Book review

As researchers, we know that we cannot examine a phenomenon or a process alone, we should study the environment or other phenomena, which are connected to the topic of research. This is true of educational processes too and this is the reason why education is examined e. g. from economic, social, or territorial views. Roland Hegedűs's book on the topic of the performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students and the territorial perspective of their studies in secondary education and in higher education can be found in this research field.

College Students’ Academic Achievement: Exploring the Role of Hope and Academic Self-Efficacy

In the present study, the relationships among trait hope, academic self-efficacy, and academic achievement (self-reported GPA) were examined among college students. Demographic differences were analyzed based on college-going status, ethnicity, and gender. First-generation college-going students (FGCS) reported significantly lower levels of hope, academic self-efficacy, and academic achievement when compared to non-FGCS. Male students reported significantly lower academic self-efficacy compared to female students. There was no statistically significant difference between non-White and White students. Overall, academic self-efficacy was a stronger predictor of achievement than hope. Between the two subscales of trait hope, agency was more strongly correlated with academic achievement than pathways. Furthermore, a mediation analysis indicated that academic self-efficacy fully accounted for the relationship between agency and academic achievement, which suggests that perceived capacity and agency to perform tasks in a specific domain may be more strongly associated with academic achievement than a general sense of hope and motivation.

Editorial

Editorial

Driven to Teach, Compelled to Learn: A Review of the Role(s) of Storytelling in Education

Humans have an instinct not only to tell stories but also to listen to them. When the message is passed from storyteller to audience, lessons are frequently transmitted. The stories serve as vessels for cultural transmission. Yet there is a gap in the research evaluating how their effectiveness in teaching informally might be leveraged in a classroom to achieve similar pedagogical ends. The aim of this interdisciplinary review is to formally evaluate the ways in which stories are used to transmit information between people and across generations and the degree to which these capacities have been used in classrooms.

Scrutinizing Values-Based Education in Secondary Grade EFL Coursebooks

The study aims to expand the understanding of values and values-based teaching in the English language teaching community by scrutinizing English as a foreign language (EFL) coursebooks and the secondary grade curriculum. This is a qualitative study with a document analysis design. The data in the form of EFL coursebooks were examined, interpreted and coded to elicit meaning and gain understanding about the presentation of values residing in four coursebooks. The results of the study indicated that the values presented in secondary level EFL coursebooks do not show an equal distribution and the target values serve the purpose of raising awareness of learners about different values rather than allowing them to understand, internalize and discuss these values at higher levels of learning, which makes the process only superficial. Integrating the teaching of values into the curriculum of language learning classes has been an area of interest in recent years and the Turkish Ministry of Education (MoNE) revised its curriculum in 2018 and textbooks were written in 2019 in accordance with the requirements of the national curricula. Detailed analysis of the teaching of values and their distribution in these coursebooks might help curriculum planners and coursebook writers as well as teachers.

Mutual Promotion of Reading and Expression: Research into Children’s Picture Book Teaching of I Wanna Iguana

The narrative function of children’s picture books connects the exquisite, meaningful and colorful paintings with easy and imaginative words. A teaching process, which is called the circulation process, happens when teachers and children are reading the pictures and words repeatedly. This process involves four stages: lead-in, telling the story, retelling the story and utilizing the retold story. Teacher may understand children’s knowledge, cognitive features as well as nature of picture books and paintings effectively. Then the vivid illustration of story line encourages children to think from others’ views and communicate with different people in the world. In such a way, we aim to establish a brand new teaching culture consisted of national memory and traditional Chinese culture elements.

“I AM TIRED” – Job Burnout and Citizenship Behaviour in an Organization: Occupational Commitment as a Mediator in a Malaysian Private University

Today, academics are under high pressure to equip themselves to satisfy various demands. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between job burnout, occupational commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among academics at a private university in Malaysia. The present study was applied on the basis of PLS-SEM analysis. A total of 620 academics from two campuses of a private university participated in the study. The results indicate that emotional exhaustion is the most stressful indicator of job burnout. Secondly, job burnout was found to exert a significant negative influence on OCB as well as occupational commitment. Finally, occupational commitment was found to be a mediator between job burnout and OCB. In summary, this study aims to improve the professional commitment and OCB of academic staff by addressing job burnout.

Book review

Book review

Why Can’t We Learn Foreign Languages in Turkey? Some Psychological Reasons Behind It

Foreign language learning is one of the most significant endeavours for people in all countries in the world. Turkey has given importance to foreign language learning for years. Nevertheless, it has been an unresolved problem for Turkish people. The purpose of the present study is to determine why people fail to learn foreign languages in Turkey and the psychological reasons behind it by focussing on perception, foreign language anxiety and learned helplessness. The participants were 100 volunteer students (56 female, 44 male) who were selected randomly from different faculties and departments at Bursa Uludag University. The data were collected from a questionnaire, which consisted of five main sections to identify participants’ background, perception of foreign language learning, level of foreign language anxiety, and level of learned helplessness. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The data were analysed in relation to the research questions that guided the study. The results indicated that the participants’ perceptions of foreign language learning were positive owing to past positive experiences, but their level of foreign language anxiety was high due to lack of practice in language skills in the past; and their level of learned helplessness was low because of the positive perceptions they possessed. In addition, the findings suggested that the four language skills should be taken into consideration when the contents of foreign language lessons at schools and foreign language courses at universities are prepared and determined.

Injecting New Perspective, Meaning and Relevance into the Philosophy of Education

The philosophy of education is both an activity and a process which is envisaged to underpin and evaluate pedagogical events and activities in terms of what is taught, how it is taught, who is taught, and the process of teaching and learning. Educational theory is a compound concept that refers to the purpose of learning in terms of its totality of applying, interpreting, and integrating teaching and learning experiences. The practice of education includes the process of converting ideas into reality within the learning context. The purpose of any philosophy of education is central in education because it envisages examining the significance of that which is taught. This study seeks to assess how current educational theory, policy and practice can correlate with the philosophy of education at all levels of education.