With all learning institutions pre-maturely closed on 20 March 2020 and all citizens advised to self-isolate in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, it was hypothesized that COVID-19 would ...negatively impact on the performance of students in the 2020 Grade 12 national examinations vis-à-vis mathematics, science and design and technology subjects. An observed steady increase in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the low levels of technology use in secondary schools in Zambia due to limited technology resources signifies a very difficult period in a young country which has just rolled out a nation-wide implementation of STEM education, This study collected data from three teachers at a public secondary school in Chipata District of Eastern Province in the Republic of Zambia. The Head of Department for Mathematics, the Head of Natural Sciences Department and one science teacher were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews via mobile phone were used to collect views of what these specialists thought would be the COVID-19 effects on the general performance of students in their subject areas. Results of this study revealed that there is likely to be a drop in the pass percentage of secondary school students in this year’s national examinations if the COVID-19 epidemic is not contained in the shortest possible time considering that the school academic calendar was abruptly disturbed by the early untimely closure of all schools in the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teachers around the world to make a sudden switch from face-to-face to online teaching. This shift in practice has provided an opportunity to reconsider how ...technology use in mathematics education can
be utilised to improve student engagement. In this study, we explore four case studies of Australian secondary mathematics classrooms conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how teachers are using blended learning approaches
and how their students perceive these pedagogical practices. Findings across all four sites indicate that technology use expands student opportunities to engage with mathematics learning through the provision of multiple pathways and
methods of access. Specifically, we find evidence supporting the use of blended classroom teaching strategies to provide differentiation and personalised learning approaches; visualisation and dynamic manipulation of mathematics
concepts; and alternative methods for teacher-student feedback and communication. We argue that the student learning experience in mathematics can be enhanced through a variety of blended learning approaches by allowing for diverse
points of access to learning opportunities which are more closely aligned to individual learning needs and free from the temporal constraints of the classroom. Author abstract
This study extends previous research on teachers' self-efficacy by exploring reciprocal effects of teachers' self-efficacy and instructional quality in a longitudinal panel study. The study design ...combined a self-report measure of teacher self-efficacy with teacher and student ratings of instructional quality (assessing cognitive activation, classroom management, and individual learning support for students), and 2-level cross-lagged structural equation analyses were conducted. Data were collected from 155 German secondary mathematics teachers and 3,483 Grade 9 students at 2 measurement points. Although cross-sectional correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and characteristics of instruction were substantiated, the analyses only partially confirmed a causal effect of teachers' self-efficacy on later instructional quality. Instead, the analyses revealed a reverse effect of instructional quality on teachers' self-efficacy, with students' experience of cognitive activation and teachers' ratings of classroom management predicting teachers' subsequent self-efficacy. Our findings emphasize the importance of examining teachers' self-efficacy not only as a cause but also as a consequence of educational processes. Future research on teachers' self-efficacy should take a longitudinal perspective with varying time lags, identify possible mediator variables, and consider other aspects of teacher competence beyond self-efficacy when examining the effects of instructional quality.
Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers' classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve ...existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers (N = 1332; Mage = 40.9 years) and their students (N = 1735, Mage = 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers' motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
The present study suggests that rather than categorizing secondary school teachers as either motivating or demotivating, this approach reveals that an attuning and guiding approach relate to the most adaptive pattern of teacher and student outcomes, whereas an opposite pattern is found for a domineering and abandoning approach. This greater clarity allows teachers to gain a more precise insight into their own teaching style so that they adopt a more need-supportive style that benefits their students and themselves.
This study extends the classic constructive dialogue/debate between self-concept and self-efficacy researchers (Marsh, Roche, Pajares, & Miller, 1997) regarding the distinctions between these 2 ...constructs. The study is a substantive-methodological synergy, bringing together new substantive, theoretical, and statistical models and developing new tests of the classic jingle-jangle fallacy. We demonstrate that in a representative sample of 3,350 students from math classes in 43 German schools, generalized math self-efficacy and math outcome expectancies were indistinguishable from math self-concept, but were distinct from test-related and functional measures of self-efficacy. This is consistent with the jingle-jangle fallacies that are proposed. On the basis of pretest variables, we demonstrate negative frame-of-reference effects in social (big-fish-little-pond effect) and dimensional (internal/external frame-of-reference effect) comparisons for three self-concept-like constructs in each of the first 4 years of secondary school. In contrast, none of the frame-of-reference effects were significantly negative for either of the two self-efficacy-like constructs in any of the 4 years of testing. After controlling for pretest variables, each of the 3 self-concept-like constructs (math self-concept, outcome expectancy, and generalized math self-efficacy) in each of the 4 years of secondary school was more strongly related to posttest outcomes (school grades, test scores, future aspirations) than were the corresponding 2 self-efficacy-like factors. Extending discussion by Marsh et al. (1997), we clarify distinctions between self-efficacy and self-concept; the role of evaluation, worthiness, and outcome expectancy in self-efficacy measures; and complications in generalized and global measures of self-efficacy.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
Positive self-beliefs are a central construct in educational psychology, and self-concept and self-efficacy are the most widely used and theoretically important representations of positive self-beliefs. In Educational Psychology, much effort has been expended in trying to distinguish between self-concept and self-efficacy. Nevertheless, in practice and theory the distinction remains murky. We critique previous conceptual attempts to distinguish the two constructs-arguing against some distinctions that have been offered in the past and offering some new theoretical distinctions and new empirical approaches to testing support for these distinctions.
Achievement emotions are emotions linked to academic, work, or sports achievement activities (activity emotions) and their success and failure outcomes (outcome emotions). Recent evidence suggests ...that achievement emotions are linked to motivational, self-regulatory, and cognitive processes that are crucial for academic success. Despite the importance of these emotions, syntheses of empirical findings investigating their relation with student achievement are scarce. We broadly review the literature on achievement emotions with a focus on activity-related emotions including enjoyment, anger, frustration, and boredom, and their links to educational outcomes with two specific aims: to aggregate all studies and determine how strongly related those emotions are to academic performance, and to examine moderators of those effects. A meta-analytical review was conducted using a systematic database of 68 studies. The 68 studies included 57 independent samples for enjoyment (
N
= 31,868), 25 for anger (
N
= 11,153), 9 for frustration (
N
= 1418), and 66 for boredom (
N
= 28,410). Results indicated a positive relation between enjoyment of learning and academic performance (ρ =
.
27), whereas the relations were negative for both anger (ρ = −
.
35) and boredom (ρ = −
.
25). For frustration, the relation with performance was near zero (ρ = −
.
02). Moderator tests revealed that relations of activity emotions with academic performance are stronger when (a) students are in secondary school compared with both primary school and college, and (b) the emotions are measured by the Achievement Emotions Questionnaires – Mathematics (AEQ-M). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Improving teaching quality is widely recognized as critical to addressing deficiencies in secondary school education, yet the field has struggled to identify rigorously evaluated teacher-development ...approaches that can produce reliable gains in student achievement. A randomized controlled trial of My Teaching Partner—Secondary—a Web-mediated approach focused on improving teacher-student interactions in the classroom—examined the efficacy of the approach in improving teacher quality and student achievement with 78 secondary school teachers and 2237 students. The intervention produced substantial gains in measured student achievement in the year following its completion, equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement test scores. Gains appeared to be mediated by changes in teacher-student interaction qualities targeted by the intervention.
Abstract only Introduction Mission Thrombectomy, established in 2016 by the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology, aims to enhance global accessibility to mechanical thrombectomy surgery ...for strokes caused by large vessel occlusion in the brain. High school students interested in exposure to global health have limited access to get exposure in this rapidly expanding area of public health. The MT2020+ student internship was designed in collaboration with MT2020+ to provide such an experience to US High School students. Students designed and carried out projects to raise stroke awareness among other high school students and communities while studying the barriers to stroke treatment. We report on this novel internship program's methodology, results, and outcomes. Methods The MT2020+ internship program followed a comprehensive framework. Three phases were implemented: Phase A involved secondary research, stakeholder identification, and the formation of a detailed survey and interview questions. Stakeholders included neurologists, neuro‐interventionalists, neuro‐radiologists, and members of stroke societies. Countries in the region of interest were categorized into three groups based on stroke and COVID‐19 data. A survey template was created in Phase B, and stakeholders were contacted for data collection. Interviews were conducted to delve deeper into survey responses. Phase C focused on analyzing the collected data, articulating the key barriers, and generating a written report. Interns also developed interventions to address key barriers identified during the research. Results The first cohort (2020) comprised 8 interns who investigated barriers to stroke treatment across different regions. The interns received survey responses and conducted interviews with stakeholders. Their research covered the U.S. & North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The outcomes varied, with different levels of engagement. One student developed an app in Peru to address transportation, educational, and rehabilitation barriers. The second cohort (2021) had 2 interns who focused on Latin America and Asia, working on rehabilitation apps. The third cohort (2022) included 4 interns studying Asia, Australia/New Zealand, North America/US, and Latin America. Their interventions ranged from creating stroke awareness clubs to organizing virtual conferences. Conclusion The MT2020+ student internship provided a novel opportunity for high school students to get exposure to global health implementation. The student research in this internship has contributed valuable insights into stroke treatment barriers and raised awareness among high school students worldwide.
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