PUPIL: International Journal of Teaching, Education and Learning

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS FOR CHINESE TEACHERS: A STUDY OF MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS

Wei Liu — 2023-07-14

Critical thinking is a vital skill that promotes students’ learning, enhances their creativity to solve problems, encourages them to seek new strategies and develops their thinking to a higher level. However, students cannot develop critical thinking by themselves, they need teachers’ support and guidance. The aim of the research is to explore how Chinese mathematics teachers define critical thinking, and how their gender, teaching experiences and perceptions of critical thinking affect their mathematics class. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the study. Data collected were analysed by deploying the statistics of mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s analysis at a 5% level of significance. Based on this paper, results revealed that gender and teaching experience are not significant variables but teaching experience and culture influence teachers’ confidence and behaviour while teaching critical thinking. This study provided opportunities for future research, particularly in the area of closing the gap in mathematics teachers’ perception of critical thinking between China and Western countries, and how to support students develop critical thinking skills in their daily learning.

LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SIGNAGES IN A MULTI CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Wilawan Champakaew — 2023-07-14

This research paper has two main objectives which are 1) to study signages displayed in multicultural environments and 2) to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between two multicultural areas. These two objectives have led to two research questions; (1) What are the languages displayed on signages in the two multicultural areas? And, (2) what are the functions of the signages found in the two multicultural areas? To answer these two questions, the researchers employed two main frameworks: types of signages by Siwina and Prasithrathsint (2020) and functions of signages by Yanhong and RungRuang (2013). The results show that most languages displayed on signages in the Chinese temple are bilingual, monolingual, and multilingual. On the other hand, most of the languages displayed on signages in the Hinduism temple are monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual languages. Moreover, the functions of signages found in the Chinese temple are namely, mythological (18 signages), informational (12 signages), symbolic (6 signages), requesting (2 signages), invitational (2 signages), and instructional (2 signages). Furthermore, from the Hinduism temple, a total of seven functions were found, namely, requesting (11 signages), invitational (12 signages), mythological (4 signages), ordering (3 signages), informational (2 signages), commercial (2 signages), and instructional (1 signage). This study suggested that linguistic landscape plays an important role in creating understanding among multiculturalism in religious settings.

HOW BI-LINGUAL FATHERS SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN TO LEARN LANGUAGES AT HOME

Manjie Zhu — 2023-07-14

This research examines how bilingual fathers help their children to acquire languages. The article applied in-depth semi-structured interviews with six multilingual dads from the University of Manchester, who explains the factors that hinder the father’s language teaching and the benefits of the father’s language teaching to the children. It is also worth noting that this article has four intriguing discoveries. Initially, not all fathers are absent from their children's schooling. In other homes, the father who is a university professor highly worried about the child's family studies and has also become an excellent language instructor for children. Second, the advancement of the Internet and contemporary technology has given dads new language instruction tools for home education, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the two most significant challenges in language instruction are a lack of social support resources and multilingual language schools. Finally, Parents’ language types and children’s age are important factors influencing family language strategy choices and the design of acquisition-learning activities. This study suggests that the application of the Internet in home language teaching and language education in different family types are topics worthy of future research.

DIAGNOSTIC TEST-BASED ASSESSMENT TOOL USING MOODLE TO MEASURE STUDENTS' METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES

Novi Ratna Dewi — 2023-07-14

As part of mindset, metacognition is one of the key indicators of 21st century skills. In this 21st century learning era, the need for metacognitive assessment tools is very important. This study aims to measure students' metacognitive abilities on science concepts using a Moodle based self-diagnostic assessment and know the correlation between students' metacognitive abilities and their learning outcomes. The research used quantitative methods with a sample consisting of 2 classes of students taking Basic Science Courses Data analysis of students' metacognition level based on evaluation results and correlation analysis of students' metacognition skills and learning outcomes. The result indicated that diagnostic test-based assessment tool using Moodle can be used to measure students' science metacognition abilities. The results also showed a significant correlation between metacognitive abilities and student learning outcomes. Diagnostics test using Moodle can be an alternative metacognitive assessment of the learning process and an opportunity to create a 21st-century skills assessment.

INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE WELL-BEING OF TEENAGERS

Sara Saraiji — 2023-07-14

There has been a positive association between screen time and depressive symptoms among adolescents. Research has found that using social media will increase self- comparisons especially if the engagement is passive. This would therefore increase the chances of depression and lower well-being. However, after investigating social media further, I found that the results were counter-intuitive and controversial on an individual level, especially for the youth. The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of social media on the well-being of teenagers. For this research paper, I asked many students to refrain from the use of social media for 33 hours and then tested their happiness score before and after. Then, I conducted a t-Test which showed a statistically significant difference in the mean of happiness scores before and after the experiment.

REFINING THE ENGLISH SYNTAX COURSE FOR UNDERGRADUATE ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Božena Horváthová — 2023-09-15

The English syntax course plays a crucial role in preparing future English language teachers. To enhance the teaching and learning of this subject in philological study programs, a blended approach was adopted, and a Moodle course was created. This course aimed at improving students' linguistic competence, digital skills, and time management abilities. The online course features a combination of uploaded PDF and audio lectures, scanned study materials and exercises, as well as online assignments with solutions that serve as e-portfolios, providing students with feedback on their learning progress and achievement. This study evaluates the teacher's experiences and the students’ attitudes towards the online course to determine whether incorporating digital technologies simplifies or complicates the teaching of this subject. The research methods employed are teachers' self-reflection and a questionnaire survey. In the future, further research should focus on exploring the challenges and benefits of incorporating digital technologies into linguistic education.

COMMUNICATIVE DICTATION FOR ADULT FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC CONTEXTS

Todd Hull — 2023-09-15

Dictation is an effective tool in facilitating foreign language acquisition. But traditional dictation, while having some benefits for acquiring a foreign language, was neither engaging for students nor did it focus on the actual, real world communication that is fundamental to the communicative approach of today. Dictogloss introduced communicative dictation and has been used widely in classrooms around the world. But, however dictation is done in the classroom, it can 1) feel to adult learners at least somewhat like something for children and 2) even when designed for adults, typical dictation topics can be perceived to be more at home in a language institute than an academic university setting. This paper will summarize types of traditional dictation, outline the characteristics of dictogloss and how it is an improvement on traditional dictation, review some of the research on its additional benefits for acquiring a foreign language, and suggest how it can be used at the university level.

CORRECTING STUDENTS CORRECTLY: AVOIDING GRAMMAR MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Todd Hull — 2023-09-15

Grammatical accuracy is a justifiable goal in language teaching classrooms. But misconceptions about grammar can hinder this goal. The main misconception is that native speakers make grammar errors when using their own native language. They do not. The idea that native speakers can make grammar mistakes in their own languages is detrimental to foreign language classrooms because when language teachers attempt to find answers to grammar questions, they encounter conflicting information and are sometimes not able to give their students useful answers. The main cause of the misconception that native speakers can make grammar errors in their own language is the conflation of formal and informal style, a conflation of grammar and style, which leads to informal usage being incorrectly stigmatized as incorrect grammar. This paper will outline three major misconceptions arising from this fundamental confusion of style and grammar: 1) the idea that native speakers use words incorrectly; 2) native speakers using words that are said not to be real words; and 3) conflation of emphasis and redundancy. This issue will be addressed in the context of the English language. But the principles apply across languages. Knowledge of these misconceptions will allow language teachers to answer and advise students.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS: REVISITING THE TELE-ARAL PROGRAM THROUGH THE LENS OF APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

Joelash Honra — 2023-09-15

As the pandemic challenges the education sector, alternative and innovative delivery of quality education has to be done. Notably, this study focused on a qualitative investigation of the successes and strengths of the Tele-Aral program using the 4-D process of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The data were gathered using both semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Guides for the interviews and FGDs were aligned with the research questions and validated by experts. Similarly, I followed the ethical research standards to protect human subjects while maintaining the study's trustworthiness. Additionally, nonprobability sampling techniques such as purposeful and criterion sampling were used in determining the study participants. Then, the data were thematically analyzed and methodologically triangulated. The findings revealed that the Tele-Aral program gave specific benefits to its stakeholders during the discovery stage. Participants envisioned that the program would become more successful in catering to struggling learners in the future. To achieve and sustain these visions, the participants looked into personal and collective upskilling and promoting the program to the local government units to reach more learners. Furthermore, I recommend that education stakeholders explore using appreciative inquiry in making various school reforms. Likewise, further studies are encouraged, focusing on the limitations of this study.