Abstract This study aims to determine the implementation and constraints of teachers in assessing students’ attitudes at school. This study adopted a qualitative approach with descriptive methods. This research involved 29 informants, consisting of 23 teachers, three school principals, and three supervisors in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Data were obtained by using interviews, observation, and documentation. The indicators in this study include the implementation of attitude assessment, the instruments used in assessing attitudes, teacher constraints in assessing attitudes, and follow-up attitude assessments. The supervision process by the school principal and school supervisor has been carried out routinely and continuously. However, the teacher was left to make a sober assessment. The assessment is still being carried out to the extent of filling out the report. This result demonstrated several weaknesses in the quality assurance system for assessing student attitudes.
{"title":"Teacher’s Constraints and Challenges in Implementing Student Attitude Assessment in Junior High School","authors":"Rabiatul Adawiah","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0204","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aims to determine the implementation and constraints of teachers in assessing students’ attitudes at school. This study adopted a qualitative approach with descriptive methods. This research involved 29 informants, consisting of 23 teachers, three school principals, and three supervisors in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Data were obtained by using interviews, observation, and documentation. The indicators in this study include the implementation of attitude assessment, the instruments used in assessing attitudes, teacher constraints in assessing attitudes, and follow-up attitude assessments. The supervision process by the school principal and school supervisor has been carried out routinely and continuously. However, the teacher was left to make a sober assessment. The assessment is still being carried out to the extent of filling out the report. This result demonstrated several weaknesses in the quality assurance system for assessing student attitudes.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135662677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article analyzes international students’ assessment of remote teaching and learning (T&L) during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. While all students have suffered the consequences of campus lockdowns and distance teaching, international students represent a particularly vulnerable group since, even under normal circumstances, they already have to deal with the challenges of new academic and living conditions. In Portugal, most international students come from Portuguese-speaking (designated as Lusophone) countries. Students’ experiences were gathered via an online cross-sectional survey (N = 672), and the quantitative analysis compared Lusophone and non-Lusophone students and undergraduate and postgraduate students. Non-Lusophone students were more negative about remote education than Lusophone ones, being less interested in continuing to study online and giving a more negative assessment of the T&L experience than their counterparts. For them, cultural immersion is probably as important as degree attainment. Postgraduate students reported a lesser increase in study time and rated the pedagogical aspects better than undergraduate students, which suggests, by comparison, a better adaptation to the remote regime. Implementing flexible and hybrid education solutions is critical to maintaining international students’ interest.
{"title":"International Students’ Experience of Remote Teaching and Learning in Portugal","authors":"Joyce Aguiar, Cristina Sin, Orlanda Tavares","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0190","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article analyzes international students’ assessment of remote teaching and learning (T&L) during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. While all students have suffered the consequences of campus lockdowns and distance teaching, international students represent a particularly vulnerable group since, even under normal circumstances, they already have to deal with the challenges of new academic and living conditions. In Portugal, most international students come from Portuguese-speaking (designated as Lusophone) countries. Students’ experiences were gathered via an online cross-sectional survey (N = 672), and the quantitative analysis compared Lusophone and non-Lusophone students and undergraduate and postgraduate students. Non-Lusophone students were more negative about remote education than Lusophone ones, being less interested in continuing to study online and giving a more negative assessment of the T&L experience than their counterparts. For them, cultural immersion is probably as important as degree attainment. Postgraduate students reported a lesser increase in study time and rated the pedagogical aspects better than undergraduate students, which suggests, by comparison, a better adaptation to the remote regime. Implementing flexible and hybrid education solutions is critical to maintaining international students’ interest.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42142989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The need for addressing global and societal problems is stronger than ever, as demonstrated by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. However, engineering undergraduate students rarely get to experience engaging with the associated real-world projects and challenges. This has the potential to result in attenuation from engineering education and career pathways. This study aimed to overcome this issue by reaching the United States’ untapped future engineering workforce via an engineering educator professional development “train-the-trainer” program. This train-the-trainer program guided engineering educators to apply evidence-based pedagogical methods (e.g., backward course design) to couple entrepreneurial mindset (EM) development with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) and bio-inspired design in an effort to improve the retention of underrepresented engineering students via a transdisciplinary, humanistic approach. This study employed a mixed methods approach including retrospective post-then-pre items based on perceived learning gains, rating the overall satisfaction with the program, and open-ended questions to better understand what went well, what did not go so well, and what can be improved. From a practical perspective, this study shows that integrating STEAM (with a specific focus on the arts) into the engineering classroom promotes problem-solving and critical thinking across disciplines. Here, applying STEAM principles encourages diverse perspective taking and making by bridging paradigms and theoretical frameworks across a variety of humanities and technical disciplines. As a result, combining STEAM with bio-inspired design and the EM has the capacity to increase engagement and broaden participation among students traditionally underrepresented in engineering, including females and minoritized populations.
{"title":"Using STEAM and Bio-Inspired Design to Teach the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Engineers","authors":"L. Bosman, Katherine L. Shirey","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0187","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0187","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The need for addressing global and societal problems is stronger than ever, as demonstrated by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. However, engineering undergraduate students rarely get to experience engaging with the associated real-world projects and challenges. This has the potential to result in attenuation from engineering education and career pathways. This study aimed to overcome this issue by reaching the United States’ untapped future engineering workforce via an engineering educator professional development “train-the-trainer” program. This train-the-trainer program guided engineering educators to apply evidence-based pedagogical methods (e.g., backward course design) to couple entrepreneurial mindset (EM) development with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) and bio-inspired design in an effort to improve the retention of underrepresented engineering students via a transdisciplinary, humanistic approach. This study employed a mixed methods approach including retrospective post-then-pre items based on perceived learning gains, rating the overall satisfaction with the program, and open-ended questions to better understand what went well, what did not go so well, and what can be improved. From a practical perspective, this study shows that integrating STEAM (with a specific focus on the arts) into the engineering classroom promotes problem-solving and critical thinking across disciplines. Here, applying STEAM principles encourages diverse perspective taking and making by bridging paradigms and theoretical frameworks across a variety of humanities and technical disciplines. As a result, combining STEAM with bio-inspired design and the EM has the capacity to increase engagement and broaden participation among students traditionally underrepresented in engineering, including females and minoritized populations.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49576646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article presents the analysis and discussion of solving geometry tasks by Portuguese Basic Education students, using material from the Poly-UNiverse in Teacher Training Education (PUNTE) project. The teaching experience developed was aimed at testing and disseminating new resources, and innovative and transdisciplinary methodologies in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM). The adopted methodology involved two phases. The first phase was exploratory, followed by a second phase where the exploration of geometry concepts in the plane (namely, the perimeter and the similarity of triangles) was carried out using the Poly-Universe material. The results of the study show that the Poly-Universe materials constituted an important teaching resource in solving the proposed tasks. Its manipulation allowed the visualisation of the situations involved in the tasks, as well as contributed to an implication in the activities developed by the students.
{"title":"Poly-Universe Resource for Solving Geometric Tasks by Portuguese Basic Education Students","authors":"Alexandre Matos, Vanda Santos, Teresa B. Neto","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0181","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article presents the analysis and discussion of solving geometry tasks by Portuguese Basic Education students, using material from the Poly-UNiverse in Teacher Training Education (PUNTE) project. The teaching experience developed was aimed at testing and disseminating new resources, and innovative and transdisciplinary methodologies in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM). The adopted methodology involved two phases. The first phase was exploratory, followed by a second phase where the exploration of geometry concepts in the plane (namely, the perimeter and the similarity of triangles) was carried out using the Poly-Universe material. The results of the study show that the Poly-Universe materials constituted an important teaching resource in solving the proposed tasks. Its manipulation allowed the visualisation of the situations involved in the tasks, as well as contributed to an implication in the activities developed by the students.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47159624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Escape rooms are an increasingly popular form of live-action entertainment in which teams of players need to solve puzzles to escape or reach a narrative goal within a specified time limit. Current research suggests that this style of activity promotes the effective use of team skills in the classroom, which are desirable in the workplace, and also that students are more engaged in the hands-on learning environment. During this study we created a game designed to teach mathematical concepts related to finding missing side lengths in a right-angled triangle using trigonometry to secondary school students who had limited knowledge in this area. Our experiment tested the success of our escape room’s teaching capabilities through comparing student performance on a test completed immediately after finishing the game. We also evaluated whether students’ perception of the applicability of mathematics and their feelings towards studying it improves from playing. Finally, we intended to confirm the findings of other researchers on engagement; extend that to the effective use of team skills through examining if there is a relationship between completion time and the observed behaviours within each team. Results suggest that the game is successful in teaching and building familiarity with some aspects of the topic and that there is no correlation between effective team skills and completion time. We make suggestions for improvements to the game design that would warrant an additional experiment into the teaching potential of escape rooms.
{"title":"Escape Rooms for Secondary Mathematics Education: Design and Experiments","authors":"Jake P. M. Andrews, O. Bagdasar","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0194","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Escape rooms are an increasingly popular form of live-action entertainment in which teams of players need to solve puzzles to escape or reach a narrative goal within a specified time limit. Current research suggests that this style of activity promotes the effective use of team skills in the classroom, which are desirable in the workplace, and also that students are more engaged in the hands-on learning environment. During this study we created a game designed to teach mathematical concepts related to finding missing side lengths in a right-angled triangle using trigonometry to secondary school students who had limited knowledge in this area. Our experiment tested the success of our escape room’s teaching capabilities through comparing student performance on a test completed immediately after finishing the game. We also evaluated whether students’ perception of the applicability of mathematics and their feelings towards studying it improves from playing. Finally, we intended to confirm the findings of other researchers on engagement; extend that to the effective use of team skills through examining if there is a relationship between completion time and the observed behaviours within each team. Results suggest that the game is successful in teaching and building familiarity with some aspects of the topic and that there is no correlation between effective team skills and completion time. We make suggestions for improvements to the game design that would warrant an additional experiment into the teaching potential of escape rooms.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46655414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract It can be suggested that pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science may be influential to their professionalization within university-based teacher education programs, which intend to prepare them for teaching natural sciences in primary school. Nevertheless, because only few studies have examined teachers’ sense of belonging to science so far, further research in this regard seems both reasonable and necessary. To this end, there is a need for instruments enabling a valid assessment of pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science. However, existing sense-of-belonging-to-science instruments require a comparatively long time on task due to their significant number of items. Consequently, the applicability of these instruments within research is limited because surveys in educational contexts must often be brief and economical. The research we present in this article aims to tackle this issue by examining on an exploratory level whether and to what extent pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science can be validly assessed using a single-item instrument. In doing so we report qualitative, as well as quantitative, findings that provide evidence regarding the validity of our instrument. Implications of the present study for future research are outlined at the end of this article.
{"title":"Exploring the Validity of a Single-Item Instrument for Assessing Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Sense of Belonging to Science","authors":"Markus Sebastian Feser, T. Plotz","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0191","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract It can be suggested that pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science may be influential to their professionalization within university-based teacher education programs, which intend to prepare them for teaching natural sciences in primary school. Nevertheless, because only few studies have examined teachers’ sense of belonging to science so far, further research in this regard seems both reasonable and necessary. To this end, there is a need for instruments enabling a valid assessment of pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science. However, existing sense-of-belonging-to-science instruments require a comparatively long time on task due to their significant number of items. Consequently, the applicability of these instruments within research is limited because surveys in educational contexts must often be brief and economical. The research we present in this article aims to tackle this issue by examining on an exploratory level whether and to what extent pre-service primary school teachers’ sense of belonging to science can be validly assessed using a single-item instrument. In doing so we report qualitative, as well as quantitative, findings that provide evidence regarding the validity of our instrument. Implications of the present study for future research are outlined at the end of this article.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42043544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Osayamen S. Imhangbe, Jane I. Oviawe, Oyaziwo Aluede, Gabriel Obinyan, Tunde Dayo Oke
Abstract Education plays a critical role in the effective pursuit and attainment of overall growth and technological advancement of any country. Thus, if Nigeria as a nation is to achieve competitive growth and technological advancement, the quality and type of her educational system must not only be right but also carefully sustained. If an improved quality of education in the country must be attained and sustained, the quality of her teacher education must be equally enhanced. The quest, therefore, for a sustained high-quality teacher education in Nigeria will not yield positive results; there is no corresponding functional and effective quality assurance (QA) and control mechanism in place. It is against this backdrop that this article reviewed QA mechanisms and approaches in place for the delivery of high-quality teacher education in Nigerian universities, the challenges, and emerging perspectives. It noted, however, that their functionality and productivity in terms of yielding the desirable impact were diminished by a myriad of challenges. The article then proposed an overhaul of the existing QA mechanisms while advocating that educational management and Nigerian authorities on teacher education must insist on acceptable standards and monitor performance to guarantee QA.
{"title":"Challenges and Emerging Perspectives of Quality Assurance and Teacher Education in Nigerian Universities: A Literature Review","authors":"Osayamen S. Imhangbe, Jane I. Oviawe, Oyaziwo Aluede, Gabriel Obinyan, Tunde Dayo Oke","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0203","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Education plays a critical role in the effective pursuit and attainment of overall growth and technological advancement of any country. Thus, if Nigeria as a nation is to achieve competitive growth and technological advancement, the quality and type of her educational system must not only be right but also carefully sustained. If an improved quality of education in the country must be attained and sustained, the quality of her teacher education must be equally enhanced. The quest, therefore, for a sustained high-quality teacher education in Nigeria will not yield positive results; there is no corresponding functional and effective quality assurance (QA) and control mechanism in place. It is against this backdrop that this article reviewed QA mechanisms and approaches in place for the delivery of high-quality teacher education in Nigerian universities, the challenges, and emerging perspectives. It noted, however, that their functionality and productivity in terms of yielding the desirable impact were diminished by a myriad of challenges. The article then proposed an overhaul of the existing QA mechanisms while advocating that educational management and Nigerian authorities on teacher education must insist on acceptable standards and monitor performance to guarantee QA.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135007536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Transformative assessment is a classroom assessment aimed at changing both how teachers teach and students learn a lesson. Nowadays, this kind of assessment needs to be practiced to encourage teachers to be creative and flexible when designing their assessments and for students to be reflective and take responsibility for their learning. Hence, this qualitative study aimed to examine mathematics teachers’ practices of transformative assessment and the associated challenges. Data collected from eight teachers using semi-structured interviews and lesson observations were analysed thematically. It was found that teachers did, in fact, not provide evidence of practicing transformative assessment in their teaching. There was an attempt to align assessment to learning outcomes even though the assessment practice utilized remained traditional. Teachers’ assessment practices focused on fast-learners while leaving behind the majority, lacking balance and equity. Teacher, student, and school-related factors were the main challenges facing the teachers during assessment practices. The study presents possible strategies by which transformative assessment practices in mathematics teaching can be developed, implemented, and sustained to improve students’ learning.
{"title":"Transformative Assessment Practices in Mathematics Classes: Lesson from Schools in Jimma, Ethiopia","authors":"Melaku Takele Abate, Abbi Lemma Wedajo, Adula Bekele Hunde","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0206","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Transformative assessment is a classroom assessment aimed at changing both how teachers teach and students learn a lesson. Nowadays, this kind of assessment needs to be practiced to encourage teachers to be creative and flexible when designing their assessments and for students to be reflective and take responsibility for their learning. Hence, this qualitative study aimed to examine mathematics teachers’ practices of transformative assessment and the associated challenges. Data collected from eight teachers using semi-structured interviews and lesson observations were analysed thematically. It was found that teachers did, in fact, not provide evidence of practicing transformative assessment in their teaching. There was an attempt to align assessment to learning outcomes even though the assessment practice utilized remained traditional. Teachers’ assessment practices focused on fast-learners while leaving behind the majority, lacking balance and equity. Teacher, student, and school-related factors were the main challenges facing the teachers during assessment practices. The study presents possible strategies by which transformative assessment practices in mathematics teaching can be developed, implemented, and sustained to improve students’ learning.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135507029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article revisits the Mincer earnings function and presents comparable estimates of the average monetary returns associated with an additional year of education across different regions worldwide. In contrast to the traditional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method commonly employed in the literature, this study applied a cutting-edge approach known as Support Vector Regression (SVR), which belongs to the family of machine learning (ML) algorithms. SVR is specifically chosen to address the bias arising from underfitting inherent in OLS. The analysis focuses on recent data spanning from 2010 to 2018, ensuring temporal homogeneity across the examined regions. The findings reveal that each additional year of education, on average, yields a private rate of returns of 10.4%. Notably, Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits the highest returns to education at 17.8%, while Europe demonstrates the lowest returns at 7.2%. Moreover, higher education is associated with the highest returns across the regions, with a rate of 12%, whereas primary education yields returns of 10%. Interestingly, women generally experience higher returns than men, with rates of 10.6 and 10.1%, respectively. Over time, the returns to education exhibit a modest decline, decreasing at a rate of approximately 0.1% per year, while the average duration of education demonstrates an increase of 0.16 years per year (1% per year). The application of the state-of-the-art ML technique, SVR, not only improves the accuracy of estimates but also enhances predictive performance measures such as the coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) when compared to the OLS method. The implications drawn from these findings emphasize the need for expanding university education, as well as investments in primary education, along with significant attention toward promoting girls’ education. These findings hold considerable importance for policymakers who are tasked with making informed decisions regarding education expenditure and the implementation of education financing programs.
{"title":"Estimating the Returns to Education Using a Machine Learning Approach – Evidence for Different Regions","authors":"Herve D. Teguim Kamdjou","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0201","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article revisits the Mincer earnings function and presents comparable estimates of the average monetary returns associated with an additional year of education across different regions worldwide. In contrast to the traditional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method commonly employed in the literature, this study applied a cutting-edge approach known as Support Vector Regression (SVR), which belongs to the family of machine learning (ML) algorithms. SVR is specifically chosen to address the bias arising from underfitting inherent in OLS. The analysis focuses on recent data spanning from 2010 to 2018, ensuring temporal homogeneity across the examined regions. The findings reveal that each additional year of education, on average, yields a private rate of returns of 10.4%. Notably, Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits the highest returns to education at 17.8%, while Europe demonstrates the lowest returns at 7.2%. Moreover, higher education is associated with the highest returns across the regions, with a rate of 12%, whereas primary education yields returns of 10%. Interestingly, women generally experience higher returns than men, with rates of 10.6 and 10.1%, respectively. Over time, the returns to education exhibit a modest decline, decreasing at a rate of approximately 0.1% per year, while the average duration of education demonstrates an increase of 0.16 years per year (1% per year). The application of the state-of-the-art ML technique, SVR, not only improves the accuracy of estimates but also enhances predictive performance measures such as the coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) when compared to the OLS method. The implications drawn from these findings emphasize the need for expanding university education, as well as investments in primary education, along with significant attention toward promoting girls’ education. These findings hold considerable importance for policymakers who are tasked with making informed decisions regarding education expenditure and the implementation of education financing programs.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135801679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In a Swedish second semester course on Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry in mathematics education at Karlstad University, a bridging teaching strategy comprising elements from Mathematics, Didactics, History, Literature, and Technology was applied by using the concept of Narrative Didactics and Digital Interactive Mathematical Maps developed by the Professorship for Didactics of Mathematics at the University of Passau, Germany. The complete assessment of the teaching strategy comprised both an evaluation of the technological and the narrative didactical scaffolding and was partly analysed previously concerning especially the technology acceptance aspect, while here we broaden and deepen the evaluation analysis of the application of narrative didactic elements. Regarding the latter, at the end of the course, students were asked to formulate a short historical-oriented narrative motivation for a school topic of own choice with the help of information provided by the timeline of the Mathematical Map. A representative example of these art-combining products is presented and evaluated according to elements of narrative didactics. Results indicate a fruitful, promising, and synergetic connection between different fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics that can lead to a richer and more sustainable learning process in mathematics lessons both at university and school level.
{"title":"Narrative Didactics in Mathematics Education: Results from a University Geometry Course","authors":"M. Brandl, Mirela Vinerean","doi":"10.1515/edu-2022-0186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2022-0186","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In a Swedish second semester course on Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry in mathematics education at Karlstad University, a bridging teaching strategy comprising elements from Mathematics, Didactics, History, Literature, and Technology was applied by using the concept of Narrative Didactics and Digital Interactive Mathematical Maps developed by the Professorship for Didactics of Mathematics at the University of Passau, Germany. The complete assessment of the teaching strategy comprised both an evaluation of the technological and the narrative didactical scaffolding and was partly analysed previously concerning especially the technology acceptance aspect, while here we broaden and deepen the evaluation analysis of the application of narrative didactic elements. Regarding the latter, at the end of the course, students were asked to formulate a short historical-oriented narrative motivation for a school topic of own choice with the help of information provided by the timeline of the Mathematical Map. A representative example of these art-combining products is presented and evaluated according to elements of narrative didactics. Results indicate a fruitful, promising, and synergetic connection between different fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics that can lead to a richer and more sustainable learning process in mathematics lessons both at university and school level.","PeriodicalId":33645,"journal":{"name":"Open Education Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43501157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}