Readings in Philippine History: Course Review, Best Practices, and Challenges among Higher Education Institutions

History is essential in the curriculum. The Readings in Philippine History (RPH) syllabus and instruction should be advanced. However, curricular changes and the pandemic affected the instruction. Thus, this study reviewed the course specification and syllabus of RPH among higher educational institutions in Kabankalan City, Philippines. Anchored on the CHED recommended syllabus in RPH, the study reviewed the course and determined the areas for improvement. Likewise, it identified the best practices and challenges. Using a descriptive design and employing purposive and stratified sampling, 269 external reviewers, teachers, and students reviewed the study. The mean, frequency count, rank, and percentage distribution were employed in data analysis. Generally, the course adheres to the standard. However, the main issue is students' learning readiness and the misalignment of teachers' specialization. Thus, a strong foundation on Philippine History among the students is necessary to ensure quality. Also, the retention of qualified teachers is essential in advancing the instruction.

Cultural Diversity and Peaceful Coexistence: A Reflection on Some Selective School Textbooks

Bangladesh adheres to the principles and values of respecting cultural, religious, and ethnic diversities and has enriched school textbooks for meeting demands of the society and preparing young generations as much as possible for future with adequate facts, well-known perspectives and diverse worldviews. School textbooks are one of the critical instruments of preparing young generations for future—with the values of respect, tolerance, mutual understanding, cooperation, unity, prosperity, partnership and humanity. However, sometimes textbooks could produce counter-productive outcomes if contents were not developed with well-thoughts and prudence. They also constitute a compulsion for a country to realise how the young children could be prepared with the values of maintaining and ensuring peace, accepting cultural diversity, and respecting the ethos of peaceful coexistence of multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities living in a society. As an elementary level effort, this paper has focused on some selective secondary level textbooks in Bangladesh to understand how the issues of cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence have been represented. There has been a plenty of textbook contents described and touched on the aspects of cultural diversity in various ways to enlighten students about pluralism and values of social cohesion. However, a more delicate and detailed presentation of some issues could help students socialisation process and of learning about respecting and accepting the diversity of all kinds better. Some more visual representations of diverse cultures and practices, and more practical tasks on valuing rights, dignity, tolerance, and empathy could benefit them further. Nonetheless, there is an essence of having skilled and qualified teachers who could play sincere roles in teaching such values in appropriate educational environments. Social Science Review, Vol. 37(2), Dec 2020 Page 59-86

Teacher Quality and Students’ Post-Secondary Outcomes

Research suggests teachers’ observable characteristics are inequitably distributed across schools, leaving minoritized students with less exposure to experienced and credentialed teachers. While prior research focuses on how the teacher sorting explains disparities in students’ test scores, little research explores how teacher quality gaps might implicate students’ post-secondary outcomes. To fill this gap, we analyze administrative data on high schools in Georgia and explicate how variations in teachers’ human capital correlate with the percentage of students who enroll and persist in college. Our study confirms prior research accentuating widespread disparities in access to highly qualified teachers, and finds students attending schools with more experienced and credentialed teachers are more likely to have positive post-secondary outcomes.

The Influence of School Context Factors on the Induction Support as Perceived by Newly Qualified Teachers

This study explores the relationship between school demographic characteristics and the amount of provided induction activities, as perceived by beginning teachers (BTs), with special attention for Professional Development Schools and non-Professional Development Schools. The aim is to provide information that is useful to improve induction arrangements to particular school contexts. Data were collected in a Dutch national induction program in which qualified BTs are supported in their first 3 years of professional practice. The support monitor measures multiple induction activities with regard to the implementation of workload reduction, school enculturation, professional development plans and lessons support. 1,670 BTs working in 195 schools reported on these activities. Linear regression analyses revealed that less induction activities were associated with schools with multiple locations, more enrolled students and number of BTs employed, and with schools with older male teaching staff. No significant differences were found between the amount of support perceived by BTs in PDSs and non-PDSs. Yet school characteristics revealed stronger predictive values for the amount of support provided in non-PDS settings. These insights are relevant for mapping school differences in induction arrangements in order to enhance the equity of support across schools to assure the development of teaching skills of BTs.

Cooperative Learning to Reduce Inequalities: Instructional Approaches and Dimensions

This manuscript deals with how cooperative learning in pre-school and primary education can be dimensionalized in terms of reducing gender differences and inequalities. In this study, formulated through instructional approaches delivered in four medium- to very high-complexity schools (the number of students with an immigrant background ranging from 30% to 100%), 376 pre-service teachers and 43 qualified teachers were asked to analyze the instruction that they gave to 1658 pre-school and primary students over two consecutive years. Instruction was defined in terms of contextualized physical education challenges that included cooperative psychomotor physical challenges, guided discovery activities and psychomotor problem-solving. The analysis was based on reflective narratives on both gender differences and inequalities, which evinced 792 comments regarding gender (618 by the pre-service teachers and 174 by the schoolteachers) and 627 comments for inequalities (363 by the pre-service teachers and 264 by the schoolteachers). The analysis produced categories based on critical reflection—on both individual and classroom scales—from the pre-service teachers and the schoolteachers. Each of the cooperative learning dimensions, i.e., positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing, were investigated to produce a set of principles and competencies that best promoted education for sustainable development. The research produced 42 principles that operated under the tenet of leave-no-one-behind, with positive interdependence and promotive interaction providing the higher number of principles that are best suited to tackle, through cooperation processes, equity and inclusivity issues in pre-school and primary education classrooms.

I Want to Teach in the Regional Areas: A Qualitative Study about Teachers’ Career Experiences and Decisions in Regional Australia

The Australian government seeks to develop regional and rural communities and school systems. One of the challenges would be the human resources and workforce for registered and qualified teachers, particularly in the field of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). Based on social cognitive career theory (Dos Santos, 2021a; Lent et al., 1994), this study focused on the career perspectives and career decision-making processes of registered and qualified teachers in the field of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). The following research question guided the direction of this study, why would registered and qualified teachers in the Languages Other Than English (LOTE) field (i.e. foreign languages) decide to move to Australian regional and rural communities to develop their teaching career? With the general inductive approach, 18 participants were invited for the interview sessions and focus group activities. The results of this study indicated that missions and goals for development in the regional and rural communities and governmental encouragement for regional and rural developments are the two personal consideration elements. The sharing and comments become a blueprint for government agencies, school leaders, and policymakers to reform the current human resources plans and schemes to attach additional workforce to the regional and rural communities, particularly for teachers. Received: 20 May 2021 / Accepted: 13 July 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Sustainable Living in Schools: A Study of Vajra Academy, Lalitpur

Green living focuses on the use of renewable products with less emphasis on the natural resources. The improvement in teaching methodology, qualified teachers and child centered curriculum are required for green schools. Vajra Academy was purposively chosen for this study as it is the first green and eco-friendly school of Nepal This study determines different components of green living in Vajra Academy School of Nepal, connecting the knowledge, attitude and practice level of students. The study was done on 32 students from Grade VI and VII. A structured survey questionnaire was asked with students and open-ended questions were asked with school administration. The six different indicators of green living namely water, transport, food, energy, waste, and curriculum have been discussed in this paper. It was found that there is no gender difference in gaining knowledge about the green living components. However, the study reveals that there is difference in attitude of treating from the gender perspective. The practice level is weak compared to the knowledge and attitude of the students. The knowledge of green living among students of Vajra Academy was extraordinary; the attitude was good whereas, the practice level was average.

Order Effects and Employment Decisions: Experimental Evidence from a Nationwide Program

In this paper, we show that order effects operate in the context of high-stakes, real-world decisions: employment choices. We experimentally evaluate a nationwide program in Ecuador that changed the order of teaching vacancies on a job application platform in order to reduce teacher sorting (that is, lower-income students are more likely to attend schools with less qualified teachers). In the treatment arm, the platform showed hard-to-staff schools (institutions typically located in more vulnerable areas that normally have greater difficulty attracting teachers) first, while in the control group teaching vacancies were displayed in alphabetical order. In both arms, hard-to-staff schools were labeled with an icon and identical information was given to teachers. We find that a teacher in the treatment arm was more likely to apply to hard-to-staff schools, to rank them as their highest priority, and to be assigned to a job vacancy in one of these schools. The effects were not driven by inattentive, altruistic, or less-qualified teachers. The program has thus helped to reduce the unequal distribution of qualified teachers across schools of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

GOOD MANAGEMENT, QUALIFIED TEACHERS, SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN

The article presents the view of a group of teachers from Kindergarten “Zname na mira”, Vratsa on the model of the educational process in preschool education in the Spanish public school CEIP CARRA SQUER Sueca, Spain and opportunities for good practices in Bulgarian education system. The view was formed during the qualification of teachers under the project “Good Management, Qualified Teachers, Successful Children“ of the program “Erasmus +”, Key Activity 1, sector “School E ducation”. The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the organization of interaction with parents and social partners, increase the knowledge and skills of teachers for cooperative learning, acquaintance with innovative forms and techniques for developing emotional intelligence in children and monitoring organized pedagogical interaction with children – forms , techniques and models of work.

Interaction of teachers and parents in the upbringing of children in a preschool educational organization in the context of modern requirements

The article presents an analysis of the pedagogical conditions of successful interaction between teachers and parents in the upbringing of children in a preschool educational organization. The features of social interaction of teachers, parents and other participants of the educational process are highlighted, the elements of social interaction in a preschool organization are identified. The ways and methods of using traditional and innovative forms of collaboration are shown. The article describes the traditional forms that are often used by teachers, and are effective in modern conditions of kindergarten work. Innovative forms of joint activity enable teachers and parents to use interactive means of communication, and as a result – to connect to the educational activities of children and become active participants in this activity. In the article, the author does not pretend to the completeness of the description of the forms, means and methods of interaction. Description and classification of innovative forms of joint interaction between teachers and parents is the task of the near future specialists of preschool education. For the successful implementation of the tasks set, it is necessary to take into account the material and social component, as well as a sufficient number of qualified teachers in the preschool organization. When describing the forms of interaction, special importance is given to the upbringing of the pedagogical culture of parents. The necessity of purposeful, systematic activity of teachers and parents of preschool organizations for the implementation of educational tasks is emphasized. The author gives a concrete example from the practice of preschool teachers.