Students home alone—profiles of internal and external conditions associated with mathematics learning from home

AbstractsThis study aims at describing differences in internal and external resources of students to handle mathematics learning from home. Based on data from N = 223 7th-grade secondary school students gathered via an online survey at the end of the first school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, we used latent profile analysis to identify student profiles defined by the internal factors perceived value and success of students’ math learning from home and the external factors family support and teacher support—all specifically related to home learning. A number of general learning conditions, comprising internal (e.g., sustained attention) and external factors (e.g., socioeconomic status), are included as outcome variables. The best-fitting four-profile solution suggests one profile with comparably unfavorable internal and external resources. About 35% of the students are assigned to that profile. The other three profiles show combinations of, relative to the sample, more and less promising specific home learning and general learning conditions suggesting that these students have different resources available in the face of learning mathematics from home.

Social Justice Leadership for Co-Educating Refugee and Migrant Students in Greek Primary Schools Through Distance Education During COVID-19

2020 is the year marked by the global pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19), which affected humanity to a great extent, creating unfavorable social, health, and economic conditions. As in the world, so in Greece the school is affected by this new social situation, resulting in schools having been closed for long periods of time and the lessons for all their students done remotely through a special electronic platform. Principals are called upon to manage a crisis situation, creating smooth e-learning conditions for all the students, including the children who belong to ethnic minorities. This study aims to demonstrate that school leaders can play a significant role in the co-education of the refugee and migrant students through distance learning. At the same time, the author also offers proposals regarding the implementation of relevant actions in this direction.

Illuminating Golden Threads

Pedagogical creativity can function as a vehicle to facilitate connection, restore humanity, and nurture critical hope in the classroom and beyond. Pedagogical creativity is essential and urgent as the confluence of the pandemic, civil unrest, and online learning have created dehumanized, unprecedented learning conditions. This chapter details an undergraduate general education course that leveraged contemporary young adult literature for cultural reformation and to promote social justice. This chapter provides examples of students enacting creativity and social imagination and concludes with a discussion of creativity in connection to this chapter's guiding questions.

Alternative Learning Methods Employed by Language Teachers in the New Normal of COVID-19

ABSTRACTLearning activities should be conducted effectively to create conducive learning conditions to develop students’ creativity and their higher learning competence. Through conducting appropriate and effective learning activities, the learning objectives and learning competencies are easier to achieve. To create effective learning activities, teachers are required to have adequate understanding and competence in employing learning methods. This study aims to explore effective learning methods to create more creative learning activities for the students. This study found several alternative learning methods that can be utilized in the time of the new normal of covid-19 to continually improve the students’ competence. This study implies that teachers should continually expose themselves to various learning methods to establish conducive learning conditions in the classroom. ABSTRAKKegiatan pembelajaran harus dilakukan secara efektif untuk menciptakan kondisi pembelajaran yang kondusif untuk mengembangkan kreativitas dan kompetensi belajar siswa yang lebih tinggi. Melalui pelaksanaan kegiatan pembelajaran yang tepat dan efektif, tujuan pembelajaran dan kompetensi pembelajaran lebih mudah dicapai. Untuk menciptakan kegiatan pembelajaran yang efektif, guru dituntut memiliki pemahaman dan kompetensi yang memadai dalam menggunakan metode pembelajaran. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggali metode pembelajaran yang efektif untuk menciptakan kegiatan belajar yang lebih kreatif bagi siswa. Penelitian ini menemukan beberapa metode pembelajaran alternatif yang dapat dimanfaatkan pada masa new normal covid-19 untuk terus meningkatkan kompetensi siswa. Studi ini menyiratkan bahwa guru harus terus-menerus mengekspos diri mereka kedalam berbagai metode pembelajaran untuk membangun kondisi pembelajaran yang kondusif di dalam kelas.

An Evaluation of the Psychological Factors influencing the Students’ Anxiety in Speaking English

Speaking is a productive skill that can be directly observed by considering several aspects. It can trigger the students’ anxiety as a psychological factor to communicate foreign language with others. This case has become a unique phenomenon to be analysed because anxiety has a relevance with foreign language abilities. This study aims to evaluate the psychological factor influencing the students’ anxiety in speaking English by using a qualitative approach. The data were collected by using observations, open-ended questionnaires, and interviews. There were 17 students in the ninth-grade of junior high school in Brebes Regency participating in this research. Three major phases of data analysis, namely data reduction, display, and conclusion drawing established to analyse the data. The researchers found three factors triggering the students’ anxiety in speaking English, namely communication apprehension, test-anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation which were influenced by the situation-specific anxiety. The situation could represent an uncomfortable experience emotionally and physically for some students to speak English in the class. The students felt anxious, frustrated, fearful, nervous, worried when they were unable to speak English. It made the students afraid of making mistakes and like to underestimate their abilities so that this prevents them from doing verbal activities. Therefore, this research discusses waysreduce the specific psychological factors that cause students’ anxiety in speaking English. This result can be used as guidance in managing learning conditions, learning materials, and learning strategies to deal with students’ anxiety in learning English. The teacher can use this research as a reference for analyzing the students’ anxiety symptoms during learning English in order to increase the students’ motivation and confidence in speaking performance.

Faktor yang Mempengaruhi Pembelajaran Daring Melalui LMS pada Masa Covid 19

Online (e-learning) during the Covid-19 pandemic has become a trend in education that causes significant changes in learning, forcing universities to adapt to learning conditions during Covid 19. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence online learning through the use of the Learning Management System (LMS) during the Covid 19 pandemic at Universitas Gunung Rinjani. Differences in LMS use based on some demographic information such as gender, location (place of residence), and age are also discussed to gain an in-depth understanding of the use of LMS during online learning. There are two research methods used in this study, namely quantitative and qualitative. The data collection process was carried out through an online survey instrument distributed to 6 Faculties 7 Study Programs at Universitas Gunung Rinjani. In addition, interviews with students will be conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of LMS use in their learning. The findings of this study indicate that LMS use during Covid 19 learning can run well; this can be seen from the participants' perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, subjective norms and attitudes of self-efficacy and support from lecturers and colleagues.

Using Learning Theories to Develop a Veterinary Student Preparedness Toolkit for Workplace Clinical Training

Learning theories are logically related statements designed to explain what should or could be aspired to in establishing ideal learning conditions. Multiple theories can inform our understanding of a single concept, in this case: veterinary workplace clinical training (WCT), which occurs just prior to students’ graduation as competent veterinary surgeons. The competency movement has strongly influenced reforms in veterinary education and is considered important. In reflection of this, the term “preparedness” is operationalised here as a measure of the likelihood that the veterinary student is going to be a competent learner and participant during WCT. Preparedness itself is therefore important because it directly impacts performance. Workplace clinical training is explored through the lenses of cognitivist, social constructivist and socio-culturalist learning theories and used to inform student preparedness characteristics in terms of their behaviours, personal attributes, knowledge and skills, and awarenesses to optimise learning and participation.

Online Teaching and Learning in Biomedical Sciences: Students’ and Staff’ Attitudes and Experiences on the New Educational Environment Imposed by the COVID 19 Outbreak

The aim of this pilot study is a preliminary evaluation of previous models / modalities of online teaching at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Serbia and to examine the attitudes of students and academic staff about education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their previous experiences. The research was designed as an observational qualitative epidemiological study which was conducted on a population of students and academics staff at the Faculty of biomedical sciences, University of Kragujevac during the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Serbia. The first phase is a pilot study which included 332 participants performed between December 2020 and January 2021. The pilot study questionnaire is formed for the purposes of the research and consists of 17 closed-ended questions with graduated answers. Students and academic staff completed the questionnaire through an online learning platform in all environments and from all electronic devices. The importance of this study is reflected in the fact that it provides detailed and valid data that can serve the purpose of improving the efficiency of online teaching at the faculties of medical sciences in Serbia In general, the results of our study indicate that in addition to great inexperience, both students and academic staff cope well during online education and the changed environment and learning conditions despite all the difficulties.

What Is the Mechanism Underlying the Interleaving Effect in Category Induction: An Eye-Tracking and Behavioral Study

Interleaved practice (i.e., exemplars from different categories are intermixed within blocks) has been shown to enhance induction performance compared to blocked practice (i.e., exemplars from the same category are presented sequentially). The main aim of the present study was to examine explanations of why interleaved practice produces this benefit in category induction (known as the interleaving effect). We also evaluated two hypotheses, the attention attenuation hypothesis and the discriminative-contrast hypothesis, by collecting data on participants’ fixation on exemplars, provided by eye-tracking data, and manipulating the degree of discriminative-contrast. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were instructed to learn the style of 12 new artists in blocked and interleaved practice in fixed-paced and self-paced learning conditions, respectively. We examined fixation durations for six positions (temporal sequence of exemplars presented in each block) using eye-tracking. The results of the two experiments, based on eye-tracking data, suggested that attention attenuation may not be the primary mechanism underlying the interleaving effect in category induction. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the degree of discriminative-contrast to examine the impact on the interleaving effect in category induction. The results showed that the main effect of the degree of discriminative-contrast was significant, and performance in the high-contrast condition was significantly better than those in the medium-contrast and low-contrast conditions. Thus, the current results support the discriminative-contrast hypothesis rather than the attention attenuation hypothesis.

Gamification as a New Format of Projects Method in Blended Learning Conditions Studying Disciplines of the Pedagogical Cycle

The paper discusses the main issues of organizing the learning process based on the gamification. The publication analyzes the main provisions of the application of elements of gamification in the process of teaching students. The study proposes to consider gamification as a new format of the project method in the context of blended learning in the study of disciplines of the pedagogical cycle by students of humanitarian and natural specialties. We analyzed the main didactic Classcraft platform capabilities. Developed by students within the framework of the “Pedagogy” discipline a brief structure of the “Adventurers” quest was present. The algorithm of the students' work included following steps: choosing a project theme (name of the game); composition of the game (stages); development of the game as a digital product (elements); analysis of the implementation of the game as a digital product (difficulties and prospects); analysis of the results of joint digital project activities of students, indicating positive and negative aspects. We considered the positive aspects of using digital applications and platforms to improve teacher skills. The conclusions provide consolidated proposals for the use of gamification, such as: its implementation in the educational process is aimed at the development of intellectual, social, emotional, technological segments of the personal development of students; the use of gamification has a positive impact on the development of students and teachers soft skills and helps to improve their professional skills.