EFL Primary School Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Alternative Assessment

The provision of gifted students with learning difficulties (GSLD) composes a complicated educational problem that deserves special care. This study explores teachers’ attitudes towards the GSLD in two samples of primary school teachers: 225 Greek teachers and 158 teachers in the Czech Republic, 40–59 years of age and with 14–28 years of teaching experience. A questionnaire of 26 questions, created for the purpose of this study, was administered referring to teachers’ attitudes towards opinions and information regarding the GSLD characteristics, along with three open-ended questions on the most preferable types of the GSLD educational provision. Through multidimensional scaling solutions in their trigonometric transformation (MDS-T) one large common and one minor separate system of items emerged for the two samples, which were meaningful in the direction of understanding teachers’ difficulties in accepting the contradictory core of the GSLD characteristics and educational needs. These systems of attitudes are discussed in respect to their relative importance to Czech and Greek teachers and the respective educational settings.

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Primary school teachers’ attitudes towards digital educational games: Preliminary findings from the Multiplication Game evaluation

10.1109/iisa52424.2021.9555513 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Angeliki Leonardou ◽

Maria Rigou ◽

John Garofalakis

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Educational Games ◽

School Teachers ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Teachers Attitudes

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What Does Social Realism Have to Offer for Research on Teacher Identity in Mathematics Education?

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education ◽

10.1007/s10763-019-10021-4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 1229-1247 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lise Westaway ◽

Gabriele Kaiser ◽

Mellony Graven

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Teacher Identity ◽

Mathematical Knowledge ◽

Social Constructionist ◽

Social Realism ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

School Teachers ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Knowledge And Skills ◽

Made In

Abstract Research that focuses on teacher identity is gaining traction as researchers argue that teachers mediate more than mathematical knowledge and skills in the classroom. This research tends to be underpinned by a social constructionist orientation, which foregrounds epistemology over ontology. This orientation is limiting for research that wishes to understand the base conditions that enable or constrain the expression (i.e. both communication and action) of teacher identity in teaching primary mathematics. The paper suggests that this requires research that explores the interaction between structure, culture and agency in the expression of teacher identity in teaching mathematics in primary school. The study argues that a social realist orientation is of value to research on teacher identity. From this perspective, teacher identity is defined as the manner in which teachers express their roles as teachers. As the paper is primarily theoretical, the exemplification is limited to two primary school teachers’ expression of only one role namely effective communicator of mathematics. It demonstrates what social realism enables, that is, not illuminated in research underpinned by a social constructionist orientation. The argument made in this paper elucidates how social realism supports a deep analysis of the structural and agential conditions that enable and constrain teacher identities.

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Mathematics Attitudes and Achievement among Student Teachers

Australian Journal of Education ◽

10.1177/000494417802200106 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 72-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hilary L. Schofield ◽

K. B. Start

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Student Teachers ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Empirical Support ◽

Mathematics Attitudes ◽

School Teachers ◽

Partial Explanation ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Achievement In Mathematics ◽

Teachers Attitudes

Concern regarding the prevalence in primary school teachers of poor attitudes towards and low achievement in mathematics has received some empirical support. But the common assumptions (i) that attitudes towards, and achievement in, mathematics are substantially related, and (ii) that teachers' attitudes and achievement in mathematics affect pupils' attitudes and achievement, await empirical verification. While studies relating teachers' attitudes toward pupils' attitudes and achievements are sparse, those relating attitude and achievement within teachers or within pupils have typically shown a low positive relationship not always reaching statistical significance. Some writers use this as evidence to discount the importance of attitudes in achievement, but the present paper contends that a partial explanation for the lack of the expected result may arise from the measurement assumption that attitude to mathematics is a unidimensional phenomenon. Two multidimensional attitude instruments were constructed and administered to 317 final year prospective primary school teachers. Although the two instruments employed widely differing techniques for tapping attitudes to mathematics and mathematics teaching, dimensions from both instruments showed substantial correlations with mathematics achievement. The findings gave support for the contention that attitude to mathematics is not a unidimensional phenomenon. The consistency of findings within and between both attitude instruments suggests a good validation of each. The contention that teachers' attitudes (and achievement) affect pupil attitudes and achievement is yet to be tested.

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Exploring the Reflective Learning Experiences of Primary School Teachers during the use of Open Educational Resources

Journal of Education and Training ◽

10.5296/jet.v2i2.7793 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 163

Author(s):

S. O. Essuman

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Learning Experiences ◽

Reflective Learning ◽

Open Educational Resources ◽

Educational Resources ◽

Pedagogical Practice ◽

School Teachers ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Knowledge And Skills

<p class="2M-body">This paper looks at the reflective learning experiences of primary school teachers, who were encouraged to engage in reflective activities as a way of improving their pedagogical practice during the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). The assumption of the study was that OERs have the potential to improve teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and skills, as well as their networking and collaborative activities and impact on their professional practice. Ten (10) out of forty-two (42) primary school teachers, who participated in a training workshop focused on the use of OER, were purposively sampled to keep a reflective journal of their learning experiences and share the outcomes with their colleagues. Interviews were used in collecting data from the cohort. Using phenomenology as a methodology and content analysis as a tool for analyzing the data collected, the ‘stories’ of these teachers were analyzed manually and presented in a report at a seminar. The findings indicated that teachers acknowledged the added values that OER have had on their pedagogical practice; the influence that the new knowledge and skills have had on students' learning and the enthusiasm that students exhibited when active learning strategies were used in teaching. However, the reflective learning elements that teachers were expected to exhibit in their writing were lacking. The deep thinking and learning from their critical analysis of their experiences were not evident in their responses. It is recommended that sessions on reflective teaching, learning and writing should be incorporated into pre- and in-service teachers' training sessions. Skill building in reflective writing and learning should be introduced to teachers early in practice and during training for them to build the culture of reflection in teaching.</p>

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