Book Reviews

Różne sposoby rozumienia pojęcia parametru przez uczniów gimnazjum w toku badań długoterminowych w trakcie zintegrowanej nauki matematyki i informatyki

The study assessed the teachers’ differentiated instruction (DI) practices in teaching mathematics in inclusive classes in secondary schools in Makambako Town Council. This study specifically focused on exploring the teachers’ understanding and resource limitations towards the practices of DI in teaching mathematics in inclusive classrooms in secondary schools. The phenomenology study design, informed by the qualitative approach, was employed. The data for the study were collected through interviews and classroom observations. Fifteen participants, including eight teachers, four heads of schools, and three ward educational officers, were used as a sample size for the study conducted in 4 public secondary schools. The collected data were analysed thematically. Ethical clearances were obtained from the respective organs to maintain ethical issues, whereby informants filled out informed consent forms. The study findings revealed multiple DI understandings and resource limitations as among the stumbling blocks towards teachers’ practices of DI in teaching mathematics in inclusive classes. Resources like the availability of mathematics teachers, materials, and time were found to be the major resource challenges towards the practices of DI in teaching mathematics. Based on the findings, the study concludes that for the successful practice of DI, efforts have to be made to address these resource challenges. Therefore, the study suggests hiring more mathematics teachers in secondary schools and providing them with guidance on implementing DI effectively. The government should provide sufficient materials for improving mathematics teaching in inclusive classes.

Purpose: The paper examined self-esteem and depression as correlates of suicidal tendencies among secondary school students in Ondo State, Nigeria. Three research hypotheses were used. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: The research employed a descriptive survey design with correlation analysis. The study population comprised all students in secondary schools in Ondo State. Samples of 450 students in the senior classes in secondary schools were selected through a multistage sampling procedure. Purposive and simple sampling was used to select male and female students in two senatorial districts, and five local government areas were chosen in each district. These local government areas were sampled, with nine schools included. 450 students were selected, 50 per school. A correlation matrix was used as the main inferential statistical method to analyse data. Findings: The study findings show that self-esteem and suicidal tendency have a positive relationship and that depression and suicidal tendency have a weak but significant relationship. There is also a moderate positive relationship between self-esteem and depression. The resultant conclusion was that self-esteem and depression are related to suicidal tendencies among secondary school students in Ondo State. Research Limitation: Cross-sectional data preclude definitive causal conclusions regarding relationships among variables. While the research can identify associations between factors (e.g., management practices and safety performance), it cannot conclusively establish cause-and-effect relationships Practical Implication: The study suggests that parents, teachers, and school counsellors should assist students in maintaining emotional stability and good mental health, enabling them to live well-adjusted lives. Social Implication: The government should assist young people by providing incentives that make life more meaningful, such as bursary awards, free secondary education, and other programmes. Originality/ Value: The primary novelty of this finding lies in the counterintuitive positive relationship between self-esteem and suicidal tendency, which contradicts the predominant theoretical framework. This unexpected result challenges established assumptions and opens new theoretical directions for understanding suicidal behaviour.

Honors classes in secondary schools are designed to provide advanced learning opportunities for both identified gifted students and high-potential students. They also serve as a bridge to AP/IB classes or other advanced coursework. Beyond preparing students for future courses, honors classes can play a role in talent development by supporting students in engaging in disciplinary thinking and progressing towards expertise in specific domains. Distinguishing between honors and standards courses is essential for district leaders, curriculum specialists, and teachers to design differentiated advanced learning experiences. Without a structured framework, the rigor and expectations for honors courses may vary significantly, limiting the effectiveness and value of honors classes. This article introduces the 4C Honors framework that includes advanced content, complexity, critical and creative reasoning, and context/transfer with student inquiry driving all components. The article includes considerations for intentional program design, implementation, and evaluation of secondary honors courses.

Teachers Usage of ICT in Physics Instructions in Secondary School

This article examines the effects of social and ethnic classroom composition and tracking on students’ school satisfaction as an indicator of well-being and socioemotional outcomes in school. Analyses were based on a longitudinal school achievement study in Hamburg (Germany) with a sample of 5,941 students in 331 classes in secondary school. Multilevel analyses showed that, in classes with a more favorable social composition and a higher percentage of immigrants, students achieved higher levels of school satisfaction at the end of Grade 8. Regarding the developments of school satisfaction in Grades 7 and 8, the findings were similar but also indicated a stronger “confoundation” of compositional and tracking effects. It is concluded that because of segregation in secondary school, differential school environments do not only affect achievement but also emerge regarding socioemotional outcomes. Cross-level interaction analyses revealed gender-specific effects: Girls were found to be more susceptible to classroom composition and stronger benefit from attending academic tracks.

The development of 21st century skills in or rather through science teaching is on the agenda of many national and international school reforms aiming at creating so-called 21st century classrooms. In this context autonomous learning and practical relevance of science classes have been identified as important features, and education outside the classroom (EOtC) has been described as one way of providing such enriched classroom settings. We explore the relative importance of the four basic psychological needs (BPN), “perceived autonomy support”, “perceived competence support”, “student-teacher relatedness” and “student-student relatedness”, for the perceived practical relevance of the content (PRC) in science class in secondary school. We applied the same measures in normal and EOtC science classes, both in a short-term cross-sectional within-subject design study (A) and in a longitudinal between-subject design study (B). In order to account for the theoretical and empirical non-independence of the four BPN-explanatory variables, we used Bayesian ridge regression techniques. Our findings suggest that PRC in EOtC contexts is perceived higher than in normal classroom settings, both in the short-term as well as in the long-term designs. This can be best explained by the degree of perceived autonomy support by the students. In the short-term design, this holds true for both, the normal and the EOtC teaching contexts. In the long-term design, the relative importance of autonomy support can only be deemed statistically credible in the EOtC context. Perceived competence support and relatedness have no relative importance in the EOtC context. This suggests that science classes outside the classroom are less contingent on teacher-reliant or peer-related basic needs satisfaction. Thus, we can conclude that science teaching in EOtC fosters 21st century skills through more flexible, autonomous and collaborative settings and by being less teacher-centred.

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION OF ICT IN TEACHING PHYSICS IN CALABAR MUNICIPAL, CROSS RIVER STATE

In this study, we explored how learning progressions were established in a context-based science teachingunit. A science class in secondary school was followed during a teaching unit in Biology, in which theEbola disease was used as context. Teaching was planned using the didactical model organizing purposes.Learning progressions were studied as continuity between teaching purposes, the science content andthe context in four sequential lessons. The analysis of teaching evidenced a considerable variation inhow learning progressions were constituted within lessons and showed how learning progressions coulddevelop between lessons through the combination of different teaching activities. By consistently mentioningand referring to Ebola, the teacher had a pivotal role in establishing relations between teachingpurposes, the content and the context. Furthermore, our results evidence the important role of the contextin supporting students’ learning of science content. Finally, we discuss concrete actions in the planning ofthe unit to improve lessons that evidenced a weaker connection to the context.

petroleum, and natural gas, although obtained from the earth, are the products of plants which lived in former geological times.

The research aims to identify the characteristics of lexical competence development in schoolchildren using elements of gamification within the framework of foreign language learning. The article examines the effectiveness of applying gamification technology to enhance the level of lexical competence formation in secondary school pupils during English language learning. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the authors have studied modern and innovative ways to develop English lexical competence in schoolchildren using gamification technology in foreign language classes, as well as elaborated a model for developing lexical competence in English classes in secondary school through elements of gamification. The main results of this research are as follows: the methodological potential of gamification in foreign language learning was identified; a set of tasks using elements of gamification was proposed for teaching English vocabulary in school; English vocabulary learning was modeled through the sequential integration of modern game technologies into the educational process.

The subject of this research refers to the attitudes of philosophy teachers towards today?s philosophy classes in secondary schools. The process of reforming secondary school education started in Serbia some twenty years ago. First, there was the reform of the curriculum and syllabus for the majority of vocational schools, and then, since 2018, a new curriculum and syllabus have started to be used in high schools as well. Not only have the curriculum and syllabus been changed, but also the approach to the teaching process. The changes relate to all the school subjects, including philosophy classes. The focus is on both, the subject learning outcome and the teaching unit outcome. Philosophy teachers described the experiences, impressions and thoughts about their philosophy classes.

The development of home economics class in secondary school(_X_)

With the development of educational robotics, teachers of secondary and high school frequently request clear indications on which type of robot is most effective for strengthening students’ mental schemes on the robot. This paper investigates whether using crafts and recycled materials or structured materials to build robots is more effective in terms of pupils’ cognition in educational robotics. Some scholarship argues that using crafts and recycled materials to build a robot from scratch is more effective than using structured materials. The design of the educational research applied here, and in which we tested this hypothesis, included two different robotics activities, carried out in Italy with two classes of secondary school. In the first, we asked the students to build a robot from scratch using crafts and recycled materials, while in the other we asked the students to build a robot from structured materials. These two activities were preceded and followed by the completion, by students, of the same questionnaire about knowledge of mechanics, manual skills, conceptualization of robots, and beliefs about the robotization of everyday life machines, which were the learning outcomes identified in this study according to the concept of constructive alignment and outcome-based education. Results show that building a robot from scratch increases pupils’ knowledge and manual skills, while building a robot with structured materials increases their awareness of the robotization of machines. Thus, current scholarship’s approach is only partially confirmed. To conclude, although pupils’ appreciation involves equally both these robotics activities, each of these outlines a specific educational outcome.

Intervention studies typically target a focused aspect of language learning that is studied over a relatively short time frame for a relatively small number of participants in a controlled setting. While for many research questions, this is effective, it can also limit the ecological validity and relevance of the results for real-life language learning. In educational science, large-scale randomized controlled field trials (RCTs) are seen as the gold standard method for addressing this challenge—yet they require intervention to scale to hundreds of learners in their varied, authentic contexts.We discuss the use of technology in support of large-scale interventions that are fully integrated in regular classes in secondary school. As an experimentation platform, we developed a web-based workbook to replace a printed workbook widely used in German schools. The web-based FeedBook provides immediate scaffolded feedback to students on form and meaning for various exercise types, covering the full range of constructions in the seventh-grade English curriculum.Following the conceptual discussion, we report on the first results of an ongoing, yearlong RCT. The results confirm the effectiveness of the scaffolded feedback, and the approach makes students and learning process variables accessible for the analysis of learning in a real-world context.