EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING SKILLS: ONLINE EDUCATION

PurposeThere is little research into how teachers think about and teach creative writing and its redrafting and how this might differ depending upon the age of the pupils being taught. This paper aims to compare the creative writing conceptualisations and practices of primary school teachers (5–11-year olds) and secondary school teachers (11–18-year-olds) in England through a qualitative survey. This comparison enables to think about the influence of policy on creative writing in primary and secondary schools as well as what professional development could look like for these teachers to improve the teaching of creative writing.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative survey exploring the creative writing and redrafting pedagogies and conceptualisations was responded to by primary school teachers (n = 18) and secondary school teachers (n = 19). Taking an ecological view of creative writing and teacher identity, the authors undertake a comparative analysis of the survey data using the 5A’s theory of creativity (Glaveanu, 2013) and a view of professional identity existing within “landscapes of practice” (Wenger-Trayner, Wenger-Trayner, 2015). This enables to illuminate how and why creative writing is contextually afforded, or otherwise, in primary and secondary landscapes of practice.FindingsThis analysis demonstrates how the redrafting of creative writing is marginalised in both landscapes of practice and how redrafting is largely conceptualised as a technical rather than critical or creative action. The authors show how teachers, particularly in primary school, aim for their pupils to produce “products” rather than engaging in the “process” of creative writing. This analysis also shows that whilst creative writing is overall more marginalised in the secondary school landscape, it is often taught through process approaches. In both landscapes of practice, the re-drafting of creative writing is largely taught through product approaches.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is potentially skewed by the fact that we recruited our participants through networks relating the teaching of English, including creative writing. What is worrying about this limitation, however, is that the picture of creative writing in schools in England probably leans more to a product approach than the picture this research has uncovered.Practical implicationsProfessional development for teachers in both landscapes is needed in relation to pedagogical actions for creative writing and its redrafting. Some of the key differences we have outlined in conceptualisations and practices between primary and secondary schools landscapes, notably the overuse of product-based teaching actions in primary landscapes, and some of the differences we have outlined within discrete landscapes of practice, notably how some primary school teachers feel more confident to challenge the product-based approach, with one conceptualising redrafting as “creative”, indicate that professional development should involve teachers working across schools.Social implicationsPolicy needs to be reformed to move away from the technicist view of creative writing held in both landscapes of practice. Linked to this, the way creative writing is assessed as a product in secondary schools needs to change – the re-introduction of portfolio-based coursework (Bishop, 1990) would provide the affordance of redrafting as an action central to creative writing processes.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a rare piece of research which compares primary and secondary school teachers’ approaches to teaching creative writing. It shows that primary school teachers can be formulaic in the way they teach creative writing, using product approaches. However, in secondary schools the picture is different: teachers, particularly those, who are writers themselves, give students more agency in redrafting and shaping their writing. This indicates how professional development should involve primary and secondary school teachers in dialogue with one another to cross boundaries of practice.

Background: It is critical that medical students develop self-directed, life-long learning skills to navigate medical school successfully and to become competent healthcare professionals. Moreover, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the USA medical school accrediting body, requires activities designed to help students develop self-directed learning (SDL) skills in the preclinical years. Objective: We evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a self-directed learning activity in a 6-week first-year medical student course. Design: The course director assigned infectious disease case studies to teams of first-year medical students who individually assessed their knowledge gaps of the case, identified scholarly sources to fill their knowledge gaps, shared the information with their teammates, and reflected on their ability to guide their own learning. Students were asked to rate workload, team effort, acquisition of new clinical knowledge, and life-long learning skills. Students were also asked to reflect on how this assignment affected their perception of their SDL skills. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses to the Likert scale questions. Thematic analysis was applied to the comments. Results: Survey response rate was 80% (131/163). Students strongly or moderately agreed that 1) they spent an appropriate amount of time on the project (94%), 2) the workload was evenly distributed among their teammates (95%), 3) their teammates made significant and timely contributions to the project (97%), 4) the project contributed to learning new clinical knowledge (92%), and 5) the project contributed to the acquisition of life-long learning skills (85%). The analysis team identified four themes from student reflections on their perception of their self-directed learning skills: self-learning skills, collaboration, application, and meta-cognition, Conclusions: Study results demonstrated that we successfully implemented a case-based SDL activity in a first-year medical school course and that students perceived the activity as a valuable learning experience.

PurposeThis study examined medical students’ self-directed learning skills in online learning contexts, and whether there were any differences among the student groups (from pre-medical program year 1 to medical program year 2) amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It also explored the components of self-directed learning skills influencing their perceived learnring performance and satisfaction in online learning contexts.MethodsThis study used a cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling. It was conducted in a Korean medical school, which delivered all courses online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The self-directed learning skill survey, which included student satisfaction and perceived learning performance items, was disseminated over two weeks through email to the participants. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and multiple regressions.ResultsThe survey response rate was 70% (140/200). The overall mean of self-directed learning skills was 3.85. Students in medical year 2 showed the highest score (4.15), while students in medical year 1 showed the lowest score (3.69). The learning plan category score (3.74) was the lowest among the three categories. The pre-medical program year 1 students showed the lowest score in the perceived learning performance (3.16), and only the learning plan category impacted student satisfaction (t=2.605, p=0.041) and perceived learning performance (t=3.022, p=0.003).ConclusionWhen designing online learning environments, it is imperative to provide features to help students set learning goals and search diverse online learning resources. In addition, it is an effective strategy to provide the students in medical program year 1 with self-directed learning skills training or support for successful online learning.

With the rapid development of emerging information technology, “Internet +” has been integrated into all aspects of education and teaching, changing the traditional teaching concept, teaching form, teaching environment, and teaching methods. Today, we have entered the post-epidemic era, but education should not and will not return to the state of teaching before the outbreak of the epidemic. Online teaching has become a necessary means of teaching. This paper investigates the effects of online teaching in primary school, junior high school and senior high school. In general, the satisfaction of online teaching in primary schools is higher than that in middle schools, and the satisfaction of students is higher than that of teachers. This paper further analyzes the Effects of Online Teaching and Influencing Factors in Primary and Secondary Schools, in order to provide reference for online teaching research.

The level of students' sense of gain is a standard to measure the effectiveness of physical education carried out in schools and is valued by schools. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate students' sense of gain in sports education. In this paper, 202 students in the fifth and sixth grades of the Affiliated Primary School of Shaoxing University are selected as subjects, and the questionnaire method is also used to investigate the current status of their sense of acquisition in physical culture. The revised Primary School High Level Physical Activity Sense Scale is utilized in this survey for independent samples T-tests and correlation analyses. It finds that (1) The sense of gain of sports in the Affiliated Primary School is extremely strong, and 98% of students are satisfied with sports. (2) There are differences between genders and grades in the sense of sports acquisition of senior students in primary schools. This study suggests that we should appropriately improve the quality of sports in physical education classes for senior students in primary schools and cultivate their interest in sports, giving them more ways to be involved in physical activities.

<p>Celem artykułu było przedstawienie wyników i wniosków z badań dotyczących zmian rozwojowych poczucia kontroli wśród współczesnej młodzieży w okresie wczesnej adolescencji doświadczającej przekształceń systemu edukacji w Polsce. Analizy stanowią podsumowanie pierwszych dwóch, z zaplanowanych trzech, etapów badań podłużnych. Prezentowane wyniki odnoszą się do powtarzanego co rok pomiaru poczucia kontroli w dwóch grupach uczniów: rocznika ze szkół podstawowych, który jako pierwszy realizuje wydłużoną naukę w szkole podstawowej – w klasie szóstej i siódmej, oraz uczniów, którzy stanowią rocznik wygaszający naukę w gimnazjach – w klasie pierwszej i drugiej. Poczucie kontroli zgeneralizowane oraz w sytuacjach sukcesów i porażek zostało ustalone na podstawie Kwestionariusza do Badania Poczucia Kontroli KBPK i KBPK-R. W badaniach sprawdzono, jakie różnice wystąpiły w zakresie zmian rozwojowych poczucia kontroli między uczniami szkół podstawowych i gimnazjów. Wyniki pokazały, że na przełomie dwóch lat badań w obu grupach uczniów wzrosło wewnętrzne poczucie kontroli, jednak to uczniowie szkół podstawowych charakteryzują się istotnie wyższym wewnętrznym przypisywaniem sobie odpowiedzialności za zdarzenia, szczególnie w sytuacjach sukcesów. Dodatkowe analizy uwzględniające płeć ujawniły wzrost zgeneralizowanego poczucia kontroli u dziewcząt oraz wewnętrznej kontroli w sytuacjach porażek u chłopców z gimnazjum.</p>

The purpose of this research is to seek the opinions of primary school teachers in order to investigate the pedagogical conditions for the development of educational independence of primary school students. The research was prepared in accordance with the qualitative research method. Research data were collected with a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. The participant group of the research consists of 80 primary school teachers working in various primary schools in Kazakhstan in the 2021–2022 academic year. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the majority of primary school teachers found students’ independent learning skills partially sufficient. Primary school teachers determined the role of families in the development of students’ independent learning skills as encouraging role, directing role, participation role and modelling role. Primary school teachers determined the role of teachers in the development of students’ independent learning skills as the role of providing independent learning skills, the role of developing independent learning skills, the role of approaching the right method, the role of supporting independent learning with in-class activities and the role of implementing technology-supported activities. Primary school teachers’ suggestions for the development of pedagogical conditions for students to gain independent learning skills are divided into five categories, i.e., creating a suitable school environment, creating a suitable classroom environment, teacher–parent cooperation, organising in-service trainings for teachers and organising seminars for families. Keywords: Independent learning, pedagogical conditions, primary school students, teacher opinions;

The purpose of this study is to identify the overall learning motivation of primary and middle school students. In this research study, the effect of such variables as gender, parents’ educational status, academic achievement and grade level on primary and middle school students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels were investigated. This study has a descriptive model as it aims to reveal and explain the current situation in detail. The participants of this study were primary and middle school students from different schools in Isparta. The motivation level detection scale was administered to determine the overall learning motivation of the participants. Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis T tests were used to compare the mean scores with respect to variables. The results imply that the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels of the primary school students who participated in this study did not differ in their gender, academic achievement and their parents’ educational status.Keywords: Primary school education, learning, learning motivation.

Self-directed learning (SDL) skills serve as the basis for physician lifelong learning; however, residency training does not typically emphasize SDL skills. To understand residents' needs regarding SDL curricula, the authors used qualitative methods to examine the residency learning culture and residents' views of SDL. The authors conducted individual, in-depth, semistructured interviews with all 13 final-year residents at the Brown University Family Medicine Residency Program. Interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Using an iterative individual and group process, four researchers conducted a qualitative analysis of the transcripts, identifying major themes and higher-order interpretations. Major themes included resident beliefs about learning, the learning culture in residency, and developmental progress in learning. Four paradoxes emerged in the analysis: (1) Residents understand and value the concept of SDL, but they engage in limited goal setting and reflection and report lack of skills to manage their own learning, particularly in the clinical setting. (2) Despite being immersed in what aims to be a learner-centered culture, many residents still value traditional, teacher-centered approaches. (3) Residents recognize patient care as the most powerful stimulus for SDL, but they often perceive patient care and learning as competing priorities. (4) Residents desire external guidance for SDL. Graduating residents lacked confidence in their SDL skills and their ability to manage their learning, especially in clinical settings. Fostering SDL skills during residency will likely require training and guidance for SDL as well as changes in the structure and culture of residency.

This study discusses the application of mind mapping in English teaching in primary schools. Through literature review and case analysis, it is found that mind mapping plays an important role in improving the effect of English teaching in primary schools and students' interest in learning. Specifically, mind mapping can be applied to vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing teaching, which can help students improve their English listening, speaking, reading and writing ability, stimulate their interest in learning and cultivate their autonomous learning ability. Through the rational use of mind mapping, teachers can help students better master basic knowledge such as vocabulary and grammar, and improve their reading and writing abilities. At the same time, mind mapping can also cultivate students' thinking ability, autonomous learning ability and creativity. Therefore, in actual teaching, teachers should flexibly use mind maps to assist teaching according to the teaching content and the actual situation of students, so as to improve the effect and quality of English teaching in primary schools. Generally speaking, mind mapping has a broad application prospect in primary school English teaching, which is of great significance to improve the quality of primary school English teaching and students' English application ability. This study has extensive application value.

The relevance of this article lies in the fact that during the period of the accelerating process of the technological development of society, the active introduction of electronic and distance learning technologies, electronic educational resources, the creation of a digital educational environment, it is necessary to prevent emerging very controversial problems. One of which is the demand for primary school teachers who have the necessary skills to work in a digital educational environment and the urgent need that arises against this background to prepare students and undergraduates for professional activities in accordance with modern educational trends. Thus, the article presents an analysis of the problem of preparing modern undergraduates in the direction “Pedagogical education”, profile “Primary education” for the implementation of their professional activities in the context of creating a unified digital educational environment of elementary school. A study developed on the basis of the methods of K. Zamfir (modified by A. A. Rean), V. I. Andreeva, studies by S. A. Zaitseva, where undergraduates were asked to complete tasks and answer questions related to the organization of a unified digital educational environment in elementary school. The study has made it possible to identify the level of their readiness to use digital technologies in their professional activities that contribute to the creation of a digital educational environment in elementary school. The task of the study was also to identify “gaps” in the process of developing the digital competence of undergraduates and further work to eliminate them, in order to prepare highly qualified specialists with skills that will allow them to independently develop and improve their digital competence and maintain professional mobility. The author of the article offers practical tasks that will improve the level of digital knowledge and skills of undergraduates: knowledge about digital technologies, understanding the possibilities of their use, understanding the essence of the digital transformation of the educational process, the skill of working with information, the ability to work in a unified digital educational environment of elementary school, etc. The research materials can be useful for teachers of universities, secondary vocational education, as well as additional education in organizing the process of professional training of primary school teachers. Keywords: digital transformation of education, digital competence, digital competence, digitalization of the educational process, digital technologies, primary education

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan (1) keefektifan pembelajaran missouri mathematics project dengan pendekatan problem solving (MMP-PS) terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa, (2) keefektifan pembelajaran missouri mathematics project (MMP) terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa, dan (3) perbedaan keefektifan pembelajaran MMP-PS dengan MMP terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa. Pendekatan penelitian ini merupakan kuantitatif dengan jenis penelitian quasi eksperimen.Keefektifan pembelajaran MMP-PS maupun MMP terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis menggunakan uji t satu sampel. Perbedaan keefektifan pembelajaran MMP-PS dengan MMP terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa dianalisis menggunakan MANOVA.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pembelajaran MMP-PS efektif terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa. Pembelajaran MMP tidak efektif terhadap kemandirian belajar, tetapi efektif terhadap kemampuan komunikasi matematis. Selain itu, terdapat perbedaan keefektifan antara pembelajaran MMP-PS dan MMP terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa. Hasil uji lanjut menunjukkan pembelajaran missouri mathematics project dengan pendekatan problem solving lebih efektif dibandingkan dengan pembelajaran missouri mathematics project terhadap kemandirian belajar dan kemampuan komunikasi matematis siswa.

About one in seven accidents involving children occurs at school. Roughly 70% of these accidents involve children under the age of 12 years. Thus, primary school teachers may be confronted with accidents where first aid could improve the outcome. Despite the importance of first-aid knowledge among teachers, little is known about this topic. To fill this gap, we conducted case-based survey research on the objective and subjective first-aid knowledge of primary school and kindergarten teachers in Flanders, Belgium. An online survey was distributed to primary school and kindergarten teachers. It included 14 hypothetical first-aid scenarios in a primary school context to assess objective knowledge, along with one item to assess subjective knowledge. A total of 361 primary school and kindergarten teachers completed the questionnaire. The participants achieved an average knowledge score of 66%. Those who had completed a first-aid course had significantly higher scores. Knowledge regarding child CPR was amongst the lowest, with only 40% correct answers. Structural equation modeling showed that only previous first-aid training, recent experience with first aid, and subjective first-aid knowledge were linked to teachers’ objective first-aid knowledge—particularly for basic first aid. This study shows that completing a first-aid course and completing a refresher course can predict objective first-aid knowledge. We therefore recommend that first-aid training and regular refresher courses should be mandatory in teacher training, given that a large share of teachers may need to apply first aid to a pupil at some point during their career.

With the closer communication and cooperation among countries around the world, the importance of English as the main medium of communication is becoming increasingly prominent. At present, how to increase the acquisition and English teaching in primary schools in China is one of the key issues that the education community needs to explore. The acquisition and teaching of English in primary schools in China belong to the category of second language acquisition, and Krashen's second language acquisition theory is the most comprehensive theory among the second language acquisition theories. This article will combine Krashen's The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis, The Natural Order Hypothesis, The Monitor Hypothesis, The Input Hypothesis, and The Affective Filter Hypothesis to reflect on their impact and inspiration on teachers, schools, and primary school students. Exploring how to apply Krashen's second language acquisition theory to promote primary school English acquisition and teacher teaching in the context of various issues currently faced in primary school English acquisition and education. To provide a certain reference for relevant practice and teaching.

In addition to content knowledge, it is necessary to teach learning skills. Using relevant learning skills assures better learning outcomes and abilities for the whole life course. Due to a packed curriculum or teachers having insufficient skills, student learning skills are often neglected. The aim of this study is to find out whether it is possible to support the development of declarative knowledge in learning skills in teachers through procedural knowledge acquired via practical teaching activities. A quasi-experimental study using semi-structured pre- and post-intervention interviews and six-month intervention activities was conducted with 14 teachers. The procedural knowledge of the teachers was assessed based on their practical experience with the intervention activities. Their declarative knowledge was assessed based on pre- and post-intervention interview reflections. The findings revealed that procedural knowledge, being predominantly teacher centred, mostly appears through experience and reflections on the teaching practice that guides them. It also appeared that the intervention focusing on advancing procedural knowledge among teachers advanced their declarative knowledge in terms of metacognition, revealing new aspects of motivation and sense-giving for their learning. As follow-up research, we plan to continue studying conditional knowledge in teachers in order to identify situations where this is applied.