Online mathematics learning experiences of the colleges of education students in Ghana

The dominant mode of instructional delivery in Ghanaian Colleges of Education has been the conventional face-to-face. However, the second semester of the 2019/2020 academic year teaching had to be done via an emergency remote online teaching mode due to the novel covid-19 pandemic. In a cross-sectional survey, the online mathematics learning experienced of 497 students sampled from three Colleges of education in Ghana were explored using the adapted community of inquiry survey instrument. It was observed from the study that students’ online mathematics learning experiences were low. Further observation showed that while class cohesion and resolution dimensions were absent, teaching presence, exploration, affective expression, and triggering event dimensions of students’ online mathematics learning experiences were present. Additionally, the results showed that the difference in the magnitude of means in gender was partly dependent on the category of internet use before the remote online mathematics teaching was observed in the dimension of lack of class cohesion. Besides, the students were generally indifferent in their learning experiences regarding genders but significantly in terms of their internet use before the remote online mathematics teaching. Based on the results, implications of the state of the college of education (CoE) students’ online mathematics learning experiences and suggestions for improvement have been proposed.

Synthesis of research report of personnel: Case study on Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University

The purpose of this research was to synthesize research report of personnel in the Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University. There were 81 research reports funded by Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University between the academic years of 2012-2019 were employed. The research revealed that most of research concerning teacher development amounting to 69 researches, followed by research report of the support staff amounting to 12 researches. Most of research reports were basic research, applied research, and collaborative teaching research amounting to 55 researches, followed by production research and development of personnel that emphasized on the concept of learning based on the actual situation amounting to 11 researches. The greatest number of research was produced and published in 2018, 23 researches, and in 2019, 13 researches. They were publishing in Thai journals, total of 75 research. The utilization of research to apply for policy benefits, 75 research and for public in four research. Research methodology employed 50 operational researches, 29 quasi-experimental researches, 33 researches to studies, 25 comparative researches and 16 researches to find correlation.

The survival of school financing management in COVID-19 pandemic

This study aimed to explore the survival of school financing management during the COVID-19 pandemic, to assure the quality of teaching and learning continuously. This study used a qualitative design, and data collection is carried out by observing resource persons and in-depth interviews, analysis or analysis of documentation and a combination of the three as triangulation method. The collected data were analyzed using an interactive model. The results showed that financial management strategies in managing school finances effectively and efficiently, through transparency, accountability and responsibility, are considered to have contributed to the prospects, quality, progress and sustainability of education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is based on the fact that many quality and good schools eventually experience setbacks due to the lack of transparency, accountability and responsibility in the management of education funds. Openness in schools can promote accountability and fight corruption in education, if it is implemented effectively and any malpractice is dealt with clear consequences. The implication is the strategies of education financing management in terms of transparency, accountability and accountability need to be carry out consistently to ensure the improvement of school quality runs in a sustainable manner.

Realistic mathematics education: An approach to improve problem solving ability in primary school

Mathematical problem solving was an crucial skill to be mastered by primary school student so that will help student to unravel their problems encountered in everyday life. By using the realistic mathematics approach, stundents learn mathematical concept based on reality or scope around students. This study aimed to develop an eligible learning materials and test the effectiveness of learning materials based on realistic mathematics education to enhance the problem solving skill of primary school students. This research and development study was conducted in Sawangan Subdistrict, Magelang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The testing subjects consisted of 12 students in the the preliminary field, there were 42 students in the main field, and 90 students in the operational field that divided into experiment dan control class. The data were collected by interviews, observation, and tests. The analyzing N-gain score and t-test with a significant level of 0.05 done to find out th effectiveness of the teaching materials. The developed of realistic mathematics eduation learning materials is feasible and effective in improving problem solving skill with significance value of 0.000 (p≤0.05). It can enhance the problem solving skills of 4th grade elementary school.

Factors affecting teacher educators adoption of formative assessment strategies in the mathematics classroom

The purpose of this study was to look into the factors that influence mathematics teacher educators' formative assessment practices. This paper took a qualitative case study research design approach with six educators teaching mathematics in three teacher Colleges of Education in Ghana. The exploration focused on factors that hinders teacher educators use of formative assessment practices. Data were generated through the administration of semi – structured interviews and lesson observations. The qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that major factors which limit teacher educators formative assessment practices were: large class size, time, lack of transparency in assessment, and internal and external summative assessment issues. The factors limiting teacher educators' use of formative assessment (FA) discussed in this study are beneficial for teacher college administration in addressing the issues and educators in assisting pre-service teachers in eliminating these factors during their training and after passing out from the college of education to the teaching field. Based on the findings, it is recommended that a large scale study is conducted on factors that affect teachers formative assessment practices and the effect on students mathematics learning.

Mapping metacognitive awareness of Chinese language learners

The role of metacognitive awareness on language teaching and learning have been confirmed by several studies, but the discussions of this topic in Chinese as foreign language are limited. The aim of the present research was to map metacognitive awareness profile of Chinese language learners. Total respondent of this research was 80 Chinese language learners (38 males and 42 females) which comprise secondary students. Convenience sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. Meanwhile, the metacognitive awareness data were collected utilizing Junior Metacognitive Inventory. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistic. Mann-Whitney U Test was employed to investigate the significance differences of metacognitive awareness between male and female. The findings showed that 46.25% of Chinese Language Learners have a good metacognitive knowledge, 28.75% fair, 20% very good, 3.75% poor, and 1.25% very lacking. The finding also showed that 40% students have good metacognitive regulation, 36.25% fair, 15% very good, 7.50% poor, and 1.25% very lacking. In addition, between male and female students have no significant difference in knowledge of cognition. On the contrary, regulation of cognition female learners (Mdn= 32.50) significantly (U= 551.000, p0.05) better compared to male (Mdn= 30).

The effect of birth month and seasons on athlete aggression

In this study, there were 3,335 football players from four continents from around the world formed a study universe in which the causes of athlete aggression. Also, the factors affecting athlete aggression were investigated with different variables. It has been observed that the levels of aggression of footballers are different according to the positions they play. As the number of matches that players participate in increases, aggression levels increase among the important results. A correlation was found between the ages of the footballers and their levels of aggression, but it was concluded that athletes born in December were more aggressive. Those born in January and those born in winter have shown minimal levels of aggression compared to other footballers. It has been interpreted as having higher levels of aggression, with football players born in December and winter receiving more penalties than other participants. In the continents where football players were born, the highest number of athlete aggression was observed in the participating football players from the continent of Europe, while the aggression of athletes born in the continent of Africa and Asia was found to be lower. Taking into account the data obtained from the research, it was concluded that the athlete's position, age, month, and season of birth and continent of birth are factors affecting athlete aggression.

Comparison of curriculum implementation between public and private schools based on Adiwiyata

The curriculum is the heart of education, whose job determines the life or death of a school. This study aimed to compare the implementation of Adiwiyata school curriculum between public and private school in junior high schools, especially in Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Data collection techniques by means of literature studies. Data analysis techniques were carried out with qualitative comparative analysis. The results showed that: public and private schools in junior high schools in Bantul Regency, had fulfilled the four main components of the Adiwiyata curriculum, in terms of objectives, content, methods, and evaluation. The implementation of Adiwiyata curriculum in each public and private school varies according to the characteristics and potential of each school.

A meta-analysis study on the attitudes of pre-service music teachers towards the teaching profession in Turkey

The objective this study was to determine whether music teacher candidates’ attitudes towards the teaching profession in Turkey differ with respect to different variables. In this direction, a meta-analysis study was carried out on the pre-service music teachers’ attitudes towards their profession. The study consists of 12 studies chosen with predetermined criteria. Since the effect sizes of these studies display a heterogeneous structure, the random effects model was conducted. Effect sizes in the random effects model were calculated by using Hedges g coefficient with 12 studies for gender and nine studies for the form of high school graduated. Taking the results of the findings into consideration, it was concluded that the attitudes of female music teacher candidates towards the teaching profession are more positive than male candidates. There is no difference between Fine Arts and other high schools regarding the variable of the form of high school.

Impact of the society’s perception on teachers’ professionalism

An effective teaching contributes to the students’ performance and this depends on qualified-trained teachers, school administration, parents and conducive environment for teaching and learning. It is proven that students are more successful in their academic achievements, in the societies where teachers perceive their profession as their job. This paper explores the impact of the society’s perception on teachers’ professionalism. The method employed in this paper is qualitative by using interview technique and used audio-recorded to ensure a complete transcript. The result indicated that in some developing countries including Cameroon, Kenya and Fiji has various reasons for their job. Teaching profession was affected by how the society considers teachers whereby they are perceived as disadvantaged population who cannot fully take part in the social and economic activities due to the fact that their salary is very low compared other public servants. This low salary and loss of respect of teachers by the society lead to the job dissatisfaction and made the teaching profession as a transitional job before waiting to move to another different professional field.