• Korean Educational Research Journal
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.153-182
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• 2022

This study explored the experiences and difficulties of science teachers who participated in overseas educational voluntary activities. Seven science teachers who had visited Timor-Leste participated in the study. All collected data including the teacher interview were analyzed. As a result, teachers visited Timor-Leste to fulfill social roles and to meet the expectations of others. After returning from Timor-Leste, the teachers regained their passion for teaching and gained confidence in taking on new challenges. Teachers had difficulties in conducting seminars due to the unstable social situation and lack of awareness of Timor-Leste teachers, and experienced communication limitations due to language barriers. Nevertheless, teachers cooperate with local priest to improve these limitations. In addition, teachers supplemented the limitations caused by the non-establishment of the curriculum through the evaluation meeting. In order to improve teaching expertise and promote active participation of Timor-Leste teachers, the seminar method was modified. The experience of volunteering in Timor-Leste made teachers think about the importance of cooperation and the necessity of education. Based on the above results, we discussed ways to activate voluntary service.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.183-188
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• 2022

Educators have been making strides in the research into and practices supporting the policy of mainstreaming students with disability. A move towards including students with intellectual disability in community schools with all the other students can be seen in many countries' education systems, including that of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The 'rights of the child' has been the main argument put forward by advocates of this policy in an attempt to move from the medical to the social model. This study argues that, although mainstreaming can be viewed as a positive trend toward effective education, its implementation remains somewhat problematic. It is believed that more investigative research into professionals' attitudes is needed to improve service provision and inform the administration of mainstreaming practices. The attitudes of special education teachers on the policy of mainstreaming are examined and emerging key themes discussed. Furthermore, challenges that continue to inhibit mainstreaming practices in Saudi Arabia are identified.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.197-215
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• 2020

Teaching has become a feminized profession, especially in elementary teaching, in which it is regarded as "women's work." Concerns about the "extinction" of men in the field resulted in calls for male teachers. While studies indicate that there is positive discrimination in favor of men (despite the feminization of teaching), it appears that there are also forms of discrimination that work against them. As such this study explored the challenges of being a male in the feminized profession from the perspective of male teacher candidates. Studies in the field of teacher education in the Philippines mainly focus on curriculum and students' academic achievement, hence an inquiry must be done on the plight of male teachers in a gendered profession. A phenomenological study was employed to look into the realities of six male teacher candidates. Findings show that male teachers are: (1) leadership-destined; (2) conflicted; (3) limited; and (4) devalued. The narrative of male teachers in the Philippine education sector reveals the need to revisit programs and policies in professional development and support. Finally, recommendations are made for teacher education programs to guide teacher candidates' experiences towards a more inclusive profession.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.192-198
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• 2021

Trustless, depression, happiness is a normal human emotion that everyone experiences at times. People face problems and hard circumstances every day due to an environment, social life, or traumatic developments in their lives. This study focused on a particular type of inconsistency patterns of behavior that experiences' students during the school time. Some students find depression interferes with their learning and test taking to such an extent that their grades are seriously affected. This study examined the awareness and readiness of a sample of Saudi Arabian high school teachers to recognize, understand, and respond to the ways in which students may respond to testing situations with depression. Findings suggest teachers learn from experience to use both direct and indirect ways to identify students with depression; employ test preparation and test taking strategies to help students reduce depression; and reach out to parents for additional assistance where teacher strategies are not sufficient.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.87-116
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• 2016

In this research, we designed a teacher professional development (PD) program where a small group of mathematics teachers could share, reflect on, and discuss their pedagogical knowledge and practices of ICT-integrated lessons, using a video annotation tool called DIVER. The main purposes of this paper are both micro and macro: to examine how the teachers were engaged in the meaning-making process in a video-based PD (micro); and to derive implications about how to design effective video-based teacher PD programs toward a teacher community of practices (macro). To examine teachers' meaning-making in the PD sessions, discourse data from a series of 10 meetings was segmented into idea units and coded to identify discourse patterns, focusing on (a) participation levels, (b) conversation topics, and (c) conversation depth. Regarding the affordance of DIVER, discourse patterns of two meetings, before and after individual annotation with DIVER were compared through qualitative vignette analysis. Overall, we found that the teacher discourse shifted the focus from surface features to deeper pedagogical issues as the PD sessions progressed. In particular, the annotation function in DIVER afforded the teachers to exercise descriptive analyses of video clips in a flexible manner, thereby helping them cognitively prepared to take interpretative and evaluative stances in face-to-face discussions with colleagues. In conclusion, deriving from our research experiences, we discuss the possibilities and challenges of designing video-based teacher PD in a school context.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.135-150
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• 2010

This qualitative study explored the causes of student teacher stress during an early childhood teaching practicum and investigated the ways in which student teachers cope with this stress. Four student teachers in the same practicum placement were individually interviewed. The findings revealed that stress arose over a variety of concerns including both lack of professional knowledge related to the teaching practice and the challenges involved in establishing a positive relationship with their cooperating teacher, the parents and staff. The stress experienced by the student teacher was accompanied by physical symptoms such as exhaustion, fatigue, and the onset of vulnerability to colds. However, the students were found to be generally unsuccessful in managing their stress effectively. The results suggest that attempts to improve the practicum environment should be accompanied by academic interests and practical issues related to these stresses and that there is a clear need for programs designed to assist student teachers develop stress management skills.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.241-251
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• 2024

Mathematics educators have examined mathematical modeling, where students tackle authentic real-life problems and develop problem-solving strategies with a sense of agency. However, few empirical studies have been conducted to illuminate the developmental process of teachers' competencies in mathematical modeling, particularly for elementary school teachers. Scholars have noted that elementary mathematics teachers can effectively teach mathematical modeling by designing tasks that consider students' abilities and preferences. In this vein, this review paper introduces a study conducted by Jung (2023), which examines the developmental process of an elementary school mathematics teacher's competencies in mathematical modeling and how she overcame related challenges.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.937-949
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• 2017

In this study, we investigated how science teachers perceive the changes in school systems, including infrastructure and curriculum, in the context of preparing for future education. And the changes in their perception of the educational environment, the challenges, and changes of science teachers' classroom practices were also explored. In-depth interviews and analysis were conducted with two science teachers in a middle school that is trying to innovative on changes compared with general schools. The results of the study are as follows: First, teachers perceived that their schools had factors that could change the science class in terms of school size and infrastructure, peer teacher culture, and students' abilities. Second, the enthusiasm of teachers who are trying various ways of teaching and the students' ability to adapt in a smart learning environment formed a synergistic circle that lowered entry barriers to trying changes. Third, science classes changed to activity-centered classes, and teachers realized that these changes promoted students' self-directed learning. Fourth, teachers perceived themselves as playing an independent role in curriculum management, and this perception promoted more varied attempts in improving their classes. Through the changes of the learning environment and systems of the school and the formation of a culture that shares their challenges and innovations with the voluntary learning community, teachers constantly try to change their classes and schools. The changes of school need to be understood in the context of the interaction of teachers, students, and infrastructure.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.1295-1317
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• 2012

There has been disagreement on the importance of definitions in science education. Yager (1983) believes that one crisis in science education was due to the considerable emphasis upon the learning of definitions. Hobson (2004) disagrees with physics textbooks that do not provide general definition on energy. Some textbooks explain that "there is no completely satisfactory definition of energy" or they can only "struggle to define it." In general, imprecise definitions in textbooks (Bauman, 1992) and inaccuracies in definition provided by teachers (Galili & Lehavi, 2006) may cause alternative conceptions. Besides, there are at least four challenges in defining physical concepts: precision, circularity, context and completeness in knowledge. These definitional problems that have been discussed in The Feynman Lectures, may impede the learning of physical concepts. A meta-study approach is employed to examine about five hundreds journal papers that may discuss definitions in physics, problems in defining physical concepts and how they may result in alternative conceptions. These journal papers are mainly selected from journals such as American Journal of Physics, International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Physics Education, The Physics Teachers, and so on. There are also comparisons of definitions with definitions from textbooks, Dictionaries of Physics, and English Dictionaries. To understand the nature of alternative conception, Lee et al. (2010) have suggested a theoretical framework to describe the learning issues by synthesizing cognitive psychology and science education approaches. Taking it a step further, this study incorporates the challenges in semantics and epistemology, proposes that there are at least four variants of alternative conceptions. We may coin the term, 'alternative definitions', to refer to the commonly available definitions, which have these four problems in defining physics concepts. Based on this study, alternative definitions may result in at least four variants of alternative conceptions. Note that these four definitional problems or challenges in definitions cannot be easily resolved. Educators should be cognizant of the four variants of alternative conceptions which can arise from alternative definitions. The concepts of alternative definitions can be useful and possibly generalized to science education and beyond.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1479-1490
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• 2015

This study analyzed the fishery and maritime vocational high school teachers' recognition on the outcomes and future agenda. In addition, it delineates the importance of the vocational education division being carried out for 10 years in the College Scholastic Achievement Test (CSAT). In order to gather relevant information, 76 teachers who work in 12 different fishery and shipping vocational high schools around the country were surveyed. The findings of the fishery and maritime department teachers' recognition on the matter are as follows: First, the biggest impact the vocational education division in the CSAT had was on the promotion of continuing education and on the fulfillment on the vocational high school students' desire to compete and enter universities. Second, the CSAT with the vocational education division allowed students to choose a variety of paths after high school whether they be full-time employments or pursuing a degree in universities. Third, the biggest obstacle for the vocational education division in the CSAT is in the most metropolitan universities not honoring the CSAT scores as a criterion in the admission process.