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Strategies For Improving Teachers’ Professional Development In Higher Education Institutions In The Southwest Region Of Cameroon, Sophie Ekume Etomes, Mou Charlotte Nsem

Educational Considerations

The expansion of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Cameroon, and the continuous change in the curriculum to meet national and global needs, calls for a need for continuous professional development of teachers to handle these challenges. This study examined peer coaching and reflective teaching as strategies for improving teachers’ professional development in HEIs in the Southwest region of Cameroon. Questionnaires and an interview guide were used to collect data from 409 teachers and 37 heads of departments respectively. The Spearman’s rho test was used to test the hypotheses while the ordinary least square regression model was used to test the …

Chess And Education, Gülçin Karakuş

Educational Considerations

This review aims to present how chess improves student abilities and underlines inferences about chess and its educational benefits. In this study, quantitative samples, experimental designs, or test scores of studies are not the main focus. Numerous experimental studies and limited review studies about chess instruction in the literature express the effect of chess on students’ success and mental skills. However, almost all of these studies address only positive effects; this review attempts to explain how chess achieves this success. What are the other components of this effect? Is it really possible to determine how chess affects education? The question …

African Indigenous Epistemologies, Traditions, And Practices Before The Arrival Of Europeans, Ernestina Wiafe

Educational Considerations

Africa is the second-largest continent in the world (after Asia), making up around one-fifth of the planet’s land area. There are many different cultural and linguistic groupings, because of how long humans have lived there. Due to this, Africans have a network of knowledge, beliefs, and traditions that they use to preserve, explain, and contextualize their ties with their culture and environment before the arrival of Europeans. Formal and informal transfers of indigenous knowledge took place between families, tribes, and communities through social contacts, oral traditions, ceremonial acts, and other activities. I will indicate, with all these indigenous systems and …

Fostering Internationalization In Adult Education Graduate Programs In The United States: Opportunities For Growth, Susan Yelich Biniecki, Maja Stojanović

Educational Considerations

Internationalization is a key element of higher education missions to prepare learners for the global dimensions of their lives and work, which are increasingly integrated. In the United States, adult education graduate programs play a vital role in the wider educational landscape, particularly because of their interconnectedness with diverse disciplines and a working learner student population. Although student and scholar mobility remain important to fostering connections, adult education graduate programs can broaden the scope of internationalization aims. This paper proposes three main opportunities for internationalization growth within adult education graduate programs: incorporating intercultural literacy in formal curricula, emphasizing a continuing …

Elementary Preservice Mathematics Teachers Fraction Knowledge: An Integrative Review Of Research, Cody J. Perry

Educational Considerations

Elementary preservice teachers struggle with fractions and explaining them despite taking numerous mathematics courses. Therefore, they may have issues when they teach fractions and related concepts. Since fractions underlie many concepts like algebra, improving teachers’ fraction knowledge is imperative. This integrative review of research synthesized findings about teachers’ fractions knowledge to provide potential strategies educator preparation programs (EPPs) can use to improve fraction mastery. The literature shows teachers lacked conceptual knowledge, used incorrect strategies and too few representations, and misunderstood magnitude and manipulatives. However, number lines and teaching conceptually helped improve mastery of fractions. Resolving issues with fraction mastery may …

The Effect Of Task-Based Writing Instruction On Iranian Pre-Intermediate Efl Learners’ Self-Efficacy And Epistemic Beliefs, Nooshin Iravani

Educational Considerations

Generally, writing—and second-language (L2) writing in particular—causes a lot of challenges. Indeed, many L2 students who are very proficient in speaking and reading may encounter many difficulties while composing a letter or a biography. They suffer from a low level of self-efficacy and confidence in this respect. Therefore, this research was aimed at shedding light on the effects of task-based writing instruction on improving English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' self-efficacy and epistemic beliefs associated with writing skills. To this end, a sample of 36 Iranian male and female pre-intermediate learners took part in this research. They formed two …

The Pandemic And Teachers: How Teachers’ Daily Life In The Classroom Has Been Impacted, Bailey Mahoney

Educational Considerations

This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected educators during the end of the 2019-2020 school year and throughout the 2020-2021 school year. During a time with so much uncertainty, the focus has been on how best to approach the school year for students. Little conversation has happened concerning the impact on teachers. While research on this topic is limited to the short time span of the pandemic so far, teachers have shifted their instructional strategies, assessment strategies, and homework policies to match the needs of students. The following study seeks to highlight these changes and provide a voice …

An Application Of The Ccsr Noncognitive Framework: Bringing Together Typical And Exceptional Student Research, Sara E. Taylor

Educational Considerations

The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (CCSR) published a report in 2012 entitled Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners. The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance: A Critical Literature Review in which they drew together research from fields such as psychology, economics, and education to present noncognitive factors as a malleable means to improve student performance in school. According to the framework derived by CCSR, noncognitive factors include academic mindsets, academic perseverance, academic behaviors, learning strategies, and social skills, which interact to influence academic performance. Researchers often focus on either typically developing or exceptional student populations. This …

Editorial Board

Educational Considerations

Editorial Board

Defining Our Future In Uncertain Times

Educational Considerations

This issue of Educational Considerations brings together an exciting blend of original research, bibliographic essays, and argued scholarship. Taken as a whole, this group of manuscripts speaks to the wide range of interests across our profession representing several current issues of importance to us all.

While This Is Difficult For An Adult, A Child Can Handle It Easily, F. Todd Goodson

Educational Considerations

I attempted to learn to play chess when my daughter was in middle school. At that time, she joined an after-school chess club sponsored by a teacher she admired, and I felt obligated to follow her into the game. She assumed the role of teacher, and she instructed me in the game.

Eventually, my daughter moved on to a point where she no longer required my services as her student, and I made a conscious decision not to invest more time in chess. I either wanted to be good, or I didn’t want to continue, and I knew becoming good …