scholarly journals Pupils’ prior knowledge about technological systems: design and validation of a diagnostic tool for primary school teachers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dannie Wammes ◽  
Bert Slof ◽  
Willemijn Schot ◽  
Liesbeth Kester
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Technological Systems ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Mathematics Test ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

AbstractThis study aimed to develop and validate, based on the Evidence Centered Design approach, a generic tool to diagnose primary education pupils’ prior knowledge of technological systems in primary school classrooms. Two technological devices, namely the Buzz Wire device and the Stairs Marble Track, were selected to investigate whether theoretical underpinnings could be backed by empirical evidence. Study 1 indicated that the tool enabled pupils to demonstrate different aspects of their prior knowledge about a technological system by a wide variety of work products. Study 2 indicated that these work products could be reliably ranked from low to high functionality by technology education experts. Their rank order matched the Fischer-scale-based scoring rules, designed in cooperation with experts in skill development. The solution patterns fit the extended non-parametric Rasch model, confirming that the task can reveal differences in pupils’ prior knowledge on a one-dimensional scale. Test–retest reliability was satisfactory. Study 3 indicated that the diagnostic tool was able to capture the range of prior knowledge levels that could be expected of 10 to 12 years old pupils. It also indicated that pupils’ scores on standardised reading comprehension and mathematics test had a low predictive value for the outcomes of the diagnostic tool. Overall, the findings substantiate the claim that pupils’ prior knowledge of technological systems can be diagnosed properly with the developed tool, which may support teachers in decisions for their technology lessons about content, instruction and support.

scholarly journals Future Primary School Teachers Training for the Implementation of «Daily 3» Technology

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1 (339)) ◽  
pp. 127-133
Author(s):  
Oksana Dudnik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
School Students ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Teachers Training ◽  
Educational Field

The article deals with the conceptual provisions of innovative pedagogical technology of teaching mathematics to primary school students «Daily 3», which considers students' interest in mathematics, developing their skills of independence, ability to work in a team and communicate by engaging in various activities. Theoretical principles of conducting mathematics independently, mathematics with a friend and mathematics writing are revealed. The generalized algorithm of conducting «Daily 3» is given and the structure of such lesson is presented. Factors that prevent the full implementation of the technology «Daily 3» in Ukrainian primary schools are analyzed. The optimal way of future primary school teachers training for realization of this technology is offered. It consists in considering within the discipline «Methods of teaching the educational field of mathematics» its elements, and while studying the discipline of free choice «Methods of teaching mathematics: technological approach» detailed disclosure of didactic and methodological foundations of mathematics independently, mathematics with a friend and mathematics in writing.

scholarly journals Primary school teachers’ concerns and needs in biology and mathematics teaching

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Kellner ◽  
Iiris Attorps
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Subject Matter Knowledge ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Instructional Needs ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Pupil Learning

The aim of this paper is to provide insights into nine primary school teachers’ concerns and instructional needs in biology and mathematics, grades 1 to 6. By using Content Representation, combined with Learning Study in an action research project, teachers were encouraged to reflect on their conceptions, processes of instructing and pupil learning. From concerns articulated by teachers three instructional needs emerged: (i) to make subject progression, especially in biology, and pupil learning more visible, (ii) to develop mathematics teaching in order to change pupils’ views of the subject, and (iii) to develop teachers’ subject matter knowledge and teaching in an ongoing collaborative process. The paper argues that in order to stimulate teacher professional development it is important to make teacher concerns and thereby needs explicit. They help teachers to identify and reflect on relations between teacher subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pupil learning.

scholarly journals Determinants of Teachers’ Use of Instructional Resource in Teaching Pre-Primary School Science and Mathematics Activities In Machakos County, Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (II) ◽  
pp. 159-185
Author(s):  
Jackson Ombasa Ayiema ◽  
Teresa Mwoma ◽  
Hudson Ouko
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Sample Size ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Teaching Science ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Instructional Resources ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Instructional Resource ◽  
And Mathematics

The continuous poor results of science and mathematics in Athi-River Sub-County of Machakos County-Kenya has yielded to the study of  determinants of pre-primary school teachers’ use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics activities. The effects of use of the instructional resources in learning achievement which has led to poor performance in science and mathematics activities in the current study locale. The major purpose of the study was to establish the extent of teachers’ use of instructional resources in teaching pre-primary science and mathematics activities in Athi-River Sub County of Machakos County, Kenya. The study also found out the effects of teachers’ training level in the use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics, Teacher- gender and use of instructional resources, Teacher’s attitude and use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics activities and teacher- motivation on the use of instructional resources in teaching science and mathematics in pre-primary schools. This study employed Bruner’s learning theory (1966), which matched well with the determinants of pre-primary teachers’ use of instructional resource.  The study targeted 40 pre-primary head teachers, 600 pre-primary teachers and 1800 pre-primary children in Athi-River Sub-County, Machakos County.  Athi-River Sub-County was sub-divided to 5 bases and stratified sampling technique was used to select 6 pre-schools from each base translating to a total of 30 pre-schools. Random sampling was used to select 6 pupils from each of the sampled schools for focused study giving a sample size of 1800 pupils. Purposive sampling was also used to select 2 teachers for science and mathematics activities from each of the sampled schools. All head teachers from all the 30 sampled schools were selected leading to a sample of 30 head teachers. A sample size of 270 respondents including 60 teachers, 30 head teachers and 180 pupils) was used in the study. Questionnaires and oral-interviews were used to collect data. Validity of the instruments was determined through examining of the items using content validity. A. Pilot test of the research instruments was done in two schools in the neighboring sub county. Quantitative data was generated from the close-ended items from the questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data such as frequency; standard deviation and mean data analysis was analyzed according. The data was presented in tables. Qualitative data produced from the questionnaire, interview schedules, focused group discussion, as well as data obtained through the observation checklists was analyzed with regards to relevant themes and discussed in line with the research objectives. The findings of the study were as follows: teachers with higher training qualifications were more likely to use instructional resources in teaching science and mathematical activities than their counterparts with less or no training. Male teachers were found to use instructional resources more often in teaching science and mathematics than their female counterparts. Teachers with positive attitude towards science and mathematics were also found to use more instructional resources than teachers with negative attitude. The study recommends that the ministry of education should facilitate pre-primary school teachers to advance their studies through in-service training and that the government of Kenya should motivate pre-primary teachers by paying them reasonable salary. All stakeholders should ensure that instructional resources are made available for better pupil achievement in science and mathematics. This is an open-access article published and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License of United States unless otherwise stated. Access, citation and distribution of this article is allowed with full recognition of the authors and the source.

scholarly journals Examining the use of STEAM Education in Preschool Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantina Spyropoulou ◽  
Manolis Wallace ◽  
Costas Vassilakis ◽  
Vassilis Poulopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Art Integration ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Steam Education ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Educational Paradigms

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) initiatives are of current interest for both in-school and out-of-school contexts in North America. This is a new concept which is shifting educational paradigms towards art integration in STEM subjects. This article focuses on the need for STEAM education at the early childhood level and investigates the teaching and educational models of STEAM education in the kindergarten and in the first grades of primary school and how pre-school and primary school teachers see these models in the Greek context but also what students eventually learn from these models. The purpose of this chapter is to better understand the educational programs of STEAM education, which are offered by non-profit organizations and both public and private schools. Preschool children have a natural disposition toward science with their sense of curiosity and creativity. More research needs to be done in the area of STEAM implementation in the K-8 classrooms to incorporate engineering education.

scholarly journals Number sense of final year pre-service primary school teachers

Pythagoras ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magret Courtney-Clarke ◽  
Helena Wessels
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Subject Knowledge ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Teacher Understanding ◽  
Assessment Tests ◽  
And Mathematics

Number sense studies have indicated that the development of number sense should be the focus of primary school mathematics education. The literature review revealed that learner performance is linked to teacher subject knowledge and that teachers’ confidence in doing and teaching mathematics influences the way they teach and their willingness to learn mathematics. This study was motivated by the poor performance of Namibian primary school learners in both national and international standardised assessment tests and explored the number sense of 47 final-year primary school pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Namibia. The data in this mixed method research design were obtained from a number sense questionnaire, a written computations questionnaire, a mental calculations questionnaire and the McAnallen confidence in mathematics and mathematics teaching survey (MCMMTS). Six PSTs, randomly selected from the 47 participants, were interviewed to determine their use of number-sensible strategies. The overall results of this investigation revealed that the final year primary school PSTs demonstrated limited number sense and possessed very few of the indicators of number sense. Unexpectedly, the confidence survey showed that they were confident in their ability to do and to teach mathematics. This study exposed one reason for the low standards of performance of Namibian learners in mathematics and the lack of improvement over the last few decades. It indicates a need for teacher training institutions to identify the mathematics that teachers should know and the ways in which teacher understanding of subject content has to be transformed to enable them to develop the number sense of primary school learners.

scholarly journals How to Improve Sustainability Competences of Teacher Training? Inquiring the Prior Knowledge on Climate Change in Primary School Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Solís-Espallargas ◽  
Hortensia Morón-Monge
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Educational Experience ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Primary School Teachers

The work is carried out in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action with prospective primary school teachers. The study presented is part of the science education subject at the University of Seville (Spain) during the 2019–2020 academic year. This research has two main goals, on the one hand, to present an innovative educational experience (design and implementation) for teacher training, on the other hand, to assess the educational implication of the experience from the prospective primary school teachers’ self-perception about their level of sustainability competences achieved. The novel educational experience consisted in the inquiry of prior knowledge about climate change in primary school children for the design of a lesson plan. The degree of scope of the educational experience, in particular, the level of sustainability competences achieved was assessed from the self-perception of the participants (Prospective Primary school Teachers) through a Likert-type questionnaire. The results show an improvement in the degree of acquisition of these competences, not only from their self-perception, but also from the investigative process followed through this innovative experience. Likewise, these results indicate the success of the educational proposal as a possible educational strategy for the sustainability of the curriculum in the field of science education.

scholarly journals Promoting Practice-Oriented Training of Primary School Teachers in Bachelor’s Programmes in Educational Psychology

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.A. Guruzhapov
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Educational Psychology ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Mathematical Tasks ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
And Mathematics

The paper considers possible examples of promoting practice-oriented training of primary school teachers studying natural sciences and mathematics in the bachelor’s programme in Educational Psychology.The key to making theoretical education more practically oriented is hidden in the part of learning activity where the sensual form of object is transformed into the model; where the most important characteristics of the object become recognized; and where the model undergoes certain transformations for the general laws of phenomenon to become revealed.The paper provides some examples of how students can possibly work out the principles of symmetry in diagnostic tasks for primary school children as well as analyse set-theoretic concepts in mathematical tasks for primary schools.

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