• Title/Summary/Keyword: Middle school teacher

Search Result 858, Processing Time 0.03 seconds

The Effect of Using Metacognitive Strategies in Mathematics Lesson on Students' Metacognitive Awareness

  • Hizir, Kucukakca;Ayse Elitok, Kesici;Ji-Eun, Lee
    • Research in Mathematical Education
    • /
    • v.25 no.4
    • /
    • pp.245-266
    • /
    • 2022
  • This study examines how teaching metacognitive strategies to students in a sixth-grade mathematics class affects their metacognitive awareness. Participants were 36 sixth-grade students in a middle school affiliated with the Ministry of National Education of Turkey in the 2020-2021 academic year. The students in the experimental group (n = 18) were taught a total of 40 mathematics lessons for eight weeks to improve their metacognitive awareness. The students in the control group (n=18) were taught mathematics in line with the regular mathematics curriculum. Using the Jr. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, participants in both groups took a pre-test at the beginning and a post-test at the end of the study. To better interpret the data obtained, various statistical tests were performed. The pre-test and post-test averages of the groups were compared using the t-test for the normally distributed data for dependent and independent groups. The pre-test results showed no significant difference between the metacognitive awareness scores of the experimental and control groups (p>0.05). The comparison of post-test averages showed that students' metacognitive awareness differed significantly in favor of the experimental group (p<0.05). According to this, it was concluded that metacognitive strategy teaching in mathematics courses positively affected students' metacognitive awareness levels.

A Study on Teaching-Learning and Evaluation Methods of Environmental Studies in the Middle School (중학교 "환경" 교과의 교수.학습 및 평가 방법 연구)

  • 남상준
    • Hwankyungkyoyuk
    • /
    • v.7 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-17
    • /
    • 1994
  • This study was performed to determine appropriate teaching-learning and evaluation methods for Environmental Studies. To promote the relevance of our study to the needs of the schools and concerned educational communities of environmental education, we reviewed related literature, conducted questionnaire surveys, interviewed related teachers and administrator, held meetings with experts, and field-tested our findings. For selecting and developing teaching-learning methods of Environmental Studies, findings of educational research in general are considered. moreover, principles of environmental education, general aim of environmental education, orientations of environmental education, and developmental stages of middle school students in educational psychology were attended. In addition, relevance to the purpose of the Environmental Studies curriculum, appropriateness for value inquiry as well as knowledge inquiry, small group centered class organization, social interaction centered teaching-learning process, regional environmental situation, significance of personal environment, evaluation methods of Environmental Studies, multi- and inter-disciplinary contents of the Environmental Studies textbook, suitability to the evaluation methods of Environmental Studies, and emphasis on the social interaction in teaching-learning process were regarded. It was learned the Environmental Studies can be taught most effectively in via of holding discussion sessions, conducting actual investigation, doing experiment-practice, doing games and plate, role-playing and carrying out simulation activities, and doing inquiry. These teaching-learning methods were field-tested and proved appropriate methods for the subject. For selecting and developing evaluation method of Environmental Studies, such principles and characteristics of Environmental Studies as objective domains stated in the Environmental Studies curriculum, diversity of teaching-learning organization, were appreciated. We categorized nine evaluation methods: the teacher may conduct questionnaire surveys, testings, interviews, non-participatory observations; they may evaluate student's experiment-practice performances, reports preparation ability, ability to establish a research project, the teacher may ask the students to conduct a self-evaluation, or reciprocal evaluation. To maximize the effect of these methods, we further developed an application system. It considered three variables, that is, evaluates, evaluation objectives domains, and evaluation agent, and showed how to choose the most appropriate methods and, when necessary, how to combine uses of different methods depending on these variables. A sample evaluation instrument made on the basis of this application system was developed and tested in the classes. The system proved effective. Pilot applications of the teaching-learning methods and evaluation method were made simultaneously; and the results and their implications are as follows. Discussion program was applied in a lesson dealing with the problems of waste disposal, in which students showed active participation and creative thinking. The evaluation method used in this lesson was a multiple-choice written test for knowledge and skills. It was shown that this evaluation method and device are effective in helping students' revision of the lesson and in stimulating their creative interpretations and responces. Pupils showed great interests in the actual investigation program, and this programme was proved to be effective in enhancing students' participation. However, it was also turned out that there must be pre-arranged plans for the objects, contents and procedures of survey if this program is to effective. In this lesson, non-participatory observation methods were used with a focus on the attitudes of students. A scaled reported in general description rather than in grade. Experiment-practice programme was adopted in a lesson for purifying contaminated water and in this lesson, instruction objectives were properly established, the teaching-learning process was clearly specified and students were highly motivated. On the other hand, however, it was difficult to control the class when some groups of students require more times to complete their experiment, and sometimes different results. As regards to evaluation, performance observation test were used for assessing skills and attitudes. If teachers use well-prepared Likert scale, evaluation of all groups within a reasonablely short period of time will be possible. The most effective and successful programme in therms of students' participation and enjoyment, was the 'ah-nah-bah-dah-market' program, which is kind of game of the flea market. For better organized program of this kind, however, are essential, In this program, students appraise their own attitudes and behavior by responding to a written questionnaire. In addition, students were asked to record any anecdotes relating to self-appraisal of changes on one's own attitudes and behaviours. Even after the lesson, students keep recording those changes on letters to herself. Role-playing and simulation game programme was applied to a case of 'NIMBY', in which students should decide where to located a refuse dumping ground. For this kind of programme to e successful, concepts and words used in the script should be appropriate for students' intellectual levels, and students should by adequately introduced into the objective and the procedures of the lessons. Written questionnaire was used to assess individual students' attitudes after the lesson, but in order to acquire information on the changes of students' attitudes and skills, pre-test may have to be made. Doing inquiry programme, in which advantages in which students actually investigated the environmental influence of the areas where school os located, had advantages in developing students' ability to study the environmental problems and to present the results of their studies. For this programme to be more efficient, areas of investigation should be clearly divided and alloted to each group so that repetition or overlap in areas of study and presentation be avoided, and complementary wok between groups bee enhanced. In this programme, teacher assessed students' knowledge and attitudes on the basis of reports prepared by each group. However, there were found some difficults in assessing students' attitudes and behaviours solely on the grounds of written report. Perhaps, using a scaled checklist assessing students' attitudes while their presentation could help to relieve the difficulties.

  • PDF

A Mathematics Teacher's Reflective Practice as a Process of Professional Development (전문성 신장 과정으로서의 한 수학교사의 성찰적 실천)

  • Kim, Dong-Won
    • Communications of Mathematical Education
    • /
    • v.23 no.3
    • /
    • pp.735-760
    • /
    • 2009
  • Most of every teachers' life is occupied with his or her instruction, and a classroom is a laboratory for mutual development between teacher and students also. Namely, a teacher's professionalism can be enhanced by circulations of continual reflection, experiment, verification in the laboratory. Professional development is pursued primarily through teachers' reflective practices, especially instruction practices which is grounded on $Sch\ddot{o}n's$ epistemology of practices. And a thorough penetration about situations or realities and an exact understanding about students that are now being faced are foundations of reflective practices. In this study, at first, we explored the implications of earlier studies for discussing a teacher's practice. We could found two essential consequences through reviewing existing studies about classroom and instructions. One is a calling upon transition of perspectives about instruction, and the other is a suggestion of necessity of a teachers' reflective practices. Subsequently, we will talking about an instance of a middle school mathematics teacher's practices. We observed her instructions for a year. She has created her own practical knowledges through circulation of reflection and practices over the years. In her classroom, there were three mutual interaction structures included in a rich expressive environments. The first one is students' thinking and justifying in their seats. The second is a student's explaining at his or her feet. The last is a student's coming out to solve and explain problem. The main substances of her practical know ledges are creating of interaction structures and facilitating students' spontaneous changes. And the endeavor and experiment for diagnosing trouble and finding alternative when she came across an obstacles are also main elements of her practical knowledges Now, we can interpret her process of creating practical knowledge as a process of self-directed professional development when the fact that reflection and practices are the kernel of a teacher's professional development is taken into account.

  • PDF

Classification of latent classes and analysis of influencing factors on longitudinal changes in middle school students' mathematics interest and achievement: Using multivariate growth mixture model (중학생들의 수학 흥미와 성취도의 종단적 변화에 따른 잠재집단 분류 및 영향요인 탐색: 다변량 성장혼합모형을 이용하여)

  • Rae Yeong Kim;Sooyun Han
    • The Mathematical Education
    • /
    • v.63 no.1
    • /
    • pp.19-33
    • /
    • 2024
  • This study investigates longitudinal patterns in middle school students' mathematics interest and achievement using panel data from the 4th to 6th year of the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study. Results from the multivariate growth mixture model confirmed the existence of heterogeneous characteristics in the longitudinal trajectory of students' mathematics interest and achievement. Students were classified into four latent classes: a low-level class with weak interest and achievement, a high-level class with strong interest and achievement, a middlelevel-increasing class where interest and achievement rise with grade, and a middle-level-decreasing class where interest and achievement decline with grade. Each class exhibited distinct patterns in the change of interest and achievement. Moreover, an examination of the correlation between intercepts and slopes in the multivariate growth mixture model reveals a positive association between interest and achievement with respect to their initial values and growth rates. We further explore predictive variables influencing latent class assignment. The results indicated that students' educational ambition and time spent on private education positively affect mathematics interest and achievement, and the influence of prior learning varies based on its intensity. The perceived instruction method significantly impacts latent class assignment: teacher-centered instruction increases the likelihood of belonging to higher-level classes, while learner-centered instruction increases the likelihood of belonging to lower-level classes. This study has significant implications as it presents a new method for analyzing the longitudinal patterns of students' characteristics in mathematics education through the application of the multivariate growth mixture model.

Practical problem-based teaching·learning process plan to develop and apply to enhance safety awareness in middle school students (중학생의 주생활 안전의식 함양을 위한 실천적 문제 중심 가정과 교수·학습 과정안 개발 및 적용)

  • Song, Eunmi;Cho, Jaesoon
    • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
    • /
    • v.29 no.1
    • /
    • pp.15-33
    • /
    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a practical problem-based teaching learning process plan for safety in residential environment to raise safety awareness of middle school students. The plan consisting of 4 lessons has been developed and implemented according to the ADDIE model. Various activity materials (26 student's activity sheets and 8 reading texts, and 8 teacher's reading texts) and visual materials (4 sets of pictures & photos and 8 moving pictures) as well as questionnaire were developed for the 4-session lessons. The plans were implemented by the researcher to 4 classes 121 freshmen of M boy's middle school in Kyeongbuk during December 21st to 29th, 2015. Students were highly enjoyed and satisfied with the whole 4-lessons in the aspects such as the level of participation in the lesson, understanding of the contents, adequacy of materials and activities, and usefulness in own's daily life. Students also reported that they were highly aware to practice the contents learned from the lessons in daily family life at home with one's family and recommended to teach the lessons to other schools, too. It can be concluded that the teaching learning process plan for safety in residential environment would raise safety awareness of middle school students through the Home Economics subject.

An Analysis of the Characteristics of Teachers' Adaptive Practices in Science Classes (과학 수업에서 교사의 적응적 실행의 특징 분석)

  • Heekyong Kim;Bongwoo Lee
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.43 no.4
    • /
    • pp.403-414
    • /
    • 2023
  • In this study, we examined the adaptive practices of science teachers in their classrooms and their perspectives on the distinguishing features of these practices within science subjects. Our analysis comprised 339 cases from 128 middle and high school science teachers nationwide, and 199 cases on the characteristics of adaptive practices in science disciplines. The primary findings were as follows: First, the most significant characteristic of adaptive practice in science disciplines pertained to experimental procedures. Within the 'suggestion of additional materials/activities' category, the most frequently cited adaptive practice, teachers incorporated demonstrations to either facilitate student comprehension or enhance motivation. Additionally, 'experimental equipment manipulation or presentation of inquiry skills' emerged as the second most common adaptive practice related to experiments. Notably, over 50% of teacher responses regarding the characteristics of adaptive practices in science pertained to experiment guidance. Second, many adaptive practices involving difficulties experienced by students in learning situations were presented, particularly in areas such as numeracy and literacy. Many cases were related to the basic ability of mathematics used as a tool in science learning and understanding scientific terms in Chinese characters. Third, beyond 'experiment guidance', the characteristic adaptive practices of science subjects were related to 'connections between scientific theory and the real world', 'misconception guidance in science', 'cultivation of scientific thinking', and 'convergence approaches'. Fourth, the cases of adaptive practice presented by the science teachers differed by school level and major; therefore, it is necessary to consider school level or major in future research related to adaptive practice. Fifth, most of the adaptive action items with a small number of cases were adaptive actions executed from a macroscopic perspective, so it is necessary to pay attention to related professionalism. Finally, based on the results of this study, the implications for science education were discussed.

An Analysis of the Difficulties Faced by New Science Teachers in Secondary Schools (중등과학 초임교사가 교직수행과정에서 겪는 어려움 분석)

  • Koo, Eun-Ju;Park, Yune-Bae
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.31 no.2
    • /
    • pp.153-163
    • /
    • 2011
  • This study aimed to identify the difficulties that new science teachers in secondary schools experience. Subjects for this study were 190 science teachers attending qualifying training for 1st degree of teaching certificate. Using an open questionnaire, the difficulties these teachers encounter were collected, categorized, and compared between their first year and their succeeding years of teaching in terms of their school level, gender, majors and regions. Results showed that first year science teachers have had difficulties in areas including subject teaching, guidance, administrative affairs, human relationship and self-understanding. On their succeeding years, difficulties about subject teaching were reduced to half while other difficulties remained. New teachers in middle schools have experienced the most number of difficulties about guidance, while new teachers in general high schools have experienced the most number of difficulties about subject teaching. Based on these findings, some recommendations were proposed for new science teachers in secondary schools, school administrators, and training institutions.

The Effect of Characteristics of the Extended Science Investigations Tasks on Middle School Students' Motivation for Investigation (확장적 과학 탐구 과제의 특징이 중학생의 탐구 동기에 미치는 영향)

  • Yoon, Hye-Gyoung;Pak, Sung-Jae
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.21 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-12
    • /
    • 2001
  • The extended science investigations, comprehensive investigations contrasted with exercises of process skill components and cookbook style experiments, should be pursued for giving opportunity of more authentic science activity. The characteristics of the extended investigation tasks were emerged from critical argument on school practical work. And one of important educational objectives in students' investigations is to achieve motivation for investigation. The purpose of this study is to explore how the characteristics of the extended investigation tasks, that is practical context, openness and continuity, affect middle school students' motivation for investigation. On the basis of questionnaire results and students' school science achievement, ten students were interviewed to see the change of motivation for investigation and its causes while they perform two textbook investigations and four extended investigation tasks. Among the interviewees, the students who showed positive motivation for the extended investigations were critical about textbook experiments as they are just confirmations of theories and perceived practical context and openness as the main causes of their positive motivation. The students who showed negative motivation for extended investigations preferred textbook experiments as there was enough guidance from teacher and textbook-centered learning. They recognized the openness of the tasks as a main reason of their negative motivation for investigation. Some students showed negative responses about continuity of the extended investigation tasks but continuity was not recognized as a main cause for their motivation for investigation.

  • PDF

Error analysis on factorization and the effect of online individualization classes (인수분해에 대한 오류 분석과 온라인 개별화 수업의 효과)

  • Choi, Dong-won;Heo, Haeja
    • Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
    • /
    • v.24 no.1
    • /
    • pp.83-105
    • /
    • 2021
  • In this paper, we analyzed the misconceptions and errors incurred during factorization learning. We also examined whether online individualization classes had a positive effect on students' mathematical achievement. The experiment was conducted for 4 weeks (16 times in total) on middle school juniors in rural areas of Gyeonggi Province, where the influence of private extra education was small. In the class, the 'Google Classroom' was used as a LMS, the video lecture was uploaded to YouTube, and the teacher interacted with the students through "Zoom" and "Facetalk". In the online class situation, students' assignments and test answers were checked in real time through 'Google Classroom', and immediate feedback was provided to the experimental class group's students. However, for the control group students, feedback was provided only to those who desired. A total of 7 achievement evaluations were conducted in the order of pre-test, formative evaluation (5 times), and post-test to confirm the change in students' ability improvement and achievement. Through the formative evaluation analysis, it was possible to grasp the types of errors and misconceptions that occured during the factorization process. Students' errors were divided into four types: theorem or definition distortion error, functional errors such as calculation, operation, and manipulation, errors that do not verify the solution, and no response. As a result of ANCOVA, the two groups did not show any difference from the 1st to 4th formative assessment. However, the 5th formative assessment and post-test showed statistically significant differences, confirming that online individualization classes contributed to improvemed achievement.

The Conceptions of Homeostasis, Classification of Animals and Plants, and Food Production in Plants of Students and The Teacher Factor as a Possible Source of Students' Misconception (항상성, 동.식물 분류, 식물의 양분생산에 대한 학생의 개념 조사와 오개념 형성 원인으로써 교사 요인의 분석)

  • Kim, Soo-Mi;Chung, Young-Lan
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.17 no.3
    • /
    • pp.261-271
    • /
    • 1997
  • This study evaluates on students' understanding and misunderstanding of homeostasis, classification of animals and plants, and food production in plants, and analyzes the teacher factor as a possible source of students' misconception. A total number of 863 students and 47 biology teachers at the middle and high school were randomly selected. Students' conceptions and misconceptions were measured with concept evaluation statements (CES) which was translated into Korean by author. The CES was developed and validated by Simson and Marek (1988). Teacher's misconceptions were investigated the way in which teachers marked students' work. The supposed answer given to the teachers to mark was based on misconceptions held by students tested in concept evaluation statements. The results of this study are as follows : 1. 0% of 7th Grade students, 4.5% of 9th Grade students and 5.4% of 11th Grade students understood homeostasis. There was a significant difference at the level of students' understanding of homeostasis according to schools and gender(P<0.05). Many students had a tendency of understanding the conception of the homeostasis by experiences and unscientific use of everyday language rather than a scientific concept. 2. 0.4% of 7th Grade students, 3.1% of 9th Grade students and 2.9% of 11th Grade students understood classification of animals and plants. There was a significant difference at the level of students' understanding of classification of animals and plants according to schools and gender(P<0.05). Students classified animals and plants through personal experiences and observations instead of trying to classify through microscopic analysis of animals and plants cell. 3. 1.2% of 7th Grade students, 10.3% of 9th Grade students and 19.4% of 11th Grade students understood food production in plants. There was a significant difference at the level of students' understanding of food production in plants according to schools and gender(P<0.05). Students had a misconception that food production in plants was done by an absorption of nutrients from soil not by photosynthesis. 4. A large proportion of teachers surveyed in this study appear to have misconceptions about homeostasis (38.1%), classification of animals and plants (34.1%), food production in plants (40.4%). The male teachers had. more misconceptions than female teachers(P<0.05). However, they didn't show any significant differences according to schools and teaching experience(P<0.05). 5. According to the investigation of teachers' perception, 29.8% of the teachers acknowledged that they might be a cause for students' misconceptions. This study shows that 38.3% of teachers did not understand the analyzed biological concepts precisely. By comparing the data of students and teachers, it turned out that teachers participate in the students' misconceptions. And teachers themselves acknowledged that students' misconceptions could be caused by them. Therefore. teachers' right understanding of fundamental biological concepts should precede to students' biology education. New training programs for biology teachers seem to be urgent.

  • PDF