Redesigning Mathematics Tasks

<p style="text-align:justify">Research on critical thinking skills has been frequently carried out, but it has not shown maximum results. This problem is exacerbated by the differences in pre-service teachers’ academic abilities. A new learning model that can improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills and reduce the gap in critical thinking skills among the upper, middle, and lower academic ability pre-service teachers is needed. This research aims at exploring the potential of the QASEE learning model on the critical thinking skills of different academic ability. This quasi-experimental research involved 107 pre-service teachers of Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Fatah, Indonesia. The research classes were divided into three classes, namely the QASEE class (experimental class), the RQA class (positive control class), and the conventional class (negative control class). Each class was further divided into upper, middle, and lower academic categories. The data were collected using an essay test supported by a critical thinking skill rubric. The data were analyzed by using ANCOVA and followed by LSD test. The research results show that the QASEE (Questioning, Answering, Sharing, Extending, and Evaluating) learning model can improve and equalize the critical thinking skills of pre-service teachers with various academic levels. Thus, the QASEE learning model can be used as a new reference to improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills, especially the lower academic ability.</p>

In a socially constructivist classroom, critical thinking is an important skill that teachers need to have to help them deliver lessons effectively. The use of 7E instructional design model is a well-known framework that pre-service teachers use to deliver their lessons. This study examined how pre-service teachers use critical thinking skills in 7E Instructional design lesson plans in science, which is rooted in social constructivism that emphasizes collaborative and learner-centered learning. This study utilized descriptive quantitative method, specifically frequency and weighted means following the 5-point Likert scale, then supplemented with descriptive qualitative data to verify and support the critical thinking skills in designing inquiry-based lesson plans of 162 second-year Bachelor of Elementary Education pre-service teachers. The instrument used in the study was a 35-item research-made questionnaire anchored on the 7E instructional design model that underwent validity and reliability testing, and was divided into seven sub-categories. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers generally use critical thinking skills in designing inquiry-based lesson plans. Pre-service teachers employ critical thinking by designing activities that help learners apply their new knowledge to solve problems, create new outputs, and connect to real-world situations. This study recommends that pre-service teachers' lesson plans must be examined to confirm their use of critical thinking skills, practical opportunities must be provided to them for improvement, and institutional policies must be formulated to guide them in designing lesson plans.

ABSTRACTWe live in a time of global crises: a deteriorating environment that is struggling to provide all the resources and services we demand of it, changing climate and its consequences for the biosphere, its habitats, inhabitants and biodiversity, conflicts‐divisive ideologies‐competition for resources, increasing societal inequalities and human deprivations, and a youth mental health pandemic, to name but just a few. Most of these crises are self‐made, the result of human decisions, and their acceptance/toleration by society. Policies and practices at all levels of society that created, exacerbate and launch new crises are, at worst, self‐serving and, at best, faulted through a lack of understanding. In democracies, citizens can hold decision‐makers to account but, to do this, they must understand the issues and be able to imagine better policies. We also live in a digital world in which a flood of mostly inconsequential information and misinformation pollutes our brains, enhancing pre‐existing biases and creating new ones, and numbing our mental ability to think clearly and reach sensible decisions. But sensible decisions are urgently needed at all levels to fix problems and reduce future self‐harm. Sensible decisions require sourcing the best available relevant information, and a process to convert information into understanding, understanding into clear decision options, and the choice of a decision option that leads to an action that represents best practice. Critical thinking is the enabling cognitive process of this decision pathway, because it selects the best available information through demanding evidence‐basing, seeks critical discourse between experts and stakeholders that agnostically explores solution space to find plausible options, and whittles down options inter alia through plausibility, due diligence, bottleneck analysis, cost‐benefit analysis, and benchmarking filtering. Crucially, it rejects biases, influencing factors, and other constraints on options, and is an effective barrier to the information flood. The problem is that critical thinking capacity is not widely available among either decision makers or stakeholders. There is an urgent need to rapidly roll out effective education programmes in which critical thinking teaching is solidly embedded. Since biases accumulate with age, the teaching of critical thinking must begin with the very young. However, the very young are not able to comprehend the complex abstract issues underpinning critical thinking. Embedding the teaching of critical thinking in a suitable educational context, and integrating it into curricula, is another challenge. To address these two challenges, the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative is developing a storytelling programme for children, called the Critical Thinking MicroChats Gallery, within the curriculum of societally relevant microbiology it is creating. MicroChats illustrate the principal practical elements of critical thinking, like bottlenecks, cost: benefit, benchmarking, the need for discussions and other points of view, employing readily relatable, relevant microbially centric scenarios. MicroChats suggest class discussion topics to encourage children to imagine the application of each element in other contexts to reinforce principles and hone critical thinking skills. Critical thinking, and especially the cultivation of the habit of asking ‘why’ and requiring plausible justification for policies/actions, is a shield against bias, prejudice, propaganda, misinformation and the incessant pressures of social media. It promotes a healthy mind and the attainment of the developmental potential of individuals. Increasing critical thinking in society will raise the quality of decision making at all levels and thereby improve sustainability/reduce the human footprint on our planet, and promote the individual sense of responsibility and global citizenship necessary for the improvement of the condition of humanity and its relationship with Planet Earth.

Background: Given the importance of studies the mathematics teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy of pre-service teachers, novice teachers (up to 10 years of experience) and experienced teachers (more than 10 years of experience), it is important to research the behaviour of the three groups proposed. Objectives: Compare the mathematics teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy of pre-service and in-service Primary Education teachers. Design: The Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) is used to carry out the study. The MTEBI comprises two subscales: Personal Mathematics Teaching Efficacy (or teaching self-efficacy) (PMTE) and Mathematics Teaching Outcome Expectancy (MTOE). Setting and Participants: The first group of participants consists of 419 pre-service teachers enrolled at the bachelor’s degree in Primary Education, the second group of participants consists of 69 novice teachers and the last group consists of 176 experienced teachers. Data collection and analysis: Students of all the years of the bachelor’s degree were invited to answer the MTEBI. Therefore, the participation was optional and completely anonymous. Directors of Primary Education schools in the city were sent the link of the survey during the second trimester of 2018-19 academic year. They shared the link so that novice and experienced teachers were able to answer it confidentially. Results: The comparison reveals that experienced teachers have the highest scores in PMTE subscale. The pre-service teachers, on the contrary, give the lowest scores in this subscale. In the MTOE subscale, the lowest values are obtained in the case of novice teachers. Additionally, the statistical analysis shows that there are significant differences between the three groups in both the PMTE and MTOE subscales. Conclusions: The findings of the current study provides information that would be useful for teacher educators to design or modify courses in order to enforce the mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-service and in-service Primary Education teachers.

This research seeks to elucidate students' critical thinking abilities about comparable content. This study is descriptive in nature and employs a qualitative methodology. This study employs a case study methodology. The obtained data comprises critical thinking ability exam results, which include two problems and interviews. The obtained data is assessed according to the critical thinking skill indicators established by the researcher, which include: 1) investigating; 2) recognizing and justifying ideas; 3) generalizing; 4) clarifying and resolving. This research employs data analysis methodologies from Miles and Huberman, including data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing/verification. The triangulation approach ensures the authenticity of the data used in this investigation. The data analysis findings categorize students' cognitive capacities into three groups: 11.11% (4 students) are classified as high, 27.78% (10 students) as medium, and 61.11% (22 students) as low. From the perspective of critical thinking capacity, 100% of students explored the topic, 55.56% identified and justified the notion, 16.67% generalized, and 11.11% clarified and resolved the issue. These findings demonstrate that students’ overall critical thinking abilities in solving similarity problems are still low, particularly in generalizing and resolving problems. The study contributes theoretically by reinforcing the significance of critical thinking in mathematics education, particularly geometry; methodologically by integrating test and interview data to analyze thinking processes; and practically by offering insights for teachers to develop instructional strategies that foster students' ability to think critically and solve problems effectively.

The study sought to answer these questions: How do the teaching strategies employed by Ghanaianinitial teacher educators and the classroom ecology they create affects the thinking skills of pre-serviceteachers? And what can be done to improve pre-service teachers’ thinking through teaching methodsand classroom ecology? The study employed a qualitative case study approach to investigate theproblem at Akatakyiman Teacher Training College (a pseudonym) in Ghana. Teachers in science,mathematics and social studies and students were interviewed and observed.

In this study, the relationship between pre-service teachers' critical thinking dispositions and their attitudes towards socioscientific issues was examined. Relational survey method, which is one of the quantitative research approaches, was used in the research process. 813 pre-service teachers from science, mathematics, preschool, psychological counseling and guidance, social sciences, classroom teaching, and fine arts departments studying at education faculties in state universities in the Black Sea Region of Turkey participated in the research. Critical thinking disposition and attitude scales were used as data collection tools in the research. The findings were examined by considering the variables of gender, class level, knowledge about socioscientific issues and the department of education. In the analysis of the data obtained, the results for each scale were first divided into groups as low, medium and high scores. Variables with two categories were analyzed using the independent samples t-test, and variables with more than two categories were analyzed using the ANOVA test. Then, multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Hayes's (2018) regression model number 1 was used to confirm the research results and to support it with advanced statistics. As a result of the research, it was determined that the pre-service teachers with low and medium critical thinking dispositions also had low attitudes towards socioscientific issues and sub-variables did not make a significant difference. At this point, some suggestions can be made to pre-service teachers with a low and medium level of critical thinking disposition. It can be ensured that they participate in project activities on socioscientific issues during the training process. It can be ensured that courses within the scope of critical and analytical thinking are taken. It has also been determined that the pre-service teachers with high critical thinking disposition have high attitudes towards socioscientific issues, and there is a significant difference in terms of the variables of the department, grade level and having knowledge about socioscientific issues.

The purpose of the research is to evaluate the games prepared by pre-service classroom teachers within the scope of “Mathematics Teaching 1” and “Mathematics Teaching 2” courses, which are included in the undergraduate classroom teaching programs in Turkey, and to make predictions on the game design skills of pre-service teachers through them. The study has been conducted as a case study which is one of the qualitative research designs. The sampling group has been composed of 108 mathematical games designed by 386 undergraduate students, who were third year students at Necmettin Erbakan University, department of classroom teaching in 2015-2016 academic year, fall and spring semesters. Data collected through interviews and observations have been analysed with the helpof descriptive analysis method. Results indicate thatpre-service teachers failed at designing games that are satisfactory in terms of “Game Rules”, “Goals and objectives”, “Outcomes and feedback” and “Interaction”. This can be taken as one of the main indicators ofgeneral failure in game designs.According to the otherfindings, game designs developed by pre-service teachers were partially or completely satisfactory in terms of “Conflict (Competition, challenge, and opposition)” and “Story”

This study investigated pre-service and in-service English teachers’ efficacy beliefs about teaching English at primary schools in Turkey by revealing the teaching aspects that they felt most and least efficacious. The study also attempted to understand pre-service teachers’ views about the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education and explore which major problems in-service teachers encountered while teaching English at primary schools. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 170 pre-service and 129 in-service teachers through a questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. According to the findings, both groups held similar positive or negative efficacy beliefs about most teaching aspects: while they reported feeling most efficacious in ‘using visual materials’, ‘giving simple instructions’, and ‘using gestures, facial expressions and body language effectively’, they reported feeling least efficacious in ‘using mainly kinaesthetic activities’, ‘managing class time effectively’, and ‘knowing how each language skill can be developed’. Pre-service teachers agreed that the ‘teaching practicum’ was the most ineffective aspect of the programme, followed by ‘lack of practice-based courses’, ‘inadequate number of teaching English to young learners courses’, and ‘language courses’. In-service teachers reported having problems because of ‘limited class hours’, ‘poor textbooks’, ‘lack of technological resources’, ‘lack of learner preparedness’, ‘lack of learner motivation’, and ‘large classes’. In the light of these findings, implications were generated to improve the effectiveness of pre-service and in-service teacher education, which could increase the quality of education for English language students at primary schools

To improve the effectiveness of English teaching and learning, it is necessary for learners to develop critical thinking skills. Despite being a common-used skill of students worldwide, it has not been effectively acquired by Vietnamese students when using English textbooks as Life Pre-Intermediate (Vietnam edition). Using the methodological triangulation, we set the task of helping English learners and their teachers in conceiving, designing, implementing and operating critical thinking construction in the textbook, and in relevance to their background knowledge. The results of a survey of freshmen at Vinh University show that the participants' capacity of critical thinking, their embodied experience and learning methods are rather far from what the textbook requires. Therefore, the essential way to learning and teaching English as a second language with Life Pre-Intermediate is to re-recognize and adhere to the principles of foreign language teaching and learning, and that teachers need to play the role of advisors.

We compared the respective attitudes of pre-service teachers (PST) and in-service teachers (IST) towards bullying. A questionnaire survey was administered to 110 PST and 128 IST. Self-efficacy beliefs, external locus of causality and empathy for the victims were higher in IST than PST. Perceived seriousness of bullying and likelihood of intervention were higher in IST, but only in the case of overt bullying. In both PST and IST the perceived seriousness of the episode, whether overt or covert, was associated with greater empathy for the victim and greater propensity to intervene. In IST, only in the case of covert bullying, the perceived seriousness of the episode, empathy with the victims, and likelihood of intervention were negatively related to the recommendation of maladaptive strategies. These results, and their consequences on teachers’ training programmes and school preventive intervention, are discussed.

A new approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics has been introduced on a phased basis in post-primary education in Ireland. As part of the OECD PISA 2012, a survey was undertaken of in-service mathematics teachers in Ireland, with the aim of gathering data on the opinions of teachers about this reform. Here, a modified version of the survey was distributed to pre-service teachers immediately before and after a four-month teaching placement to ascertain if there were differences in the views expressed by pre-service and in-service teachers in relation to the teaching and learning of mathematics, and also if there were differences expressed by the pre-service teachers before and after their placement in post-primary schools. Analysis of the results showed considerable levels of agreement between all groups, with some exceptions in relation to confidence in teaching the reformed curriculum, emphasis on various teaching and learning activities, and usage of ICT in the classroom.

This study investigates the digital competence levels of Lebanese preservice and in-service teachers using the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu). The research aims to explore the existing gap in digital competence between these two groups through a cross-sectional descriptive survey, involving 170 in-service teachers and 194 preservice teachers from various undergraduate teacher training programs in Lebanon. The findings reveal significant differences between in-service and preservice teachers in all six competence areas and no significant difference per subject areas, with in-service teachers demonstrating higher overall digital competence compared to preservice teachers. The study draws attention to the need for improved practical training and targeted interventions in teacher education programs to better prepare preservice teachers for the digital demands of modern classrooms. The findings have implications for policy and practice, particularly in enhancing teacher training programs to meet the evolving digital needs of education.

This study aims to investigate whether there are differences in the intentions to adopt maker education between in-service and pre-service teachers. It also seeks to identify the key factors affecting their intentions, providing insights for tailoring professional development (PD) training programs to meet the needs of teachers at different career stages. A hybrid maker-based PD program was designed and offered to both in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants' behavioral intentions to adopt maker education were assessed after the PD program using an extended Theory of Planned Behavior model. The intentions of in-service and pre-service teachers were examined, and the key factors affecting their intentions were identified using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that pre-service teachers had significantly lower intentions to adopt maker education compared to in-service teachers. For pre-service teachers, attitude was the key factor influencing their intentions, while for in-service teachers, subjective norms played a crucial role. These findings highlight the importance of tailored PD for teachers at different career stages.

For tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, academic writing is not an easy task. It requires knowledge of the academic writing genres with their particular linguistic features. Moreover, academic writing demands good critical thinking. This research aims to explore the students' academic writing competencies that also focus on critical thinking. The research involved thirty-six first-year tertiary EFL students from a regular class of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The source for data collection was the students’ texts. Three texts were selected and the students were categorized into low, medium, and high levels of writing achievement. The text analysis utilized functional grammar rooted in systemic functional linguistics (Emilia, 2014). The analysis shows that the students, regardless of their levels of writing achievement, have little control over the schematic structure and linguistic features of an argumentative writing. The text analysis also shows that the students’ texts have some limitations as regards their critical thinking capacity. Still, a few examples of academic language were detected in the texts. The findings suggest that the lecturer should incorporate explicit teaching and cooperative learning activities to alleviate the students' difficulties and develop their academic writing and critical thinking capacity.