Kuwaiti Teachers' Satisfaction with the Social Studies Curriculum and Their Performance in the Classroom

This study investigated Kuwaiti teachers' satisfaction with the structure of the social studies curriculum and their performance in the classroom. It aimed to answer two main questions through a twenty-two-item questionnaire applied to a sample of 132 social studies teachers. The results have shown moderate satisfaction in this regard among those teachers. There were no effects of teacher gender, experience, or various school districts on the satisfaction of social studies teachers and their performance in the classroom. The researcher called for reevaluating the curriculum by its developers to pinpoint and rid it of the causes that obstruct higher teachers' satisfaction and performance, mainly its inadequacy to students' interests, needs, skills, creativity, individual differences, and practical learning activities, and up-to-date teaching methods. Received: 9 September 2021 / Accepted: 5 December 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

Teachers’ Characteristics and their Effect on Students’ Mathematical Achievement in the 4th grade: A Comparative Study between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America according to (TIMSS 2019)

The study aims to investigate some characteristics of fourth-grade mathematics teachers in Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, which may affect students’ mathematical achievement. Thus, the research utilized fourth-grade students’ data, as the average score of students was (398) compared to (535) in the Unites States. Post fact design was used with a sample of (4174) students and (170) teachers in Saudi Arabia, and (8353) students and (451) teachers in the United States. Result indicated that teacher’s gender, age, educational level, and qualification are significant variables that impact mathematical achievement in Saudi Arabia. Results also showed that teachers’ years of experience, hours of professional development spent by the teacher during the past two years, and teacher gender are significant variable which impact students’ mathematical achievement in America. As for the teachers’ gender, findings showed significant differences were in favor of students taught by female teachers in both countries.

The predictors of exam performance of Kazakh university students and secondary school pupils learning Turkish

The present study investigates the effect of sociobiographical, emotional, attitudinal characteristics and teacher perceptions of 275 Kazakh secondary school pupils and 317 university students on their exam performance in Turkish as a foreign language (FL). Multiple regression analyses reveal that exam results in Turkish of secondary school pupils are predicted by teacher gender, participant’s age, attitude towards the FL and FL Classroom Anxiety. A very different picture emerges for university students, where FL level, participant’s gender, FL Enjoyment, FL Classroom Anxiety and teacher’s age explain more than twice as much variance. FL exam scores for both groups are thus underpinned by different sets of complex interactions between multiple learner-internal and learner-external variables and the effect of emotions is much stronger among university learners.

DIFFERENCES IN THE LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM OF FORM SIX TEACHERS BASED ON SELECTED DEMOGRAPHICS

This study aims to identify differences in the level of professionalism of form six teachers based on selected demographic aspects in Sandakan district, Sabah. The demographic aspects studied were gender, age, length of service, and highest academic qualification. While the dimensions of teacher professionalism studied are knowledge, skills, and values of professionalism. The number of respondents was 102 teachers from seven secondary schools with form six education in the Sandakan district. The research instrument used is a questionnaire that is divided into two parts, namely part A and part B. Part A contains questions related to the demographics of the respondents while part B contains questions related to the dependent variables of form six teacher professionalism. Data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Data analysis using t-test and one-way ANOVA to obtain significant differences in the level of professionalism of form six teachers based on selected demographic factors. The t-test was used to identify significant differences in the level of teacher professionalism based on aspects of teacher gender and length of service. While one-way ANOVA was used to identify significant differences in the level of professionalism of form six teachers based on age and the highest academic qualification. The results of the analysis showed that there were no significant differences in the level of professionalism of form six teachers based on gender (p=.154), age (p=.887), length of service (p=.385), and highest academic qualification (p=.230) in Sandakan district. This indicates that the form six teachers in the Sandakan district regardless of the demographic aspects studied, have shown a high level of professionalism to realize the success of the form six rebranding. Next, the researcher suggests that this study be extended to other districts in Sabah to get a true picture to represent the population of form six teachers in Sabah.

A Conceptual Paper: Moderating Effects of Metacognition and Gender on the Association between Emotion Regulation and Self-Efficacy Among Pre-Service Teachers

Pre-service teacher’s self-efficacy plays a vital role in Malaysia educational transformation. Emotion regulation influences one’s ability to cope with the stress and challenges. This research focuses on the two variables which determine pre-service teacher’s self-efficacy and emotion regulation. Metacognition enables pre-service teachers to rationally evaluate their own capability. It serves as an important tool in emotional regulation to engage pre-service teacher in cognitive re-appraisal process. Gender differences lead to different thinking style and emotion regulation strategies. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and General Self-Efficacy (GSE) will serve as the instruments in this study. 133 pre-service teachers from Institute of Teacher Education Campus Bahasa Melayu will be selected using clustered random sampling method. The findings of this research can serve as a reference in teacher preparation process. Keywords: metacognition, emotion regulation, self-efficacy, pre-service teacher, gender differences

Student–Teacher Gender Matching and Academic Achievement

Scholars have examined the effects of same-gender teachers on student achievement, but the findings are mixed. In this study, we use 7 years of administrative data from students in elementary and middle schools (i.e., Grades 3 through 8) in Indiana to test links between gender matching and student achievement. We find that female teachers are better at increasing both male and female students’ achievement than their male counterparts in elementary and middle schools. The positive effects of having female math teachers are particularly large for female students’ math achievement, but we do not find evidence for a positive gender matching effect in English language arts. In addition, contrary to popular speculation, boys do not exhibit higher academic achievement when they are assigned to male teachers. Our findings suggest that the effects of teacher gender on student learning vary by subject and gender, but the effect sizes are small.