, it also had disadvantages since it was time-consuming and required technological knowledge. It was revealed that they experienced certain difficulties in scriptwriting, finding the related images/videos and photographs, and finalizing the recording, and they considered that most, if not all, topics in the science course were suitable for digital storytelling. For pre-service teachers to acquire 21st-century skills, digital storytelling should be employed in several courses including the teaching practice course, and pre-service teachers should gain experience in preparing the students for digital storytelling.

Because of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, most universities were forced to choose Online Distance Learning (ODL). The study aimed to examine the response of university students to the new situation. A questionnaire was sent to the entire university student population. Based on responses from 606 students, it was revealed that use of all applications in ODL increased. However, only the use of MS Teams increased significantly, while the use of the other applications (email, Moodle, e-textbooks) increased in a range of low to medium in terms of effect sizes, and even nonsignificant for applications such as Padlet and Kahoot. Based on the replies of 414 respondents, a Model of Forced Distance Online Learning Preferences (MoFDOLP) based on Structural Equation Modeling was developed. With a chosen combination of predictors, we succeeded in predicting 95% of variance for Satisfaction, more than 50% for Continuance Preferences variance in MS Teams applications, and nearly 20% in the case of e-materials. Among hypothesized constructs, only Attitudes are a strong predictor of Satisfaction, while Organizational Support, Perceived Ease of Use and Learner Attitude toward Online Learning are not. Satisfaction is a good predictor of Continuance Preferences to use Information Technology after the lockdown ended.

Student learning in higher education is influenced by parental involvement, peer support, and lecturers' perceptions of agreeableness. This research aims to examine the correlation between parental involvement, peer support, and the perception of personality agreeableness of lecturers on self-regulated learning (SRL) students. This research is a correlational field research model with a quantitative approach. The respondents of this research were 250 students of Yogyakarta State Islamic University who were obtained using a purposive random sampling technique. Data collection uses a scale of SRL, parent involvement, peer support, and perception of the agreeableness personality of the lecturer. Regression analysis is used as a data analysis technique. The results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between parental involvement with SRL, peer support with SRL, personality perception agreeableness lecturers with SRL, and parental involvement, peer support, and perceptual personality agreeableness of lecturers together with SRL with an effective contribution (R2) of 15.1%. It was concluded that the involvement of parents, peer support, and perception of personality agreeableness of lecturers related to SRL of students. Therefore, to see student SRL can be seen based on the involvement of parents, peer support, and students' perceptions of the personality agreeableness of their lecturers.