The Abilities Related to Organizing Experiential Learning Activities for Vietnamese Undergraduate Teacher Training Students

Experimental learning, often known as hands-on learning, is a kind of active learning that takes place in the classroom. Many institutions globally have utilized it to build educational programmes, and it is widely regarded as a best practice in the field. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to examine the feasibility and efficacy of improving students' capacity to design experiential learning events in order to better prepare them for the job. Participants in this research included a total of 470 participants, including 420 students, 50 lecturers and representatives from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education's Youth Union and Students Association. They responded to seven questions regarding their ability to organize experiential learning activities for undergraduate students, as part of a broader questionnaire they completed. However, while both lecturers and students recognized the critical importance of abilities related to the organization of experiential learning activities, the findings of the study revealed that these abilities were not well designed or efficiently purposed for undergraduate students in the context of experiential learning. In order for students to improve their professional skills and gain more useful experience in the area of event planning, they should be encouraged and taught accordingly.

“I Wanted a Profession That Makes a Difference”—An Online Survey of First-Year Students’ Study Choice Motives and Sustainability-Related Attributes

Higher education institutions are obligated to facilitate students in the development of sustainability competencies, which enable them to act as “change agents” in their future profession-specific environment. Therefore, students’ study motives, prior knowledge, attitudes, and experiences regarding sustainability should be considered when designing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes. The present study compares first-year students in teacher training with first-year students in other study programmes and explores their study choice motives as well as sustainability-related conceptions, engagement and self-efficacy beliefs using a semi-standardised online questionnaire. Results show that the choice of study is dominated by intrinsic factors and the relevance of extrinsic factors differs by degree programmes with lower extrinsic values for the teacher training students. Regarding sustainability, we find simple and often unelaborated concepts. Teacher training students show significantly higher scores than non-teacher training students regarding the sustainability-related behavioural domain and self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, a gender gap increasing with age and with lower sustainability scores for older males could be identified but only for teacher training students. In conclusion, the results show valuable starting points as well as challenges that should be considered when designing target-oriented learning processes in (inter)disciplinary sustainability courses at higher education institutions.

Actitudes de los maestros en formación hacia las lenguas extranjeras y la educación multilingüe

Durante las dos últimas décadas la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras ha contado con un gran impulso en la Comunidad Autónoma de Aragón. Sin embargo, todavía está en vías de desarrollo la investigación sobre su situación y resultados tanto a nivel académico como sociolingüístico. El objetivo de este trabajo es explorar las actitudes de los maestros de Educación Primaria en formación en la Universidad de Zaragoza hacia la educación multilingüe y hacia las lenguas extranjeras preponderantes en el sistema educativo autonómico y estatal (inglés y francés), así como conocer el uso que hacen de las mismas. Los resultados del cuestionario completado por 874 alumnos de 1º y 4º curso de magisterio muestran la presencia de actitudes neutras hacia el francés y favorables hacia el inglés y la educación multilingüe, así como el influjo de algunas variables, como el perfil lingüístico del sujeto o el curso académico, principalmente signifivativas en las actitudes hacia la enseñanza multilingüe. Foreign languages teaching has been intensely implemented in Aragon during the last two decades. Nevertheless, there are still few researches focused on its situation and results in both the academic and the sociolinguistic area. The main objective of this research is to explore the attitudes of teacher training students in Zaragoza University towards multilingual education and the main foreign languages taught in the educational system regional and national (English and French). The study also aims to examine the use of these languages among future teachers. The research was carried out through a survey with 874 participants from 1st and 4th grade of Primary Education Teacher Training. The results show neutral attitudes towards French language and favorable attitudes towards English and multilingual education. It has been also found the influence of some variables like the linguistic profile and the academic grade, mainly sifnificant in the attitudes towards multilingual education.

Fostering Outstanding Personality among Teacher Trainees through ULUL Albab QEI Module Training

Purpose – This study centres on a new cohort of teacher training students in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) who were trained on the attitude and personality development modules organised by the Ulul Albab Centre in the university. The Ulul Albab modules known as QEI (Quranic, Encyclopaedic and Ijtihadik) were introduced and conducted with the participants of Ulul Albab Centre (PUA) programme. The QEI modules cover leadership talent development and soft skills which are considered as the important characteristics of outstanding personality for every future educators and community leaders. A standard questionnaire was distributed to 150 students who were pioneers of the Ulul Albab programme in the university. The participants were also asked to reflect on the various aspects and activities of the programme and modules and their written and verbal responses were analysed using NVivo 12 application. The findings indicated more than 80% approval and satisfaction rate among the participants on the constructive impact of the training on their attitude, personal and soft skills development. Their feedback and personal reflections too indicated positive bearing on their overall attitude having completed all the Ulul Albab modules. The encouraging outcomes are signs of better programme implementation for the new batch of teacher trainees. New ideas and suggestions from the participants’ feedback would be integrated for the improvement of the QEI components for future cohorts and stronger plans ahead for Pusat Ulul Albab UPSI.

Preparing Teacher Training Students for Evidence-Based Practice Promoting Students’ Research Competencies in Research-Learning Projects

Research-learning projects (RLP) enable teacher training students to acquire competencies for evidence-based practice (EBP) in the context of their university studies. The aim of this longitudinal study is to develop, implement, and evaluate a RLP format to promote competencies for EBP in teacher training students. These competencies can be broken down into the categories of using research, which involves reflection on and use of evidence to solve problems in teaching practice, and establishing research, which involves investigating a research question independently by applying research methods. In a longitudinal study we evaluate the increase in competencies based on a self-assessment of competencies (indirect measurement) focusing on establishing research, and a competence test (direct measurement) focusing on using research. We also add a retrospective pre-assessment version (quasi-indirect measurement) to consider response shift and over- or underestimation in self-assessments. Our findings show that teacher training students can be prepared for EBP through RLP. Further development potential for the RLP format is being discussed.