Future in Educational Research最新文献

A college is an institution that exists to provide instruction. Subtly but profoundly, we are shifting to a new paradigm: a college is an institution that exists to produce learning (Barr & Tagg, 1995, p. 13). This paper traces the evolution of learner outcomes, from their progeny as a diagnostic tool in accurately measuring learning gains and facilitating institutional self-improvement, to their present distorted incarnation, in propagating “governance by numbers”. The paper proceeds in a number of steps. Firstly, it begins with a brief contextualization of the topography of higher education. It then moves to explore the OECD influences regarding quantifying outcomes and aligning them with performance metrics. From here, it looks to EU deliberations in the shape of the Bologna Process with its enduring iterations, the purpose of which benchmarks HEIs' (higher education institutions) success against the successful achievement of learner outcomes. To conclude, taking the example of the Irish funding and strategy, Hunt Report (National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030), I provide an explanatory account detailing how this “learning outcomes race” and its association with “success metrics” within the higher education landscape is mistaken and harmful.

This article recounts a classroom practitioner's doing and thinking on the adoption of digital affordances in the context of Languages Other Than English education at an Australian school. Through the lens of practicality ethic, this practitioner employs a self-study methodology to explore the dynamic relationships between private theories of teaching and teacher agency in their daily use of Information and Communications Technology. Using qualitative data and content analysis, this study explains how a teacher's situated knowledge influences their decision-making when adopting specific affordances. The findings of this self-study generate a unique type of knowledge, bridging the gap between theoretical usefulness and practical relevance in technology use. It sheds light on the significance of considering teachers' situatedness, their judgment, and their capacity to enhance classroom experiences. Through this self-study, a practicality framework is developed, providing practitioners with an evidence base to examine their everyday use of technology. This line of self-study scholarship rethinks and reframes educational research, highlighting the contemporary realities of teaching and learning. It offers an in-depth understanding of how and why practitioners adopt specific digital affordances based on what they consider important. The article concludes with several critical implications for practitioners, policymakers, and academic researchers. Future research is recommended to explore collaborative self-studies and studies across different curricula or various educational settings. Alternatively, nonreductive data analysis and other theoretical perspectives can be explored.

Teacher qualifications, self-efficacy, and quality of teacher–student interactions (QTSIs) are critical factors in educational discourse. While research shows varied results for each variable, studies have yet to examine all three variables simultaneously. To what extent does teacher self-efficacy contribute to bridging the qualifications gap toward QTSIs? This study investigates the relationship between teacher educational qualifications and QTSIs and the potential role of teacher self-efficacy in addressing the qualifications gap. An empirical analysis of 419 valid responses from senior high school (SHS) teachers in Ghana utilizing the t-test and ordinary least squares estimators uncovered noteworthy findings. The study revealed a positive influence of teacher educational qualifications on QTSIs, with higher qualifications (master's degree) significantly enhancing QTSIs compared to lower qualifications (bachelor's degree). Teacher self-efficacy positively moderated the impact of teacher educational qualifications on QTSIs. The study also revealed that while higher teacher self-efficacy was beneficial in bridging the educational qualifications gap between bachelor's and master's degrees on QTSIs, it only partially bridged the gap. This study's findings invite policymakers, teacher educators, and school authorities to employ a balanced approach to improving QTSIs in SHS classrooms in Ghana by encouraging teachers to advance their qualifications and creating an enabling environment to develop their self-efficacy.

This exploratory study sought to address the gap in strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher preparation in elementary and secondary teacher education programs. Integrated STEM education is attracting increased attention and gaining momentum from educators, politicians, STEM industries, and the media across the nation. Many state and national organizations have called for a new workforce of problem solvers, innovators, and inventors who are self-reliant and able to think logically, also suggesting that creating such capacity is one of the critical foundations that drive innovative capacity in the nation. A key to developing these skills is STEM competencies and career goals in every K-12 student. To do this, teachers must be educated on how to connect STEM careers and integrate STEM content into their curriculum. Providing integrated STEM micro-credentials for preservice and in-service teachers can be a flexible solution for providing teachers a method to learn how to improve their content knowledge and pedagogy (Digital Promise, 2019). Participants were a combination of undergraduate preservice teachers and graduate early-career teachers who were asked about their STEM preparation. The majority of the participants received very little to no integrated STEM preparation. As a possible solution for this, participants were asked about their preferred type of professional development (PD) and if participating in a micro-credential course would be a possibility. Nearly all of the participants agreed that a self-paced micro-credential that blended online and in-person instruction would be something they would do to learn how to integrate STEM more effectively into their pedagogy. Micro-credentials could be a successful solution for educator PD.

Previous studies have primarily explored the learning effects of digital games on students from a macro perspective, mainly ignoring the fine-grained dimensions of learners' emotions and cognition during gameplay. To enrich the study of learners' emotions and cognitions in the context of digital games, this paper conducts an empirical study using the self-developed board game “Connect Four Chess” as a research vehicle. We semi-automatically identify learners' emotional and cognitive behaviors within this game-based educational context and explore the relationship between the two. The study demonstrates that high-level learners maintained a high level of insightful emotion throughout the game, excelled at constructing strategic formations to control more significant chessboard areas, and preferred to reserve powerful pieces until the end to secure a winning advantage. Conversely, low-level learners exhibit a predominant level of neutral emotion, especially during unrelated behaviors, and struggle to maintain a strategic overview, focusing instead on smaller, immediate gains, which hamper the application of deeper strategies.

The research paper explores the use of a metaverse-enabled immersive learning environment (MeILE) guided by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to enhance university student interactions and collaboration. The platform integrates various components, including avatar usage, multimodality, and gamification, with careful consideration of each CoI element to maximize students' immersive interactions and collaboration in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning contexts. By aligning activities with Bloom's digital taxonomy, the metaverse environment aims to improve STEM learning outcomes. A case study conducted at a university demonstrated the successful implementation of essential CoI elements, leading to increased student engagement and improved learning performance. Results indicate MeILE facilitates interactive, reflective, constructive, and self-regulated learning, which are essential for developing STEM and 21st century skills. The study emphasizes the teacher's role as a facilitator in fostering self-directed learning, and cultivating 21st-century skills through collaborative learning activities in virtual environment. The research underscores the importance of innovative educational tools in adapting to the evolving landscape of education in the digital age.

For decades, educators in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have strived to break the vicious circle of student disengagement at both secondary and post-secondary levels. Despite the widespread availability of technologies like smartphones, STEM pedagogies have largely remained unchanged. Too often, students learn STEM theoretically with little hands-on experience or opportunities to engage in authentic, research-like activities. Modern smartphones can offer unprecedented opportunities for active STEM learning, but can also serve as distractors. Therefore, it is essential for teachers to acquire the pedagogical knowledge to harness these powerful tools effectively. This paper explores the potential of integrating smartphones into physics labs to enrich STEM learning. By leveraging smartphones' advanced capabilities for experimental design, data collection, and analysis, we have implemented a smartphone-enhanced pedagogical approach in secondary physics classes and province-wide Physics Olympics. We also implemented smartphone-enhanced STEM pedagogies in teacher education. Our initial pilot study has yielded promising outcomes: enhanced student engagement in physics and deeper conceptual understanding. To advance this initiative, we propose structured teacher mentorship and professional development, empowering STEM educators to seamlessly integrate smartphones into their teaching. By embracing these modern educational tools, adopting evidence-based pedagogical approaches, and supporting future and practicing educators we can make STEM learning more engaging and relevant for all students.

Recently, an unprecedented number of people worldwide gained access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education technologies. However, educators in developing countries encounter distinct challenges when attempting to incorporate these innovations into their practice. This mixed-method study investigates the adoption of Physics Education Technology (PhET) computer simulations by secondary STEM teachers in Bangladesh. The study explored the challenges these educators face in learning to integrate PhET-enhanced pedagogies and to assess the potential of this technology in developing nations. The primary researcher, a native Bangladeshi science educator, facilitated 3 h long workshops for 129 teachers, enabling the team to gather unique insights. Data collection encompassed online questionnaires, observations, and interviews. The analysis uncovered struggles faced by teachers which include limited pedagogical skills and subject knowledge, constrained lesson time, insufficient school support, restricted access to technology, and poor technological expertise. Despite these difficulties, educators acknowledged the potential of PhET-enhanced pedagogies to improve student engagement. This study suggests that developing nations can leverage PhET's offline accessibility, wealth of teaching resources, and diverse language options within simulations to realize significant benefits. To address the identified challenges, we recommend translating PhET resources into native languages, developing instructional videos, employing flipped classroom methodologies, providing additional teacher training, and establishing professional learning communities. Moreover, the research underscores the potential of PhET to advance STEM education not only in Bangladesh but also in other developing countries with similar circumstances. Future studies could explore the impact of professional learning communities on facilitating the integration of technology to enhance STEM learning.

The study examines the research–practice partnership (RPP) model aimed at co-constructing and integrating computational thinking (CT) in culturally responsive (CR) ways within early childhood and elementary (PreK-5) classrooms, focusing on teachers' RPP experiences. Recent research underlines the importance of integrating CT in early childhood and elementary education, demonstrating that culturally, linguistically, and developmentally responsive computational activities in PreK-5 settings are key to such efforts. However, there is a gap in research regarding effective professional development models that would prepare early childhood teachers in terms of both disciplinary ideas and practices of CT, as well as attending to cultural, linguistic, and developmental differences in young children in asset-based ways. Our research contributes to this body of knowledge by examining how RPP can be a model for teacher learning in which teachers, administrators, and researchers can co-develop knowledge and confidence in integrating CT into the PreK-5 teaching curriculum and practices in CR ways. The study outlines the collaborative development of processes and frameworks co-constructed by the RPP educators, as well as teacher-developed curricular materials and lesson plans integrating CT in CR ways. Findings include teachers' experience of these lessons and teacher insights about the support needed to incorporate CT and CR practices into their existing curricula. The study concludes by highlighting the potential challenges and opportunities inherent in such endeavors, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on supporting CT integration into early childhood classrooms in CR ways.

This paper proposes a creative pedagogical approach that aims to foster authentic STEM teacher education through incorporating scriptwriting tasks in science and mathematics courses for future secondary STEM teachers. These tasks invite teachers to create imaginary dialogues addressing specific pedagogical challenges, such as conceptual difficulties, misconceptions, or unexpected questions arising during instruction. We assert that traditional approaches to lesson planning in STEM methods courses do not provide sufficient opportunity for exploring both content and pedagogy and fostering student engagement. Hence, we propose scriptwriting-based pedagogy as an innovative and creative way of cultivating future STEM teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. This paper showcases three examples of scriptwriting tasks implemented in secondary STEM teacher education. We elucidate the pedagogical opportunities afforded by scriptwriting and underscore its pedagogical potential for STEM teacher education.