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This study examined high school mathematics teachers' job satisfaction and professional growth in Nepal. The data were collected from 49 high school mathematics teachers using a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale items and some open-ended questions. The quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed mixed findings. Mathematics teachers were relatively satisfied with their profession; however, various factors were important for job satisfaction and professional growth. The three most important were inservice training and educational resources, schools' infrastructure, and financial incentives. The data analysis further contends that the school education system must be free from politics, and the procedure of forming the school management committee (SMC) must be isolated from political intervention. Furthermore, school teachers are prohibited or discouraged from participating in politics as political cadres. The data revealed that the different teachers' unions need to work on behalf of teachers' welfare rather than carry forward their political parties' agendas and ideologies.

This study aims to identify the dominant leadership styles of chairs from the perspective of faculty members in different college departments in higher education in the UAE. Furthermore, the study aims to identify the teachers' perceptions of leadership styles that affect their job satisfaction. The study used quantitative means with faculty members in different higher educational settings in the UAE. The survey used a five-point Likert scale. The leadership styles have values (completely agree =5, agree = 4, neutral =3, disagree=2, completely disagree=1). The job satisfaction questions have values (completely satisfied =5, satisfied = 4, fairly satisfied =3, dissatisfied =2, completely dissatisfied=1). The chosen subjects were faculty members from different colleges. Those subjects are 135 university teachers who are divided into four age groups. The data revealed no dominant leadership styles in the colleagues from faculty members' perspectives; however, the statistics lean towards the laissez-faire leadership style. It also reveals correlations between the three leadership styles and job satisfaction. The democratic leadership style has the greatest impact and most significant environment and incentives among the three independent variables. [Note: The page range (119-134) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 119-135.]

The process of constructing knowledge in mathematics education is critical in developing it as a discipline with an impact on the field of teaching, learning, and assessment based on theory and practice. How do mathematics educators perceive the processes of knowledge construction in mathematics education? It may have an implication in the methods of teaching, learning, and researching to enrich this discipline. In this context, the purpose of this study was to explore the Nepali mathematics educators' perspectives on critical conscience for the construction of knowledge in mathematics education. The research participants were five university-level mathematics educators who participated in in-depth interviews on critical conscience in mathematics education. The qualitative thematic analysis of the interview data unveiled four major thematic groups in terms of four idiographic passes--culture, communication, collaboration, and context (4Cs); discourse, dedication, deliberation, and development (4Ds); equity, engagement, elaboration, and extension (4Es); and formation, fusion, frame of reference, and faculty of cognition (4Fs). The thematic interpretations of critical conscience may portray the paradigmatic assumptions of ontological, epistemological, and axiological primacy of mathematics education from the participants' views. Policy and pedagogical implications of the themes have been discussed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the problem-solving techniques that students in a fifth-grade classroom applied while solving mathematical word problems. Fifth-grade students in a private school with Ministry of Education curricula in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, were given a set of 15-word problems to solve with detailed justifications. The questions were based on TIMSS past exams with some modifications to fit the local context. Analysis from the study generated five themes that students applied in problem-solving: Logical Thinking Skills, Computational Skills, Problem-solving Strategies, Use of Justifications, and Use of Representations. Pedagogical and curricular implications have been discussed.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted in two secondary schools in a major city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to examine the impact of Computer Simulations (CSs) on students' learning of Newton's Second Law of Motion (NSLOM) in grade 11 compared to traditional face-to-face education. The study used Newton's Second Law of Motion Achievement test (NSLMAT) as a pre and post-test to collect the data. Altogether 90 students aged 16-17 (grade 11) participated in this study. Two grade 11 girls' classes (40 students) and two grade 11 boys' classes (50 students) were chosen randomly to participate in this study. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Results showed that CSs, through visualization, aided in establishing connections and brought attention to the concepts and details of NSLOM. In addition, CSs yielded better results than those taught in face-to-face education. The Results also suggest that CSs greatly impacted both female and male students. CSs helped female and male students gain a better understanding of NSLOM topics. The study recommended that physics teachers integrate CSs into their teaching and use them as valuable tools to improve student learning outcomes.

This study aimed to explore online and distance learning (ODL) issues related to higher education during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nepal. We applied an online survey design with a five-point Likert scale. We surveyed 71 (57 male and 14 female) postgraduate students in science education at a public higher education institution in Kathmandu, Nepal. A Principal Component Analysis identified four major constructs as the components of ODL issues. They are scarcity, efficiency, access, and inconvenience. The results of the Independent Samples Test (t-test and ANOVA) showed that participants' views about scarcity were significantly different across their gender (male and female) and device use (mobile, laptop, and desktop). They were not significantly different in their views about efficiency, access, and inconvenience across gender, device use, hometown, age group, ethnicity, and school type at 0.05 level of significance.

This study explored the perception of online and distance learning (ODL) experienced by postgraduate students in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. An online survey on Graduate Student Perception on ODL (GSPODL) with a five-point Likert-scale was designed and administered to 71 postgraduate (57 male and 14 female) students of science education in a public higher education institution in Nepal in spring 2020. A Principal Component Analysis with rotation in Varimax Kaiser Normalization was employed in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS 26) to construct six major components of students' perception of course delivery and participation. These components were- Quality, Opportunity, Relevance, Development, Support, and Challenges. Mann-Whitney U Test or Kruskal-Wallis Test at 0.05 level of significance showed that the participants' views about Quality, Opportunity, Relevance, and Support were significantly different across their place of Residence (rural and urban residences). Likewise, there was a significant difference in their views on the Relevancy of the ODL with respect to Device Use. There was no significant difference in their views across the variables Gender, Ethnicity, School Type, and Device Use in all other criteria. These results demonstrated that participants' hometown location made a big difference in their perception of online and distance classes' Quality.

The purpose of this study was to explore the critical life-events of the first author's journey of learning and teaching mathematics that prompted critical thinking about his past experiences as a student and teacher. It portrays a paradigmatic shift from a traditionalist thinker to a constructivist actor in the classroom from the critical life-events within and out of classroom experiences by using autoethnography as the writing and research genre by connecting his personal experiences in the social, cultural, and teaching/learning contexts of Nepal. The major themes emerged from the autoethnography were--Thinking Narratively: Joining a School and Dropping Out; Thinking Narratively: Back to School and Dropping In; Thinking Interpretively: Dropping out of School; Thinking Poetically: Dropping in School; and Nightmare of the First Teaching: A Pedagogical Boomerang. These themes portrayed a pedagogical boomerang in learning and teaching mathematics from a remote village in Western Nepal to the neighborhood of the capital city Kathmandu.

Researchers and scholars of mathematics education have discussed several issues in teaching and learning mathematics in general. However, there is minimal discussion ofsuch issues in the Nepalese context. This study aimed to explore teaching-learning issues in mathematics in Nepal. A researcher-constructed questionnaire with 37 items had been administered to 101 mathematics teachers in Kathmandu valley. An exploratory factor analysis revealed six key components to highlight the significant issues in mathematics teaching-learning: Social and Cultural Issues, Issues with Equity and Justice, Technological and Pedagogical Issues, Professional Issues, Political and Social Issues, and Theoretical Issues. A one-sample t-test was applied to each of these components to analyze the issues from the perspectives of the research participants to emphasize their critical concerns in teaching and learning mathematics in Nepal.

Digital awareness is necessary for mathematics teachers to use digital technologies, including ethical, cultural, leadership, and policy awareness in this 21st century. This study aimed to examine the interrelation of digital awareness of mathematics teachers with students' achievement at schools to higher education levels in Nepal. An online survey was conducted among 399 mathematics teachers of Nepal and Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and multilevel linear regression were major statistical techniques used in the study. The findings indicated that most of the participants had digital devices, and the level of digital awareness was found to be high. The types of institution and teaching level were major contributing factors to determine the digital awareness, and developing and sharing cultural consequences are the main predictors of learners' achievement.

All private and public schools in the UAE had to run online classes as they closed their face-to-face classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2021. In this context, the purpose of this study was to investigate the indicators of high school students' performance in online chemistry classes in a private school in Al Ain, UAE. A quantitative study with an online survey questionnaire was carried out with 101 participants. The data were analyzed using One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed Ranked Test, Independent Sample Mann Whitney U, Independent Sample Kruskal Wallis H, and Spearman's Rank Correlation in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS 26). The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive impact on critical thinking, collaborative skills, creativity and innovation, technology application, class participation, and overall achievement during online and distance learning of chemistry. There was a statistically significant difference in students' critical thinking, collaborative skills, creativity and innovation, class participation, and achievement by gender and nationality. These skills were not statistically significantly different across students of grades 10, 11, and 12, except for creativity and innovation, which were significantly different between students of grades 11 and 12. All the six indicators of students' performance had a significant correlation between each other, with the highest correlation between collaborative skills and participation level. These findings indicated that students' performance in online chemistry classes during the COVID-19 pandemic provided opportunities to develop creativity and collaborative skills, together with better learning achievement as perceived by the students.

The main purpose of this paper was to explore mathematics educators' perception of the cultural relevance of basic level mathematics in Nepal. The design of this study involved an interpretive qualitative approach by administering in-depth interviews with five purposively selected mathematics educators teaching at five higher education institutions in the Kathmandu valley. Each interview was audio-recorded and transcribed for coding and constructing themes. The major themes that emerged were teaching in a mother language, contextualized Ethnomathematics, and the local knowledge in the curriculum as a teaching approach. The findings of the study can be helpful to curriculum designers and teachers at the basic level of mathematics. The study also adds to the literature of cultural aspects of mathematics teaching and learning and curriculum design.

This paper explores misconceptions and errors (M/Es) of eighth-grade students in Nepal with a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent control and experimental groups. The treatment was implemented with teaching episodes based on different remedial strategies of addressing students' M/Es. Students of control groups were taught under conventional teaching-learning method, whereas experimental groups were treated with a guided method to treat with misconceptions and errors. The effectiveness of treatment was tested at the end of the intervention. The results showed that the new guided treatment approach was found to be significant to address students' M/Es. Consequently, the students of experimental groups made significant progress in dealing with M/Es in mathematical problem-solving at conceptual, procedural, and application levels.

Covid-19 has accelerated the speed of technocratic transformation in teaching and learning. Previous researches on whether technology enhances students' motivation towards learning or burdens them with additional layer of anxiety in learning the nitty gritty of technology itself have mixed results. The purpose of this study was to explore early undergraduate students' beliefs about learning mathematics with technology. These research participants were first-year female undergraduate students in a public university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study comprised of phase one with qualitative task-based interviews with four female first-year undergraduate students. Phase two included a quantitative belief survey with a sample of 62 students from the same institution. I constructed four major belief categories from the iterative process of interview data analysis--technology for computing and graphing, technology for speed and accuracy, technology for a short-cut but not for meaning, and affective aspects of beliefs. The quantitative survey result demonstrated that a majority of participants (about 75.8%) were found to be using some kinds of technological tools while learning mathematics. About 90% of them reported using a calculator while learning mathematics. A majority of participants (54.9%) believed that technology helps them in learning mathematics, and about 50% of them also believed that the use of technology improves their learning of mathematics.

The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of integrated science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education. We conducted an extensive review of the literature, followed by document analysis to construct concepts and themes associated with prospects, priorities, processes, and problems of STEAM education. The analysis of STEAM learning concepts from the literature provided three sub-constructs under the prospects -- STEAM movement, the purpose of STEAM education, and benefits of STEAM education. The sub-constructs under priorities of STEAM education were -- curriculum integration in STEAM and STEAM education as a curriculum reform. The sub-constructs of STEAM education as a process were -- the pedagogical process and assessment in STEAM education. The sub-constructs of the problems in STEAM education were -- critiques against STEAM education and the challenges of STEAM education. Finally, we discussed findings and presented some implications of STEAM education.

Information and communication technologies (JCTs) may have a significant impact on education in general and mathematics education in particular, with greater access to open learning sources, widespread interaction through online and social networking, and the availability of a variety of teaching and learning tools. However, these benefits of using ICTs in mathematics teaching and learning should be materialized both by teachers and students at the individual and institutional level with application skills. This study aimed to explore the interrelation between teachers' perceptions of using ICTs in mathematics teaching-learning and the learners' pe,jormance in mathematics. An online survey was administered among mathematics teachers with an open invitation through social media, and 410 mathematics teachers from school to university level responded to the questionnaire. The Mann-Whitney, Kruskal Wallis, and structural equation modeling were the primary statistical techniques used in the research. The results showed six critical factors of JCT-related issues related to adjusting learning experiences, inspiration and motivational strategies for learners, learning support, sharing and communication, evaluation/self-assessment for learning, and collaboration which impacted students' mathematics performance. The types of institutions and availability of smartboards/whiteboards in the classrooms significantly contributed to students' performance in mathematics.

The purpose of this study was to explore mathematics teachers' perception of social justice in mathematics classrooms. We applied interpretive qualitative method for data collection, analysis, and interpretation through iterative process. We administered in-depth semi-structured interviews to capture the perceptions of three mathematics teachers about social justice in mathematics classroom at three public secondary schools in Kathmandu. We carried out multiple layers of thematic analysis and interpretation of the narratives from the interview data. Altogether five themes on perception of social justice emerged from the analysis of the data. These themes were associated with - equality, equity, fairness, social process, and caring students. Implications of the study have been discussed at the end.

The objective of this paper is to present attitudinal and cognitive beliefs of two preservice secondary mathematics teachers about teaching geometric transformations (GTs) using Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP). The study comprised ten task-based interviews, a series of five each with two participants, senior undergraduate preservice mathematics teachers, at a medium-sized public university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States of America. Radical constructivist grounded theory (RCGT) was the theoretical framework used both to guide the study process as well as to integrate the research participants, the researcher, research process, and the data. The results of the study include in vivo categories of the participants' beliefs associated with attitude and cognition of teaching GTs with GSP. These include developing confidence with GSP, efficiency of using GSP for teaching GTs, exploring GTs with GSP, conjecturing GTs using GSP, supporting and engaging students in learning GTs, and understanding GTs with GSP. Some pedagogical and policy implications of these categories are also addressed.

The aim of the research was to examine different complications of learning mathematics online and their effects on students' academic performances. A crosssectional survey design was employed among 2311 students from the school to university levels in Nepal. Hierarchical linear regression and machine learning were major statistical techniques used in the research. The findings indicated that access to and cost of digital devices, training on digital skills, assignment submission skills, digital literacy, and a separate study room at home were major complications for students in learning mathematics online. Additionally, these complications to learning mathematics online negatively affect students' academic performance. This research gives new insights into the complications of online learning and its effect on learners' performance in mathematics as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to present two preservice secondary mathematics teachers' beliefs about teaching Geometric Transformations (GTs) using Geometer?s Sketchpad (GSP). The study comprised of series of five task-based interviews with each of two participants, who were senior undergraduate preservice teachers, at a medium-sized public university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. I used radical constructivist grounded theory (RCGT) as a theoretical frame to guide this study process. The results of study include reflective and reflexive beliefs about teaching GTs with GSP. These beliefs have been further explored as pre-reflective, in-reflective, post-reflective, pre- reflexive, in-reflexive, and post-reflexive beliefs of two preservice secondary mathematic teachers about teaching GTs with GSP. Pedagogical implications of these belief categories are widely discussed.

This paper analyzed a preservice mathematics teacher's beliefs about teaching mathematics with technology. The researcher used five semi-structured task-based interviews in the problematic contexts of teaching fraction multiplications with JavaBars, functions and limits, and geometric transformations with Geometer's Sketchpad, and statistical data with Excel Spreadsheet to generate data about the participant's pedagogical-technological beliefs. An additional unstructured interview was conducted with the same participant after his practice teaching. The interview data were analyzed and interpreted in two layers--the first layer portrays the participant's voice in his narratives, and the second layer portrays researcher's voice in terms of his interpretation of data and interconnection to literature. The analysis and interpretation generated seven major categories of beliefs--beliefs about teaching materials, teaching strategy, bridging activities, technological tools, mathematical concepts, and meanings, activities and transformation, and issues and challenges. Finally, the author discusses implications of the study.

A teacher's belief plays a significant role in the quality of teaching mathematics. In a fictive way, the researcher changed his role from a researcher to a research participant in an imaginative interview. His interior other (David) interviewed him as a researcher. A single interview session was held lasting for about three hours. The interview text was used for the analysis and interpretation using the grounded theory method. The researcher invented a substantive theory of his belief about teaching geometric transformations with Geometer's Sketchpad. The theory is "reflexive abstraction of his beliefs about teaching geometric transformations with Geometer's Sketchpad" as a personal theory characterized by some basic categories of beliefs about the advancement of pedagogy, beliefs about pedagogical environment, beliefs about the role of students and teacher, beliefs about self as a future teacher, beliefs about teaching and learning activities, and beliefs about transitions in teaching learning. The researcher reconstructed a synthesis of the characteristics of these beliefs. While constructing these layers of interpretive accounts, he used radical constructivist grounded theory as a theoretical base.