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The personal formation of students is an important goal in Religious Education in secondary schools in the Netherlands. This article, which is based on the design research of my PhD dissertation, examines how a contemplative approach to reading stories can, according to Religious Education teachers, contribute to the personal formation of students. Thus, a teacher's manual, based on the monastic tradition of "Lectio Divina," was designed and tested for the Contemplative Reading of Biblical parables. What possibilities does this teacher's manual for Contemplative Reading offer for creating space for the personal formation of students in daily teaching practice? How do the results of this intervention contribute to the theory of personal formation and the theory of contemplative practices in education? Cultivating a space for freedom--"vacare"--appears to be essential. Contemplative Reading can open this space of attention and listening in the classroom.

This qualitative study explores how a group of preservice teachers make sense of task-based language teaching principles and characteristics, especially amidst remote instruction. We draw on the analysis of 13 preservice teachers' lesson plans and teaching guides as they transitioned from in-person to remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of the lesson plans using task-based language teaching principles as a framework revealed that preservice teachers implemented principles differently during in-person and remote teaching. Interestingly, the use of the principles sometimes contrasts with what the participants report in their reflections. We discuss the challenges English as a foreign language teachers face when adapting methods such as task-based language teaching to the demands of new teaching contexts.

This study examines the potential effect of mind mapping-based instruction on Jordanian EFL tenth-grade students' use of additive, adversative, causal and temporal conjunctions. A purposeful sample of two tenthgrade sections was drawn from a public school in Mafraq, Jordan. The two sections were randomly assigned into an experimental group of 14 students, taught through mind mapping, and a control group of 13 students, taught per the guidelines of the prescribed Teacher's Book. Following an eight-week treatment, the data were collected by means of a post-test. The findings revealed that the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group in the use of the four types of conjunctions and overall. The study concludes with several pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.

Background: Despite large-scale interventions aimed at developing literacy skills, children's reading competence levels in South Africa continue to remain an area of concern. In addition, the need to prepare learners for the increased demands of a fast-changing world of learning and working is gaining attention in educational policy and practice. Aim: Using a qualitative multi-site case study research design, the authors aimed to explore teachers' understanding and enactment of scripted literacy lessons that are designed to promote 21st-century competencies. Setting: Five Grade 1 teachers were selected from four schools, three of which are in periurban and the other in a township area. Methods: Data were generated in two phases across three teaching cycles. In the first phase, lessons were observed and recorded on video. The second phase consisted of stimulated recall interviews (SRIs) in which teachers commented on their recorded lessons. Results: The findings showed that when teachers had relevant prior knowledge of specific competencies, they were better positioned to leverage these as a basis for their lessons. However, the findings also indicated that teachers' entrenched methods and ways of thinking were obstacles for change. Conclusion: Training and development opportunities should pay sufficient attention to the practicalities of changing pedagogies and using scripted lesson plans. Contribution: The findings contribute to knowledge on the affordances and challenges when designing training opportunities aimed at integrating 21st-century competencies into scripted literacy lessons.

This study examines the potential effect of service-learning training on 38 EFL teachers from the public schools of the North-Eastern Badia Directorate of Education, Mafraq, Jordan. A quasi-experimental design was used, and the participants were randomly assigned into an experimental group (n=18) and a control group (n=20). As part of the treatment, the participants of the experimental group were asked to serve their community through collecting paper waste, recycling, and planting trees. They were then asked to videotape their activities to use them in their writing tasks in the classroom. The control group did not receive any treatment and taught the writing tasks per the guidelines of the prescribed Teacher's Book. The findings revealed statistically significant differences in the overall writing performance of both the experimental and control groups, in favor of the former. The findings also revealed that the use of service-learning training helped teachers form positive attitudes towards EFL writing.

For plant identification in school biology, many digital and analogue identification methods have been developed to make this demanding and little motivating process more student-orientated. In this experimental field study, we examine two empirically developed tools: the digital identification app "ID-Logics' and the paper-based key, generated by the online platform 'Eikes Baumschule'. In line with Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an evaluation study with 251 students was conducted to investigate the effect of both tools on students' intrinsic motivation. The results of the study were unexpected, as the different media regarding the SDT did not present themselves as projected: While both tools influence students' intrinsic motivation positively, each displays specific effects regarding enjoyment, perceived competence, and perceived autonomy. Taking these effects into account, each tool under investigation offers different advantages and disadvantages for plant identification in the field. The resulting opportunities and challenges, for plant identification, of both tools are discussed critically against the background of SDT, and future directions for research on intrinsic motivation in the context of species identification are mapped. Furthermore, this study shed light on the process of species identification and thus indicates recommendations for practical use in biology lessons.

Since 2015, UNESCO has developed a variety of programmes for preventing violent extremism through education (PVE-E), under the framework of Global Citizenship Education and Target 4.7 of Agenda 2030. There have been formal board decisions to promote PVE-E, regional and international conferences and three key publications: a Teacher's Guide (2016), a Guide for Policy-makers (2017), and a Youth-Led Guide (2017 and 2018). Through a discourse analysis of these key documents and a critical engagement with the institutional politics of UNESCO, the paper delineates the discursive constructs of PVE-E that are mobilised and sheds light on the under-researched politics of production that affect the nature of these texts. Taking a comparative perspective, the paper shows how PVE-E is represented within and between these different texts, exposes the normative values and ideological assumptions underpinning these representations and argues that we are ultimately witnessing a declining legitimacy of UNESCO's normative power.

STEM (Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology) education has widely been considered to have the potential to prepare students with 21st-century skills. Though the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is concerned with developing human resources for the 21st-century, STEM education has not yet achieved a strong position in the national curriculum system. This study aims to provide a guideline to the GoB to take necessary steps to integrate STEM initiatives aligned with the current science and mathematics curriculum. Adopting a literature survey on the integrated STEM approach, document analysis (primary math and science curriculum, textbook, and teachers' guide of grade 3, 4, and 5) and semi-structured interviews of the primary mathematics teachers, head teachers, STEM experts and curriculum developers of Bangladesh, a framework of integrated STEM approach for primary level has been developed. Besides, the study identified some chapters from science and mathematics textbooks where there are some scopes to integrate the STEM approach and also developed some STEM activities for grade 3, 4, and 5 as future guidelines to the practitioners. This study contributes to the field of STEM-focused primary education in the context of Bangladesh by offering practical guidelines for academic institutions, curriculum developers, teachers' trainers, and policy makers of the country.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of reflective thinking-based teaching activities on academic achievement, retention and attitude towards English course in secondary school English classes. The research was carried out with pre-test-post-test design with experimental-control groups. The study was carried out in a private secondary school for 8 weeks in Konya, in 2016-2017 academic year. The study included a total of 35 students in the fifth grade, which included 18 students in the experimental group and 17 in the control group. In the experimental group, reflective teaching activities were used and in the control group the activities on the teacher's guide book based on the current curriculum were used. There was a significant difference between the post-test and retention scores of the experimental and control groups. However, experimental teaching practices did not lead to a significant difference in students' attitudes towards the course. It was found that reflective teaching practices had an impact on students' success and retention in secondary school English lessons.

In this study the local school district has historically had a lack of professional development (PD) in classroom management, challenging student behaviors in many classrooms are on the rise which is resulting in decreased teacher self-efficacy. The main purpose of this quantitative, correlational study, which was influence by a constructivist theoretical framework, was to examine the relationship between teachers' self-efficacy in the classroom while addressing challenging student behaviors and the quantity of PD that the teachers have had in classroom management. The convenience sample contained 99 teachers from 8 elementary schools; this total was based upon a response rate of 45%. The instrument, the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), was administered via SurveyMonkey®. Although the Pearson product-moment correlation showed that PD in classroom management and teachers' self-efficacy were not significantly related, the descriptive TSES results indicated that teachers needed specific guidance in addressing challenging students, as evidenced by the lowest score on the TSES for the question asking teachers how well they are able to educate the most difficult students. Instead of planning another series of broad PD sessions for teachers, a behavior management manual was designed to simultaneously help teachers manage challenging student behaviors and increase their self-efficacy in the classroom when addressing challenging student behaviors. The goal is to provide teachers with a manual that they can reference to find resources to address challenging student behaviors and allow them to focus on academic achievement. This behavior management manual for teachers has implications for positive social change in that it can educate teachers on how to manage challenging student behaviors and potentially improve academic performance.

The use of teacher's guidebooks, which were prepared to assist teachers based on the curriculum implemented within the framework of the constructivist model, was discontinued in the 2018-2019 academic year. This study was based on a case study and prepared to examine the teacher's guidebooks that were removed from the curriculum in the 2018-2019 academic year. The study group consists of 20 teachers who work in Siirt and have at least 5 years of experience in public schools. The data were collected with a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher and the content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. The research findings revealed that most of the teachers felt the lack of guidebooks and could not perform their learning-teaching strategies in a healthy way after the removal of the guidebooks, listening education, which is one of the basic language skills, was largely neglected and the implementation of the guidebooks by the Ministry of Education would be beneficial in the education and training process.

Understanding data structures is fundamental for mastering algorithms. In order to solve problems and tasks, students must be able to choose the most appropriate data structure in which the data is stored and that helps in the process of the solution. Of course, there is no single correct solution, but in many cases, it is an important step to find the most efficient data structure to solve the task. In this paper, I will present the most common data representations and data structures that can help get to know them, to master them, and then to reuse them for solving different tasks.

This study aims to employ Research and Development (R&D) Methodology to create an "Online Program to Empower Teacher Learning to Develop Students' Digital Literacy Skills" based on the notions of "Knowledge and Action is Power" and "Students are the Ultimate Goal of Any Educational Management." It consists of teacher learning development projects and a project where teachers use learning outcomes to help students progress. Six sets of teacher learning manuals and one workshop manual for instructors to apply learning outcomes to student development were created as a result of the R1&D1 to R4&D4 stages. According to the results of experimenting with manuals in the R5&D5 stage with 10 teachers and 60 students using one group pretest-posttest design experimental research in a school that is representative of educational opportunity expansion schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, it was found that the developed manuals were effective according to the research hypothesis: 1) teachers had test results of learning outcomes that met standard criteria 90/90, 2) the teachers' post-test results were significantly higher than the pre-test-results, and 3) the students' post-test results were significantly higher than the pre-test results. It demonstrates that the manuals for learning and implementation for teachers in the developed online program are effective and can be disseminated for the benefit of the population of educational opportunity expansion schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission across the country.

"How Young Adult Literature Gets Taught: Perspectives, Ideologies, and Pedagogical Approaches for Instruction and Assessment" (Bickmore et al., 2022) seeks to provide guidelines for teacher educators and secondary English teachers on how to teach young adult literature (YAL). This 15-chapter manual includes chapters written by experts in YAL (including higher ed professionals, a high school English teacher, and a librarian), which offer resources for teaching YAL based around various theoretical frameworks and include detailed reading lists, guided discussion questions, and more.

Most investigations of literacy programs are relatively short-term endeavors. Here, we reflect on what we have learned in 7 years of studying a program to teach word-learning strategies. The program was developed with a 3-year Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant and is currently being studied in a 4-year IES Efficacy grant. Here, we describe our choice of a topic; describe the curriculum, instruction, and teacher preparation in the program; and reflect on positive aspects of the program and aspects of it that could be improved. We believe that much of what we discuss is relevant to various types of instruction.

Curriculum resources such as textbooks and lesson guides communicate messages about the social relations between the teacher, students, artefacts, and the mathematics. Because of their implicit nature, these messages can be hard to surface and perhaps therefore are not frequently covered in curriculum resource analysis. Tackling this shortcoming, we examine mathematics lesson guides or the daily lesson descriptions written for elementary teachers. Drawing on multimodality and activity theory, we characterize the social relations messaged in the lesson guides in terms of two constructs: authority and distance. We present and illustrate an analytical approach to uncovering these messages in lesson guides from Sweden, USA, and Flanders. Our analytical approach enabled us to distinguish configurations of social relations that vary primarily across the three educational contexts, which strengthens our argument for viewing the configuration of social relations as a cultural script.