IJLTER.ORG Vol 20 No 6 June 2021 by ijlter.org

IJLTER.ORG

p-ISSN: 1694-2493 e-ISSN: 1694-2116

International Journal of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research

Vol.20 No.6

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research (IJLTER) Vol. 20, No. 6 (June 2021) Print version: 1694-2493 Online version: 1694-2116

IJLTER International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research (IJLTER) Vol. 20, No. 6

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means, and storage in data banks.

Society for Research and Knowledge Management

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is a peer-reviewed open-access journal which has been established for the dissemination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the fields of learning, teaching and educational research.

Aims and Objectives The main objective of this journal is to provide a platform for educators, teachers, trainers, academicians, scientists and researchers from over the world to present the results of their research activities in the following fields: innovative methodologies in learning, teaching and assessment; multimedia in digital learning; e-learning; m-learning; e-education; knowledge management; infrastructure support for online learning; virtual learning environments; open education; ICT and education; digital classrooms; blended learning; social networks and education; etutoring: learning management systems; educational portals, classroom management issues, educational case studies, etc.

Indexing and Abstracting The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is indexed in Scopus since 2018. The Journal is also indexed in Google Scholar and CNKI. All articles published in IJLTER are assigned a unique DOI number.

Foreword We are very happy to publish this issue of the International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research. The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is a peer-reviewed open-access journal committed to publishing high-quality articles in the field of education. Submissions may include full-length articles, case studies and innovative solutions to problems faced by students, educators and directors of educational organisations. To learn more about this journal, please visit the website http://www.ijlter.org. We are grateful to the editor-in-chief, members of the Editorial Board and the reviewers for accepting only high quality articles in this issue. We seize this opportunity to thank them for their great collaboration. The Editorial Board is composed of renowned people from across the world. Each paper is reviewed by at least two blind reviewers. We will endeavour to ensure the reputation and quality of this journal with this issue.

Editors of the June 2021 Issue

VOLUME 20

NUMBER 6

June 2021

Table of Contents Perceived Satisfaction of Emergency Remote Teaching: More Evidence from Thailand .............................................. 1 Kevin Fuchs An Emergency Shift to e-Learning in Health Professions Education: A Comparative Study of Perspectives between Students and Instructors ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Afrah Almuwais, Samiah Alqabbani, Nada Benajiba, Fatmah Almoayad Impulsing the Development of Students' Competency Related to Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning through Teaching Straight-Line Equations....................................................................................................................................... 38 Bui Phuong Uyen, Lu Kim Ngan, Nguyen Phuong Thao, Duong Huu Tong Exploring Effective Practices in Managing Distance Learning for Teaching Art and Design in Bahrain ................. 66 Sama'a Al Hashimi Improving Novice Students’ Computational Thinking Skills by Problem-Solving and Metacognitive Techniques ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 88 Nor Hasbiah Ubaidullah, Zulkifley Mohamed, Jamilah Hamid, Suliana Sulaiman, Rahmah Lob Yussof Examining Saudi Students’ Perceptions on the Use of the Blackboard Platform during the COVID-19 Pandemic ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 109 Elham Alzain A Bibliometric Analysis of Blended Learning in Higher Education: Perception, Achievement and Engagement ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 126 Arumugam Raman, Raamani Thannimalai, Yahya Don, Mohan Rathakrishnan The Role of Nurturing Technopreneurship Education and Building University Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Skill Sets in Fostering Digital Innovation and Augmenting the Tech Start-Up Ecosystem in Bahrain ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 152 Sama'a Al Hashimi, Yasmina Zaki, Ameena Al Muwali, Nasser Mahdi British National Corpus in English Language Teaching of University Students ....................................................... 174 Nataliia Bober, Yan Kapranov, Anna Kukarina, Tetiana Tron, Tamara Nasalevych Emerging Trends in Metaphoric Images of Curriculum Reform Implementation in Schools: A Critical Literature Review .................................................................................................................................................................................. 194 Godsend T. Chimbi, Loyiso C. Jita Is Decentralisation a Suitable Response to Improve South African Rural Education? .............................................. 211 Kevin Teise, Emma Barnett Qualitative Content Analysis of Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences in Using Blended Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic .......................................................................................................................................................... 225 Kenneth Ian Talosig Batac, Jonnedel Azucena Baquiran, Casper Boongaling Agaton

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Role of Entrepreneurship Education in the Career Choice Decision-Making of Business Studies Learners in Gauteng South Africa ...................................................................................................... 244 Oluwakemi B. Ajayi The Common Thinking Styles Based on the Mental Self-Government Theory Among Saudi University Students According to Gender, Academic Achievement and Extracurricular Activities .......................................................... 258 Ali Tared Aldossari, Mahmoud Moh'd Ali Abu Jadou Pre-service Science Teachers’ Integration of Constructivist Ideas in the Lecture Method ........................................ 277 Rose Atieno Mutende, Rosemary K. Imonje, Winston Akala Implementation of the Social Component of Higher Education: Bottom-up Approach ........................................... 299 Alla A. Marushkevych, Iryna M. Zvarych, Natalia M. Lavrychenko, Liudmyla Ya. Biriuk, Olha M. Zaitseva The Effects of Using a Case Study Method for Environmental Education.................................................................. 319 Sergii D. Rudyshyn, Inna A. Stakhova, Nataliia H. Sharata, Tetiana V. Berezovska, Tetiana P. Kravchenko Exploring Vocational High School Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention: Preliminary Study .................................. 341 Darma Rika Swaramarinda, Badrul Isa, Norhayati Mohd Yusof, Mohd Ali Bahari Abdul Kadir School Support Received and the Challenges Encountered in Distance Learning Education by Filipino Teachers during the Covid-19 Pandemic ......................................................................................................................................... 360 Angelito Palma Bautista Jr., Doris Gelvoligaya Bleza, Cielito Bernardino Buhain, Dianne Morta Balibrea The Role of Teacher Educators in Curriculum Reforms in Lesotho Schools .............................................................. 386 Julia Chere-Masopha, Tebello Tlali, Tankie Khalanyane, Edith Sebatane The Development of Digital Competences for University Tourism Teachers ............................................................ 403 Derling José Mendoza Velazco, Magda Francisca Cejas Martínez, Mercedes Navarro Cejas, María Hipatia Delgado Demera, Silvia Marieta Aldaz Hernández

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 1-15, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.1

Perceived Satisfaction of Emergency Remote Teaching: More Evidence from Thailand Kevin Fuchs Prince of Songkla University, Phuket, Thailand https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3253-5133

Abstract. The sudden shift from physical classroom education towards emergency remote teaching (ERT) in higher education during the unprecedented global pandemic caused an abrupt change in the learning environment for students and educators alike. The disruptive overnight change and conversion of entire courses to emergency remote teaching caused concern for not only educators, but also students that had little time to adapt to the new circumstances. While the embedment of technologies in the classroom is not a new concept, this quantitative research expands a case study that sought to examine the perceived satisfaction of undergraduate students with the emerging paradigm of ERT. Responses based on empirical data (n=450) as well as secondary data (n=219) were analyzed to conclude that, in particular, younger freshmen students struggled more with online emergency remote teaching than their older peers. Furthermore, the study identified numerous similarities between both data samples. The current research informs educators about student perceptions and preferences during these extraordinary circumstances of uncertain duration. Furthermore, the paper concludes with recommendations that aim to provide institutions and educators with practical guidance on how to tackle the outlined issues. Keywords: Emergency remote teaching; Technology-enhanced learning; Thailand; Online learning; Higher education

1. Introduction The universality of information technology has been influencing almost all aspects of our lives: the way we work, interact with others, process data into information, analyze and share information, entertain ourselves, and enjoy tourism (Palvia et al., 2018). Due to the threat of COVID-19, universities are facing decisions about how to continue teaching and learning while keeping their faculty, staff, and students safe from a public health emergency that is moving fast and is not well understood. Many institutions have opted to cancel all face-to-face classes, including lab-based classes and seminars. They have mandated that faculties move their courses online to help prevent the spread of

©Author This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

the virus that causes COVID-19 (Fuchs, 2021a). This unprecedented situation created an entirely new phenomenon: due to the severe nature of the virus, entire curricula were moved to online education overnight. The challenge herein was not limited to the educators, who found themselves in a situation of needing to teach their entire syllabus online, but also extended to the students, who needed to adapt to a new learning environment instantaneously (Whalen, 2020). As a response to the global education crisis, online emergency remote teaching has been put into practice. It is a complex process that requires careful planning, designing, and determination of aims in order to create an effective learning ecology (Themelis & Sime, 2020). The temptation to compare online learning to face-to-face instruction in these circumstances will be great. Online learning carries a stigma of being lower in quality than face-to-face learning, despite research showing otherwise. These hurried moves online by so many institutions at once could seal the perception of online learning as a weak option when, in truth, nobody making the transition to online teaching under these circumstances will truly be designed to take full advantage of the affordances and possibilities of the online format (Hodges et al., 2020). This paper is an expansion of an earlier study done by Fuchs and Karrila (2021) that sought to examine the perceived satisfaction of students in higher education concerning emergency remote teaching amid COVID-19 in Thailand. Fuchs and Karrila (2021) identified that most undergraduate students prefer a traditional on-site classroom arrangement, but were satisfied with the alternative ERT that was delivered fully online. The study highlighted that the students perceived knowledge, friendliness, and patience as the most important characteristics of their lecturer in these circumstances. However, the limited sample size from the previous study (n=219) would not suffice to generalize the results to a larger population, nor allow for validation in different geographical parts of Thailand. This paper therefore aims to expand on the original research setting and to meet the following research objectives: 1) To seek validation of previous research results through an increased sample size 2) To identify whether the perceived satisfaction from undergraduate students varies in a different geographical setting 3) To recognize a similarity or dissimilarity between specific factors based on geographical location, i.e. in Northeastern vs. Southern Thailand Moreover, the research was guided by the following research question: “How do undergraduate students in Northeastern Thailand perceive satisfaction with the emerging paradigm of emergency remote teaching during COVID-19?”

2. Literature Review 2.1. Online learning in higher education The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. As shown in a previous study, effective time management was the second-highest-rated

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

advantage of online education, with students having more freedom to control their time and not being constrained by predetermined schedules (Martin et al., 2020). Another study found that, depending on the teaching methods used, the ability to use multiple virtual classrooms at the same time could improve student interest and involvement, allowing for smaller group discussions during online lectures (Fuchs, 2021b). Furthermore, a combination of time and location versatility was claimed as one of the key advantages of online education. The benefit of place and time flexibility works both ways, allowing students and educators to choose the best work environment for them. Additionally, time saved by eliminating a daily commute can be spent in more study time, increasing the likelihood of success. The variety of digital resources that can be incorporated into the virtual classroom was mentioned as another advantage of online education. According to Downes (2019) in his Connectivism-based educational theory, the online medium provided an opportunity and experience to connect with students from various disciplines, backgrounds, and cultures (Downes, 2019). Since the early 2000s, the paradigm of online education has changed radically. Most notably, the Internet is connecting an ever-increasing number of people all over the world. According to the United Nations nearly 4.68 billion people will have access to the Internet in the year 2020. This figure reflects roughly 58 percent of the world's population, so it is no wonder that online education is growing in tandem. 2.2. Challenges and opportunities related to online education Earlier research by Fuchs and Karrila (2021), Sun and Chen (2016), Kyne and Thompson (2020), Delnoij et al. (2020), and Fuchs (2021c) claim that online education has numerous advantages, including the ability to study remotely without having to engage in a daily rush hour in metropolitan areas. Furthermore, another advantage listed was timely and frequent feedback from the course instructor through digital evaluations and electronic communication (Kyne & Thompson, 2020). Other advantages of online education include the multi-media experience in a well-designed virtual classroom with various technical elements (Fuchs, 2021c). Moreover, of course, there were monetary benefits resulting from reduced costs and, therefore, lower tuition fees for participating students (Sun & Chen, 2016). Online education and technology-enhanced education are certainly not new concepts; they have been around for quite some time. However, rising curiosity has ignited a big trend in these fields (Sun & Chen, 2016; Kyne & Thompson, 2020). Educators were searching for a way to do some of their teachings online, or at the very least incorporate technology into their classrooms (Fuchs, 2021b; Fuchs, 2021c). The pedagogy of active learning, in particular, has intensified the movement toward technology-enhanced education, which has the benefits of increased student participation, improved learning outcomes, and, as a result, higher retention rates (Delnoij et al., 2020). However, many of the outlined benefits are not transferable to the paradigm of emergency remote teaching in a crisis, wherein this emerging paradigm carries its own set of distinguishing characteristics.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

2.3. The emerging paradigm of ERT As a result of crises, emergency remote teaching (ERT) is a temporary transition in instructional delivery to an alternative delivery model, wherein it is implied that teaching is carried out entirely online. It was also stated that online education has been studied for decades, with a consensus on the elements that do not contribute proportionally to the efficacy of online education. These characteristics include but were not limited to modality, pacing, studentinstructor ratio, pedagogy, the role of assessment, the instructor’s role, the student’s role, communication channels, and sources of feedback. These characteristics will invariably be evident in an effective ERT class. The lack of time available for educators to change their instructional materials – in the event of a last-minute switch from classroom to online – may potentially indicate an unsuitable learning atmosphere for students. Kyne and Thompson (2020) conducted a case study that described many challenges faced by students during their fully online semester. Completing labbased tasks, navigating Moodle (LMS), and engaging with online content were among them. If the course content is not carefully and intentionally designed, “undergraduate students claim a lack of socialization with peers and low engagement with the course materials” as primary reasons for their dissatisfaction, according to a similar study (Fuchs, 2021a). Furthermore, Wilcox and Vignal (2020) discovered that the two most common difficulties students faced as a result of ERT were (1) course inception and (2) learning environment. The most frequently mentioned issue in the above group was unreliable Internet access that hindered the students' learning experience. Participants said the learning process was uncomfortable and unpleasant, according to Gelles et al. (2020). Although there are many benefits and opportunities in the online education paradigm, it should be recognized that it is not without its difficulties and flaws. Certainly, lack of student engagement (Fuchs, 2021c), willingness to meet learning results (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2016), and involvement of low-performing students (Fay & Zavattaro, 2016) were all difficulties found in previous studies. However, given the existence of the substantial changes that emergency remote teaching could entail, there is the potential for a new set of challenges to arise. 2.4. Defining students satisfaction Satisfaction is a euphoric feeling that occurs when a person's needs and desires have been met (Suikkanen, 2011). It is a state of mind of a person that has achieved or perceived a result that has exceeded their expectations (Busacca & Padula, 2015). As a result, satisfaction can be described as an experience of receiving expected results. In related research, satisfaction is often portrayed as the positive difference between the perceived importance and the perceived performance of an attribute or action (Muhsin et al., 2020). In other words, satisfaction refers to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction experienced as a result of contrasting perceived results to expectations (Suikkanen, 2011; Padula, 2015). Generally, students are satisfied when the perceived performance of a specific service or action outranks the perceived expectation of the same service/action.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

When a person perceives that service encountered as good, they will be satisfied. When the perceived performance of the service or action is below the perceived expectation, then that person would be dissatisfied with the result: Satisfaction (S) = Perceived Importance (I) – Perceived Performance (P). The measurement of a student's educational experiences leads to a short-term disposition of satisfaction. It is the product and effect of an educational system and is a positive indicator of student loyalty (Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2017; Muhsin et al., 2020). In conclusion, student satisfaction can be understood as a function of the relative level of experiences and perceived performance concerning educational services during the study period (Suikkanen, 2011; Padula, 2015; Weerasinghe & Fernando, 2017).

3. Methodology 3.1. Sample The data were collected from undergraduate students of all years who were enrolled in a full-time degree program. The sample included degree programs that relate to Business and Management studies. After screening the collected data, a total of 38 responses were discarded. The discarded responses included 13 from another Faculty (i.e. Faculty of Science). Moreover, 8 responses from international exchange students were excluded. However, responses from international degree students were included in the analysis. Finally, 17 inconclusive/incomplete responses were discarded. Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants Characteristics Gender Male Female Prefer not to say Total Year of study Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 or above Total Age range 18 years old or below 19 – 20 years old 21 – 22 years old 23 – 24 years old 25 years old or above Total 1Secondary 2Empirical

University A1

University B2

58 159 2 219

26% 73% 1% 100%

125 325 445

28% 72% 0% 100%

50 83 43 32 11 219

23% 38% 20% 14% 5% 100%

79 208 76 68 19 445

18% 46% 17% 15% 4% 100%

6 122 68 16 7 219

3% 56% 31% 7% 3% 100%

7 285 114 30 14 445

2% 63% 25% 7% 3% 100%

Data obtained from University A in Southern Thailand (n=219) Data obtained from University B in Northeastern Thailand (n=450)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

An overall sample size (n=669) was included as a population sample for the data analysis. The confidence level of accurate sampling was estimated at 95% (p<0.05) and, based on the total student enrollment and sample size that were included, the margin of error was quantified at 4.40%. Based on eligible responses, the representative demographic profile in Table 1 and 2 summarizes the respondents’ gender, year of study, age range (all in Table 1), nationality, and preferred mode of study (in Table 2). Table 2: Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants Characteristics Nationality Thai Foreign Total Preferred study mode Virtual classroom Traditional classroom Total

University A1

University B2

184 35 219

84% 16% 100%

360 90 445

80% 20% 100%

54 165 219

25% 75% 100%

117 333 445

26% 74% 100%

1Secondary 2Empirical

Data obtained from University A in Southern Thailand (n=219) Data obtained from University B in Northeastern Thailand (n=450)

3.2. Research instrument Convenience sampling was used to collect the data through a bilingual (Thai and English) self-administered digital survey (e-survey). The e-survey was split into three sections containing a total of 27 questions and was adapted from an earlier case study (Fuchs & Karrila, 2021). The students were recruited on-site to voluntarily participate in the data collection. Furthermore, the students were prompted for assistance to further distribute the survey amongst their peers. The first section sought to collect data on the participant’s socio-demographic profile. Table 3: Summary of survey items No. Item 1.

The teacher begins the class with a review of the previous class

The teacher presents the material in an interesting and engaging way

The teacher presents the material in an organized and coherent way

The teacher is knowledgeable about the content of the course

The teacher is friendly and patient with the students

The course material is well and professionally prepared

The course material is easy to access in the LMS

Students are engaged to actively participate in the discussion

I am learning something which I consider valuable

10. I am finding the course challenging and stimulating

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

The second and third sections contained ten (10) items each, wherein the participants were able to express their views on a 5-point Likert-type scale with pre-coded responses for Not Important At All (1), Not Very Important (2), Somewhat Important (3), Very Important (4), and Extremely Important (5) in the second section. Similarly, the third section had pre-coded Likert-type responses for Not At All Satisfied (1), Not Very Satisfied (2), Somewhat Satisfied (3), Very Satisfied (4), and Extremely Satisfied (5). Otherwise, the items in the second and third sections were similar in terms of comparing the perceived importance and performance for each item (Table 3). The structure and content of the administered e-survey were examined for validity by three university lecturers and tested with ten students for comprehension of the survey. These preliminary examinations yielded minor revisions to enhance the clarity of the survey. 3.3. Survey administration The secondary data were taken from an earlier study conducted by Fuchs and Karrila (2021) and were collected in the first quarter of 2021 at a large higher educational institution in southern Thailand. They were collected amid a countrywide ERT policy as a result of the imminent spread of COVID-19. Hereafter, this sample is referred to as University A (n1=219). The empirical data were collected in the second quarter of 2021 at a large higher educational institution in northeastern Thailand and the survey accepted responses for a duration of 96 hours before it was closed for new responses. It was collected in the aftermath of a countrywide ERT policy that was implemented and effectively replaced traditional face-to-face teaching. Henceforth, the sample is referred to as University B (n2=450). Both institutions are the largest universities in terms of size (i.e. student enrollment and curricula offered) and recognition in the respective areas. Furthermore, they are characterized as government-run institutions of higher education targeting students from middle-class households. 3.4. Data analysis The survey data were examined using JASP and software to obtain an average value (Mean), standard deviation (SD), minimum value (Min), maximum value (Max), the proportion of the data (i.e., a fraction of cases without missing data), and distribution of data for each item. Independent T-tests were performed to determine if there was a significant difference between the means of University A and University B. The data analysis and findings are discussed and interpreted in later sections of this paper.

4. Results and Discussion The results from the empirical data collection and secondary data sample are presented in two separate sections that allow for chronologic analysis and presentation. The first section presents the demographic profiling that was conducted to identify similarities or dissimilarities between the samples based on gender, age range, year of study, nationality, or preferred mode of study.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

The second section presents the mean values of both samples for each attribute and allows for comparison of the results and analysis of student satisfaction with emergency remote teaching. Moreover, the variance from each attribute between the first and second samples was calculated and independent t-tests were performed from both samples to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the means in both samples. 4.1. Demographic profiling of both sample groups The socio-demographic profile, consisting of gender, age range, year of study, and nationality, was included in a rigorous cross-analysis wherein different mean ratings based on gender or year of study were detected. However, the results do not suggest a statistical significance or relevance that would further provide value concerning the perceived satisfaction of students with emergency remote teaching in Thailand. However, one particular criterion yielded a noteworthy result. The enclosed graphic (Fig. 1) shows the preferred mode of study based on 17 totally different socio-demographic filters that were applied.

25%

28%

25%

24%

26%

29%

30%

24%

16% 27%

25%

24%

28%

34%

No. 8

Thai

21-22 years

No. 7

Year 5+

19-20 years

No. 6

Year 4

18 or younger

No. 5

Year 3

University B

No. 4

Year 2

University A

No. 3

Year 1

Male

No. 2

25 or above

Female

No. 1

23-24 years

Total

43%

Foreign

8% 26%

No. 9 No. 10 No. 11 No. 12 No. 13 No. 14 No. 15 No. 16 No. 17

Traditional Classroom

Virtual Classroom

Figure 1: Demographic profiling about the students preferred mode of studying

The blue bar signifies the percentage of students that prefer a traditional classroom setting instead of emergency remote teaching, wherein the red bar indicates the percentage of students that prefer emergency remote teaching to a traditional on-site classroom arrangement. To draw a baseline for comparison, 13 of the 17 attributes that were examined yielded a similar proportional response, wherein 74% of students prefer the traditional classroom and 26% prefer the virtual classroom during ERT (No. 1). The majority of sociodemographic filters validate this sentiment with a relatively small standard deviation of not more than 2%. However, based on the 17 filters that were applied, four particular settings yielded noteworthy results. Namely, these are:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

No. 6 (18 or younger), No. 11 (Year 1), No. 15 (Year 5+), and No. 17 (Foreign). The first three findings indicate opposing views of the respective groups of participants. The students aged “18 years or younger” expressed their preference toward the traditional classroom environment with 92%, whereas only 8% of that same group prefer the virtual classroom as part of emergency remote teaching (No. 6). A similar notion is shared amongst the first-year students, wherein 84% prefer the traditional classroom and 16% prefer the virtual classroom (No. 11). Generally, the students are aged 17-19 years old in their first year of undergraduate studies. A possible hypothesis therefore derives that freshmen students aged 18 years or younger have a strong preference toward the traditional classroom environment. Another case study suggests that female students in particular struggle with virtual classrooms and claim “lack of socialization, peer interaction and technological challenges” as the main difficulties (Fuchs, 2021a). Students in their fifth year (and above) expressed an opposing sentiment concerning the preferred mode of study. While 92% of first-year students prefer the traditional classroom (No. 6), only 57% of their older peers share that same sentiment (No. 15). A possible explanation for these opposing views could be that freshmen students eagerly wait to commence their study experience upon high school graduation, wherein students in their final years of study are already more independent and have shifted their focus toward work-life-balance rather than study experience, as claimed in a case study by Yamada and Yamada (2018). Lastly, another notable deviation from the baseline result (No. 1) was the result recorded from foreign degree students (No. 17). 66% of foreign degree students prefer the traditional classroom, whereas 34% of them prefer the virtual classroom. While about two-thirds still favor an on-site arrangement, the result deviates by 8% from the baseline and is even 10% less compared to their Thai peers (No. 16). Trower and Lehmann (2017) suggest that personal development, immersion into a new culture, and learning a new language are amongst the top reasons for students to study abroad. Thus, a negative deviation from the baseline result suggests a rather contradictory result from these findings and offers room for further research in the future. 4.2. Importance-performance analysis The three highest mean ratings concerning the perceived importance of the attributes (Table 4) at University A are No. 4 (4.37), No. 5 (4.27), and No. 7 (4.13). On the other hand, at University B the following three attributes received the highest mean rating from the participants: No. 5 (4.18), No. 2 (4.17), and No. 4 (4.14). Similar to the results from University A, the participants at University B valued two identical attributes in their top three of most important attributes during ERT. Namely, these are “The teacher is knowledgeable about the content of the course (No. 4)” as well as “The teacher is friendly and patient about the content of the course (No.5)”. Both attributes directly address the virtues of the lecturer, as students perceive being knowledgeable, friendly, and patient as the most important characteristics at both institutions. Respectively, the weighted mean ratings from both institutions rank almost identically with No. 4 (4.22) and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

No. 5 (4.21) as the most important attributes during emergency remote teaching. Contrary to the most important attributes, the participants at University A rated item No. 1 (3.73) and No. 10 (3.58) as the least important attributes. Table 4: Comparison of importance ratings No.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

University A Mean SD 3.73 0.99 4.03 1.01 4.05 0.92 4.37 0.89 4.27 0.96 4.12 0.99 4.13 1.03 3.98 0.95 3.95 0.98 3.58 1.24

University B Mean SD 4.02 1.02 4.17 0.98 4.05 0.98 4.14 0.99 4.18 1.02 4.11 1.01 4.11 1.01 3.91 1.08 4.07 1.02 4.00 1.06

Total Mean 3.93 4.12 4.05 4.22 4.21 4.11 4.12 3.93 4.03 3.87

SD 1.02 0.99 0.96 0.97 1.00 1.00 1.02 1.04 1.01 1.14

1Ratings obtained from a Likert-type five points scale ranging from lowest rating to highest rating, i.e. Not Important At All (1), Not Very Important (2), Somewhat Important (3), Very Important (4), and Extremely Important (5).

Although these two attributes also rank in the bottom three for participants from University B, the lowest mean rating was given to No. 8 (3.91), which asked the participants about the importance of the statement “students are engaged to actively participate in the discussion”. Evaluating the totality of both samples, it can be concluded that the lowest to highest mean rating ranges from 3.87 (No 10.) to 4.22 (No. 4), which indicates relatively high importance for all ten attributes. Furthermore, the findings from the first sample taken at University A were affirmed with the second sample from University B, with the virtues of the lecturer perceived by the students as the most important characteristics. Table 5: Comparison of performance ratings No.1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

University A Mean SD 3.52 0.99 3.62 1.04 3.79 1.00 4.12 0.96 4.05 0.94 3.84 0.98 3.87 1.00 3.81 0.96 3.76 1.01 3.54 1.20

University B Mean SD 3.92 1.05 3.80 1.04 3.81 1.04 3.82 1.08 3.76 1.01 3.63 1.08 3.73 1.01 3.83 1.03 3.90 1.00 3.87 1.03

Total Mean 3.79 3.74 3.81 3.92 3.85 3.70 3.77 3.82 3.86 3.76

SD 1.05 1.04 1.03 1.05 1.00 1.05 1.01 1.01 1.01 1.09

1Ratings obtained from a Likert-type five points scale ranging from lowest rating to highest rating, i.e. Not At All Satisfied (1), Not Very Satisfied (2), Somewhat Satisfied (3), Very Satisfied (4), and Extremely Satisfied (5).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

In addition to the attributes that received the lowest and highest mean ratings about perceived importance, Table 5 indicates the perceived performance of the same ten attributes per educational institution. The three highest-rated attributes about perceived performance at University A are No. 4 (4.12), No. 5 (4.05), and No. 7 (3.87). The results recorded from participants at University B differ in terms of mean value, ranking, and mean value variance. Firstly, it can be noted that the range for the mean value is relatively narrow. The lowest to highest value range is from 3.63 (No. 6) to 3.92 (No. 1). Moreover, the highest-rated attributes about perceived performance are No. 1 (3.92), No. 9 (3.90), and No. 10 (3.87), indicating that students at University B place more emphasis on the perceived performance for a review of the previous class at the beginning of their lecture (No. 1) and being able to learn something valuable (No. 9). Notably, the lowest-rated attributes from the first sample at University A correspond to No. 1 (3.52) and No. 9 (3.54), which were the highest-ranked at University B. In summary, it can be noted that there is an agreement between both institutions that the virtues and personal traits of the lecturer are perceived as the most important attributes during emergency remote teaching. Attributes that correspond to the lecturers’ friendliness, patience, or knowledge are rated higher than, for example, the need for a stimulating or challenging course (Table 6). Table 6. Comparison of importance-performance ratings (n=669) No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Importance rating1 Mean SD 3.52 0.99 3.62 1.04 3.79 1.00 4.12 0.96 4.05 0.94 3.84 0.98 3.87 1.00 3.81 0.96 3.76 1.01 3.54 1.20

Performance rating2 Mean SD 3.92 1.05 3.80 1.04 3.81 1.04 3.82 1.08 3.76 1.01 3.63 1.08 3.73 1.01 3.83 1.03 3.90 1.00 3.87 1.03

Furthermore, while there is a relative agreement about the attributes perceived as most important during emergency remote teaching, there is a discrepancy amongst both institutions about perceived performance during emergency remote teaching. The latter result is probably less surprising, considering that the performance of an online class is largely dependent on the individual lecturer, as well as how the institution manages the ERT. However, it can be noted that participants from both institutions are generally satisfied with the perceived performance during ERT. The attributes related to perceived performance for both institutions range from the lowest at 3.70 (No. 6) to the highest at 3.92 (No. 4). Also, the result is less surprising as the lowest-ranked attribute is item No. 6, about professionally prepared course material. This is understandable given the short notice to

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

convert educational material from traditional classroom teaching into an online environment, as earlier stated by Hodges et al. (2020). The underlying factors are not clear for the survey items that resulted in very low comparative p-values, as summarized in Table 7, based on the analysis conducted. Table 7: Comparison and Independent T-Test’s No. Mean1 Importance 1 3.73 2 4.03 3 4.05 4 4.37 5 4.27 6 4.12 7 4.13 8 3.98 9 3.95 10 3.58 Performance 1 3.52 2 3.62 3 3.79 4 4.12 5 4.05 6 3.84 7 3.87 8 3.81 9 3.76 10 3.54

Mean2

Variance

t-value

p-value

4.02 4.17 4.05 4.14 4.18 4.11 4.11 3.91 4.07 4.00

-0.29 -0.14 ±0.00 0.23 0.09 0.01 0.02 0.07 -0.12 -0.42

-3.5379 -1.6520 0.1027 2.8501 1.0329 0.0919 0.2802 0.8214a -1.4389 -4.5389a

<.001 0.099 0.918 0.005 0.302 0.927 0.779 0.412 0.151 <.001

3.92 3.80 3.81 3.82 3.76 3.63 3.73 3.83 3.90 3.87

-0.40 -0.18 -0.02 0.30 0.29 0.21 0.14 -0.02 -0.14 -0.33

-4.684 -2.071 -0.223 3.419 3.608a 2.343a 1.696 -0.194 -1.739 -3.744a

<.001 0.039 0.824 <.001 <.001 0.019 0.090 0.846 0.082 <.001

1Sample aLevene’s

taken from University A; 2Sample taken from University B test is significant (p < .05), suggesting a violation of the assumption of equal variances.

5. Conclusion and Future Works It was the aim of the study to seek validation of previous research results through an increased sample size and to identify whether the perceived satisfaction from undergraduate students varies in a different geographical setting. Everyone involved in the temporary but sudden shift toward virtual learning must recognize that these crises cause disturbances for students, staff, and educators alike. While the coronavirus pandemic will hopefully soon be a distant memory, we should not simply return to our pre-virus teaching and learning practices and ignoring valuable lessons learned from ERT. There are a few noteworthy findings from this study that outline where the educator’s emphasis could be placed in a sudden and disruptive move toward virtual teaching. Both data samples suggest an agreement amongst the attributes that students value most and deem as most important in a time when educators struggle to fulfill similar expectations as in the on-site traditional classroom

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

arrangement. Furthermore, the study revealed that Thai undergraduate students’ perceived performance is generally ranked lower than their perceived expectations, although it should be noted that the perceived satisfaction yielded an overall good result at both institutions. Moreover, emphasis and more attention should be given to younger undergraduate students in their first year of study who struggle more with virtual classrooms than their older peers. Lastly, limitations offer an opportunity for future research; while the authors tried to mitigate possible limitations as far as possible, it is significant to point out that the settings in which the results were collected are geographically limited to the northeastern and southern region of Thailand and not generalizable to a larger population. Furthermore, the demographic profiling of students offers opportunities for future research to quantitatively validate the results and possibly generalize the findings to a larger population.

6. Acknowledgments 6.1. Conflict of interest The author would like to declare no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, or publication of this article. 6.2. Data availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. 6.3. Funding The Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Prince of Songkla University funded the project under the Fast Track Data Collection Grant [Contract No. FHT 6400002]. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this paper are solely the intellectual result of the author(s) and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Faculty or University. 6.4. Recognition The author would like to thank the participants that contributed to the research project by answering the questionnaire.

7. References Busacca, B., & Padula, G. (2005). Understanding the relationship between attribute performance and overall satisfaction: Theory, measurement and implications. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 23(6), 543-561. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500510624110 Delnoij, L. E., Dirkx, K. J., Janssen, J. P., & Martens, R. L. (2020). Predicting and resolving non-completion in higher (online) education–a literature review. Educational Research Review, 29, 100313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100313 Downes, S. (2019). Recent work in connectivism. European Journal of Open, Distance and ELearning (EURODL), 22(2), 112-131. Fay, D. L., & Zavattaro, S. M. (2016). Branding and isomorphism: The case of higher education. Public Administration Review, 76(5), 805-815. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12626 Fuchs K., & Karrila S. (2021). The Perceived Satisfaction with Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) amidst COVID-19: An Exploratory Case Study in Higher

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Education. The Education and Science Journal, 23(5), 116-130. https://doi.org/10.17853/1994-5639-2021-5-116-130 Fuchs, K. (2021a). Advances in Tourism Education: A Qualitative Inquiry about Emergency Remote Teaching in Higher Education. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 12(2), 538-543. https://doi.org/10.14505//jemt.v12.2(50).23 Fuchs, K. (2021b). Evaluating The Technology-Enhanced Flipped Classroom Through The Students’ Eye: A Case Study. Proceedings of The 3rd International Conference on Research in Education 2021 (vol. 1, pp. 25-33). https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14173622 Fuchs, K. (2021c). Preparing Students for Success in a Changing World: The Role of Virtual Whiteboards in the Modern Classroom. Education Quarterly Reviews, 4(1), 151-158. https://doi.org/10.31014/aior.1993.04.01.182 Gelles L. A., Lord S. M., Hoople G. D., Chen D. A., & Mejia J. A. (2020). Compassionate flexibility and self-discipline: Student adaptation to emergency remote teaching in an integrated engineering energy course during COVID-19. Education Sciences, 10(11), 304. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110304 Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review, 27, 1-12. Kyne S. H., & Thompson C. D. (2020). The COVID Cohort: Student transition to university in the face of a global pandemic. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 3381–3385. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00769 Martin, F., Stamper, B., & Flowers, C. (2020). Examining Student Perception of Readiness for Online Learning: Importance and Confidence. Online Learning, 24(2), 38-58. Muhsin, S., Nurkhin, A., Pramusinto, H., Afsari, N., & Arham, A. F. (2020). The relationship of good university governance and student satisfaction. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(1). 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v9n1p1 Palvia, S., Aeron, P., Gupta, P., Mahapatra, D., Parida, R., Rosner, R., & Sindhi, S. (2018). Online education: Worldwide status, challenges, trends, and implications. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 21(4), 233-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198X.2018.1542262 Suikkanen, J. (2011). An improved whole life satisfaction theory of happiness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 1(1), 149-166. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v1i1.6 Sun, A., & Chen, X. (2016). Online education and its effective practice: A research review. Journal of Information Technology Education, 15(1), 157-190. Retrieved from http://informingscience.org/publications/3502 Themelis, C., & Sime, J. A. (2020). From Video-Conferencing to Holoportation and Haptics: How Emerging Technologies Can Enhance Presence in Online Education? Emerging Technologies and Pedagogies in the Curriculum, 261-276. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0618-5_16 Trower, H., & Lehmann, W. (2017). Strategic escapes: Negotiating motivations of personal growth and instrumental benefits in the decision to study abroad. British Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 275-289. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3258 Weerasinghe, I. S., & Fernando, R. L. (2017). Students' Satisfaction in Higher Education. American Journal of Educational Research, 5(5), 533-539. http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/5/5/9 Whalen, J. (2020). Should teachers be trained in emergency remote teaching? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 28(2), 189-199. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/215995

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Wilcox, B., & Vignal, M. (2020). Recommendations for emergency remote teaching based on the student experience. The Physics Teacher, 58(1), 374. https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0001828 Yamada, A., & Yamada, R. (2018). The new movement of active learning in Japanese higher education: the analysis of active learning case in Japanese graduate programs. In Active Learning-Beyond the Future, 1(4), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80836 Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Pant, H. A., & Coates, H. (2016). Assessing student learning outcomes in higher education: Challenges and international perspectives. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(5), 655-661. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1169501

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 16-37, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.2

An Emergency Shift to e-Learning in Health Professions Education: A Comparative Study of Perspectives between Students and Instructors Afrah Almuwais Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2774-868X Samiah Alqabbani Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4495-5047 Nada Benajiba Department of Basic Health Sciences, Deanship of Preparatory Year, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-7626 Fatmah Almoayad* Department of Health Sciences, College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8424-5229 Abstract. This is a cross-sectional study which assessed the readiness to shift to e-learning in correlation with perceived effectiveness and satisfaction following the sudden shift caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic among students and instructors. The study compared perspectives between instructors (n = 47) and students (n = 254) at the College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (CHRS) at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU; Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). Data were collected using an online questionnaire using convenient sampling method. The results showed a high level of readiness to shift to e-learning among instructors and students, as well as a positive correlation between perceived effectiveness and satisfaction. However, instructors showed a higher satisfaction level and perceived this shift to be effective more than students. This experience offers a reasonable foundation for any future plans to implement e-learning in health professions education and maximise its benefits without *Corresponding

author: Fatmah Almoayad; Email: ftm.myd@gmail.com

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

compromising the practical and clinical training provided via face-to-face learning. Further studies are needed to explore e-learning experiences a year after this shift, when educational institutions are expected to have clearer plans and have better prepared for e-learning. In addition, effect of e-learning shift on clinical training outcomes for different health professions is also recommended. Keywords: e-learning; COVID-19; health professions; Saudi Arabia

1. Introduction Since the beginning of the 21st century, e-learning has been progressively integrated within higher education systems worldwide (Aljaber, 2018; Hiltz & Turoff, 2005). In Saudi Arabia, health colleges have participated in the e-learning movement and many have embedded blended teaching strategies that combine face-to-face learning with e-learning (Sajid et al., 2016; Zakaria et al., 2013). While an extensive body of literature discusses several types of e-learning – such as distance learning, blended learning and mobile learning – attempts to confirm their effectiveness have been inconclusive in international research, specifically in studies of e-learning in Saudi Arabia (Rajab, 2018). Nevertheless, blended learning has shown effectiveness vis-à-vis skill and knowledge acquisition in health professions education (Liu, et al 2016). Moreover, growing evidence suggests that advances in virtual simulation are benefitting health profession training (Pottle, 2019; Skochelak & Stack, 2017). 1.1 The Importance of Preparedness in e-Learning As the literature suggests, providing proper and effective e-learning requires advanced planning (Nasiri et al., 2014; Rice & McKendree, 2014). e-Learning infrastructure and support have been indicated as crucial to successful e-learning experiences (Naveed et al., 2017). This importance was clearly demonstrated when education shifted abruptly to e-learning in the early months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. During this time, the existence of the required infrastructures and preparedness to accommodate this shift to e-learning demonstrated a significant positive impact on the learning process’s continuation. Countries with excellent and complete infrastructure were better able to resume the teaching process with minimal or no interruptions (Marinoni et al., 2020). Meanwhile, poor internet connections and a lack of preparedness (such as a lack of electronic devices) were found to present significant obstacles for both students and instructors during this emergency shift to e-learning (Maatuk et al., 2021). Additionally, the literature showed that satisfaction with e-learning is a key factor for the success of e-learning experiences themselves (Bolliger, 2004; Liaw et al., 2007). Al-Samarraie et al. (2018) investigated a unified perception of students’ and instructors’ satisfaction with an e-learning system, demonstrating that steadily maintained satisfaction with elearning indicates a successful continuation of e-learning. Thus, instructors’ ability to utilise a learning management system is influenced by their satisfaction levels (Yengin et al., 2011). On the other hand, students’ online readiness had a mediated influence on learning perceptions and course satisfaction (Wei & Chou, 2020). Gopal et al. (2021) revealed that students’ satisfaction positively influenced

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

their performance during online education as a result of the pandemic-related lockdown. Moreover, both students’ and instructors’ satisfaction influenced their motivation in an online environment (Bolliger & Wasilik, 2009). A previous study was conducted by Alqabbani et al. (2020) to assess the readiness to shift to online learning at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University’s (PNU; Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). It found an excellent existing infrastructure and a high level of readiness among instructors at the university. This study’s findings also revealed that satisfaction was positively correlated with perceived effectiveness during the complete shift to e-learning. While this correlation indicated a positive shift experience at the institution, students and instructors at the College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (CHRS) within PNU – which offers thirteen allied health speciality programmes (PNU, 2020) – might have had a different experience. This potential difference is due to the nature of learning, which requires hands-on practice to master clinical skills. The unplanned, sudden shift to online learning led to changes in not only theoretical teaching but also practical and clinical training, which have been replaced by videos, online simulation, case study reports and online discussions. As a result, the shift to e-learning might influence both the learning process and learning outcomes (Huang, 2010; Luhanga, 2018; Parandeh et al., 2015). Therefore, assessing satisfaction with e-learning provides insights for educational institutions on identifying areas of improvement in online learning (Bolliger, 2004; Liaw et al., 2007). 1.2 Students’ and Instructors’ Complementarity in the Learning Process While exploring the unique learning experience during a shift to e-learning is interesting, such investigations can only allow insights via analyses of perceptions’ complementarity between students (as learners) and instructors (as teachers) since exploring both learners’ and teachers’ perspectives can provide comprehensive evaluations of the e-learning experience as one entity (Khan, 2005). Instructors have been very clearly established to represent half of the crucial learning experience via the teaching process for which they are responsible. The other half of the learning experience is based on students’ learning process (Ellaway & Masters, 2008). Hence, both halves of this experience (those of instructors and teachers) are complementary, and their harmony is essential to the learning process. Mishra et al. (2020) examined both students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the online learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings revealed that the main factor causing instructors’ better motivation compared to students is a belief that online education can proficiently deliver intended learning outcomes. Students, however, reported less interest in and attention to online classes as a new, unfamiliar teaching mode. However, as the literature suggests, while learners report preferences regarding their learning styles, they also tend to adapt their learning to the available teaching strategies, based on the context and motivations (Entwistle, 1997). Recently, Motte-Signoret et al. (2021) indicated that both medical students and their instructors perceived e-learning as a suitable alternative medical education delivery method during the pandemic.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many academic researchers were interested in studying the emergency shift to e-learning. In this regard, most published studies have highlighted the sudden shift’s influence on e-learning’s effectiveness. Hence, in addition to analysing this experience, the present study also compares this experience from the perspectives of both students and teachers affiliated with a health college (including 13 different specialities). Furthermore, it emphasises some key factors’ importance in determining e-learning’s effectiveness under the pandemic’s unexpected circumstances. Thus, existing elearning infrastructures and support prior to the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdown-related emergency shift to e-learning, an indicator of readiness for elearning, and perceived satisfaction among students and teachers, were analysed as possible factors influencing the shift’s perceived effectiveness. The study’s results were, therefore, expected to provide insights into the complexity of this elearning’s effectiveness and the necessary considerations of the above-mentioned factors to promote this e-learning as education systems are currently projected to further integration of e-learning in the coming years. The present study’s researchers hypothesised that students and instructors would harbour different perspectives regarding readiness, satisfaction and perceived effectiveness during this shift. Thus, the authors’ null hypothesis was that students and instructors would demonstrate similar readiness, satisfaction and perceived effectiveness as a result of this shift. 1.3 Conceptual Framework This research adopted the cognitive theory of learning, which holds that learning is affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Janelli, 2018). In the field of elearning teaching strategies, cognitive overload, motivation levels and real-life situations are all considered essential factors that affect the learning process (Mödritscher, 2006). In this research context, e-learning was imposed suddenly. The authors sought to explain the supporting environment that contributed to the success of any e-learning experience through a conceptual framework (Figure 1). As the literature has discussed, an appropriate e-learning infrastructure with adequate support significantly affects the continuation and successful achievement of the e-learning process. Thus, ensuring a sufficient level of readiness (preparedness) for both students and instructors positively influences satisfaction levels and, consequently, achieves reasonable levels of perceived elearning effectiveness. The presence of all these elements simultaneously would ensure overall success in a shift to e-learning. Thus, through its mode of learning, the current research obtained insights into the factors that contribute to elearning’s continuation.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Figure 1: Conceptual framework of the e-learning experience

2. Methods 2.1 Design A comparative analytic study was conducted during May 2020. Participants were recruited using a convenient sampling technique. This method was the most efficient method possible, especially during the lockdown period. Questionnaires were available electronically via Microsoft Forms and distributed via the CHRS email lists. To facilitate the dissemination of the study’s information and requests to affiliated students, instructors and administrative staff, the CHRS had developed and annually updated a specific e-mail list for each of the abovementioned categories. Hence, the two e-mail lists corresponding, respectively, to instructors and students were used to solicit participation in this study after consent was obtained from all participants. The email was sent twice to each person on the e-mail lists the first time as an invitation to participate in the study and the second time as a gentle reminder to encourage further participation. The emails directed to students were sent from the official email address of the ViceDeanship of Student Affairs. Meanwhile, the emails directed to instructors were sent from the official email address of the Vice-Deanship of Academic Affairs. The lists’ inclusion criteria were instructors and students who were actively engaged in learning or teaching during the semester when the sudden shift to e-learning occurred. The study sample comprised 47 of 66 instructors and 254 of 720 students at the CHRS. The survey rates were 35% and 71% among students and instructors, respectively. However, note that prospective participants’ ability to submit answers was deactivated soon after the survey met its required representative numbers of participants, which were n = 45 (of 66) for instructors and n = 251 for students. These values were calculated based on a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of ± 5%. Ethical approval (IRB Log Number 20-0162) was obtained

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

from the institutional review board at PNU before this research was conducted. Participation in the study was voluntary. Anonymity and confidentiality were maintained, and consent to participate was obtained from participants at the beginning of the study’s questionnaires. 2.2 Research Instruments Two questionnaires were designed for this project’s data collection. The first questionnaire was directed towards instructors (Appendix 1) while the second questionnaire was directed towards students (Appendix 2). The questionnaires were adapted from a previous study that had been conducted by the present research team (Alqabbani et al., 2020) with some adjustments to suit the current study’s aim. The two questionnaires comprised four similar sections, including general characteristics, the readiness to shift to e-learning, the perceived effectiveness of learning or teaching after the shift to e-learning and satisfaction with this shift. Since the study aimed to compare instructors’ perspectives and students’ perspectives, the questionnaires’ three latter sections were designed to measure the same parameters; therefore, they comprised the same questions. However, the term “teaching” was applied to instructors, and the term “learning” was applied to students. The sections are described in detail in the following four paragraphs. Section 1 comprised three questions for instructors and four questions for students. For instructors, this section collected data about academic rank, years of teaching experience and numbers of courses taught. For students, the collected data were grade point averages (GPAs), levels of study, academic levels and programmes of study. Section 2 contained five questions to measure the readiness to switch to e-learning by assessing experiences with e-learning platforms, as well as the feasibility and accessibility of e-learning platforms prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. These questions focused on whether instructors and students had electronic devices, proper internet access and diverse ways to interact with each other—including both face-to-face and telecommunication methods—in addition to questions about the use of different BlackBoard BB features. Each answer that reflected the use of e-learning platforms or a supporting atmosphere was given a readiness score of 1. The total readiness score was calculated by adding the values of the scores for each question. The maximum readiness score was 9, and the minimum readiness score was 0. Section 3 comprised a total of 14 questions to evaluate how both instructors and students perceived e-learning experiences’ effectiveness after the pandemicrelated shift. These questions pertained to e-learning experiences and quality, the extent to which e-learning supported independent learning and helped achieve goals, students’ motivation, communication between students and instructors, time management and organisation. A five-point Likert scale (Likert, 1932) was employed in which the highest score, 5, indicated strongly agree, a score of 4 indicated agree, a score of 3 indicated neutral, a score of 2 indicated disagree and the lowest score, 1, indicated strongly disagree.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Section 4 comprised five questions to assess satisfaction levels among students and instructions regarding their learning or teaching experiences after the shift to e-learning. These questions pertaining to satisfaction assessed overall experiences related to teaching or learning, the clarity of remote teaching or learning instructions, the accessibility of remote teaching or learning materials, the simplicity of remote teaching or learning tools and the support or feedback received during remote teaching or learning. The scale was also based on a fivepoint Likert scale (Likert, 1932) in which the highest score of, 5, indicated very satisfied, a score of 4 indicated satisfied, a score of 3 indicated neutral, a score of 2 indicated unsatisfied and the lowest score, 1, indicated not at all satisfied. The internal consistency of the questionnaires’ reliability was tested using Cronbach’s α, as described by Bolarinwa (2015). The obtained α value was equal for instructors and students, as follows: perceived e-learning effectiveness (14 questions; 0.85, 0.88) and satisfaction (five questions; 0.78, 0.79). These values showed that the questionnaire’s reliability was good, indicating that the items effectively measured the same aspects. Additionally, the questionnaires were piloted with 10% of the study’s respective samples. This pilot approach involved testing the questionnaires on a smaller scale with a sample of the study population before their distribution. This step was crucial since it helped ensure that the questionnaires adequately measured the items for which they were designed and that respondents provided feedback. Respondents’ feedback was requested on the appropriateness, length and wording of the questionnaires and the instructions, as well as the questions’ adequacy, as recommended by Marshall (2005). 2.3 Statistical Analysis The collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 22). Descriptive statistics were used to present the results in frequencies and percentages. Normal data distribution was assessed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests. An independent t-test was conducted to evaluate differences in means between instructors and students. For instructors, Pearson’s correlation coefﬁcient was applied to determine the correlation among teaching experience, academic rank, the readiness to shift to elearning, the perceived effectiveness of teaching after the shift to e-learning and satisfaction with e-learning. For students, to assess the correlation among GPAs, academic levels, the readiness to switch to e-learning, the perceived effectiveness of learning and satisfaction with the shift to e-learning, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. The statistical significance for these analyses was set to p ≤ 0.05.

3. Results 3.1 General Characteristics In total, 47 instructors and 254 students participated in this study. Of the participating instructors, 65.9% had more than five years of teaching experience and 80.9% had a PhD. The numbers of courses taught by the instructors were two and three, representing 34% and 31.9% of participating instructors, respectively. The majority of participating students were enrolled in courses at the Rehabilitation Sciences department (35.8%) or Health Sciences department

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

(45.3%). Most students (95.5%) had an excellent (> 4.5) or very good (3.75–4.4) GPA (Table 1). Table 1. Characteristics of the study sample %

10.6 8.5 61.7 14.9 4.3

5 4 29 7 2

19.1 14.9 34.0 31.9

9 7 16 15

19.1 34.0 31.9 6.4 8.5

9 16 15 3 4

35.8 45.3 8.7 10.2

91 115 22 26

41.3 50.4 5.5

105 128 14

0.0

31.9 25.2 31.1 5.9 5.9

81 64 79 15 15

Instructors (n = 47) Academic rank Teaching assistant Lecturer Assistant professor Associate professor Professor Teaching experience (years) 0–2 3–5 6–10 > 10 Number of courses taught 1 2 3 4 5 Students (n = 254) Department Rehabilitation Sciences Health Sciences Communication Sciences Radiology Sciences GPA* Excellent (> 4.5) Very good (3.75–4.4) Good (2.5–3.74) Poor (< 2.5) Academic level 3–4 5–6 7–8 9–10 11–12 *GPA: Grade point average.

3.2 The Readiness to Shift to e-Learning Vis-à-vis their readiness to shift to e-learning, all participating instructors (100%) and the majority of participating students (97.6%) reported that they owned electronic devices. Additionally, 93.6% of instructors and 94.5% of students reported having proper internet access. Students and instructors seemed to use

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

similar ways to interact, including office hours, emails, Telegram, WhatsApp and communication during lectures, and no significant differences were reported in this regard (p > 0.05). Therefore, the authors’ null hypothesis was verified. In contrast, the use of BB was significantly higher (more than twice as high) among instructors (61.7%) compared to students (29.9%); p < 0.00001. However, an analysis of BB use features suggested that students used certain features more than instructors, particularly assignments, virtual classes and quizzes or exams (p = 0.01, p = 0.00022 and p < 0.00001, respectively). The use of discussion boards and the uploading of course materials were almost equal among students and instructors since no significant difference was found in these regards (p > 0.05). The calculated overall mean readiness scores showed that the obtained values were equal to 6.2 ± 1.9 for instructors and 6.5 ± 1.5 for students. The difference between the overall mean readiness scores was not significant between instructors and students (p = 0.187) (Table 2). This finding shows that instructors and students at the CHRS were equally prepared for the sudden shift to e-learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Table 2: Frequency (in percentages; n) of students’ and instructors’ interactions and readiness Electronic device Proper internet Interaction Office hours Email BB Telegram WhatsApp Lectures only Blackboard features Virtual classes Discussion board Quizzes or exams Uploading course materials Submitting assignments Overall readiness Z-score

Instructors (n = 47) Students (n = 254) 100 (47) 97.6 (248) 93.6 (44) 94.5 (240)

0.29 0.81

p-value

87.2 (41) 93.6 (44) 61.7 (29) 6.4 (3) 42.6 (20) 19.1 (9)

77.6 (197) 90.6 (230) 29.9 (76) 7.5 (19) 40.6 (103) 18.9 (48)

0.13 0.49 < 0.00001 0.78 0.79 0.96

23.4 (11) 51.1 (24) 42.6 (20) 85.1 (40) 72.3 (34) 6.2 ± 1.9

52.8 (134) 44.9 (114) 73.6 (187) 83.9 (213) 87.0 (221) 6.5 ± 1.5

0.00022 0.44 < 0.00001 0.83 0.01 0.187

3.3 Satisfaction Table 3 summarises the study’s results regarding satisfaction with e-learning among instructors and students at the CHRS. The highest score was obtained for accessibility of e-learning materials for both instructors (4.3 ± 0.7) and students (4.0 ± 1.0). Meanwhile, the lowest score was obtained for e-learning experience for instructors (3.7 ± 1.1) and students (3.4 ± 1.1). A similar low score was obtained for students in support or feedback received during e-learning (3.4 ± 1.3). For all questions related to satisfaction, the average scores for instructors exceeded the corresponding scores for students. Hence, the differences were significant for elearning experience and clarity of e-learning instructions between the two groups (p = 0.048 and p = 0.011, respectively). Consequently, the mean score for overall satisfaction with e-learning was significantly higher for instructors than students

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

(4.1 ± .0.6 versus 3.7 ± 0.8; p < 0.001). Therefore, the authors’ null hypothesis was rejected. These results demonstrate that, unlike the readiness to shift to e-learning (which was similar between the study’s two populations), instructors were more satisfied with their e-learning experiences than students. Table 3: Satisfaction with e-learning among instructors and students at the College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Mean ± SD Overall satisfaction e-Learning experience

Instructors (n = 47) Students (n = 254) p-value 4.1 ± 0.6 3.7 ± 0.8 < 0.001 3.7 ± 1.1 3.4 ± 1.1 0.048

Clarity of e-learning instructions 4.0 ± 0.9 Accessibility of e-learning materials 4.3 ± 0.7 Simplicity of e-learning tools 4.2 ± 0.7 Support or feedback received during e4.1 ± 0.9 learning P-values were calculated using an independent t-test. 5 = very satisfied. 1 = not at all satisfied.

3.6 ± 1.1 4.0 ± 1.0 3.9 ± 1.1 3.4 ± 1.3

0.011 0.057 0.251 0.685

3.4 Perceived Effectiveness Table 4 presents the study’s results regarding the perceived effectiveness of learning or teaching after the pandemic-related e-learning shift among both instructors and students. For both instructors and students, the lowest mean scores obtained pertained to shifting to e-learning is more enjoyable than face-to-face learning at 2.1 ± 1.1 and 2.3 ± 1.3, respectively. The highest score was obtained for shifting to e-learning introduced me to different online applications, which helped my teaching/learning, at 4.4 ± 0.7 for instructors and 3.5 ± 0.8 for students. The score for shifting to e-learning helped students become independent learners was significantly higher among students (p = 0.037). The mean scores of the perception-related items were higher for instructors than students. Among instructors, the average scores for seven items were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than students’ corresponding scores: shifting to e-learning gave me a positive teaching or learning experience; improved the quality of my teaching or learning; helped me be better organised; introduced me to different online applications, which helped my teaching or learning; introduced me to a variety of new assessment methods; a good motivation for teaching or learning; and helps deliver or explain the subject’s material well. The authors’ null hypothesis was rejected since the overall average score for instructors’ perceived teaching experiences exceeded the mean score for students’ perceived learning (3.3 ± .0.6 versus 2.9 ± .0.6; p < 0.001) (Table 4). This finding indicates that instructors had better e-learning experiences than students. Table 4: The perceived effectiveness of learning or teaching after the shift to elearning among instructors and students at the College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Mean ± SD Instructors (n = 47) Overall perceived effectiveness of shifting to e- 3.3 ± 0.6 learning It gave me a positive teaching/learning experience. 3.7 ± 0.9 It improved the quality of my teaching/learning. 3.1 ± 0.9 It helped me be better organised. 3.2 ± 0.9

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Students (n = 254) 3.0 ± 0.6 2.8 ± 1.0 2.5 ± 1.0 2.9 ± 1.0

p-value < 0.001* < 0.001* < 0.001* 0.04*

It improved the communication between students and instructors. It helped students become independent learners. It helped me work at my own speed. It enabled me to achieve course learning outcomes. It introduced me to different online applications, which helped my teaching or learning. It introduced me to a variety of new assessment methods, which affected my teaching or learning in positively. It helped me manage my time more effectively. Remote learning is a good motivation for teaching or learning. Remote learning helps deliver or explain the subject’s material well. Remote learning is more enjoyable than face-to-face learning. It made me prefer to teach more courses via remote learning. P-values were calculated using an independent t-test. 5 = strongly agree. 1 = strongly disagree.

3.2 ± 1.0

3.1 ± 0.9

0.34

3.3 ± 1.1 3.6 ± 1.1 2.9 ± 1.1 4.4 ± 0.7

3.7 ± 0.7 3.6 ± 0.7 2.9 ± 1.1 3.5 ± 0.8

0.037* 0.787 0.978 < 0.001*

4.0 ± 1.0

3.1 ± 1.0

< 0.001*

3.3 ± 1.0 4.0 ± 0.8

3.1 ± 1.2 2.6 ± 1.0

0.209 < 0.001*

3.1 ± 1.0

2.5 ± 1.1

0.001*

2.1 ± 1.1

2.3 ± 1.3

0.358

2.6 ± 1.1

2.8 ± 1.2

0.251

3.5 Correlations between e-Learning Readiness, Satisfaction and Perceived Effectiveness Table 5 and Table 6 summarise the correlations between the different parameters investigated for students and instructors, respectively. Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed a strong positive correlation between satisfaction with perceived teaching or learning experiences after the shift to e-learning and the perceived effectiveness of learning or teaching for students (r = 0.68, p < 0.001), as well as a moderate correlation for instructors (r = 0.38, p = 0.008). The readiness to switch to e-learning was weakly correlated with satisfaction for students only (r = 0.217, p < 0.001). Instructors’ academic rank exhibited a moderate correlation with such readiness (r = 0.468, p = 0.001) and perceived effectiveness (r = 0.340, p = 0.019). Interestingly, for both students and instructors, the perceived effectiveness of learning or teaching after the shift to e-learning significantly correlated with elearning satisfaction, unlike the readiness to switch to e-learning. This finding might indicate satisfaction’s importance as a principal factor in the learning process’s success. Table 5: Correlation between the different parameters investigated among College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences instructors (n = 47) Teaching Academic Readiness Perceived Satisfaction experience rank effectiveness Teaching experience 1 0.265 0.255 -0.149 0.105 Academic rank — 1 0.468** 0.340* 0.246 Readiness — — 1 0.085 0.11 Perceived effectiveness — — — 1 0.383** Satisfaction — — — — 1 Correlations were calculated using Pearson’s test; * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Table 6: Correlation between the different parameters investigated among College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences students (n = 254) GPA

Academic Readiness Perceived Satisfaction level effectiveness GPA 1 -0.085 0.019 -0.03 -0.121 Academic level — 1 0.045 0.028 -0.068 Readiness — — 1 0.682** 0.108 Perceived effectiveness — — — 1 0.217** Satisfaction — — — — 1 Correlations were calculated using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient; ** p < 0.01.

6. Discussion This study aimed to provide an understanding of experiences related to the pandemic-related abrupt shift to e-learning from the perspectives of both teachers and students, assessing how readiness may affect these experiences. The study’s findings revealed a high level of readiness to shift to e-learning among both instructors and students, as well as a positive correlation between perceived effectiveness and satisfaction. However, instructors showed significantly higher satisfaction levels (p < 0.001) and perceived this experience to be more effective than students had done. Based on the study’s conceptual framework, these results indicate that a high level of readiness among students and instructors—which led to satisfaction— correlates with the shift to e-learning’s perceived effectiveness. Both students and instructors agreed that e-learning provided an opportunity to work at their own pace, manage their time more effectively and improve their interactions. The shift to e-learning introduced instructors to a variety of previously not employed online applications with which to communicate with students. Thus, this expansion of the communication tools applied during e-learning improved interactions between instructors and their students. Such interactions enhance students’ engagement and satisfaction with online courses, as the literature has previously shown (Beaudoin et al., 2009; Dixson, 2010). Moreover, students and instructors harboured similar perspectives on the effectiveness of time management and work pacing. e-Learning offers flexible teaching and learning opportunities for more self-directed learning (Albarrak, 2011). Although elearning forces instructors to work outside their comfort zones, instructors expressed high satisfaction levels. Instructors were more satisfied with their elearning experiences than students, which may have been due to BB’s regular training and the accessible technical support provided by the university to all faculty members (Alqabbani et al., 2020). Additionally, Maatuk et al. (2021) explained that lower satisfaction levels among students had resulted from the increased workload caused by e-learning. This influence could be particularly present during the emergency shift to e-learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, as cognitive load theorists have suggested, instructors should consider the amount of work they assign their students and divide information into chunks so that their students can have more effective learning experiences (Van Merrienboer & Ayres, 2005). Congruent results by Sørebø and Sørebø (2008) indicated that instructors’ perceived usefulness of e-learning and satisfaction are

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

useful in introducing appropriate elements for successful planning to achieve effective e-learning. The current study’s results indicate that e-learning helped students become independent learners, showing that students’ autonomy and responsibility vis-àvis their learning increased after the shift to e-learning. Consistent with this finding, Joo et al. (2011) and Yang and Cao (2013) concluded that learners’ realisation of their e-learning responsibilities predicted learning flows and steadiness, as well as success. Additionally, e-learning facilitates the achievement of learning outcomes and learners’ development, supporting students’ autonomy (Algahtani, 2011). However, Lawrence (2018) claimed that students’ evaluations of their learning’s effectiveness have provided invalid data, and Lawrence considered such evaluations a poor measurement of learning effectiveness. This claim was supported by a meta-analysis showing no significant correlation between students’ teaching evaluations and learning (Uttl et al., 2017). Interestingly, despite students’ low perception of effectiveness, they considered e-learning useful in increasing their autonomy and responsibility vis-à-vis their learning, which is a sign of successful learning (Joo et al., 2011; Yang & Cao, 2013). In Saudi Arabia, e-learning started suddenly during the middle of the second semester of the 2019–2020 academic year, without any prior planning, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns. Yet, advanced planning and infrastructure are key determinants of successful e-learning (Algahtani, 2011; Aljaber, 2018; Edwards & McKinnell, 2007; Nasiri et al., 2014; Rice & McKendree, 2014). Negative attitudes were observed among both students and instructors in terms of preferring face-to-face learning and not enjoying e-learning. While the sudden shift to e-learning was expected to influence e-learning’s effectiveness, this impact was more apparent among students than instructors since students harboured lower perceptions of e-learning’s effectiveness. A possible explanation for this difference is courses’ clinical and practical nature, which Corter et al. (2011) by confirming that students’ motivations were higher among a hands-on group than at simulation distance laboratory. Additionally, some studies have suggested that e-learning may be avoided since it cannot replace face-to-face learning, especially in medical education (Albarrak, 2011; Rajab, 2018), given medical academics’ independent and conservative nature (Lane, 2007). Another explanation could be the difficulty of achieving intended learning outcomes, which led to improper planning for a complete e-learning mode since courses were designed to be delivered in a traditional mode. Moreover, students’ experience of the shift to e-learning were found to be negative. Hence, their introduction to new assessment methods could be more stressful since they were not trained in these methods; only 29.9% of students had used BB before the studied shift to e-learning. After this shift, classic assessment methods changed to electronic alternatives and a new grade distribution occurred. Therefore, the lack of preparation at both the technical level and the psychological level—as well as concerns about lower grades—could have contributed to this negative perception. Furthermore, the overall increase in anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic could also have influenced learning (Almoayad et al., 2020; Cao et al., 2020; Gallagher & Schleyer, 2020; Saddik et al.,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

2020). Students were also found not to have fully understood e-learning course material, marking a significant difference from instructors’ perception. This finding could be associated with students’ preference for face-to-face learning over e-learning and a lack of enjoyment, as previously discussed. Additionally, regarding the nature of health-profession courses, students were suddenly introduced to various substitutes to clinical training—such as simulated and recorded cases—which are effective in health professions education (Albarrak, 2011). Bao (2020) claimed that instructors should break down e-learning material and adopt a modular teaching method to increase students’ involvement in elearning. The current study has shown that students and instructors were ready to shift to e-learning, demonstrating satisfaction with the support provided, which led to a positive perception of this shift. However, a lack of planning was highlighted in the negative perceptions among learners and teachers. The continued use of traditional methods of teaching, assessing and learning among both teachers and learners—without proper modulation for e-learning—could explain e-learning’s perceived failure to help achieve intended learning outcomes. Thus, given the lack of clarity about education’s future and the expected extension of e-learning, and to promote successful e-learning experiences in health professions education, both instructors and students must adopt new teaching and learning approaches and share their decisions regarding the e-learning planning process. This approach is essential to overcome gaps among the main education stakeholders, especially in different healthcare specialities, which may require various educational strategies and learning styles. 6.1 Limitations Although this study explored e-learning-related perceptions among health professions instructors and students, it did not differentiate between specialities vis-à-vis the nature of clinical courses taught through e-learning. Moreover, the clinical and practical training conducted after the shift to e-learning using online alternatives, such as simulation, were not tested for their effectiveness. The other limitation of this study is the convenient sampling technique used during the project’s data collection. While the study’s findings cannot be generalised, they could nonetheless serve as a basis for adequate planning to develop a complete, successful e-learning model in medical education.

7. Conclusion This study aimed to assess the level of readiness for e-learning, perceived effectiveness and satisfaction regarding e-learning experiences among both students and instructors at a college with courses in 13 health professions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that the readiness to shift to elearning was high among both students and instructors, positively correlating with satisfaction—which, in turn, positively correlated with perceived effectiveness. The study’s main findings are that e-learning provided similar opportunities for both students and instructors at the CHRS to work at their own pace, manage their time more effectively and improve their interactions. On the other hand, the sudden shift to e-learning was not enjoyable, and it did not help students or instructors achieve course learning outcomes; both groups would

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

have preferred to have more courses delivered via face-to-face learning. Throughout these findings, respondents’ experiences highlighted proper planning’s importance to e-learning. However, a complete e-learning mode might not be suitable for all aspects of health professions education—especially not for courses that require practical skills. By analysing both positive and negative elearning perceptions during experiences after the sudden shift to e-learning among instructors and students at the CHRS, this study also recommended planning for a blended learning approach integrating face-to-face learning and elearning to best achieve intended learning outcomes. One of this study’s main recommendations is to plan for e-learning. Utilising different approaches and teaching strategies and considering dividing information into chunks and tasks to avoid overloading students, is recommended to obtain greater benefits from the shift to e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as better time management and increased independence. Strategies such as team-based learning or flipped classes may be more enjoyable for both teachers and learners during elearning. Additionally, some assessment methods—such as open-book exams and oral exams—may be more suitable for e-learning than traditional assessment methods. Moreover, blended learning could be suitable to address intended learning outcomes and increase motivation during clinical and practical training while maintaining e-learning’s benefits. Based on this study, the authors recommend further research exploring the e-learning shift’s effect on clinical training outcomes for different health professions. Studies on e-learning experiences a year after this shift, when educational institutions are expected to have clearer plans and have better prepared for e-learning, are also recommended. Acknowledgements This research was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University through the Fast-track Research Funding Program. Declaration of Interest Statement The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

8. References Al-Samarraie, H., Teng, B. K., Alzahrani, A. I., & Alalwan, N. (2018). E-learning continuance satisfaction in higher education: a unified perspective from instructors and students. Studies in higher education, 43(11), 2003-2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1298088 Albarrak, A. (2011). E-learning in medical education and blended learning approach. learning, 13, 14-20. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/E-learning-inMedical-Education-and-BlendedAlbarrak/6f7fac687fe689a4166bf1eab385eebcf3b12ab7 Algahtani, A. (2011). Evaluating the E ectiveness of the E-learning Experience in Some Universities in Saudi Arabia from Male Students' Perceptions Durham University]. Durham, UK. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3215/ Aljaber, A. (2018). E-learning policy in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and successes. Research in Comparative and International Education, 13(1), 176-194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745499918764147

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Almoayad, F., Almuwais, A., Alqabbani, S. F., & Benajiba, N. (2020). Health Professional Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of Remote Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(8), 313-329. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.8.17 Alqabbani, S., Almuwais, A., Benajiba, N., & Almoayad, F. (2020). Readiness towards emergency shifting to remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic among university instructors. E-Learning and Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753020981651 Bao, W. (2020). COVID‐19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking University. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(2), 113-115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191 Beaudoin, M., Kurtz, G., & Eden, S. (2009). Experiences and opinions of e-learners: What works, what are the challenges, and what competencies ensure successful online learning. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 5(1), 275-289. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/44836/ Bolarinwa, O. A. (2015). Principles and methods of validity and reliability testing of questionnaires used in social and health science researches. Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal, 22(4), 195. https://www.npmj.org/text.asp?2015/22/4/195/173959 Bolliger, D. U. (2004). Key factors for determining student satisfaction in online courses. International Journal on E-learning, 3(1), 61-67. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/2226/ Bolliger, D. U., & Wasilik, O. (2009). Factors influencing faculty satisfaction with online teaching and learning in higher education. Distance Education, 30(1), 103-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587910902845949 Cao, W., Fang, Z., Hou, G., Han, M., Xu, X., Dong, J., & Zheng, J. (2020). The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry research, 112934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934 Corter, J. E., Esche, S. K., Chassapis, C., Ma, J., & Nickerson, J. V. (2011). Process and learning outcomes from remotely-operated, simulated, and hands-on student laboratories. Computers & Education, 57(3), 2054-2067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.04.009 Dixson, M. D. (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-13. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ890707 Edwards, A., & McKinnell, S. (2007). Moving from dependence to independence: the application of e-learning in higher education. In A. Campbell & L. Norton (Eds.), Learning, teaching and assessing in higher education: Developing reflective practice (pp. 68-79). Learning matter Ltd. Ellaway, R., & Masters, K. (2008). AMEE Guide 32: e-Learning in medical education Part 1: Learning, teaching and assessment. Medical teacher, 30(5), 455-473. https://doi.org/10.1080/01421590802108331 Entwistle, N. (1997). Contrasting perspectives on learning. The experience of learning, 2, 322. Gallagher, T. H., & Schleyer, A. M. (2020). “We Signed Up for This!”—student and trainee responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2005234 Gopal, R., Singh, V., & Aggarwal, A. (2021). Impact of online classes on the satisfaction and performance of students during the pandemic period of COVID 19. Educ Inf Technol (Dordr), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10523-1

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Hiltz, S. R., & Turoff, M. (2005). Education goes digital: The evolution of online learning and the revolution in higher education. Communications of the ACM, 48(10), 59-64. https://doi.org/10.1145/1089107.1089139 Huang, L.-S. (2010). Seeing eye to eye? The academic writing needs of graduate and undergraduate students from students’ and instructors’ perspectives. Language Teaching Research, 14(4), 517-539. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168810375372 Janelli, M. (2018). E-learning in theory, practice, and research. Вопросы образования(4 ). https://doi.org/10.17323/1814-9545-2018-4-81-98 Joo, Y. J., Lim, K. Y., & Kim, E. K. (2011). Online university students' satisfaction and persistence: Examining perceived level of presence, usefulness and ease of use as predictors in a structural model. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1654-1664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.02.008 Khan, B. H. (2005). Managing e-learning: Design, delivery, implementation, and evaluation. Information Science Publishing. Lane, I. F. (2007). Change in higher education: Understanding and responding to individual and organizational resistance. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 34(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.34.2.85 Lawrence, J. W. (2018). Student evaluations of teaching are not valid. American Association of University Professors. https://www.aaup.org/comment/4781#.YMkMtKgzaUk Liaw, S.-S., Huang, H.-M., & Chen, G.-D. (2007). Surveying instructor and learner attitudes toward e-learning. Computers & Education, 49(4), 1066-1080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.01.001 Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of psychology. Luhanga, F. L. (2018). The traditional-faculty supervised teaching model: Nursing faculty and clinical instructors’ perspectives. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 8(6), 124-137. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v8n6p124 Maatuk, A. M., Elberkawi, E. K., Aljawarneh, S., Rashaideh, H., & Alharbi, H. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and E-learning: challenges and opportunities from the perspective of students and instructors. J Comput High Educ, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-021-09274-2 Marinoni, G., Land, H. V T., & Jensen, T. (2020). THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON HIGHER EDUCATION AROUND THE WORLD (IAU Global Survey Report, Issue. I. A. o. Universities. https://www.iauaiu.net/IMG/pdf/iau_covid19_and_he_survey_report_final_may_2020.pdf Marshall, G. (2005). The purpose, design and administration of a questionnaire for data collection. Radiography, 11(2), 131-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radi.2004.09.002 Mishra, L., Gupta, T., & Shree, A. (2020). Online teaching-learning in higher education during lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 1, 100012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100012 Mödritscher, F. (2006). E-learning theories in practice: A comparison of three methods. Journal of Universal Science and Technology of Learning, 28(1), 3-18. http://www.jucs.org/justl_0_0/elearning_theories_in_practice/justl_0_0_0003_ 0018_moedritscher.html Motte-Signoret, E., Labbe, A., Benoist, G., Linglart, A., Gajdos, V., & Lapillonne, A. (2021). Perception of medical education by learners and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey of online teaching. Med Educ Online, 26(1), 1919042. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2021.1919042 Nasiri, F., Ghanbari, S., Ardalan, M., & Karimi, I. (2014). Effect of infrastructure and faculty readiness in effective implementation of e-Learning based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Education Strategies in Medical Sciences, 7(5), 329-328. http://edcbmj.ir/article-1-692-en.html

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Naveed, Q. N., Muhammad, A., Sanober, S., Qureshi, M. R. N., & Shah, A. (2017). A mixed method study for investigating critical success factors (CSFs) of e-learning in Saudi Arabian universities. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 8(5). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/19e8/f66075ed339990572c135e8c13a9a9df3af0 .pdf Parandeh, A., Khaghanizade, M., Mohammadi, E., & Nouri, J. M. (2015). Factors influencing development of professional values among nursing students and instructors: a systematic review. Global journal of health science, 7(2), 284. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v7n2p284 PNU. (2020). College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Retrieved 15th April 2020 from https://www.pnu.edu.sa/en/Faculties/HealthRehabilitation/Pages/Home.aspx Pottle, J. (2019). Virtual reality and the transformation of medical education. Future healthcare journal, 6(3), 181. https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2019-0036 Rajab, K. D. (2018). The effectiveness and potential of E-learning in war zones: An empirical comparison of face-to-face and online education in Saudi Arabia. IEEE Access, 6, 6783-6794. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2800164 Rice, S., & McKendree, J. (2014). e-Learning. In T. Swanwick (Ed.), Understanding medical education : evidence, theory and practice. Wiley-Blackwell. Saddik, B., Hussein, A., Sharif-Askari, F. S., Kheder, W., Temsah, M.-H., Koutaich, R. A., Haddad, E. S., Al-Roub, N. M., Marhoon, F. A., & Hamid, Q. (2020). Increased levels of anxiety among medical and non-medical university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates. Risk Manag Healthc Policy, 3, 2395-2406. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S273333 Sajid, M. R., Laheji, A. F., Abothenain, F., Salam, Y., AlJayar, D., & Obeidat, A. (2016). Can blended learning and the flipped classroom improve student learning and satisfaction in Saudi Arabia? International journal of medical education, 7, 281-285. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.57a7.83d4 Skochelak, S. E., & Stack, S. J. (2017). Creating the medical schools of the future. Academic Medicine, 92(1), 16-19. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001160 Sørebø, A. M., & Sørebø, Ø. (2008). Understanding e-learning satisfaction in the context of university teachers. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 46, 7275. Uttl, B., White, C. A., & Gonzalez, D. W. (2017). Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 54, 22-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.08.007 Van Merrienboer, J. J., & Ayres, P. (2005). Research on cognitive load theory and its design implications for e-learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(3), 5-13. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02504793.pdf Wei, H.-C., & Chou, C. (2020). Online learning performance and satisfaction: do perceptions and readiness matter? Distance Education, 41(1), 48-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1724768 Yang, Y., & Cao, L. (2013). Differential influences of achievement approach goals and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation on help-seeking in e-learning. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 5(2), 153-169. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2013.05.011 Yengin, I., Karahoca, A., & Karahoca, D. (2011). E-learning success model for instructors’ satisfactions in perspective of interaction and usability outcomes. Procedia Computer Science, 3, 1396-1403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2011.01.021

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Zakaria, N., Jamal, A., Bisht, S., & Koppel, C. (2013). Embedding a learning management system into an undergraduate medical informatics course in Saudi Arabia: lessons learned. Medicine 2.0, 2(2), e13-e13. https://doi.org/10.2196/med20.273

Appendix 1 Instructor questionnaire General characteristics Academic rank: Department: Teaching experience in years: Number of courses taught during the shift to e-learning: Readiness to shift to e-learning 1. Which of the following Blackboard Virtual classes features have you used to support your 1 teaching before shifting to e-learning? (You can select more than one.) Uploading course materials 4 2. Which of the following online Microsoft Teams applications have you used to support 1 your teaching before shifting to eWhatsApp learning? (You can select more than 4 one.) 3. How did you interact with students Office hours before shifting to e-learning? (You can 1 select more than one.) Telegram 4 4. Did you have electronic devices to access Yes Blackboard and other online applications 1 before shifting to e-learning? 5.

Discussion board 2 Submit Assignments 5 Zoom 2 Blackboard 5

Quizzes or exams 3 None of the above 0 Telegram 3 None of the above 0 Blackboard 3 Lectures only 0 No 0

Email 2 WhatsApp 5

Did you have a proper network Yes (internet) to access Blackboard and other 1 online applications before shifting to elearning? Perceived learning effectiveness after the shift to e-learning

Indicate to which extent you agree with the following statements. 6.

Shifting to e-learning gave me a positive teaching experience. 7. Shifting to e-learning improved the quality of my teaching. 8. Shifting to e-learning helped me be better organised. 9. Shifting to e-learning improved the communication between me and students. 10. Shifting to e-learning decreased students’ dependence on me.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

No 0

Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagr ee

Strongly disagree

11. Shifting to e-learning helped me work at my own speed. 12. Shifting to e-learning enabled me to achieve course learning outcomes. 13. Shifting to e-learning introduced me to different online applications which helped my teaching. 14. Shifting to e-learning introduced me to a variety of assessment methods. 15. Shifting to e-learning helped me manage my time more effectively. 16. Shifting to e-learning was a good motivation to use different teaching styles. 17. Shifting to e-learning helps deliver subject material well. 18. Shifting to e-learning is more enjoyable than face-to-face learning. 19. Shifting to e-learning made me prefer to teach more courses through remote learning. Overall, during the shift to e-learning, how satisfied are you with: 20. The e-learning experience? 21. The clarity of e-learning instructions? 22. The accessibility of e-learning materials? 23. The simplicity of e-learning tools ? 24. The support received during remote teaching?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Satisfied

Neutral

4 4 4 4 4

3 3 3 3 3

Unsati sfied 2 2 2 2 2

Strongly unsatisfied 1 1 1 1 1

Satisfaction Strongly satisfied 5 5 5 5 5

Appendix 2 Student questionnaire General characteristics Age: Department: Level of study: GPA: 1.

Which of the following Blackboard features have you experienced before shifting to e-learning? (You can select more than one.) Which of the following online applications have you used to support your learning before shifting to elearning? (You can select more than one.) How did you interact with course instructors before shifting to e-learning? (You can select more than one.) Did you have electronic devices to access Blackboard and other online applications before shifting to e-learning?

Readiness to shift to e-learning Virtual classes Discussion board 1 2 Downloading course Submitting materials assignments 4 5 Microsoft Teams Zoom 1 2 WhatsApp Blackboard 4 5

Office hours 1 Telegram 4 Yes 1

Did you have a proper network (internet) to access Blackboard and other online applications before shifting to e-learning?

Email 2 WhatsApp 5

Yes 1

Quizzes or exams 3 None of the above 0 Telegram 3 None of the above 0

Blackboard 3 Limited to lectures 0 No 0

No 0

Perceived learning effectiveness after the shift to e-learning Indicate to which extent you agree with the following statements. 6.

8. 9.

Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Shifting to e-learning gave me a positive learning experience. Shifting to e-learning improved the quality of my studies. Shifting to e-learning helped me be better organised. Shifting to e-learning improved the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

10.

11. 12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

communication between me and the course instructor. Shifting to e-learning helped me become an independent learner/ Shifting to e-learning helped me work at my own speed. Shifting to e-learning helped in my knowledge and skills development. Shifting to e-learning introduced me to different online applications which helped my learning. Shifting to e-learning introduced me to a variety of assessment methods which affected my learning in a positive way. Shifting to e-learning helped me manage my time more effectively. Shifting to e-learning was a good motivation for learning. Shifting to e-learning helped me understand the subject’s material well. Shifting to e-learning is more enjoyable than face-to-face learning. Shifting to e-learning made me prefer to have more courses delivered through remote learning.

Overall, during the shift to elearning, how satisfied are you with: 20. The e-learning experience? 21. The clarity of e-learning instructions? 22. The accessibility of elearning materials? 23. The simplicity of elearning tools? 24. Instructors’ feedback during e-learning?

Neutral

Unsatisfi ed

Strongly unsatisfied

Satisfaction Strongly Satisfie satisfied d

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 38-65, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.3

Impulsing the Development of Students' Competency Related to Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning through Teaching Straight-Line Equations Bui Phuong Uyen Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8098-3398

Lu Kim Ngan Master Student, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0737-8095 Nguyen Phuong Thao An Giang University, VNU-HCM, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1213-2492 Duong Huu Tong Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4522-9760 Abstract. The research was carried out to develop students' ability to think and reason mathematically by teaching straight-line equations in a plane. Accordingly, teaching activities were designed according to five learning stages, which were integrated with mathematical thinking levels according to Van Hiele's model. Simultaneously, the learners' mathematical thinking and reasoning competencies were assessed according to the competency requirements specified in the Mathematics General Education Program and the levels of Van Hiele's model, the above three aspects of knowledge, skills and attitudes. The experiment involved 84 students in class 10, 44 of whom were in the experimental group, and 40 were in the control group. The research results showed that students in the experimental group achieved higher mathematical thinking and reasoning skills. Specifically, the two groups had equivalent results for the level of visualization and analysis. However, at the informal deduction and formal deduction and rigor levels , the ranking results of the two groups had a clear difference. The study group observations and students' opinion surveys also revealed that learning stages were designed according to Van Hiele's model and thoughtprovoking measures and visual images and language contributed to students' interest in learning and positive thinking. Keywords: mathematical thinking; reasoning; straight-line equations; coordinate geometry; Van Hiele's model ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

1. Introduction Recent changes in society show that mathematics has evolved to meet the needs of society's demands. People have gained a lot from applying mathematics in real life, especially knowledge and math skills. It allows math education to contribute to workforce training for society, in which the mathematical competency consists of eight elements and is divided into two groups. The first group includes mathematical thinking, problem-solving, modeling and mathematical reasoning. The second group is concerned with using language and mathematical media, including mathematical representation, mathematical communication, symbols, tools, and media (Niss & Højgaard, 2011). Polya (1963) once wrote: "First and foremost, mathematics education must teach students to think" (p. 605), as did mathematician - Cartesian philosopher Descartes: I am, I exist (1641). Hence, in teaching mathematics, instead of teaching learners how to resolve a test, the teacher should promote the types of intellectual tasks that they will perform when applying the subject to personal problems or careers in many aspects of life (Paul & Elder, 2008). In other words, teachers need to help students form and improve their ability to think and reason mathematically - one of the keys to students achieving personal success and for seeing and constructing the world. Mathematical thinking is a process in which at least one of the cognitive activities associated with mathematics occurs. Indeed, they may be reasoning, abstraction, judgment, presentation and transition between representations, visualization, deductive, inductive, analysis, synthesis, relation, generalization and proof (Tall, 2002). Moreover, mathematical reasoning is the process of forming and understanding mathematical ideas and concepts associated with available premises to make assertions and lead to conclusions (Mukono, 2015; Mumu & Tanujaya, 2019). Karadag (2009) considers reasoning to be analyzing problems to find solutions to problems through inductive or deduction, to develop and verify statements. Thus, the mathematical argument appears in the problem-solving process (Yildirim, 2000 as cited in Gunhan, 2014) and is the manifestation of higher mathematical thinking (Kenney & Lindquist, 2000 as cited in Gunhan, 2014), and expresses the ability to compute and present problems, to explain and adjust solutions or arguments (Kilpatrick et al., 2001 as cited in Gunhan, 2014). In the General Education Program of Mathematics of Vietnam issued in 2018, students' ability to think and reason mathematically is shown through (1) performing thinking manipulations such as comparison, analysis, synthesis, specialization, generalization, analogy, inductive and deduction; (2) showing evidence, arguments and knowing reasonable arguments before concluding; and (3) explaining or adapting the problem-solving approach mathematically (Ministry of Education and Training [MoET], 2018). Moreover, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2018) gives the manifestations of mathematical reasoning capability in the evaluation criteria of PISA 2021, including assessing situations, choosing problem-solving strategies, making combined conclusions, managing and describing options, and understanding how to apply them. According to Niss and Højgaard (2011), Drijvers (2015), Sinwell (2017), OECD

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

(2018) and Drijvers et al. (2019), mathematical thinking and reasoning competencies are closely related to problem-solving and modeling capacity. According to the OECD (2018), mathematical arguments influence one's ability to deal with real-world problems, especially evaluating social problems. Mathematical reasoning contributes to developing other critical skills for the twenty-first century (OECD, 2018). Many teaching methods have been applied to improve teaching effectiveness and speed up students' mathematical reasoning and thinking abilities. Research by Hudson et al. (2015) pointed out that the physical, intellectual and emotional factors are necessary for mathematical thinking to take place; at the same time, concerning the basic question and answer processes, mathematical thinking occurs in specialization and generalization processes to lead to judgment and affirmation processes. With this, mathematical thinking can be encouraged through comparison training, which pressures, conflicts, and provokes; it can be supported through the question, challenge, and reflection (Mason et al., 2010). Teaching approaches such as realistic mathematics education (RME) are also studied to improve students' thinking and reasoning abilities. Research by Papadakis et al. (2016), Dhayanti et al. (2018) and Drijvers et al. (2019) reveals that applying RME in math teaching contributes to students' mathematical thinking ability. In addition, Soares's (2012) research on competency-based education also provides the theoretical basis of competency-based teaching models to develop learners' competencies with output-based approaches. Conversely, information technology also supports teachers in utilizing various teaching resources. Research by Cesaria and Herman (2012), Dhayanti et al. (2018) and Kovacevic (2019) emphasizes the positive impact of IT achievements such as ICT, Sketchpad math software and e-learning in teaching to enhance students' mathematical reasoning competencies. Due to the world's increasing demand for thinking and reasoning, institutions and teachers have become critical. Accordingly, Hudson et al. (2015), OECD (2018) and Drijvers et al. (2019) believe that it is necessary to renew the curriculum of mathematics in the direction of enhancing mathematical reasoning and thinking abilities for students. At the same time, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has approved the General Education Program in Mathematics (2018) to promote mathematical competencies for students. The capacity to think and reason mathematically is one of the core competency components. Additionally, it is impossible not to mention the role of teachers in realizing these educational goals. According to Cesaria and Herman (2019), students' ability to reason mathematically is impulsed through activities and depends on the teacher's creativity in the learning process. Research by Hudson et al. (2015) conducted with primary school teachers indicated teachers' confidence, competencies, attitudes, and beliefs about mathematics and teachers' expectations and experiences impulse students' mathematical thinking skills. Evaluating the ability to think and reason mathematically means that various assessment tools and methods, such as questioning and problem-solving

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

exercises, can be used. Analysis, synthesis and systematization of knowledge must apply mathematical knowledge to explain and reason (MoET, 2018). Niss and Højgaard (2011) also provide some methods and tools for assessing mathematical reasoning and thinking ability, such as exercises or essay problems; speaking exercises, short questions and interviews; and essay projects. Further, the authors evidence the results of student work observations, study logs, portfolios, and forms of communication through writing, presentations, posters and products. Other media may also assess students' thinking abilities (Niss & Højgaard, 2011). Educators must build scales of students' mathematical reasoning and thinking levels and suitable evaluation criteria to effectively teach and evaluate learners' ability to think and reason mathematically. The two educators, Prigourierre van Hiele and Dina van Hiele - Geldof produced the Van Hiele theory of teaching geometry, which can then be applied to teaching most topics in mathematics. Van Hiele's theory consists of three components: concepts, levels of thinking and learning stages (Land, 1990). According to Van Hiele's theory, the geometrical thinking levels are arranged from 0 to 4, including 0 - Visualization, 1 - Analysis, 2 – Informal deduction, 3 - Formal deduction and 4 - Rigor (Van Hiele, 1986). Additionally, Teppo (1991) argues that, according to Van Hiele's theory, the students' development from one level to the next results from intentional teaching organized in five stages of information, oriented, interpreted, free-oriented and integrated. Many studies have analyzed Van Hiele's model (Bell, 1983; Hoffer, 1983; Land, 1990; Teppo, 1991; Van Hiele, 1986), and it turns out that Van Hiele's model can be used in many areas of mathematics, including geometry and algebra (Bell, 1983; Land, 1990; Van Hiele, 1986). The studies from Vojkuvkova (2012) and Masilo (2018) show the effectiveness of integrating thinking levels with teaching phases according to the Van Hiele model into geometry teaching. Much research has been done on teaching to speed up students' mathematical reasoning and thinking abilities using Van Hiele's model. Cresswell and Speelman (2020) put a sample of students and professors through a test of 11 logical reasoning problems selected from psychological studies. Research results have documented that the higher the math training is for the student, the correct number of problems. As a result, math instruction helps students improve their ability to reason and think logically. Gunhan's research (2014) aims to evaluate students' reasoning skills in geometry. This investigation explores how various qualitative research approaches may be used. When solving a problem, students are asked to speak aloud while they think. The collected data indicate that students have vastly different argument-making processes. Concerning Van Hiele's model of mathematical thinking levels, Vojkuvkova (2012) presented a theoretical study on this model and emphasized the possibility of applying Van Hiele's theory to mathematical communication. The results confirm that Van Hiele's hierarchy of levels helps students see better and comprehend learning more efficiently. In addition, there is also the theoretical research of Crowley (1987) on Van Hiele's model in the development of geometric thinking and the research of Gutierrez and Jaime (1998) on the assessment of the mathematical reasoning level of the issue. Research by Salifu et al. (2018) on the geometric

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

thinking levels of pedagogical students also gives notable results. Although there are many studies on the Van Hiele model, there is no work showing the trio relationship, including the Van Hiele model, mathematical thinking and reasoning skills, and straight-line equations in the coordinate plane. In the General Education Program of Mathematics of Vietnam released in 2018, the geometry section provides knowledge and skills at the level of logical reasoning, algebraic methods in geometry (vectors, coordinates), which helps develop imagination and connects with many real-world problems (MoET, 2018). From there, researchers can see the ability through geometry to realize the goal of forming and improving students' mathematical reasoning and thinking skills. Additionally, the equation of the line in two dimensions is a fundamental topic in the high school mathematics program. Students can better deal with plane transformations, tangent curves, and coordinate geometry if they know this relationship. Furthermore, this represents an important turning point in applying the algebraic method in the study of geometry. However, in practice, many students have difficulty learning the contents of straight-line equations because they are not used to this teaching method. For this reason, students must understand the content of the straight-line equations so that their capacity for thinking and mathematical reasoning can be developed.

2. Theoretical framework The selection of a theoretical foundation is required before any research can be carried out successfully. Among the topics covered in this theoretical framework are mathematical thinking and reasoning, Van Hiele's model of mathematical thinking and reasoning levels, and Van Hiele's model of learning stages. 2.1 Mathematical thinking and reasoning in the context of Vietnam The General Education Program of Mathematics of Vietnam indicates that mathematics contributes to the formation and development of students' mathematical competencies, including the following components: mathematical thinking and reasoning ability; mathematical modeling ability; ability to solve mathematical problems; mathematical communication competence; ability to use tools and means of learning mathematics. In particular, the specific expression of mathematical thinking and reasoning capacity and requirements for high school education are shown as follows: (1) Perform mental operations relatively proficiently, especially detect similarities and differences in relatively complex situations and interpret the results of observations. (2) Use reasoning, induction, and deductive methods to see different ways of solving problems. (3) Ask and answer questions when reasoning and problem-solving. Explain, prove, adjust the solution performed mathematically. 2.2 Van Hiele's model of mathematical thinking and reasoning levels The coordinate method in the plane combines geometric and algebraic factors using algebraic methods to overcome problems in geometry. Many studies show the effectiveness of assessing students' level of geometric thinking based on Van Hiele's model (Abdullah & Zakaria, 2013; Alex & Mammen, 2018; Feza & Webb, 2005).

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Hence, to apply Van Hiele's model to this topic, it is necessary to combine models in geometry (Van Hiele, 1986) and algebra (Bell, 1983). Regardless of whether the levels are called differently, they are all ordered in the same sequence. The study uses a five-level model built based on Van Hiele's model in Table 1. Table 1: Van Hiele's model in coordinate geometry Levels Level 1: Visualization

Level 2: Analysis Level 3: Informal deduction

Level 4: Formal deduction Level 5: Rigor

Description Students observe the visual representations of objects, samples in numerical form. Students can identify, compare and group, and manipulate individual objects based on visualization. Students can identify and describe objects through their characteristics and start analyzing objects. Students can connect characteristic properties to form concepts. Students can receive and understand exact definitions. Students can learn more complex properties, classify and perform calculations. Students can perform thinking "if ... then ...", logical reasoning and reasoning about the nature and relationship of objects. General principles appear when calculating. Students can make claims and perform proofs to determine the correctness of assertions. Students can learn geometry without reference models and have the ability to reason through applying definitions, axioms and theorems.

2.3 The learning stages according to Van Hiele's model Based on the impact of teaching on students' learning, Van Hiele's theory emphasizes that the teaching process should be organized into five learning stages to achieve each level of thinking. According to Van Hiele (1986), students have to go through many learning stages to reach their thinking levels in a specific learning topic. That is, to restart the learning stages when students do not understand a certain problem. These stages are described in Table 2 based on the synthesis from the studies of Hoffer (1983), Van Hiele (1986) and Teppo (1991). Table 2: Learning stages according to Van Hiele's model Learning stages Information Guided orientation Explication Free orientation Integration

Description Students get acquainted with the learning content. Students are familiar with the ideas. Students are aware of the initial relationships and begin to analyze based on existing knowledge. Students can choose activities and self-orient the related framework. Students can summarize, integrate, reflect, describe and apply the knowledge they have learned.

Regarding combining five levels of geometric thinking of Van Hiele's model and the five learning stages above, Table 3 presents descriptions of the activities of teachers and students in each learning stage corresponding to each level of thinking.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Table 3: Integration of learning stages and Van Hiele's model Stages Information Level 1: Visualization

Activities of the teacher The teacher asks questions to help students recall relevant information associated with reality. The teacher presents new objects, creating conditions for students to observe, identify and classify visually. The teacher asks open-ended questions to identify students' orientations and concepts.

Guided orientation Level 2: Analysis

Teachers organize guided activities to help students become familiar with the properties of new concepts they have just discovered in visual form. The teacher can guide students to conduct a preliminary classification of objects. The teacher emphasizes vocabulary after students are familiar with the concept. Results should be as explicit as possible. Teachers can propose other problems for which students have not yet learned the static solution method.

Explication Level 3: Informal deduction Free orientation Level 4: Formal deduction

Integration Level 5: Rigor

The teacher provides students with a summary of what they have learned so far in class. During this period, the teacher does not give any new concepts, but, instead, summarizes what students have learned. (Source: Fuys et al., 1988; Masilo, 2018).

Activities of students Students recall relevant information in practice. Through discussion, students discover the relationship between the object with their visual knowledge and ask exploring questions. Students visualize the objects according to what they observe. Students get acquainted with the object and start to explore its structure. Students perform tasks to help them discover the hidden relationships of the object. Students make a preliminary outline of the relationships between objects, properties of groups of objects.

Students' experience is linked with symbols and language.

Students perform more complex tasks, helping them master the network of relationships in the content to be learned. Students understand the properties learned but need to develop fluency in understanding relationships in different situations. Students summarize what they have learned and enter information into the brain. Students make conclusions and consolidate or adjust math solutions.

The purpose of the study and the research questions According to this fact, straight-line equations are beneficial for forming and promoting students' mathematical reasoning and thinking skills. This study aims to form and improve these skills in 10th-grade students by teaching topics

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

involving straight-line equations. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to research in order to answer the following questions: 1. What topics in straight-line equations do students learn about in the 10th-grade math textbook? 2. Is there an effective way for students to make progress in their mathematical knowledge if they learn about straight-line equations during the learning stages of Van Hiele's model? 3. What strategies did students use to improve their mathematical thinking and reasoning abilities after learning from the stages above? Is it tough for them to think and reason mathematically?

3. Methods Some of the contents of this section are presented in chronological order, including research samples, instruments, data collection and analyzing methods, and other related information. A study design that included a pre-test, an intervention, and a post-test was implemented to accomplish the research mentioned above's goal. Such research designs, which allow for assessing the effectiveness of educational innovations, are extremely common in educational research (Dugard & Todman, 1995; Tesch, 2016). A design similar to this one was developed by Papadakis et al. (2016) to develop mathematical competency in kindergarten through a realistic mathematics education approach. 3.1 Participants The experiment was conducted from January 11, 2021, to January 27, 2021, at Doan Van To High School, Cu Lao Dung District, Soc Trang City, Vietnam. Experimental subjects include 44 students of 10A2 (experimental group) and 40 students of 10A3 (control group). The choice of students to participate in research was due to their interest and willingness to participate in active teaching activities. 3.2 Instruments In the previous experiments, the students who participated took the post-test for the two groups. The preliminary research was conducted to see if the hypothesis was correct following the post-test and pre-test exams. To test if the experiment would be successful, validation and testing were required first. Researchers undertook the effort by developing proper and high-quality instruments. Two experts in the mathematics education field felt that the tests were reliable. The instruments and research were evaluated, and various changes were implemented. Experts verified that the instrument had not been revised further, and each one stated that the instrument was appropriate. They ultimately agreed to review the tests as they saw the relevance to the research topic. Furthermore, researchers can assess the coverage of academic content and skills as well. In this study, a more accurate response was made to measure a student's ability to think and to explain in different mathematical formats, including the use of visualization, analysis, informal deduction, formal deduction and the rigor of the conceptual presentation, in order to solve a specific mathematical problem linked to straight-line equations.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Teaching

Post-test

Pre-test

Lessons (6 periods)

Test subject

GPA semester 1

Observe the

Student opinion

study group

survey form

Figure 1: Experimental process and instruments

For the post-test, the following were rankings of scores used in evaluating the test results in the knowledge in Table 4 and Table 5. Table 4: Ranking of post-test results according to each level of thinking and reasoning Level

Score sum

Poor

Medium

Very good

Excellent

1-4

5-8

9-10

1-8

9-16

17-20

1-16

17-32

33-45

1-6

7-10

11-15

1-5

6-10

---

Level 1: Visualization Questions 1 and 2 Level 2: Analysis Questions 3 and 4 Level 3: Informal deduction Questions 4 and 5 Level 4: Formal deduction Question 6 Level 5: Rigor Question 7

Table 5: Ranking of post-test results Score sum 0-34 points 35-64 points 65-79 points 80-100 points

Rating Poor Medium Very good Excellent

Regarding assessing the attitude, the student survey form was designed with ten questions on the Likert scale with five levels: Totally disagree - Disagree – Neutral - Agree - Totally agree. 3.3 Data collection and analysis Table 6: Collection of experimental data Contents Average scores of semester 1 Post-test results after the experiment

Experimental Group x

Control Group x

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Observe the study group Results of students' opinion survey

From Table 6, data were collected based on average score results of semester 1 (replacing pre-test), results of post-test (post-test), study group observations and survey results of students. Data were tackled by quantitative analysis (t-test using SPSS 20 software) and qualitative analysis.

4. Results and discussion Before giving detailed results, some preliminary results from classroom observations were noted. The lessons in the experimental and control groups were analyzed and compared to identify the best teaching methods, learning methods, acquired skills, learning content, and group atmosphere. Experimental teaching methods positively impacted students' learned contents, acquired skills, and learning attitudes. The process was created to integrate with Van Hiele's levels to help students go from the most basic levels of thinking and reasoning to the most complex. Thus, the group atmosphere and the learning attitude of the experimental group students were more comfortable and positive. 4.1 Pre-test results The study used the average score of mathematics in the first semester of students to verify the qualifications of the experimental group and the control group. The independent t-test method was used to test the hypothesis that the average difference in mathematics of the experimental and control groups was not significantly different. Table 7 and Table 8 display the average mathematics descriptive and t-test results of experimental and control groups. Table 7: Descriptive statistics of pre-test results Number N

Mean

Std Dev

Std Err

Minimum

Maximum

6.4159

1.14444

0.17253

3.5

9.2

6.1525

1.11055

0.17559

3.8

8.5

Experimental Group Control Group

Table 8: Independent t-test results Variances Equal

t Stat 1.068

p-Value – 2 tailed (Sig.) 0.288

Mean Difference 0.26341

An independent t-test was used to test the significance of the average value difference between the experimental and control groups with equal variance hypotheses. Accordingly, with the significance level 𝛼 = 0.05, the critical value p = 0.288 was greater than 0.05. As a result, the average score values between the experimental and control groups were not significant. In other words, the pre-test results were speculated that the qualifications of the experimental group and the control group were equivalent.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

4.2 Post-test results The independent t-test method hypothesized that the average score of the postexperimental test of the experimental class was higher than that of the control class. Table 10 and Table 11 show descriptive statistics and t-test after the experimental and control groups. Table 10: Descriptive statistics of post-test results Experimental group Control group

Mean

Std Dev

StdErr

Minimum

Maximum

69.2727

11.70443

1.76451

39.8750

9.42497

1.49022

Table 11: Independent t-test results Variance Equal

t Stat 12.598

p-Value – 2 tailed (Sig.) 0.000

Mean Difference 29.39773

Frequency

The value of influence level (SMD), according to Cohen, was 3.12 > 1.00. Therefore, it could be concluded that the influence of observed effects was very large. On the other hand, the independent t-test was used to verify the average score difference between the experimental and control groups with the null hypothesis. Correspondingly, with the significance level, 𝛼 = 0.05 and the critical value 𝑝 = 0.000 was less than 0.05. Hence, the difference in average score values between the experimental group and control group was significant. In other words, the post-test results of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. The following is a schematic showing the score differentiation of the experimental and the control groups.

20 10 0

Marks obtained Experimental group

Control group

Figure 2: Diagram of score differentiation after the experiment

Figure 2 expresses that there was a clear difference in score differentiation between the experimental and control groups. Specifically, the experimental group had uniform point differentiation, concentrating at relatively high points (over 50 points). Meanwhile, the scores in the control group were distributed at many different levels of high and low, and there was a significant difference between the levels, especially the number of students reaching high scores (over 50 points) was relatively high. The checked scores of experimental and control groups were classified as shown in Table 12.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Table 12: Results of post-test rating Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0-34 points 0 0.00% 13 32.50%

Medium 35-64 points 14 31.82% 25 62.50%

Very Good 65-79 points 19 43.18% 2 5.00%

Excellent 80-100 points 11 25.00% 0 0.00%

Table 12 indicates that the percentage of assignments rated Poor in the experimental group was much lower than the control group. In the control group, the percentage of worksheets with the Medium rating was 62.5%, almost two times higher than that of the experimental group and accounted for most of the total number of tests. For the Very Good category, in the experimental group, 43.18% of the exercises with the Very Good category were significantly higher than the control group. At the same time, 25% of the worksheets achieved Excellent in the experimental group, and none of the papers achieved Excellent in the control group. Thus, none of the experimental worksheets were rated Poor, and the majority of the worksheets achieved either Very Good or Excellent (accounting for 68.18%), while, in the control group, most of the worksheets were rated Poor and Medium (95%). There are grounds to say that the learning results of the linear equation in the experimental class were significantly better than the control class. The post-test was designed with many different questions to evaluate and classify students' mathematical thinking and reasoning levels. The following were students' problems from experimental and control groups based on Van Hiele's model. 4.2.1 Level 1: Visualization The level of visualization was assessed through Question 1 and Question 2. Question 1 asked students to apply practical experience and understanding of the features of the direction vector, normal vector, and the coefficient of the internal angle relationship with a straight line. Moreover, Question 2 was designed to evaluate the ability to identify and classify the straight-line equation types based on the algebraic features of the equation. Table 13: Results of Level 1 - Visualization Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0 points 0 0.00% 0 0.00%

Medium 1-4 points 0 0.00% 2 5.00%

Very Good 5-8 points 2 4.55% 14 35.00%

Excellent 9-10 points 42 95.45% 24 60.00%

Table 13 reveals that most of the experimental group students met the visualization level requirements well. Specifically, 95.45% of the worksheets got Excellent, and the rest of them got Very Good. Meanwhile, 60% of the controls in the control group achieved Excellent, and 5% of the assignments were Medium. According to the above findings, it is clear that students in the experimental group had the same amount and level of thinking ability at the visual level as students in the control group. In this environment, this provided the foundation for a higher-order capacity of student thinking and reasoning. Many students still did not fully understand the practical visual aspects of the direction vectors,

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

orthogonal vectors and angular coefficients, and the algebraic characteristics of straight-line equations for the control group. This level of differentiation could lead to substantial inequality by the next level.

Figure 3: Student DC40's lesson - The answer was not good

Figure 3 expresses a faulty assignment that many of the control group's assignments had. Accordingly, many students had confusion between direction vectors and perpendicular vectors of the line. Figure 4 observes that the level of identification of students for types of linear equations was still limited. The fact that students failed to recognize and differentiate between types of straight-line equations may harm their ability to identify, write, and use the form of straightline equations in different subject areas. 4.2.2 Level 2: Analysis The student's level of analysis was assessed through Question 3 and Question 4. Question 3 was designed to test students' understanding of the direction vector and normal line vector characteristics, requiring them to identify and classify the given vectors based on their features and explain the classification basis. In Question 4, requirements were given to evaluate two levels of analysis and informal deduction. Table 14: Results of Level 2 -Analysis Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0 points 0 0.00% 0 0.00%

Medium 1-8 points 0 0.00% 0 0.00%

Very Good 9-16 points 4 9.09% 31 77.50%

Excellent 17-20 points 40 90.91% 9 22.50%

Table 14 displays that the results of students' tests in both groups for the level of analysis achieved Very Good and Excellent. The percentage of assignments with excellent scores accounted for the majority (90.91%) in the experimental group. Meanwhile, most of the tests in the control group achieved Very Good (77.50%). Thus, most experimental group students met the analysis level requirements, such as identifying, classifying, pointing out the characteristics, and analyzing some basic elements of the subjects. For the students to understand how to think and reason, this helped them expand critical thinking and cognitive skills. Accordingly, student TN40 in Question 1 had confusion between the actual image of the direction vector and the perpendicular vector of the line, leading to the

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

correct classification of the vector group in Question 3. Meanwhile, student DC08's exercise was a typical example of many exercises in the control group. The solution of DC08 in Figure 4 reveals that students did not master the characteristics of the directional vectors and perpendicular vectors of the line, so the students gave the excess or lack of common points needed to group the vectors. For the analytical content in Question 4, most students in both groups could identify the initial elements of linear equations. Nonetheless, many students in the control group had difficulty in simply converting the straight-line elements. Through observing students' work in the test, it could be seen that many students were confused in determining which initial factors could be pointed out directly from the equation of the straight line.

Figure 4: StudentDC08's homework - Not good answer

4.2.3 Level 3: Informal deduction Regarding evaluating students' ability to think and reason mathematically at the level of informal deduction, Question 4 and Question 5 were designed to require students to perform calculations and transformations between types of linear equations, choose and apply the appropriate rules to determine the relative position between two lines, and simple reasoning to determine the relative position between the lines with the similar elements. Table 15: Results of Level 3 – Informal deduction Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0 points 0 0.00% 0 0.00%

Medium 1-16 points 4 9.09% 22 55.00%

Very Good 17-32 points 23 52.27% 18 45.00%

Excellent 33-45 points 17 38.64% 0 0.00%

Data from Table 15 indicate that most of the worksheets in the experimental group scored Very Good and Excellent for the informal deduction level, with only 9.09% of the total rated Medium. Meanwhile, the control group mainly ranked Medium (55%) and Very Good (45%). To be classified as Very Good and Excellent at this level, students had to meet quite well the requests of skills and knowledge mentioned above; the answer by TN24 (Figure 5) was a typical lesson job. The poor classification results could be that the students did not meet the analysis requirements for the control group.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Figure 5: Student TN24's good answer

Through the summary of the worksheets in both groups for Question 5, it could be noticed that most students chose to address the equation system containing two general equations of the line and based on the solutions of the system of equations to infer the relative position of two lines. In particular, some students in the experimental group displayed their creativity in thinking when solving problems. Although students still made some mistakes in mathematical representations, the idea of solving confirmed that students understood the relationship between the line and the direction vector and recognized the system of equations based on the coefficient. In the content that required students to argue to make conclusions about the relative position of two lines (question c), many students in the experimental group could make inferences based on parallel and intersect factors of the lines and argue closely to conclude. Meanwhile, control group problems could not help people determine a solution or provide coordinates between two lines. Thus, compared with the control group results, there are grounds to believe that the pedagogical methods applied in teaching in the experimental group impacted the growth of thinking and mathematical reasoning; these students studied at the level of informal deduction. 4.2.4 Level 4: Formal deduction Question 6 was designed to evaluate students' ability to think and reason at the level of formal deduction; this question required students to perform analysis, synthesis, reasoning and reasoning to justify a claim. Due to the hierarchy between the levels according to Van Hiele's model, the formal deduction was a level requiring high order thinking to which not all students could respond well. Table 16: Results of Level 4 - Formal deduction Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0 points 4 9.09% 39 97.50%

Medium 1-6 points 23 52.27% 1 2.50%

Very Good 7-10 points 17 38.64% 0 0.00%

Excellent 11-15 points 0 0.00% 0 0.00%

Table 16 expresses that the students in the experimental group achieved significantly better results than the control group students at the level of formal deduction. Hence, most of the worksheets in the experimental group were rated Average (52.27%) or Very Good (38.64%), and only 9.09% were rated Poor.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Accordingly, the exercises with Medium or above all determined the direction of solving the problem well and choosing the correct reasoning (using normal-line vectors of the straight line). However, they did not give complete reasoning with valid reasoning, and only error in mathematical representation was evaluated as a Very Good test (see Figure 6). Meanwhile, none of the control papers were rated Very Good, and 97.50% of the worksheets in the control class were rated Poor; most of the students did not give solutions, and some students gave the wrong argument. It is worth noting that none of the worksheets in both groups achieved Excellent, which meant that the students in the experimental group did not fully meet the requirements to be satisfied while arguing. It is possible to explain the reason based on the limited lesson time and that the frequency of students solving similar problems was quite small. Thus, it could be concluded that teaching designs for students in the experimental group achieved positive effects in developing students' ability to think and reason.

Figure 6: Student TN42's good answer

4.2.5 Level 5: Rigor According to the Van Hiele model, students must have a good knowledge system for accurate thinking and mathematical thinking and knowledge to explain and solve real problems for high school students. Question 7 was designed to evaluate the level of accuracy of students, and the results were ranked at three levels of Poor, Medium and Very Good. Table 17: Results of Level 5 - Rigor Rating Experimental Group Control Group

Poor 0 points 3 6.82% 36 90.00%

Medium 1-5 points 38 86.36% 4 10.00%

Very Good 6-10 points 3 6.82% 0 0.00%

Excellent -----------

Table 17 shows that the experimental group results on the rigor level were better than that of the control group. In the control group, 90% of the worksheets did not answer this question, and only 10% of the worksheets mentioned how to reduce the slope but did not link it to the lesson and had no students who met the requirements well. The percentage of those in the control group who did not provide a solution was far lower in the experimental group. Additionally, 86.36% of the experimental group's worksheets had come up with suitable plans but had

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

not yet applied the learned knowledge to explain the reasons for choosing that plan. The assignments rated Medium in both groups were mainly given by students' practical experience, i.e., "if you want to reduce the slope, you will increase the length and decrease the height of the slope," but this was not the case, so the result was as expected in Question 7. On the other hand, a remarkable result was that for three students in the experimental group (accounting for 6.82%), creating a relationship between knowledge of the slope and slope and real-world situations was given. This result revealed that the pedagogical effects of enhancing thinking and reasoning at the level of rigor had been effective for some students. The lesson of student TN43 was a test that satisfies the expectations of the question (see Figure 7). As a result, the slope equation for the tangent line's angle was formulated to lower the line's gradient. Meanwhile, the students' problem was an example for the exercises with good ideas but based on experience, and there was no explanation based on the knowledge of the coefficients.

Figure 7: Student answer 14 - The answer with good ideas

Through analyzing the performance of two classes for each level according to Van Hiele's model, it could be concluded that students in the experimental class had significantly better performance in each level than the control class (See Figure 8).

Percentage (%)

100

100 95

100100

90.91

80 60

38.64

6.82

0 1

Van Hiele levels Experimental group

Control group

Figure 8: Graph of the rate of students performing very good and excellent in the levels of mathematical thinking and reasoning according to Van Hiele's model

As a result, the percentage of students responding well to the levels of visualization and analysis in both groups was quite equal and accounted for almost an absolute rate. However, according to the increasing informal to formal deduction and rigor levels, the disparity between the two groups increased. This

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

result was probably due to the strict sequence and hierarchy of Van Hiele's mathematical thinking model. Accordingly, many students in the control group did not respond well to the level of analysis, leading to difficulties in higher levels for students. Alternatively, the higher the level of thinking required students to be trained under the oriented teaching organization of teachers. For this reason, the appropriate application of methods to improve mathematical thinking and reasoning according to Van Hiele's model could be a good orientation for teachers in teaching to enhance mathematical reasoning and thinking competencies for students. 4.3 Results of students' opinion survey After completing the lesson of the straight-line equations, 45 students of the experimental group participated in giving comments on the lessons by answering the survey. The students' opinion survey included ten questions based on the Likert scale with five levels (Totally disagree - Disagree - Neutral - Agree - Totally agree) to collect students' opinions about the learning efficiency and the interest level of students in the lessons. Question 1: I like the lessons in straight-line equations Table 18: Survey results in Question 1 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 1 12 32

% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 26.7% 71.1%

Table 18 indicates that most of the students in the experimental group liked practical lessons of the straight-line equation, and none of the students said they did not like these lessons. This result was consistent with the observed manifestations of the experimental group students' learning attitudes, as shown in Table 9. Question 2: I find that the process of organizing activities in these lessons helps me to study more effectively Table 19: Survey results in Question 2 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 0 14 31

% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 31.1% 68.9%

Statistical results in Table 19 reveal that all students in the experimental group found that organizing activities in practical lessons helped them learn more effectively. Of which, 68.9% of students completely agreed with this statement. This result was a meaningful response to the research, contributing to the effectiveness and feasibility of the designed lesson plan.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Question 3: I find that visual activities (realistic images, drawings, sample expressions, mind maps) help me approach and visualize new concepts more easily Table 20: Survey results in Question 3 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 3 7 35

% 0.0% 0.0% 6.7% 15.6% 77.8%

From the results in Table 20, it could be seen that the majority of students (accounting for more than 90%) agreed or completely agreed that the visual activities (realistic images, drawings, sample expressions, mind maps) were effective in helping children access and visualize new concepts more easily. These activities contributed to enhancing students' ability to express their thoughts and. At the same time, it supported students in achieving the first level of thinking of Van Hiele's model - an important foundation for higher thinking levels. Question 4: I find that analytical activities (showing characteristics, properties and classifications) help me understand concepts and their relationships better Table 21: Survey results in Question 4 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 1 14 30

% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 31.1% 66.7%

Question 4 was given to survey students' opinions about the effectiveness of analytical activities. According to Table 21, 97.8% of students said that these activities supported them in better understanding concepts and relationships between concepts, and no students gave the opposite feedback. These activities also assisted students in learning how to arrive at the mathematical thinking and reasoning levels. This result corroborated the experimental tests of students in the experimental group on the level of analysis (see Table 14). Question 5: I find that presenting definitions, formulas, and problem-solving methods (verbal, symbols and diagrams) helps me better generalize, synthesize and memorize new knowledge Table 22: Survey results in Question 5 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 0 14 31

% 0.0% 0.0% 0,0% 31.1% 68.9%

From the findings from Table 22, it is clear that 100% of students could generalize, synthesize and memorize new knowledge better thanks to presenting definitions,

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

formulas, and mathematical solution methods such as verbal symbols and diagrams. By observing study groups, most students were interested in generalizing and synthesizing knowledge by symbols and diagrams. Question 6: I find that solving and proofing activities help me practice my ability to analyze and synthesize related knowledge, analogical reasoning in problemsolving, reasoning and presenting steps Table 23: Survey results in Question 6 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 2 13 30

% 0.0% 0.0% 4.4% 28.9% 66.7%

Table 23 shows the student's opinions about the effectiveness of solving math problems and demonstrating in training their ability to analyze, synthesize knowledge, make an analogous inference, reason and present reasoning steps. Accordingly, 28.9% of students agreed, and 66.7% of students completely agreed with the effectiveness of these activities, and no student said they disagreed. These were activities under the level of informal deduction and formal deduction of Van Hiele's model. The statistical results in Tables 15 and 16 found that this response was appropriate. Overall, 90% of the experimental group students obtained Medium or Good for the formal deduction, but. in correlation with the control group, the positive impacts of these activities were noticeable. Question 7: I find that reinforcement and realistic relationships help me codify the knowledge I have learned more effectively and better understand the relationship between the learned knowledge and real-world problems Table 24: Survey results in Question 7 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 1 11 33

% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 24.4% 73.3%

The activities of reinforcement and realistic relationships were an indispensable part of teaching, according to Van Hiele's model. It was found from Table 24 that 97.7% of students realized the effectiveness of this activity in helping students systemize the knowledge they had learned more effectively and be more aware of the relationship between the learned knowledge and practical problems. Question 8: I find that participating in group activities and manipulating the flashcards stimulates learning excitement and helps me learn more actively Table 25: Survey results in Question 8 Levels Totally disagree Disagree

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

f 0 0

% 0.0% 0.0%

Neutral Agree Totally agree

2 11 32

4.4% 24.4% 71.1%

According to Table 25, collaborative thinking and enhancing the thinking skills were effective ways to stimulate students' thinking process and learning excitement. More than 95% of the students found group activities with study cards highly effective, while no students had an opposite view. Question 9: I find myself improving in math calculation, thinking and reasoning Table 26: Survey results in Question 9 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 2 14 29

% 0.0% 0.0% 4.4% 31.1% 64.4%

In order to guide students through the process of self-assessment, this question was presented. Accordingly, the data from Table 26 indicate that 95.5% of all students found themselves improving their math learning, especially in mathematical thinking and reasoning. Furthermore, no student found learning ineffective. The results were predicted to be as a result of the research. Question 10: I want to learn similar lessons in other periods Table 27: Survey results in Question 10 Levels Totally disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally agree

f 0 0 1 13 31

% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2% 28.9% 68.9%

Question 10 shows the students' appreciation for practical lessons. That was why students wanted to learn similar lessons in other lessons. Table 27 shows that more than 97% of students agreed or strongly agreed to learn the same lessons, and no students disagreed. If the lesson structures were generalized, these lessons could have the same effect on other lessons.

5. Conclusion With experimental results analyzed, it was concluded that the experimental class students performed better than the control class in displaying mathematical reasoning and thinking competencies. Most experimental worksheets produced acceptable or outstanding results, with no failures; this result was significantly higher than the control group, with more than 90% of the students have achieved poor and medium grades and did not have excellent work. The students achieved similar results at the analytical and visual levels; this gave them a solid platform to grow their analytical and visual thinking skills. For the informal deduction level, the data revealed that the students in the control group did not meet the requests of this level well, while the students in the

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

experimental group had differentiation. Overall, the student results were slightly above average, but a relatively small percentage of students scored below average. At this level, the results of the two groups had quite a large difference in the rate of homework with high results. For the formal deduction level, the students in the control group did not satisfy the degree demands, with most of the students ranked poorly and no students performing well or excellently. According to Van Hiele's model hierarchy, students would only progress in their thinking if they met previous learning objectives (Van Hiele, 1986). Meanwhile, students in the experimental group could not excel, but the overall success rate was also rather low; this finding demonstrates that students had satisfied the mathematical thinking and reasoning requests in solving mathematical problems. At the level of rigor, the study gave three grades of rating, including poor, medium and very good. The statistical results reported that most students in the experimental group achieved the average, and a few students excelled in the need to make connections between knowledge learned and realworld problems. Although this result was not too high, the experimental group's significant improvement could correlate with the control group. The analytical results revealed that, as levels increased, there was a growing disparity between the experimental and control groups' ratings. This effect was consistent with Van Hiele's model hierarchy and indicated the effectiveness of experimental teaching designs on developing students' mathematical reasoning and thinking abilities. This outcome is consistent with the findings from the studies by Gutierrez and Jaime (1998) and Salifu et al. (2018). On the other hand, through observing the period and surveying students' opinions in the experimental group, it was observed that the organization of teaching according to the learning stages of Van Hiele's model and teaching methods had brought positive effectiveness. Consequently, the integrated teaching stages corresponding to the levels of mathematical thinking created conditions for students to sequentially perform the necessary processes to train their ability to think and reason mathematically. Additionally, the group learning atmosphere was organized, especially visualization, mathematical software, languages, and various geometric representations and students' positive thinking. Interview, collaboration, and group work also contributed to improving the students' skills to think and reason mathematically with the principle of resonance in thinking. Research by Gunhan (2014), Hudson et al. (2015), Decy et al. (2018), Cesaria and Herman (2019) and Kovacevic (2019) also had relevant results. Thus, applying Van Hiele's model and learning phases according to this model in teaching contributes to enhancing teaching effectiveness and promoting mathematical reasoning and thinking competencies for students. According to Van Hiele's model, mathematical thinking and reasoning levels guide teachers well in the lesson design process. In terms of psychology, at that point, forming knowledge for students is consistent with their cognitive abilities. In this way, the material is more digestible for students. As a result, they developed a better and more thorough understanding of topics. An implication was observed that one of

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

the reasons for the difficulty of high school students in connecting mathematics to solving problems was the lack of reasoning skills (Jailani et al., 2020). Only 84 students in the 10th grade were observed because this was a case study. Both the ability and willingness of subjects to learn differed dramatically between genders, and by their preferred learning style, they could be divided into groups. The study was based on enhancing students' abilities to think and reason mathematically. Also, it should be noted that the study content was connected to straight-line equations covered in the 10th-grade mathematics textbook. Further studies can examine mathematical thinking and reasoning competencies related to these two types of competencies due to the close relationship between mathematical reasoning and thinking skills with problem-solving and modeling capacities. Moreover, it is possible to expand the research on Van Hiele's model to improve students' mathematical reasoning and thinking abilities in other fields such as algebra or calculus.

6. References Abdullah, A. H., & Zakaria, E. (2013). The effects of Van Hiele's phases of learning geometry on students' degree of acquisition of Van Hiele levels. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 102, 251-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.740 Alex, J., & Mammen, K. J. (2018). Students' understanding of geometry terminology through the lens of Van Hiele theory. Pythagoras, 39(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v39i1.376 Bell, A. E., Costello, J., & Kuchemann, D. E. (1983). A Review of research in mathematical Education. Part A. Research on Learning and Teaching. Nfer - Nelson. Cesaria, A., & Herman, T. (2019). Mathematical reasoning in geometry learning using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1157(4), 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1157/4/042101 Cresswell, C., & Speelman, C. P. (2020). Does mathematics training lead to better logical thinking and reasoning? A cross-sectional assessment from students to professors. PLoS ONE, 15(7), 1-21. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236153 Crowley, M. L. (1987). The Van Hiele Model of development of geometric thought. In M. M. Lindquist, & P. Shulte (Eds.), Learning and teaching geometry, K-12, 1987 Yearbook, 1-16. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Dhayanti, D., Johar, R., & Zubainur, C. M. (2018). Improving students' critical and creative thinking through Realistic Mathematics Education using Geometer's Sketchpad. Journal of Research and Advances in Mathematics Education, 3(1), 25-35. http://journals.ums.ac.id/index.php/jramathedu. Drijvers, P., Kodde-Buitenhuis, H., & Doorman, M. (2019). Assessing mathematical thinking as part of curriculum reform in the Netherlands. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 102, 435–456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-019-09905-7 Drijvers, P. (2015). Denken over wiskunde, onderwijs en ICT. [Thinking about Mathematics, education and ICT.] Inaugural lecture. Utrecht, the Netherlands: Universiteit Utrecht. http://www.fisme.science.uu.nl/publicaties/literatuur/Oratie_Paul_Drijvers_f acsimile_20150521.pdf. Dugard, P., & Todman, J. (1995). Analysis of pre‐test‐post‐test control group designs in educational research. Educational Psychology, 15(2), 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341950150207

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Feza, N., & Webb, P. (2005). Assessment standards, Van Hiele levels, and grade seven learners' understandings of geometry. Pythagoras, 2005(62), 36-47. https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v0i62.113 Fuys, D., Geddes, D., & Tischler, R. (1988). The Van Hiele model of thinking in geometry among adolescents. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. Monograph, 3, 1-196. https://doi.org/10.2307/749957. Gunhan, B. C. (2014). A case study on the investigation of reasoning skills in geometry. South African Journal of Education, 34(2), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.15700/201412071156 Gutiérrez, A., & Jaime, A. (1998). On the assessment of the Van Hiele levels of reasoning. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics Spring & Summer Edition, 20(2 & 3), 2746. Hoffer, A. R. (1983). Van Hiele - based research in acquisition of mathematical concepts and processes. In R. Lesh & M. Landau (Eds.), Acquisition of mathematics concepts and processes (pp. 205-227). Academic Press Or1ando. Hudson, B., Henderson, S., & Hudson, A. (2015). Developing mathematical thinking in the primary classroom: liberating students and teachers as learners of mathematics, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 47(3), 374-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2014.979233 Jailani, Retnawati, H., Apino, E., & Santoso, A. (2020). High school students' difficulties in making mathematical connections when solving problems. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(8), 255-277. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.8.14 Karadag, Z. (2009). Analyzing Students' Mathematical Thinking In Technology-Supported Environments [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Toronto]. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/19128/1/Karadag_Zekeriya _200911_PhD_thesis.pdf Kovacevic, N. (2019). Spatial reasoning in mathematics. Teaching And Learning Mathematics. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331430837_Spatial_reasoning_in_m athematics. Land, J. E. (1990). Appropriateness of the Van Hiele model for describing students' cognitive processes on algebra tasks as typified by college students' learning. UMI Dissertation Services. Michigan. Masilo, M. M. (2018). Implementing Inquiry-Based Learning To Enhance Grade 11 Students' Problem-Solving Skills In Euclidean Geometry [Doctoral dissertation, The University Of South Africa]. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/24966 Mason, J., Burton, L., & Stacey, K. (2010). Thinking mathematically (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. Ministry of Education and Training. (2018). Mathematics General Education Curriculum. Hanoi, Vietnam. Mukono, S. (2015). Grade 11 Mathematics Learners' Concept Images And Mathematical Reasoning On Transformations Of Functions [Doctoral dissertation, The University Of South Africa]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43177597.pdf Mumu, J., & Tanujaya, B. (2019). Measure reasoning skill of mathematics students. International Journal of Higher Education, 8(6), 85-91. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v8n6p85 Niss, M., & Højgaard, T. (2011). Competencies and Mathematical Learning Ideas and inspiration for the development of mathematics teaching and learning in Denmark. English edition. Denmark: IMFUFA, Roskilde University. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2018). PISA 2021 Mathematics Framework (Draft). OECD Publishing. EDU/PISA/GB(2018)19.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Papadakis, St., Kalogiannakis, M., & Zaranis, N. (2016). Improving mathematics teaching in kindergarten with realistic mathematical education. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(3), 369–378. Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2008). Critical thinking: strategies for improving student learning. Journal of Developmental Education, 32(2), 34-35. Polya, G. (1963). On learning, teaching, and learning teaching. The American Mathematical Monthly, 70(6), 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029890.1963.11992076 Salifu, A. S., Yakubu, A. R., & Ibrahim, F. I. (2018). Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Levels of Pre-Service Teachers of E. P. College of Education, Bimbilla-Ghana. Journal of Education and Practice, 9(23), 108-119. Sinwell, B. J. (2017). Formative Assessment Strategies for Mathematical Thinking: A Qualitative Action Research Study [Doctoral dissertation, University of South Carolina]. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4112 Soares, L. (2012). A 'Disruptive' Look at Competency-Based Education How the Innovative Use of Technology Will Transform the College Experience. Center for American Progress. Tall, D. (2002). The Psychology of Advanced Mathematical Thinking. In D. Tall ( Ed.), Advanced Mathematical Thinking (pp. 3-24). Kluwer Academic Publishers. Teppo, A. (1991). The Van Hiele levels of geometric thought revisited. The Mathematics teacher, 84(3), 210-221. https://doi.org/10.5951/mt.84.3.0210 Tesch, A. (2016). Implementing pre-post test designs in higher education evaluations. New Directions for Evaluation, 2016(151), 85-96. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.20195 Van Hiele, P. M. (1986). Structure and Insight. A theory of Mathematics Education. Academic Press Inc. Vojkuvkova, I. (2012). The Van Hiele Model of Geometric Thinking WDS'12 Proceedings of Contributed Papers, Part I, 72–75.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Appendix 1 (Post-test questions) ASSESSMENT TASK STRAIGHT-LINE EQUATIONS VAN TO HIGH SCHOOL CLASS:_______ DATE:___/___/2021 QUESTIONS (Students' part) 1. Match each of the following figures with an appropriate box: (5 points)

Normal Slope of a line vector of a line 2. Match each of the following boxes with an appropriate box below: (5 points) Direction vector of a line

𝑦 = −2𝑥 + 3

𝑥 = 2 + 3𝑡 { 𝑦 =4−𝑡

2𝑥 + 𝑦 − 1 = 0

General Slope-intercept equation of a equation of a line line 3. Group the following vectors and define the similar characteristics of the vectors in each group. (10 points) Parametric equation of a line

Group 1: _______________________________________________________ Characteristics: _________________________________________________ Group 2: _______________________________________________________ Characteristics: _________________________________________________

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

(2 points) (3 points) (2 points) (3 points)

4. Complete the following table: (35 points) 𝑥 = 2 + 3𝑡 𝑦 =4−𝑡

Line

𝑑1 : 𝑦 = −2𝑥 + 3

Slope 𝑘

(1 point)

(2 points)

Direction vector

(2 points)

(1 point)

(2 points)

Normal vector

(2 points)

(1 point)

Coordinates of a point on the line

(2 points)

(1 point)

(2 points)

Parametric equation of 𝑑1

(5 points)

General equation of 𝑑2

(5 points)

Slope-intercept equation of 𝑑3

𝑑2 : {

𝑑3 : 2𝑥 + 𝑦 − 1 = 0

(5 points)

5. From the results of task 4 determine the relative positions between the following lines: (20 points) a) 𝑑1 and 𝑑2 : (5 points) (Strategy: 2 points, Calculation: 2 points, Conclusion: 1 point) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ b) 𝑑1 and 𝑑3 : (5 points) (Strategy: 2 points, Calculation: 2 points, Conclusion: 1 point) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ c) Use the previous results to infer a conclusion about the relative position between 𝑑2 and 𝑑3 : (10 points) (Reasoning: 10 points; In case student solves by calculation: 3 points) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 6. Given 𝑑1 : 𝑦 = 𝑘1 𝑥 + 𝑚1 and 𝑑2 : 𝑦 = 𝑘2 𝑥 + 𝑚2 , 𝑘1 , 𝑘2 ≠ 0. Prove that 𝑘1 = 𝑘2 if these lines are parallel. Is there any other proof? If yes, provide these proofs. (15 points) (Proof: 10 points, Other proofs: 5 points) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 7. The slope of a line has a close relationship with the concept of slope in practice. Steep sections of roads or bridges often cause difficulties for roadsters. Thus, in construction, if we want to reduce the slope of a road or a bridge, what strategies can we use? Apply the knowledge of the slope of a line to answer the question.

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

(10 points) (Strategies: 5 points, Associating with the knowledge of the slope of a line: 5 points) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ - The end RESULTS (Teacher’s part) Question

Mark

Level

Level 1: Visualization

Level 2: Analysis

Level 2: Analysis (10 points) Level 3: Informal deduction (25 points) Level 3: Informal deduction

Level 4: Formal deduction

Level 5: Rigor

Total: 7

Total: 100 points

Total: 5 levels

STUDENT’S CODE:____________________________________________________ Question 1: ____________________________________________________________ Question 2: ____________________________________________________________ Question 3: ____________________________________________________________ Question 4: ____________________________________________________________ Question 5: ____________________________________________________________ Question 6: ____________________________________________________________ Question 7: ___________________________________________________________ Other results: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 66-87, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.4

Exploring Effective Practices in Managing Distance Learning for Teaching Art and Design in Bahrain Sama’a Al Hashimi University of Bahrain, Sakheer, Kingdom of Bahrain https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4355-8699

Abstract. As universities move to virtual learning, the need to explore the most effective practices for remotely teaching art and design students became very critical. It is very important to examine the strategies universities are using to efficiently transfer skills and knowledge and meet the needs of students through an online learning environment. Art and design classes involve hands-on activities and requirements that cannot easily be met in digital environments. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the creative approaches that art and design educators adopted to transition to remote teaching. The study involved conducting an online focus group with eleven art and design educators at The University of Bahrain to investigate the experiences, perceptions, and the challenges they faced while teaching art and design remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The focus group engaged the educators in a semistructured discussion in order to gather qualitative data that would allow for a descriptive analysis of their online teaching experiences and the most effective approaches they implemented. Thus, the study is undertaken to determine the most effective practices that can be employed by educators to engage students and enhance the distance learning process in an art and design online environment. The findings suggested that the main challenges that are peculiar to art and design distance learning include difficulty in clearly seeing the value of the colors in a student’s artwork on screen and the unavailability of features that support art and design remote teaching in the currently available learning management systems. Keywords: distance learning; remote learning; art; design; Covid-19; Bahrain

1. Introduction Although the challenges and experiences posed by the shift to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic vary widely across countries (Rasheed et al., 2020), disciplines, and universities, these challenges call for a fundamental rethinking of art and design education. For art and design educators, one-to-one interaction ©Author This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

with students while they paint or design has always been essential to artmaking and teaching. Therefore, they may consider distance learning a transformative challenge without prior guidelines to inform their pedagogical practices. These educators have had to swiftly redesign, plan, and prepare their digital course content and experiment with various approaches to figure out how to mitigate learning loss and make remote learning work successfully for art and design education. As the pandemic has taken its course, several educational needs, challenges, and opportunities emerged for educators and students as they struggled to deal with some conceptual and artistic limits that the online environment imposed (Dilmaç, 2020; Tusiime et al., 2020). In light of this transformation and all its consequent challenges, Meyer and Norman (2020) urged design educators to “modify design pedagogy to accommodate the many different styles and goals of 21st century design” (p.22). Hence, the main objective of this research is to analyze these challenges, needs, and opportunities and explore the most effective adaptive practices to facilitate and boost students’ engagement, motivation, and participation during online learning in a virtual art and design classroom. In the Kingdom of Bahrain, the implementation of distance learning in art and design higher education revealed several opportunities as well as challenges to universities, educators, and students. Fortunately, the basic foundations of distance learning exist in the Kingdom of Bahrain due to its robust technological infrastructure, which led many educational institutions to successfully face the crisis, transition to e-learning, and maintain the continuation of teaching. Nevertheless, art and design education in particular usually requires face-to-face and one-to-one interaction due to the nature of the hands-on activities and artworks it involves. Trying to teach fine arts remotely, for instance, posed some challenges to art instructors and their students. Among the challenges that may have intensified during remote learning is getting students to participate and interact through the online platform. According to Mukuna and Aloka (2020) distance learning does not effectively allow for the affective interaction offered through face-to-face interaction. Digital platforms may create a communication and interaction barrier between art educators and students by making it hard for the educator to give feedback by pointing at certain elements on the students’ canvases while they paint. Moreover, students may not know when to talk or express their opinions. For a discipline that involves artistic taste and requires aesthetic appreciation, students cannot visually determine, through body language and facial expressions, whether the instructor appreciates their artwork or not. Additionally, online discussions and presentations of artistic and graphic artworks, which are usually of a large file size, are often hindered by difficulties in students’ access to technology and by technical issues and concerns. As a result, despite the universities’ provision of the latest online educational platforms (such as Microsoft Teams and Blackboard), many educators may have to ask students to submit work over other channels such as google drive or email. This can also exacerbate if the educator lacks competency in using technology (Öçal et al., 2021), and lacks digital literacy or the ability to use distance learning technologies including learning management systems (LMS), massive open

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

online courses (MOOCs), and other e-resources (Tabieh et al., 2021). This incompetency is considered an intrinsic challenge by Tusiime et al. (2020) who categorize the challenges that art and design educators face with distance education into intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, where intrinsic challenges relate to the educator while extrinsic challenges relate to the educational institution. In some cases, the incompetency may be due to resistance to the use of digital technologies by some educators who may not consider technology to be part of their fundamental teaching roles and goals (Tusiime et al., 2020). Consequently, some questions surfaced with regards to several issues. Among them is the extent to which educators were ready and had the necessary resources to implement new strategies to teach art remotely. A study by Lapada et al. (2020), for instance, revealed a strong correlation between readiness for distance teaching and the length of teaching experience in addition to the specialization. Tusiime et al. (2020) confirmed the connection between the educators’ specialization and their readiness for embracing technology in their pedagogical practices. They stated that some art teachers believe that technology is not compatible with art education and that it led to more opportunities for students to replicate art or to become reluctant to use their hands to draw. They also stated that the lack of competency may also be related to age as well as to the lack of time to learn and acquire digital skills, suggesting that higher educational institutions must give educators more time for professional development. According to Kini-Singh (2020), “Teachers across the world especially in the creative arts have found teaching online to be more work, requiring greater preparation and mental effort than in-person, classroom teaching” (p. 10). In addition, technical problems and lack of support to resolve them may discourage educators from employing digital tools in their pedagogical practices (Tusiime et al., 2020). Additional issues and questions revolved around the extent of students’ readiness and acceptance to learn art and design through distance learning, and the possibility of verifying that the artworks submitted are actually painted or designed by the students. Many other questions were also raised to explore which teaching and assessment approaches can be modified and adapted for remote learning, and which ones are less likely to be modified. In order to find answers to the above-mentioned questions and to investigate the challenges and opportunities that remote learning uncovered during this crisis, focus group discussions with academics at The University of Bahrain were conducted to gather data for this research. 1.1 Research Problem and Significance Considering the exceptional circumstances that the world has gone through since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, remote education methods have been adopted by all educational institutions and at all educational levels in Bahrain. The main goals were to preserve the health and safety of citizens, to invest in and utilize all possible resources and digital platforms, and not to miss any opportunity to maintain the continuation of teaching and learning. However, because there was no time to predict or plan the crisis and its consequences on education, educators had to swiftly transition to online teaching without a

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

common vision and systematic research-based guidelines and recommendations for this type of education (Kini-Singh, 2020). The implementation of distance learning in teaching art and design, especially fine art courses has posed several challenges due to its reliance on hands-on art-making activities and projects (Fleischmann, 2020), which require face-to-face interaction, continuous verbal feedback, and visual appreciation by the educator who is expected to guide, advise, and assess the students simultaneously while they paint or design. Many educators and students explored and experimented with a variety of approaches, tools, and innovative practices in an attempt to overcome these challenges (Meyer and Norman, 2020). These explorations may have led to successful experiences, outcomes, or at least potential opportunities. In order to ensure the success of teaching art and design remotely in Bahrain, this paper aims to identify and understand the educators’ challenges, needs, experiences, and opportunities in an attempt to inform future practice and professional development. 1.2 Research Questions 1) What are the most inventive and effective pedagogical practices that art and design educators can employ to successfully integrate information technology in education in order to remotely teach art and design? 2) What are the positive and negative outcomes of remotely teaching art and design to higher education students in Bahrain? 3) What are educators’ challenges, perceptions, and experiences with distance education in art and design higher education contexts? 1.3 Research Objectives 1) To examine international successful models and best practices of remote learning in art and design educational contexts 2) To examine art and design educators’ experiences, challenges, and perceptions of teaching art and design virtually 3) To provide a set of recommendations that may inspire the creative and effective use of pedagogical practices and strategies by educators to guide their endeavors to remotely teach art and design

2. Literature Review: An Exploration of International Practices, Approaches, and Technologies of Online Learning in Art and Design Education The coronavirus pandemic has started reconfiguring the teaching and learning process (Mukuna & Aloka, 2020) and reshaping art and design education, and changing how students are educated (Muftahu, 2020; Nili et al., 2017; Reimers & Schleicher, 2020). Although the crisis necessitated a hasty transition to e-learning (Kini-Singh, 2020), the solutions that educators around the world have explored and proposed for effective teaching could bring much-needed creativity and innovation (Li et al., 2021). Therefore, exploring the opportunities and full potential of online learning in art and design education in this section is as important as examining the challenges and limitations. Many art and design educators are endeavoring to find and learn ways to transition their hands-on teaching of studio-based art to online platforms (Fleischmann, 2020; Kini-Singh, 2020). They are expected to redesign their courses

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

and reinvent their pedagogical and assessment approaches (Hassan, 2021) while also trying to minimize or at least understand the challenges that students are facing, such as technical problems and internet access difficulties (Sharma & Bumb, 2021). According to Pomerantz (as cited in Dancewicz, 2020), shifting classes to online platforms requires educators to rewrite or modify syllabi, learn new technology, use their own devices and data plans, and cater to the diverse needs of their students. Pomerantz (2020) suggested that all these efforts are exerted by educators without clear guidelines or extra payment; “Art educators are still troubleshooting questions about how to work with students remotely in real-time, and the challenge is opening up existential questions about art as much as logistical ones. These are profound dilemmas that students and instructors are being forced to confront on the spot, and under immense stress: professional, financial, and healthrelated.” (Pomerantz, 2020, para. 4) Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, art and design educators around the world have explored and applied several approaches to keep students learning while they transition to learning remotely. Their endeavors were experimental as there are hardly any studies that offer suggestions and guidelines for online and blended art and design learning. Many of these educators realized the importance of cooperation and exchanging knowledge about what educational institutions, communities, and countries are currently doing to mitigate the educational impact of the pandemic. Therefore, they attempted to get information, guidance, and post and share their experiences online through blogs, podcasts, Facebook groups, and social media platforms. Some of the professional online resources, tools, platforms, and learning management systems (LMS) that have been and may continue to be effective in helping educators remotely communicate with students and improve their online teaching skills are listed in Tables 1 and 2. The purpose of these tables is to support such process of exchange of experiences and knowledge. Table 1. Art and design remote teaching resources and tools Name YouTube (Windows Workspace)

Ink

Link https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=9xIF7INlK0k

YouTube (How to Write or Draw anything on your Computer Screen)

https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=gmt0029LHSQ

Plaghunter

https://www.plaghunter.c om/en/

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Description Window ink workspace is a tool in windows 10 which instructors can use to draw on screen or screenshot, create sticky notes, or just make quick sketches. This video is important for educators who want to make a tutorial. It teaches them how to write or draw anything anywhere on their computer screen. Plaghunter is an image plagiarism website used for professionals and educators in the visual arts field.

Name Adobe Education Exchange

Link https://edex.adobe.com/cr eativity-in-education

Skill Share

https://www.skillshare.co m/ https://www.coursera.org /courses?query=free

Free Courses

Online

edWeb

https://home.edweb.net/

Udemy Netcom Learning

Microsoft Education Centre

https://udemy.com/ https://www.netcomlearni ng.com/ https://www.khanacadem y.org/ https://www.youtube.com /GDGMENA https://education.microsof t.com/en-us

Masar

https://masar-edu.com/

Adobe Max 2020 Creativity Conference K12 Distance Learning Resources for COVID-19 Pandemic + PDF TED Ed

http://max.adobe.com

Applied HE

www.appliedhe.com

Lynda.com

ww.lynda.com

Khan Academy GDG MENA

https://pikmykid.com/dist ance-learning-resources/

www.ed.ted.com

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Description The Adobe Education Exchange is a free learning platform and community, designed by educators for educators, to ignite creativity in the classroom. It includes teaching resources by grade level and subject areas. Learning Platform Free Online Universities

Courses

from

Top

A free professional learning network for the education community Various online courses Learning information platform Free online courses, lessons, and practice worksheets A platform developed for MENA educators’ support and information Microsoft Education Centre is designed for all educators in all fields and levels to access various courses and resources within every educational or training field. A platform for teaching creative technology A platform that helps in building skills in design, video, photography, illustration Distance learning resources

TED-Ed is an awardwinning education platform that aims to spark and celebrate the ideas and knowledge-sharing of teachers and students around the world. AppliedHE™ Pte Ltd is a Singaporebased organization that provides research and strategic communication services for the graduate recruitment and higher education sectors. Lynda.com is a leading online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology, and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals.

Name Udacity

Link www.udacity.com

Google Teach from Home

https://teachfromanywher e.google/intl/en/

LinkedIn Learning

www.learning.linkedin.co m

Description Udacity is an online education provider that offers online courses, popularly known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It offers a micro-credential called Nanodegree. A hub providing information, tips, training, and tools to help students and educators in remote teaching and learning LinkedIn Learning is an on-demand library of instructional videos covering the latest business, technology, and creative skills.

Table 2. Effective platforms, applications, and tools for remotely teaching art and design Name Google Classroom

Link www.classroom.google .com

Zoom

www.zoom.us

Moodle

www.moodle.org

Schoology

www.schoology.com

Kadenze

www.kadenze.com

Remind

www.remind.com

Class Dojo

www.classdojo.com

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Description Google Classroom is a free web-based platform that integrates the user’s G Suite for an education account with all G Suite services, including Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar. It allows users to create classes, distribute assignments, communicate, and stay organized. Zoom provides videotelephony and online chat services through cloud-based peer-topeer software and is used for teleconferencing, telecommuting, distance education, and social relations. Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) that supports learning and training needs for a wide range of institutions across the globe. Schoology is a virtual learning environment and social networking service that allows users to create, manage, and share academic content. Kadenze is a massive open online course provider that offers courses in art, music, and creative technology. Remind is a communication platform that helps educators reach students and parents by allowing them to send messages to an entire class, a small group, or just a single student. ClassDojo is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families use to build communities and share the classroom content.

Name Web Paint

Link https://web-paint.com

Screencastify

www.screencastify.com

Seasaw

www.web.seesaw.me

Flipgrid

www.flipgrid.com

Adobe Spark

www.spark.adobe.com

Description Web Paint is a Chrome extension that provides effective tools to draw, add text, and annotate on live web pages. Screencastify is a free Chrome extension that allows the user to record, edit, and share videos. Seesaw is a platform that allows students to take pictures, draw, record videos, and more to capture learning in a portfolio. It also allows teachers to find or create activities to share with students. Flipgrid is a video response platform where educators can have online video discussions and feedback with students or other educators. Students can also provide feedback to one another. Adobe Spark is an integrated suite of media creation applications for mobile and web developed by Adobe Systems. It includes three design apps: Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video.

In addition to all the above-listed platforms and tools, Google in collaboration with UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies launched “Teach from Home”, which is a hub of resources and tools to assist educators during the coronavirus pandemic. The resources, tools, and tips help educators learn how to teach and communicate with students remotely and how to collaborate with other educators (Li, 2020). Some researchers believe that social distancing and the limitations in the ability to meet in the classroom during the pandemic “will likely limit opportunities for students to learn” (Daniel, 2020). Other researchers believe that online learning created many opportunities and led to various advantages including “easy accessibility, cost-effectiveness, personalized learning, development of cognitive abilities, prompting computer skills, developing self-pacing, and accessing globalization” (Mukuna & Aloka, 2020, p.136). Although art and design educators have been struggling to emulate their hands-on face-to-face teaching experiences and many of them struggled to overcome the limitations of virtual environments, there is no doubt that these virtual environments have offered a wide range of online activities and opportunities (Ferri et al., 2020). If utilized innovatively and wisely, these online platforms and tools can help educators design experiences and create opportunities that were not possible through face-to-face conventional teaching. Virtual environments allow for a variety of activities that can augment the learning experience. These activities include the following: blogging and vlogging, collaborative writing or story-making, content production, discussion forums, e-portfolios, gamification, mind-mapping, multimedia presentations, online drawing and sketching, video chatting and conferencing, video production and sharing, virtual galleries, using anti-plagiarism tools, online assessment, surveys, and webinars (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2020). Another

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

opportunity that was not possible through face-to-face teaching is asynchronous learning which allows teachers to record their lectures. This allows learners to learn at their own pace, and to access the educational material whenever they need it at any time and place. Thus, students sometimes learn asynchronously and/or synchronously and collaboratively at the same time with other online learners. Moreover, distance learning allows for the interaction between the educator and students, and also among the students through chat and instant messaging, or audio and video meetings, which helps with continuous follow-up and personalization of the whole learning experience. As a result, with all its audio-visual resources, illustrations, and animations, distance education has transformed the learning experience into a more interactive one accompanied by visual and audio effects that make the “static” educational process more attractive and engaging. Online platforms also opened for art and design students further opportunities such as exhibiting their designs and artworks in virtual galleries and sharing content and discussion with wider audiences across the world. There are several websites and applications that allow students to create online art galleries, virtual exhibitions, and 3D tours. These include Kuula (https://kuula.co/), Kunstmatrix Art.Spaces (https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en), deviantArt (https://www.deviantart.com/), and 3D Vista (https://www.3dvista.com/). In addition to the aforementioned platforms, Adobe Captivate (https://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html#x) allows for the creation of virtual reality walkthroughs. Fotaris et al. (2015) conducted a study that explores the use of deviantArt, an online art gallery platform, as an online teaching platform for a postgraduate course in Graphic Design at the Hellenic Open University. The study revealed that the online teaching experience had an impact on enhancing learning and motivating design students to propose ideas, collaborate and communicate. This online experience revealed some advantages; it allowed the creation of online portfolios for public exposure; it assisted students in overcoming their fear of public exposure; it facilitated social interaction and communication among students and the public; it strengthened the university's online presence in the design community; it facilitated and encouraged peer-reviewing and peerfeedback, thus allowing students to reflect on their practice. Other opportunities and advantages of teaching art and design remotely include the creation of breakout groups which allows for teamwork and informal gatherings of a team of students to work collaboratively and discuss design problems during studio hours. Breakout groups also allow for peer review, which encourages social interaction among students and enhances their engagement in collaborative problem-solving (Fotaris et al., 2015). Moreover, panels that judge students’ artworks or graduation projects may consist of geographically distributed experts and lecturers. In addition, the possibility of asynchronous communication through online learning increases the flexibility of instructors’ work schedules. Despite all the aforementioned advantages, Fotaris et al. (2015) stated the following disadvantages:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

“[…] as the size of virtual classes tends to be larger than that of the physical ones and written communication tends to be more timeconsuming than its oral counterpart, the large amount of data they are required to process and the amount of feedback they must generate increase their workload [31]. […]. A further issue to consider is the manner in which a reliance on asynchronous communication may affect students: since feedback from both tutors and peers may no longer be immediate, the development of subsequent drafts may stall or temporarily continue in the absence of feedback [32]. This issue may be compounded by a reduced overall engagement with the peer group due to” “assessors of online portfolios do not always have the opportunity to see the student’s complete portfolio at a glance.” (Fotaris et al., 2015, p.5) Other advantages that Fotaris et al. (2015) found include issues that may negatively affect assessment and the evaluation process. They stressed that in a virtual environment, the designs and artworks are often viewed in sequence and “cannot be easily cross-referenced”. Moreover, in contrast to the high-resolution designs and artworks submitted and displayed in a hardcopy format to the instructor in a face-to-face setting, digital images usually have low-resolution and unclear details. Fotaris et al. (2015) also believe that the process of designing digital drafts of any design idea or concept is more time-consuming than spontaneously hand-drawing sketches of the idea. Consequently, the process of brainstorming, which is hindered or limited by time constraints associated with the use of software to create sketches, may be less productive. It may lead to more superficial ideas in comparison to the ideas generated during face-to-face brainstorming and sketching. Additionally, instructors usually complain that teaching online can be more demanding and time-consuming than teaching faceto-face and that it considerably increased their workload (Fotaris et al., 2015). Thus, teachers may face significant challenges as they may feel fatigue and stress due to the rapid professional development that they have to undergo while teaching remotely and the overwhelming exposure to a variety of platforms and technical issues (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2020). However, reduced academic and administrative load can help educators transition more easily. According to Alea et al. (2020), the challenges that educators face and their readiness to distance learning education vary from one educator to another depending on gender, length of teaching experience, and geographic location. The above challenges and disadvantages led some researchers (Fotaris et al., 2015) to emphasize the advantages of face-to-face learning and stress the difference between it and online learning as follows: “The design studio differs from the typical classroom by being primarily a space for production, personal discussions, and experimentation with materials and tools, which takes places in a setting replete with drawing boards, work-benches, stools, papers, images, models, as well as other teaching aids (Fotaris et al., 2015). In this setting, students develop sensitivities to a number of fundamental yet volatile elements of design education such as problem-based learning, teamwork, sensitivity to market opportunities, and the ability to generate innovation while they create, exhibit, and discuss their work with their peers (Fotaris et al.,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

2015). The emphasis on this kind of communication and cooperation constitutes the main feature that distinguishes this particular environment from that of a classroom or lecture theatre.” (Fotaris et al., 2015, p.2) For the above-listed reasons, Fotaris et al. (2015) believe that there is currently no virtual teaching platform or environment that can replicate the design studio experience. They also state that existing platforms do not recognize social engagement as a vital element to the overall learning experience. A previous study by Baker et al. (2016) about art educators’ perceptions of elearning revealed “dissonance between eLearning and the nature of Arts education, negatively perceived reasons for teaching education in an eLearning mode, and some expressions of positive experiences in this space.” The study investigated the perceptions of academics from sixteen Australian universities and explored their experiences and attitudes towards teaching Arts in an eLearning mode. The academics who participated in the study expressed the belief that e-learning complements and does not replace face-to-face learning (Baker et al., 2016). On the other hand, Li and Lalani (2020) suggest that learning online can be as effective or even more effective than face-to-face learning as they stated the following in an article published by the World Economic Forum; “For those who do have access to the right technology, there is evidence that learning online can be more effective in a number of ways. Some research shows that on average, students retain 25-60% more material when learning online compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online; e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.” (Li & Lalani, 2020, para. 15). Li and Lalani (2020) believe that the pandemic has disrupted an education system that was already losing its relevance due to focus on traditional academic skills rather than on critical thinking skills, which are considered more important for success in today’s market. They suggest that the move to e-learning may be the catalyst to create a new, more effective approach to education. Unlike Li and Lalani, the perception of the effectiveness of e-learning by Fotaris, et al. (2015) is conditional and depends on the level and extent of familiarity of the educators and students with ICT, as well as on the way a number of additional issues are dealt with and addressed; “These include the high cost of computing equipment, the need for constant upgrades and technical support, the occasional lack of compatibility between different applications, the potential unreliability of a large number of online sources, etc. The evaluation stage has the potential to prove particularly problematic, as the interaction between participants may fail to match the richness and immediacy available in the traditional design studio due to limited screen resolution, insufficient bandwidth, and - most importantly - the psychological and practical

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

constraints imposed by virtual communication.” (Fotaris, et al., 2015: p.6). Nevertheless, e-learning can be effective if educators follow productive guidelines such as the guidelines which were recommended by the International Baccalaureate Organization (2020) to design and evaluate online work. These recommendations advised educators to use more collaborative projects and formative assessments that are designed to get students to collaborate and work in teams. It is also advisable to encourage students as well as educators to utilize online resources and tools. Educators, for instance, may consider using MOOCs (massive open online courses), which make content reachable for everyone and allow students to access complete courses offered by world-renowned universities (Haba & Dastane, 2019). The use of plagiarism checkers is also recommended as it can help educators automatically check students’ submissions. Another recommendation is to design assignments and assessed content that encourage students to embed their experiences and surrounding into their designs or artworks.

3. Method 3.1 Research Design and Participants In this study, a qualitative approach was adopted by employing and conducting an online focus group through Microsoft Teams with a purposive sample of five Fine Arts and six Graphic Design instructors (N=11, seven males and four females) in the BA Art and Design program at the University of Bahrain. The participants were selected using purposive sampling as they were teaching at the University of Bahrain during the second semester of the academic year 2020-2021 when the study was conducted. Their experiences were considered relevant to enable comparison between pre-COVID and COVID-19 teaching experiences. The participants’ higher education teaching experience ranged from 1 to 21 years. Focus groups are a method of collecting research data through informal group discussions on a specific topic, which allow participants to discuss, agree, and disagree with each other’s opinions (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020). This qualitative approach was adopted because it was applicable to the study as it allows for interaction and generating discussion between participants in order to collect qualitative data around specific issues (Flynn et al., 2018). It also allows for observation of “group dynamics and levels of consensus and to gather information on contextual factors” (Flynn et al., 2018, p. 2). Thus, for our research purpose, the focus group was a relevant data collection method to capture educators’ insights about the online teaching experience through writing field notes and observations regarding their experiences before coding these experiences using qualitative content analysis. 3.2 Data Collection Instruments The focus group, which was held for four hours divided into two sessions over two weeks, involved a discussion that was based on open-ended questions aimed to assess the following main themes: educators’ emerging educational needs, experiences, implementation challenges, and evolving teaching and assessment approaches. These themes were generated through reviewing all the research

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

questions and objectives to identify the broad reasons behind the study. The focus group discussion was recorded in Microsoft Teams and then transcribed. Using Microsoft Teams allowed for collecting data and writing field notes in real-time, while observing the interaction among the participants (Flynn et al., 2018). Keywords and recurring ideas by the participants were identified to draw comparisons and conclusions. Data collection also involved note-taking and participant observation, which yielded qualitative results and observational data. This study was completed over a one-semester period. The findings were shared with the participants to validate the results, and consent forms were signed by all of them to indicate their approval to participate and to allow their names to be used in this study.

4. Findings: An Evaluation of Educators' Experiences, Challenges, and Perceptions of Distance Education in Art and Design This section presents a critical review and evaluation of the educators’ experiences of online education in art and design based upon the focus groups and the qualitative analysis of collected data. The focus group involved a discussion about the challenges created by the transition to online learning, about the educators’ responses to those challenges, and about resources that they attempted to use to advance education through effective and alternative tools, approaches, and means. All discussions in the focus group were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed. Art and design professors were questioned about their experiences and the challenges they faced during the second semester of the academic year 2020-2021 and their perceptions of teaching virtually. The discussion also revolved around the most appropriate means of evaluating student learning outcomes, skills, knowledge, and competencies acquired through the virtual learning environment. Since its transition to distance education, the University of Bahrain (UOB) has kept pace with other prestigious universities in terms of providing the latest technologies and the best online platforms and learning management systems (LMS). Over the first nine months of the pandemic, UOB has offered virtual workshops to its professors to train them on the use of Blackboard Ultra and Microsoft Teams. Instructors and students were able to access the platforms via their personal computers as well as their mobile phones. The aim of the focus group was to exchange experiences, strategies, and innovative solutions that the professors have employed to teach art and design remotely. 4.1 Educators’ Challenges and Experiences of Online Education in Art and Design Dr. Jameela Sadoun stated that in her experience of teaching topics of a fully practical nature that require special skills (such as studio art) there were clear limitations in comparison to other topics. She added that art professors have used a variety of educational methods in the past, but they mostly adhered to the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

traditional face-to-face approach especially while teaching studio courses that heavily relied on assessing the individual skills of students while developing the artwork. In such courses, teachers have to observe the student's work in a true form which can only be done accurately with the naked eye. For this reason, elearning was used modestly in this field prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The safety and health procedures brought on by the pandemic, including the use of remote education, created many difficulties for teachers of practice-based courses. According to Dr. Sadoun, assessing students’ artworks remotely is quite challenging as it highly depends on the clarity of the image, angle of photography, and the lighting source. She emphasized that “providing feedback” remotely is a significant challenge faced by fine arts professors and that students typically provide several sketches for the same topic to demonstrate their skills. This places additional pressure on the professors to provide accurate and insightful feedback on a large number of sketches based on remote observations. Despite all the challenges, Dr. Sadoun believes that using remote learning for an extended period of time will eventually force all participants to adapt and learn to utilize this new way of teaching in a more effective manner which will positively reflect on the learning outcomes. Most of the educators did face issues with remote teaching. Thus, the focus group helped these educators exchange their teaching challenges, brainstorm possible remedies, and provide emotional and technical support to each other. In the case of Mr. Shah, he highlighted recurring technical issues faced by some students and how he came up with creative solutions for them. Some students were not able to hear the lecture online. A group of those eventually managed to fix the problem by changing the microphone or changing the technical settings. Others resorted to watching the live-streamed lecture without sound, and afterward watching the recorded lecture in order to hear the instructor’s voice clearly. Mr. Shah tried to assist the students by searching for tutorial videos on YouTube that discuss how to troubleshoot various technical issues on Blackboard. Another problem highlighted by Mr. Shah relates to assignment submissions. After submitting their assignments, some students discovered that the instructor did not receive them. As a solution, the instructor agreed to send confirmation emails to the students within one day of submission. Students who do not receive a confirmation email have to resubmit the assignment or contact IT support in order to resolve the issue. In another example, Mr. Shah taught a practical course about color separation and print design which involved a hands-on approach to do lithography printing. The instructor was worried about the possibility of plagiarism. He feared that some students might download artwork from the internet and submit it. His approach was to require all students to submit a time-lapse video recording while performing all the steps until the final artwork is developed. These time-lapse videos turned out to be a good collection for the students’ portfolios. Mr. Shah also noted that online teaching allowed him to focus on lecturing without needing to move around the class from one student to another. Despite the obvious ease of teaching in this manner, there is also an inherent drawback. The instructor

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

cannot determine if the students are paying attention and following his step-bystep instructions. His strategy was to regularly ask students whether they understood his instructions or not. Every ten minutes Mr. Shah would pick a random student to share his/her screen with the rest of the class and repeat the last steps performed by the instructor. This approach ensures that students interact with the instructor and thus have a better chance of understanding the course content. Mr. Bin Mukhtar stressed that using online teaching for animation or design presents a new set of challenges including the risk of plagiarism. However, while teaching the “Portfolio Development” course, he faced a unique problem. This course requires him to conduct mock job interviews with students and to give them one-to-one feedback. This resulted in prolonging the duration of the class well beyond the specified timing. Students resorted to one of the built-in features in MS Teams which is the ability to record interviews and watch them at a later time. This allowed them to observe their own behavior and conduct selfevaluation on their performance during these interview sessions. These recordings can be accessed by the students and also by the instructor, hence facilitating the assessment process. Mr. Bin Mukhtar utilized the recording feature in MS Teams in a different way. He recorded 30-minute tutorials before the class starts and uploaded them to MS Teams. Students started watching the pre-recorded videos before the lecture. He stated, “During the lecture, I would repeat the same content that was in the pre-recorded video, but the difference is that during the lecture the students can stop me and ask me at any time.” Another challenge that Mr.Bin Mukhtar’s graphic design students faced is that their internship had to be done online instead of through personal attendance in a design agency. He stated that some agencies requested students who wish to do their internships online to complete more working hours than what they would normally complete if they would work in the office. 4.2 Educators’ Strategies and Suggestions to Overcome the Challenges of Online Education in Art and Design Despite all the challenges they encountered, the educators employed or at least suggested effective strategies to deal with their difficulties. For instance, in order to overcome the above-mentioned problem with internships, Dr. Abuelinin suggested giving students elective courses that test their skills as a replacement for internships. Moreover, Dr. Abuelinin suggested a number of recommendations that can facilitate online teaching of art and design; All students need to be prepared to open their cameras and share their screens if required. The IT Department needs to make technical support readily available to help students install software and handle technical issues. Graphic design students tend to use a lot of software such as 3D Max, Maya, and Adobe After Effects. This places additional pressure on the ICT support team. They might even resort to using remote-access software to resolve technical issues directly on the students’ devices (after taking their permission). Dr. Abuelinin believes that Blackboard has clear limitations when it comes to art and design students. It does not allow graphic design students to upload large graphic files. In comparison, Moodle has some features that are more suitable to

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

the needs of art and design students, including cloud storage that is better suited to saving large files. A cloud-based system is a much better option than the university server when it comes to uploading larger design files and materials. Dr. Abuelinin, suggests adding cloud-based features to Blackboard or replacing it with a cloud-centric platform. Meanwhile, he managed to overcome these limitations by utilizing Google Drive for large-file transfers. He also mentioned that it is not easy to create a duplicate of course materials on Blackboard in order to customize them for another section of each class. In the case of Dr. Sadoun, she tried to overcome the challenges she faced in online teaching by learning how to perform video editing. She wanted to make concise and brief video tutorials. This requires a fair bit of knowledge of video-editing techniques. She felt that “as an art teacher" she should not need to address such “technical matters”, which ultimately hinder her ability to properly communicate with students. Dr. Sadoun also expressed her frustration with another aspect of online teaching. She is looking for a tool or plugin that would allow her to virtually draw on her students’ paintings or sketches during live online classes. Currently, she asks students to upload images of their sketches, which she would then take time to download before opening them in a photo-editing program to draw on top of them using the Wacom pen. This workaround is very timeconsuming and limits her ability to give feedback in a timely effective manner. Dr. Sadoun believes there are digital tools and applications that facilitate giving remote feedback to art students to show them how to enhance certain aspects of their work such as proportion, lighting, shading, and anatomy. Dr. Abulainin, who faced similar challenges in video editing, recommends the use of Microsoft Video Maker as an easy solution for art teachers to edit their videos. He also recommends conducting e-learning content development workshops for educators to teach them how to create, develop, and edit e-learning content and applications rather than only concentrating on workshops that aim to teach educators how to use LMS. Dr. Al Abed, who also teaches fine arts courses, agreed with Dr. Sadoun in stressing the difficulty of giving remote feedback to students, for example, feedback relating to the warmth or coldness of the colors in a painting. They both had cases where students insist that the colors, in reality, have a different value or are warmer or colder than the way they appear on the screen. In these cases, instructors can become confused and unable to precisely and confidently give the feedback that their students require. Ms. Al Mahdi, who teaches graphic design courses, faced both technical and also social challenges. She found it difficult to teach students without knowing how they look like, without associating a face with the name, and without having faceto-face interactions with them. Her solution was to ask students to film a short video in which they introduce themselves to her and the other students. On the technical front, Ms. Al Mahdi was frustrated with the Blackboard platform because it does not display the lecture recordings immediately for students who missed the start of the lecture and wish to catch up in real-time. The platform

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

takes some time for the videos to be uploaded and displayed on the recorded session’s page. Despite such challenges, she believes that online learning does present certain benefits such as eliminating any wastage in commute time. Working and learning from home helped students gain more time and this led to better learning outcomes and an improvement in the quality of their projects. In her opinion, such benefits offset the risk of cheating by some students who receive assistance from professional designers or painters in preparing their art projects. This concern was reiterated by many other educators. Their recommendation to minimize the chances of cheating is to ask students to switch their cameras on while painting or designing during the lecture or to ask students to submit a timelapse video that displays the various stages of their project work. A creative strategy adopted by Ms. Al Mahdi was to challenge students to complete their artwork within a time limit. This led to higher levels of interaction with students and ensured that they remain in front of the screen during the lecture. Despite all the stated challenges, most of the instructors agreed that there are some advantages to online education. Dr. Sadoun thinks that the improved learning outcomes she noticed in her students might be due to the availability of the lecture recordings, which allow students to go back to any part that they might have missed or forgotten. The availability of these recordings also allows students to concentrate on understanding and absorbing the material rather than on taking notes during the lecture. Dr. Sadoun also thinks that the variety of assessment methods that online education can offer allowed students to have more opportunities to demonstrate their talents and aptitudes, and allowed instructors to further breakdown their grading methodology, and eventually led to better learning outcomes.

5. Discussion and Recommendations In relation to the aforementioned findings, some of the challenges reported by the participants of this study partly resonate with what previous studies have revealed. Previous studies, for example, also found that academic integrity is considered worrisome to art and design educators who teach remotely in other parts of the world. Tusiime et al. (2020), for instance, indicated that online teaching may encourage educators as well as students to plagiarize electronic content. They also stated that some educators believe that the availability of online content and artworks for students to copy can hinder their ability to innovate and produce creative artworks. On the other hand, it makes it more challenging for educators to ensure the academic integrity and originality of students’ artworks (Tusiime et al., 2020). In their study, Tusiime et al. (2020) revealed that one of the factors that helped art and design educators mitigate the challenges of distance education is encouragement, motivation, and support from their peers who taught them how to improve their digital skills. Another factor is the training and technical support they received to improve their digital skills and know how to deal with the technical issues they faced.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

The findings also indicate that the participants in this study have used effective strategies to cope with the existing challenges. One of these strategies was to ask students to submit a time-lapse video recording while executing their projects in order to ensure academic integrity. Another effective strategy is recording asynchronous tutorials for students to watch before the class starts. During the lecture, educators may repeat the same content that was in the pre-recorded video but would have more time to focus on answering students’ questions. Additionally, to overcome challenges related to difficulties in encouraging students to interact with each other or to become socially comfortable and responsive during virtual lectures, a good strategy is to ask them to record a short video in which they introduce themselves to their instructors and peers. Despite all the experimental strategies that art and design educators have so far employed to cope with the challenges they face during distance education, there is an urgent need to further address these challenges and to optimize their online pedagogical practices. Therefore, this study offers several recommendations to guide the development of an art and design education strategy during the pandemic. One of the recommendations is to create a learning management system or online learning platform (such as Kadenze) tailored for art and design courses and or to add to existing learning management systems all the features and tools that art and design students need (Kini-Singh, 2020). Kadenze is a platform that has a network of design schools and contains special art and design features and tools that allow users to upload portfolios of their artworks and designs in addition to allowing them to create virtual galleries and museums. According to Straumsheim (as cited in Kini-Singh, 2020): “Kadenze is both a MOOC provider as well as an online program management company and while it offers free courses like Coursera or edX, it also provides partners with instructional designers and animators for help on the production aspect of online education.” (p.5) Recently, Kadenze partnered with many international art and design schools and programs, including California College of the Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Princeton, Stanford, and more (Kini-Singh, 2020). Another recommendation is to conduct e-learning content development workshops for educators to teach them how to create, develop, and edit e-learning content and applications (Tusiime et al., 2020). Kini-Sing (2020) believes that training can help art educators in transitioning from face-to-face teaching to the “creation and production of online or video content that would be as effective as in-person learning” (p.9). This can be further supported by another recommendation, which is to create an online educational platform that includes webinars and educational video lessons for art and design professors and students in Bahrain and the Arab world. In addition, it is important to form a technical support team to provide solutions for all students and instructors (Tusiime et al., 2020). Before the commencement of the academic semester, this team may communicate with students and ensure that they are ready, and have installed all required software, and do not face any technical problems. This team may also have suitable software to access students’

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

devices, upon their request and approval, and remotely fix any technical issues they face. Another recommendation is to create a community of art and design faculty open to sharing their online teaching strategies and learning together. This community can collaborate in forming a database of resources or educational materials. In Morocco, for instance, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Centre

National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (CNRST) created a national database for instructors to upload their recorded lectures, educational materials, and other resources (Kini-Singh, 2020). In addition, researchers have suggested forming online groups for sharing coauthored blogs about online learning and art education (Kini-Singh, 2020). In addition to all the above-mentioned recommendations, higher education institutions must provide art and design educators with access to adequate tools and technologies to support their online teaching endeavors. These may include but are not limited to digital cameras, video and audio recording tools, and screencasting tools for creating their educational content (Minnesota Department of Education, 2021). The above-listed recommendations are intended to support education leaders and authorities at various academic institutions in Bahrain and in the region, in formulating adaptive and effective responses to a crisis that will significantly change the way art and design are taught globally.

6. Conclusion As universities transition to virtual education, exploring effective practices for teaching art and design students remotely has become crucial. It is critically important to study the strategies that universities employ to efficiently transfer skills and knowledge and meet students' needs through an online learning environment. Art and Design classes include practical and hands-on activities that cannot easily be met in digital settings and environments. Therefore, this paper explored the creative methods adopted by art and design professors to move to remote teaching during the pandemic in order to identify the most effective practices that educators could employ in educational institutions in Bahrain to engage students and enhance the distance learning process. Many art and design educators sought various approaches to provide the best possible learning experiences for students despite the limitations of distance education. The instant transition to online learning challenged traditional notions of art and design education and altered instructors’ and students’ views and perceptions of e-learning. In order to explore these perceptions, this paper investigated the implementation of distance learning in the University of Bahrain using focus group discussions with a purposive sample of eleven art and design academics. Based on an in-depth analysis of these discussions and an investigation into the educators’ experiences, challenges, and needs, the findings indicate several challenges facing art and design professors while they attempt to depend on online education as an alternative modality. The challenges reported

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

by the majority of participants include technical problems, possible lack of academic integrity and honesty in some of the work that students do offline, difficulty in clearly seeing and evaluating the actual value and warmth of the colors in a student’s painting on the screen, and the unavailability of tools and features that specifically support fine arts and graphic design online education in the currently available e-learning platforms and learning management systems. Yet, while the pandemic posed some challenges to art and design educators and their students, it also provided promising opportunities and innovative practices to reshape art education. Through applying the recommendations discussed in this paper, the challenges may be minimized, and the distance education experience can be augmented through online forums and discussions, animated lessons, virtual galleries, and online interactions with artists and designers from all over the world.

Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for the tireless efforts of the art and design educators at the University of Bahrain who have worked together to implement the best possible approaches to remotely teach art and design during the difficult circumstances of Covid-19. I especially thank them for their unwavering commitment and willingness to engage in a thoughtful, frank, and meaningful dialogue about how to meet the needs of the students in the best possible way in these unprecedented times and circumstances. Their experiences and opinions helped me formulate the important recommendations in this paper. I would also like to give special thanks to Ms. Dallal Al Sindi for helping me in preparing a list of useful online resources to inform the professional development plans and enhance the skills of art and design professors.

7. References Alea, L. A., Fabrea, M. F., Roldan, R. D. A., & Farooqi, A. Z. (2020). Teachers’ covid-19 awareness, distance learning education experiences and perceptions towards institutional readiness and challenges. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(6), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.6.8 Baker, W. J., Hunter, M., & Thomas, S. (2016). Arts Education Academics’ Perceptions of eLearning & Teaching in Australian Early Childhood and Primary ITE Degrees. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(11), 31-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2016v41n11.3 Dancewicz, K. (2020, April 17). Can You Teach Art Online?. Art in America. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/teaching-art-online-covid19-professors-strategies-1202684147/ Daniel, S. J. (2020). Education and the Covid 19 pandemic. Prospects, 49, 91-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3 Dilmaç, S. (2020). Students’ Opinions about the Distance Education to Art and Design Courses in the Pandemic Process. World Journal of Education, 10(3), 113. https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v10n3p113 Ferri, F., Grifoni, P., & Guzzo, T. (2020). Online Learning and Emergency Remote Teaching: Opportunities and Challenges in Emergency Situations. Societies, 10(4), 86. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc10040086

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Fleischmann, K. (2020). Hands-on versus virtual: Reshaping the design classroom with blended learning. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 20(1), 87-112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022220906393 Flynn, R., Albrecht, L., & Scott, S. D. (2018). Two Approaches to Focus Group Data Collection for Qualitative Health Research: Maximizing Resources and Data Quality. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917750781 Fotaris, P., Mavrommati, I., Mastoras, T., & Leinfellner, R. (2015, July 6-8). Teaching Design from a Distance: A Case Study of Virtual Design Studio Teaching via a Social Network. 7th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies EDULEARN157th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies EDULEARN15 (pp. 4603-4613). Barcelona, Spain: IATED Academy. Haba, H. F., & Dastane, O. (2019). Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)– Understanding Online Learners’ Preferences and Experiences. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 18(8), 227-242. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.8.14 Hassan, M. (2021). Online Teaching Challenges during COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 11(1), 41-46. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2021.11.1.1487 International Baccalaureate Organization. (2020, March). “Online learning, teaching and education continuity planning for schools”. https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/news-assets/coronavirus/online-learningcontinuity-planning-en.pdf Kini-Singh, A. (2020). Art Education in the Time of a Pandemic :The Good, the Challenge, and the Future. Encountering Design Education Online From Place to Space. http://www.unboundjournal.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Amita_KiniSingh_03_Critiques.pdf Lapada, A. A., Miguel, F.F., Robledo, D. A. R., & Alam, Z. F. (2020). Teachers’ covid 19 awareness, distance learning education experiences and perceptions towards institutional readiness and challenges. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(6), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.6.8 Li, A. (2020, March 20). Google compiles remote learning resources for educators with ‘Teach from Home’ hub. 9to5google. https://9to5google.com/2020/03/20/google-teachfrom-home/ Li, C. & Lalani, F. (2020, April 29). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-globalcovid19-online-digital-learning/ Li, Y., Zhang, X., Dai, D.Y. & Hu, W. (2021). Curriculum Innovation in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Thinking-Based Instruction Theory and Its Application. Frontiers Psychology, 12, 601607. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.601607 Meyer, M.W. & Norman, N. (2020). Changing Design Education for the 21st Century. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 6(1), 13–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2019.12.002 Minnesota Department of Education (2021, April 5). Arts Education in the 2020-21 School Year: Recommendations and Resources. Mn department of education. https://education.mn.gov/mdeprod/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dDocNam e=MDE033530&RevisionSelectionMethod=latestReleased&Rendition=primary Mukuna, R. & Aloka, P.J.O. (2020). Exploring Educators’ Challenges of Online Learning in Covid-19 at a Rural School, South Africa. International Journal of Learning,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Teaching and Educational Research, 19(10), 134-149. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.10.8 Muftahu, M. (2020) Higher Education and Covid-19 Pandemic: Matters arising and the challenges of sustaining academic programs in developing African universities. International Journal of Educational Research Review, 5(4), 417-423. https://doi.org/10.24331/ijere.776470 Nili, A., Tate, M., & Johnstone, D. (2017). A framework and approach for analysis of focus group data in information systems research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 40(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.04001 Öçal, T., Halmatov, M. & Ata, S. (2021). Distance education in COVID-19 pandemic: An evaluation of parent’s, child’s and teacher’s competencies. Education and Information Technologies, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10551-x Pomerantz, K. (2020). Teaching Art Online Under COVID-19. https://hyperallergic.com/547986/teaching-art-online-under-covid-19/ Rasheed, R. A., Kamsin, A., & Abdullah, N. A. (2020). Challenges in the online component of blended learning: A systematic review. Computers & Education, 144, 103701. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103701 Reimers, F. M., & Schleicher, A. (2020). A framework to guide an education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020. OECD. https://read.oecdilibrary.org/view/?ref=126_126988-t63lxosohs&title=A-framework-to-guide-aneducation-response-to-the-Covid-19-Pandemic-of-2020 Sharma, S., & Bumb, A. (2021). The Challenges Faced in Technology-Driven Classes During COVID 19. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 19(1), 1739. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJDET.20210101.oa2 Tabieh, A., Hamzeh, M., Abu-Foudeh, B., Jarrar, N., Al-Manaseer, S., Al-Shawabkeh, A., & Seikaly, R. (2021). Digital Literacy and its Acquisition by Teachers and Principals at Educational Workplaces. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20 (5), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.5.3 Tusiime, W. E., Johannesen, M. & Gudmundsdottir, G. B. (2020). Teaching art and design in a digital age: challenges facing Ugandan teacher educators. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1786439

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 88-108, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.5

Improving Novice Students’ Computational Thinking Skills by Problem-Solving and Metacognitive Techniques Nor Hasbiah Ubaidullah, Zulkifley Mohamed, Jamilah Hamid and Suliana Sulaiman Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4753-5382 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1170-046X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2761-1074 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2440-8831 Rahmah Lob Yussof Universiti Teknologi MARA, Pahang, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0650-9428

Abstract. Admittedly, the teaching and learning of programming courses in the computer science and information technology programs have been extremely challenging. Currently, most instructors depend on either the problem-solving technique or the metacognitive technique to help students develop a range of cognitive skills, including metacognitive skills, which are important in the development of a strong computational thinking skill required for 21st-century learning. Studies focusing on the practices of instructors in using both techniques are scarce, thus motivating the researchers to carry out this study. This study was based on a qualitative approach involving a case-study design in which five (5) male and five (5) female instructors were selected from 10 pre-university centers in Malaysia as the respondents and participants in an intervention program. The research instruments used were an interview checklist and intervention guidelines. As anticipated, the findings showed that the activities of each technique could only help students develop certain subskills of the computational thinking skill, thus underscoring the need for instructors to integrate both techniques in their teaching practices. Thus, it could be reasoned that using either the metacognitive technique or the problem-solving technique alone would not be sufficient to help students develop strong computational thinking skills, as each technique has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it becomes imperative for instructors to leverage the strengths of both techniques by integrating both of them in the teaching and learning of programming courses. Keywords: computational thinking skill; teaching and learning techniques; learning computer programming; programming teaching ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

1. Introduction Lately, a growing number of researchers and scholars have highlighted the importance of computational thinking (CT) in programming, made evident by an increasing number of studies that focus on such a construct, such as studies by Margarida (2017) and Xabier et al. (2018). To date, CT skills have been widely researched in many developed nations; In Malaysia, however, studies of such nature have been scarce. Nonetheless, in recent years, many stakeholders in the educational sector have put greater emphasis on the importance of CT in education, particularly in computer programming. For example, the Ministry of Education of Malaysia integrated elements of CT in the school curriculum in 2017 (Ung, 2017). With this integrated curriculum, students would be able to learn basic computer science through activities involving problem-solving and logical thinking (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2016). Specifically, the elements of CT, such as logical reasoning, estimation, developing the algorithm, and abstraction, were embedded in the new curriculum encompassing all levels of education from primary to tertiary education (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2016), signifying that all the stakeholders were strongly aware of the importance of students to acquire this important skill. Lately, many Malaysian school teachers have gone through a series of workshops to train them methods that they could use to teach students such a concept. The same is, however, not forthcoming for college and university lecturers; thus, it is hardly surprising to see them having difficulties in identifying effective methods that they could use to help develop strong CT skills among their students. As such, appropriate measures are needed to mitigate this predicament to ensure they could effectively teach students to become digital makers in Malaysia (Aizyl, 2016; Joseph, 2016). As such, it is vital to carry out more studies on the development of CT by focusing on appropriate activities in the learning of information technology and computer science, particularly programming courses. Surely, the findings of such studies could inform practitioners of the appropriate teaching techniques that they could use to help students develop such skills (Filiz, 2016). Admittedly, many studies have been carried out thus far, but they were primarily focused on metacognitive and problem-solving skills needed for programming (Havenga, 2015), with only a handful being dedicated to investigating their relations to CT. To date, a growing number of local researchers have carried out several studies that dealt with such a research focus (Mohd Rum, 2015; Ung, 2017). Such studies, however, mainly centered on the preparation of schools’ teachers who would implement teaching activities that could enhance students’ CT. By contrast, there is a dearth of similar studies that focus on the preparation of college and university lecturers that would them choose proper teaching and learning techniques to help improve undergraduates’ and college students’ CT. Hence, this research was conducted to address such a research gap by focusing on metacognitive, problem-solving, CT skills, and programming. This study was premised on the teaching and learning of information technology in general and programming particularly among novice learners by examining appropriate techniques with which lecturers could use to enhance students’ CT skills. In this study, metacognitive and problem-solving skills were integrated into the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

teaching and learning of a programming course. Thus, to direct research, two research questions have been formulated: 1. How would lecturers apply metacognitive and problem-solving techniques in the computer programming teaching environment to improve novice students’ CT skills? 2. How would metacognitive and problem-solving techniques be embedded in the learning of a programming course to improve novice students’ CT skills? This study is crucial as it is an initial step for instructors in developing CT skills among students. As emphatically noted by Malaysia’s premier, students need to have well-developed CT skills that would help nations in developing a capable generation of digital makers (Aizyl, 2016; Joseph, 2016).

2. Literature Review Nowadays, more and more people need to depend on computational thinking (CT) skills to perform a broad spectrum of tasks. This skill is indispensable given its importance in today’s information-driven societies, entailing people to think logically, analytically, and systematically in solving numerous problems (Swaid, 2015). According to Park (2016), CT involves problem-solving skills in programming with the creative use of computer hardware and software. Specifically, according to Wing (2016), individuals tap on their CT as they try to solve a complex problem by mathematically decomposing it into small units. From the learning perspective, the same researcher argues that students with good CT would be able to create command-line algorithms for a computer to perform a specific task in solving a particular problem. In other words, they reason that CT skills are closely related to problem-solving skills by using the computer. More broadly, it can reasoned that CT skills are associated with problem-solving skills without the use of the computer in various fields, such as science and mathematics. For example, CT skills can also be developed through the teaching of sciences or languages at the elementary school level. As such, such skills should be viewed in a more diverse, multi-disciplinary context. According to Mannila et al. (2014), CT is a term that encompasses a set of concepts and processes of computer science involved in deriving solutions to problems in several disciplines. In essence, according to Selby (2015), CT is defined as a multi-faceted skill comprising several sub-skills, namely abstraction, decomposition, evaluation, generalization, and algorithmic thinking. As such, the concepts of CT can be implemented in the classroom, such as logic, algorithm, decomposition, pattern, abstraction, and evaluation (Barefootcas, 2014). The definitions of such a concept made by Mannila et al. (2014), Selby (2015), and Barefootcas (2014) underscore that CT, which is an extremely important skill in the computing field, can also be applied to other important fields of knowledge. Over recent years, several scholars, including Margarida et al. (2017), Denning (2017), Buitrago Flórez et al. (2017), and Xabier et al. (2018), have embedded such concepts in the computer science and information technology fields through programming courses, given their close relationships. As emphasized by

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Margarida et al. (2017), CT skills can be developed and assessed through illdefined problems at different educational levels. Essentially, CT skill concerns one’s ability to analyze problems, make informed decisions, and solve problems creatively (Kafai, 2016). As such, from a practical standpoint, students’ abilities in solving problems through logical thinking and in writing codes for computer applications and hardware are a measure of their CT (Djambong & Freiman, 2016). In this respect, logical thinking and the skill in writing codes are two important elements in learning programming. Given that the elements of CT (namely abstraction, decomposition, evaluation, generalization, and algorithmic thinking) are closely related to the skills needed in solving computer programming, such as logical thinking, CT can, therefore, be developed through the teaching of computer programming. Moreover, programming for applications of systems and hardware in diverse fields can serve as a medium of CT (Voogt et al., 2015). More importantly, programming is a critical discipline of knowledge that students of computer science and information technology must master. However, most students find programming to be a difficult subject or course to learn, let alone to master it (Nurul Faeizah et al., 2020). Specifically, students face difficulties in solving programming problems that entail them to have the proper skills to deal with the problem-solving, syntax, and semantic of a programming language (Malik & Cildwell-Neilson, 2017; Hooshyar et al., 2015). As observed by many researchers, most students, in particular novice students, lack critical thinking and problemsolving skills to help them learn computer programming (Djambong & Freiman, 2016; Poli & Koza, 2014). In view of the challenges facing students in learning computer programming, teachers and instructors need to be creative in their teaching to help stimulate students to think logically and critically, which will certainly help them solve computing problem effectively and efficiently. Essentially, critical thinking refers to the use of cognitive skills or strategies to achieve an intended outcome. In other words, critical thinking is purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed mental process for solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions (Halpern, 1999). As emphasized by Ramdiah and Duran (2014), critical thinking involves the skillful handling of the structure inherent in thinking by imposing intellectual standards upon it. On the other hand, Paul et al. (1993) argued that critical thinking is selfdirected, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. The same scholars assert that the capacity to solve problems is an important aspect of analytical thought, which encompasses general problem-solving interventions, including problem recognition, problem description, approach planning, the organizing of knowledge and resource distribution, tracking, and assessment (Sterberg & Sterberg, 2012). In the context of learning programming, the problem-solving steps required include the identification and definition of problems, the planning of problem-solving, the design of problem-solving, coding, testing, and documentation. In this regard, problem-solving skills refer to the ability to solve problems accurately, identify and define problems, propose alternative solutions, test and select the best alternative, and implement the selected solution. On the other hand, critical thinking relates to self-directed, self-

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. Juxtaposing the above two skills, it can be clearly seen that critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills are closely related to one another. Certainly, a lack of problem-solving skills contributes to students’ poor performances in learning programming (Mohd Rum, 2015), a subject matter consisting of complex, abstract concepts that make it difficult for students to understand, interpret, and perform complex tasks (Malik & Coldwell-Neilson, 2017). Thus, they must have strong analytical, logical, and problem-solving skills as well as the skill in learning a particular programming language. The latter is important because programming allows students to analyze their thought processes and their strategies as a cognitive exercise that encourages the method of applying a newly learned solution to new problems (Mohd Rum, 2015). The practice of problem-solving in computer programming can improve students’ cognitive skills, allowing them to work methodically to build representations (Mayer, 2003). Such a practice provides the opportunity to help students develop strong metacognition. For example, Bergin et al. (2005) signified that students who achieved well in programming were more reliant than low-performing students on metacognitive management techniques, thus underlining the value of having strong metacognitive abilities for students to help them learn to program. Metacognition refers in essence to the deliberate preparation, monitoring, and assessment of the cognitive processes of individuals, such as their emotions, as they participate in the learning process (Sterberg & Sterberg, 2012). On the one hand, metacognitive knowledge refers to a more advanced level of knowledge that allows students to monitor, handle, interpret, and understand their knowledge during the learning process (Gaeta, 2014; Nimmi & Zakkariya, 2016). According to Abdullah et al. (2017), metacognition consists of two parts, namely the knowledge component and the skill component. Between these two components, the latter is deemed more important in the learning of computer programming as it helps students to effectively engage in problem-solving activities in which they learn to solve programming problems. Thus, metacognitive strategies or skills are critical to effective learning as they influence the control of cognition in activities involving planning, orienting, monitoring, checking, selecting, revising, evaluating, self-monitoring, and self-evaluating. As emphasized by Brown (1992), students need to have strong metacognition to enable them monitor their processes of thought strategically and effectively. Therefore, teachers’ instructions and feedback in the teaching and learning process would have a profound impact on the development of students’ metacognitive skills (Veenman, 2006; Hinojosa, Rodriguez & Paez, 2020). Despite the plethora of studies on the use of problem-solving and metacognition techniques in computer programming, not many studies have been devoted to studying their impacts on the development of CT skills. Thus far, only a handful of such studies has been carried out in Malaysia, which mainly involve the applications of such techniques at the school level that focused on teachers’ readiness in implementing the techniques. Therefore, this study was carried out

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

that focused on the teaching techniques that could be used to improve preuniversity students’ CT skills. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the impacts of the integration of problem-solving and metacognition techniques on the improvement of CT skills among novice programming students.

3. Methods This qualitative study was based on a case study research design involving a series of semi-structured interviews in which several computer programming instructors were interviewed. In the interviews, information regarding their teaching activities before and after a learning intervention based on specific metacognitive and problem-solving guidelines was gathered to address the research questions. 3.1 Procedure The procedure of the data collection of this study was slightly adapted from that used by Havenga (2015) who used a series of interviews that were carried out before and after an intervention. Such a slight adaptation was made to suit the context of this study. In particular, this study consisted of two phases, namely Phase 1 and Phase 2. The former involved collecting data and information on CT, while the latter concerned eliciting lecturers’ opinions regarding their teaching practices before and after the intervention, which helped highlight any teaching changes that might have occurred. The following are the two phases of the activities carried out in this study. Phase 1: In the first phase, a critical review of the current literature was performed to help determine aspects of CT that need further research. The review of the literature was primarily centered on relevant studies published in books, research papers, conference proceedings, and journal articles. Phase 2: In the second phase, a case study was carried out where the researchers interviewed several instructors to elicit their feedback on their teaching practices before and after a learning intervention, which focused on helping to enhance novice programming students’ CT skills. This approach enabled the researchers to determine if there was a substantial change in their teaching practice, which is in line with recommendations made by Gill (2011). 3.2 Respondents The respondents of the study were made up of ten (10) instructors of a programming course taught at several pre-university colleges, who were recruited through the purposeful sampling technique. They were primarily selected due to their involvement in the teaching of programming in which metacognitive and problem-solving techniques were used. Each one holds a Master Science’s degree in either computer science or information technology and had a teaching experience of at least five (5) years. Table 1 summarizes the demographics of the selected instructors.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Table 1: The Demographics of the participants Participant ID

Gender

Age (in a year)

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10

Female Male Female Male Male Female Male Male Female Female

39 44 40 40 45 38 42 40 50 48

Working experience (in a year) 9 15 7 17 8 5 12 15 25 23

3.3 Data collection Data were gathered through a series of semi-structured interviews involving programming instructors, which were conducted two times to elicit appropriate information on their teaching practices before and after the learning intervention. The following sub-sections provide a detailed account of the pre-intervention interviews, learning intervention, and post-intervention interviews. 1. Pre-intervention interviews: The pre-intervention interview sessions were carried out one week before the intervention program to help determine whether the programming instructors had taught their students any metacognitive and problem-solving skills. 2. Learning intervention: In the intervention, the instructors were guided to perform specific steps to derive proper solutions to programming problems based on problem-solving guidelines and metacognitive skills as follows: • Carefully read a given problem, highlight the main ideas, and comprehend and write down the main requirements of the problem. Review and refine such ideas and requirements as needed. • Formulate a solution to the problem. • Spell out the details of the required steps in terms of appropriate inputs, processing, and outputs. Highlight their aims and the processes involved. • Go through the solution that you have proposed. • With a given programming language, code all the above elements into a program. Examine your program for any programming errors and carefully evaluate the steps that you have performed. • Test your program. • Carefully review the programming codes and programming semantics. • Determine how effective your solution and explain whether it is the best solution. 3. Post-intervention interviews: The final interviews were carried out to elicit information regarding instructors’ overall experiences in the intervention program. They were prompted with the following question: In what way would your experiences in using metacognitive and problem-solving skills relate to your teaching approach that could help improve your students’ programming and CT skills?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

4. Results The findings of the study are discussed based on two themes, namely Theme 1 (Using problem-solving competence in programming teaching and learning) and Theme 2 (Using metacognitive competence in programming teaching and learning). In turn, the discussions of the two themes are divided into two subsections, namely before the intervention and after the intervention. 4.1 Theme 1: Using Problem-Solving Competence in Programming Teaching and Learning 1. Before Intervention: The feedback of the instructors indicated that they used specific problem-solving activities in their teaching practices before the intervention. For example, the first, second, seventh, and tenth participants, P1, P2, P7, and P10, stressed the analysis of questions by instructing their students to determine the appropriate input, process, and output during the planning of their programs, as exemplified by the second instructor’s feedback regarding his students’ work as follows: “… the students first construct the input, process, and output (IPO) table, and then they jot down the required steps. Also, they emphasized the use of algorithms as part of the detailed planning of programs, as highlighted by the same participant who gave the following feedback: “algorithms are essential to solving programming problems effectively. Hence, after constructing the IPO table, they should perform the algorithms before moving to the next steps”. Even though the third, fifth, and eighth participants, P3, P5, and P8, did submit their students’ homework, there was no mention of any specific problem-solving activities used by their students in solving the programming problem. By contrast, the sixth and ninth participants, P6 and P9, confessed that they did help their students by demonstrating the proper steps in analyzing programming problems. 2. After Intervention: Once they had undergone the intervention, the instructors put a greater emphasis on the detailed requirements for each problem-solving step. For example, P3’s comments were highly informative as follows: “After they had split the problem into several sub-problems, the students could formulate a solution, as it became easier for them to manage the sub-problems as opposed to dealing with the main problem.” Moreover, the use of the guidelines proved to be extremely helpful, made clear by the same participant’s comment as follows: “The students were compelled to think critically and logically as they tried to solve the problem, entailing them to perform the appropriate steps in developing a program”. Likewise, the fourth participant’s (P4) remark was equally compelling when he said the following words: “Students must familiarize the first step before attempting to perform the ensuing steps that lead to the final solution”. Also, he elaborated on some strategies that could be used to deal with programming problems. By contrast, the fifth participant (P5) stressed the importance of time that students should take into consideration in analyzing problems, as clearly highlighted by his comment as follows: “Spending more time in analyzing the problems helped students to gain a better understanding, which led to better solutions”. Table 2 summarizes the problem-solving activities deemed highly effective by the instructors in the teaching and learning of programming before and after the intervention.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Table 2: Highly emphasized problem-solving activities in the teaching and learning of programming before and after the intervention Before Intervention Participant Activities Participant 1 Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm Participant 2 Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm Participant 3 Assigning homework - (specific activities were not mentioned)

Participant 4

- not available

Participant 5

Assigning homework - (specific activities were not mentioned) Analysis - discuss the analysis of programming problems Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm

Participant 6

Participant 7

After Intervention Participant Activities Participant 1 Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm Participant 2 Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm Participant 3 Planning breakdown the problem - think critically and logically Participant 4 Observation Discussion - strategy on how to approach a programming problem Participant 5 Analysis - need time when performing analysis Participant 6 Analysis - discuss the analysis of programming problems Participant 7 Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm

Participant 8

Assigning homework - (specific activities were not mentioned)

Participant 8

Participant 9

Analysis - discuss the analysis of programming problems Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm

Participant 9

Participant 10

Planning breakdown the problem - think critically and logically Analysis - discuss the analysis of programming problems Planning - analysis (IPO) Design - algorithm

As clearly shown, a majority of the instructors used problem-solving activities, namely analysis, planning and design, in their teaching of programming before and after intervention. For example, only Participant 6 and Participant 9 used the analysis activity in their teaching before intervention. Also, Participant 1,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Participant 2, Participant 7, and Participant 10 used the planning and design activities in their teaching of programming. However, after intervention, more participants used all the problem-solving activities in their teaching of programming. In particular, the number of participants who used the analysis activity increased to three (3). This was made evident by Participant 5, Participant 6 and Participant 9, who previously had never used such an activity, had now used the analysis activity in their teaching. Likewise, the number of participants who used the planning and design activities had increased to six (6), as exemplified by Participant 1, Participant 2, Participant 3, Participant 7, Participant 8, and Participant 10 who used such activities in their teaching after the intervention. Admittedly, performing these activities entail students to have good programming skills. Furthermore, these activities are closely related to the elements of CT skills. For example, the analysis, design, and planning of problemsolving activities are closely related to the abstraction, algorithm, and decomposition and generalization of CT, respectively. As such, performing the former activities can help students enhance the latter skills. Given these revelations, it is, therefore, important for programming lecturers to embed such problem-solving activities in the teaching of computer programming, the impacts of which can enhance both students’ programming skills and CT skills. 4.2 Theme 2: Using Metacognitive Competence in Programming Teaching and Learning 1. Before Intervention: The feedback elicited showed that the respondents also relied on some form of metacognitive skills in their teaching practices before the intervention. For example, the first participant (P1) allowed her students to plan their solutions before writing codes, as evidenced by her comments as follows: “Usually, I would discuss the problem first with my students by asking them to analyze the algorithms before writing the essential codes. Hence, they wrote the codes on a piece of paper before coding those algorithms on the computer”. On the other hand, the fourth participant (P4) allowed his students to explore the detail of a new topic based on the belief that the students could direct their thinking processes, made clear by his comment as follows: “I made a point to always to encourage my students to use their creativity in coding”. By contrast, the sixth participant (P6) relied on other strategies, namely problem-based learning, and collaborative learning, to help guide her students’ self-directed learning activities. 2. After Intervention: As prescribed by the guidelines of the intervention program, the instructors gave some examples of the metacognitive skills that they had taught in the classroom. In particular, the first, second, and fifth participants (P1, P2, and P5) stressed the importance of planning a solution before writing a program, which could be discerned by some of their comments, such as those made by the first participant (P1) as follows: “The greater their efforts in planning, the greater they could understand the question … the students could tackle the question quite easily. I think most of them were able to do just that” and “… therefore, to each question, every student was prompted to ask, ‘What must I have to do to answer this question?’”. Likewise, the second participant’s (P2’s) comments were also revealing based on the statements he made as follows:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

“Students should do the planning before they wrote the program, as it was very important … they simply could not go to the computer and write the coding”. The above comments made by the first and second supported students’ mental activities by guiding them to refocus on a problem in hand, while the fourth participant (P4) emphasized the importance of such activities based on his feedback as follows: “It certainly helped them to fully grasp the problem”. The third participant’s (P3’s) stressed the importance of scaffolding as highlighted by her comment as follows: “At first, I guided my students. Then, as they could understand the problem and had some ideas on how to solve it, I let them continue with their work”. Interestingly, the sixth participant (P6) asserted that he had to divide students into several groups to facilitate them to discuss their problems more effectively. As a whole, the above findings are consistent with Francom (2010) and Mohd Rum (2015), who found subject-matter knowledge and self-directed learning skills (e. g. metacognition) collectively helped students to manage their thinking processes. Table 3 summarizes the metacognitive activities that the participants deemed important in the teaching and learning of programming before and after the intervention. Table 3: Highly emphasized metacognitive activities in the teaching and learning of programming before and after the intervention Before Intervention Participant Activities Participant 1 Planning - provided a chance for students to plan their solutions

After Intervention Participant Activities Participant 1 Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks

Participant 2

- not available

Participant 2

Participant 3

- not available

Participant 3

Participant 4

Discovering - students discovered details. -encouraged students to be creative - not available

Participant 4

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks

Participant 5

Using additional strategies - problem-based learning - collaborative learning (enhanced selfdirected learning)

Participant 6

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks Discussion - supported students by group Discussion

Participant 5

Participant 6

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks - scaffolding

Participant 7

Planning - provided a chance for students to plan their solutions

Participant 7

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks

Participant 8

- not available

Participant 8

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks

Participant 9

- not available

Participant 9

- scaffolding

Participant 10

Discovering - students discovered details. -encouraged students to be creative

Participant 10

Planning - students involved actively in their programming tasks

As shown in Table 3, the only metacognitive activity used by the instructors was planning, as indicated by Participant 1 and Participant 7 who practiced such an activity in their teaching before the intervention. The remaining participants, however, used other types of teaching activities that were related to those of problem based-learning and collaborative learning. Interestingly, after the intervention, more participants used the metacognitive activities in their teaching of programming. Specifically, the number of participants who used the planning activity increased to seven (7), as demonstrated by Participant 1, Participant 2, Participant 4, Participant 5, Participant 7, Participant 8, and Participant 10. Arguably, the planning activity is one of the important steps in programming that every programming student need to learn and master. Moreover, such an activity can also help enhance students’ decomposition and generalization abilities, which constitute two of the components of CT skills. Therefore, by performing the planning activity, students will be able to enhance both their programming skills and CT skills.

5. Discussion The analysis of respondents’ feedback based on the first theme (Theme 1) showed that only three instructors had integrated problem-solving activities, namely analysis, and planning, in their teaching practices before they followed the intervention program. As anticipated, after the intervention, more instructors indicated that they had integrated more specific problem-solving activities in their teaching, which could be attributed to their compliance with the guidelines given to them. Arguably, most instructors not only knew but also were quite conversant with a problem-solving technique that is widely regarded as the most popular technique in teaching and learning programming, thus compelling them to integrate it into their teaching practices. Such findings are consistent with Malik and Coldwell-Neilson (2017), Hooshyar et al. (2015), and Mohd Rum (2015), most of whom assert that problem-solving is an effective strategy to help students to understand and solve programming problems. Also, the same findings showed that majority of the instructors utilized analysis and planning activities in their

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

100

teaching after the intervention. Oddly, only one instructor used observation and discussion activities in teaching his students. In this regard, the discussion technique could serve as an effective means to help students, especially novice students, learn to program as they could suggest creative ideas and work collaboratively to solve programming problems. Certainly, such a learning process could help them improve their logical thinking. As such, instructors had to be resourceful and creative in stimulating effective discussions among their students. As revealed in this study, a combination of problem-solving and discussion techniques could help train novice students to enhance their logical thinking and problem-solving skills. Such findings are consistent with those of previous studies, signifying such techniques as highly effective (Malik & Coldwell-Neilson, 2017; Uysal, 2014). Essentially, solving a given programming problem entails students performing several activities, namely analysis, planning, design, coding, and evaluation, which were given strong emphasis by the instructors as shown in Table 2. Such emphasis was not unexpected as these activities are critical components of problem-solving techniques that students had to apply before carrying out other ensuing activities. In the analysis activity, students were required to correctly identify the input, process, and output, which were essential to helping them to enhance their abstraction skills by identifying and extracting information that could help define the main idea of a given problem. On the other hand, the planning activity could help improve their decomposition skills, enabling them to split problems into smaller, manageable parts. As such, the above two activities, namely, analysis and planning, are deemed important steps in problem-solving. Therefore, it was not surprising to note that most instructors paid strong attention to these two activities to ensure their students would be able to perform other ensuing activities, namely, design, coding, and evaluation. Put simply, by performing these two activities, students would be able to improve their abstraction (Seong-Won & Youngjun, 2020) and decomposition skills, which are two critical sub-skills of the CT skill (Román-González, 2017). Such findings are consistent with that of Mohd Rum (2015), indicating that teachers’ instructions of management processes and activities can help students improve their learning performances. The remaining activities, namely design, coding, and evaluation, are equally important in solving programming problems. In the design activity, students had to determine the proper steps to perform in the right sequence in solving the given problem. Surely, a high level of logical reasoning is required to solve problems by visualizing algorithms in a mental picture. In this regard, they use the algorithms and logical thinking concepts of CT. The next stage of programming is the implementation stage, which consists of several activities involving coding, compilation, linking, running, and debugging a program, necessitating strong logical thinking involving coding and identifying and correcting errors, which collectively could help improve students’ CT in terms of algorithmic thinking skill.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

101

The final stage of programming involves the evaluation activity, which is needed to test and validate a program. After being verified to be free of any error, the program needs to be tested with different inputs to ensure it could fulfill the requirements of a given problem and produce accurate output. In principle, this activity is equivalent to the concept of evaluation in CT. As asserted, novice students’ CT skills could be enhanced through learning programming with the use of the above teaching techniques. Such an assertion is echoed by other scholars, such as Brennen and Resnick (2012), who argue that knowing about concepts and processes of computer programming could help students develop their CT skills or strategies. Furthermore, many researchers acknowledge that students could enhance their computational skills by engaging in certain activities, such as games, which require the use of some programming languages (Lee et al., 2014). Hence, instructors need to include such activities in their teaching strategies. For the second theme (Theme 2), the findings showed that only three participants had integrated metacognitive activities in their teaching practices before following the intervention program. Revealingly, they indicated that they used problem-based learning and collaborative learning in their teaching to help improve students’ self-directed learning, enabling the latter to perform selfmonitoring and self-evaluation. By following the guidelines (that they had learned in the intervention program), all the instructors stated that they integrated relevant activities in their teaching practices, such as planning, scaffolding, discussion, and evaluation, all of which are similar to the activities of problemsolving technique. In particular, they emphasized the importance of scaffolding, which is a critical component to support students who are struggling in the early stage of learning (Feyzi-Behnagh et al., 2014). Despite their claims of integrating metacognitive activities in their teaching, anecdotal evidence showed that they did not perform self-monitoring and selfevaluation activities to allow their students to reflect on the programming codes and semantics they had written. Most preferably, they should have prompted their students with some probing questions as follows: “How confident are you that you have effectively solved the problem?” or “Is this the best solution?”. As a whole, the above findings helped the researchers to answer the first research question, namely “How would instructors and lecturers apply metacognitive and problem-solving skills in the teaching computer programming environment to improve students’ CT skills”. The following discussions helped the researchers to answer the second research question, namely “How would the techniques of metacognitive and problemsolving be embedded in the learning of programming to improve students’ CT skills?” and Table 4 shows the mapping of metacognitive and problem-solving activities with the components or elements of CT skill.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

102

Table 4: The mapping of metacognitive and problem-solving activities to CT Computational Thinking Techniques/ activities METACOGNITI VE Planning Monitoring Selecting Checking Evaluating Selfmonitoring 7. Selfevaluating PROBLEMSOLVING

Abstraction

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. Understandin g and defining 2. Planning 3. Designing 4. Coding 5. Testing

Decomposition

Generalization

√ √

Algorithm

Evaluation

√ √ √ Important for the development of students’ thinking skill and social skill

√

√ √ √

√ √

1. Abstraction: As indicated in Table 4, only the first element of the problemsolving technique, namely understanding and defining a problem, would significantly contribute to the development of the first element of critical thinking skill, namely abstraction. As such, students had to correctly identify and extract relevant information to enable them to define the main idea of a given problem. Such a process could certainly help enhance their abstraction skills (Shamir et al., 2019). This assertion parallels that of Soumela and Stavros (2014), who argue that abstraction is the method of making something straightforward from something complex by leaving out the unnecessary information, identifying the necessary patterns, and extracting concepts from concrete details. 2. Decomposition: As shown in Table 4, the planning and monitoring activities of the metacognitive technique and the planning activity of the problem-solving technique have a significant impact on the development of the decomposition skill, which is the second element of CT skills. In particular, students could perform the former activities by splitting a given problem into several manageable sub-problems, which closely mirrors those activities carried out by the decomposition process that breaks down a problem into smaller parts that are easier to deal with Shamir et al. (2019). Hence, by performing planning and monitoring activities of the metacognitive technique, students would be able to enhance their decomposition skills. Likewise, the coding activity of the problemsolving technique could wield a significant impact on the development of such a skill, as coding is an activity in which students write codes using a programming

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

103

language, which entails them to divide a major programming routine into smaller sub-routines. 3. Generalization: As illustrated in Table 4, the planning and monitoring activities of the metacognitive technique would significantly contribute to the development of generalization skills of CT. Through such activities, students must rely on their prior knowledge in planning appropriate ways to solve a given problem and to adapt or reuse original codes to solve the problem. Similarly, the testing activities of the problem-solving technique could also contribute to the development of students’ generalization skills, entailing them to run a program repetitively by using numbers of different inputs to derive an optimal output or a solution. In this respect, many researchers have emphasized the importance of this technique, such as Soumela and Stavros (2014) and Xabier et al. (2018). Therefore, students would be able to enhance their generalization skills by performing the above activity. 4. Algorithm: Table 4 shows that selecting and checking activities of the metacognitive technique and designing and coding activities of the problemsolving technique would have a profound impact on the development of students’ algorithm skills of CT. In the selecting activity, students had to identify and select the most efficient and effective method of solving a given problem. In the checking and designing activities, they are required to carry out several activities as follows: (i) writing appropriate algorithms based on the outcomes of the analysis and planning activities, (ii) checking the algorithms that have been selected to ensure solutions generated therefrom would be effective, and (iii) checking the programs for syntax errors. As the algorithm skill of CT refers to the writing of step-by-step, precise, and explicit commands for the method (Buitrago Flórez et al., 2017; Nor Hasbiah & Jamilah, 2019), performing the above activities could effectively help students to develop this important skill in learning programming. 5. Evaluation: Lastly, the evaluating activity of the metacognitive technique and the coding and testing activities of the problem-solving technique would have a significant influence on the development of students’ evaluation skills, which are one of the important sub-skills of CT skill. According to Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (2018), evaluation is the process of ensuring that a solution is good and suits a function, whether an algorithm, method, or process. Therefore, by carrying out such activities, such as evaluating programming outputs based on the readability and efficiency criteria, students could certainly develop their evaluation skill, which is the last component of computational skill, which is extremely important in helping students to develop efficient, effective programs. Given such importance, it becomes imperative for instructors to prioritize such activities in their teaching activities. As illustrated in Figure 1, some activities of metacognitive and problem-solving techniques do overlap with one another. Revealingly, none of the metacognitive activities has an impact on the development of the abstraction skill. Nonetheless, such a skill could be developed through the understanding and defining activities of the problem-solving technique. Likewise, the coding activity of problem-solving technique could help develop students’ decomposition, algorithm, and evaluation skills of CT. Surprisingly, the self-monitoring and self-evaluating activities of the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

104

metacognitive technique do not play a vital role in the development of any component of the CT skill. Nevertheless, these two activities are critical to helping students to develop strong self-management skills and social skills. As indicated, the problem-solving technique does have some activities that could help students develop those two skills. Admittedly, such overlapping gives rise to the need for the integration of metacognitive and problem-solving techniques in a way that they could effectively complement one another. Teaching and Learning Techniques

Metacognitive technique

Problem-solving technique

Planning/ Monitoring

Self-monitoring

Designing/ Selecting/Checking

Understanding and defining

Testing/Evaluating

Self-evaluating Coding

fFigure 1: A Vann’s diagram of activities of the metacognitive and problem-solving techniques

Additionally, instructors could perform self-monitoring and self-evaluating activities by prompting students to focus on their learning by making them ponder some apt questions, such as “Have I made improvements in this area?”, “What are my strengths?”, “Are there rooms for improvement?” and “As the whole, where do I stand?” With such questions, students could self-reflect and assess their understanding of the activities they had undertaken (Joseph et al., 2016; Nunaki et al., 2019). Arguably, in such activities, they could evaluate their levels of CT that they might have acquired (Buitrago Flórez et al., 2017; Filiz, 2016). Likewise, they could also learn about their weaknesses (if any) and take appropriate corrective measures. As discussed, it could be reasoned that using either the metacognitive technique or the problem-solving technique alone would not be sufficient to help students develop strong CT skills, as each technique has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it becomes imperative for instructors to leverage the strengths of both techniques by integrating both of them in the teaching and learning of programming courses.

6. Conclusion and future work

As acknowledged by most researchers and scholars, CT skill is one of the competencies deemed critical in the learning environment of the 21st-century.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

105

Thus, efforts are needed to develop and strengthen this vital skill among students. In this regard, computer programming courses could serve as a practical platform to help students acquire such an important skill. As demonstrated in this study, programming instructors could use problem-solving and metacognitive techniques to help students develop their CT skills. However, the former lacks self-monitoring and self-evaluating activities to improve students' selfmanagement and social skills. By contrast, the latter lacks activities that could help students acquire strong abstraction skills. Given these drawbacks, both techniques should be integrated into the teaching and learning of programming courses rather than using either one of them in its entirety. Arguably, by complementing the activities of both techniques, students could learn programming more effectively such that they could acquire all the components of the CT skills. Certainly, more studies are needed to focus on the impact of the integration of problem-solving and metacognitive techniques on the development of a strong CT skill among programming students. This study is a part of an ongoing major study consisting of several phases. The ensuing part of the study would focus on the development of a teaching and learning model that could serve as a guideline to enhance students’ CT skills based on experts’ opinions.

7. Acknowledgment The author wishes to extend her appreciation to the Ministry of Education of Malaysia for the research grant [FRGS/1/2018/SS109/UPSI/02/29] which has led to the funding of this research and to the UPSI Research Management and Innovation Center for the assistance they have offered.

8. References Abdullah, A. H., Rahman, S. N. S. A., & Hamzah, M. H. (2017). Metacognitive skills of Malaysian students in non-routine mathematical problem solving. Bolema, Rio Claro (SP), 31(57), 310 – 322. Aizyl, A. (2016, August 11). PM: Schools lessons to integrate computational thinking from next year. https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2016/08/11/schoolsto-integrate-computational-thinking-into-lessons-from-next-year-say/1181159 Barefootcas, Computational thinking. (2014). https://barefootcas.org.uk/barefootprimary-computing resources/concepts/computational-thinking/. Bergin, S., Reilly, R., & Traynor, D. (2005). Examining the role of self-regulated learning on introductory programming performance. In International Computing Education Research (ICER). Proceedings of the International Computing Research Education Workshop, (pp. 81-86). Seattle WA USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/1089786.1089794 Brennen, K., & Resnick, M. (2012). New framework for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking [Paper presentation at meeting]. American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(2), 141-178. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0202_2 Buitrago Flórez, F., Casallas, R., Hernández, M., Reyes, A., Restrepo, S., & Danies, G. (2017). Changing a generation’s way of thinking: Teaching computational thinking through programming. Review of Educational Research, 87(4), 834-860. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654317710096 Denning, P. J. (2017). Remaining trouble spots with computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 60(6), 33-39. https://doi.org/10.1145/2998438

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

106

Djambong, T., & Freiman, V. (2016). Task-based assessment of students’ computational thinking skills developed through visual programming or tangible coding environments. In International Association for Development of the Information Society. Proceedings of the International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA), (pp. 41-52). Mannheim, Germany. Feyzi-Behnagh, R., Azevedo, R., Legowski, E., Reitmeyer, K., Tseytlin, E., & Crowley, R. S. (2014). Metacognitive scaffolds improve self-judgments of accuracy in a medical intelligent tutoring system. Instructional Science, 42(2), 159-181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11251-013-9275-4 Filiz, K., Yasemin, G., & Volkan, K. (2016). A Framework for computational thinking based on a systematic research review. Baltic J. Modern Computing, 4(3), 583-596. Francom, G. M. (2010). Teach me how to learn: Principles for fostering students’ selfdirected learning skills. International Journal of Self-Directed Learning, 7(1), 29-44. Gaeta, M., Mangione, G. R., Orciuoli, F., & Saverio, S. (2014). Metacognitive learning environment: a semantic perspective. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 7(2), 69-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/522 Gill, T. G. (2011). Informing with the case method: A Guide to case method research, writing, and facilitation. Informing Science Press. Halpern, D. F. (1999). Teaching for critical thinking: Helping college students develop the skills and dispositions of a critical thinker. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1999(80), 69-74. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.8005 Havenga, M. (2015). The role of metacognitive skills in solving object-oriented programming problems: A case study. TD the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 11(1), 133-147. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/td.v11i1.36 Hinojosa, L. M. M., Rodriguez, M. C., & Paez, C. A. O. (2020). Measurement of metacognition: Adaptation of metacognitive state inventory in Spanish to Mexican University students. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(1), 413421. http://dx.doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.9.1.413 Hooshyar, D., Ahmad, R. B., Yousefi, M., Yusop, F. D., & Horng, S. J. (2015). A flowchartbased intelligent tutoring system for improving problem-solving skills of novice programmers. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1–7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12099 Joseph, L. M., Alber-Morgan, S., Cullen, J., & Rouse, C. (2016). The effects of selfquestioning on reading comprehension: A literature review. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 32(2), 152 - 173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2014.891449 Joseph, K. J. R. (2016, August 12). Computer science education to debut in schools next year. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/08/12/groomingstudents-to-be-techsavvy-computer-science-education-to-debut-in-schools-nextyear/ Kafai, Y. B. (2016). From computational thinking to computational participation in K--12 education. Communications of the ACM, 26–27. https://doi.org/10.1145/2955114 Lee, I., Martin, F., & Apone, K. (2014). Integrating computational thinking across the K–8 curriculum. ACM Inroads, 5(4), 64-71. https://doi.org/10.1145/2684721.2684736 Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation [MDEC]. (2018). Computational Thinking and Computer Science Teaching Certificate Programme for Educator. Ministry of Education Malaysia. Malik, S. I., & Coldwell-Neilson, J. (2017). Impact of a new teaching and learning approach in an introductory programming course. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 1–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0735633116685852 Mannila, L., Dagiene, V., Demo, B., Grgurina, N., Mirolo, C., Rolandsson, L., & Settle, A. (2014). Computational thinking in K-9 education. In Proceedings of the Working

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

107

Group Reports of 2014 on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education Conference, ITiCSE-WGR (pp. 1-29). https://doi.org/10.1145/2713609.2713610 Margarida, R., Alexandre, L., & Benjamin, L. (2017). Computational thinking development through creative programming in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14, 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0080-z Mayer, R. E. (2003). Learning and instruction. Prentice-Hall. Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2012). Pelan pembangunan pendidikan Malaysia 20132025 [Malaysia education development plan 2013-2025]. Ministry of Education Malaysia. Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2016). Kurikulum standard sekolah rendah KSSR. Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum [KSSR primary school standard curriculum. Curriculum Development Division]. Ministry of Education Malaysia. Mohd Rum, S. N. (2015). A metacognitive support environment for novice programmer using semantic web [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Nimmi, P. M., & Zakkariya, K. A. (2016). Developing metacognitive skills: A potential intervention for employability enhancement. Journal of Contemporary Research in Management, 11(3), 11-20. Nunaki, J. H., Damopolii, I., Kandowangko, N. Y., & Nusantari, E. (2019). The effectiveness of Inquiry-based learning to train the students’ metacognitive skills based on gender differences. International Journal of Instruction, 12(2), 505–516. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12232a Nurul Faeizah, H., Hairulliza, M. J., Siti Aishah, H., & Hazilah, M. A. (2020). Technology integration to promote desire to learn programming in higher education. International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering, and Information Technology, 10(1), 253-259. http://dx.doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.10.1.10264 Nor Hasbiah, U., & Jamilah, H. (2019). A Web-based Learning programming portal: Do instructors need it to enhance novice students’ computational thinking skills? International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 8(9), 19451958. Park, N. (2016). Development of computer education program using LOGO programming and fractals learning for enhancing creativity: Focus on creative problem-solving. International Journal of u- and e-Service, Science and Technology, 9(2), 121–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijunesst.2016.9.2.13 Paul, R., Fisher, A., & Nosich, G. (1993). Workshop on critical thinking strategies: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Sonoma State University, CA. Poli, R., & Koza, J. (2014). Genetic Programming. Springer. Ramdiah, S., & Duran Corebima, A. (2014). Learning strategy equalizing students’ achievement, metacognitive, and critical thinking skills. American Journal of Educational Research, 2(8) 577-584. http://dx.doi.org/10.12691/education-2-8-3 Román-González, M., Pérez-González, J. C., & Jiménez-Fernández, C. (2017). Which cognitive abilities under-lie computational thinking? Criterion validity of the computational thinking test. Computers in Human Behaviour, 72, 678-691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.047 Selby, C. C. (2015). Relationships: computational thinking, pedagogy of programming, and bloom’s taxonomy. In Proceedings of the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, (pp. 80-87). https://doi.org/10.1145/2818314.2818315 Seong-Won, K., & Youngjun, L. (2020). An analysis of pre-service teachers' learning process in programming learning. International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering, and Information Technology, 10(1), 58-69. https://doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.10.1.5723

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

108

Shamir, G., Tsybulsky, D., & Levin, L. (2019). Introducing computational thinking practices in learning science of elementary school. In Proceedings of the Informing Science and Information Technology Education Conference, (pp. 187-205). Jerusalem, Israel. https://doi.org/10.28945/4327 Soumela, A., & Stavros, D. (2014). How to support students' computational thinking skills in educational robotics activities. In Proceedings of 4th International Workshop Teaching Robotics, Teaching with Robotics & 5th International Conference Robotics in Education. Padova, Italy. Sterberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2012). Cognition (6th ed.). Cengage Learning. Swaid, S. I. (2015). Science direct bringing computational thinking to STEM education. Procedia Manufacturing, 3, 3657–3662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.761 Ung, L. L., Tammie, C. S., Jane, L., & Norazila, A. A. (2017). Preliminary investigation: Teachers’ perception on computational thinking concepts. Journal of Telecommunication and Computer Engineering, 9, 2-9. Uysal, M. P. (2014). Improving first computer programming experiences: The case of adapting a web-supported and well-structured problem-solving method to a traditional course. Contemporary Educational Technology, 5(3), 198-217. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/6125 Veenman, M. V. J., Van Hout-Wolters, B. H. A. M., & Afflerbach, P. (2006). Metacognition and learning: Conceptual and methodological considerations. Metacognition Learning, 1, 3-14. Voogt, J., Fisser, P., Good, J., Mishra, P., & Yadav, A. (2015). Computational thinking in compulsory education: Towards an agenda for research and practice. Education and Information Technologies, 20(4), 715–728. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-0159412-6 Wing, J. (2008). Computational thinking and thinking about computing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 3717–3725. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2008.0118 Xabier, B., Miguel, A. O., Juan, C. O., & Mauricio, J. R. (2018). Computational thinking in pre-university blended learning classrooms. Computers in Human Behaviour, 80, 412-419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.058

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

109

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 109-125, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.6

Examining Saudi Students’ Perceptions on the Use of the Blackboard Platform during the COVID-19 Pandemic Elham Alzain King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6330-3100

Abstract. The present study aims to examine students’ perceptions on using the Blackboard learning system during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study investigates the effectiveness of the Blackboard on the students’ learning during Coronavirus lockdown. It aims at finding out the difficulties and the challenges students face while using the Blackboard platform as a learning tool. It is expected that this study will contribute to the growing literature on the use of the Blackboard, mainly on its purposes to replace face-to-face learning/teaching process. Therefore, this study provides information about the learning experiences of Saudi students while the highly active use of the Blackboard and presents the challenges faced by the students during the online learning/teaching process. The study employs the quantitative research method as a questionnaire is used for collecting data. It is designed in Google format and emailed to the students. A sample of 270 respondents was selected from the Community College Abqaiq, King Faisal University. The method of analysis is descriptive statistical analysis, where the SPSS is employed for data analysis. The result reveals that students’ perceptions are positive because students are aware of the benefit of the Blackboard platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. And when comparing choice preference between blended courses and online courses, students prefer blended courses. This is due to the challenges and difficulties that students face while using the Blackboard platform. Keywords: blackboard; perspectives; online learning; challenges; COVID-19

1. Introduction The spread of the COVID-19 has led many countries worldwide to take preventive measures. These measures have resulted in many changes at all levels, social interaction, and organization, including the education sector (Moawad, 2020; Murphy, 2020). Responding to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations, many universities, colleges, schools, and ©Author This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

110

institutions across the globe rapidly shifted from the face-to-face classroom to online learning systems. On 8 March 2020, the Saudi Ministry of Education called for virtual classes and distance education to ensure learning continuity during the suspension period (Desk, 2020; Tanveer et al., 2020). Therefore, many e-learning platforms have been used, and among these platforms is the Blackboard platform—one of the most widespread platforms used by universities in KSA. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the online educational systems, i.e., e-learning platforms, have been used in many universities as complementary tools that help in the teaching and learning process. However, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe, these online educational platforms are applied to replace face-to-face classrooms to protect communities, students, teachers, and professors from the pandemic and at the same time maintaining the continuation of education (Alturise, 2020; Coman et al., 2020; Sobaih et al., 2020). Likewise, the Blackboard system has helped teachers and students. It has been evolved from a complementary tool to a fundamental and an essential tool for completing the educational process during the COVID-19 pandemic that forces the universities to shut down their doors and go for online education. In Saudi Arabia, all public universities had taken up Blackboard as the primary learning management system (Al-Nofaie, 2020; Al Shammari, 2021; Khafaga, 2021; Mahyoob, 2020). Concerning the Blackboard system in King Faisal University in general and the community college in particular, the Blackboard was mainly used for uploading lectures, study materials, assignments, and quizzes and hasn’t been used for Blended learning. However, the Blackboard has been extensively used with the quarantine due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). That is to say, its role turns from a supplement to a primary instructional tool used not only for uploading and downloading lectures, course syllabi, study materials, assignments, homework, and quizzes but also for virtual classes, discussion, blogs, electronic exams, assignments, course messages, and other online synchronous and asynchronous activities. In a similar vein, students have been engaged in using the Blackboard for virtual learning classes, online chats, discussions, and other tasks instead of attending classrooms and face-to-face instructions. This sudden shift in the learning style has resulted in different perceptions in using the Blackboard as a learning tool in online learning. Therefore, this present study aims to identify students’ perspectives using the Blackboard platform as a learning tool. The specific objectives are the following: 1. To explore the learning experiences of the Saudi students while using the Blackboard platform as a learning tool; 2. To find out the difficulties and the challenges students face while using Blackboard. Keeping in view the above mentioned objectives, this study attempts to answer the following questions: 1. What are the students’ perspectives of the Blackboard system? 2. What are the difficulties and challenges faced by college students in using the Blackboard system?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

111

2. Literature Review Any academic research contributes to the already existent accumulation of human knowledge, and the current study is no exception. Thus, many people have studied such a topic—the Blackboard system: perspectives and challenges—from different angles. The present study aims to explore the students’ learning experiences at the community college Abqaiq, King Faisal University, while using the Blackboard platform during Covid-19 quarantine. Many previous studies have explained the importance of implementing the Blackboard with the teaching system. Alokluk (2018) points out that using Blackboard revolutionized the traditional system of the learning/teaching process and resulted in effective education. However, the Blackboard system is one of the early software that provided a virtual learning environment. It is widely used—especially in North America and Europe (Caputi & Garrido, 2015)—and available in 12 different languages and is used by users in over 60 countries (Bradford et al., 2007 as cited in Al-Drees et al. 2015). As a component of the Learning Management System, many institutions have started using the Blackboard platform due to its easiness, ubiquity, and accessibility (Mohsen & Shafeeq, 2014). In the last few years, the Blackboard platform has increasingly become popular among colleges and universities students and instructors across the globe (Al-Meajel & Sharadgah, 2018). In the same sense, Blackboard has been defined as a software package that teachers can use to create high-quality online courses (Choy et al., 2005). Thus, the system is meant to support teaching and learning: promoting not only teacher-learner interaction but also interaction among students (Al-Naibi et al., 2015). The system is also provided with features and tools that enable the students to be engaged in learning outside the classroom anywhere and anytime (D’Silva & Reeder, 2005). Previous studies have revealed that the implementation of technological applications can be influenced by the users’ perceptions and attitudes towards the systems and their use. Therefore, the users’ preparedness and acceptance to use the system are essential for successful implementation (Almarabeh, 2014). Al-Drees et al. (2015) state that the “effective utilization of the Blackboard learning system mainly depends on students and faculty members’ background, readiness and acceptance of such system” (p.17). Sheerah (2020) addressed the issue that using modern technology by practitioners is not merely a tool used to enhance the learning/teaching process but also to improve classroom activities and grant a better delivery of the curriculum. The study urged that face-to-face and online activities should be of equal importance. Examining the effectiveness of blended learning in self-directed learning within language skills, Banditvilai (2016) noted that blended learning has a positive advantage as the findings of the study show that online materials are beneficial to enhance language skills and autonomous learning. Pusuluri et al. (2017), in their research study at Al Jouf University, KSA, pointed out that the students neither agree nor disagree about the Blackboard offering a lively and exciting environment. However, the findings of their study imply that the Blackboard could be used as an effective medium to provide instructions motivations. Ja’ashan 2015 states that the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards Blended Learning were positive, for it helps in enhancing their learning, motivating the interaction between teachers and students, and giving students enough time to do their tasks. However, the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

112

study also revealed negative impressions such as easy cheating, a waste of time, and social isolation. Nyabawa 2016, in a case study, investigated the effects of using Blackboard Learn. The results of this research have shown a positive impact of Blackboard on students’ performance. Similarly, Uziak et al. (2018) concluded that students were generally comfortable using Blackboard; their performance improved, and communication with instructors was enhanced significantly. Similarly, Ja’ashan (2020) pointed out that the students’ attitude towards Blackboard is highly positive, and they are aware of the benefits of using E-learning. Hamad (2017), investigating the pros and cons of using Blackboard Collaborate for Blended Learning and its effect on students learning outcomes, stated that there are more advantages than disadvantages, and students are satisfied with using Blackboard Collaborate. Al-qahtani (2019) noted that the students' attitudes and perceptions towards using virtual classes are positively and negatively affected. The result of the study further revealed some advantages such as being easy to use and disadvantages such as having no sense of being in a real class. However, Al-Maqtri (2014) conducted a case study at King Khalid University, KSA. The study concluded that teachers think that E-learning through Blackboard is effective, whereas students (male and female) do not consider Elearning effective. Similarly, Al Zumor et al. (2013) examined the effectiveness of using Blackboard in blended learning modules. The majority of participants (160 male EFL undergraduates) were generally dissatisfied with the blended learning courses and considered Blended learning less effective than face-to-face learning. Investigating the challenges and the difficulties for implementing the Blackboard system in the teaching/learning process, Al Meajel & Sharadgah (2018) state that technological barriers and institutional barriers were the most highly identified barriers. Then the student barriers category came in the third level. Finally, the faculty barriers category ranked at the lower end. Many studies and research papers have recently been conducted to examine online learning applications used during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Blackboard Platform. One of these studies is the study conducted by Khafaga (2021) to explore how modern technologies contribute to the teaching/learning process in Saudi universities. This study concluded that Blackboard Collaborate prove to be useful for learning, both synchronously and asynchronously. Chen et al. (2020) sought to examine the perspectives of the Open University Australia students about the use of the Blackboard in online learning during the COVID19 pandemic. The results showed that students’ perceptions about the Blackboard Collaborate were positive as a tool for real-time engagement, knowledge sharing, and feedback exchange. Similarly, Elsamanoudy et al. (2020) reported that the Blackboard platform was a successful substitute for the traditional classes during the lockdown due to the COVID-19, as students were able to join sessions anytime, anywhere through any device. Almelhi (2021) reported that students had positive attitudes about using the Backboard platform due to its availability, system quality and convenience of use. Examining students’ perceptions on Blackboard, Almekhlafy (2020) conducted a study to assess the online learning via Blackboard. The study concluded that the students’ perceptions of the Blackboard were not positive.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

113

3. Methodology This present study intends to explore the students’ learning experiences at the community college Abqaiq, King Faisal University while using the Blackboard platform as a learning tool during COVID-19 quarantine. The study employed the quantitative research method as a questionnaire was used for collecting data. The method of analysis is a descriptive statistical analysis, where the SPSS version 26.0 is employed. 3.1. Population and Participants The study’s target population consists of 450 students (325 females and 125 males) who studied at Community College Abqaiq, King Faisal University. As it is essential to identify the people and the study sample and reasons for selection (Creswell & Creswell, 2018), all the students joined the college after a preparatory year and share the same background i.e., already familiar with the Blackboard system and its application are chosen as the participants of this study. In this study, the data collection instrument was emailed to all the college students. The received valid responses 270 constitute the sample of this study. According to Thompson's (2012) equation the sample size of the population 450 should be 207, which means 46% of the total population. However, the sample size of this study is 60%. A large sample size helps to get more accurate results. 3.2. Research Instrument and Data Collection The present study was limited to data collection through a questionnaire created with Google Forms and emailed to the students. Based on the theoretical framework and previous studies—mainly Uziak et al. (2018) and Ja’ashan (2020)—the data collection instrument was developed. The questionnaire comprises three sections: the first section was intended to obtain general information using the internet. It encompasses eight items. The second part investigates the use of the Blackboard as a learning tool. Finally, the third part was intended to obtain information on the challenges and the difficulties in using the Blackboard as a learning tool (See the Appendix). It was designed with a five-point Likert-type scale: (1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Don’t know; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree. 3.3. Validity and Reliability of the Instrument The validity of the questionnaire was verified by sending the questionnaire to three experts. Some minor changes were suggested by the experts, and all agreed that the questionnaire was valid for measuring what it was meant for— examining Saudi students’ perceptions on the use of the blackboard platform during the Covid-19 pandemic—and also suggested that for clarity, accuracy, and good understanding of the questionnaire, it is good to be translated into the mother tongue (Arabic) of the population of the study. Thus, a translated version was prepared, checked, and edited. The reliability of the data collection instrument has been tested using Cronbach’s Alpha to verify the overall reliability of the questionnaire and the degree of internal consistency between its items. The Cronbach’s alpha of all the questionnaire’s items was of a high level of reliability (0.872). As the questionnaire of this study consists of three axes, the Stability coefficient of each axis is calculated. Table 1 shows the stability coefficient of the questionnaire’s axes. The analysis shows a high degree of stability. The correlation of each axis and the internal consistency of its items are

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

114

also calculated. The result shows that the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 1. Cronbach's alpha measuring the stability of the questionnaire Axis The General use of Internet The Use of the Blackboard Challenges and Difficulties The total

1 2 3

Number of items 8 24 15 47

Alpha Cronbach 0.855 0.958 0.960 0.872

4. Results What are the students’ perspectives of the Blackboard Platform? The sudden shift to online learning and teaching due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the exclusive use of the internet and technology. Students were not ready for this ongoing situation which requires them to use online platforms for learning. The Blackboard system was used by the King Faisal University and its affiliated colleges. To answer the first research question, it was necessary to obtain students’ responses to the general use of the internet. The students’ responses of this section reveal, in general, a very high-level score, as they strongly agree/agree that they use the internet daily and use the internet for searching information, e-learning sources, and learning. Their responses also reveal that they have good skills in using the internet and technology; they strongly agree that the internet provides opportunities to develop creativity and strongly agree that the internet helps achieve assignments and tasks. Their responses positively range between the means of 4.54 and 3.85. Table 2. Descriptive Statistics for the General Use of the Internet Section Items

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

N % N % N % N % N % N % N % N %

Strongly agree

150 55.5 114 42.2 84 31.1 108 40.0 104 38.5 112 41.5 142 52.6 158 58.5

Agree

Don’t know

Disagree

92 10 14 34.1 3.7 5.2 120 12 22 44.5 4.5 8.1 100 58 18 37.0 21.5 6.7 136 16 6 50.4 5.9 2.2 96 46 16 35.6 17.0 5.9 120 22 16 44.5 8.1 5.9 104 10 14 38.5 3.7 5.2 104 4 4 38.5 1.5 1.5 Weighted mean Standard Deviation

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Strongly disagree

4 1.5 2 0.7 10 3.7 4 1.5 8 3.0 00 00 00 00 00 00

Mean

Std. Deviation

Rank

4.37

0.89

4.19

0.91

3.85

1.05

4.25

0.79

4.00

1.03

4.21

0.83

4.38

0.79

4.54

0.61

4.23 0.62

115

Table 2 shows the Descriptive Statistics for the General Use of the Internet. It illustrates that the highest score was given to item 8 (Internet helps achieve assignments and tasks) with a mean of 4.54 and a standard deviation of 0.61. This is followed by item 7 (Internet provides opportunities to develop creativity) with a mean of 4.38 and a standard deviation of 0.79. Then item 1 (I use the internet daily) comes next with the mean score of 4.37 and a standard deviation of 0.89. After that, item 4 (Internet helps you with your studies) and item 6 (Internet helps to provide e-learning sources) come next in order with the means score of 4.25 (SD= 0.79) and 4.21 (SD= 0.83), respectively. All these items account for strongly agree representing the percentage 58.5%, 52.6%, 55.6%, 40% and 41.5 respectively, and agree 38.5%, 38.5%, 34.1%, 50.4% and 44.4% respectively. Item 2 (Use internet access for searching information) ranked 6th according to a mean score of 4.19 and a standard deviation of 0.91, followed by Item 5 (Internet helps solve your learning problems) with a mean score of 4.00 and a standard deviation of 1.03. Item 3 (Have good technical skills in online searching) comes last with a mean score of 3.85 and a standard deviation of 1.05 with strongly agree by 42.2%, 38.5% and 31.1% respectively, and agree by 44.4%, 35.6% and 37.0 respectively. The weighted average of this part is 4.23, with a standard deviation of 00.62. This indicates that the overall result of this part is "very high," as it lies in the range 4.21 - 5.00. Hence, the scope of the 5-point Likert scale is calculated as Very low 1 - 1.80, Low 1.81 - 2.60, Moderate 2.61 - 3.40, High 3.41 - 4.20, and Very High 4.21 - 5.00. Table 3 shows the students' perspectives on the use of the Blackboard as a learning tool. The students agree that they like to use the Blackboard; they agree that Blackboard is easy to use, and they want to learn more about Blackboard. The students also agree that the Blackboard is a good and positive educational tool, as it gives pleasure in learning and helps to enhance the quality of studies. Their responses positively range between the means 4.22 and 2.92. Table 3. Descriptive Statistics for the Use of Blackboard Platform as a learning tool Section Items

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

N % N % N % N % N % N % N % N

Strongly agree

Agree

Don’t know

Disagree

Strongly disagree

74 27.4 102 37.8 78 28.9 34 12.6 98 36.3 94 34.8 74 27.4 84

102 37.8 98 36.3 102 37.8 68 25.2 106 39.3 104 38.5 122 45.2 112

20 7.4 20 7.4 40 14.8 42 15.6 26 9.6 26 9.6 28 10.4 22

46 17.0 32 11.9 40 14.8 104 38.5 34 12.6 42 15.6 38 14.1 44

28 10.4 18 6.7 10 3.7 22 8.1 6 2.2 4 1.5 8 3.0 8

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Mean

Std. Deviation

Rank

3.54

1.33

3.86

1.23

3.73

1.14

2.95

1.21

3.94

1.08

3.89

1.09

3.80

1.08

3.81

1.13

116

% 31.1 N 72 17 % 26.7 N 54 18 % 20.0 N 86 19 % 31.9 N 78 20 % 28.9 N 90 21 % 33.3 N 86 22 % 31.9 N 122 23 % 45.2 N 84 24 % 31.1 N 72 25 % 26.7 N 80 26 % 29.6 N 82 27 % 30.4 N 74 28 % 27.4 N 68 29 % 25.2 N 68 30 % 25.2 N 76 31 % 28.1 N 48 32 % 17.8 Weighted mean

41.5 88 32.6 110 40.7 86 31.9 100 37.0 114 42.2 114 42.2 114 42.2 120 44.4 102 37.8 90 33.3 106 39.3 136 50.4 130 48.1 116 43.0 94 34.8 66 24.4

8.1 22 8.1 30 11.1 38 14.1 40 14.8 32 11.9 26 9.6 12 4.4 36 13.3 52 19.3 44 16.3 32 11.9 30 11.1 30 11.1 40 14.8 46 17.0 56 20.7

16.3 70 25.9 58 21.5 48 17.8 30 11.1 24 8.9 40 14.8 18 6.7 22 8.1 36 13.3 34 12.6 36 13.3 20 7.4 34 12.6 28 10.5 30 11.1 54 20.0

3.0 18 6.7 18 6.7 12 4.4 22 8.1 10 3.7 4 1.5 4 1.5 8 3.0 8 3.0 22 8.1 14 5.2 10 3.7 8 3.0 18 6.7 24 8.9 46 17.0

3.46

1.31

3.45

1.22

3.68

1.22

3.67

1.23

3.92

1.07

3.88

1.06

4.22

0.92

3.92

1.02

3.71

1.09

3.63

1.25

3.76

1.17

3.90

1.00

3.80

1.05

3.69

1.15

3.62

1.25

3.05

1.36

3.71 Standard Deviation

0.82

Table 3 shows the Descriptive Statistics for the Use of the Blackboard Platform. The results reveal that the Blackboard is very useful. The findings show that the highest average was given to item 23 (Blackboard helps to get course content) with a mean of 4.22 and a standard deviation of 0.92, with strongly agree by 45.2%, and agree by 42.2%. This is followed by item 13 (Blackboard helps to do tasks & assignments) with a mean of 3.94 and a standard deviation of 1.08 with strongly agree by 63.3 and agree by 39.3. Then item 21 (Blackboard gives the feeling that you are responsible for the learning process) and item 24 (It helps obtain the study material as Word, PDF, PowerPoint, audio, and video files) come next with a mean of 3.92 each and with a standard deviation of 1.07 and 1.02 respectively, with strongly agree by 33.3% and 31.1 respectively, and agree by 42.2% and 44.4% respectively. The other items of this section range from the means of 3.90 to 2.95. However, it is item 12 (I like to spend more time on Blackboard) and item 32 (Prefer to have courses delivered using Blackboard only) that come last in order of the items of this section with the mean of 2.92

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

117

and 3.05 and a standard deviation of 1.21 and 1.36 respectively. Both items' value comes within "Moderate." The weighted average of this part is 3.71, with a standard deviation of 00.82. This indicates that the overall result of this section (The Use of the Blackboard Platform as a learning tool) is “high,” as it lies in the range 3.41 – 4.20, according to the 5-point Likert scale. What are the difficulties and challenges faced by college students in using the Blackboard system? This section of the questionnaire tries to reveal the challenges and difficulties in using the Blackboard Platform as a learning tool. The students' responses of this section indicate, in general, a moderate level score, as their results, to some extent, show they face problems with the Blackboard Platform. Table 4. Descriptive Statistics for the Challenges and Difficulties in the Use of the Blackboard Platform as a Learning Tool Section Items

Strongly agree

N 50 % 18.5 N 68 34 % 25.2 N 42 35 % 15.6 N 78 36 % 28.9 N 70 37 % 25.9 N 56 38 % 20.7 N 78 39 % 28.9 N 96 40 % 35.6 N 106 41 % 39.3 N 134 42 % 49.6 N 62 43 % 23.0 N 92 44 % 34.1 N 88 45 % 32.6 N 84 46 % 31.1 N 44 47 % 16.3 Weighted mean 33

Agree

Don’t know

Disagree

Strongly disagree

40 14.8 40 14.8 38 14.1 48 17.8 18 6.7 50 18.5 40 14.8 76 28.1 78 28.9 78 28.9 66 24.4 64 23.7 78 28.9 50 18.5 50 18.5

44 16.3 16 5.9 38 14.1 28 10.4 34 12.6 30 11.1 30 11.1 14 5.2 8 3.0 10 3.7 18 6.7 12 4.4 10 3.7 70 25.9 38 14.1

78 28.9 90 33.3 96 35.6 70 25.9 90 33.3 92 34.1 66 24.4 54 20.0 56 20.7 38 14.1 82 30.4 54 20.0 48 17.8 32 11.9 70 25.9

58 21.5 56 20.7 56 20.7 46 17.0 58 21.5 42 15.6 56 20.7 30 11.1 22 8.1 10 3.7 42 15.6 48 17.8 46 17.0 34 12.6 68 25.2

Mean

Std. Deviation

Rank

2.80

1.42

2.90

1.52

2.68

1.36

3.15

1.50

2.82

1.51

2.94

1.41

3.06

1.54

3.57

1.42

3.70

1.38

4.06

1.20

3.08

1.45

3.36

1.55

3.42

1.51

3.43

1.37

2.74

1.43

3.19 Standard Deviation

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

1.15

118

Table 4 shows the Descriptive Statistics for the Challenges and Difficulties using the Blackboard platform as a Learning Tool. The results are shown in Table 4 vary between the high level and the moderate level. For example, item 42 (Facing problem with the repeated interruptions) stands first with a mean of 4.06 and a standard deviation of 1.20. Then it is followed by item 41 (Facing problem with Blackboard log in) with a mean of 3.70 and a standard deviation of 1.38. Then item 40 (Facing problem using the Blackboard platform) comes next with a mean score of 3.57 and a standard deviation of 1.42. After that, item 46 (Facing problem to communicate with the technical service center) comes next in order with a mean score of 3.43 and a standard deviation of 1.37. Item 45 (Facing problem in homework and assignments upload) comes next in order with a mean score of 3.42 and a standard deviation of 1.51. These are the major problems for the students with "strongly agree" by 49.6%, 39.3%, 35.6%, 31.1% and 32.6% respectively and "agree" by 28.9%, 28.9%, 28.1%, 18.5% and 28.9% respectively. However, the results also reveal a moderate average, as item 44 (Facing problem with homework and assignment download) with a mean of 3.36 and a standard deviation of 1.55, followed by item 36 (Using Blackboard gives me tension) with a mean of 3.5 and a standard deviation of 1.50, followed by item 43 (Facing difficulties to get the course content) with a mean of 3.08 and a standard deviation of 1.45, then followed by item 39 (I don't prefer using Blackboard for learning) with a mean of 3.06 and a standard deviation of 1.54, with "strongly agree" by 34.1%, 28.9%, 23.0%, and 28.9% respectively, and with "agree" by 23.7%, 17.8%, 24.4%, and 14.8% respectively. The average of the other items ranges between the means of 2.94 and 2.74. The weighted average of this section is 3.19, with a standard deviation of 1.15. This indicates that the overall result of this section (The Challenges and Difficulties in the Use of the Blackboard Platform as a Learning Tool) is “Moderate,” as it lies in the range 2.61-3.40.

5. Discussion Countries worldwide went into quarantine, and educational institutions have been compelled to shift from face-to-face classes to online courses (Alturise, 2020; Sobaih et al., 2020). This sudden shift has influenced the teaching process and teacher-student interactions and has generated changes in perceptions of online learning (Coman et al., 2020). This study aims to examine Saudi students’ perceptions on the use of the Blackboard Platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of this study reveals that students’ perceptions are positive as the results show that students are aware of the benefit of the Blackboard platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. This result goes in line with Almelhi (2021), Chen et al. (2020), and Khafaga (2021), who reported that students have positive attitudes towards the Blackboard platform. However, Almekhlafy (2020) reported that the students’ perceptions towards Blackboard were not positive. Regarding the general use of the internet, the majority of the students reported that they use the internet on a daily basis for searching information, e-learning sources, and learning. Their responses also reveal that they have good skills in

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

119

using the internet and technology. This goes in line with Al-Nofaie (2020), who reported that students are pretty good at using the computer, and comfortable surfing the internet. Results further reveal that the Blackboard is very useful and user-friendly. The majority of the students reported that Blackboard helps to get course content, helps to do tasks & assignments, and helps to obtain the study material as Word, PDF, PowerPoint, audio, and video files. This result is consistent with Alokluk (2018) and Al-Nofaie (2020), who reported that most of the students are comfortable with things like getting materials, doing searches, and downloading files. However, some students reported problems downloading the course content, and uploading homework and assignments. Furthermore, the majority of the students perceived that Blackboard gives the feeling that they are responsible for the learning process. This seems to chime with Hamad's (2017) and Khafaga's (2021) contention that Blackboard fosters independent learning. A further result is the students’ perception that the Blackboard is a good and positive educational tool, as it gives pleasure in learning and helps to enhance the quality of learning. This reconciles with Nyabawa (2016) and Sheerah (2020), who concluded that the student academic performance is enhanced by frequent engagement on Blackboard, and with and Chen's et al. (2020) argument that Blackboard Collaborate enhances students’ online learning. Moreover, the results show that using the Blackboard platform gives students the feeling of being engaged in the classroom. This result is similar to findings reported in prior studies: Chen et al. (2020), who reported that students were actively engaged in online sessions using the text chat, and Elsamanoudy et al. (2020), who concluded that students favored to be engaged in online sessions. However, some students reported that using the Blackboard system caused tension. This result is consistent with Moawad (2020) in the sense that COVID-19 causes stress on online learning among students. Additionally, some students reported that they don’t prefer using Blackboard. This result is commensurate with Al-Nofaie's (2020) findings which noted that many students become anxious in virtual sessions and thus they prefer physical interaction. One of the challenges that students encounter while accessing Blackboard is the repeated interruptions in the online classes. The results also show that they have a problem logging in to Blackboard. This result goes in line with Mahyoob's (2020) findings. A further issue that students reported is having difficulty communicating with the technical service center.

6. Implications of the Study The findings of the study provide essential information about the necessity of having the Blackboard system not only as expanding learning possibilities but also as an inevitable and reliable tool for the educational process as well. Though the result shows the effectiveness of using the Blackboard, it also reveals a neutral level in using the Blackboard to increase the students' perception, and also shows no preference in having courses delivered using Blackboard only. Therefore, in the light of the review of the literature and the results of this study, the following recommendations can be made: The universities and the colleges should have incentives that encourage students and faculty members to actively utilize Blackboard in the learning process;

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

120

To make full and effective use of the Blackboard platform, a blended learning approach should be adopted into the learning process and should be used regularly rather than sporadically; Students who show stress and tension should be reassured that all their activities and participations remain within the blackboard platform and are not accessible to everyone. This will help to reduce their anxiety and encourage them to use the Blackboard; Interruptions happened during the online sessions and other technical problems may also cause tension and anxiety for students. These technical problems can be solved by reducing the load of the online courses and rescheduling the online sessions at different times of day. Finally, this study will contribute to the development of online teaching/learning practices and will contribute to the existing literature on elearning.

7. Conclusion The purpose of this study is to explore the students’ perspectives on the use of the Blackboard platform at Community College Abqaiq. The results show that the students are aware of its benefits as a learning tool, and are customarily familiar with its use. The results also support the views that the internet provides opportunities to develop learners’ creativity and helps in achieving assignments and tasks. As far as using the Blackboard platform as a learning tool, the students’ responses reveal a high level of agreement (3.71 with a standard deviation 0.82), as it lies in the range 3.41 – 4.20. The results suggest that the students actively use the Blackboard; to obtain the course content and study materials, do tasks and assignments; and communicate with teachers. Students' responses also reveal that the Blackboard helps in learning, enhancing the quality of the learning, and increasing the student's engagement with the learning. In addition, the results show that the students agree that the Blackboard gives the feeling of being responsible for the learning process and the feeling of being part of the classroom and teacher-student interaction. Though the students' responses show that they prefer to have blended courses delivered using Blackboard and traditional methods and agree that the virtual classrooms using the Blackboard platform are useful, they don't seem to prefer to have courses delivered using Blackboard only. However, the students' responses also reveal that they face problems and challenges while using the Blackboard, such as repeated interruptions while using the Blackboard platform, difficulties to login, difficulties in communicating with the technical service center, and problems to download and upload homework and assignments. In short, Blackboard platform is an attempt and a practice implemented to ensure the continuity of education, and because learners are urged to adapt/adopt new practices in the learning process, they remain skeptical to its practicality to a certain extent.

8. Limitations The study has some limitations, which should be addressed in future research. First, this study was limited to a small sample size of the community college of Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the findings of this research cannot be

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

121

generalized to the entire country. Second, the research focused on the use of the Blackboard platform, meaning other research initiatives could be taken in the future that consider other online educational platforms. Third, since the study is conducted during the COVID-19 when the online education using the Blackboard is adopted to replace the face-to-face classroom, the study may not represent the entire online education practice in the country. Finally, the fact that the existing studies show various and contradictory results requires further research of students’ perceptions of the Blackboard Platform.

9. Acknowledgments The author acknowledges the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University for the financial support under Nasher Track (Grant no. 206104).

10. References Al-Drees, A., Khalil, M. S., Meo, S. A., & Abdulghani, H. M. (2015). Utilization of blackboard among undergraduate medical students: Where we are from the reality? Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2014.07.002 Al-Maqtri, M. A. T. (2014). How Effective is E-learning in Teaching English? : A Case Study. . Journal of Education and Human Development. http://jehdnet.com/vol-3-no2-june-2014-abstract-39-jehd Al-Nofaie, H. (2020). Saudi University Students’ Perceptions towards Virtual Education During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Language Learning via Blackboard. Arab World English Journal, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.1 Al-qahtani, M. S. (2019). The Relevance of Doing Virtual Classes: A Study of Postgraduate Female Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions. Arab World English Journal, 1. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/efl1.14 Al Meajel, T. M., & Sharadgah, T. A. (2018). Barriers to Using the Blackboard System in Teaching and Learning: Faculty Perceptions. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9323-2 Al-Naibi, S. A., Madarsha, K. B., & Ismail, N. A. (2015). Blackboard Use by Faculty Members in the Colleges of Applied Sciences in the Sultanate of Oman. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol3.iss4.345 Al Shammari, M. H. (2021). Devices and Platforms Used in Emergency Remote Learning and Teaching During Covid19: A Case of English Major Students in Saudi Arabia. Arab World English Journal, 1. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/covid.6 Al Zumor, A. W., K. Al Refaai, I., A. Bader Eddin, E., & H. Aziz Al-Rahman, F. (2013). EFL Students’ Perceptions of a Blended Learning Environment: Advantages, Limitations and Suggestions for Improvement. English Language Teaching, 6(10). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n10p95 Almarabeh, T. (2014). Students’ Perceptions of E-learning at the University of Jordan. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET), 9(3). https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v9i3.3347 Almekhlafy, S. S. A. (2020). Online learning of English language courses via blackboard at Saudi universities in the era of COVID-19: perception and use. PSU Research Review, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-08-2020-0026 Almelhi, A. M. (2021). The Role of the Blackboard LMS in EFL Course Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Attitudes and Perceptions of Faculty and Students. International Journal of English Linguistics, 11(2).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

122

https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v11n2p46 Alokluk, J. A. (2018). The Effectiveness of Blackboard System, Uses and Limitations in Information Management. Intelligent Information Management, 10(06). https://doi.org/10.4236/iim.2018.106012 Alturise, F. (2020). Difficulties in Teaching Online with Blackboard Learn Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Western Branch Colleges of Qassim University. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 11(5), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2020.0110512 Banditvilai, C. (2016). Enhancing Students’ Language Skills through Blended Learning. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 14(3), 220–229. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1107134 Bradford, P., Porciello, M., Balkon, N., & Backus, D. (2007). The Blackboard Learning System: The Be All and End All in Educational Instruction? Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3). https://doi.org/10.2190/X137-X73L-5261-5656 Caputi, V., & Garrido, A. (2015). Student-oriented planning of e-learning contents for Moodle. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2015.04.001 Chen, J. C., Dobinson, T., & Kent, S. (2020). Lecturers’ perceptions and experiences of Blackboard Collaborate as a distance learning and teaching tool via Open Universities Australia (OUA). Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and eLearning, 35(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2019.1688654 Choy, D., Xiao, J., & Iliff, J. (2005). How can technology help improve the quality of Blackboard faculty training and encourage faculty to use Blackboard? . Annual Proceedings-Orlando, 1, 1, 130–134. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED499958.pdf Coman, C., Țîru, L. G., Meseșan-Schmitz, L., Stanciu, C., & Bularca, M. C. (2020). Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Students’ Perspective. Sustainability, 12(24). https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410367 Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, D. J. (2018). Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (Fifth Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. California. D’Silva, R., & Reeder, K. (2005). Factors that influence faculty members’ uptake and continued use of course management systems. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2005.00578.x Desk, W. (2020). Coronavirus outbreak: Saudi Arabia closes schools and universities. https://www.geo.tv/latest/276467-coronavirus-outbreak-saudi-arabia-closesschools-and-universities Elsamanoudy, A., Al Fayz, F., & Hassanien, M. (2020). Adapting blackboard-collaborate ultra as an interactive online learning tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.4103/JMAU.JMAU_26_20 Hamad, M. M. (2017). Pros & Cons of Using Blackboard Collaborate for Blended Learning on Students Learning Outcomes. Higher Education Studies, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v7n2p7 Ja’ashan, M. M. N. (2015). Perceptions and Attitudes towards Blended Learning for English Courses: A Case Study of Students at University of Bisha. English Language Teaching, 8(9). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n9p40 Ja’ashan, M. M. N. (2020). The Challenges and Prospects of Using E-learning among EFL Students in Bisha University. Arab World English Journal, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no1.11 Khafaga, A. F. (2021). The perception of blackboard collaborate-based instruction by EFL majors/teachers amid COVID-19: A case study of Saudi universities. Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.904145 Mahyoob, M. (2020). Challenges of e-Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic Experienced by EFL Learners. Arab World English Journal, 11(4).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

123

https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no4.23 Moawad, R. A. (2020). Online Learning during the COVID- 19 Pandemic and Academic Stress in University Students. Revista Romaneasca Pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 12(1Sup2). https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/12.1sup2/252 Mohsen, M. A., & Shafeeq, C. P. (2014). EFL Teachers’ Perceptions on Blackboard Applications. English Language Teaching, 7(11). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n11p108 Murphy, M. P. A. (2020). COVID-19 and emergency eLearning: Consequences of the securitization of higher education for post-pandemic pedagogy. Contemporary Security Policy, 41(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2020.1761749 Nyabawa, R. f. (2016). Technology in Learning: Blackboard Usage & Its Impact on Academic Performance; A Case for Universities in Lesotho. International Journal of Humanities and Management Sciences (IJHMS), 4(5), 455–461. http://www.isaet.org/images/extraimages/P1216204.pdf Pusuluri, S., Mahasneh, A., & Alsayer, B. A. M. (2017). The Application of Blackboard in the English Courses at Al Jouf University: Perceptions of Students. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0702.03 Sheerah, H. A. H. (2020). Using Blended Learning to Support the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Arab World English Journal, 6. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/call6.13 Sobaih, A. E. E., Hasanein, A. M., & Abu Elnasr, A. E. (2020). Responses to COVID-19 in Higher Education: Social Media Usage for Sustaining Formal Academic Communication in Developing Countries. Sustainability, 12(16). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166520 Tanveer, M., Bhaumik, A., Hassan, S., & Ul Haq, I. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic, outbreak educational sector and students online learning in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 23(3), 1–14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341519892 Thompson, S. K. (2012). Sampling (Third Edition). John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Uziak J, Oladiran T, Lorencowicz E, & Becker K. (2018). Students’ and Instructor’s Perspective on the use of Blackboard Platform for Delivering an Engineering Course. The Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 16(1), 1–15. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jacek-Uziak/research

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

124

Appendix Questionnaire Dear students This is a questionnaire for the purpose of a research study. This study aims to examine Students’ Perceptions on the use of the Blackboard Platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 47 statements. Read each statement and choose one of the five options ((1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Don’t Know; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree.) that you think it best describes your choice. Items

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21

Strongly agree

Agree

Don’t know

General use of Internet I use internet daily. I use internet access for searching information. I have good technical skills in online searching. Internet helps me with my studies. Internet helps to solve my learning problems. Internet helps providing me with elearning sources. Internet provides opportunities to develop creativity. Internet helps in achieving assignments and tasks. The use of the Blackboard as a learning tool I like using the blackboard application. Blackboard is user-friendly. I like to learn more about blackboard. I like to spend more time using blackboard. Blackboard helps in doing tasks and assignments. Blackboard is a good educational tool. Blackboard helps in positive learning. Blackboard helps to enhance the quality of learning. Blackboard gives me pleasure in learning. The use of the blackboard increased my perception. The use of blackboard increases my effectiveness and my activity with subjects. Blackboard gives flexibility in time. Blackboard gives the feeling that you are responsible for the learning process. Blackboard gives the feeling that you are part of the classroom.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Disagree

Strongly disagree

125

23 24

25 26 27

28 29 30

31 32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

Blackboard helps to get course content. It helps to obtain the study material as Word, PDF, PowerPoint, audio and video files. The virtual classes on the blackboard help on the educational achievement. The virtual classes on the blackboard are helpful for me. The information delivered in the virtual classroom lectures in the Blackboard is sufficient and clear. Blackboard is useful in communicating with the teachers. Blackboard is useful in teacherstudents interaction. The discussions presented by the teacher on the blackboard system are clear and meaningful. I prefer courses delivered using blackboard and traditional method. I Prefer courses delivered using blackboard only. Challenges and the difficulties in using the Blackboard as a learning tool I face problem with internet access. There is a lack of technology and software required for home access. Blackboard is too difficult. Using blackboard gives me tension. Using blackboard is too complicated. I don’t have time for blackboard. I don’t prefer using blackboard. I face problems in using the blackboard. I face problems with blackboard login. I face problems with the repeated interruptions. I face difficulties to get the course content. I face problems in downloading homework and assignment. I face problems in uploading homework and assignments. I face problems to communicate with the technical service center. There is a lack of training in the use of blackboard.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

126

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 126-151, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.7

A Bibliometric Analysis of Blended Learning in Higher Education: Perception, Achievement and Engagement Arumugam Raman Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5351-8944 Raamani Thannimalai Ministry of Education, Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8758-4202 Yahya Don Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6340-4999 Mohan Rathakrishnan Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3360-5343

Abstract. This article presents a bibliometric analysis of publications on blended learning in higher education. The analysis is grounded on statistics obtained from the online Scopus database on 11 December 2019. The study used Microsoft Excel to conduct a frequency analysis, VOSviewer for data visualization, and Harzing’s Publish or Perish for citation metrics and analysis. In total 1,064 valid documents were analyzed, based on keyword search results for “blended learning”, “perception”, “achievement”, “engagement”, “higher education” and “bibliometric analysis”. This article reports descriptive and content analysis on document type and source type. Analysis shows that number of publications per year increased from 2000 to 2018. English is the most widely used language for publications, and most publications are from the social sciences. The United States contributes the most publications. The most active journals, influential institutions, citation metrics and highly cited articles are listed. Network visualization maps demonstrate keyword analysis of author keywords; co-authorship by country and author; number of authors per document; citations by country and document; co-occurrence of all keywords; and, lastly, co-citation by cited sources. The visibility of work on blended learning in highly cited journals in the past two decades reveals that blended learning has gained significant attention among educators and researchers. Future research

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

127

could include systematic literature reviews or other mapping tools, such as HistCite. Keywords: achievement; bibliometric analysis; blended learning; engagement; perception

1. Introduction Blended learning (BL) is an educational approach first postulated in 2000 (Cooney et al., 2000); since then, it has been used in many fields of leadership training (Voci & Young, 2001) and higher education (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004; Raman & Rathakrishnan, 2019). However, not many bibliometric analyses have been carried out on BL in higher education contexts, especially not related to perception, achievement, and engagement (Dwivedi et al., 2019). Bibliometrics is a quantitative analytic technique that uses mathematical and statistical methods to ascertain the relationships between and impacts of publications in a particular field of study (Lee et al., 2020). In bibliometrics, bibliometric mapping is an important research area that is fast gaining popularity among e-learning researchers (Börner et al., 2003). However, there is still a dearth of bibliometric information relating to BL and e-learning research globally in the educational setting (Diem & Wolter, 2013; Lee et al., 2009) and information technology (Hsiao et al., 2015). Moreover, the latest publications on e-learning demonstrate a wide bibliometric interrelation amongst its articles, which are predominantly in the social sciences (Tibaná-Herrera et al., 2018). Engagement is a widely relevant predictor of student satisfaction and achievement in BL, because engagement has the potential to improve the student experience (Lane et al., 2021). Moreover, there is a significant correlation between BL and students' perception of using BL approaches, and academic achievement (Alamri, 2021). However, there is limited visibility of BL in higher education in relation to students’ perceptions about BL, and its role in achievement and engagement. Therefore, this research aimed to fill this gap, by investigating the scholarly networks and worldwide trends involving BL in higher education, based on a bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles published between 2000 to 2019 and visible in the Scopus database. The purpose of this research was to evaluate published literature on BL, perception, achievement, engagement in higher education, based on publication output, author keyword occurrence, most productive journals, most productive institutions, authors, and country contributions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of BL on perception, achievement, and engagement in higher education. The central research questions relating to BL in higher education that guided the bibliometric analysis of this study are as follows: RQ1: What are the document and source types? RQ2: What is the research productivity? RQ3: What are the most used languages in documents? RQ4: What subject areas are researching BL in higher education? RQ5: What are the most active journals publishing papers? RQ6: What are the most influential institutions that contributed to BL in higher education? RQ7: What is the distribution of author keywords and co-occurrences of author

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

128

keywords? RQ8: What is the geographical distribution of publications by country? RQ9: How many authors collaborate per document? RQ10: Who are the most active authors? RQ11: What is the distribution of co-authorship by authors? RQ12: What is the citation analysis of documents?

2. Literature Review 2.1. Bibliometric Mapping Bibliometrics can be defined as quantitative and descriptive statistical analysis of publications, such as journal articles (Ding et al., 2016), conference proceedings papers (Michels & Fu, 2014), and book chapters (Zuccala & van Leeuwen, 2011). By searching the Web of Science and Scopus databases by topic, author, journal, and time period, bibliographic data can be retrieved. Over the past two decades, quantitative analysis of publication and citation data has been widely used in education settings to assess prominent authors, conceptual and intellectual maps, and trends in scientific ecosystems (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). The creation of bibliometric maps (distance-based maps) and the graphical illustration of those maps (graph-based maps) are two aspects of bibliometric mapping. Constructions of maps are more widely used and discussed in bibliometric literature than graphical illustrations of maps (Van Eck & Waltman, 2010). Computer programs, such as SPSS and Pajek, generate simple graphical illustrations for bibliometric literature, which are only suitable for small maps of less than 100 items (Chen, 2003; Skupin, 2004). Therefore, a new computer program that can plot larger maps was developed (Klavans & Boyack, 2006, Van Eck & Waltman, 2020). 2.2. Visualisation of Similarities (VOSviewer) VOS (Visualisation of Similarities) viewer is a computer program that was designed to create and visualise bibliometric maps, free of charge (Van Eck & Waltman, 2020). Several computer programs can be used for bibliometric mappings, such as Histcite, SPSS and Pajek (Chen, 2003; Skupin, 2004), but VOS emphasizes graphical representation. The speciality of VOSviewer is that it can display large bibliometric maps, for example, it can construct maps of authors or journals based on keyword, co-citation, and co-occurrence data. Another advantage of VOS is that it can be used for more than 100 items. The VOS mapping technique demonstrates excellent performance in viewing and constructing maps, the procedures of which are wholly integrated into VOSviewer. Three types of visualizations can be demonstrated, namely network, overlay, and density visualization. However, for this study, only the network visualization was generated and analyzed (Van Eck & Waltman, 2020). 2.3. Scopus Database Sophisticated analytical tools are now available to ensure that bibliometric analysis is accurate, and to cover a large pool of publications over long periods. Some of the widely used databases are Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science (Li et al., 2010). For this study, the Scopus database was searched using keywords applicable to this article. As of 2 February 2020, no results were returned by the Scopus database for the keywords “blended learning”, “perception”, “achievement”, “engagement”, “higher learning” and “bibliometric analysis”. However, there was an article reporting a study on the relationship

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

129

between student perceptions in BL courses and their in-course achievement in higher education (Owston et al., 2013). This analysis was carried out due to the existence of this prevailing gap between BL and perceptions, achievement, and engagement in higher education. 2.4. Bibliometric Indicators Bibliometrics measures the impact of scientific research by using bibliometric indicators, such as the impact factor and the h-index. Bibliometric indicators measure the impact of a paper by counting the number of other papers that have cited it. Harzing's Publish or Perish software is widely used to calculate citation metrics, such as h-index and g-index (Harzing, 2020). 2.5. Definitions of Blended Learning, Perception, Achievement and Engagement BL systems integrate face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction (Graham, 2018). BL is described by Garrison and Kanuka (2004, p. 96) as “the careful combination of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences”. Perception can refer to the presence of an experiencing person or perceiver; second, it can be what is being perceived (object, person, situation, or relationship); third, the context of the situation in which objects, events, or persons are perceived; and finally, the process nature of perception, which begins with the experience of several stimuli by the perceiver (Jordaan & Jordaan, 1996, cited by Lewis, 2001). Achievement refers to success in relation to the academic objectives that students are required to accomplish as a result of their learning activities (Hattie & Anderman, 2013). Engagement, according to the National Survey of Student Engagement, is defined as the amount of time students devote to educational activities in order to achieve the desired outcomes, as well as the quality of their related efforts (Kuh, 2009). Furthermore, engagement is described as “the degree to which students participate in activities that have been linked to high-quality learning outcomes in higher education research“ (Krause & Coates, 2008).

3. Method The data in this analysis were established by searching 24,600 active titles and 5,000 publishers on the Scopus database and Scopus indexed content. Although several databases are widely available, the bibliometric analysis in this research is based entirely on Scopus databases. In addition, to create sample articles for the analysis, only five keywords were utilized as search terms, namely “blended learning”; “perception”; “achievement”; “engagement”, and “higher education”. Network visualization and bibliometric indicators will be illustrated to answer the research questions. Scopus uses rigorous original metadata to associate people, published theories, and institutions. By using refined tools and analytics, Scopus creates accurate citation outcomes and comprehensive researcher profiles. “Blended learning” OR

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

130

“perception” OR “achievement” OR “engagement” AND “higher education” was used as the string to search titles, abstracts, and keywords. Documents published between 2000 to 2019 were retrieved for analysis. This research employed the stepwise procedure commonly used in bibliometric studies, which is illustrated in the flowchart in Figure 1 (Zare et al., 2017).

Figure 1: Steps in the bibliometric research method (Zare et al., 2017)

3.1. Bibliometric analysis Bibliometrics is a computerized investigation of publications by statistical designs (Ellegaard & Wallin, 2015). Over the last decade, bibliometric analysis has gained popularity as a method that can reveal the trends of visibility in open-access and conference publications. Publication outlet, type of publication, authorship, affiliation, country, and h-index are most frequently analyzed (Ahmi & Mohamad, 2019). According to Rusly et al. (2019), a bibliometric analysis could analyse data concerning publications over a period, by referring to frequency of keywords, citations, and authors. 3.2. Source and Data Collection The search query, “The Effect of Blended Learning on Perception, Achievement, and Engagement in Higher Education” was searched within the ‘article title’ box at the Scopus database on 2 February 2020. Overall, 1,064 documents were produced for advanced investigation. The retrieval data from Scopus database were exported in the form of RIS and CSV for further analysis. Software, such as Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer and Harzing's Publish and Perish, was used to analyze the collected Scopus documents. Microsoft Excel 2019 was used to calculate the frequency and percentage of each publication, as well as to generate suitable graphical representations; VOSviewer (version 1.6.15) was used to visualize the bibliometric networks; and citation metrics were calculated using Harzing's Publish and Perish program (Mansour et al., 2021).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

131

4. Results The research findings comprise information on document and source types; research productivity; the language of documents; subject area; most active journals; author keywords analysis and co-occurrences of author keywords; geographical distribution of publications; the number of authors per document; most active authors, co-authorship by authors, most influential institutions; and citation analysis. In addition, visualization maps were used to enhance keyword analysis, the explanation of geographical distribution of publications, the number of authors per document, most influential institutions, highly cited articles/most influential papers through Google Scholar (2000–2019), the geographical distribution of publications, and frequently cited articles through Google Scholar (2000–2019). 4.1. Document and source types Publications obtained from the Scopus database can be classified according to document type and source type. Document type includes information on the origin of publications, such as journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters (Sigogneau, 2000; Sweileh et al., 2017; Ahmi & Mohamad, 2019). Conference papers are classified as papers that were presented at conferences, and which might also have been published as journal articles (Ahmi & Mohamad, 2019). In this study, nine types of documents were published by Scopus between the years 2000 and 2019 (Table 1). Out of the 1,064 documents published, 723, or 67.95%, were articles. This was followed by 145 conference papers (13.635%); 112 book chapters (10.53%); 38 reviews (3.57%); 18 books (1.69%); eight editorials (0.75%); and seven notes (0.66%). A total of six documents were classified as errata (0.56%), and seven documents were undefined by Scopus (0.66%). Table 1. Document type Document type Article Conference Paper Book Chapter Review Book Editorial Note Erratum Undefined Total

Frequency 723 145 112 38 18 8 7 6 7 1,064

% (N=1,064) 67.95 13.63 10.53 3.57 1.69 0.75 0.66 0.56 0.66 100.00

Documents published under the category of source type consisted of journals (73.21%) – the highest percentage – followed by books (11.84%); conference proceedings (11.65%); book series (3.10%) and trade publications (0.19%) (Table 2). Source type conference papers can be published as either book chapters or conference proceedings (Sweileh et al., 2017).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

132

Table 2. Source type Source type Journals Books Conference Proceedings Book Series Trade Publications Total

Frequency 779 126 124 33 2 1,064

% (N=1,064) 73.21 11.84 11.65 3.10 0.19 100.00

4.2. Research productivity Research productivity is normally defined by the number of publications (Fox, 1983; Reynolds, 1971). Analysis of documents by year of publication enables researchers to track the pattern and visibility of research (Ahmi & Mohamad, 2019). In this study, the total annual publications ascertained research productivity. It is illustrated by a percentage and cumulative percentage of publications from 2000 to 2019. This analysis found that the number of publications per year, the percentage, and cumulative percentage of publications increased gradually from 2000 to 2018, with a slight dip in 2016, as shown in Table 3 and Figure 2. The highest number was achieved in 2018, with 151 publications, and the lowest in 2000, with only five publications. This finding shows that the search strings of this study had increased in visibility in the last two decades and is increasingly becoming a favorite research topic, especially among e-learning researchers (Johnson et al., 2016). Table 3: Publications by year Year

No. of publications

Percentage (%) (N=1,064)

Cumulative percentage (%)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Total

5 6 6 5 13 15 12 16 28 29 48 44 61 74 83 109 94 117 151 148 1,064

0.47 0.56 0.56 0.47 1.22 1.41 1.13 1.50 2.63 2.73 4.51 4.14 5.73 6.95 7.80 10.24 8.83 11.02 14.19 13.91 100

0.47 1.03 1.59 2.06 3.28 4.69 5.82 7.32 9.95 12.68 17.19 21.33 27.06 34.01 41.81 52.05 60.88 71.9 86.09 100

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

133

Figure 2. Number of publications by year

4.3. Language of documents English is the most widely used language for publications, covering 92.89% of the total number of publications, followed by Spanish (3.23%) and Portuguese (1.94%) (Table 4). The rest of the publications were in other languages, namely Afrikaans, French, German and Croatian. Asian languages, such as Japanese, Korean, and Thai, were used in 0.09% of publications. A few other European languages that are used in publications in Scopus are Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian (0.095). A total of 19 publications were found to be published in dual languages, which explains the frequency of 1,083, although the total number of publications in this analysis is 1,064 (Table 1). Table 4: Languages used for publications Language English Spanish Portuguese Afrikaans French Croatian German Japanese Korean Russian Thai Turkish Ukrainian Total

Frequency* 1,006 35 21 5 4 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1,083

% (N=1083) 92.89 3.23 1.94 0.46 0.37 0.28 0.28 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.09 100.00

*19 documents were prepared in dual languages

4.4. Subject area The publications were categorized further according to 25 subject areas, as summarized in Table 5. Results confirm that BL is a method that most widely used in the social sciences, as 53.93% of all publications in this study are, in fact, about the social sciences. Next-most-common subject areas are computer science (12.46%) and business, management and accounting (8.12%). BL and perception of, and achievement and engagement in higher education are also integrated into other subject areas, as shown in Table 5. Other significant contributing areas are

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

134

the arts and humanities, psychology, and engineering. The total frequency of 1,565, which is much higher than the actual total of 1,064 publications, indicates that BL is a multidisciplinary field about which work is published and categorized across more than one subject area. Table 5. Subject area Subject area

Frequency % (N=1,565) Social Sciences 844 53.93 Computer Science 195 12.46 Business, Management and Accounting 127 8.12 Arts and Humanities 77 4.92 Psychology 69 4.41 Engineering 65 4.15 Economics, Econometrics and Finance 35 2.24 Medicine 25 1.60 Decision Sciences 21 1.34 Mathematics 20 1.28 Environmental Science 19 1.21 Health Professions 15 0.96 Energy 9 0.58 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8 0.51 Multidisciplinary 8 0.51 Physics and Astronomy 6 0.38 Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 5 0.32 Earth and Planetary Sciences 5 0.32 Nursing 4 0.26 Chemical Engineering 2 0.13 Neuroscience 2 0.13 Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics 2 0.13 Materials Science 1 0.06 Veterinary 1 0.06 1,565 Total 100 *Publications were classified according to source title. Some of the source titles were categorized in more than one subject area.

4.5. Most active journals The search for the most active journals generated 15 journals, as listed in Table 6. Studies in Higher Education topped the list, with 20 articles. This was followed by Higher Education Research and Development (16), Higher Education (14), Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education (12 articles), and Journal of Further and Higher Education (11 articles). Ten articles on BL and the keywords analyzed in this paper were published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education and Computers and Education Journal. The journals that published seven articles over the period studied are British Journal of Educational Technology, Christian Higher Education, Higher Education Policy and Proceedings of The European Conference on E-Learning (Ecel). Cite score, which encompasses more social sciences and humanities journals, is grounded on information obtained from the Scopus database, and has a threeyear citation window. The top three ranked journals Internet and Higher Education

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

135

(9.41), followed by Computers in Education (7.72) and British Journal of Educational Technology (4.07). Although Higher Education (N/A) published 14 articles in that period, Scopus did not provide the cite score. Table 6. Most active journals Number of Articles Studies in Higher Education 20 Higher Education Research and Development 16 Higher Education 14 Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education 12 Journal of Further and Higher Education 11 Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 10 Computers and Education 10 Internet and Higher Education 9 Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 9 Communications in Computer and Information Science 8 Quality Assurance in Education 8 British Journal of Educational Technology 7 Higher Education Policy 7 Total 141 Journals

Cite Score (2018) 3.28 2.58 N/A 0.64 1.63 2.72 7.72 9.41 1.55 0.46 1.53 4.07 1.47

4.6. Most influential institutions The most influential institutions that contributed documents on BL were also analyzed for this paper. Out of 164 institutions that had published a minimum of seven publications, Monash University (Australia) topped the list, with 11 publications (6.67%). This was followed by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Curtin University (Australia), and the University of London, with ten publications (6.06%) each. This proves that BL and e-learning have gained the attention of researchers from both Western and Eastern countries. It is interesting that eight of the top 20 institutions were in Australia, four in the United Kingdom; three in Portugal; two each in Malaysia and the United States of America, and one in Spain. Table 7. Most influential institutions Country Monash University Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Curtin University University of London RMIT University Universidade do Minho Universidade de Aveiro The University of Sydney Universidade de Lisboa National University of Ireland Galway Griffith University Universitat de Barcelona

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Frequency 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 7

% (N=165) 6.67 6.06 6.06 6.06 5.45 5.45 5.45 5.45 5.45 4.85 4.85 4.24

136

Universiti Teknologi MARA Brigham Young University University of Salford University of Southern Queensland Indiana University Lancaster University University of Plymouth University of Queensland Total

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 165

4.24 4.24 4.24 4.24 4.24 4.24 4.24 4.24 100.00

4.7. Analysis of author keywords and co-occurrences of author keywords Descriptive analysis of the 20 keywords most frequently used by authors revealed that the most frequently used keyword is “higher education” (15.24%), followed by “students” (5.85%), “education” (4.08%), “blended learning” (3.50%), and “elearning” (3.16%). “Perception” and “student engagement” were found to each represent only 2.19% of the total search returns of this study, followed by “academic achievement”, which had a percentage of 1.00% (Table 8). Table 8: Author keywords analysis Author keywords Higher Education Students Education Blended Learning E-learning Teaching Perception Student Engagement Human Engineering Education Student Higher Education Institutions Education Computing Engagement Computer-aided Instruction Article Learning University Academic Achievement Humans

Frequency 396 152 106 91 82 78 57 57 39 36 35 33 30 29 28 27 27 27 26 25

Percentage 15.24% 5.85% 4.08% 3.50% 3.16% 3.00% 2.19% 2.19% 1.50% 1.39% 1.35% 1.27% 1.15% 1.12% 1.08% 1.04% 1.04% 1.04% 1.00% 0.96%

To map widely used keywords with VOSviewer, co-occurrence analysis was administered and author keywords were chosen. The network visualization map of co-occurrences by author keywords was generated and is shown in Figure 3. From the analysis, six clusters of blended learning were developed. The largest label and circle, which is for “higher education“, reveals that the keyword “higher education“ has the largest number of occurrences in the Scopus database. The second cluster, which has the second-largest font, represents “blended learning“. The third cluster represents “student engagement“ and is linked to other

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

137

keywords, such as “social media”, “Web 2.0”, and “Facebook”. This is followed by “employability”, which is linked to “mobile learning”, “instructional design”, “motivation”, “academic achievement”, and, lastly “, perception”. The distance between “higher education” and “assessment” was, furthermore, compared to the distance between “higher education” and “student engagement”. This means that the relationship between “higher education” and “student engagement” is stronger than that between “higher education” and “assessment”. The distance between “higher education” and “blended learning” is the shortest, and this shows that the relationship between these two variables is the strongest. The relationship between “higher education” and “achievement” is the weakest, as these two terms are situated furthest away from each other.

Minimum number of occurrences of a keyword: 5 Number of keywords to be selected: 5

Figure 3. Network visualization map of co-occurrences by author keyword

4.8. Geographical distribution of publications A total of 1,220 publications from around the world were identified in the Scopus database for the period of study. However, after descriptive analysis, we selected only the 20 most influential countries. From 2000 to 2019, a total of 938 papers was published. Overall, the United States contributed the largest number of publications on BL and the keywords researched (22.71%), followed by the United Kingdom (19.83%), Australia (11.19%), and Spain (7.25%). This study reveals that developed countries were at the forefront of research on BL and other fields of educational technology. Following closely behind the leading countries were developing countries, such as Malaysia (5.65%), South Africa (3.52%), and Brazil (2.675).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

138

Table 9. Top 20 countries’ contribution to publications Country United States United Kingdom Australia Spain Malaysia Portugal South Africa Brazil Canada Ireland Turkey Belgium Germany India Netherlands Indonesia Chile New Zealand Hong Kong China Total

Frequency 213 186 105 68 53 35 33 25 25 22 22 20 20 19 19 17 15 15 14 12 938

% (N=938) 22.71 19.83 11.19 7.25 5.65 3.73 3.52 2.67 2.67 2.35 2.35 2.13 2.13 2.03 2.03 1.81 1.60 1.60 1.49 1.28 100.00

The network visualization map of the co-authorship by country is shown in Figure 4. This analysis was carried out using fractional counting, with a minimum of three documents and citations per country. The United States contributed the most publications on BL, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain and Malaysia. The links between differently colored clusters show that authors from different countries collaborated to produce articles, for example, between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. There was also collaboration among authors from countries within the same cluster, for example, authors from Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Belgium produced papers collectively.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

139

Unit of analysis: Countries Counting method: Fractional counting Minimum number of documents of a country: 3 Minimum number of citations of a country: 5

Figure 4. Network visualization map of the co-authorship by countries

A network visualization map of citations by country, with a minimum of five documents and ten citations per country, is shown in Figure 12. According to the circles, clusters, labels, and links, the United States produced the highest number of citations, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Malaysia, and Portugal, in that order.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

140

Minimum number of documents per country: 5 Minimum number of citations per country: 10

Figure 5. Network visualization map of the citation by countries

4.9. Number of authors per document The number of authors who contributed to a document was calculated by descriptive analysis, that is frequency and percentage, as shown in Table 9. Most of the publications had two authors (28.57%), followed by three authors and one author (25.75%) per document. Publications that had been prepared by five or more authors made up 8.36% of the total number of publications. Table 10. Number of the author(s) per document Author count 0* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (blank)

Frequency 5 274 304 278 114 53 25 5 2 2 1 1

*Conference review documents. No authors listed.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

% (N=1,064) 0.47 25.75 28.57 26.12 10.71 4.98 2.35 0.47 0.19 0.19 0.09 0.09 0.00

141

4.10. Most active authors This study also investigated the most active authors who published documents on BL. Table 11 lists 20 of the most active authors who had published at least six publications. The authors Kinchin, Hosein, Medland, Lygo-Baker, Warburton, Gash, Rees, Loughlin, Woods, Price, Usherwood had published the largest number of documents – in total 11 articles (2.08%). Table11. Most active authors Author names

No. of Percentage publications (%)

Kinchin, I., Hosein, A., Medland, E., Lygo-Baker, S., Warburton, S., Gash, D., Rees, R., Loughlin, C., Woods, R., Price, S. & Usherwood, S

2.08

Bokolo A. Jr, Kamaludin, A., Romli, A., Farihan, A., Raffei, M., Nincarean, D. A/L Eh Phon, Abdullah, A., Ming, G. L., Shuker, N. A., Shukri Nordin, M., & Baba, S.

1.89

Van der Heijden, K. B., Vermeulen, M. C., Donjacour, C. E., Gordijn, M. C., Hamburger, H. L., Meijer, A. M., van Rijn, J.J., Vlak, M., & Weysen, T.

1.70

Sicilia, M-A., Lytras, M. D., Sánchez-Alonso, S., García-Barriocanal, E., & Zapata-Ros, M.

1.70

Schmid, R. F., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Tamim, R., Abrami, P. C., Wade, C. A., Surkes, M. A., & Lowerison, G.

1.51

Nye, A., Hughes-Warrington, M., Roe, J., Russell, P., Peel, M., Deacon, D., Laugesen, A., & Kiem, P.

1.51

Vicente, H., Figueiredo, M., Dias, A., Marques, J., Araújo, Is., Maia, N., Ribeiro, J., & Neves, J.

1.51

Roberts, R., Wilson, A., Coveney, J., Lind, C., Tieman, J., George, S., Gill, R., & Tonkin, E.

1.51

Samah, N. A., Yaacob, A., Hussain, R. M. R., Yusoff, N. M., Meng, N. Y., Othman, R., & Hin, L. C.

1.51

Spronken-Smith, R., Bond, C., McLean, A., Frielick, S., Smith, N., Jenkins, M., & Marshall, S.

1.32

Araújo, L. S., Wasley, D., Perkins, R., Atkins, L., Redding, E., Ginsborg, J., & Williamon, A.

1.32

Maimunah, L., Marzulina, L., Herizal, H., Holandyah, M., Mukminin, A., Pratama, R., & Habibi, A.

1.32

Morelock, J. R., Lester, M. M., Klopfer, M. D., Jardon, A. M., Mullins, R. D., Nicholas, E. L., & Alfaydi, A. S.

1.32

Hornos, M.J., Hurtado, M.V., Pilar FernÃ¡ndez-SÃ¡nchez M., LÃpezMartÃnez A., Benghazi, K., RodrÃguez-Almendros, M.L., & AbadGrau, M.M.

1.32

Gregory, S., Scutter, S., Jacka, L., McDonald, M., Farley, H., & Newman, C.

1.13

Fong, R. W-T., Lee, J. C-K., Chang, C-Y., Zhang, Z., Ngai, A. C-Y., & Lim, C. P.

1.13

Crust, L., Earle, K., Perry, J., Earle, F., Clough, A., & Clough, P. J.

1.13

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

142

Basit, T. N., Eardley, A., Borup, R., Shah, H., Slack, K., & Hughes, A.

1.13

Kabassi, K., Dragonas, I., Ntouzevits, A., Pomonis, T., Papastathopoulos, G., & Vozaitis, Y.

1.13

Venturini, J. C., Pereira, B. A. D., Morales, R., Fleck, C. F., Batistella Junior, Z., & Nagel, M. D. B.

1.13

Dismore, H., McDermott, A., Witt, N., Stillwell, R., Neville, S., & Stone, M.

1.13

4.11. Co-authorship by Authors The network visualization map of co-authorship is shown in Figure 6. Four clusters of authors, which are represented by four different colors, can be seen; they are linked by lines showing co-authorship within clusters and between clusters. There is inter-cluster authorship by Donche, V. and intra-cluster coauthorship with Stes, A.

Unit of analysis: Authors Counting method: Fractional counting Minimum number of documents per author: 3 Minimum number of citations per author: 3

Figure 6. Network visualization map of co-authorship by authors

4.12. Citation analysis Citation analysis is a conventional method administered in bibliometrics as a way to measure scientific characteristics, especially the number of researchers per publication, the rankings of universities and institutions (Waltman et al., 2012; Weingart, 2005), or publication impact (Frandsen & Rousseau, 2004). Citation

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

143

analysis can deliver evidence of interactions between diverse groups of academics, and provide a summary of the literature (Barth et al., 2014). Citation metrics for documents retrieved on 11 December 2019 are shown in Table 13. As depicted, 1,064 papers were published in the 19 years from year 2000 to 2019, with a total of 11,931 citations and an average of 627.95 citations annually. From the analysis, it can be concluded that papers were cited on average 11.21 times, and citations per author averaged around 4,127.37. Table 12. Citation metrics Metrics Publication years Citation years Total papers Total citations Average citations per year Citations/paper Citations/author Authors/paper Hirsch h-index Egghe g-index

Data 2000-2019 N=19 (2000-2019) 1,064 11,931 627.95 11.21 4,127.37 2.53 45 92

4.12.1 Citation analysis by documents Table 14 reveals the 20 most highly cited articles through Google Scholar (20002019) using the keywords, “blended learning”, “perception”, “engagement”, “achievement”, and “higher education”. The authors, titles of the documents, years published, Google Scholar Cites, Google Scholar cites per year, Google Scholar cites per author, and Google Scholar rankings are also given in Table 14. “Blended Learning: Uncovering its Transformative Potential in Higher Education”, by Garrison and Kanuka (2004), achieved the highest number of Google Scholar cites in 2014 (3,801) and highest Google Scholar rank, followed by “NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition”, by Johnson et al. (2016) (3,129 cites), and “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in US Schools”, by Ladson-Billings (2006) (2,819 cites). Garrison and Vaughan (2008) (2,715 cites), who authored “Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines”, held the third-place GS rank. Table 13. Highly cited articles through Google Scholar (2000–2019) No. 1

Articles Garrison, D., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001 Johnson L., Becker S., Cummins M., Estrada V., Freeman A., & Hall C., (2016). The New Media Consortium. United States. NMC horizon report: 2016 higher education edition: 1-50. Sciepub.com. (2021). http://www.sciepub.com/reference/303571.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Average GS GS GS Cites/ Cites/ Rank Author Year 3,801 253.4 1,901 1

GS Cites

3,129

1,043

626

144

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x035007003 Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines. John Wiley & Sons. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118269558 Graham, C.R. (2006). Blended learning systems definition, current trends, and future directions. In Bonk, C.J. and Graham, C.R., Eds., Handbook of blended learning. Global Perspectives, Local Designs, Pfeiffer Publishing, San Francisco, 3-21. References - Scientific Research Publishing. Scirp.org. (2021). https://www.scirp.org/(S(i43dyn45teexjx455qlt3d2q))/reference/ReferencesPa pers.aspx?ReferenceID=2143722. Gurin, P., Dey, E., Hurtado, S., & Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3), 330-367. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.72.3.01151786u134n051 Davis-Kean, P. (2005). The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement: The indirect role of parental expectations and the home environment. Journal of Family Psychology, 19(2), 294-304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.19.2.294 Brubacher, J. S., & Rudy, W. (1997). Higher education in transition: A history of American colleges and universities. Transaction Publishers. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203790076 Kuh, G., Cruce, T., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea, R. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(5), 540-563. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.0.0019 Altbach, P., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. (2010). Tracking a global academic revolution. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 42(2), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091381003590845 Kuh, G. (2003). What we're learning about student engagement from NSSE: Benchmarks for effective educational practices. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 35(2), 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091380309604090 Carini, R., Kuh, G., & Klein, S. (2006). Student engagement and student learning: Testing the linkages. Research in Higher Education, 47(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-005-8150-9 Kuh, G. (2001). Assessing what really matters to student learning inside the National Survey of Student Engagement. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 33(3), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091380109601795 Goldhaber, D., & Brewer, D. (2000). Does teacher certification matter? High school teacher certification status and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 22(2), 129–145. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737022002129 Zhao, C., & Kuh, G. (2004). Adding value: Learning communities and student engagement. Research in Higher Education, 45(2), 115–138. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:rihe.0000015692.88534.de Lee, J., & Bowen, N. (2006). Parent involvement, cultural capital, and the achievement gap among elementary school children. American Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 193–218. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312043002193 Galston, W. (2001). Political knowledge, political engagement, and civic education. Annual Review of Political Science, 4(1), 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.217 Smith, K., Sheppard, S., Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (2005). Pedagogies of engagement: Classroom-based practices. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00831.x Osguthorpe, R. T., & Graham, C. R. (2003). Blended learning environments: Definitions and directions. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 4(3), 227–33. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ678078 Braxton, J. M., Hirschy, A. S., & McClendon, S. A. (2011). Understanding and reducing college student departure. ASHE-ERIC higher education report. Volume 30, No 3. Jossey-Bass. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED501184 *GS – Google Scholar; NSSE – National Survey of Student Engagement

2,819

216.85

2,819

443

2,715

246.82

1,358

2,523

194.08

2,523

2,511

147.71

628

644

2,483

177.36

2,483

196

2,235

1117.5

2,235

618

2,178

198

436

154

2,067

206.7

689

645

2,010

125.63

2010

135

1,912

147.08

637

115

1,830

101.67

1830

138

1,793

94.37

897

729

1,639

109.27

820

1,587

122.08

794

791

1,541

85.61

1541

432

1,494

106.71

374

470

1,449

90.56

725

1,415

176.88

472

779

Citation by documents was analyzed using VOSviewer, with a minimum number of five citations per document as cutoff. Garrison and Kanuka (2004) garnered the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

145

most citations, followed by Roblyer (2010), Tomlinson (2008), Busato (2000), and Struyven (2005).

Minimum number of citations of a document: 5

Figure 7: Network visualization map of the citations by document Table 14. Summary of findings No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Analysis Most common document type Most common source type Year with greatest number of publications Most widely used language Most common subject area Most active journal Most influential institution Keyword most frequently used*

Finding Article Journal 2018 English The social sciences Studies in Higher Education Monash University Higher education

9 10 11

Country producing the most publications Authors per document (Most) Most active author(s)

United States Two authors

Co-authorship by authors

13 14

Hirsch h-index/Egghe g-index Highest GS cites and GS rank

Kinchin, I., Hosein, A., Medland, E., Lygo-Baker, S., Warburton, Gash, D., Rees, R., Loughlin, C., Woods, R., Price, S., Usherwood, S. Donche, V., De Maeyer, S., Coertjens, L., van Daal, T., & van Petegem, P.

45/92 Garrison & Kanuka (2016)

*Keywords considered: blended learning; perception; achievement; engagement, higher education

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

146

5. Discussion Document type and source type were used as indicators in this bibliometric analysis of publications in a particular period, as suggested by Sigogneau (2000). It is clear from the findings that most of the document types in this study were articles, which is similar to findings by Yang et al. (2017) and Halverson (2012), followed by conference papers and book chapters. Journals made up the highest percentage of source types, followed by books and conference proceedings. Research productivity analysis found that publications have proliferated rapidly and attracted greater research interest, especially between 2016 and 2018. This is confirmed by Güzer and Caner (2014) and Cheng et al. (2014), who cite similar trends in their research findings. This finding is important for further research into ways educators and administrators could organize learning environments to support effective learning using BL. In addition, the results of this study show that the English language, as the international language for scientific publication, is the most frequently used language in the Scopus database over the timespan of this study (Ferguson et al., 2011; Sweileh et al., 2017). As BL is a field in the social sciences, it is not surprising that more than half of all publications are from this subject area. However, there is still a shortage of quantitative studies in BL. Therefore, the results of this research represents a step forward, towards developing empirical studies (Gemin & Pape, 2017; Heafner & Handler, 2018; Stevens et al., 2018; Raman & Rathakrishnan, 2019). In addition, evidence from this study suggests that the most active journal at the forefront of BL thematic analysis is Studies in Higher Education,1 a prominent, global, journalpublishing, research-based journal. Author keyword analysis and network visualization of co-occurrences suggest that the most widely used keywords were higher education and blended learning. However, few research studies mention perception, engagement, and achievement. Further investigations are required to analyze BL trends concerning student achievement, perception, and engagement. The United States was the country that contributed the greatest number of publications, which is confirmed by the study of Yang et al. (2017). In addition, Monash University, Australia, was the institution associated with the greatest number of documents published on blended learning. The findings of this research support research by Halverson et al. (2012), who found that Garrison and Manuka are authors with the most Google Scholar citations. Results of a bibliometric analysis may vary according to the database used (e.g., Web of Science or Google Scholar), and the inclusion of other search terms (e.g., e-learning). Some highly cited articles on topics related to BL were published in certain journals (e.g., PLoS ONE, PNAS) that did not contain the particular keywords of this study. Thus, to demonstrate the keywords network, this study analyzed only documents with obtainable author keywords. Furthermore, a citation threshold of fewer than 200 citations was chosen to determine highly cited articles which were published between 2000 and the end of 2019, with the majority 1

https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cshe20

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

147

being published between 2006 and 2018. Thus, all analysis, discussions, and conclusions offered in this study were interpreted within the framework of these limitations. Although Scopus comprises a large number of journals, it is limited to recent articles, and articles of lesser impact (Chadegani et al., 2013); therefore, exploration of other scientific databases, such as Web of Science, is recommended to access more peer-reviewed articles, which could be investigated to increase the scalability of the approach further. Other search keyword combinations should be tried, in order to obtain a wider range of publications and up-to-date citations of BL in higher education. It is also recommended that bibliometric analysis is carried out together with systematic literature reviews, for more in-depth research on existing literature. A further recommendation is to use visualization tools such as HistCite.

6. Conclusion BL in higher education is an undoubtedly emerging and increasingly exploited method of instruction in the new millennium. This analysis contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting the results of an investigation into scholarly networks and worldwide research trends on BE in higher education, more precisely, on the aspects of perception, achievement, and engagement from 2000 to 2019. In referring to 1,064 highly cited research articles retrieved from the Scopus database, this investigation gathered bibliometric information related to publication outputs, journals, author keywords, countries, institutions, and authors. The investigation into the visibility of work on BL published in highly cited journals in the past two decades reveals that BL has gained significant attention among educators and researchers. The findings of this bibliometric analysis can become the basis of and a pivotal platform for spurring further research in BL, and can promote its significant prevalence in the higher education context, both locally and globally. This is the first wide-ranging study about BL, perception, achievement, and engagement in higher education. It can serve as a starting point for further analysis of other variables that affect the BL approach.

7. References Ahmi, A., & Mohamad, R. (2019). Bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on web accessibility. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 7(6), 250–258. http://www.ijstr.org/paper-references.php?ref=IJSTR-0819-21689 Alamri, M. (2021). Using blended project-based learning for students’ behavioral intention to use and academic achievement in higher education. Education Sciences, 11(5), 207. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11050207 Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). Bibliometrix: An r-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4), 959–975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007 Barth, M., Haustein, S., & Scheidt, B. (2014). The life sciences in German–Chinese cooperation: An institutional-level co-publication analysis. Scientometrics, 98(1), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1147-9 Börner, K., Chen, C., & Boyack, K. (2003). Visualising knowledge domains. Annual Review of Information Science And Technology, 37(1), 179-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/aris.1440370106

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

148

Busato, V., Prins, F., Elshout, J., & Hamaker, C. (2000). Intellectual ability, learning style, personality, achievement motivation and academic success of psychology students in higher education. Personality and Individual Differences, 29(6), 10571068. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(99)00253-6 Chadegani, A., Salehi, H., Yunus, M., Farhadi, H., Fooladi, M., Farhadi, M., & Ebrahim, N. (2013). A comparison between two main academic literature collections: Web of Science and Scopus Databases. Asian Social Science, 9(5), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n5p18 Chen, C. (2003). Mapping scientific frontiers. Springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781447151272 Cheng, B., Wang, M., Mørch, A. I., Chen, N.-S., Kinshuk, & Spector, J. M. (2014). Research on e-learning in the workplace 2000–2012: A bibliometric analysis of literature. Educational Research Review, 11, 56–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.01.001 Cooney, M., Gupton, P., & O’Laughlin, M. (2000). Blurring the lines of play and work to create blended classroom learning experiences. Early Childhood Education Journal, 27(3), 165-171. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02694230 Diem, A., & Wolter, S. C. (2013). The use of bibliometrics to measure research performance in education sciences. Research in Higher Education, 54(1), 86–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-012-9264-5 Ding, J., Ahlgren, P., Yang, L., & Yue, T. (2016). Document type profiles in Nature, Science, and PNAS: Journal and country level. Journal of Data and Information Science, 1(3), 27-41. https://doi.org/10.20309/jdis.201618 Donche, V., De Maeyer, S., Coertjens, L., van Daal, T., & van Petegem, P. (2013). Differential use of learning strategies in first-year higher education: The impact of personality, academic motivation, and teaching strategies. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(2), 238-251. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12016 Dwivedi, A., Dwivedi, P., Bobek, S., & Sternad Zabukovšek, S. (2019). Factors affecting students’ engagement with online content in blended learning. Kybernetes, 48(7), 1500-1515. https://doi.org/10.1108/k-10-2018-0559 Ellegaard, O., & Wallin, J. A. (2015). The bibliometric analysis of scholarly production: How great is the impact? Scientometrics, 105, 1809–1831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1645-z Ferguson, G., Pérez‐Llantada, C., & Plo, R. (2011). English as an international language of scientific publication: A study of attitudes. World Englishes, 30(1), 41-59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971x.2010.01656.x Fox, M. (1983). Publication productivity among scientists: A critical review. Social Studies of Science, 13(2), 285-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631283013002005 Frandsen, T., & Rousseau, R. (2004). Article impact calculated over arbitrary periods. Journal of The American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(1), 58-62. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20100 Garrison, D., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001 Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines. John Wiley & Sons. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118269558 Gemin, B. & Pape, L. (2017). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning, 2016 [Report]. Evergreen Education Group. https://www.evergreenedgroup.com/keeping-pace-reports/

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

149

Graham, C. R. (2018). Current research in blended learning. In Moore, M. G., & Diehl, W. C. (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (pp. 173–188). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315296135-15 Güzer, B., & Caner, H. (2014). The past, present and future of blended learning: An in depth analysis of literature. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 116, 4596– 4603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.992 Halverson, L., Graham, C., Spring, K., & Drysdale, J. (2012). An analysis of high impact scholarship and publication trends in blended learning. Distance Education, 33(3), 381–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.723166 Harzing, A. W. (2020). Publish or Perish. https://harzing.com/blog/2020/02/66thedition-of-the-journal-quality-list-on-line Hattie, J., & Anderman, E. M. (Eds.). (2013). International guide to student achievement. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203850398 Heafner, T. L., & Handler, L. K. (2018). Online, hybrid, blended, and technology-mediated learning in social studies. In R. Ferdig & K. Kennedy (Eds.), Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 335-357). ETC Press. https://www.academia.edu/37013644/Handbook_of_Research_on_K12_and_B lending_Learning_Second_Editio.pdf Hsiao, C., Tang, K., & Liu, J. (2015). Citation-based analysis of literature: a case study of technology acceptance research. Scientometrics, 105(2), 1091-1110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1749-5 Johnson L., Becker S., Cummins M., Estrada V., Freeman A., & Hall C., (2016). The New Media Consortium. United States. NMC horizon report: 2016 higher education edition: 1-50. Sciepub.com. (2021). http://www.sciepub.com/reference/303571. Klavans, R., & Boyack, K. (2006). Quantitative evaluation of large maps of science. Scientometrics, 68(3), 475-499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-006-0125-x Kinchin, I., Hosein, A., Medland, E., Lygo-Baker, S., Warburton, S., Gash, D., Rees, R., Loughlin, C., Woods, R., Price, S., & Usherwood, S. (2015). Mapping the development of a new MA programme in higher education: comparing privately held perceptions of a public endeavour. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 41(2), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2015.1070398 Krause, K. L., & Coates, H. (2008). Students’ engagement in first‐year university. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(5), 493–505. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701698892 Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual and empirical foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2009(141), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.283 Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x035007003 Lane, S., Hoang, J., Leighton, J., & Rissanen, A. (2021). Engagement and satisfaction: Mixed-method analysis of blended learning in the sciences. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 21(1), 100–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-021-00139-5 Lee, I-S., Lee, H., Chen, Y-H., & Chae, Y. (2020). Bibliometric analysis of research assessing the use of acupuncture for pain treatment over the past 20 years. Journal of Pain Research, 13, 367–376. https://doi.org/10.2147/jpr.s235047 Lee, M. H., Wu, Y. T., & Tsai, C. C. (2009). Research trends in science education from 2003 to 2007: A content analysis of publications in selected journals. International Journal of Science Education, 31(15), 1999–2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690802314876

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

150

Lewis, A. (2001). The issue of perception: Some educational implications. Educare, 30(1). https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC31721 Li, J., Burnham, J. F., Lemley, T., & Britton, R. M. (2010). Citation analysis: Comparison of Web of Science®, Scopus™, SciFinder®, and Google Scholar. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 7(3), 196–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/15424065.2010.505518 Mansour, A., Ahmi, A., Popoola, O., & Znaimat, A. (2021). Discovering the global landscape of fraud detection studies: a bibliometric review. Journal Of Financial Crime. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfc-03-2021-0052 Michels, C., & Fu, J-Y. (2014). Systematic analysis of coverage and usage of conference proceedings in web of science. Scientometrics, 100(2), 307–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1309-4 Owston, R., York, D., & Murtha, S. (2013). Student perceptions and achievement in a university blended learning strategic initiative. The Internet and Higher Education, 18, 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.12.003 Raman, A., & Rathakrishnan, M. (2019). Blended learning in higher education 4.0. A brief review. In A. Raman, & M Ratharishnan (Eds.), Redesigning higher education initiatives for industry 4.0 (pp. 70–84). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-15225-7832-1.ch005 Reynolds, P. D. (1971). A primer in theory construction. Bobbs-Merrill. Roblyer, M. D., McDaniel, M., Webb, M., Herman, J., & Witty, J. V. (2010). Findings on Facebook in higher education: A comparison of college faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(3), 134–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2010.03.002 Rusly, F. H., Ahmi, A., Yakimin, Y., Talib, A., & Rosli, K. (2019). Global perspective on payroll system patent and research: A bibliometric performance. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 8(2S2), 148–157. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.b1028.0782s219 Skupin, A. (2004). The world of geography: Visualising a knowledge domain with cartographic means. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(Suppl 1), 5274–5278. https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/101/suppl_1/5274.full.pdf. Sigogneau, A. (2000). An analysis of document types published in journals related to physics: Proceeding Papers Recorded in the Science Citation Index Database. Scientometrics, 47, 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005628218890 Stes, A., de Maeyer, S., Gijbels, D., & van Petegem, P. (2013). Effects of teachers' instructional development on students' study approaches in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(1), 2–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.562976 Stevens, M., Borup, J., & Barbour, M.K. (2018). Preparing social studies teachers and librarians for blended teaching, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education 18(4). https://citejournal.org/volume-18/issue-4-18/socialstudies/preparing-social-studies-teachers-and-librarians-for-blended-teaching Struyven, K., Dochy, F., & Janssens, S. (2005). Students’ perceptions about evaluation and assessment in higher education: a review. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 30(4), 325–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930500099102 Sweileh, W. M., Al-Jabi, S. W., AbuTaha, A. S., Zyoud, S. H., Anayah, F. M., & Sawalha, A. F. (2017). Bibliometric analysis of worldwide scientific literature in mobilehealth: 2006–2016. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-017-0476-7 Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2008). English language learning materials: A critical review. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474212182

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

151

Tibaná-Herrera, G., Fernández-Bajón, M. T., & De Moya-Anegón, F. (2018). Categorization of E-learning as an emerging discipline in the world publication system: a bibliometric study in SCOPUS. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0103-4 Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2020, April 1). VOSviewer manual. Manual for VOSviewer version 1 .6.15. Universiteit Leiden, 1(1). VOSviewer Manual. https://www.vosviewer.com/documentation/Manual_VOSviewer_1.6.15.pdf Voci, E., & Young, K. (2001). Blended learning working in a leadership development programme. Industrial and Commercial Training, 33(5), 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850110398927 Waltman, L., Calero-Medina, C., Kosten, J., Noyons, E. C. M., Tijssen, R. J. W., van Eck, N. J., van Leeuwen, T. N., van Raan, A. F. J., Visser, M. S., & Wouters, P. (2012). The Leiden ranking 2011/2012: Data collection, indicators, and interpretation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(12), 2419–2432. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22708 Weingart, P. (2005). Impact of bibliometrics upon the science system: Inadvertent consequences? Scientometrics, 62(1), 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192005-0007-7 Yang, L., Sun, T., & Liu, Y. (2017). A bibliometric investigation of flipped classroom research during 2000-2015. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET), 12(06), 178. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v12i06.7095 Zare, F., Elsawah, S., Iwanaga, T., Jakeman, A. J., & Pierce, S. A. (2017). Integrated water assessment and modelling: A bibliometric analysis of trends in the water resource sector. Journal of Hydrology, 552, 765-778. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.07.031 Zuccala, A., & van Leeuwen, T. (2011). Book reviews in humanities research evaluations. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(10), 1979– 1991. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21588

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

152

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 152-173, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.8

The Role of Nurturing Technopreneurship Education and Building University Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Skill Sets in Fostering Digital Innovation and Augmenting the Tech Start-Up Ecosystem in Bahrain Sama’a Al Hashimi University of Bahrain, Sakheer, Kingdom of Bahrain https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4355-8699 Yasmina Zaki, Ameena Al Muwali and Nasser Mahdi University of Bahrain, Sakheer, Kingdom of Bahrain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2100-2895 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2261-9827 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0763-2911 Abstract. This paper examines the relationship between the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their owners. To better comprehend and encourage technopreneurial growth, it is essential to understand the educational background of tech start-up founders in Bahrain. The paper attempts to explore whether or not different educational qualifications of tech start-up founders are associated with their success. It also aims to investigate the pedagogical approaches, strategies, skills, and objectives that may have contributed to the success of leading technopreneurs, locally and globally in an effort to suggest the right practices to implement in Bahrain in order to emulate their educational experiences. The research qualitatively investigates the perceptions and academic experiences of the founders of five innovative Bahraini digital applications in an attempt to explore the role of their education in their success and growth. In addition, twelve support organizations in Bahrain were interviewed to examine the influence of higher education on entrepreneurial success. The paper argues that education is very essential to entrepreneurial success, and its findings provide clear evidence of the impact of education which focuses on fostering creative thinking, innovation, and team-working skills on technopreneurial success. These findings may have implications for universities in Bahrain to promote successful entrepreneurs through integrating the best practices in innovation and entrepreneurship education into the curriculum, and strengthening their cooperation with the government and various support organizations. Finally, the paper provides higher education institutions with guidelines and recommendations to maximize their role in the tech start-up ecosystem in Bahrain. Keywords: education; start-ups; accelerators; digital applications

technopreneur;

entrepreneurship;

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

153

1. Introduction The growing impact of successful tech start-ups in developing the start-up ecosystem in Bahrain calls for an investigation into the role of the educational background and academic qualifications of their founders in leading to their success. Tripathi et al. (2019) define a start-up ecosystem as “the phenomenon in which startups and their supporting elements interact in an environment that is built to foster these startups’ development and growth” (p.1) The Kingdom of Bahrain and many other countries around the globe have become viable start-up ecosystems (The Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), 2020). The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major transition and to a growing dominance of tech start-up ecosystems globally (GSER2020). These ecosystems can create more jobs, enhance innovation, and support economic growth. In order for these ecosystems to grow, they must be supported through a “regulatory environment, access to resources, true multi-stakeholder involvement, public-private collaboration, and mentorship networks that nourish innovators” (GSER2020, p.8). The start-up ecosystem has a direct effect on boosting global and local economic development. It fosters innovation and raises competitiveness in the local community. Moreover, it creates jobs and makes money for investors and stakeholders, which ultimately leads to economic growth (Szarek & Piecuch, 2018). In order for a digital start-up ecosystem to flourish, support organizations and policy-makers should extend their consideration of entrepreneurial activities and endeavours in educational institutions (Ratzinger et al., 2018). This paper examines the relationship between the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their founders. Some researchers argued that there is a relationship between the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their owners (Oliveira, 2019 & Kurczewska & Mackiewicz, 2020). This paper attempts to examine this relationship. As few studies appear to exist in the area of technopreneurship education and its possible role in fostering digital innovation in the start-up ecosystem in Bahrain, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews and a short survey with technopreneurs who founded innovative digital applications in Bahrain, in an attempt to explore the role of their educational background in their success and growth. In addition, representatives from twelve support organizations in Bahrain were interviewed to better understand the influence of higher education on entrepreneurial success. The paper also aims to investigate the pedagogical approaches, strategies, and skills that may have contributed to the success of leading technopreneurs, locally and globally to suggest the most effective practices to implement in higher education institutions in Bahrain in order to emulate their educational experiences. In order to fulfil the above-mentioned purpose of this paper, the following research questions and objectives were formulated; 1.1 Research Questions This research attempts to find answers to the following questions; (1) Is there a relationship between the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their owners?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

154

(2) What are the best practices and most effective pedagogical approaches in innovation and entrepreneurship education that can be implemented by universities in Bahrain to create well-skilled technopreneurs who can reinvigorate Bahraini business? 1.2 Research Objectives (1) To investigate the relationship between the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their owners (2) To explore and benchmark the best practices and most effective pedagogical approaches that can be implemented by universities in Bahrain to create successful technopreneurs (3) To foster entrepreneurial attitudes and skills among students in Bahrain (4) To identify the most important technopreneurship skills that universities in Bahrain need to transfer to students and the most effective approaches to implement in order to equip students with the most important skills, knowledge, attitudes, and mindsets required to start and maintain a successful venture (5) To promote and encourage the development of personal qualities and skills that are relevant to technopreneurship In the first section, the paper presents a general overview of the research problem, significance, objectives, and methodology. The second section explores exceptional worldwide practices in entrepreneurship education, and reviews previous research and relevant literature related to the relationship between the educational background and entrepreneurial success. It contains content analysis of relevant literature. The third section discusses and analyses the respondents’ answers and presents the findings and their implications in an attempt to inform and provide higher education institutions in Bahrain with guidelines and recommendations to maximize their role in preparing students with suitable skill sets for the tech start-up ecosystem in Bahrain. The eventual aim is for these findings to provide valuable insights to universities and training institutions in Bahrain to promote successful entrepreneurs through integrating the best practices in innovation and entrepreneurship education into the curriculum, and strengthening their cooperation with the government and various support organizations. The following section provides a literature review that explores the relationship between the educational background and entrepreneurial success and sets the foundation for the most effective entrepreneurship pedagogical practices, locally and globally.

2. Literature Review; The Relationship between Educational Background and Entrepreneurial Success Entrepreneurship is a key factor for economic growth. It became crucial for educational institutions to support entrepreneurship more than any other time before. Promoting leading entrepreneurial education in schools and universities can have a positive impact on business dynamics and economic growth. For this reason, many highly ranked universities started to adopt this field in their

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

155

pedagogical curricula in an attempt to equip their students with the theoretical and practical skills they need to establish their start-ups. In 2014, a guide for entrepreneurship educators by the European Commission reported that “students who participated in entrepreneurial programs are three to six times more likely to start a business than those who do not receive entrepreneurship education.” (Entrepreneurship 2020 Unit, 2014, p. 4). Thus, it has become imperative to invest in entrepreneurship education. This literature review sheds light on some successful models and practices that have been implemented in high-ranked universities. It attempts to explore the most effective approaches to give students awareness, knowledge, skills, and all essential requirements to have an entrepreneurial mindset and become successful entrepreneurs. McGuigan (as cited in Toit & Gaotlhobogwe, 2018) defines entrepreneurship education as “as knowledge, skills and attitudes which contribute to entrepreneurial thinking and actions that learners can apply in their everyday lives, their future careers, their communities and/or their own new ventures”(p.39). There are various views in previous literature on how entrepreneurship education should be structured, and which methods are most effective. Ji and Zhao (2014) identified the main elements of entrepreneurship education in educational institutions. According to them, these elements are: students, teachers, carrier and environment. Sanchez et al. (2017) reported that key competencies in entrepreneurship include autonomy, teamwork, adaptability, management of resources, social networks, risk taking, individual and social responsibility, interaction, and social skills. Entrepreneurship education can be implemented using various methods, theories, models and measures. Čapienė and Ragauskaitė (2017) recommended the establishment of a center for entrepreneurship development in universities and suggested a model of entrepreneurship education, which includes three stages. The model includes traditional methods in the first stage such as seminars, trainings, lectures, events, etc., while other stages are oriented towards actions and practical tasks “to stimulate behavioral changes and development of psychological characteristics necessary for entrepreneurship” (Čapienė & Ragauskaitė, 2017, p. 2). The second stage includes tools for simulating the development of a new business, for instance, business plans, creating and thinking together with mentors and consultants. This allows students to go successfully to the third stage where “students have to be encouraged to participate in national and international contests for developing ideas, broaden their professional horizons and create partnership of business projects” (Čapienė & Ragauskaitė, 2017, p. 2). The review of literature shows that several studies attempted to represent evidence of the increasing importance of education to entrepreneurs, and suggested that entrepreneurs with a good general education tend to be more successful than those with less adequate education (Oliveira, 2019; Kurczewska & Mackiewicz, 2020).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

156

Nebessayeva et al. (2018) do not believe that a business degree is vital to successfully start and operate a start-up as long as university students, regardless of their degrees learn concepts such as design thinking, risk-taking, and rulebreaking. They stated that although entrepreneurship is usually taught in business programs, there is evidence to suggest that there is a correlation between liberal arts education and becoming a successful entrepreneur, and that some entrepreneurs have benefitted from a liberal arts education. They believe that this correlation is not surprising because liberal arts equip students with critical, creative and lateral thinking skills that are pertinent to entrepreneurship. According to them any pedagogy, such as art and design, that encourages risktaking and innovation attitudes will support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset (Nebessayeva et al., 2018). Kurczewska, A., & Mackiewicz, M. (2020) seem to agree with Nebessayeva et al. (2018) in that having a business degree or managerial experience is not necessarily a prerequisite for becoming a successful technopreneur. They, therefore, recommend cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship education because collaboration across disciplines may lead to more successful outcomes, as their research findings revealed that “individuals with more diverse educational and professional backgrounds tend to have both greater chances of starting a company, as well as a higher probability of entrepreneurial success” (Kurczewska & Mackiewicz 2020, p.1) Similarly, Sorgner & Fritsch (2018) believe that a wideranging set of cross-disciplinary skills and knowledge let students become entrepreneurs, in contrast to having more specialized skills and knowledge. Unlike the aforementioned researchers who do not believe that having a business degree or managerial experience is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial success, the results of a study conducted by Staniewski (2016, p.1) indicated that “entrepreneurs with managerial experience, an effective entrepreneur in the family, unique knowledge, and whose employees have unique knowledge obtain higher mean scores in the general indicator of entrepreneurial success”. Boldureanu et al. (2020) stressed that university programs that aim to enhance entrepreneurial skills should be designed differently for business and nonbusiness students because learning successful entrepreneurial stories influences business and non-business students differently. Many universities around the world realized that embedding entrepreneurship education in their curricula, programs, courses, or activities can lead to the creation of an innovative entrepreneurial culture and a successful start-up ecosystem. The universities in China, for instance, started offering entrepreneurship programs, competitions, and sandbox simulations in order to improve the success rates of their students in becoming entrepreneurs (Liu et al., 2019). Lynch et al. (2019) argued that in order for entrepreneurship education to be effective it must enable students to develop skills in imagination, flexibility, design thinking and creativity as well as developing enough skills to think

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

157

conceptually and to perceive change as opportunity. In order to achieve these standards, they suggested that university programs must not emphasize theory at the expense of practical approaches, but should rather teach students how to practically apply design thinking “in real-life beyond the context of the course.” (Lynch et al., 2019, p.1). The World Economic Forum has set up guidelines for entrepreneurial education. These include the employment of approaches that are based on interactive learning with the use of digital and multimedia tools, experiential learning and learning by doing which involve trial and error, multidisciplinary programs and projects, games and simulations (OECD, 2016), case studies, and internships that involve start-ups and interaction with mentors and entrepreneurs (World Economic Forum, 2016). On the other hand, some researchers (Sousa, 2018, p.6) recommended that universities focus on enhancing the following skills: “capacity to be innovative and creative; capacity to diversify the business area; capability to identify and exploit new business opportunities; project management skills to link project goals within the business context; ability and willingness to undertake risk; ability to organize the necessary resources to respond to the opportunity; capability to create and develop national and international networks”. Additional important skills include self-confidence, drive for achievement, risk-taking, leadership, originality, creativity, flexibility, and the capacity to be future-oriented (Kimball & Lussier, 2020). All the aforementioned studies prove the importance of the educational background on the success of entrepreneurs. They stress the influence of education on the success of start-ups and their founders. This reflects the ongoing need for educational institutions to keep up with technological developments, business competition, and the growing global economy. This need has been realized by authorities, support organizations, and entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Kingdom of Bahrain is considered as one of the leading economies in the GCC region, and was ranked as the 72nd most innovative economy in the Global Innovation Index 2018 (Dutta et al., 2018). It was also ranked 35th for entrepreneurial attitude, activity and aspiration in the Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018 (Acs et al., 2018). A recent survey by Ernst & Young (2018) found that 70 % of young Bahrainis were interested in starting their own businesses (Aboukhsaiwan, 2017). The number of tech start-ups in Bahrain has already grown significantly in recent years and strong growth is expected in the near future. According to a publication that was initiated by the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), and produced in cooperation with Oxford Business Group (2020, p.8), “Bahrain is home to some of the region’s most computer-savvy citizens, as well as some of the Middle East’s most forward-looking legislation in terms of fostering the development of the tech economy, with pro-visions ranging from subsidization to government-funded training.” (Oxford Business Group, 2020, p.8).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

158

The National Higher Education Strategy (2014-2024) report of the Kingdom of Bahrain stated that entrepreneurship education currently is still at its basic level, and that it is offered in an uncoordinated manner and lacks strong support and integration across academic levels and curriculum (Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Education [KBME], 2014). The Minister of Education, Dr. Majid bin Ali AlNuaimi noted in the National Higher Education Strategy Report (2014-2024) for the Kingdom of Bahrain that “the sector must perform a critical role in terms of addressing the skill needs of the workforce of tomorrow and developing our knowledge economy through improving overall quality, skills, entrepreneurship and technology” (KBME, 2014, p.11), and he reported that “Higher education in Bahrain has a central role to play in economic growth, investment and innovation. This important sector requires a strategic vision in order to face the challenges of the future” (KBME, 2014, p.11). In the academic year 2007/2008, the Ministry of Education introduced entrepreneurship education in the study plan of two tracks: The industrial and the commercial (KBME, 2014). Figure 1 summarizes the national higher education strategy and the planned practices and approaches for this integration. There are number of initiatives that support entrepreneurship education programs, which are offered by regional and international institutions in Bahrain. These include Tamkeen, INJAZ of Bahrain, Rowad Training, and The UN Industrial Development Organization UNIDO/Office of investment and technology promotion. Bahrain is working on integrating entrepreneurship in higher education; it recognized the significance of entrepreneurship in its economic growth and urged universities to implement entrepreneurship education and hone students’ entrepreneurial competencies (Lagaras, 2017). Since 2004, for instance, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has partnered with Tamkeen and the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan to implement an Entrepreneur Mentoring program, in which 48 Bahraini instructors received training on strategies for teaching entrepreneurship skills to more than 270 university students (Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), 2021).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

159

Figure 1. The national higher education strategy for integrating entrepreneurship in higher education in Bahrain (Reproduced by the authors of this research from (KBME, 2014, p. 32)

The National Higher Education Strategy 2014-2024 Report (KBME, 2014) suggested indicators to measure the impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Bahrain such as the number of universities offering entrepreneurship training programs, the number of students going through entrepreneurship training programs, the percentage of students starting their business during university, the percentage of students starting their business post-university, and the number of technology incubators / start-ups by graduates in Bahrain. Recently entrepreneurship in Bahrain, and especially the development of tech start-ups, has witnessed significant growth. The heightened awareness and interest in entrepreneurship shifted the academic focus towards the creation of a number of academic courses, programs and curricula in entrepreneurship. The following section seeks to understand the skill sets and educational background of technopreneurs in Bahrain in an attempt to provide insights into what academic factors influence the success or failure of their tech start-ups.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

160

3. Research Methodology The research qualitatively investigates five tech start-ups by innovative Bahraini technopreneurs in an attempt to explore the role of their educational background in their success. In addition, representatives from twelve support organizations in Bahrain were interviewed to better comprehend the influence of education on entrepreneurial success. The qualitative research method is used because “it allows entrepreneurship researchers to inductively or abductively build theories, in close interaction with contexts, meanings, and processes” (Van Burg et al., 2020, p. 4). Van Burg et al. (2020) believe that qualitative research is appropriate for studying hard-to-measure entrepreneurship phenomena that require building better understanding of how the lived experiences of entrepreneurs may affect entrepreneurial outcomes. Data Collection Instruments The interviews that were conducted with the twelve representatives were semistructured and involved the following themes: services provided to support techpreneurs; stages of providing support; criteria for accepting to support techpreneurs; strategies employed to attract creative techpreneurs; views on the success of tech start-ups and the educational backgrounds of their owners; views on techpreneurs’ most required skill set and prominent skills for shaping successful techpreneurs. The interviews that were conducted with the founders of the five tech start-ups were also semi-structured and involved questions about their academic backgrounds and the most effective educational experiences, skills, and strategies that contributed to equipping them with the most important skills, knowledge, attitudes, and mindsets required to start and maintain a successful venture. Through a short survey, they were also asked about the factors that led to the success of their start-ups, the obstacles and challenges they encountered, their financial and marketing plans, and their recommendations and insights on the most important personal qualities and skills. The interviews mainly revolved around their suggestions and perceptions of the most effective pedagogical approaches that can be fostered and implemented by universities in Bahrain to create successful technopreneurs. The interviews lasted on average 60 minutes. Each interview was digitally recorded, and a verbatim transcript was prepared by the researchers. Sample Size and Participants Six representatives were males, and six were females. The five tech-startups had eight founders/co-founders who were interviewed as part of this research. Two out of the eight founders were females, and six were males. Their ages ranged between 27 to 47 years at the time of the study and their years of experience as entrepreneurs ranged between 4 and 27 years. All participants provided informed consent to participate in the research, and the start-up founders provided written consent to reveal their names and the details that are listed in Table 1 about their start-ups. In addition, in order to ensure the validity of the data collected and to comply with research ethics, all the participants were invited to review the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

161

transcripts and make necessary corrections. transcripts were immediately documented.

The edits made by them to their

4. Results & Discussion Support Organization’s Outlooks on the Relationship between the Educational Background and Entrepreneurial Success The previous section demonstrated that numerous studies support the notion that entrepreneurs’ success is related to their educational background in addition to other factors (e.g., Kurczewska & Mackiewicz, 2020; Oliveira et al., 2019). This section reviews the different opinions of eight Bahraini technopreneurs, who were purposively selected due to the success of their tech start-ups in Bahrain, and another sample of twelve support organizations’ representatives, who were purposively selected based on their prominence in the entrepreneurship scene in Bahrain. The technopreneurs were the founders of the tech start-ups listed in Table 1. The researchers targeted the support organizations’ and tech start-ups’ executive managers or their representatives to know their points of view towards the relationship between technopreneurial success and the educational background of technopreneurs. In-depth semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire were conducted with them in an attempt to investigate whether or not different educational majors, educational levels, or even particular educational experiences of technopreneurs are associated with the success of their start-ups. Table 1. A List of the tech start-up founders who were interviewed in this research Name of Founders

Academic Qualification

Name of Startup

Description of Start-up

Domain/ Services

Date Founded

Stage

Abdulla AlAradi

Bachelor of Engineering in Petroleum and natural gas engineering/ Sultan Qaboos University

Akalati

Akalati is an app specialized in catering services for events, occasion and gatherings

Food and Catering

February 2018

PreSeed

Zaman AH. Zaman

Bachelor of Business Administration/

Skiplino

Skiplino is a cloud-based queue management system that can monitor the data in real time, and get the customer feedback.

Queue management system

August 2015

Series A

Malaeb

Malaeb is an application

Booking stadiums

May 2016

Seed

American University in Dubai BA Management Information Systems/American University of Sharjah Yasser Abdel Aziz

Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Accounting and Finance/ Bangor University

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

That allows users to book

162

Name of Founders

Academic Qualification

Name of Startup

Diploma in Accounting and Finance - Bahrain Institute for Banking and Finance (BIBF)

Description of Start-up

Domain/ Services

Date Founded

Stage

fields, and create and manage their teams

Ahmed Al Rawi

Completed 4 years of studying Computer Engineering at the University of Bahrain

Hamad Fuad

Completed 5 years of studying Computer Science at the University of Bahrain

Nural

Nural is a team management platform designed for inexperienced team members or new that allows users to project management tools manage their tasks, create notes and software. organize their team communicatio n

Project management and due date automation

March 2018

Seed

Hala Sulaiman,

Currently studying Master of Business Administration & Management/

Al Rawi

Al-Rawi is an application that provides users with a variety of audio books and allows them to interact with authors and readers.

Audio books

Commerci al Registratio n was on 6th December 2016.

Seed

University of Strathclyde BA Mass Communications/ University of Bahrain Mohammed Ebrahim

Masters in Business Administration with a specialization in strategy /University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. BA in Information Technology

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Official Launch of App was in November 2017

163

Name of Founders

Academic Qualification

Ameera Al Qubaiti

Executive Professional Masters Degree in Islamic Finance/ The General Council of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions

Name of Startup

Description of Start-up

Domain/ Services

Date Founded

Stage

BA in Finance/ the University College of Bahrain

The representatives from some of the support organizations including Participant SO11, Participant SO9, and Participant SO8 believe that the academic degree and educational background of technopreneurs can have an impact on the success of their start-ups, but they stated that the academic degree is not among their organizations’ criteria for accepting to support a start-up or project. They were uncertain if there is a relationship between any specific educational background and success in this field. Although they agreed that there are some necessary skills, which must be possessed by an entrepreneur in order to succeed, most of the interviewees (10 out of 12) did not think that any specific educational degree can influence or increase the chances of success in this field. Participant SO4, for instance, indicated that they have technopreneurs who come from different educational backgrounds from all over the world. Participant SO11, believes that the academic degree and educational background can have an impact on success, but it is not necessarily needed to build a business. She said that having a degree can enhance the required skills to become a technopreneurs, and stated that her organization works closely with universities in Bahrain. Participant SO7 thought that the academic qualification and specialization do not determine how successful an entrepreneur can be in the market. He also thinks that “entrepreneurs need to expand their knowledge of technology because most of the dealings now and in the future are through technology”. He indicated that Injazee is guiding novice technopreneurs in Bahrain to take workshops and advice from specialists in order to learn the steps of preparing a business plan. Participant SO1 argued that the degree or academic qualification would be supportive to entrepreneurs as it provides them with the necessary knowledge to run a business. She added, “Nowadays, in order to get an academic qualification in business studies, it is a must to pass an entrepreneurship course. This allows students to have comprehensive knowledge about how to establish and manage new businesses. This also encourages students to think in an innovative way, which results in establishing new, unique, and successful businesses, and motivates them to start working on their own business and becoming entrepreneurs.” Participant SO1 also believes that to become an entrepreneur, one

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

164

does not necessarily have to have a specific degree in the field of the start-up that s/he plans to develop. She stated, “We provided support to a student who had a degree in Media and had an innovative idea but he did not have any background in programming. We involved another person who is specialized in programming in order to implement his project. The specialization is an auxiliary factor but must never be a hindrance”. Support Organizations’ Outlooks on the Skills Required for Technopreneurial Success The findings revealed that there are specific entrepreneurial skills that are considered to have a significant influence on the success of an entrepreneur or a start-up. These skills could all be in one person or could be distributed among the team members in a start-up to complement each other. For example, Participant SO5, indicated, “it is the skill set that defines success in this field”. Similarly, Participant SO6, seemed to agree with Participant SO5 as he also stated, “academic qualification is not as important as a specialization, but it can be helpful. Even if the entrepreneur doesn’t have the relevant knowledge, as long as they have a team or employees that do, then that is what we look at”. Correspondingly, Participant SO9 believes that there are skills that can have an important influence on entrepreneurial success, such as communication and presentation skills, which he thinks that most emerging young technopreneurs lack. He argued that skills, especially interpersonal skills, are a market practice and cannot be taught and gained through universities. Participant SO6 confirmed Participant SO9’s observation as he stated, “The skills that are most lacking among technopreneurs in Bahrain are surprisingly presentation skills and organizational skills. If you cannot present or convince an audience of your project because of your lack of preparation and direction, you are doomed to fail”. Participant SO3 also made the following statement, which indicates his agreement with Participants SO9 and SO6 observations: “One of the most important criteria that must be available in the student is the ability to convince the others of his/her new idea, and to have self-confidence. If the student does not have self-belief in his/her project, s/he cannot convince others”. In addition to presentation skills, Participant SO4 believes that entrepreneurs in Bahrain miss soft skills and financial modeling skills. Participant SO5 thinks that some entrepreneurs lack willingness to take risk, while Participant SO2 believes that they lack practical experience and financial management skills. To further investigate the most significant skills that the technopreneurs should be equipped with in order to succeed, a short questionnaire was conducted as part of this research. Each interviewee was asked to assign a score for each skill set based on its importance (5 for the most important and 1 for the least important). The results, which were derived from averaging the interviewees’ responses for each skill set, showed that most of the interviewees emphasized the importance of creative thinking and innovation, teamworking, strategic thinking, marketing, and communication skills respectively (figure 2) as these skills appear to be crucial for technopreneurs to succeed in convincing the investors of their ideas within few seconds. Based on the responses, creative thinking and innovation skills were the most important, while graphic design skills were the least important.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

2.6

3.4

3.7

3.8

4.0

4.2

4.4

4.6

4.7

165

Figure 2: The rankings of the skills that are most important to have as a technopreneur according to the experts interviewed in this study (5 for most important and 1 for least important)

Participant SO11 believes that “success in this field is all about the experience of creating businesses and the learned lessons that entrepreneurs got throughout the cycle of setting up a business”. She also believes that being a successful entrepreneur is a “spirit, passion and perseverance”.

Technopreneurs’ Outlooks on the Relationship between the Educational Background and Entrepreneurial Success On the other hand, the technopreneurs who were interviewed as part of this study including Zaman AH Zaman, Hamad Fuad, and Ahmed Al Rawi shared the same point of view as they believe that the educational background is not the core factor of success in entrepreneurship. For instance, Al Rawi, the CEO of Malaeb app, graduated from the Computer Science Department at the University of Bahrain. He is specialized in application development. He indicated that in order to launch the application he and his partner, Yasser Abdel Aziz who has a Bachelor degree in Accounting and Finance, have developed their skills by reading books, learning from mentors, theoretical learning, and applying practical experience. Al Rawi stated, “my educational background did not contribute significantly to the success of the application in terms of the basic work nature but helped in the other tasks of the management of the company, adding that the curriculum must be practical or at least combine the theoretical and practical, and the best way to teach entrepreneurship is through practical experience”. The same participant also believes that the main attributes which need to be instilled by university instructors into their students, and which led to his success as a technopreneur

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

166

include hard work and the ability to adapt, develop and change in the face of any challenges or problems. Abdulla Alaradi, founder of Akalati, has a Bachelor degree in Petroleum Engineering from Sultan Qaboos University. He worked in an international oil company and has eight years of experience in the field of petroleum. He said that the most important skills that he possessed, and which helped him in successfully launching a tech-start-up are "insistence and love of learning ". He stressed that these skills are very general and are not related to any specific field, whether technological or any other field. Nevertheless, regarding the skills that he developed in order to be able to launch his app, he mentioned that he started learning Information Technology and different fields of technology, which he did not learn as part of his university education. He stated, "There was a goal that I had to reach, so I learned from YouTube and Google and hired specialists from here and there, for a long time, and I had a strong belief that it is necessary to learn so that I can do what I want”. He added, "I had the opportunity to attend a specialized marketing training course designed for start-ups and business owners. This session filled the gap between my skills and knowledge and enabled me to have many tools and ideas to penetrate the market with a stronger strategy and greater speed. " Just like the founders of Malaeb App, Alaradi also said that his studies and educational background did not have a direct impact on the success of the application. He is originally an engineer and it is a very different field. The courses he took while he was in the University did not have a role in qualifying him as a business leader or technopreneur. Yet, he believes that there are certain skills and approaches that can be focused upon by educational institutions to effectively prepare potential technopreneurs. These include marketing skills. He also suggested that the educational system in Bahrain must establish students since childhood. Schools must focus on creative thinking skills so that the students reach the university having high creative abilities reflected on their personalities. The founder of Skiplino, Zaman AH. Zaman, studied Management Information System at the American University of Sharjah for two years before transferring to the American University in Dubai where he studied Business Management Entrepreneurship Innovation. He established his first company six months after graduation. Zaman established a number of companies since 2007. Currently, he is also CEO of Level Z, which is a Start-up Studio with a vision to develop innovative start-ups and products that solve real world problems. Zaman is multi-skilled and is knowledgeable about various disciplines including Information Technology, Managed Services, Process Quality Management, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, OOH Media, Entertainment Technology, Software Development, Ambient Advertisement, Digital Signage, and Outdoor/Indoor Advertisement. He described himself as a good marketer and CS (computer science) person. In order to develop Skiplino App, he did not take any workshops or courses to develop any skills. Instead, he had to hire employees who have the skills he is missing. Zaman indicated that he studied

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

167

two subjects as part of his postgraduate studies, which were directly related to entrepreneurship: Production Operation and Supply Chain Management. Based on his experience, he encourages universities to offer some courses that can qualify the students and equip them with the skills they need to be successful entrepreneurs. He particularly suggested software development courses to be taught to all university students. Hala Sulaiman, the co-founder of Al Rawi, indicated that from an academic perspective, the skills that she and her partners have complement each other and support the business along with their experiences. However, she believes that the academic qualifications only are not enough to make a tech-start-up succeed, stating, “In my opinion, there are specific skills and traits that universities must focus on and that need to be in an entrepreneur or the team running the start-up in order to make a business succeed. Entrepreneurs need to have strong traits such as risktaking, teamwork, being customer-oriented, having the ability to network, having the discipline to run a business, and having the resilience to be able to cope with success and failure”. Hamad Fuad, the founder of Nural Technologies W.L.L., is an app developer and technopreneur. He decided to drop out from the university after five years of studying Computer Science. He decided to focus his attention on entrepreneurship and establish his own venture. One of the main reasons that led him to drop out from the university was that he found himself equipped with all the skills he needed to establish his start-up, and he felt that the university certificate is not the way to help him achieve his goal and root his own entity in the labour market. He believes that “the way of teaching at the university” was incompatible with the market needs. He also stated that the requirements and projects at the university drained his energy without gaining as many benefits as he expected to gain. He could not balance between his interest in entrepreneurship and his studies, so he decided to enter the labour market at an early age. In order to compensate for the cognitive and theoretical dimensions that he might have missed learning due to dropping out from the university, he said that he always sought to develop his skills through self-learning by watching videos, reading the latest articles and documentations, as well as learning new skills from experienced developers. Since his first semester in the university, he started learning a simple programming language. He always aspired to create his own application. His first experience of creating an application was in 2014 and it was rejected by Apple nine times due to not following human interface guidelines. Because he managed to succeed in establishing a tech start-up without completing his college education, he believes that there is no relationship between university education and success in entrepreneurship. He did not take any courses or workshops at university which taught him the necessary skills to become a technopreneur. However, he was learning by “experience and through trial and error”. Even though Hamad Fuad believes that the university certificate does not help one get a job, and although he managed to succeed without having a degree,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

168

Participant SO5 seems to disagree with his point of view. She thinks that “it is incorrect to say only college dropouts succeed as tech entrepreneurs. Yes, Microsoft and Facebook founders were college dropouts and showcase their intelligence and skill set, however there are many successful entrepreneurs who have college degrees and have shown the discipline of being able to finish school and start their business”. In general, she believes that it is the skill set that defines one’s success in this field. Participants’ Insights on the Courses and Academic Content that Universities Should Offer to Equip Potential Technopreneurs with the Necessary Skills Participant SO5 suggested some elective courses or workshops to be taught at universities in Bahrain, such as courses that teach information technology, programming and coding to all the university students, regardless of their majors and disciplines. In addition to the courses suggested by Participant SO5, Participant SO11 suggested that support organizations work closely with the universities to offer external short courses or workshops in cloud computing, cyber security, app development, business management, VATs training and legal training. She emphasized the necessity of the coordination between the education system and the start-up ecosystem in the country, stating that universities should review and update their curricula to meet the market needs and fit the local and regional trends. Participant SO8 advised and directed nascent technopreneurs to start by applying for support from Tamkeen. He stressed that the academic certificate has no relevance to the success of a person in the field of work. He stated, “the way we view education needs to change. I think what is being taught at universities needs to be changed”. He proposed some specific courses, skills or topics to be taught at universities in Bahrain in order to qualify technopreneurs to increase their chances of success such as: elements of design thinking, scientific methods and software programs. He also listed the following workshops that Bahrain FinTech Bay offers to technopreneurs: • Digital Marketing • State of AI • Coding • Design for non-designers • Tech for non tech • Idea generation • Tools for start-ups • State of data science • Tech opportunities and challenges • Prototyping your first mobile App • Quality risk workshop • Participant SO6 suggested additional courses and topics including the following: • Pitch training • How to secure funds

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

169

• • • • • •

How to market your business How to formulate a business plan Networking as a topic and as an event How to start a business Market trends Money management

Participant SO11 recommended that universities review and update their curricula to meet the market needs and fit the local and regional trends. She added that universities should offer some programs, like fintech, for those who cannot study abroad. Participant SO4 encouraged universities to offer students from all specializations a full entrepreneurship course that walks the student through the entire process of establishing a start-up or entrepreneurial venture. To give a good example, she referred to INJAZ Bahrain program, which is a full year program that aims to enrich students with essential entrepreneurship, networking and leadership skills in order to inspire and prepare them to succeed in a global economy. The program is annually offered to school and university students and involves a competition through which students demonstrate their proposed start-up projects and are judged for their innovation and the application of new ideas in all aspects of running the venture. The program gives the students the opportunity to mark their skills and abilities as internationally recognized qualified entrepreneurs by taking an online assessment that entitles them to getting an Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (ESP). This pass is an international qualification that certifies students to start a business. In addition to the aforementioned program by INJAZ Bahrain, the Business Incubator Centre at the University of Bahrain has recently launched The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summer Program that involved talks and workshops by prominent entrepreneurs, professionals, and stakeholders about topics that included team formation and ideation, data science, artificial intelligence, idea validation, branding, prototyping and solution validation, customer development and problem validation, user-testing, customer engagement, business model and marketing strategy, and intellectual property for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The findings in this paper have revealed that helping to underpin the education and entrepreneurial endeavors of technopreneurs is an important component of a well-developed ecosystem in Bahrain that is dedicated to supporting tech startups. These include a number of several support organizations, which offer a wide range of services, workshops, mentors, financial support and other forms of support to advocate for the needs and interests of nascent technopreneurs to the authorities, and promote their start-ups globally. These support organizations, however, need to coordinate closely with educational institutions in Bahrain to help them integrate technopreneurial skills into their educational programs and practices. This will help prepare and equip potential technopreneurs with the necessary skills and topics that the participants referred to and stressed on in this study. The development of the right technopreneurial skills among students in

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

170

schools as well as in higher education institutions is critical to create and sustain a culture of technopreneurship in Bahrain.

5. Conclusion This paper explored the global trends and effective practices in entrepreneurship education and examined the most important skill sets and topics that technopreneurs and support organizations’ representatives recommend to be taught to students in schools and universities in Bahrain. The data and responses analyzed in this study indicate that there are a number of skills that may contribute to the success of technopreneurs and that educational institutions must focus on them. These skills were ranked, in terms of importance, by the participants in the following order: creative thinking and innovation skills, teamworking skills, strategic thinking skills, marketing skills, communication skills, technological skills, leadership skills, presentation skills, managerial skills, PR and networking skills, financial skill, human resource skills, and graphic design skills, respectively. The findings also suggest that the following topics must be offered as part of programs, courses, or workshops in educational institutions in order to bridge the skills gap and foster digital innovation and technopreneurship in Bahrain: digital marketing, artificial intelligence, coding, design, idea generation, data science, mobile app prototyping, networking, fintech, pitch training, securing funds, money management, market trends, how to market your business, how to formulate a business plan, and how to start a business. The results reveal that more needs to be done in Bahrain in the areas of curriculum development based on international quality standards for technopreneurship education and cross-border universities and support organizations collaborations. It is vital to focus on the cultivation of qualified educators for technopreneurship education. It is also essential for educational institutions to exchange good practices and engage in a process of benchmarking among international educational institutions. Schools must place more emphasis on teaching entrepreneurship to young students. Educational institutions, in general, must focus on increasing educators’ awareness and realization of the most important skills that they must hone in their students to prepare them to become successful technopreneurs. These institutions must work on equipping educators with the knowledge to implement effective practices and pedagogies to encourage technology innovation, and successfully apply technopreneurship education. More research needs to be carried out to understand and guide the development of technopreneurship education in Bahrain. However, the findings of this paper may have implications for academics in Bahrain to promote successful technopreneurs. It may influence the considerations taken during the design of course curricula in schools and universities in Bahrain. The recommendations and opinions of the participants in this study may hopefully contribute to designing effective course contents and pedagogical approaches for teaching future technopreneurs, and in building an entrepreneurial culture in Bahrain.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

171

Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the technopreneurs and support organizations representatives who have contributed greatly to our understanding of the most effective courses and workshops that educational institutions can offer, and the most important skills that universities must equip potential technopreneurs with, in order to create a generation of Bahraini pioneers who are creative, innovative, and have the appropriate attitudes, knowledge, and skills to turn their ideas into successful tech start-ups. We hope that all the information they gave us, and their opinions will reflect positively on current initiatives, strategic plans, and approaches to the integration of technopreneurship education in the educational system in Bahrain.

6. References Aboukhsaiwan, O. (2017). From adversity to opportunity: Bahrain’s entrepreneurship as economic resilience. Wamda. https://www.wamda.com/2017/01/bahrainentrepreneurship-economic-resilience\ Acs, Z., Szerb, L., Lafuente, E., & Lloyd, A. (2018). Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index 2018. Springer International Publishing. Springer Briefs in Economics. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03279-1 Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Oxford Business Group. (2020). Local to Global: The Journey of Bahraini Start-Ups. https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/localglobal-journey-bahraini-start-ups Boldureanu, G., Ionescu, A. M. Bercu, A. M., Bedrule-Grigoruță, M. V., Boldureanu, D. (2020). Entrepreneurship Education through Successful Entrepreneurial Models in Higher Education Institutions. Sustainability, 12(3), 1267. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031267 Čapienė, A., & Ragauskaitė, A. (2017). Entrepreneurship Education at University: Innovative Models and Current Trends. https://doi.org/10.22616/RRD.23.2017.080 Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). (2021). Bahrain Entrepreneurship and Business Sector Reform Initiatives. https://www.cipe.org/projects/bahrain/ Dutta, S., Lanvin. B., & Wunsch-Vincent, S. (2018). The Global Innovation Index 2018: Energizing the World with Innovation. Ithaca, Fontainebleau, and Geneva. Cornell University, INSEAD, & WIPO. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2018.pdf Entrepreneurship 2020 Unit. (2014, November 11). Entrepreneurship Education - A guide for Educators. Brussels: European Commission: Director- General for Enterprise and Industry. http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/7465 Ernst & Young. (2018). Worldwide Electronic Invoicing Survey. EYGM Limited. https://www.actuel-expert-comptable.fr/sites/default/files/ey-worldwideelectronic-invoicing-survey-2018.pdf Ji, Z., & Zhao, X. (2014). Analyzing elements of the employment and entrepreneurship practice education of college students. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 6(7), 803 – 807. https://docplayer.net/18688083-Analyzing-elements-ofthe-employment-and-entrepreneurship-practice-education-of-collegestudents.html Kimball, D., & Lussier, R. (2020). Entrepreneurship Skills for New Ventures. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9780429342240

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

172

Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Education & Higher Education Council (2014, October 10). The National Higher Education Strategy 2014-2024. http://www.moedu.gov.bh/hec/page.aspx?page_key=HE_Strategies&lang=en Kurczewska, A., & Mackiewicz, M. (2020). Are jacks-of-all-trades successful entrepreneurs? Revisiting Lazear's theory of entrepreneurship. Baltic Journal of Management, 15(20), 411-430. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-07-2019-0274 Lagaras, C. (2017). Determinants of Entrepreneurial Attributes and Intentions among Young Professionals in the Kingdom Of Bahrain. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 7(5), 42-51. Liu, X., Lin, C., Zhao, G., & Zhao, D. (2019). Research on the Effects of Entrepreneurial Education and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy on College Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention. Front Psychol. 10, 869. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00869 Lynch, M., Kamovich, U., Longva, K. K., & Steinert, M. (2019). Combining technology and entrepreneurial education through design thinking: Students' reflections on the learning process. Technology Forecasting and Social Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.06.015 Nebessayeva, Z., Bekbolatova, K., Mussakulov, K., Zhanbirshiyev, S., & Tulepov, L. (2018). Promotion of entrepreneurship development by art and design by pedagogy. Opción, 34(85-2), 729-751. OECD. (2016), Innovating Education and Educating for Innovation: The Power of Digital Technologies and Skills. OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264265097-en Oliveira, J. M., Fernandes, C., Sbragia, R., & Borini, F. (2019). Startups and Technology Transfer from Universities and Research Centers—An Analysis of the Impact on Launching New Products. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10865-6_2 Ratzinger, D., Amess, K., Greenman, A., & Mosey, S. (2018). The impact of digital start-up founders’ higher education on reaching equity investment milestones. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 43, 760–778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-017-9627-3 Sanchez, J.C., Ward, A., Hernández, B., & Florez, J. (2017). Entrepreneurship Education: State of the Art. Propósitos y Representaciones, 5(2), 401-473. http://dx.doi.org/10.20511/pyr2017.v5n2.190 Sorgner, A., & Fritsch, M. (2018). Entrepreneurial career paths: occupational context and thepropensity to become self-employed, Small Business Economics, 51(1). 129-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9917-z Sousa, M. (2018). Entrepreneurship Skills Development in Higher Education Courses for Teams Leaders. Administrative Sciences, 8(2), 18. http://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8020018 Staniewski, M. (2016). The contribution of business experience and knowledge to successful entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), 5147-5152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.095 Szarek, J., & Piecuch, J. (2018). The importance of startups for construction of innovative economies. International Entrepreneurship Review, 4(2), 69-78. https://doi.org/10.15678/PM.2018.0402.05 Startup Genome. (2020). The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 (GSER2020). https://startupgenome.com/report/gser2020 Toit, A., & Gaotlhobogwe, M. (2018). A neglected opportunity: Entrepreneurship education in lower higher school curricula for technology in South Africa and Botswana. African journal of research in mathematics, science and technology education, 22(10), 37-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18117295.2017.1420007

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

173

Tripathi, N., Seppänen, P., Boominathan, G., Oivo, M., & Liukkunen, K. (2019). Insights into startup ecosystems through exploration of multi-vocal literature. Information and Software Technology, 105, 56-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2018.08.005 Van Burg, E., Cornelissen, J., Stam, W., & Jack, S. (2020). Advancing Qualitative Entrepreneurship Research: Leveraging Methodological Plurality for Achieving Scholarly Impact. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258720943051 World Economic Forum. (2016), Unleashing Greatness. Nine Plays to Spark Innovation in Education. www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_WP_GAC_Education_Unleashing_Greatness.p df

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

174

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 174-193, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.9

British National Corpus in English Language Teaching of University Students Nataliia Bober Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9639-0562 Yan Kapranov, Anna Kukarina and Tetiana Tron Kyiv National Linguistic University, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2915-038X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-8210 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0266-8461 Tamara Nasalevych Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Melitopol, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7768-0310 Abstract. The article deals with the application of corpus-based direction in English language teaching of university students, suggested by Ukrainian scholars. The most representative corpus for English language teaching (ELT) is the British National Corpus (BNC), which offers many opportunities (e.g. search for specific word forms, search for word forms by lemmas, search for groups of word forms in the form of syntagms, etc.). The article presents the methodological algorithm of university students' work with the BNC during English classes based on the verbs denoting human emotional states. The methodology of work with BNC consists of three stages: 1) a student has to compile the initial lexicographic register of basic verb denoting emotional states; 2) a student has to measure the frequency of each unit in the corpus usage; and 3) a student has to analyse, described and record all corpus calculations. The main benefits of the findings for the future relevant studies may be described in the following way: the work with corpus tools in ELT is aimed at students performing the following successive steps: 1) processing concordances, 2) calculating the absolute frequency, 3) analysing the left and right valence, and 4) modelling clusters to build cognitive-semantic profiles of the studied units, which will allow university students to understand the essence of every grammatical, lexical, and syntactical unit. Keywords: Corpus-based direction; English language teaching; British National Corpus; Methodological algorithm; university student

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

175

1. Introduction Nowadays, lecturers of national Ukrainian universities (Kyiv National Linguistic University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, National Pedagogical Drahomanov University, etc.) continue implementing the experience of corpus linguistics into language classes (for example, “ELT”) and translation (for example, “Theory and Practice of Translation (English)”, “Literary Translation”, etc. disciplines. It is explained by scientific and technological progress development, computer and information technologies in the modern world. It is provided by the necessity to search for effective methodological approaches to deepening classical and mastering the latest language and translation competencies represented in relevant work programmes. Therefore, corpus linguistics “explores the microcosm of language functioning in the process of communication and trying to reflect the big in the small” (Gvishiani, 2008, p. 6). It helps a lecturer and a student solve the main tasks of a particular discipline. Some scholars of corpus linguistics, among whom we mention Baker et al. (2006), tried to investigate this field in theoretical and methodological contexts. They noted that it has its own object of study (natural language and its functioning in oral and written expressions / texts), which undergoes observation using scientific statistical techniques, thus substantiating its position as a theoretical doctrine in the field of linguistics. At the same time and from methodological stand point, corpus linguistics is based on its inherent principles of data collection, processing, storage and analysis, which vary depending on the type of corpus and its purpose, as well as according to specific objectives and scope (Baker et al., 2006). We are convinced that the primary goal of corpus linguistics is to study every language unit in all of its connections and relations (multidimensionality), and more specifically, to understand the cognitive-informative / informational nature of human language in general and every individual language in particular. Moreover, it is also worth mentioning that the corpus of texts, which is distinguished by a high degree of technology, provides a method of foreign language teaching and translation disciplines with a unique amount of material for a language learning (e.g. English, German, Spanish, etc.). The purpose of the article is to represent methodological algorithm for working with the British National Corpus (the BNC) in the process of English language teaching (ELT). The purpose involves the following specific objectives: – to name the approaches of corpus-based approach in the context of foreign language teaching; – to outline the preconditions for the BNC formation and name its capacity in ELT; and – to represent methodological algorithm for working with the BNC in the process of ELT.The research data material is represented by basic verbs denoting human emotional states.

176

2. Literature Review Scientific literature review reveals that corpus linguistics has already established itself as a self-sufficient scientific field of knowledge (Gvishiani, 2008; Plungyan et al., 2009; Suvorina, 2011; Hoffmann et al., 2008). Furthermore, it continues to be used not only in research (Sinclair, 2006), but also in educational areas (Wu &Peng, 2016; Wang et al., 2013; Kennedy,2003). The corpus instruments as tools for managing a large amount of data lead down a chaotic variety of languages to a more organized set of words (Scott & Tribble, 2006). For example, in the leading world universities, it becomes a daily practice to use the corpus data as an empirical component of lecture courses (Wu & Peng, 2016; Wang et al., 2013; Kennedy, 2003), student assignments and individual projects (Teo, 2018; Sakaeva et al., 2016). It turns out that the corpus-based approach is widely used in the process of the English language teaching methodology (Luo, 2018; Huang, 2017; Wang, 2014, 2015), etc. Horina (2014) drew attention to the fact that it is necessary to speak about the lack of attention paid to the development of the skills of self-study work with the corpus, the corpus data assessment, as well as the possibilities of its use. It happens because it is often concerned that the work with the corpus is related to special skills in data processing or information technology. On the one hand, many experts understand that the corpus-based approach has a great potential in teaching a foreign language, but, on the other hand, the difficulties dealing with the development of these new technologies seem quite insurmountable. Therefore, in order to use the linguomethodical potential of the corpus, the teachers have to share their experience and special training (p. 5).

3. Methodology In the process of ELT, university students as the main participants of English classes have to use the Sketch Engine case system that is proved to be especially productive due to the presence of tools that implement, first, the method of lexicalsemantic clustering, the classical method of distributive-statistical analysis and the method of combinatorial syntagmatics. The article describes a systematic methodology for students working with the BNC to learn English. The following three phases for learning the basic verbs denoting human emotional states with the help of the BNC should be implemented. At the first stage, it is necessary to compile the initial lexicographic register of basic verbs denoting human emotional states, i.e., pre-corpus selection of English words. Given the semantic structure of every such designation (all meanings, LSV, synonyms and antonyms, etc.), they were assigned to eight semantic cluster profiles (“Interest”, “Joy”, “Wonder”, “Grief”, “Anger”, “Disgust”, “Fear”, and “Guilt”), which can then be supplemented with corpus data material and processed with the help of corpus tools. At the second stage, the lexicostatistical method was used to conduct the following operational procedures: 1) analysis of statistical data of the total frequency of every basic verb, its form and phrase formation using the LIST tool in the BNC; 2) characteristics of the domains using the CHART tool; 3) calculations of the frequency of use of the basic verb, its form and phrase formation for every domain and profile are also calculated using the CHART

177

tool; 4) the most frequent cases of narrow environment (valence-distributive), i.e., the colloquial use of a certain unit in percentage based on the Collocates tool are determined; 5) combinatorics of semantic profiles of verbs denoting human emotional states based on the KWIC tool is revealed. At the third stage, all corpus calculations are analysed and described; they were entered into the submatrix with subsequent analysis of the latter. The corpus tools enabled to measure not only the word usage frequency but also its quantitative indicators and the speed of the primary search in the corpus. It allows both any teacher of English and a student to read / scan the concordance vertically, to find the left and right verb collocates in the right domains, as well as to build a cognitive map of phrasal verbal complexes with the semantics of emotions based on the semantic profiles.

4. Findings 4.1. Corpus-Based Direction within English Language Teaching Framework 4.1.1. Approaches to Corpus-based Direction Analysis in Educational Environment According to Boryskina (2015), today the debate is not about the attitude of scientists to the corpus, but rather in approaches to working with this linguistic resource, in its reliability as a search engine, and hence the effectiveness in deepening the classical and mastering the recent language competencies presented in the relevant work programs. In Corpus Study of Language: Fashion or Necessity?, the researcher gathered different views of both proponents and opponents related to the prospects and feasibility of corpus research in general (Boriskina, 2015). Here are their key theses, commented in her article, but with their own analysis and arguments for assessing the corpus-based direction in the process of a foreign language teaching. The first approach deals with the arguments of radical scientists (Newmeyer, 2003; Prodromou et al., 1997), represented in Boriskina’s (2015) article. According to her observations, there is no reason to talk about the prospects of the direction, which does not even have its own UDC-classifier (the index of which is often UDC 81'32 – Mathematical Linguistics). And even this formal feature, as they believed, negates the importance of corpus teaching of a foreign language. And the second argument of their radicalism is related to the inexpediency of giving a special status to research performed according to the corpus, because a linguist in any field of study forms the material in the form of a card index. This is a mandatory stage of any linguistic search. In their opinion, the corpus is a substitution for the word “catalogue”. At the same time, Boriskina does not agree with this assessment of the corpus-based approach, and we fully support her when she wrote, “in this case there is speculation on concepts, because the corpus (with marking and annotation) cannot be compared with mechanical sampling of material, which is a catalogue, both in scale and functionality, and in research opportunities” (p. 25). To confirm our point of view, we turned to the original idea of corpora compiling, which reveals that at the end of the XIX century the famous Oxford English Dictionary (The Oxford English Dictionary) was compiled by a large

178

number of cards of authentic examples collected by a group of dictionaries compilers. It should be noted that several centuries before that, collections of high-status texts were collected in libraries and studied as models of rhetoric, style, and grammar. Thus, in the XIII century and by the efforts of 500 monks, the first concordance (a list of all words of the text with indications of the contexts of their use) to the Latin translation of the Bible was mechanically created. The famous Danish linguist Johansson (2007) (representative of the Copenhagen School of Structuralism), who gathered a huge collection (about 300-400 thousand) of examples of unusual pronunciation of words, grammatical forms and sentence constructions, would become not just a supporter of corpus research methods, as if at that time were computers, but rather a fierce opponent against radical statements about the inexpediency of the corpus-based approach for the study of linguistic phenomena. Therefore, since radical views exist in the linguistic environment, it is worthwhile continuing corpus research conducting and demonstrating its benefits in a foreign language teaching. The second approach deals with the moderately skeptical approach to corpus research. Apresyan (1995) as one of representatives of this approach believed that excessive fascination with corpus data from time to time leads to results falsification and quantitative data misuse. As a matter of fact, a purely frequency calculation of words usage cannot be a reliable criterion for statements about the features a linguistic object functioning. Moreover, dilettantism among corpus linguists is partly “facilitated” by the still not established terminological apparatus and not developed methodology of corpus research. At the same time, the scientist believed that these remarks and warnings do not diminish the role of corpus technologies (Boryskina, 2015). An important inquiry is raised in this regard, what other problems are urgent, causing not so much criticism as concern in linguistic circles, the semantic linguistic school (founded by Apresyan (1995)), in particular, requiring immediate research and reasonable feedback to these skeptical issues? Firstly, working with corpora involves learning the basics of IT terminology, the acquisition of search skills and the ability to apply methods of quantitative and statistical data processing. It is the imperfection of the search tools that makes it difficult to work with corpus data, since the search query produces hundreds and even thousands of results (word usage contexts), which are physically impossible to be processed within a limited time. In its turn, this provokes “skeptics” to be critical towards the assumptions of supporters of corpus technology, who claim that it saves time, and the search engine helps to solve problems of a language structure and development (Boryskina, 2015). One more sign of sceptical criticism of the corpus approach lies on the fact that the process of compiling texts and then removing words from them “decontextualizes” language would result in depriving and removing the language from its ethnographical context (Widdowson, 2000). That is, it removes language from the ethnography of communication. However, research on corpus data material, for instance, “key word in context (KWIC)”, “context in the use of the nominal suffix -ness” (McEnery& Hardie, 2012, p. 35), etc.” gives

179

reasons for denying these statements. As a matter of fact, namely these words usage contexts, affix morphemes, etc will help to objectively reveal the internal structure of a particular language. Similar skeptical criticism of corpus studies has also been associated with imperfect “top-down” word processing techniques with no regard to general discourse (Swales,2013), because there are fragments of text that even a concordance cannot comprehend itself (Kaltenbeck & Mehlmauer-Larcher, 2005). These are such text macrostructures that perform a specific text function. On the whole, to generalise the views of skeptics, one should admit that they believe that corpus linguistics has a purely applied application, but the theoretical foundations of which are completely absent. In general, this discipline is an improved method of collecting and processing material, as well as a new information resource that is important for the teaching learning process. The third approach deals with the scientific-perspective approach in corpus linguistics, in which representatives tried to give thorough answers to radical and skeptical moods within the framework of the international scientific conferences: “Corpus linguistics” and “Dialogue”, where the main task was to discuss the improvement of search engines and methods of information research in the corpora. Being an ardent supporter of corpus-oriented applied linguistics, Plungyan et al. (2009) is strongly convinced that modern language research cannot be carried out beyond corpus linguistics. To support these statements, some linguists like Sinclair (2006) gave rather strong and confirming arguments in their works. In her article “Corpus approach in modern linguistics: perspectives and ways of applying”, Meyzerska (2014, p. 54) pointed out the advantages of using corpus in linguistic studios. In quoting Svartvik (1992), according to whom, these include first of all: objectivity, verifiability, efficiency in the study of language variants, dialects, styles, as well as historical comparisons; the ability to identify the word usage frequency, representativeness. In addition, the scientist noted that the corpus is a theoretical resource and at the same time a tool for machine translation, speech recognition and synthesis, as well as for the development of programs related to language use. Moreover, both frequency phenomena and occasionally used units can be studied and interpreted on corpus materials. Comparing and analysing the data obtained by means of different corpora, it is possible to identify linguistic variability and patterns of language changes, and to predict the further development of the phenomenon under study, to cite just a few. According to Plungyan (2008), corpus-based approach makes the results more empirically relevant. The scientist assumed that the fundamental novelty of the results of corpus research gives grounds for the development of absolutely innovative “corpus dictionaries” and “corpus grammars”, concluded and verified in relation to a specific fixed corpus. In its turn, the corpus nature of dictionaries and grammars increases their reliability and verification, thus preventing from subjectivity and incompleteness. The creation of analysers and specialised dictionaries for automated corpus mark-up (morphological,

180

syntactic, and thematic) is technologically possible only within the framework of corpus linguistics. These recent advantages of corpus research indicate that radical changes in the field of lexicography have taken place recently. According to Plungyan (2008), there are signs of a new modelling of language, which in many respects differ from the usual models that developed in the last quarter of XX century. Those changes have become so radical that they are often described as revolutionary. 4.1.2. Linguistic Text Corpus as Education Area Nowadays, the corpus-based approach to foreign language learning and teaching has changed linguists’ perceptions of language. Linguistic corpus is a set of texts collected according to certain principles, marked after a certain standard and provided with a specialised search engine. Foreign representatives of corpus linguistics understand the corpus as a research field (Andor, 2004) in general, in which a set of texts is brought together for conducting a linguistic analysis. Furthermore, corpus linguistics has powerful schools in Lancaster, Birmingham, Nottingham and Arizona, as well as its own specialised academic journals (for example, the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory). At the same time, detailed information on the definition of the linguistic corpus can be seen in the works of scholars including McEnery and Hardie, (2012), who understand it as “a set of machine-readable texts that are a reliable basis for studying certain research issues” (p. 1). In their opinion, the main controversial issue is whether the corpus allows studying linguistic phenomena in a diachronic way, or only there are texts available for the analysis of language in a synchronic way. The answer to this question lies in a particular corpus and the purpose of its compiling. In fact, the conceptual idea of any corpus is the fundamental ideology of its compiling based on texts, not on individual words, because “the experience of the world is largely text-mediated experience, and, based on this assumption, people live in the world of texts”(McEnery & Hardie, 2012, p. 230).In this regard, the corpus-based approach raises the revolutionary question of revising the status of the word as the basic unit of language. Despite the fact that the corpus-based approach is built on text mark-up, the key issue of this approach is the ability of the corpus to give a linguist the opportunity to measure the frequency of certain words and phrases, determine ways of combining them, combinatorial possibilities, compositional semantics, and stylistic registers of individual words. 4.2. The British National Corpus (BNC) as a Reference / Search and Research System 4.2.1. The Preconditions for the British National Corpus Formation Zhukovska (2013a) observed that in the early 1960s of the XXth century two projects on both sides of the Atlantic were initiated with the aim of creating corpora in electronic format. These projects were implemented simultaneously and independently of each other. A speech corpus was formed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, which included transcribed versions of the everyday conversations of native speakers of the British English. This corpus had a range

181

of only 300,000 words. This was due to the complex and costly process of collecting and transcribing oral speech and the lack of a computer at the university […]”. According to Zakharov (2005), the Brown Corpus of 1963 became the first corpus that could be considered in terms of terminology and content as a corpus of texts, rather than a simple collection of them. The volume of 1 million phrases included 500 fragments (2000 phrases each) of texts of various genres published in 1961 in the United States: literary texts of writers and poets, articles from newspapers and magazines, texts on religious topics, samples of business writing, etc. There are various reasons for this corpus compiling, however, the most important of them is the study of American English, as well as the vested interest of scientists for the emergence of a new scientific discipline (corpus linguistics), which was not accepted by transformative generative grammar representatives (McCarthy & O'Keeffe, 2010). Despite the fact that corpus research was not popular in the United States at that time, the first computerized corpus, because Zhukovska (2013a) and other researchers admit to become a model / standard / standard for other corps, was compiled exactly in this country (p. 36). And since then, another debate over the correlation of the two areas of applied research has begun, namely corpus linguistics and computational linguistics. The differences between these areas are clearly explained in “Corpus linguistics and lexicography”, which describes three procedural methodological steps for performing corpus analysis: 1) language data processing on the basis of their categorical identification; 2) analysis of language data using statistical methods; 3) scientific interpretation of the obtained results. If the first two steps should be as automated as possible, then the latter requires scientific knowledge of linguistics, since any interpretation is an implementation act of mental abilities, and therefore cannot be reduced to an algorithmic procedure. This is the main discrepancy between corpus and computational linguistics, where the latter uses language as a set of specific procedures and operations (Teubert, 2007, p. 113).

Later on in 1971–1978, following the example of their American counterparts, European scholars began compiling another corpus of texts. It was called The Lancaster-Oslo or Bergen Corpus of British English (LOB), because its compilers were predominantly British and Norwegian scientists basing their corpus on the model of the Brown Corpus (it is about the number of different genre fragments of texts – 500 to 2000 word usages. In fact, the compiling of these corpora made it possible to conduct numerous studies comparing two versions of the English language (American and British standards) on the basis of various genres of texts that were subject to computer processing. These corpus standards have become the basic theoretical and methodological principles for compiling similar texts corpora, one of which was the BNC, compiled in 1991-1994 by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Lancaster (the British Library was also involved in this process). Unlike previous corpora, the main feature was a collection of complete texts with partial language marking and a

182

speech sub-corpus with its main advantage - the ability to be accessed via the Internet. The BNC has a range of 100 million words; 90% of which are written texts and 10% – speech (sub-corpus), which belong to various genres of the late 20th century: newspaper articles, popular science literature, samples of business correspondence, texts on religious topics, transcribed recordings of unofficial broadcasts, recordings of government speeches, etc. In 2001 and 2007, the second and third issues of the BNC were slightly revised. Karpilovska (2006) in the study “Introduction to Applied Linguistics: Computational Linguistics”, assessing the advantages of corpus linguistics and corpora in particular, provided the following data. The compilers of the BNC tried to present the corpus in the form of typical publishing products and got impressive outcomes. The texts of the corpus printed on thin paper (400 words per page) provide the entire volume in hard copy taking 10 m2. It would take 4 years to read this information at a rate of 150 words per minute, having spent 8 hours per day (p. 76). Providing characteristics for the BNC, Plungyan (2008) noted that this corpus was exactly the first to receive “national” status, because, firstly, according to his ideas, it indicates the British national version of English. After some period of time, this corpus became the benchmark for all corpora, and the meaning of the word “national” acquired other features. The national corpus became the one, which is the largest and most representative, characterising the language of a particular country as a whole. And the most important requirement for this type of corpus is that the national corpus should include balanced texts of different genres in a particular historical period (Plungyan, 2008). 4.2.2. The Use of the BNC in ELT In hope to define the BNC as a referential informative and scientific research system, it is necessary to consider the opportunities of this system that some scholars have already used in their studies and works to analyse stable phrases with the semantics of emotions that helped to build cognitive-semantic matrix of verbs denoting human emotional states. Firstly, it is essential to clarify, what is a corpus as a system? To answer this question, it is important to consult “Corpus Linguistics”, in which Zakharov gave the following interpretation of the notion of “corpus of texts”: an electronic collection of texts, marked so that to find words and constructions with given grammatical and other properties necessary for the linguist in a short period of time”, but also “a system of text and linguistic data management, which is called a corpus manager. It is a specialized searching system that includes software for data hunting in the corpus, to obtain statistical information, and most important, to present the outcomes to the researcher in a convenient form (Zakharov, 2005, p. 4). This procedure results are given in the form of horizontal lines with a search word in the middle, which is called KWIC (Key Word In Context) (Zhukovska, 2013b). Zakharov illustrated the following corpus managers’ characteristics to

183

make it possible to get the necessary information from the corpus: 1) search for specific word forms; 2) search for word forms by lemmas; 3) search for word groups in the form of syntagms ; 3) search for word forms by a set of morphological features; 4) search for results indicating the context of a given volume; 5) obtaining various lexical and grammatical statistics; 6) saving of results in a separate file, etc. The searching results are usually represented to a person who carries out academic study in the form of a concordance, where the unit under the investigation is given in its context and in the form of statistics. The scholars can record the frequency characteristics of certain language units, or they can characterise the common use of several lexical units (Zakharov, 2005). For linguistic research, which was conducted and is performed based on the BNC, the work mechanism of its concordance is essential; it is a specialized applied programme used for automatic issue of specified language units. The 100 millionth BNC is operated by the Xiara concordance. In a few seconds at the specific researcher request the concordance produces searching results, and what is crucial – a limited context for the word under the investigation (from one to three sentences). This type of data transmission according to the researcherserver model by means of search of a specific way – World Wide Web – is the main characteristic of this type of corpora. The BNC belongs to the so-called fourth generation corpus. Mark Davies developed the software system for it, which was later expanded to provide access to other corpora by means of the web-site: http://corpus.byu.edu (McEnery et al., 2012). The outcomes of the corpus processing by BNC web can be presented in the form of tables of summary quantitative characteristics of the statistical data, which clearly and systematically show the total results of the material, its digital characteristics, the state of the phenomenon, and are the basis for formulating assumptions and conclusions (Hoffmann et al., 2008). The BNC web network software, which guides the British National Corpus, offers such statistical criteria: mutual information, mutual information unit cube (MI3), Z-score, T-score, Dice coefficient, the method of maximum credibility/logarithmic function of veracity (log-likelihood). The usage of such specifications allowed Suvorina (2011) to justify the strong points of this corpus potential to manage various linguistic tasks in general and to create lexical profiles of words in particular. Using the concordance (representation of the units under the consideration in context and in the form of statistical data), the researcher restricted the study to adjective and verb collocations of the words emotion(s) and feeling(s) – statistically stable phrases placed in the range from 3 to 1 position to the left of the purposive word. The first 10 with maximum index were selected from the initial collocation lists obtained by means of the BNC Web system. Six lists of collocations were compiled through repetition procedure for each of the above-mentioned statistical criterion. The lexical profile of a word is the maximum intersection

184

points of the obtained six lists collocations, those stable phrases that are frequently repeated in the largest number of groups (Suvorina, 2011). The representatives of cognitive grammar (Golubkova (2002) & Lindner (1983)) include semi-idiomatic phrasal verbs of English as collocations – stable phrases, considering them as a combination of two full components, the meanings of which are put on each other, creating a new meaning in the whole phrase (Lindner, 1983). We agree with Linder’s (1983) point of view that the particles in a phrasal verb always encode a certain part of its meaning. Moreover, these formations should be studied on the basis of particle meanings, not just including the verb component, because the initial units have a generalized meaning, which is then specified/ differentiated by means of the semantic structure of the corresponding verb. We suppose that the corpus study of phrasal verbs denoting human emotional states based on the research of software system BNC Web, in particular its statistical criteria, will give the opportunity to determine the verbs denoting human emotional states in English used with particles more often, creating phrasal verbs or complexes (by their nature they are compositional complexes, phrase-verb and cognitive-semantic formations), belonging to stable collocations. Studying the valence and distributive context of phrasal verbs stating human emotions directly in the corpus, mainly the basis of six statistical criteria of the BNC web software system, will allow to determine their cognitivesemantic profiles and make a matrix – a model that reflects the conception of native speakers about their feelings context and the specific means of their identification in English with the help of phrasal verbs.

5. Discussion 5.1. General Information on Students’ Work with the BNC during English Classes A copy of the British National Corpus is available online at the Department of English at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. The main tool of the BNC is the BNC Web programme, giving access to this copy of the corpus, in particular, it provides the search throughout the corpus or can set limited part of it. No special program is needed to search for the corpus, because BNC Web works in a standard browser window. To get access to it, it is necessary to register and use a username and password to log in. We would like to elaborate that the British National Corpus is equipped with five online services, providing the option of search and research by different interfaces. Although only the general programs BNC Web at Lancaster University and BYU-BNC (Brigham Young University) provide options with all resources of the BNC, and other services redirect to official websites with open access to the detailed options of the BNC, in particular making possible the search of colligations and collocations – phrase units (Phrases in English) in the study. In the initial stage of work with the BNC, a student should register in the online access system. It is only required for search with BNC Web at Lancaster University, but complete registration offers more alternatives in processing and

185

the option to save the necessary fragments of the corpus. It is possible to return to search history as all queries are saved.

Figure 1. BNC registration window

To register, you should enter your name, email address, password, country (select from the list), category (university professor, lecturer or student/applicant whose status should be confirmed by providing the link to the university website where the name is present among the lists of students or teachers).

Figure 2. User identification in the BNC system After e-mail address confirmation, enter your login and password and choose the name of your university – this is the last stage of registration. The BNC home page contains links to general information about the corpus, its products, variations and options to be used, copyright, and frequently asked users’ questions. It is also possible to download all the content of the BNC and set great majority of concordances for the data processing, but it is difficult to find a computer with the required memory storage.

186

5.2. Stages of University Students' Work with the BNC during English Classes (Case study of Basic Verbs Denoting Human Emotional States) The following three stages of university students' work with the BNC during English classes are to be implemented. At the first stage of work with the BNC, a student has to compile the initial lexicographic register of basic verbs denoting human emotional states. This procedure may be considered as pre-corpus selection of English words. Studying the semantic structure of every verb (all meanings, LSV, synonyms and antonyms, etc.), it is necessary to refer them to 8 semantic cluster profiles, which may be then added with the corpus data and processed using corpus tools: 1. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Interest”. 2. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Joy”. 3. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Wonder”. 4. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Grief”. 5. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Anger”. 6. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Disgust”. 7. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Fear”. 8. Semantic profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Guilt”. In the process of cluster-semantic taxonomy of verbs, the zones of their intersection may be defined both at the level of form and meaning, LSV and synonymous variants, which may reveal every profile to be open and its matrix connections with other cluster profiles. As statistical patterns build the foundation for the organization of the basic vocabulary and text of any language (and the corpus is the text), the second stage is to involve a lexicostatistical method to measure the frequency of every unit in the corpus usage. The lexicostatistical method makes it possible to measure the distance between the words of the same cluster-semantic profile. Therefore, it should be mentioned that this method is more objective and reliable in ELT. Despite all its advantages, we use other corpus tools to build cognitive-semantic sub-matrixes of phrasal and verbal indications of the British emotional states: – Analysis of statistics on the total frequency of every basic verb, its form and phrase using the LIST tool in the BNC; – Characteristics of the domains in which the most used word were the one under the research using the CHART tool; – Calculations of the frequency of the basic verb, adjective, construction of verb + adjective and phrasal verb usage for each domain and profile also by the CHART tool; – Calculation of the most frequent cases of narrow (colloquial and colligational) area (valence-distributive) usage of a certain unit in percentage on the basis of the Collocates tool; and – A combination of verb denoting human emotional states based on the KWIC tool (Keyword in the context).

187

Forfurther differences identification of similar meanings and LSV verbal indications, the COMPARE WORDS tool will be used in combination with the comparative method. The algorithm of this method is shown in illustration of the semantic profile of the verbal indications of “Joy” emotional state that is represented by the basic word joy (with the noun duplicates) and phrase-verb equivalent to perk up. The complete synonym of these verbal indications is the verbrejoice meaning “to feel or show that you are very happy”; it can form phrase-verb complexes with the help of post-positives at/over/in. Traditionally, according to the collocation rules of compatibility, they cannot be attributed to such formations: A) His family rejoiced at the news. B) We rejoiced in our good fortune. The presence of this verb in the BNC can be traced in 174 cases and in 91 types of texts with the frequency of 1.77 copies and a speed of primary search of 0.161 seconds: А) She needed someone to rejoice with her. В) We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. Also in the BNC there are illustrations of this formations usage in oral speech: Does he really mean rejoice at all times? Emotional-semantic synonymy is also represented by the verb to be glad “to be pleased and happy about something”: I’m really glad I don’t have to go back there again. The studied emotional state is also marked by the adjective verb forms with the verb conjunction to be, which gives the word, for example, glad the meaning of the emotional state "to rejoice", and not to describe joy. This adjective model is frequency and is synonymous with the designation of the emotional state of joy with its various meanings: I am glad to be back home. The BNC sector is represented by 3762 cases in 1184 different texts with the frequency of 38.27 copies per million word usages and the search speed of 0.167 seconds: Jane was glad when it was over. The following indication of this profile is associated with the verb to glee, but in the corpus manager it is recorded only as a noun in 162 cases in 134 different texts with the frequency of 1.65 copies per million units of word usage and the primary search speed of 0.157 seconds: Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, some software developers regard the suit with glee. The verb to exult is also a stylistic synonym for the verb denoting human emotional state of “Joy”, which is recorded in 18 cases in the BNC in 17 different texts. The frequency is 0.18 copies, and the speed of the primary search is 0.161 seconds: And you, Opal, you will exult in it because you made it possible. In some illustrations this verb has a meaning of exaltation: But it says humble yourself under the hand, under the mighty hand of God, then in that day he will lift you up, he will exult you! The verb enjoy adds the synonymic row, because it means the emotional syndrome state of happiness and it has a full phrasal equivalent revel in: He revelled in his new-found fame. Both verbal phrases in their semantic structures have this gradual meaning of joy, as there is hedonistic state – ‘pleasure’ “to

188

enjoy something very much”. It is important to note that the word enjoy derives from the basic word joy that confirms the synonymy. The BNC has the phrasal equivalent revel in represented in 70 types of texts in 64 types of texts with the frequency of 0.71 copies per million words and the speed of the primary search in 0.171 seconds: Most people will simply revel in the pictures. Having a common synonymous meaning, but with additional meaning nuances due to contextual use fixed in corpus the phrasal verb lap up “to enjoy something without worrying about whether it is good, true etc.”: The humour was lapped up by an appreciative crowd. In the first illustration, human emotional state of “Joy” is transmitted by the formation lapping up to “enjoy”. In the second, the situational conditionality of the verb form lapped up denoting the state of pleasure actualised the differential meaning ‘to perceive something joyful’ in its semantics, i.e., in this case humour, and to enjoy it. In the BNC concordance, the verb lap up is not very common, because it is met in only 10 illustrations and 10 types of texts with a very rare frequency, only in 0.1 copies and the speed of the primary search in 0.174 seconds: Mark was one of twelve young boys and girls clustered around him to lap up his words of wisdom. In this illustration, the human emotional state of “Joy” is implicitly conveyed through union and the acquisition of wisdom. In the following example: Marc would lap up the opportunity to use it against her this verb actualises the meaning of ‘enjoyment of harm done to someone’. Verb denoting human emotional state of “Joy” is represented by such a phrasal verb as go in for something meaning “to do or use something often because you enjoy it or like it”, which in the BNC is represented by only three cases in three texts with the frequency of 0.03 copies and the speed of the primary search in 1,073 seconds: But when Julian had some money left to him, they decided to pool their resources and go in for something far bigger. During the study of the verb synonyms of the human emotional state “Joy”, the phrasal verb cheer up of an exclamatory-emotional nature was defined to mean “have fun, hurray!” depending on the contexts of the domain: Cheer up! The worst is over. The BNC recorded 103 cases of its use in 87 types of texts with the frequency of 1.05 copies and the speed of the primary search in 0.175 seconds: Cheer up, said my Cid; … this is a glorious day. The human emotional dominant “Joy” is not limited to verbs or phrases. It can be added with the help of such collocations as jump for joy, be on cloud nine, be treading on air, be in seventh heaven, which have already become phraseological units. The periphery of the semantic profile “Joy” can be defined as a phrasal verb as fall about to with the meaning “laugh a lot about something”: It was so funny everyone just fell about laughing. Phraseological figurative meaning associated with the state of “Joy” acquired such formations as verb-adjective collocations, which have not lost the archetype of the studied profile: be delighted, be euphoric, be as pleased as Punch, be jubilant, be in raptures, be beside oneself with joy, be thrilled and others. The lexicostatistical profile of verb denoting human emotional state of “Joy” is represented by the basic verb joy with its noun duplicate and verb-phrase

189

equivalent to perk up, a full synonym for which there is the verb rejoice and which is able to form phrasal verbs with post-positives at/over/in. But, the most frequent in corpus managers (3762 cases with the frequency of 38.27 copies per million words and the search speed of 0.167 seconds) was the adjective form be glad with the verb to be, which gives the word glad the meaning of the human emotional state “rejoice”. The unique formation of the verb exclamatory-emotional nature in this profile is the phrasal verb cheer up. In the third stage, all corpus calculations are analysed and described and recorded in the sub matrix with subsequent analysis of the latter. Technically, the work with the corpus was performed according to this algorithm. Firstly, a query was made via the BNC Web interface for the corresponding word (in our case, for example, the verb abhor), which was entered in the appropriate field, and then Start Query option was clicked. After processing the request, the concordance presented each example according to the search word (basic verb or verb form denoting a certain human emotional state). Then the processing of search results displayed on BNC Web begins. The result of the query is presented in three columns according to settings: case number, file name, and <s> – unit number and case (50 cases per page). In the case field, the search word is highlighted, then by clicking on this link, which was very important for further study of the meaning structure of the necessary word, the wider context (domain) of this word usage was shown on the screen. Clicking on the file name and <s> number, the program makes a transfer to display data about the file, which lists the values of meta text categories encoded in the text query. At the end, the traditional concordance display is changed to KWIC format (key word in context) by clicking the Show KWIC View button. After this operation, the search results are displayed on the monitor screen in the appropriate window. This general way of presenting the results of a concordance, in which a word or search query is displayed in the centre of the page accompanied by text, is an alternative way to view the results of a concordance that shows the user's query in the context of a sentence (or <s>copula).

Figure 3. Сorpus tag of "Joy" emotion The corpus-tag sub matrix of the “Joy” emotional state display is represented by multiple selection tag modules using the <select> tag, which is repeated 9 times in the code representation, providing a profile of each verb or phrase verb to denote this human emotional state. The lexicostatistical profile “Joy” is shown in the form of a table that clearly shows the cognitive-semantic links between the most semantically similar verbs denoting human emotional state. In the search process, it is defined by the verb joy and the verb-phrase construction to perk up. The synonyms of verbs are added by 3 units with the semantics of feeling “happiness”, “joy” and “satisfaction”. There are also five verbs with abstract

190

semantics of joy meaning: from the identification of the state of pleasure to the state of excessive inordinate laughter as a consequence of something joyful.

7. Conclusion As a result, we note that in corpus linguistics three scientific directions have been formed regarding the advantages and prospects of such a direction of research: 1) radical-categorical, 2) moderately skeptical and 3) scientificperspective. The representatives of the first approach are convinced of the unreliability of the corpus as a research system, while skeptics, on the one hand, suppose that only corpus linguistic data leads to some falsification of outcomes, and purely frequency words count cannot be an objective statement criterion for peculiarities of the linguistic object functioning. However, they do not deny the importance and significance of these methods of processing linguistic notions. Quite opposite is the position of optimistic linguists taking into account the importance of corpus research with the development of the "corpus dictionaries" and "corpus grammars" of the new generation, which will contribute to radical changes in lexicography and other areas of interdisciplinary linguistics. One of the most representative corpora for the study of the national heritage of the English language is the British National Corps (BNC), which is the informative/ and searching and scientific researching system that provides great opportunities to monitor different language units, their usage, frequency of use, combinatorial properties, and most importantly their cognitive-semantic connections, which have the matrix nature. The main strengths offered by the BNC for students are: 1) search for certain word forms; 2) search for word forms by lemmas; 3) search for groups of word forms in the form of syntagms; 4) search for word forms by a set of morphological features; 5) display of search results with indication of the context of the set length; 6) obtaining various lexical and grammatical statistics; and 7) saving search results in a separate file, etc. Search results are usually provided to the student in the form of a concordance, where the research unit is presented in the context and in the form of statistics. Yet, the main weakness offered by the BNC for students are: 1) lack of ideas in teachers concerning the use of the BNC and its technologies; and 2) lack of individual methodology for ELT during classes (the most efficient ones), etc. The work with corpus tools in ELT is aimed at assisting students in performing the following successive steps: 1) processing concordances, 2) calculating the absolute frequency, 3) analysing the left and right valence, and 4) modelling clusters to build cognitive-semantic profiles of the studied units, which allow students to understand the essence of each basic verb indication of human emotional states. A possible topic of further research may be the functions of interrogative constructions in the inner speech of the characters in the artistic text.

191

Acknowledgement We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their questions and remarks that let us clarify some theoretical points, as well as to Chris Stines (MHA, Hospital Administrator, 444 Dewey St. Wisconsin Rapids, WI54494, USA) and Tanya Tyberg (Teacher of English and German, 1003 Cranmoor Rd, Nekoosa, WI54457, USA) for editing the article.

8. References Andor, J. (2004). The master and his performance: An interview with Noam Chomsky. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(1), 93-111.http://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2004.009 Baker, P., Hardie, A., & McEnery, T. (2006). A glossary of corpus linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. http://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511981395.011 Boriskina, O. O. (2015). Korpusnoye issledovaniye yazyka: moda ili neobkhodimost'? [Corpus study of language: Fashion or necessity?]. Vestnik VGU. Seriya: Lingvistika I mezhkul'turnaya kommunikatsiya, 3, 24-27. http://www.vestnik.vsu.ru/pdf/lingvo/2015/03/2015-03-03.pdf [in Russian]. Gvishiani, N. B. (2008). Praktikum po korpusnoylingvistike [Workshop on corpus linguistics]. Moskva: Vysshaya shkola. https://www.twirpx.com/file/2341987/ [in Russian]. Hoffmann, S., Evert, S., Smith, N., & Lee, D. (2008). Corpus linguistic with BNC web – a practical guide (English corpus linguistics). Frankfurt: Peter LangAG. Golubkova, Y. Y. (2002) Frazovyye glagoly dvizheniya (kognitivnyy aspekt) [Phrasal verbs of movement (cognitive aspect)]. Moskva: GEOS. [in Russian]. Horina, O. G. (2014). Ispolzovaniye tekhnologiy korpusnoy lingvistiki dlya razvitiya leksicheskikh navykov studentov-regionovedov v professional'no-oriyentirovannom obshchenii na angliyskom yazyke [The use of corpus linguistic technologies for the development of lexical skills of regional students in professional-oriented communication in English]. https://disser.spbu.ru/files/disser2/disser/Gorina.dissert.pdf [in Russian]. Huang, B. P. (2017). Research on the combination of corpus resources and micro teaching mode in oral English teaching for college English Majors. Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference of Innovations in Economic Management and Social Science (IEMSS 2017). http://doi.org/10.2991/iemss-17.2017.100 Johansson, S. (2007). Using corpora: From learning to research. In E. Hidalgo, L. Quereda & J. Santana (Eds.)], Corpora in the foreign language classroom. Amsterdam: Rodopi.http://doi.org/10.1163/9789401203906_003 Kaltenbeck, G., & Mehlmauer-Larcher, B. (2005). Computer corpora and the language classroom: On the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching. ReCALL, 17(1), 65-84. http://doi.org/10.1017/s0958344005000613 Karpilovska, Ye. A. (2006). Vstup do prykladnoyi linhvistyky: kompyuterna linhvistyka [Introduction to Applied Linguistics: Computer Linguistics]. Donetsk: TOV “Yuho-Vostok, Ltd”. https://www.twirpx.com/file/530388/ [in Ukrainian]. Kennedy, G. (2003). Amplifier collocations in the British National Corpus: Implications for English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 37(3), 467-487. http://doi.org/10.2307/3588400 Lindner, S. (1983). A Lexico-semantic analysis of English verb-particle constructions with UP and OUT. Trier: LAUT. Luo, R. F. (2018). A study on Chinese life metaphors from corpus-based approach. Neuroquantology, 16(5), 67-75. http://doi.org/10.14704/nq.2018.16.5.1240 McCarthy, M., & O’Keeffe, A. (2010). What are corpora and how have they evolved?. The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics, 3-14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276681175_O%27Keeffe_A_McCart

192

hy_M2010_%27Historical_perspective_What_are_corpora_and_how_have_they _evolved%27_in_O%27Keeffe_A_McCarthy_Meds_The_Routledge_Handbook_ of_Corpus_Linguistics_London_Routledge_p_3-13 [in English]. Meyzerska, I. V. (2014). Korpusnyy pidkhid u suchasniy linhvistytsi: perspektyvy I mozhlyvosti zastosuvannya [Corpus approach in modern linguistics: Prospects and possibilities of application]. Naukovyy visnyk kafedry Yunesko. Seriya Filolohiya. Pedahohika. Psykholohiya, 28, 53-58. http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/Nvkyu_2014_28_9 [in Ukrainian]. Newmeyer, F. J. (2003). Grammar is grammar and usage is usage. Language, 79(4), 682707.http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2003.0260 Plungyan, V. A. (2008). Korpus kak instrument I kak ideologiya: O nekotorykh urokakh sovremennoy korpusnoy lingvistiki [Corpus as a tool and as an ideology: On some lessons of modern corpus linguistics]. Russkiy yazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii, 2(16), 7-20. http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/plungyan08.htm Plungyan, V. A., & Rakhilina, Y. V. (2009). Novyye vozmozhnosti natsional'nogo korpusa russkogo yazyka kak unikalnogo internet-resursa [New possibilities of the national corpus of the Russian language as a unique Internet resource]. Russkiy yazyk I literatura v obrazovatelnoy sisteme Armenii: problem I perspektivy, 2135. https://mail.brusov.am/docs/SMO-final.pdf#page=21 [in Russian]. Prodromou, L. (1997). Corpora: The real thing? English Teaching Professional, 5, 2-6. Sakaeva, L., Khakimzyanova, D., & Shamsutdinova, E. (2016). Corpus-based approaches in teaching technical English vocabulary. Proceedings of the10th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED), Valencia, SPAIN. http://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2016.2269 Scott, M., & Tribble, C. (2006). Textual patterns: Key words and corpus analysis in language education: Studies in corpus linguistics. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins. http://doi.org/10.1075/scl.22 Sinclair, J. M., & Mauranen, A. (2006). Linear unit grammar: Integrating speech and writing: Studies in corpus linguistics. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins. http://doi.org/10.1075/scl.25 Suvorina, Ye. V. (2011). Postroyeniye leksicheskogo profilya slova po razlichnym statisticheskim kriteriyam (na material Britanskogo natsional'nogo korpusa) [Construction of the lexical profile of a word according to various statistical criteria (based on the British National Corpus)]. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. Seriya “Lingvistika”, 5, 163-167. https://vestnik-mgou.ru/Articles/View/5262 [in Russian]. Svartvik, J. (1992) Corpus linguistics comes of age. Directions in Corpus Linguistics: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyterhttp://doi.org/10.1515/9783110867275.7 Swales, J. M. (2013). Integrated and fragmented worlds. Academic discourse, 150-164. Teo, P. (2018). Professionalising teaching: A corpus-based approach to the professional development of teachers in Singapore. Cambridge Journal of Education, 48(3), 279– 300. http://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2017.1324019 Teubert, W. (2001). Corpus linguistics and lexicography. Text Corpora and Multilingual Lexicography. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 109-134.http://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.6.si.11teu Wang, D. P. (2014). The role of English corpus in mpromoting the research of English teaching. Proceedings of the 2014 Conference On Informatisation in Education, Management and Business.http://doi.org/10.2991/iemb-14.2014.110 Wang, H. (2015). Application of sketch engine in corpus-based English vocabulary teaching. Proceedings of the International Conference on Education Research and Reform (ERR 2015).

193

Wang, X. W., Ge, Sh., & Wang, Q. (2013). Corpus-based teaching in college “movie English” class in China. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference On Economic, Business Management and Education Innovation (EBMEI 2013). Widdowson, H. (2000). Critical practices: On representation and the interpretation of text. In S. Sarangi & M. Coulthard (Eds), Discourse and social life (pp. 155-169). Harlow, UK; New York: Longman. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315838502-9 Wu, J. P., & Peng, D. J. (2016). The application of parallel corpora in the translation teaching of college English. Proceedings of the 5th EEM International Conference On Public Administration & Management (EEM-PAM 2016). Zakharov, V. P. (2005). Korpusnaya lingvistika [Corpus linguistics]. SPb.: SPbGU. http://lab314.brsu.by/kmp-lite/kmp-video/CL/Захаров-КЛ.pdf [in Russian]. Zhukovska, V. V. (2013a). Resursy korpusnoyi linhvistyky u doslidzhenni istorychnoyi dynamiky movy [Resources of corpus linguistics in the study of historical dynamics of language]. Slovo I rechennya: syntaktyka, semantyka, prahmatyka, 151156. https://www.academia.edu/11926396/Ресурси_корпусної_лінгвістики_у_до слідженні_історичної_динаміки_мови_Слово_і_речення_синтактика_семан тика_прагматика_матер._Міжнар._наук._конф._Мво_осв._і_науки_України_Київ._ун-т_ім._Б._Грінченка-К._Київ._унт_ім._Б._Грінченка_2013._С._151-156 [in Ukrainian]. Zhukovska, V. V. (2013b). Vstup do korpusnoyi linhvistyky: navchalʹnyy posibnyk [Introduction to Corpus Linguistics]. Zhytomyr: Vyd-vo ZHDU imeni Ivana Franka. http://eprints.zu.edu.ua/18909/1/korpusna_lingv.pdf [in Ukrainian].

194

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 194-210, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.10

Emerging Trends in Metaphoric Images of Curriculum Reform Implementation in Schools: A Critical Literature Review Godsend T. Chimbi University of the Free State, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-4355 Loyiso C. Jita University of the Free State, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6871-6820

Abstract. Curriculum reform is often difficult to conceive, disseminate, and implement, resulting in the use of metaphors to make sense of how changes initiated at national level are enacted in schools. This theoretical paper, which employs Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), constructs an account of emerging trends in metaphoric language to unlock the complexity of reform implementation. A deductive critical review of literature was adopted as the qualitative design to glean insights into how metaphors have been used to shape mental images of curriculum reform across time and space. Findings indicated converging and diverging trends in metaphoric semantics. While some studies have equated curriculum change to a battlefield and a ghost of control, others have likened reform implementation to driving through the fog or wearing a donated gown of the wrong size. School reform has also been portrayed as a journey, a jigsaw puzzle, and a gardening project demanding meticulous planning and concentration. The unique contribution of this research is the clustering of reform metaphors into a three-tiered spectrum of pessimism, ambiguity, and optimism, thereby extending insights into the dynamics of curriculum enactment. Strategic implementation is recommended so that curriculum reform may be couched in metaphors of hope instead of anger and confusion. Keywords: critical literature review; critical metaphor analysis; emerging trends; metaphors; reform policy implementation

1. Introduction The use of metaphoric language to make sense of curriculum reform policy and its implementation has a long tradition in education (Carpenter, 2008; Craig, 2020; Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017; Priestley & Philippou, 2018; Witherspoon & Crawford, 2014). Metaphors create mental images of complex realities in schools ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

195

and classrooms. For instance, to explain the latent (and, at times, overt) conflicts between teachers (who may resist curriculum change) and supervisors (who enforce compliance), reform implementation is often viewed as a war and the school as the battleground (Cuban, 2006). Metaphors, therefore, are essential components of language and cognitive processes to perceive reality, envision change, and make sense of how curriculum reforms are implemented. GanonShilon and Schechter (2017, p. 7) defined a metaphor as “an image in which two elements or characteristics have become identical through the transfer from one semantic field to another ...” The battlefield metaphor, for example, is transferred from military language to describe confrontation in schools. Cuban (2003, p. 4) thus reimaged teachers as “soldiers of reform” because, in many countries, teachers implement reforms they did not craft – like soldiers who fight wars initiated by politicians. By combining two ideas from unrelated semantic fields, metaphors assist in creating mental pictures that can clarify complex issues, such as curriculum implementation. However, scholars such as Lakoff and Johnson (1980), McCandless (2012), Davis (2018) and Craig (2020) argued that metaphors are not there to explain complex issues only. They are part of everyday language because people are natural metaphor users. Davis (2018, p. 183) argued that “humans are not principally logical thinkers. We are mainly analogical beings, adept at construing associations among diverse happenings, mapping conceptual domains onto one another and then taking our own figurative inventions literally”. Consequently, teachers, administrators, parents, learners, and researchers use metaphors to create comparisons among seemingly incoherent and illogical experiences so that they can understand them better. Metaphors are often employed without thinking of the words and phrases as figurative language. “We use metaphor most effectively when unaware it is being used,” remarked Davis (2018, p. 183). For example, “life is a journey” and “I can’t swallow that claim” are common analogies we use unconsciously in daily language (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 46). So, metaphors are naturally embedded in human thought and language, making them “unavoidable, influential and enriching” (Badley & Brummelen, 2012, p. 3). The human desire to make sense of concrete and abstract concepts makes the use of metaphors (in life and education) inevitable, beneficial, and gratifying. Priestley and Philippou (2018) coined the spider-webs metaphor to illustrate that curriculum implementation may appear organized and similar on the surface, when it is, in fact, complex and unique. The different school contexts in which state-initiated reforms are enacted make reform implementation unduplicable, although the guiding policy may be the same. Ganon-Shilon and Schechter (2017, p. 1) used the metaphoric image of “steering through the fog” to depict the anxiety and confusion most school principals experience as they implement new reform policy and pressurize teachers to adopt new practice. The fog metaphor implies lack of clear vision in the minds of school

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

196

principals who guide teachers on how to implement curriculum change, reducing chances of successful school reform. Curriculum reform “can assume the form of a tragedy or a romance, or perhaps even a comedy” (Labaree, 2005, p. 275), depending on how reform policy is implemented and who is observing the process. Labaree (2005) used the romance-tragedy-comedy metaphor (borrowed from Shakespearean literature) to reimagine what can happen when schools experiment with new ideas. Reform policy may be received with excitement by teachers, administrators, parents, and even learners – like romance. However, implementation may bring undesired and unpleasant results – like a tragedy. Sometimes, reform outcomes may miss the target, making observers (who may be policy makers, supervisors, or parents) laugh – as if they were watching a comedy. A single metaphor, though, can send multifarious and contradicting messages to researchers and readers. So, Priestley and Philippou (2018, p. 153) cautioned that any metaphor is likely to “highlight some aspects of the analogy whilst it silences others”. For instance, a metaphor may emphasize confusion in a reform initiative while underplaying the rewarding potential embedded in the same policy. This makes it difficult to perceive any metaphor as a comprehensive and conclusive analogy of how reform policy is enacted in schools. No single metaphor, therefore, can provide a complete representation of the complexity of reform implementation, but a combination of metaphors can assist in generating a picture closer to reality. McCandless (2012) argued that metaphors can be abused to stir up emotions that undermine curriculum reform. If metaphors do not fit the data emerging from a study, findings can be misrepresented. In the same vein, Carpenter (2008) questioned whether metaphors shed light or cast shadows in qualitative research. When appropriately used, metaphors illuminate reality and bring new insights into curriculum implementation processes. If they are misused, however, they can distort and produce a blurred vision of reality, undermining the purpose for which they were created. Carpenter (2008) advised that the use of metaphors should not override the data and subject under investigation. The theme being explored and the data from the empirical fieldwork come first before the researcher can search for appropriate metaphors to describe them. Statement of the problem Literature has shown that the use of metaphors in studies on curriculum reform implementation is complex and heavily contested territory (Carpenter, 2008; Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017; McCandless, 2012). Several studies have focused on how metaphors are used to make sense of top-down curriculum implementation initiatives in different countries (Craig, 2020; Derrington, 2013; Priestley & Philippou, 2018; Taylor et al., 2018; Witherspoon & Crawford, 2014). However, very few studies have traced trends and patterns in the use of metaphors to make sense of the complexity of curriculum reform implementation across different nations. The present study extends the reform policy debate by searching for converging and diverging trends in metaphors used to capture the experiences, challenges, and opportunities emerging in international literature on curriculum implementation. The intention is to contribute novel insights on

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

197

metaphors of curriculum change used in existing literature over the past 20 or so years. In pursuit of this objective, two research questions lynchpin this critical literature review: • What are the trends in the use of metaphors to construct mental images of reform policy implementation in schools? • How can the patterns of convergence and divergence in reform metaphors improve the sense-making of controversies and paradoxes embedded in school curriculum change? To answer these questions, Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) was employed as the theoretical framework and a deductive critical review of reform implementation literature was adopted as the qualitative research design.

2. Theoretical Framework: Critical Metaphor Analysis This study taps into CMA theory put forward by Charteris-Black (2004). CMA brings together critical discourse analysis, rhetoric, cognitive linguistics, and pragmatics to reveal the conscious and unconscious intentions of metaphor users. Charteris-Black (2004, p. xiii) explained that CMA is “an approach that integrates linguistic analysis with cognitive understanding and social insight in explaining why a metaphor rather than some alternative mode of expression was chosen in a particular type of discourse”. The theory assumes that the primary function of metaphor is persuasion. The intention is to influence the audience or readers to view controversial issues from the metaphor user’s perspective. Charteris-Black (2004) emphasized that metaphor concerns human thought, physical reality, language use. So, the functions of metaphor are cognitive, pragmatic, and rhetorical. The original use of metaphor is rhetorical to arouse people’s emotions (Hu & Xu, 2017; McCandless, 2012). The cognitive function concerns how metaphors are interpreted by listeners or readers. The pragmatic role complements the cognitive function by exploring the purpose of metaphor use within specific contexts. The pragmatic use of metaphor takes metaphor back to its original function – to persuade and arouse emotions. CMA is an appropriate theoretical lens for the current study because the theory guides the scrutiny of metaphors and the intentions underlying their use in curriculum reform implementation studies. CMA unfolds in three stages: metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation, and metaphor explanation (Charteris-Black, 2004). Metaphor identification allows a close reading of existing literature to pick and record metaphors used to describe the nature and processes of curriculum change. Interpretation is an analysis of the context in which the reform metaphor is employed, and the meaning ascribed to it. Using CMA as the illuminating lens, the current study identifies metaphors, interprets, and groups them into emerging patterns according to how they are used. The study then makes sense of the metaphors within the context of reform implementation they were generated. CMA helps in tracing trends in metaphor construction and deployment to decipher the contradictions and opportunities entrenched in the implementation of top-down curriculum reform initiatives.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

198

3. Methodology This qualitative study is a critical review of existing global literature on metaphors that describe and explain school reform policy implementation over the past 20 years. Data collection and analysis took place concurrently and iteratively. Level 1 The first search and analysis of journal articles on reform metaphors was done on Google Scholar. An initial search offered a grand total of over 2 000 books and journal articles exploring metaphoric language in curriculum reform. Level 2 The second level of data collection and analysis involved reducing the literature search to manageable quantities. To do this, three keywords were used: metaphors of curriculum, metaphors of reform implementation, and metaphors of curriculum change. After scanning through the articles and books delivered using these keywords, 62 journal articles and books were identified. The abstracts of these articles and books were scrutinized for relevance to the research questions anchoring this study. Twenty-four articles and books were found to be closely aligned to the use of metaphors to construct mental images of curriculum reform implementation in various countries. The 24 articles and books which were downloaded to anchor this critical literature review are summarized in Table 1. Table 1: Articles and books reviewed 1

2 3 4

5 6 7

Title Metaphors we live by

Author(s) Lakoff and Johnson (1980)

Reforming again, again, and again The lure of curricular reform and its pitiful history The blackboard and the bottom line: Why schools can’t be businesses Getting past futile pedagogical wars The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity An epidemic of education policy: What can we learn for each other? The relationships between and among teachers’ narrative knowledge, communities of knowing, and school reform: A case of “The monkey’s paw” “Data is [G]od”: The influence of cumulative policy reforms on teachers’ knowledge in an

Cuban (1990)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Cuban (1993)

Metaphor(s) used - Food for thought - Ideas are food - Swallow the claim - Flourishing garden - Masterful cultivator - Pitfalls of reform

Cuban (2003)

Soldiers of reform Battles for reform

Cuban (2006) Ball (2003)

Reform as war Schools as battlefields Reform as terror

Levin (1998)

Policy epidemic

Craig (2001)

The monkey’s paw

Craig (2020)

Monkey business Monkey see and do Monkey suits

199

11 12

urban middle school in the United States Metaphors in qualitative research: Shedding light or casting shadows? Curriculum is a journey towards wisdom Metaphors: Unavoidable, influential and enriching

The use and misuse of metaphor in education and education reform Progressivism, schools and schools of education

McCandless (2012)

Butterfly under a pin In the eye of a storm Life is a journey Battle metaphor Theater metaphor Curriculum is a journey Dropping out Digging below the surface Accompanying children Ghost of control Clock-work Walking a tightrope Wading in unknown waters Dive in and drown Dive in and dogpaddle Chasing a tire while driving Map of school learning Broken system

Labaree (2005)

Pre-service teachers’ metaphorical perceptions regarding the concept of curriculum Making sense while steering through the fog: Principals’ metaphors within a national reform implementation

Akınoğlu (2017)

Romance Tragedy Comedy Tragicomedy Spider-webs

Severe headache, deep waters & chains, angler at sea, puppet on a string Steering through the fog, special gift gown, circus acrobat Jigsaw puzzle, fishing expedition, pioneering act, tailoring project, amusement park Blanket policy Unrealized space Learning as acquisition Learning as construing Cloud of associations Policy storm

Brouwer (2012)

Badley and Van Brummelen (2012)

Carpenter (2008)

Curriculum visions

Metaphors and meaning: Principals’ perception of teacher evaluation implementation

Doll and Gough (2002) Derrington (2013)

Ganon-Shilon and Schechter (2017)

19 20

Metaphors of leadership and spatialized practice On the many metaphors of learning … and their associated educational frames

Witherspoon and Crawford (2014) Davis (2018)

Breaking and making curriculum from inside ‘policy storms’ in an Australian pre-

Lambert and O’Connor (2018)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

200

service teacher education course Curriculum making as social practice: Complex webs of enactment A gardening metaphor: A framework for closing racial achievement gaps in American public education system Educators’ experiences with governance in curriculum change processes: A qualitative study using rich pictures

Priestley and Philippou (2018)

Spider-webs

Taylor et al. (2018)

Gardening metaphor

Velthuis et al. (2021)

Pile of shit Dirty plate of spaghetti Bible in a church

Level 3 The third level of data analysis involved an intensive study of the 24 downloaded journal articles and books to identify metaphors used. The thematic approach to data analysis was used following Laws et al.’s (2003, p. 395) seven-step linear sequence: Step 1: Reading and re-reading all the collected data; Step 2: Drawing up a preliminary list of themes arising from the data; Step 3: Re-reading the data; Step 4: Linking the themes to quotations and notes; Step 5: Perusing the categories of themes to interpret them; Step 6: Designing a tool to help discern patterns in the data; and Step 7: Interpreting the data and deriving meaning. Level 4 We used qualitative content analysis (Sandelowski, 2000) to examine metaphors used in selected reform implementation literature. Qualitative content analysis allowed for data collection and analysis to take place concurrently. Using Laws et al.’s (2003) thematic approach and Charteris-Black’s (2004) CMA, we identified metaphors from the selected books and journals and listed them as they were picked from the literature (see Table 1). Using the list in Table 1, metaphors illustrating common concerns were grouped together. Three clusters emerged. The first cluster grouped metaphors which expressed anger, frustration, and disillusionment with reform policy implementation. The second cluster brought together metaphors which voiced ambiguity, confusion, and uncertainty; and the third cluster congregated metaphors of hope and positive expectations. The three clusters are summarized in Table 2.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

201

Table 2: Trends in metaphor use and emerging clusters Metaphors of anger (Pessimism) Reform as: - a battlefield - a severe headache - deep waters and chains - an angler at sea with no fishing rod - a puppet on a string - a wild ride on a rollercoaster - a butterfly under a pin - monkey business - a monkey’s paw - the ghost of control - terrors of performativity - a pile of shit - dirty plate of spaghetti - Bible in a church - chasing a tire while driving a car - broken system - blanket policy

Metaphors of confusion (Ambiguity)

Metaphors of hope (Optimism)

Reform as: - steering through the fog - spider-webs - a donated gown of the wrong size - learning to teach in the eye of a storm - policy storm - policy epidemic - walking a tightrope - wading in unknown waters - dive in and drown

Reform as: - a garden project - a journey - a fishing expedition - clock-work - a pioneering act - a tailoring project - an amusement park - a jigsaw puzzle - dive in and dogpaddle

These three clusters guide the presentation of the findings in the subsequent section.

4. Findings This study traces trends in the use of metaphors in existing implementation literature to conceptualize and make sense of how curriculum change is enacted in schools. Three clusters that emerged during the deductive critical review of literature are used as themes to anchor the presentation of findings. 4.1 Metaphors of Anger and Disillusionment To register discontent with a national reform program they were implementing, school principals in Israel described reform implementation as “a severe headache”, “deep waters and chains”, “an angler at sea with no fishing rod”, and “a puppet on a string” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, pp. 13-14). Reform implementation in American schools has been compared to “war” and schools to “battlefields” (Cuban, 2006, p. 793). Other metaphors used to register disillusionment with curriculum reform include “a butterfly under a pin” (Craig, 2020, p. 2), “monkey business”, and “a monkey’s paw” (Craig, 2001, p. 303). Doll and Gough (2002, p. 34) equated curriculum change to “the ghost of control” which haunts teachers by penalizing them for non-compliance to policy. The monkey metaphor Teachers at T.P. Yaeger Middle School in Texas (USA) used the metaphor of the monkey to express their disappointment with a state-mandated teaching reform. The teachers were angry because they were required to use specific models of

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

202

teaching “cleanly, not creatively” (Craig, 2001, p. 308). They were assessed by a state-hired consultant to ensure compliance. The head of the literacy department at the school labelled the reform “monkey see, monkey do” (Craig, 2020, p. 4). One teacher viewed it as “a monkey on one’s back”. Another teacher complained that all teachers were dressed in “monkey suits” to conduct “monkey business” (Craig, 2020, p. 4) because they were expected to teach following strict guidelines. Craig (2020, p. 4) observed that: “The models of teaching reform planted seeds of discontent among Yaeger’s teachers …” Consequently, the teachers used monkey metaphors to vent their anger and frustration with the program. This initiative was described as “the monkey’s paw” by another teacher (Craig, 2001, p. 303). The monkey’s paw is a satire by J. Jacobs. In this story, a monkey’s paw is carried from one of the British colonies to Britain. What the British thought was a trophy was, in fact, a talisman with a spell cast on it to teach them not to interfere in other people’s business. In the end, the British regretted having carried the monkey’s paw to their homeland. The moral in this metaphor is that curriculum reforms borrowed from external sources, and imposed without consideration to local context, are often rejected by the user system. The ghost of control Literature has shown that teachers generally resent reforms imposed on them by policy makers (Ball, 2003; Craig, 2020). Doll and Gough (2002, p. 34) equated reform policy and the authorities who enforce compliance to “the ghost of control” which haunts teachers. They argued that curriculum policy has stifled school reform since the sixteenth century because teachers are expected to implement changes in a mechanical manner. The scientific approach, which has dominated school knowledge since Isaac Newton (1642–1727), assumes that knowledge is there in the universe waiting to be discovered – forcing teachers to follow certain rules and procedures when implementing curriculum change. Doll and Gough (2002, p. 46) proposed the displacement of the mechanistic approach to curriculum reform with a complexity paradigm which views change as “complex and dynamic web of interactions evolving naturally into more varied interconnected forms”. The complexity perspective posits that teachers cannot implement curriculum policy as given. They need the autonomy to reform their practice without being haunted by policy restrictions and terrors of performativity (Ball, 2003). Instead of arbitrarily disseminating reforms, which teachers are expected to implement, policy reformers need to provide opportunities for conversation with teachers, school administrators and local communities. Space for innovation and recognition of unique local contexts is necessary so that the ghost of control over teachers can be exorcised. Angler at sea, deep waters, and chains One school principal compared himself to an angler at sea without a fishing rod, and asked: “Can you fish without a rod?” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, p. 13). He wanted to depict the huge gap between policy makers’ expectations and inadequate resources in schools. Another principal remarked that: “I was thrown into deep waters without proper gear” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, p. 13). She used this metaphor to illustrate that reforms were disseminated into schools

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

203

without adequate preparations and resources to facilitate implementation. Performativity demands made by most school systems throughout the world remain a major obstacle to reform uptake by administrators and teachers (Ball, 2003). Implementing school reform often involves activities that reduce time to prepare students for summative high-stakes examinations. Another principal described himself as “chained” because “each year, my school is assessed by the number of students entitled to a matriculation certificate” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, p. 14). His success as a principal was measured by the number of students who matriculated, not the implementation of reforms. Ball (2003) compared reform policy and the accompanying supervision to enforcing compliance to a reign of terror which has forced some teachers to quit the profession. The ghost of control, which Doll and Gough (2002) chastised, appears indeed difficult to exorcise. Change implementors thus remain shackled to policy at the deep end of the sea, making it difficult for them to appreciate the opportunities embedded in new policies. 4.2 Metaphors of Anxiety, Confusion, and Uncertainty Several metaphors have been used to demonstrate the anxiety, confusion, and uncertainty teachers and school administrators go through when they implement reform policy, which, in their view, is not clearly communicated or does not have enough support from policy makers. One teacher characterized the frustration she was going through in implementing a state-mandated teaching model as “learning to teach in the eye of a storm” (Craig, 2020, p. 2). In a similar vein, reform implementation has been described as “steering through the fog” and “a very special gown received as a gift” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, p. 13). The special-gift metaphor is an exciting analogy of the anxiety principals experience as they try to implement curriculum change. Reform as a special gift of the wrong size A school principal with 23 years of experience compared new reform policy to a special gown he received as a gift. Unfortunately, the gown was of the wrong size. He explained: “I need to re-tailor this item to match my ‘school measurements’ … I greatly respect reform regulations and demands, yet, focusing on students’ pedagogical needs is no less important than the reform’s formal definitions. The gown will have to be remade to fit my measures …” (Ganon-Shilon & Schechter, 2017, p. 13). It requires strength and vision for school principals to re-tailor reform policy to school specifications, lest this is misconstrued as non-compliance by curriculum supervisory authorities. Non-compliance to policy is an act of misconduct in many education systems across the world. Consequently, most school administrators resort to superficial implementation of reform policy. School principals are tasked with the formidable task of reconciling contrasting external and internal demands when they enact change. Ganon-Shilon and Schechter (2017, p. 4) explained that: “Principals are encumbered by the complexity of how to negotiate between internal school goals (e.g., maintaining

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

204

autonomy…), and external demands (e.g., meeting regulations for accountability and standardization for outcomes).” Negotiating the slippery terrain of policy implementation makes principals and teachers use anxiety metaphors to express their experiences and frustrations with reform compliance. Spider-webs and the fly The spider-webs metaphor has been used by teachers, administrators, and researchers to explain the complexity and confusion that often characterize reform implementation (Akınoğlu, 2017; Priestley & Philippou, 2018). Priestley and Philippou (2018, p. 153) explained that “spider-webs in nature appear to have particular parts arranged in some recognizable patterns. Yet they are also simultaneously quite dissimilar, as spider-webs are in reality organically formed drawing upon unique circumstances, becoming unique and unduplicable”. At surface level, spider-webs appear similar and organized, but they are complex and unique because they are formed at different though connected sites. The sites of spider-webs are equivalent to international, regional, and national institutions, where reform policy is crafted, and local institutions, where policy is interpreted and implemented. These reform sites can be supra-national organizations like the United Nations and World Bank, cascading to the ministries of education, universities, teacher education colleges, local communities, schools, and classrooms. It is in these reform sites that the non-linearity and complexity of policy-to-practice processes unfold (Priestley & Philippou, 2018), exposing conflicting interests of different policy actors. Like flies caught in spider-webs, policy makers and implementation actors get entangled in the complex maze of policy crafting and implementation. It is not surprising, therefore, that policy reformers are often trapped in an endless cycle of “reforming again, again, and again” (Cuban, 1990, p. 3), like flies trying to free themselves from the spiderwebs. But the more the flies struggle for freedom, the more they get entangled. The spider-webs and fly metaphor illustrates that policy reforms may be easy to proclaim but are difficult to attain, partly because the outcome of a reform initiative may be as unpredictable as a storm. Reform as policy storm Lambert and O’Connor (2018, p. 159) viewed the conflict of interest and confusion surrounding the roles and actions of different policy actors as “policy storm” because the implementors “are simultaneously constrained and inspired by policy”. Reform policy brings both challenges and opportunities in one package. This mixture of contrasting possibilities is usually a recipe for anxiety and confusion among implementation actors faced with the daunting task of translating ideas into practice. Sense-making of policy across multiple sites and among various implementation actors is often fraught with ambiguity, conflict of interest, and tug-of-war, resulting in implementation muddling. Lambert and O’Connor (2018) used the storm metaphor to demonstrate the volatility and unpredictability associated with curriculum change. Interestingly, failure to achieve intended reform outcomes often ignites new policy reforms – to rectify past failures.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

205

The epidemic of reform More than two decades ago, Levin (1998, p. 131) observed that curriculum reform was spreading across the globe like “a policy epidemic”. The term epidemic is used in the health sciences to signify the spread of diseases at alarming rates across communities and nations. Levin (1998) transformed the word epidemic into a reform metaphor to reimage the proliferation of curriculum change across the world as a policy pandemic. It appears reforms in education continue unabated in the 21st century mainly because curriculum change is big business politically and economically (Cuban, 2006). Many politicians and policy makers find the lure of educational reform irresistible, despite a history of failure at the implementation level. Curriculum transformation has always been a tempting invitation in the past, even though it has a “pitiful history” of unfulfilled policy pronouncements (Cuban, 1993, p. 182). Reform failure, however, invites new reform policy, resulting in policy pandemics across nations. Ball (2003, p. 215) explained that: “An unstable, uneven but apparently unstoppable flood of closely inter-related reform ideas is permeating and reorienting education systems in diverse social and political locations which have very different histories.” This policy epidemic is spearheaded by powerful agents such as the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), making it difficult for politicians, policy makers, and educationists to resist the tempting invitation. The churning out of one reform policy after the other at macro- and micro-level unwittingly fuels implementation anxiety and confusion. 4.3 Metaphors of Hope and Positive Expectations Not all studies and participants, however, view reform policy and its implementation from a negative perspective. Research by Brouwer (2012), GanonShilon & Schechter (2017), Doll and Gough (2002), and Taylor et al. (2018), for instance, showed positive expectations from teachers and administrators involved in curriculum change. Cross-cutting themes in metaphors of hope include the need for thorough preparation, wise decision-making, and focused determination if sustainable reform is to be realized. The garden metaphor Taylor et al. (2018) used a gardening metaphor to propose a reform implementation model that can accelerate the closure of the racial achievement gaps between white and black students in the USA. The gardening metaphor identifies six constructs which must be coordinated to bring meaningful changes that can improve the achievement of African American learners at all levels of education. These six elements are (i) soil (representing the students), (ii) seed (curriculum and pedagogy), (iii) root (culture), (iv) environment (context), (v) gardener (teacher), and (iv) gardener support (training and administration). A careful and sustained integration of these six elements can reduce the achievement gap between black and white students. Nonetheless, Taylor et al. (2018) were not the first to use the gardening metaphor to illustrate how learner achievement can be accelerated. Some three centuries ago, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), in his book Emile, used the metaphor of

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

206

the teacher as a gardener (Douglass, 2010). Rousseau’s philosophy of naturalism argues that the role of the gardener (teacher) is not to change the flowers (children) in the garden (school). The gardener’s duty is to nurture the flowers by watering them, removing the weeds, and providing required nutrients so that they can grow to their full potential. Teachers must create an enabling environment so that every learner becomes what s/he is destined to be. The maturation of flowers in the garden is heavily dependent on the skills and efforts of the gardener. Naturally, a poor gardener will produce shriveled and unattractive flowers. Conversely, a dedicated and hardworking gardener will produce robust and healthy flowers. Reform as a journey. Another metaphor of hope in this critical literature review is “curriculum is a journey towards wisdom” (Brouwer, 2012, p. 68). Curriculum as a journey “is oriented primarily toward cultivating character, toward formation rather than information. This requires a careful dance of cultivation and natural growth” (Brouwer, 2012, p. 85). The ‘curriculum as a journey’ metaphor illustrates that there are no easy pickings in reform implementation because change requires prudent initiative (cultivation) and focused determination (nurturing). Curriculum reform does not happen on its own, just like a journey which requires someone to initiate and persevere to reach the destination. Reform cannot be hurried; it must be gradual and consistent, like a journey. The ancient Chinese saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” helps illustrate the difficulty of kickstarting and sustaining curriculum reform. Reform as clockwork Closely aligned to the journey metaphor, although there are nuanced differences, is “curriculum as clock-work” (Doll & Gough, 2002). The clockwork metaphor implies that change takes place over time, just like the movement of a watch. Clock movement may appear slow, but it is consistent, accurate, and cannot be hurried. It is often futile to fast-track curriculum change – just as it is fruitless to quicken the pace at which the clock moves. Similarly, hurried reforms are likely to be superficial and fade with time. Fullan and Miles (1992, p. 737) coined the term “faddism” to explain why and how large-scale reforms often fail. The faddism metaphor is a semantic construction from textile linguistics. Clothes lose their original color (fade) due to laundry and passage of time. When reforms are hurriedly implemented, an artificial impression of change is created. With time, though, these reforms slowly disappear from practice and eventually become extinct. Faddism is a product of a rushed superficial approach to curriculum transformation which makes change unsustainable. Casiro and Regehr (2018, p. 2) remarked that: “Focusing on curricular changes and program evaluation while ignoring the processes of change (the mechanisms of decision making and implementation) is one of the key mistakes that lead to failed change efforts.” For any reform initiative to take root, consistent effort to nurture the change process is needed, like clockwork.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

207

5. Discussion This research has shown convergences and divergences in metaphoric allegory used in curriculum reform implementation studies. Some metaphors showed anger, others reflected confusion, and yet others espoused hope and positive expectations in curriculum change. This diversity in reform metaphors indicates that curriculum policy enactment remains contentious and no single cluster of metaphors can comprehensively capture the complexity of policy implementation. Davis (2018, p. 184) cautioned that: “Too heavy a reliance on a single cluster of metaphors can skew perspectives … and sway opinions.” The current study circumvented the pitfalls of a loop-sided cluster of metaphors by using the CMA approach to present a balanced classification of reform images. The CMA framework (Charteris-Black, 2004) allowed an interrogation of reform metaphors from a diversity of angles. Consequently, this critical literature review has shown that a single reform policy can be viewed by implementation actors from a multiplicity of contrasting (and, often, conflicting) perspectives. The complexity of reform makes it difficult to view reform from a linear or unipolar perspective. No reform policy can be perceived by different implementors from an entirely negative or positive viewpoint because individual sense-making and implementation contexts are bound to differ. Some reform metaphors overlap and transcend the clusters emerging in the current study. For instance, reform as “a policy epidemic” (Levin, 1998, p. 131) can be viewed as a metaphor of pessimism, or confusion with change. The same image can be interpreted as an optimistic metaphor depicting the proliferation of curriculum change. The multifarious interpretation of a single metaphor resonates with Labaree’s (2005) observation that a single reform policy can be viewed as romance, tragedy, comedy, or tragicomedy – depending on one’s position on the ladder of reform. Carpenter (2008) and McCandles (2012) have shown that, instead of clarifying reform paradoxes, metaphors can cast long shadows that blur the sensemaking of curriculum change. Readers’ cultural differences, for example, may make a metaphor have a different meaning to different people, distorting the meaning the originator of the metaphor intended to convey. The multifarious interpretation of a single metaphor has resulted in the assumption that “one must have a special talent to be able to use metaphor, and only great poets or eloquent speakers can be its masters” (Hu & Xu, 2017, p. 94). This seemingly entrenched view was initially challenged by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), who argued that metaphors are used unconsciously in everyday language to explain both simple and complex thoughts. Even children at Early Childhood Education can understand and use folklore, imagery, and metaphor in learning disaster management and other concepts (Rahiem & Rahim, 2020). So, no special talent is needed to use metaphors because humans are natural metaphor users. Daily expressions that often go unnoticed, like: “That’s food for thought” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 46) and “life is a journey” (Carpenter, 2008, p. 276) testify that metaphors are part of daily language. Similarly, curriculum reform is often equated to a journey which requires time, patience, and concerted effort to achieve planned outcomes (Brouwer, 2012; Doll & Gough, 2002). The journey allegory shows that reform implementation must not be construed as easy enterprise

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

208

because there are many unanticipated obstacles to change. Without focus and determination, curriculum reform often fails, just like a poorly organised journey.

6. Conclusion This study made sense of the paradoxes, challenges, and opportunities embedded in curriculum change, as reflected in the metaphors that implementation actors and researchers used. The outstanding contribution of the current study to existing literature is that it clusters reform metaphors into a three-tiered spectrum of pessimism, confusion, and optimism, a spectrum hitherto non-existent in curriculum metaphor studies. This critical literature review has picked on what can be considered graphic metaphors of curriculum reform implementation. It is neither intended nor implied that the metaphors identified and discussed in this study are an exhaustive representation of metaphors of curriculum change. Metaphors have been used since time immemorial and are therefore innumerable. Metaphors have also been used, either deliberately or unconsciously, in many implementation studies without even mentioning the word metaphor. Future research can examine why metaphors of disillusionment and confusion persist even when efforts are instituted to support reform implementation. Future studies can broaden the conversation on metaphoric allegory by focusing on metaphors used to understand 21st century concepts and competencies used in technologymediated instruction, globalization, and other emerging themes in curriculum reform. Teachers, school principals, policy reformers, and researchers remain at liberty to coin new metaphors, combine, or restructure existing ones to illustrate overlapping agreements or sharp differences in reform implementation discourse.

Acknowledgments This paper is generated from an unpublished PhD thesis: Chimbi, G. T. (2018). Patterns of classroom practice and the history curriculum reforms in Zimbabwean secondary schools. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/xmlui/handle/11660/9979

7. References Akınoğlu, O. (2017). Pre-service teachers’ metaphorical perceptions regarding the concept of curriculum. International Journal of Instruction, 10(2), 263-278. http://www.eiji.net/dosyalar/iji_2017_2_17.pdf Badley, K., & Van Brummelen, H. (2012). Metaphors: Unavoidable, influential and enriching. In K. Badley & H. Van Brummelen (Eds.), The metaphors we teach by: How metaphors shape what we do in classrooms (pp. 1-15). Wipf & Stock Publishers. Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065 Brouwer, E. (2012). Curriculum is a journey towards wisdom. In K. Badley & H. Van Brummelen (Eds.), The metaphors we teach by: How metaphors shape what we do in classrooms (pp. 68-88). Wipf & Stock Publishers. Carpenter, C. (2008). Metaphors in qualitative research: Shedding light or casting shadows? Research in Nursing and Health, 31, 274-282. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20253 Casiro, O., & Regehr, G. (2018). Enacting pedagogy in curricula: On the vital role of governance in medical education. Academic Medicine, 93(2), 179-184. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.000000000000174

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

209

Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000612 Craig, C. J. (2001). The relationships between and among teachers’ narrative knowledge, communities of knowing, and school reform: A case of “the monkey’s paw”. Curriculum Inquiry, 31(3), 303-331. https://doi.org/10.1111/0362-6784.00199 Craig, C. J. (2020). “Data is [G]od”: The influence of cumulative policy reforms on teachers’ knowledge in an urban middle school in the United States. Teaching and Teacher Education, 93, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103027 Cuban, L. (1990). Reforming again, again, and again. Educational Researcher, 19(1), 3-13. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X019001003 Cuban, L. (1993). The lure of curricular reform and its pitiful history. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(2) 182-185. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20405055 Cuban, L. (2003). The blackboard and the bottom line: Why schools can’t be businesses. Education: Magazine of the Harvard School of Education, Fall Issue, 1-5. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/154101 Cuban, L. (2006). Getting past futile pedagogical wars. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(10), 793-799, https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170608701017 Davis, B. (2018). On the many metaphors of learning … and their associated educational frames. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(2), 182-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2017.1330423 Derrington, M. L. (2013). Metaphors and meaning: Principals’ perception of teacher evaluation implementation. Education Leadership Review, 14(3), 22-29. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1105371.pdf Doll, W. E., & Gough, N. (2002). Curriculum visions. Peter Lang Publishing. Douglass, R. (2010). Free will and the problem of evil: Reconciling Rousseau’s divided thought. History of Political Thought, 31(4), 639-655. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26224132 Fullan, M., & Miles, M. B. (1992). Getting reform right: What works and what doesn’t. Phi Delta Kappan, 73(10), 745-752. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57c4731c893fc047731cea43/t/5946db65ff 7c505f81a9939e/1497815910009/Getting++Reform+Right.pdf Ganon-Shilon, S., & Schechter, C. (2017). Making sense while steering through the fog: Principals’ metaphors within a national reform implementation. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25(105), 1-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2942 Hu, C., & Xu, Y. (2017). War metaphor in the Chinese economic media discourse. Higher Education Studies, 7(1), 94-106. http://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v7n1p94 Labaree, D. F. (2005). Progressivism, schools and schools of education: An American romance. Paedagogica Historica, 41(1-2), 275-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/0030923042000335583 Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. Lambert, K., & O'Connor, J. (2018). Breaking and making curriculum from inside ‘policy storms’ in an Australian pre-service teacher education course. Curriculum Journal, 29(2), 159-180. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2018.1447302 Laws, S., Harper, C., & Marcus, R. (2003). Research for development. Sage. Levin, B. (1998). An epidemic of education policy: What can we learn for each other? Comparative Education, 34(2), 131-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050069828234 McCandless, B. (2012). The use and misuse of metaphor in education and education reform. Education, 132, 538-547. http://www.maraserrano.com/MS/articulos/m_e_73342101.pdf Priestley, M., & Philippou, S. (2018). Curriculum making as social practice: Complex webs of enactment. The Curriculum Journal, 29(2), 151-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2018.1451096

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

210

Rahiem, M. D. H., & Rahim, H. (2020). The Dragon, the Knight and the Princess: Folklore in Early Childhood Disaster Education. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(8), 60-80. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.8.4 Sandelowski, M. (2000). Focus on research methods: Whatever happened to qualitative description? Research in Nursing and Health, 23(4), 334-340. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-240X(200008)23:43.0.CO;2-G Taylor, J., Kyere, E., & King, E. (2018). A gardening metaphor: A framework for closing racial achievement gaps in American public education system. Urban Education, 129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918770721 Velthuis, F., Dekker, H., Coppoolse, R., Helmich, E., & Jaarsma, D. (2021). Educators’ experiences with governance in curriculum change processes: A qualitative study using rich pictures. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-021-10034-1 Witherspoon, N. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2014). Metaphors of leadership and spatialized practice. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 17, 257-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2013.835449

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

211

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 211-224, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.11

Is Decentralisation a Suitable Response to Improve South African Rural Education? Kevin Teise and Emma Barnett Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5861-1969 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0303-4594

Abstract. South Africa (SA) has a decentralised education system. It is generally assumed that decentralisation improves the effectiveness and efficiency of education by responding to the needs, values, and expectations of both local and rural communities. A large part of SA could be described as rural and a large number of learners attend rural schools. This makes rural education a significant part of the South African education context. With education being decentralised, and with decentralisation being heralded as the panacea to the problems faced by rural communities as well as rural education, the assumption is that rural education should be of a high quality. This desk-top paper assesses the potential of decentralisation to improve the quality and effectiveness of South African rural education. This it does by locating decentralisation within neoliberalism which this paper argues is the impetus behind the decentralisation of South African education, and the reason for the decline in the quality and effectiveness of rural education. The paper also highlights certain tensions between the various decentralised spheres of governance, namely the central and provincial Departments of Education and school-level governance structures. The paper further indicates how these tensions potentially hamper the effectiveness and efficiency of rural education. The paper concludes with some recommendations aimed at improving rural education. Keywords: decentralisation; neo-liberalism; rural education; South African education policy

1. Introduction A recently published report by Amnesty International (2020) paints a grim picture of basic education in South Africa. Entitled Broken and Unequal: The State of Education in South Africa, this report indicates how dilapidating and visibly unsafe buildings, extremely overcrowded classrooms, lack of sufficient textbooks, lack of decent sanitation, the use of pit toilets, and the lack of libraries, laboratories and sports facilities hamper quality education delivery in rural and urban schools. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) seems committed to improve the poor

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

212

quality of education in rural areas. Hence a Rural Education Policy has been developed which, although still in a draft form, aims to ensure “rural schools provide quality education for all learners” (RSA-DBE, 2017, p.8). This policy is supposed to function within a decentralised education system. It is assumed that decentralisation will improve the quality of education in general and that of rural schools in particular. With this desk-top paper this assumption is interrogated by demonstrating how decentralisation, as a tenet of neoliberalism, has potentially contributed towards a decline in the quality and effectiveness of rural education. This paper starts with a definition of the concept ‘rural’. Thereafter decentralisation is located within neoliberalism. Some of the tensions caused by decentralisation in rural education are highlighted. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and some recommendations.

2. Methodology This paper is based on a desk-top study using secondary data from various literature sources, articles, books, official documents of the South African government and policies from the South African Department of Education. These sources and documents were sourced from the Internet where they are easily accessible. In the reading and analysis of these documents and sources, it was endeavoured as far as possible to adhere to certain ethical considerations. The writers further ensured that the findings were reported honestly, that information was not falsified or fabricated and that any form of plagiarism was avoided.

3. The concept ‘rural’ It is difficult to pinpoint a specific definition for the concept ‘rural’ because of its context specificity. While some view rurality in terms of location or place by considering the proximity between the area and the city, others use demographic factors such as income per capita, population growth rate and size, the distance communities travel to access public services or demography (Ebersöhn & Ferreira, 2012; Glover et al., 2016). The concept of rural is possibly best described by using filters. Ashley and Maxwell (2001) classify ‘rural’ as the following: • a space where human settlement and infrastructure occupy only a small share of the landscape; • natural environment dominated by pastures, forests, mountains and deserts; • settlements of low density (about 5-10,000 persons); • places where most people work on farms; • the availability of land at a relatively low cost; and • a place where activities are affected by a high transaction cost, associated with long distance from cities and poor infrastructure. According to estimates by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD netFWD, 2019), one out of three children in rural regions in sub-Saharan Africa are out-of-school, with children in these areas having to travel long distances to reach the nearest school. SA has a large rural context, with over one-third of its population living in rural areas (RSA-NDP, 2012). These areas are a product of the South African history of unfair racial and discriminatory policies,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

213

and they are primarily occupied by black South Africans. Hlalele (2012) links SA rural areas directly to apartheid and the colonial policies of dispossession, resettlement and exclusion from opportunities. Rural areas tend not only to be deprived and excluded, but they are also characterised by severe and concentrated poverty (RSA-NDP, 2012). For SA any definition of ‘rural’ should therefore necessarily take into consideration the impact of apartheid policies which not only dispossessed many people of their land, but which also excluded them from the economy and other opportunities. SA has a significant rural education context, with 11 252 schools in rural areas (Hall, 2019), of which the majority are in rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. Likewise, conditions in South African rural education are characterised by a lack of necessary physical resources and roads, transport, and information and communication technology, low teacher morale (Baleghizadeh & Gordani, 2012), poor quality teachers, low levels of school visits by educational advisers and low student enrolment with high dropout rates (Adedeji & Olaniyan, 2011). It could therefore be asserted that rural schools have a very low capability to educate their learners effectively. This situation was to be reversed and improved by educational decentralisation which envisioned an improvement in the quality of education by sharing and extending decisionmaking power and by reducing inequalities (Sayed et al., 2020). However, it seems that in SA, decentralisation did not improve the quality of rural education; rather, it contributed towards an increase in inequality in rural education. This argument is informed by the close link between neoliberalism and decentralisation, and the principles that inform neoliberal education. In the following section education decentralisation is located within neo-liberalism.

4. Decentralisation and neo-liberalism In general, the concept of decentralisation embraces a variety of meanings, guises and complexities (Mwinjuma et al., 2015). Despite its variations, decentralisation principally concerns the “centre-periphery” and more specifically, a movement from the centre to the periphery (Karlsen, 2000, p.526). For Mwinjuma et al. (2015) and Saunders (2018), it refers to an increase in autonomy and responsibility of lower level entities. McGinn and Welsch (1999) define decentralisation as the transfer of authority and decision-making powers from the central government to provincial, districts, municipalities and schools. As such it encompasses where power and authority are located and who holds responsibility for the decisions emanating from that power. Similarly, in education, decentralisation connotes the transfer of decision-making powers and responsibilities from a central education department to local government and schools (Mwinjuma et al., 2015). Education decentralisation is rooted within neo-liberal education policy reforms (cf. Giroux in Bessant et al., 2015). These reforms promote decentralised decision making and less direct influence of central government at local level. Promoted by various international financial agencies as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ remedy to poor quality education and inefficiency, education decentralisation is heralded as “relevant in all contexts, even remote rural areas” (World Bank, 1995:126). This makes it attractive for and positions it as the panacea to all educational challenges experienced in rural communities. Pogge (2010, p. 26) warns against neoliberal

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

214

educational reforms promoted by international financial agencies the reform strategies of which “are designed so that they systematically contribute to the persistence of severe poverty” in developing countries in general and in rural areas in particular. Such reforms compel states to transform their education systems according to the logic and rationality of neoliberalism with subsequent negative effects on education.

5. Neo-liberal market rationality and educational decentralisation Neoliberalism gives prominence to the economy and to the market. Hence, Harvey (2007, p. 2) defines it as a “theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterised by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade.” With its liberal democratic principles, neo-liberalism disapproves of a welfare state and public goods (Baez & Sanchez, 2017) because it regards welfare states as the arch enemy of freedom, wanting to govern society, dictate to free individuals, regulate the market, or intervene with (free) individuals’ right to make profits and accumulate wealth (Van der Walt, 2017). It subsequently opposes social democratic values, which amongst others promote equality and equity through the equal and fair distribution of educational resources and equal access to education (Small, 2009). Rather, it promotes the “thinning of the state’s role” (Adams, 2006, p. 9) and a withdrawal of and reduction in the state’s involvement in society. By enabling the state to operate from a distance, thus decentralisation, neoliberalism enables the state to be released from its socio-political responsibility of providing social goods such as good quality education to all. Rather, this responsibility is conferred onto local communities, structures and business. In the process, neoliberalism disregards structural inequality in society (Angus, 2017; Brathwaite, 2017) and in education, and it relinquishes the state from its responsibility of eradicating and addressing such inequalities. This relegates rural communities which are less capable of providing quality education, to “barren hinterlands coldly and deliberately demarcated by institutional structures to maintain their subjugation” (Maistry, 2014, p.63). In this way, through its policy of decentralisation, neoliberalism ruthlessly impacts the most disadvantaged schools located in poor and low resourced rural areas, without any prospect of improving the quality of education in these areas. This is despite promises that decentralisation will increase the efficiency and the quality of education (Makara, 2018), respond to local needs (Astiz et al., 2002), give schools more decision-making power (Lee & Samuel, 2020), improve service to communities (Pomuti & Weber, 2014), and enhance stakeholder involvement in the management of school resources (Mwinjuma et al., 2015). That very little of these promises seems to have realised under neoliberal decentralised education systems could be attributed to neoliberalism’s hidden agenda with education decentralisation – which is primarily to “off-load financial responsibilities” (Chang, 2010, p.8). Financial motivations rather than democratic or equity considerations therefore drive decentralisation (Huang et al., 2016). It was also

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

215

economic considerations, influenced by SA’s macro-economic policy, which played a role in SA’s adopting a decentralisation education system.

6. Decentralisation of SA education and the impact on SA rural education South African macro-economic policy and subsequent education policy changes are informed by neoliberalism (Badat & Sayed, 2014). According to Motala and Pampallis (2005, p.21), SA adopted education decentralisation in order to promote “the ideology of markets and consumer choice and reduce the regional financial burden on central government by sharing it with regional and local authority or parents”. To this effect Ndimande (2016) blames current inequalities amongst schools, also those serving rural learners, on the adoption of neoliberal policies. The SA decentralised education system comprises three spheres of governance – the national, provincial and local government. These spheres are interconnected and interdependent and are concurrently responsible for education governance (RSA, 1996, Schedule 4). As such, these spheres exercise particular responsibilities. The national Department of Basic Education (DBE) is primarily responsible for the development of national policies, to fund education, to set national standards, to monitor compliance with national policy and legislative frameworks and, if need be, to intervene when constitutional or statutory obligations are not fulfilled. Provincial Departments of Education (PEDs) are responsible for financing, controlling and managing provincial schools and for developing relevant policies. Although provinces are autonomous, they exercise their powers within the regulatory framework set by the DBE. At school level, school governing bodies with considerable devolved powers govern schools through context-specific policies that serve the needs of the school community (Teise & Kiel, 2019). Although education decentralisation in SA was done with the assumption that it would improve the quality of education, conditions in rural education seem not to have improved because the “great majority of children in rural poor communities [still receive] less than is their right [to education]” (Nelson Mandela Foundation [NMF], 2005, p. viii). The reason for this is believed to be located in the tensions that are created by the decentralisation of South African education as a manifestation of the neo-liberal policy positions SA adopted. These tensions exist in relations between the central and provincial governments, between provincial governments and the schools, and among stakeholders within the schools. Tension between the central and the provincial departments of education As a national policy, SASA envisions an education system which will redress past injustices in educational provision, provide an education of progressively high quality for all learners and in so doing lay a strong foundation for the development of all people’s talent and capabilities, advance the democratic transformation of society, combat racism …protect and advance our diverse cultures and language, uphold the rights of all learners, parents and educators and promote their acceptance

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

216

of responsibility for the organization, governance and the funding of schools in partnership with the state (RSA-DoE, 1996a, Preamble). It plans to realise this vision through a decentralised education system, whereby national and provincial governments “co-operate with one another in mutual trust and good faith by fostering friendly relations; assisting and supporting one another; informing one another of, and consulting one another on, matters of common interest; co-ordinating their actions and legislation with one another” (RSA, 1996, Sec. 41: h: i-iv). As such, it assumes a devolution of power from the central to the provincial education departments (PEDs) and ultimately to the schools (SGBs). While a devolution of power seems consistent with decentralisation, Walker (2002; also cf. Saunders, 2018) maintains that decentralisation implies that resources also be transferred and not only authority and power. In SA, the funding of education is the primary reason for the poor quality education and the deep-seated inequalities in education. Inequality in education funding during apartheid resulted in whites-only schools receiving significantly more per learner than the poorest black schools (De Waal, 2013). To reverse these inequalities therefore requires a national education funding model that would promote equity and redress. However, it also requires a commitment from and the ability of PEDs to realise equity and redress through the equitable distribution of allocated funds. Sayed et al. (2020) maintain that in SA, discussions about decentralisation in education took place with the view that it would improve equity, efficiency and redress in education. PEDs therefore have a responsibility to ensure that sufficient funds are channelled to rural education. National government is supposed to “fund schools from public revenue on an equitable basis in order to ensure the proper exercise of the rights of learners to education and the redress of past inequalities in education provision” (RSA-DoE, 1996a, Section 34[1]). The allocation of these funds is currently guided by the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF). Despite criticism against it (Mestry, 2014; Badat & Sayed, 2014), the NNSSF intends to redress social injustices and inequity in South African schools. For this reason, it ranks schools into five different quintiles based on the average income, unemployment rates, and general literacy levels of people within the schools’ feeding and geographical areas (Ogbonnaya & Awuah, 2019). This categorisation assumes that provinces would make available 60 per cent of the available funds and resources to the poorest 40 per cent of learners in schools classified as quintiles one to three schools. As such it allows for an equitable distribution of funds, with those schools serving well-off learners receiving less funding than the schools serving learners from low-income families. It also assumes that rural schools where poverty is concentrated would receive more funds than urban schools. However, the decentralisation of SA education creates what Sayed and Soudien (2005, p.117) call an “ambiguity”, which negatively impacts on the allocation of funds. This is because provincial governments and their departments are autonomous entities, and decisions on the allocation and the spending of funds

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

217

from national government are the responsibility of the provincial governments and departments (RSA-DoE, 2006, Section 33). This autonomy is acknowledged by the National Education Policy Act (RSA-DoE, 1996c, Section 3[2]) which requires from the DBE to “take into account the competence of the provincial legislature…” in the management and allocation of funds. Within this decentralised system, the national DBE therefore only plays an oversight and monitoring role in provincial funding. Therefore, whilst the national DBE lays down funding guidelines through the NNSSF, it has no guarantee that rural education will be sufficiently funded or even funded at all. This is because it does not manage these funds at provincial level. Within this context, central government’s power to interfere in how provinces manage their allocated funds is severely curbed, and its vision of a transformed national education system is exclusively subjected to the favour of PEDs. Since funds from national government, which are intended to realise national equity and redress targets in rural education, might never reach rural education the national DBEs constitutional duty and responsibility, to “safeguard the right to education of all South Africans” (RSA-DoE, 2006, Section 34), is jeopardised. In this way, education decentralisation results in a blurring of lines between the roles and expectations of the national DBE and those of the PED. This hampers the capability of the former to deliver on national equity and equality targets. Tension between the PED and the school As the second sphere, PEDs are supposed to strengthen decentralisation by establishing sound relationships with and support and assist rural schools. However, indications are that relationships between some PEDs and rural schools are at times not conducive to this collaboration. Findings from the NMF (2005) suggest that in most cases provincial offices are not supportive, and that officials respond negatively and rudely when approached by rural schools. Rural schools also feel that they are not getting the necessary support from the PED (Public Service Commission [PSC], 2015). In addition, provincial officials tend to be remote, not accessible, unfriendly and cold towards rural schools and their principals, and they hardly visit these schools (NMF, 2005; PSC, 2015). The lack of support from PEDs is also evident in the lack of empathy they display when they call rural educators into workshops, leaving these schools without contingency plans for learners (NMF, 2005). These conditions inevitably result in negative perceptions and feelings towards PEDs. One would assume that, given their context, PEDs would be aware of and be sensitive to the conditions in rural schools and that rural schools, which are fundamentally underresourced, would benefit from all the assistance that they can get from the PEDs. In addition, to are indications that officials in PEDs lack knowledge and skills in school financial management (Giese et al., 2009), and that some PEDs consistently perform unsatisfactorily in their use of the budget from the DBE. These PEDs have ongoing problems with the distribution of resources to schools (Sayed et al., 2013) and newly elected SGBs are hardly trained on their powers and their responsibilities (Tsotetsi et al., 2008). These issues are problematic, especially as principals and SGBs of rural schools do not always seem to have the capabilities to manage schools’ funds themselves. The perceived inability of PEDs to

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

218

strengthen decentralisation and to effectively perform their duties impacts negatively on education in rural areas, fuelling perceptions that rural schools are a low priority to PEDs. Tensions at school level From the provinces, governance power is further devolved to SGBs comprising a majority of parents at school level. Therefore, through the SGBs, parents possess considerable powers to govern schools through managing school funds, developing policies, interpreting and implementing national policies, maintaining schools and infrastructure and recommending the employment of educators and additional staff (Xaba, 2011). The devolution of power to SGBs is supposed “to grow great relationship[s] between the school and communities‟ (Van Wyk, 2007, p. 132). Moreover, it is expected to improve the quality of rural education. This assumes that SGBs have the capability to exercise their powers. However, effective governance and the ability of SGBs in SA rural schools to exercise their powers are hampered by various challenges. According to the PSC (2015), the NMF (2005) and Xaba (2011), some SGBs in rural schools are dysfunctional and challenged in their capacity to govern or engage in governance matters, and they play a limited role in governing schools and executing their powers (Sayed et al., 2020). Research by Mohapi and Netshitangani (2018) suggests that illiteracy amongst the parental component of SGBs limits their effectiveness and the extent to which they can actually govern their schools. Maile (2002) regards the illiteracy among the parent component of SGBs in rural schools as one possible factor which contributes to their inefficiency. Xaba (2011) reiterate claims that SGBs, particularly those in less advantaged areas, do not have the required knowledge, skills or experience to exercise their governing powers. This is confirmed by Khuzwayo and Chikoko (2009) when stating that their “commonly low levels of education and unfamiliarity with governance matters” also prevent parent-governors from executing their functions. Illiteracy, especially amongst rural communities, results in a lack of confidence and it precludes parents from accessing relevant information, severely impairing their ability to make contributions to the governance of the school. It is the impact of illiteracy on the functioning of SGBs that prompted Heystek and Nyambi (2007) to express reservations about the allocation of decision-making powers to schools in areas where there are high rates of adult illiteracy. Sibanda (2017) also alludes to the fact that parents feel marginalised and that they are hampered by principals in the execution of their governance functions. Illiteracy amongst parents creates conducive conditions for an abuse of power by teachers and principals who marginalise, undermine and dominate SGBs by taking critical governance decisions on issues that fall within the within decisionmaking powers of the SGB. As a result, SGBs struggle to govern their schools and to execute their roles, responsibilities and decision-making powers in accordance with the demands of their context. Under these conditions, SGBs opt rather to transfer their decision-making powers to the principal (Mohapi & Netshitangani, 2018). Khuzwayo and Chikoko (2009) deplore this situation and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

219

describe parents in SGBs as “very ineffective and [who] play minute roles in discussion-making”. Tension in rural schools is further created by the role of chiefs and traditional leaders in these schools. Chiefs and traditional leaders are integral to and they enjoy significant power within rural communities. Owing to their position within the community, they are also integral to the governance of rural schools. However, their involvement in rural schools poses particular challenges to decentralisation, the locus of control and on the power of SGBs. The NMF (2005) claims that chiefs wield authority and power which contribute towards the marginalisation of parents in SGBs. This silences parents and leaves them without any governance power. With power centred primarily in the principal, teachers and chiefs, the power that parents exert in governing rural schools can at best and rightfully be described as “ceremonial” (NMF, 2005, p.120).

7. Discussion In SA, the decentralisation of education and the subsequent devolution of decision-making power from central to provincial government, and ultimately to school governance structures is premised on the assumption that decentralisation will improve the quality of education. However, in rural education decentralisation seem to have caused certain tensions and anomalies. These tensions have failed not only rural education, but they have failed to redress the social inequalities and social injustices which decentralisation was supposed to address. Badat and Sayed (2014) confirm that decentralisation in South Africa has contributed to inequalities in public (rural) schools and that it has exacerbated rather than reduced educational inequity. Decentralisation subsequently created a two-tier public education system with one tier consisting of relatively wellresourced urban schools and the other comprising poorly resourced, neglected, marginalised and over-looked rural schools. Moreover, it also contributed towards urban schools improving and the already disadvantaged rural education becoming even worse off (Galiani et al., 2008). The failure of decentralisation to achieve its intended outcomes could be linked to its close proximity to neoliberalism. Neo-liberalism uses decentralisation to govern schools within a paradigm of cold, distal and clinical business rules (Angus, 2017). As such, it creates an educational orientation that is in sharp contrast to the view of education as a liberating force, a public good and a public service for the liberation of human beings and the betterment of society (Giroux, 2009). It also fails in leading rural learners towards living a life rich in social significance (Nussbaum in Maistry, 2014). Moreover, it creates an educational perspective that does not enhance humanity or social justice in education. Mindful of its responsibility to eradicate injustices, the national DBE promulgated the NNSSF with the aim of facilitating equitable funding for education. Given its historic underdevelopment, rural education is supposed to be funded in an equitable manner. Badat and Sayed (2014, p.141) are of the opinion that “without well-funded and effectively targeted equity measures, equality of opportunity for students (largely black) from working-class and impoverished rural social

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

220

backgrounds will continue to be severely compromised”. It has been noted that decentralisation limited the effectiveness of the NNSSF in addressing past injustices in education funding, and that it subsequently contributed towards the plight of rural education. It has also been noted how context-specific factors such as the roles of chiefs and the illiteracy of parents negatively impacted on decentralisation, rendering it ineffective – at least within rural contexts. It is thus fair to conclude that the policy of decentralisation is a stumbling block in realising effective and quality education in rural areas. While it is assumed that a new policy would improve practice, there seems to be no guarantee that it would. This is especially true when the (rural) context in which policy implementation takes place, as well as those responsible for policy implementation (rural communities) are not taken into consideration. Under such conditions, policy aimed at improving and transforming a situation and at realising equity and equality may ultimately obstruct the realisation of these aims and objectives. Policy decisions, such as the adoption of a neoliberal policy orientation and the subsequent decentralisation of SA education, should therefore have been taken with due regard for and sensitivity to the realities of the South African rural context and those of rural education. With decentralisation being rooted in neo-liberalism one cannot ignore the view of Bottery (2004, p.94), namely that neo-liberalism is anti-egalitarian, and that it variously contributes to “crippling the learning organisation” or in this case, rural education in SA.

8. Conclusion Decentralisation is promoted as the panacea to all the challenges education systems are facing in developing countries in particular. With this desktop paper the plight of rural education under neoliberal decentralisation has been highlighted as well as demonstrating that decentralisation might not be a relevant response to the plight of rural education. Ndimande (2016) claims that under apartheid, South African education played a major role in creating social inequalities and poverty. This paper postulates that with its decentralised education system, the current government is sustaining inequality and increasing poverty in rural communities. In order to turn the tide in rural education, it is therefore necessary to acknowledge that provincial autonomy might not be realised in all provinces in the country, and that poorly resourced rural provinces might need to have tighter central control and monitoring. It is also necessary to acknowledge that rural areas in general but rural schools in particular have problems unique to them which require systemic efforts and creative solutions to solve them (Dieltiens, 2008). The SA rural context is a fairly under-researched area. While awareness and research about the rural context is increasing, much still needs to be done to raise consciousness about rurality and education within the rural context in particular. The contribution this paper makes is in adding towards the increased number of voices that highlight the plight of rural education in an effort to improve it. Moreover, it also adds to the many voices that are critical of neoliberalism and its impact on education in general, and on rural education in particular.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

221

9. References Adams, F. (2006). Managerialism and higher education governance: Implications for South African universities? South African Journal of Higher Education, 20(1), 5-15. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v20i1.25554 Adedeji, S.O., & Olaniyan, O. (2011). Improving the conditions of teachers and teaching in rural schools across African countries. UNESCO: International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. https://www.iicba.unesco.org/sites/default/files/Fundamental%20series%202 .pdf Amnesty International. (2020). Broken and unequal: The state of education in South Africa. Amnesty International. Angus, L. (2017). Neoliberalism, teacher education and restricted teacher professionalism. Teacher Education and Practice, 30(2), 339-341. Ashley, C., & Maxwell, S. (2001). Rethinking rural development. Development Policy Review, 19(4), 365-425. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7679.00141 Astiz, M. F., Wiseman, A. W., & Baker, D. P. (2002). Slouching towards decentralisation: Consequences of globalisation for curriculum control in national education systems. Comparative Education Review, 46(1), 66-88. https://doi.org/10.1086/324050 Badat, S., & Sayed, Y. (2014). Post-1994 South Africa: The challenge of social justice. The Annals of the American Academy: ANNALS, AAPSS, 652. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716213511188 Baez, B., & Sanchez, G. (2017). Neoliberalism in higher education: Reflections on affirmative action. Thresholds, 40(1), 40-53. Bessant, S. E. F., Robinson, Z. P., & Ormerod, R. M. 2015. Neoliberalism, new public management and the sustainable development agenda of higher education: History, contradictions and synergies. Environmental Education Research, 21(3),417-432. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2014.993933 Bottery, M. (2004). The challenges of educational leadership. Paul Chapman Publishing. Brathwaite, J. (2017). Neoliberal education reform and the perpetuation of inequality. Critical Sociology, 43(3), 429-448. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920516649418 Chang, E. (2010). South Africa’s decentralised education market and its implications for democracy. University of Redlands. https://inspire.redlands.edu/proudian/67 De Waal, M. (2013). A school journey into Eastern Cape’s darkest heart. Daily Maverick. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za Dieltiens, V. (2008). As long as the rain still falls we must cultivate: Africanist challenges to liberal education. Journal of Education, 45, 29-42. Ebersöhn, L., & Ferreira, R. (2012). Rurality and resilience in education: Place-based partnerships and agency to moderate time and space constraints. Perspectives in Education, 30(1), 30-43. Galiani, S., Gertler, P., & Schargrodsky, E. (2008). School decentralization: Helping the good get better, but leaving the poor behind. Journal of Public Economics. 92, 2106– 2120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2008.05.004 Giese, S., Zide, H., Koch, R., & Hall, K. (2009). A study on the implementation and impact of the no-fee and exemption policies. Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security. Giroux, H. A. (2009). Education and youth: School and the pedagogy of punishment. Truthout. https://truthout.org/authors/henry-a-giroux/ Glover, T. A., Nugent, G. C., Chumney, F. L., Ihlo, T., Shapiro, E. S., Guard, K., Koziol, N., & Bovaird, J. (2016). Investigating rural teachers’ professional development,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

222

instructional knowledge, and classroom practice. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 31(3),1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/987-3-319-42940-3 9 Hall, K. (2019). Urban-rural distribution. Children count. Statistics on children in South Africa. Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. http://childrencount.uct.ac.za/indicator.php?domain=3&indicator=13 Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/520901 Heystek, J., & Nyambi, M. (2007). Section twenty-one status and school governing bodies in rural schools. Acta Academica, 39(1), 226-257. https://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/103120 Hlalele, D. (2012). Social justice and rural education in South Africa. Perspectives in Education, 30(1), 111118. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/1744 Karlsen, G. E. (2000). Decentralized centralism: Framework for a better understanding of governance in the field of education. Journal of Education Policy, 15(5), 525-538. https://doi.org/10.1080/026809300750001676. Khuzwayo, S., & Chikoko, V. (2009). Role relationships of school principals and school governing body chairpersons in South Africa. South African Journal of Education Leadership and Management, 1,147-163. University of KwaZulu–Natal. Lee, H. Y., & Samuel, M. (2020). Decentralised centralism: Insights from a Malaysian cluster school of excellence. Journal of International and Comparative Education, 9(1), 29-43. https://doi.org/10.14425/jice.2020.9.1.0913 Maile, S. (2002). Accountability: An essential aspect of school governance. South African Journal of Education, 22(4), 326-331. Maistry, S. M. (2014). Neoliberalism: Shaping assessment and accountability regimes in South African education. Alternation, 21(1), 57-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09751122.2014.11890130. Makara, S. (2018). Decentralisation and good governance in Africa. A critical review. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 12(2), 22-32. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJPSIR2016.0973. McGinn, N., & Welsch, T. (1999). Decentralization of education: Why, when, what and how? Fundamentals of Educational Planning 64. UNESCO. Mestry, R. (2014). A critical analysis of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy: Implications for social justice and equity in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 42(6), 851–867. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143214537227 Mohapi, S. J., & Netshitangani, T. (2018). Views of parent governors’ roles and responsibilities of rural schools in South Africa, Cogent Social Sciences, 4(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2018.1537056 Motala, S., & Pampallis. J. (2005). Governance and finance in the South African schooling system: The first decade of democracy. Wits University: Centre for Education Policy Development and Wits Education Policy Unit. Mwinjuma, J. S., Kadir, S., Hamzah, A., & Basri, R. (2015). A review of characteristics and experiences of decentralization of education. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 3(1), 34-41. https://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.3n.Ip34 Ndimande, B. S. (2016). School choice and inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa. Global Education Review, 3(2), 33 -35. Nelson Mandela Foundation. (2005). Emerging voices: A report on education in South African rural communities. HRSC Press.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

223

OECD netFWD. (2019). Philanthropy and education - Quality education for all: Lessons and future priorities. OECD Development Centre. Ogbonnaya, U. & Awuah, F. (2019). Quintile ranking of schools in South Africa and learners' achievement in probability. Statistics Education Research Journal, 18(1), 106-119. Pogge, T. (2010). Politics as usual: What lies behind the pro-poor rhetoric. Polity Press. Pomuti, H., & Weber, E. (2014). Education decentralisation and school clustering in Namibia: The politics of implementation. Journal of Education Studies, 13(1), 142165. https://hdl.handle.net/2263/52725 Republic of South Africa. (1996). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Act 108 of 1996. Government Printers. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education (DoE). (1996a). South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Government Printers. RSA-DoE Republic of South Africa. Department of Education (DoE). (1996b). White Paper on Education and Training. Government Printers. RSA-DoE Republic of South Africa. Department of Education (DoE). (1996c). National Education Policy Act of 1996. Government Printers RSA-DoE Republic of South Africa. Department of Education (DoE). (2006). National Norms and Standards for School Funding. Government Printers, Pretoria. RSA-DBE Republic of South Africa. Department of Basic Education (DBE). (2017). Rural Education Policy (Draft). Government Printers. Republic of South Africa. (2012). National Development Plan 2030: Our future – make it work. Government Printers. Republic of South Africa. Public Service Commission (PSC). (2015). Report on the evaluation of high performing rural schools in Limpopo Department of Education: Limpopo Province. PSC. Sayed, Y. (2002). Democaratising education in a decentralised system: South African policy and practice. Compare, 32(1), 35-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920120116517 Sayed, Y., & Soudien, C. (2005). Decentralisation and the construction of inclusion education policy in South Africa. Compare, 35(2), 115-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920500129916 Sayed, Y., Kanjee, A., & Nkomo M. (2013). The search for quality education in post-apartheid South Africa: Interventions to improve learning and teaching. Human Sciences Research Council. Sayed, Y., Motala, S., Carel, D., & Ahmed, R. (2020). School governance and funding policy in South Africa: Towards social justice and equity in education policy. South African Journal of Education, 40(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v40n4a2045 Sibanda, B. (2017). The relationship between literacy levels and parental involvement in secondary schools in Libode District, Eastern Cape. (Master’s dissertation). University of South Africa. Small, D. (2009). Neoliberalism’s fate: Implications for education. Paper presented at 37th Annual Conference of ANZCIES, University of England, Armidale, Australia, 2427 November 2009. Tsotetsi, S., Van Wyk, N., & Lemmer, E. (2008). The experience of and need for training of school governors in rural schools in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 28(3), 385-400. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje. v28n3a181

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

224

Van der Walt, J.L. (2017). Neoliberalism and education: A reformational-pedagogical perspective (part 1). Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship, 82(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.82.1.2275 Van Wyk, N. (2007). The rights and roles of parents on school governing bodies in South Africa, International Journal about Parents in Education, 1,132-139. Walker, A. (2002). Decentralisation. Working and discussion papers pro-poor infrastructure development. Department for International Development: UK Government. World Bank. (1995). Priorities and strategies for education. The World Bank. Xaba, M. I. (2011). The possible cause of school governance challenges in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 31(2), 201-211. https://doi.org/10.5700/saje. v31n31n2a479

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

225

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 225-243, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.12

Qualitative Content Analysis of Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences in Using Blended Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic Kenneth Ian Talosig Batac De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6597-3212 Jonnedel Azucena Baquiran Oriental Mindoro National High School, Calapan City, Philippines https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0614-4983 Casper Boongaling Agaton Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-262X

Abstract. The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools and shifted the mode of education to digital and distance learning methods. However, the socioeconomic status of students affects their access to education. Blended learning, which includes online classes, television and radio broadcasts, and modular lessons, offers a more inclusive education that caters to the needs of the students. While the subject has been discussed in the literature from the perspective of the learners, this paper explores the perceptions, experiences, and insights of teachers in the Philippines on blended learning at the time of the pandemic. This study surveyed 39 basic education teachers and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. The results showed an agreement on teachers' perspectives about the effectiveness of educational policies implemented and the government's response to the pandemic. Despite the flexibility in using blended learning, the teachers experienced various challenges in applying this method during the pandemic, such as readiness, technology literacy, access to technology, financial difficulties, and health risk. These findings suggest the government and other education stakeholders provide additional financial support to schools during the pandemic; enhance the professional development activities for teachers; and continue developing learning platforms allowing open access to quality and reliable educational resources during and beyond the pandemic. Keywords: blended learning; online learning; modular learning; inclusive education; COVID-19

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

226

1. Introduction In response to the worldwide outbreak of the novel coronavirus, various governments shut down schools that affected over 60% of the global student population (UNESCO, 2020). As the schools have been identified as sources of influenza outbreaks (Coleman & Sigler, 2020), their closures reduce the social contacts among students, hence, interrupt the transmission of the virus (Jefferson et al., 2020; Viner et al., 2020). Different countries then shift from face-to-face instruction to distance as well as digital learning (e-learning) (Crawford et al., 2020). This new environment allows flexible and self-paced learning and reflection, which gives the students ample time to review the learning materials and improve the lesson activities, and at the same time, allow the teachers to monitor the students’ progress along the process (Rapanta et al., 2020). However, the abrupt shift to digital learning has led to a significant increase in the teachers’ tasks, including the preparation of lectures, tutorials, laboratory works, and assessment tools (Dietrich et al., 2020). Meanwhile, students from low-income households have difficulties in an online environment that requires computers and connectivity to the internet that broadens the learning gap among the students from families with different socioeconomic statuses (Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020). Blended learning addresses these issues as it combines conventional face‐to‐face learning with asynchronous or synchronous e‐learning and is effective, complementary to traditional methods (Moszkowicz et al., 2020). While several studies have shown the value of blended learning from the perspectives of the learners (e.g., Lo et al., 2021; Ma & Lee, 2021; Nathaniel et al., 2021; Ożadowicz, 2020; Sefriani et al., 2021), there is still limited literature on its practice in the context of the teachers. This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the experiences and challenges of using blended learning as a mode of instruction during the pandemic from the perspective of public and private school teachers in the Philippines. It is crucial to look at the perceptions of teachers given their irreplaceable role as facilitators in implementing blended learning during the pandemic (Agaton & Cueto, 2021). Meanwhile, the Philippines is chosen as the case study due to the following reasons: (a) it is a developing country that lacks enough resources to apply full online learning, (b) it is archipelagic, where some islands and remote communities lack access to electricity and technology, and (c) the government implemented blended learning as a mode of instruction during the pandemic. The main objective of this study is to explore the lived experiences of teachers in using blended learning during the opening of classes in the “new normal” education in the time of the pandemic. Specifically, this aims to (1) describe the perception of teachers on the government’s education policies implemented during the COVID-19 crisis, (2) analyze the experiences and challenges of basic education teachers in using blended learning during the pandemic, and (3) evaluate the implications of using this pedagogy in providing more inclusive education during a pandemic and beyond. Using the Philippines as a case study, an online survey was conducted to both public and private basic education teachers to share their perspectives and experiences with the research questions.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

227

The collected data were analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis. The findings of this study may serve as bases for recommendations to the government and other education stakeholders to support teachers and schools in continuing to provide learners more inclusive access to education.

2. Literature Review 2.1. Blended Learning Students are accustomed to traditional face-to-face learning (Gherheș et al., 2021). Because of technological advancements and the novel coronavirus pandemic, the use of technology is increasing at a rapid rate (Saher & Anjum, 2021). Most sectors, including education, have embraced technology to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Teachers have used technology to facilitate the teaching-learning process remotely (Maity et al., 2021). The idea of combining several instructional approaches is not new. Teachers have been employing novel and imaginative concepts in planning their lessons, and they have attempted to combine lectures and activities throughout the instructional process (Deshpande & Shesh, 2021). Blended learning is an instructional and learning experience that comprises in-person and online learning. It is a combination of several instructional and learning methodologies, one of which is essentially based on technology (Hege et al., 2020). Despite the use of technology, human intervention is unavoidable (Terblanché, 2015). Furthermore, digital learning resources have improved both the qualities of teaching and learning (Camilleri & Camilleri, 2017). A technology-based learning environment provides a positive classroom climate for the students and an opportunity for the teachers to demonstrate their creativity throughout the teaching-learning process using technology (Kaufmann et al., 2016). The following are the four reasons for using blended learning, according to Deshpande and Shesh (2021): 1. Increased Access: Technology is now widely available to everyone. Most people own smartphones, and mobile internet access has connected several people worldwide. 2. Learner Flexibility and Convenience: Nowadays, online courses provide an opportunity for students to do tasks other than learning (e.g., working elsewhere). This can be extremely beneficial in providing equitable educational opportunities for everyone. 3. Cost-Effective and Time-Saving: Online courses also meet the demands of all students across the globe simultaneously. This reduces the cost and saves time. At a lower cost, more students can be approached. 4. Interesting: The use of audio-visual materials and the provision of engaging activities make the lesson interactive and increase the students’ involvement. 2.2. Theoretical Foundations of Blended Learning According to Khalil et al. (2018), the learning theories of cognitivism and constructivism guide the instructional design in a blended learning approach.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

228

These theories describe learning differently as well as the part played by the students and the instructional approaches and assessment strategies used. They asserted that cognitive load and social constructivism theories are more appropriate in developing more learner-centered blended learning approaches. Cognitive load theory (Sweller et al., 2011) emphasizes the significance of configuring the students’ cognitive structure with the learning environment to achieve effective learning. This structure includes sensory memory, limited working memory, and unlimited working memory. According to Khalil and Elkhider (2016), the working memory deals with the following kinds of cognitive load: (1) intrinsic (e.g., the intricacy of subject matter and learning materials); (2) extraneous (e.g., the erroneous portrayal of learning materials); and (3) germane (e.g., students’ interaction with the learning materials that play a part in learning). The overarching goal of employing cognitive load theory is to decrease extraneous cognitive load, deal with intrinsic cognitive load successfully, and foster germane load. Hence, to achieve the benefits of blended learning, Khalil et al. (2018) affirmed that the emphasis should be on designing effective learning resources for independent online learning and not on the utilization of media for combining instructional tasks. On the other hand, the theory of social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) considers learning as a social process wherein students actively develop and use knowledge while interacting with their environment. They construct knowledge through collaborative and interactive effort. This theory also regards the students as active participants of the teaching-learning process and the teachers as facilitators of learning. Moreover, it promotes cooperation and self-directed learning among students. The examples of teaching strategies grounded on the theory of social constructivism include several types of cooperative learning that provide opportunities for the students to interact with more knowledgeable peers to enhance their knowledge. Social media and other forms of electronic communication have given rise to virtual communities of practice (Novakovich et al., 2017). Furthermore, communicating asynchronously encourages student control and enables participants to express their views and opinions in a safe atmosphere (Khalil et al., 2018). 2.3. Effectiveness of Using Blended Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected billions of students. It resulted in halting in-person classes and shifting to online/blended learning delivery mode to ensure the continuity of learning. To foster effective teaching and learning during the pandemic, researchers have investigated the effectiveness of blended learning: Ożadowicz (2020) developed a modified blended learning approach and presented a case study on how it was implemented to the building automation engineers at a technical university in Poland. The researcher reported that this approach yielded favorable outcomes in terms of students’ participation, attendance, and engagement with learning activities. The researcher also found that the students prefer “passive” tools and activities such as webinars, presentations, and stand demonstrations.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

229

Lo et al. (2021) examined the effectiveness of “flexible learning with multicomponent blended learning mode” in teaching chemistry to undergraduate students in a university in Hong Kong. They found that this approach enhanced the students’ learning achievement, engagement, and self-motivation in learning chemistry concepts. Ma and Lee (2021) evaluated the effectiveness of ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction)-based blended learning by comparing it with inperson and pure online learning. The researchers found that blended learning outdid pure online learning in terms of improving the learners’ attention, confidence, and satisfaction perceptions. They also reported that the learners in blended learning were more satisfied than the learners in the in-person learning. Nathaniel et al. (2021) developed an adaptive blended method for teaching a course in medical neuroscience for first-year medical students. They found that this approach helped high-achieving medical students improve their academic performance. It also facilitated identifying struggling learners at an earlier time, which served as a warning sign to provide appropriate intervention. Sefriani et al. (2021) investigated the effectiveness of blended learning with Edmodo in teaching statistics to the students of Informatics Engineering Education at a university in Indonesia. The researchers reported that this approach brought positive results among students in terms of engagement in learning statistics. They also suggested that Edmodo can be a “virtual learning solution” during the COVID-19 pandemic. These investigations have shown that the use of blended learning during the pandemic is beneficial to the students. This instructional and learning approach helps not only in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 and disruptions to teaching and learning but also in enhancing their overall learning experience. While several studies primarily focus on the effectiveness of using blended learning among students, particularly in higher education, the current research focuses on the perceptions and experiences of Filipino basic education teachers in using blended learning at the time of the pandemic. 2.4. Implementation of Blended Learning in the Philippines Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines, both public and private schools were closed following the government imposition of a total lockdown in March 2020, known as Enhanced Community Quarantine (Agaton & Cueto 2021). The Department of Education (DepEd) responded accordingly by developing appropriate learning delivery modalities to let the basic education learners continue education while containing the spread of COVID-19 (DepEd, 2020a). These modalities are referred to as Distance Learning or Blended Learning—a combination of the sub-categories of distance learning: Modular Distance Learning (MDL), Online Distance Learning (ODL), and Television/Radio-based Instruction (TV/RBI). In the MDL, students with access to technology such as laptops, desktops, or tablets may take the digital MDL. Selflearning Modules (SLMs) in various digital formats are stored in external drives, while the printed SLMs are used by learners adopting a printed MDL.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

230

Meanwhile, the ODL applies to schools where both teachers and learners have connectivity and access to online resources. This modality uses learning resources, including SLMs, textbooks, activity sheets, teacher-made videos, and Open Educational Resources (OERs). These resources are then converted into digital formats and made available through different learning management systems identified by the DepEd. Schools have the option to adopt synchronous, asynchronous online learning, or their combination, following the Screen Time Guidelines by Age recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization (DepEd, 2020b). On the other hand, schools in areas with access to TV networks and/or radio stations can adopt the TV/RBI using the converted SLMs. In this option, the schools provide the broadcast schedule of the lessons to the parents and guardians of the learners. The government ensures that all Filipino learners will have an equal opportunity to continue education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting various learning modalities, including blended learning and distance education, as the primary options. These learning modalities are now the "new normal" of delivering the basic education services in the Philippines while putting forward the welfare of teachers, learners, and other education stakeholders (DepEd, 2020a).

3. Methodology 3.1. Research Design This study was conducted in the Philippines between August and October 2020, five months after the President declared various levels of community quarantine measures in different parts of the country. These months were also the period of starting the new academic year under the "new normal" education. The study was designed to describe the phenomenon of basic education teachers’ workrelated experiences during the pandemic using qualitative content analysis. Qualitative research seeks to place the phenomenological understanding of the context, describe the behavior and beliefs, recognize the processes, and know the participants’ lived experiences (Hennink et al., 2020). This study termed respondents as "participants" as they participate in the research by sharing their experiences in an in-depth online interview. The number of participants is limited to a few to achieve a depth of information gathered instead of statistical significance. An online qualitative survey was employed to collect the data because of its directness and adaptability in addressing the research questions (Braun et al., 2020) and it was the safest method appropriate during the time of the pandemic. 3.2. Participants and Data Collection The participants of this study included 39 basic education teachers from the Philippines ages 21 to 58, with a median of 32. From this survey, 87% were teaching in public while 13% were in private schools; 10% in kinder and elementary, 26% in junior high school, and 64% in senior high school; and 74%

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

231

were female. Most participants were below 5 years in service, 29% are over 20 years in service, and 18% are between 5 and 20 years in service. Purposive sampling was performed according to the following inclusion criteria: (a) teaching in public or private K-12 school for the school year 2020-2021; (b) applying blended learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; (c) voluntary participation in the survey and (d) completeness of the reports, following two main survey questions and instructions. To identify the sample size, this study followed the "data saturation" defined in Qualitative Research and Content Analysis (Kyngäs, 2020b) which refers to a certain point where the responses become repetitive and no additional information is gathered from continuing the data collection. Thus, the researchers analyzed the data during the collection process to be aware of reaching data saturation. During the analysis, the data saturation was reached after having 39 complete responses from the teachers. This study collected the data using an online survey. The questionnaires comprised the study details (purpose, anonymity of responses, and confidentiality of the data), instructions, data of the participants, and two major open-ended questions. These included (1) a perception of the COVID-19 crisis and the government’s response through educational policies during the pandemic, and (2) the experiences and challenges in using blended learning in delivering educational services to learners during the pandemic. The survey form incorporated encryption codes to anonymize the participants. All participants received the coded data and had the opportunity to verify and review their responses. In conducting the survey, the study adhered to the Ethical Guidelines set by the publisher on research with human subjects. The study was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki, and it was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of Oriental Mindoro National High School. The academic purpose of this study was explained to all participants. Their participation was not compulsory, and they were free to opt-out at any time. The study employed an encrypted code for each participant to assure freedom from identification. Moreover, the confidentiality of personal information was guaranteed, as the research data is only accessible to the researchers. 3.3. Data Analysis This study applied the Inductive Content Analysis, which is useful in qualitative research with an inductive starting line or with loosely defined themes following an open data collection method (Kyngäs, 2020a). The major advantages of this method include content-sensitiveness, application in highly adaptable research designs, and usage in examining several kinds of qualitative data (Kyngäs, 2020b). Moreover, the following steps were obeyed in conducting a basic inductive content analysis: (I) preparation; (II) organization; and (III) reporting (Elo et al., 2014). Preparation includes identifying the data collection and sampling strategy, as well as selecting the unit of analysis. Organization involves data categorization and abstraction, interpretation, and checking the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

232

representativeness of the sample data collected. Lastly, reporting entails systematic and logical reporting of the results.

4. Results The abstractions of the data define a total of 26 codes, 11 sub-categories, 4 generic categories, and two main categories, which are the (i) teachers’ perceptions on educational policies implemented during the pandemic in Table 1 and (ii) teachers’ experiences in using the blended learning in Table 2. 4.1. Teachers’ Perceptions on Educational Policies Implemented During the Pandemic A total of 28 participants show agreement on the policies implemented by the government. They affirm that the decisions made by the government are timely and appropriate while prioritizing the welfare of the students, teachers, and school staff. For instance: I would say that the decision made by DepEd is timely and appropriate, the welfare and safety of the teachers as well as the students must be our main priority. (P20) For the safety of not just students but also the administration, our school conducts blended learning where students learn even at a distance. (P28) Table 1: Abstraction Results from Reports on Teachers’ Perceptions Main Category

Generic Category

Sub-category

Actions of the state

Teachers’ perceptions on educational policies during COVID-19 pandemic

State and the policies

Uncertainty of the policies implemented

Educational policies during COVID-19

Teachers in COVID-19 crisis

Personal opinion and emotions Outlook during and beyond a pandemic

Code(s) Measures on the welfare and safety of learners/teachers (13) Consultation of policies with stakeholders (1) Readiness of schools to "new normal" (7) Uncertainty in reopening of classes (4) Uncertainty on the implementation of blended learning (3) Shifting the modalities from classroom to distance/blended learning (12) Delaying the reopening of classes (4) Policies to work at home (1) Difficulties in the situation (5) Worries on COVID risks (4) Positive outlook despite the pandemic (7) Adaptation with the current situation (6)

Participants also agree on changing the learning delivery mode from in-person to distance and blended learning, as well as the closing of schools and the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

233

movement of the reopening of classes for the schools and teachers to prepare the instructional materials. Among the responses includes: For the safety of learners, it is okay to close the learning institutions for a while until it is safer to have face-to-face classes. (P22) It is okay to move the opening of classes since the teachers are not yet ready and the situation is not yet safe. (P5) I recommend strong implementation of online/blended learning to cater to all types of students with various conditions and statuses in life. (P10) On the other hand, six (6) participants disagree with the actions of the government, mentioning that no proper consultations were done with various stakeholders on moving the opening of classes, which brought more uncertainties, and that teachers and students are not yet prepared for implementing online and blended learning. Among the responses include: I noticed that we just keep on receiving policies without even consulting us on whether they will be applicable in our area. No training was given on how it (blended learning) will be conducted. (P3) The school must not be closed so that all willing students to continue their studies can have the opportunity to pursue their education. (P10) During the face-to-face class, some students are not able to understand the lessons, so how much more with the printed module? (P32) Lastly, while nine (9) participants describe the worries about the health risks, thirteen (13) respondents exhibit a positive outlook on the pandemic, saying that the circumstances pave for opportunities to develop their skills and adapt to the situation. For example: Education is very important that the current situation should never be a hindrance to learning. (P28) It was heart-breaking, having this noblest profession, we need to look for the brighter side, take this as a good opportunity, and challenge to develop ourselves on how to become better in doing our work effectively and efficiently. (P29) There is the need to adapt to the situation; teachers fulfill their sworn responsibility making learning possible for every Filipino youth. (P35) 4.2. Teachers’ Experiences in using Blended Learning The results of abstractions from participants’ reports on experiences using blended learning during the pandemic are presented in Table 2. At work, the participants show concerns about the health risks from reporting to school, as well as pressures adapting to the new educational policies and preparations for the instructional materials. Stressful. Learners and teachers are not used to this kind of setup. (P22)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

234

There is a health risk of transferring the virus to one another during the distribution of learning modules. (P11) The preparation time is not enough for the opening of the classes. (P9) In terms of teaching, most participants describe the technological challenges in preparing online lessons and SLM, financial challenges in printing the modules, as well as the responsiveness of the learners and their parents. Among the responses include: I am not well-versed with technologies and the same for some students. (P13) It was hard as there is no financial support coming from the DepEd, so the teachers finance everything for the printing of the module. (P1) We need more data allowance and strong access to an internet connection. (P4) Parents sometimes cannot easily understand the modules given so we keep on answer queries even at night-time. (P2) Table 2: Abstractions from Participants’ Reports on Experiences Main Category

Generic Category

Sub-category

School Policies Experiences at work Health and safety at work Using blended learning as an instructional method

Teachers’ experiences in using blended learning during the pandemic Experiences on teaching

Preparation of instructional materials Dealing with learners and their parents Coping with the challenges

Code(s) Adapt with the new educational policy (1) Not enough preparation time for the class opening (1) School support (2) Health risk for COVID-19 (6) Mental, emotional, and physical strain (4) Internet connection issues (3) Troubles in using blended learning (11) Ease in using blended learning (5) Sufficient resources in printing the module (1) Financial struggles (7) Difficulties in creating printed modules (7) Students’ lack of gadgets for learning (2) Parents cannot easily understand the modules (1) Opportunity to learn from webinars (4)

On the other hand, private schools provide all the necessary resources that teachers and learners need for online and blended learning. Some teachers from the public schools also seek assistance from external stakeholders to provide materials needed for the modules.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

235

In our school, they provide for our needs in all aspects. (P33) The school can provide bond papers for module printing, but I still took the initiative to ask for a voluntary donation which is a very big help for the school. (P24) Finally, this new modality provided the teachers to learn new pedagogies in delivering educational services to several learners, particularly during the pandemic. We learned the different ways of delivering distance learning, and the application of various technology. (P5) I maximize my time, talent, and treasure creating SLMs; attend online seminars to hone up skills; explore new financial resources giving me better opportunities to do things which usually not possible during the normal setting. (P10) It is very challenging, yet several pieces of training and tutorials help me to cope-up with the new normal. (P21)

5. Discussion This study examined the teachers’ views on educational policies and blended learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show three important points for discussion. The first point summarizes the main findings and compares them with the existing literature. Moreover, the second point discusses the implications of the study on the digitalization of the educational system, on teacher education, and school management during and beyond the pandemic. Lastly, the third point describes the limitations of research focusing on blended learning, the data, and qualitative content analysis, which also serve as bases for further research. 5.1. Perspectives and Experiences on Educational Policies and Blended Learning During the Pandemic In terms of the perspectives on educational policies set by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants are positive that the policies are timely and responsive. Among the measures mentioned include the closing of schools, social distancing, moving the opening of classes, shifting from classroom instruction to distance learning, and working from home. While the participants are saddened by the current situation, they still believe that the implemented policies are intended for the health and welfare of students, teachers, and the community. This result conforms with previous studies about the satisfaction of respondents with the government's initiatives to close schools as a proactive and effective move in reducing the risk of contracting the virus (Baloran, 2020; Mækelæ et al., 2020). Further, the teachers agree that introducing blended learning in the “new normal” system is the most appropriate instructional modality during the pandemic. The blended approach is an effective method, particularly during the transition from the conventional method to fully online in case of emergencies (Aboagye, 2020).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

236

The radical shift from classroom instruction to blended learning during the pandemic brings opportunities and challenges for the teachers. These opportunities include attending training and seminars for the new teaching and learning modalities; learning new pedagogies and assessment tools; adapting to “new normal” education; developing financial and time management skills; and enhancing innovativeness, resourcefulness, and flexibility. Similar studies also confirm that teachers develop innovative pedagogical approaches, new assessment tools, digital competence, and flexibility during COVID-19 (Dhawan, 2020; König et al., 2020). On the other hand, the findings show that teachers experience challenges in terms of health, technology, students, and finances. The health issues include the risk of getting infected from delivering the SLM to the parents and students, psychological problems such as stress from making SLM, and learning new technologies. Moving from classroom instruction to distance learning, changing instructional approaches, managing time, creating content which not only covers all the subjects but also holds the attention of the learners, and access to all digital tools pose serious challenges to teachers (Dhawan, 2020). Teachers work nights and weekends to develop learning materials and support their students (Jandrić, 2020). Also, they are challenged with students’ insufficient knowledge and skills in e-learning as well as the unavailability of electronic devices and internet connectivity (Mailizar et al., 2020). Another challenge is the financial burden of buying necessary equipment for online teaching as well as the reproduction of learning modules. Teaching with blended learning is expensive and therefore requires assistance from stakeholders for successful implementation (Aboagye, 2020). While schools alone cannot shoulder the printing of modules, teachers are encouraged to solicit financial and in-kind assistance from external stakeholders through the “Brigada Eskwela” program, also known as the “Bayanihan Para sa Paaralan (Working Together for Schools)" - a Filipino concept of unity. On the lighter side, the Brigada Eskwela is proof of an effective partnership between the government, education stakeholders, and the community. 5.2. Implications of the Study The findings of this research provide in-depth insights into the perceptions, opinions, and experiences of basic education teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the responses related to the implementation of blended learning, schools are not equipped with the facilities such as enough computers with an internet connection, printing machines for the modules, school supplies, and training for distance learning education at times of uncertainty. The government should promote the development of OERs, enhance the implementation of online programs, and examine whether it can fulfill the demand for distance learning during critical situations (Zhang et al., 2020). Educational policies and programs should remain flexible to allow various stakeholders to adjust to the "new normal." The basic education curriculum should be restructured to make the learning objectives attainable, considering the limitations brought by the pandemic. Furthermore, electronic devices such as

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

237

radio and television can also be harnessed to feature academic lessons (Lapada et al., 2020). Government policies, as well as school management, play a crucial role in decisions related to closures and reopening of classes considering the safety of learners, teachers, and staff. Policymakers need to balance the reduction of the spread of the disease with the hefty costs of extensive shutting down of schools during the pandemic situation and the significant loss of healthcare staff to childcare duties at the time of closures (Viner et al., 2020). Additionally, policymakers and educational administrators must weigh the possibilities of reopening the schools while keeping students and staff safe. Schools may consider various precautionary measures, including physical distancing combined with proper hygiene, cleaning, and the use of isolation facilities (Melnick et al., 2020). Moreover, the government should invest, now more than ever, in teacher professional development to update the teachers continuously on effective pedagogical methods needed in the changing world. Teacher education institutions (TEIs) also play an important role in providing a good formation for pre-service teachers. The TEIs should provide the pre-service teachers with an authentic opportunity to use knowledge rigorously in realworld situations and inspire them to teach according to the diverse educational needs of students, especially those with scarce learning resources (Mohamad Nasri et al., 2020). Additionally, TEIs should enhance the teachers’ pedagogical knowledge for the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) also known as technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK). In this Internet era, the utilization of digital services to deliver highquality instruction is an unavoidable trend (Zhang et al., 2020) not only during the COVID-19 crisis but also beyond the pandemic. The academic community, in cooperation with international organizations, the private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders, must continue developing open educational platforms that allow access to high-quality learning resources. 5.3. Limitations and Future Research This research focuses on the analysis of teachers' perspectives and experiences in applying blended learning at the time of pandemic. This leads to various limitations of the study. First, different countries adopt various modes of education during the pandemic, including fully online, modular classes, flipped classrooms, videoconference, or combinations of these methods in blended learning (Adnan, 2020; Chick et al., 2020; Crawford et al., 2020). A comparison of the effectiveness of these methods provides a portfolio in which teachers and schools may adopt according to their learners’ needs and local situation. This study can also be extended by exploring the experiences and insights of other education stakeholders, including school management, parents, and the community. From an economic perspective, the school management may look at the benefit of earlier investment in educational technologies, including distance learning platforms and open learning resources, applying the real options theory under uncertainty (Guno et al., 2021; Agaton, 2019).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

238

Another limitation is the use of qualitative content analysis focusing on the teachers' perspectives and experiences, which is unable to provide numerical information that can be analyzed statistically. The findings of this research cannot be applied to larger populations with a similar level of certainty that can be done through quantitative analyses. For instance, a similar study examined the teachers' COVID-19 awareness and distance learning experiences using descriptive correlation analysis of a structured online survey with 2300 respondents and presented various levels of correlations and differences among the variables (Lapada et al., 2020). On the other hand, this qualitative study used open-ended questions which provided the participants with enough time to convey their thoughts, write their ideas freely, and describe their perceptions and experiences, which is impossible to attain by utilizing structured questionnaires with predetermined questions and answers (Lovrić et al., 2020). To take the advantage of the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of these methods, future studies may apply a triangulation with both qualitative and quantitative methods. This study used an online survey with 39 participants. The disadvantages of using an online survey include unrepresentative sampling, decreased rates of response, concerns about money, restricted access to specific portals, short study duration, non-behavioral data, and scarcity of follow-up information (Rice et al., 2017). However, this method provides timelier data collection, reliable data, and anonymity of the participants. Moreover, this is the most appropriate method for data collection during the pandemic situation, as it puts first the safety of the researchers and the participants. The data analysis was done simultaneously with the data collection to monitor the saturation. It should be noted that the findings in this study cannot be used to generalize the entire teachers in the country due to the limited number of participants while the data obtained relied solely on teachers' self-reports of perceptions and experiences during the pandemic. Future studies may consider wider geographic coverage, including urban, rural, and remote schools, as well as combining other types of survey methods to accommodate teachers who have limited access to the internet. Furthermore, this study focused on the utilization of blended learning during the pandemic. Due to the sudden change of instructional mode from classroom instruction to distance learning, the findings of this study showed the appropriateness and effectiveness of blended learning in providing more inclusive education. However, this study did not consider that in several countries, including the Philippines, the pandemic is exacerbated by other natural and man-made disasters such as severe typhoons, volcanic eruptions, flooding, wars, social unrest, and terrorist attacks (Cueto & Agaton, 2021). A study showed that these humanitarian emergencies affected the students as they brought stress in adjusting to distance education, completing academic requirements, and accessing technology for online learning (Cueto & Agaton, 2021). Future studies may look at how teachers cope with and adjust to implementing blended learning during multiple humanitarian emergencies. Despite the given limitations, this research serves as a good basis for further analysis of exploring various options for educational institutions to offer more

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

239

inclusive access to education to several learners. Furthermore, it facilitates the preparation of a policy roadmap and the development of a high-quality blended learning design to assure the continuity of learning even during times of uncertainty and to help both the teachers and students in dealing with any critical situation in the present and future.

6. Conclusion The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unexpected and drastic impacts on all aspects of human life. Different countries shut down schools and shift to digital education. This virtual teaching-learning process has now become more popular and acceptable. Blended learning supplements this by providing alternative methods and allowing more inclusive access to education. While the topic has been explored in the literature in the contexts of students, this study focused on the perspective and experiences of teachers on blended learning at the time of the pandemic. The main findings revealed an agreement of opinion about the effectiveness of educational policies and the government's response to COVID-19. Despite its flexibility, the teachers experienced difficulties in applying blended learning. These challenges include the readiness of schools in managing the pandemic; technological literacy, particularly by the older teachers; access to technology in remote areas; financial difficulties in providing learning modules; and health risks for teachers. Nonetheless, the situation provided the teachers an opportunity for professional development through seminars and training on blended learning, and updates on pedagogies using new technologies; to be flexible, resourceful, and innovative in adjusting to the needs of the learners; and to maintain a positive outlook in life despite the COVID-19 crisis. This is a novel finding, as this can be a major change that might improve teaching and learning during the pandemic situation, and this can have a positive impact on future educational transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzes teachers and other education stakeholders to accept a different perspective and skillset to meet the needs of today's learners.

7. References Aboagye, E. (2020). Transitioning from face-to-face to online instruction in the COVID-19 era: Challenges of tutors at colleges of education in Ghana. Social Education Research, 2(1), 9–19. https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021545 Adnan, M. (2020). Online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Students perspectives. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 1(2), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.2020261309 Agaton, C. B. (2019). A Real Options Approach to Renewable and Nuclear Energy Investments in the Philippines (Vol. 71). Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH. Agaton, C. B., & Cueto, L. J. (2021). Learning at home: Parents’ lived experiences on distance learning during COVID-19 in the Philippines. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i3.21136 Baloran, E. T. (2020). Knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and coping strategies of students during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 25(8), 635–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1769300

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

240

Braun, V., Clarke, V., Boulton, E., Davey, L., & McEvoy, C. (2020). The online survey as a qualitative research tool. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1805550 Camilleri, M.A., & Camilleri, A.C. (2017). Digital learning resources and ubiquitous technologies in education. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 22(1), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-016-9287-7 Chick, R. C., Clifton, G. T., Peace, K. M., Propper, B. W., Hale, D. F., Alseidi, A. A., & Vreeland, T. J. (2020). Using technology to maintain the education of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Surgical Education, 77(4), 729–732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.03.018 Coleman, K. K., & Sigler, W. V. (2020). Airborne influenza A virus exposure in an elementary school. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598020-58588-1 Crawford, J., Butler-Henderson, K., Rudolph, J., Malkawi, B., Glowatz, M., Burton, R., Magni, P. A., & Lam, S. (2020). COVID-19: 20 countries’ higher education intraperiod digital pedagogy responses. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 3(1), 9– 28. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7 Cueto, L.J., & Agaton, C.B. (2021). Pandemic and typhoon: Positive impacts of a double disaster on mental health of female students in the Philippines. Behavioral Sciences, 11(5), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11050064 DepEd. (2020a). Application of adaptive strategies for financing and resource mobilization for the implementation of the basic education learning continuity plan for school year 20202021. Department of Education. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2020/08/DO_s2020_019.pdf DepEd. (2020b). Suggested strategies in implementing distance learning delivery modalities (DLDM) for school year 2020-2021. Department of Education. https://depedmandaluyong.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dm-ci-202000162_suggested-strategies-on-dldm-fy-2020-2021.pdf Deshpande, S., & Shesh, A. (2021). Blended learning and analysis of factors affecting the use of ICT in education. In P. Deshpande, A. Abraham, B. Iyer, & K. Ma (Eds.), Next Generation Information Processing System (Vol. 1162, pp. 311–324). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4851-2_33 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239520934018 Dietrich, N., Kentheswaran, K., Ahmadi, A., Teychené, J., Bessière, Y., Alfenore, S., Laborie, S., Bastoul, D., Loubière, K., Guigui, C., Sperandio, M., Barna, L., Paul, E., Cabassud, C., Liné, A., & Hébrard, G. (2020). Attempts, successes, and failures of distance learning in the time of COVID-19. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 2448–2457. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00717 Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M., Kanste, O., Pölkki, T., Utriainen, K., & Kyngäs, H. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: A focus on trustworthiness. SAGE Open, 4(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014522633 Gherheș, V., Stoian, C. E., Fărcașiu, M. A., & Stanici, M. (2021). E-learning vs. face-to-face learning: Analyzing students’ preferences and behaviors. Sustainability, 13(8), 1– 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084381 Guno, C.S., Agaton, C.B., Villanueva, R.O., & Villanueva, R.O. (2021). Optimal investment strategy for solar PV integration in residential buildings: A case study in the Philippines. International Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 10(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.2021.32657

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

241

Hege, I., Tolks, D., Adler, M., & Härtl, A. (2020). Blended learning: Ten tips on how to implement it into a curriculum in healthcare education. GMS Journal for Medical Education, 37(5), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3205/ZMA001338 Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2020). Qualitative research methods (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications. Jandrić, P. (2020). Postdigital research in the time of COVID-19. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(2), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00113-8 Jefferson, T., Jones, M., Al-Ansary, L., Bawazeer, G., Beller, E., Clark, J., Conly, J., Del Mar, C., Dooley, E., Ferroni, E., Glasziou, P., Hoffmann, T., Thorning, S., & van Driel, M. (2020). Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Part 1 - Face masks, eye protection and person distancing: Systematic review and meta-analysis [Preprint]. Public and Global Health. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.30.20047217 Kaufmann, R., Sellnow, D.D., & Frisby, B.N. (2016). The development and validation of the online learning climate scale (OLCS). Communication Education, 65(3), 307– 321. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1101778 Khalil, M. K., Abdel Meguid, E. M., & Elkhider, I. A. (2018). Teaching of anatomical sciences: A blended learning approach. Clinical Anatomy, 31(3), 323–329. https://doi.org/10.1002/ca.23052 Khalil, M. K., & Elkhider, I. A. (2016). Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction. Advances in Physiology Education, 40(2), 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00138.2015 König, J., Jäger-Biela, D.J., & Glutsch, N. (2020). Adapting to online teaching during COVID-19 school closure: Teacher education and teacher competence effects among early career teachers in Germany. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 608–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1809650 Kyngäs, H. (2020a). Inductive content analysis. In H. Kyngäs, K. Mikkonen, & M. Kääriäinen (Eds.), The Application of Content Analysis in Nursing Science Research (pp. 13–21). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-30199-6_2 Kyngäs, H. (2020b). Qualitative research and content analysis. In H. Kyngäs, K. Mikkonen, & M. Kääriäinen (Eds.), The Application of Content Analysis in Nursing Science Research (pp. 3–11). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30199-6_1 Lapada, A.A., Miguel, F.F., Robledo, D.A.R., & Alam, Z.F. (2020). Teachers’ COVID-19 awareness, distance learning education experiences and perceptions towards institutional readiness and challenges. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(6), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.6.8 Lo, C. M., Han, J., Wong, E. S. W., & Tang, C. C. (2021). Flexible learning with multicomponent blended learning mode for undergraduate chemistry courses in the pandemic of COVID-19. Interactive Technology and Smart Education, ahead-ofprint(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ITSE-05-2020-0061 Lovrić, R., Farčić, N., Mikšić, Š., & Včev, A. (2020). Studying during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative inductive content analysis of nursing students’ perceptions and experiences. Education Sciences, 10(7), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10070188 Ma, L., & Lee, C. S. (2021). Evaluating the effectiveness of blended learning using the ARCS model. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12579 Mækelæ, M. J., Reggev, N., Dutra, N., Tamayo, R. M., Silva-Sobrinho, R. A., Klevjer, K., & Pfuhl, G. (2020). Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

242

their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries. Royal Society Open Science, 7(8), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200644 Mailizar, M., Almanthari, A., Maulina, S., & Bruce, S. (2020). Secondary school mathematics teachers’ views on e-learning implementation barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Indonesia. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(7), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8240 Maity, S., Sahu, T.N., & Sen, N. (2021). Panoramic view of digital education in COVID‐19: A new explored avenue. Review of Education, 9(2), 405–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3250 Melnick, H., Darling-Hammond, L., Leung, M., Yun, C., Schachner, A., Plasencia, S., & Ondrasek, N. (2020). Reopening schools in the context of COVID-19: Health and safety guidelines from other countries. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/productfiles/Reopening_Schools_COVID-19_BRIEF.pdf Mohamad Nasri, N., Husnin, H., Mahmud, S.N.D., & Halim, L. (2020). Mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic: A snapshot from Malaysia into the coping strategies for pre-service teachers’ education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 546–553. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1802582 Moszkowicz, D., Duboc, H., Dubertret, C., Roux, D., & Bretagnol, F. (2020). Daily medical education for confined students during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A simple video conference solution. Clinical Anatomy, 33(6), 927–928. https://doi.org/10.1002/ca.23601 Nathaniel, T.I., Goodwin, R.L., Fowler, L., Mcphail, B., & Black Jr., A.C. (2021). An adaptive blended learning model for the implementation of an integrated medical neuroscience course during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Anatomical Sciences Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.2097 Novakovich, J., Miah, S., & Shaw, S. (2017). Designing curriculum to shape professional social media skills and identity in virtual communities of practice. Computers & Education, 104, 65–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.11.002 Ożadowicz, A. (2020). Modified blended learning in engineering higher education during the COVID-19 lockdown—Building automation courses case study. Education Sciences, 10(10), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10100292 Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Guàrdia, L., & Koole, M. (2020). Online university teaching during and after the COVID-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(3), 923–945. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00155-y Rice, S., Winter, S.R., Doherty, S., & Milner, M. (2017). Advantages and disadvantages of using internet-based survey methods in aviation-related research. Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering, 7(1), 58–65. https://doi.org/10.7771/21596670.1160 Saher, R., & Anjum, M. (2021). Role of technology in COVID-19 pandemic. In Researches and Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Mitigate Pandemics (pp. 109–138). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90959-4.00005-5 Sefriani, R., Sepriana, R., Wijaya, I., Radyuli, P., & Menrisal, M. (2021). Blended learning with Edmodo: The effectiveness of statistical learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE), 10(1), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i1.20826 Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive load theory. Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8126-4

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

243

Terblanché, E. (2015). Deciding to teach online: Communication, opportunities and challenges for educators in distance education. Communicatio, 41(4), 543–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/02500167.2015.1115416 UNESCO. (2020). Education: From disruption to recovery. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse Van Lancker, W., & Parolin, Z. (2020). COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: A social crisis in the making. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e243–e244. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30084-0 Viner, R.M., Russell, S.J., Croker, H., Packer, J., Ward, J., Stansfield, C., Mytton, O., Bonell, C., & Booy, R. (2020). School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: A rapid systematic review. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(5), 397–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/S23524642(20)30095-X Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: Development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Harvard University Press. Zhang, W., Wang, Y., Yang, L., & Wang, C. (2020). Suspending classes without stopping learning: China’s education emergency management policy in the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 13(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13030055

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

244

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 244-257, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.13

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Role of Entrepreneurship Education in the Career Choice Decision-Making of Business Studies Learners in Gauteng South Africa Oluwakemi B. Ajayi Wits School of Education, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1446-2906 Abstract. This study explored teachers’ views on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative case study approach was employed with a sample size of five Business Studies teachers from three selected public secondary schools in Gauteng East District, using purposive and convenience sampling methods to select participants for this study. Semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews were employed to collect required data for this study. Data were analysed using Atlas.ti which is a Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) program. The findings from this study affirmed that Business Studies influences the career choices of learners to become entrepreneurs. Strengthened by the knowledge, skills and experience acquired from entrepreneurship as a segment in Business Studies, the study recommended that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) should provide the necessary encouragement to Business Studies learners as it is implemented with other subjects by assigning it an elevated status in the curriculum. Keywords: decision-making; business studies; entrepreneurship; career choice; entrepreneurship education

1. Introduction A career is the combination of work roles that an individual encounters in his/her lifetime (Etiubon et al., 2018). A career choice involves the beginning of a specific job or profession (Ajayi, 2018). Bubic and Ivanisevic (2016) assert that career choice is an important issue in t+ developmental lives of young adults because it is associated with affirmative and unconstructive differences that exist beyond the young age into adulthood. Choosing a career is one of many decisions that lie ahead of every adolescent as they proceed through the journey of life. Career choice has been identified as a challenge mostly to secondary school learners, considering the uncertainty in the world of work (Lose, 2016). ©Author This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

245

Secondary school learners are anxious about what the future holds and what challenges they might have to face (Howard & Walsh, 2011). Considering the knowledge deficit and the capacity of learners at secondary school regarding career choices (Al-Otaibi & Al-ghobaiwi, 2021), it consequently becomes the concern of all interested parties to effectively help learners at secondary school to prepare for a future career. Preparing for the future entails allowing learners to participate and undergo everyday work life experience through the curriculum (Etiubon et al., 2018). Considering the rate of unemployment at 32.5% in South Africa at present (Statistics South Africa, 2020), an exploration into early-stage entrepreneurship at the secondary school level is essential in producing business education environments that could develop learners’ entrepreneurial skills (Lose, 2016). Abor (2017) affirms that entrepreneurship education provides the basis for the abilities, understanding and skills required for entrepreneurship. Acquiring and developing entrepreneurship skills while at secondary school could equip youths with the necessary skills for entrepreneurship growth in the country. Axelsson and Mårtensson (2015) define an entrepreneur as a person who has the capability to uncover business prospects, create distinctive ideas, accumulate assets and build a business enterprise in order to fulfil society’s necessities and desires. In the same vein, Chimucheka (2014) believes that free enterprise is the initiative accompanied by the skill displayed by a person to establish enterprises with the ability to efficiently advance the enterprise. Entrepreneurship education is regarded as the purposeful involvement provided by a teacher to improve learners’ skills and abilities that may develop their attention and maintain their presence in entrepreneurship (Etiubon et al., 2018). The Department of Basic Education (2015) found that there were approximately 3.4 million young adults between 15 to 24 years of age who are unemployed. Chimucheka (2014) shows that participation in entrepreneurial activities amongst South Africans may activate the economic autonomy for many South Africans, particularly the youth. Therefore, there is a need to consider entrepreneurship training for the youth in South Africa in order to offer them the opportunity to contribute fully to the nation’s prosperity. The youth ought to be encouraged to consider entrepreneurial activities as an instrument to create wealth for the incoming generation and grow to be independent rather than searching for job opportunities (Ogunyomi & Bruning, 2016). Regrettably, creating a business venture is not frequent among South Africans, particularly with Black South Africans (Ogunsade et al., 2021). According to Walter and Block (2016), the introduction of entrepreneurship education in secondary schools could be considered as excessive in nature for secondary school learners to understand. Conversely, Axelsson et al. (2017) confirmed that entrepreneurship education being included in the curriculum at secondary school could be a motivation for learners to become future entrepreneurs, since they could obtain basic training and the required knowledge and skills during teaching and learning. Korhonen et al. (2011) conducted research in Finnish secondary schools that focused on

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

246

entrepreneurship education and their findings indicated that it might promote awareness of entrepreneurship and its benefits as a result of the teaching of entrepreneurship education. In addition, the European Commission (2010) reveals that most European Union countries are committed to encouraging entrepreneurship education in their various instructional institutes. The introduction of entrepreneurship education and the noted accomplishment in secondary schools in nations such as Austria, Belgium, Greece and Finland indicate that entrepreneurship could be taught in the same manner that conventional subjects are taught (Pucci et al., 2017). Thus, the inclusion of entrepreneurship in South African secondary schools may promote business venture as a career of choice among the youths. In South African schools, the teaching of entrepreneurship is presented as topics in the subject Economics and Management Sciences (EMS) in the General Education and Training (GET) phase, which comprises Grades 8 and 9. The objective is to foster learners’ interest in entrepreneurship from an early age and maintain this interest into the subject of Business Studies at the further education and training (FET) phase, Grade 10, 11 and 12 (DBE, 2015). However, the skills deficiency statistics, state that, in its quest to accomplish the mission to decrease unfairness and reduce poverty by 2030 (National Development Plan, 2013), South Africa has to intensify entrepreneurship among inadequately educated unemployed youths. If the nation has the intention of augmenting the quality of entrepreneurship knowledge at an early stage, then it is essential to inspire learners to consider entrepreneurship as a career. Consequently, the study investigated teachers’ views on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices in Gauteng, South Africa.

2. Literature Review In recent years, several countries have been concerned with issues of unemployment and have put in place a plan to encourage their citizens to venture into new business opportunities. Unemployment has prompted countries to find an alternate means to aid their citizens in developing entrepreneurial skills. Given the economic situation, entrepreneurship education has been included in the secondary school curriculum. As such, it is perceived as a foundation for building social and economic wellness in a country, for growth and development (European Commission, 2010). Entrepreneurship education has gained momentum as entrepreneurs are considered the driving force of economic development as well as being an answer to social and societal problems (Baluku et al., 2019). This highlights the need for people to acquire entrepreneurial skills to be able to adjust to the unpredictable and uncertain world in which we live. Consequently, there are various educational programmes around the world striving to motivate and stimulate an entrepreneurial attitude. At this point, entrepreneurship education becomes pertinent since it affords an individual the opportunity to learn and develop an interest and attitude towards entrepreneurship (Pucci et al., 2017).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

247

The concurrent growth, emergent complexities in the environment, commercial enterprise and technical development indicate that the ensuing cohorts will experience problems to improve the condition in the society, family and work (Karadag, 2016).Therefore, to enhance learners’ achievement and improve their ability towards career choice decision-making, guidance and counselling are considered a necessity (Martinez et al., 2017), generating and preserving a mutual relationship between teachers and learners to improve performance in teaching and learning and the wellbeing of learners in the school environment (Walter & Block, 2016). A career path is a person’s self-development through the integration of life and occupational processes and functions (Polenova et al., 2018). An individual’s career entails the period before employment and after employment concerns and not merely employment, with the amalgamation of career and the responsibilities that life demands, such as relatives, companions and leisure activities (Polenovaet al., 2018). Therefore, vocational advice and directing are essential and concentrate on the individuals’ abilities as well as ways in which the abilities could be appropriately directed. Al-Otaibi and Al-ghobaiwi (2021) assert that proficient career guidance assists learners to uncover their ardour for entrepreneurship, comprehending in what way to employ the distinctive ability as well as the appeal, eliminating hindrances, making a well-versed career decision in order to benefit from a healthy lifestyle and face the future with confidence. They reiterate that guidance involves information to assist learners with decision-making relating to learning, training and occupation, which could help learners develop their competence and permit them to make informed career choices. In addition, career guidance offers learners the opportunity to ascertain the correlation between their career development and knowledge and skills needed to acquire through the process of teaching and learning (Walter & Block, 2016). Entrepreneurship training in secondary school ought to be taught from the lower grades to develop learners’ interest in entrepreneurial activities as an early introduction to entrepreneurial activities could stimulate knowledge of selfemployment and create an appreciation of self-determination (Ajayi, 2018). As entrepreneurial involvement is deemed relatively low in South Africa in comparison to other countries in Africa (South Africa.info, 2016), the Department of Basic Education (DBE, 2015) has purposely included topics such as unemployment, business environment, business ownership, poverty and inequality in the Business Studies curriculum that could fuel learners’ interest in self-employment through entrepreneurship education. Thus, the introduction of entrepreneurship education as a proficiency training programme for the improvement and originality for the youth of South Africa to participate confidently in the economy. The Current Study This study explored Business Studies teachers’ views to comprehend the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices in Gauteng, South Africa.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

248

3. Methodology 3.1 Research Design and Participants This study employed a qualitative case study design to investigate teachers’ views on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices. The case study as a research design provides different justifications regarding the analogous understanding as well as the knowledge of the inference pertaining to the incident as opposed to individuals concerned. Consequently, providing lucidity with regard to the concerns broached about the topic (Creswell, 2014). This design was chosen because it allowed the researcher to collect considerable detail that would not be simply attained by an alternate research design (Tracy, 2013). The population identified for this study was all secondary school Business Studies teachers who teach Grades 10 -12. The sampling techniques used for this study were purposive and convenience sampling, which permitted the researcher to use diverse information gathered from the research settings. The Gauteng East District was identified for convenience purposes with three schools selected because the subject Business Studies is offered to Grades 10, 11 and 12. Schools were selected according to the learners’ performance in the final examination in 2016 in Business Studies. Consequently, the sample for this study included a school with outstanding results (100%-80%), an average achieving school (80%-60%) and a low achieving school (60%-40%). The participants for this study comprised teachers in the three selected public secondary schools who taught Business Studies; five teachers were selected who were amenable to being interviewed from the three schools. The selected participants had 3 to 15 years of teaching experience in Business Studies as a subject. 3.2 Instruments Data collection was carried out through semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews. The semi-structured interview method was adopted because it is flexible and allows for clarification through probing, and an interview schedule was used to guide the interview (Appendix 1).Once participants consented that their interviews could be recorded, interviews were digitally recorded. The recordings assisted the researcher in capturing all required details; in addition, the audio recordings could be replayed for clarity and improved comprehension of the recorded data. This study used open-ended questions that related to teachers’ perceptions of the topic under investigation and the interviews were conducted in English as the medium of instruction in the schools is English. To ensure credibility and trustworthiness for this study, the participants were given the opportunity to verify the transcriptions as a means of member checking. 3.3 Procedure for Data Collection As previously mentioned, data were collected in three selected public secondary schools after having obtained ethical clearance from the College of Education at the University of South Africa and approval from the Gauteng Department of Education. Additionally, permission to access schools was obtained from the selected schools’ principals. Confidentiality, anonymity, voluntary participation,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

249

freedom to withdraw participation and informed consent were strictly adhered to. The interviews were conducted in secluded offices; the interviews took an average of 30-45 minutes for each participant. 3.4 Data Analysis Creswell (2014) views data analysis as the clear preparation and grouping of collected data to achieve the requisite outcome. In a qualitative study, data analysis ought to utilise coding, classifying and elucidating data to denote elucidations on the matter under investigation (Green, 2014). Furthermore, case study data analysis entails logical, systematic organisation of evidence. The transcriptions of the audio recordings and the researcher’s field notes gave rise to the analysed data. The research question guided the analysis of the data and the data were analysed using the Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) programme, Atlas.ti.

4. Results This study examined the opinion of teachers on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices in three public secondary schools (A, B and C) in Gauteng East District, South Africa. The findings from this study demonstrate that teachers’ perceptions indicated that Business Studies plays an essential part in the influence of learners to become entrepreneurs, strengthened by the knowledge and experience acquired from entrepreneurship as a topic in Business Studies. Several themes emerged from the findings, illustrating that entrepreneurship education could assist learners in considering becoming entrepreneurs and these include: Business Studies as a foundation for entrepreneurship, teachers’ expectations of learners to become entrepreneurs, initial introduction of entrepreneurship education, practical experience and community engagement and entrepreneurial activities at school. Business Studies as a foundation for entrepreneurship The findings show that topics in Business Studies could assist learners in career choice decision-making if they want to become entrepreneurs. Participants were in agreement that Business Studies provided the basis for entrepreneurship. Most participants concurred that the subject facilitates the required background for learners’ knowledge and understanding concerning entrepreneurship. This is apparent in the following excerpts: “…when you look at entrepreneurship all that is needed is the foundation or the knowledge needed about running a business. When you look at the Business Studies textbook everything that is in the textbook is about business and entrepreneurship. For example, the eight business functions, marketing, management.” (School B, Grade 10 teacher) “The Business Studies curriculum guides learners very well on how to form and start a business. All they need to form a business is there in the curriculum, so it is very helpful for learners who want to start a business.”(School B, Grade 12 teacher)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

250

From the interviews, it was gathered that learners were encouraged while studying topics in Business Studies to be innovative in their thinking, as this could help their career choice decision-making process towards being independent, as mentioned by one of the teachers: “What we teach them in Business Studies, to come up with new ideas and that is entrepreneurship and they are doing it practically because they’ve got projects, presentations that they must do. This could help them in future while choosing career because of high rate of unemployment.” (School C teacher) Teachers perceived the role of entrepreneurship education of paramount importance because the topics covered present the opportunity for learners to consider a career as an entrepreneur (Grade 11 teacher, School B teacher, School C teacher). In addition, teachers mentioned that “learners, whose performance in Business Studies as a subject is above average, are more inclined to have confidence in themselves towards entrepreneurship while making career choice decision” (School A teacher). One participant asserted that Business Studies might “benefit learners in setting up some form of entrepreneurial ventures in the future” (School C teacher). Teachers’ expectations of learners to become entrepreneurs The majority of the teachers who participated in the study were of the view that learners who acquire entrepreneurship learning through Business Studies were more probable to choose entrepreneurship as a vocation; the following excerpt by Grade 11 teacher at school B provides evidence of the above opinion: “Most of these learners have got barriers to learning, you may find out that they are slow when you are teaching them the theory but give them [a] practical task [and] they perform very well so I think most of them will pursue entrepreneurship once they are done with their schooling. Even though some of them have started already, I have some learners who have shown me their business plan. They’ve started something that will lead them after their Grade 12 education. They are into designing of clothing…girl line of fashion way and some are into motivating other learners to keep them away from the street, starting a band and so on and so forth.” (Grade 11 teacher, School B). The above-mentioned teacher stated that learners showed particular interest in entrepreneurship, under the various topics found in the Business Studies curriculum which were found to be motivating (Grade 11 teacher, School B). She adds that, despite learners being prevented from conducting entrepreneurial activities at school, they furtively persist since they enjoy what they are doing (Grade 11 teacher, School B) and they continue these entrepreneurial activities at homes (Grade 11 teacher, School B). Another teacher mentioned her colleagues, who were of the opinion that learners could pursue entrepreneurship because of her communication with some of her learners, as shown in the statement below: “I see some of them becoming entrepreneurs. I have interacted with a few learners [and] they have already indicated to me that they are not interested in pursuing their education as far as tertiary level is concerned. They want to start businesses because they feel that time,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

251

they are ready to make it big and they quote certain people who didn’t go to tertiary and they’ve got businesses that are doing well.” (Grade 11 teacher, School B) The teachers at School A stated that learners showed a keen interest in entrepreneurial activities and one teacher in particular said that she discovered that the learners had the ability to engage in entrepreneurial activities. In addition, she believed that learners are of the opinion that had the ability to become entrepreneurs because they are involved, in entrepreneurship at school, despite it not being allowed. She pointed out that the subject Business Studies is chosen in Grade 10; however, many learners do not decide on the subject with the aim of becoming entrepreneurs (School A teacher). She maintained that the circumstances of many learners arise possibly because they come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds with inadequate finances and, as a result, they become resourceful in resorting to small-scale entrepreneurship (School A teacher) in order to make some money. A Business Studies teacher at School A added that, as a consequence of the current state of the economy in South Africa, it is incumbent upon learners to realise that the Government cannot provide employment (School A teacher). Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to pursue entrepreneurship; since these learners have attained the fundamental information from the subject Business Studies (School A teacher). A Business Studies teacher at School C agreed that learners could become prospective entrepreneurs because of their inventiveness when selling different items (School C teacher). She observed that the knowledge acquired from entrepreneurship education would enable learners to develop aspirations for their potential accomplishments. Unlike the above-mentioned views of teachers, the School B, Grade 12 teacher negated the perception that the learners that he taught could pursue entrepreneurship, because he believed that career choices in field of the commerce would be appropriate for the majority of his learners. In addition, he mentioned that, if they did choose to become entrepreneurs, it may be attributed to what they had learnt in Business Studies. Teacher B was adamant that none of the learners would become entrepreneurs (Grade 12 teacher, School B teacher); however, he pointed out that the goal of becoming an entrepreneur should be the desire of every learner because of the current unemployment rate in the country (Grade 12 teacher, School B teacher). “I can see it in the classroom that these learners are not interested in business even though the curriculum educates them a lot about entrepreneurship like the BBBEE, the Role of businesses, and different types of business venture,… I’m not sure about whether they will become entrepreneurs on their own.” (Grade 12 teacher, School B) One of the participants claimed that the expectation of learners becoming entrepreneurs may not be realistic, considering the fact that some of the learners are not showing an interest in entrepreneurship, despite the several topics in the curriculum that educates learners about business ventures.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

252

Initial introduction of entrepreneurship education Participants stated that the introduction of entrepreneurship education should be included from the lower grades (Grade 8 and 9) in Economics and Management Science (EMS). Consequently, it would awaken an interest in learners in the lower grades and enable them to have an elementary knowledge in business ventures once they get to Grade 10, which could motivate them to engage in business enterprise as a vocation (School B, Grade 12 teacher). Additionally, the participants believed that technology can be incorporated into the teaching of Business Studies and will allow learners to apply the knowledge attained since it will encourage learners to be innovative, and allow them to showcase their merchandise using technology (School C teacher). Practical experience and community engagement Schools could be influential to motivate learners to implement entrepreneurial skills acquired through entrepreneurship education at school and in the community (School C teacher). The School B Grade 10 teacher suggested that the organisation of activities that would enable learners to employ the abilities acquired from what they had learnt in Business Studies could expose them to the requisite applied knowledge for the advance of entrepreneurship (Grade 10 teacher, School B). Additionally, learners who choose Business Studies could also be afforded the chance to determine the requirements of budding consumers at school, as is evident in the following excerpt: “In schools there are different extra mural activities like fund raising and so on like that. I will actually suggest that these learners doing Business Studies as a subject must be given opportunity by the school, maybe allocate a certain amount of money for the FET phase and come up with a business idea and sell at school on a particular day or programme while the ladies selling at school will not be here, so that learners can start implementing what they are learning in the classroom on how to manage finances, how to do a proper marketing while other learners might be interested in buying from these Business Studies learners, so that they can know what and how to sell to their target group or market.” (Grade 10 teacher, School B) The findings show the benefit of applying the knowledge and skills learnt in Business Studies to an actual life situation to promote creativity in learners. Learner’s community engagement was viewed as a phase of entrepreneurship training that could direct learners to determine society-related aspects that needed the intervention of entrepreneurship, as expressed below: “I think what we can do as Business Studies educators we must do whatever is in the syllabus and also develop learners’ skills, their knowledge, community involvement because that is very important in entrepreneurship education, if they are involved in the community then they can interact with people, they can identify where the problems are and what is lacking in the community. They can think ‘if I can sell this it can help my community and also benefit me’. It’s all about creativity not just teaching them what is in the textbook and we don’t relate that to real life situation.” (School C teacher)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

253

All participants provided important evidence concerning the motivation aspect of entrepreneurship education to arouse an awareness of learners in a career in entrepreneurship. These practical activities include events such as market day and entrepreneurship day at school (Grade 11 teacher, School B), and these entrepreneurial activities could provide a hands-on experience for learners. The participants anticipated their learners filling a function in their societies, where prospective entrepreneurs and the societies could benefit, as the following excerpts indicate: “Let learners organise entrepreneurship day, that is how you put the subject into practice, we make it practical as well. We tend to be more focus on the content teaching like lecturing instead of putting that content into practical where you can ask them to design project and come up with the things that they can sell during entrepreneurship day and make it more practical. Like what happens with the physical science learners when they learn about a chemical, they make practical with it and that is what our subject is lacking.” (Grade 12 teacher, School B) “Remember I’m saying I’m for the practical, yes I get the theory but it is too little, I feel like now we should add the practical part of it. Maybe we take them to visit some big business companies.” (Grade 11 teacher, School B) “School can organise a market day where learners are going to sell… choose a day, I think it should be Grade 10 and 11 because the Grade 12 learners are busy …like in Grade 10 one or two classes are doing Consumer Studies at the centre they can still utilise that and arrange with the teacher to use the centre to cook and store food there so that everybody can buy there.” (School A teacher) The participants mentioned that involving learners in entrepreneurial activities could motivate learners and direct their thoughts towards establishing their personal businesses. In the face of a dwindling economy where unemployment is on the rise, it would be advantageous for learners to participate in business ventures to contribute to economic growth and development. Entrepreneurial activities at school The findings revealed that entrepreneurship education as a section covered in Business Studies provides learners with an incentive to undertake entrepreneurial activities. Participants mentioned that learners showed a dedicated interest towards entrepreneurship, declaring that learners possess entrepreneurial knowledge and skills gained from Business Studies (School A teacher). Despite learners having entrepreneurial inclinations, however, in the majority of instances, in the schools where this study was conducted such activities were forbidden (School C teacher; Grade 11 teacher, School B). Learners have been prevented from selling their commodities at school, which means that both the ‘budding’ entrepreneur and prospective customers suffer.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

254

Teachers should realise that it is essential to urge their learners to implement the knowledge and skills acquired from Business Studies in the real world, as mentioned in the following excerpt: “I try to encourage my learners to get skills through Business Studies. How I do this, they have projects that they do, we have market day and entrepreneurship day, I think it was two weeks back especially Grade 11 they sold products, I told them to do needs analysis to identify what the learners need and they were selling different products and most of them made 100 percent profits because I asked them if they make profit they said yes that they use R600 and get R1200.They saw the challenges of business through the selling activities by which some of them that were selling braai meat gave their meat to others selling the same thing to braai for them and when they failed them they came back to tell me about it and I told them to wake up and open their eyes that they are competitors how can they give them their meat. They learned through that incident about competitors.” (The teacher at school C) As indicated by the participant, the entrepreneurial days at School C clearly showed that learners had the ability to apply entrepreneurial knowledge and competences on entrepreneurship days. Although, success was not achieved by all endeavours as entrepreneurs, the participant referred to this as a lack of interest or lethargy on the part of learners who did not perform optimally and apply their knowledge acquired in entrepreneurial education (School C teacher). For entrepreneurship to be a success in schools, the participant from School C suggested that, the School Management Team ought to enforce behavioural regulations for involvement in entrepreneurial activities on the school grounds (School C teacher). In addition, the participants stated that regulations and procedures should be elucidated clearly in order that learners adhere to these regulations when engaging in entrepreneurship on the school grounds. The school rules pertaining to entrepreneurship should be observed by the learners, as the experience acquired from entrepreneurial activities at school could provide learners with practical experience (School A teacher).

5. Discussion This study explored teachers’ views on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices in Gauteng South Africa. The findings from this study revealed that teachers perceived the role of entrepreneurship education had a direct link with the career chosen by Business Studies learners. Business Studies, according to the participants, is a subject that presents a foundation for learners to engage in a career involving entrepreneurial activities, because the requisite knowledge for the establishment of business enterprises is learnt in Business Studies. The participants asserted that the DBE decision to include entrepreneurship education into the Business Studies syllabus at secondary school level created a situation that inspires learners to pursue entrepreneurship. Additionally, the participants perceived the inclusion of entrepreneurship in Business Studies motivates learners, specifically when good grades are attained in the subject, as a result participants were resolute that learners’ career choice had in fact been influenced by Business

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

255

Studies. This suggests that entrepreneurship education as a component of Business Studies had apparently stimulated learners’ choice of career in the direction of entrepreneurial pursuits. In this respect, O’Connor (2013) argues that entrepreneurship as a portion of a subject offered at secondary school may motivate self-employment, personal answerability and self-sufficiency. Similarly, Karlsson and Moberg (2013) affirm that South African learners have a habit of relying on the government to cause employment opportunities after exiting school; consequently, the availability of entrepreneurship education in the FET Phase at Secondary School would present and advance learners’ awareness of entrepreneurship. This study found that learner who achieved good grades in the subject of Business Studies displayed high entrepreneurial intention to entrepreneurial enterprises. This concurs with what Walter and Block (2016) found, that entrepreneurs are insightful, prepared and advanced an indication that certain knowledge, competences as well as comprehension could be achieved as well as enhanced through applied proficiency and further training. Business Studies was perceived by the participants in this as a principal feature in the career choice of learners to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. This aligns with Wang and Chugh (2014) who confirm that entrepreneurship education arouses learners’ awareness in business initiatives, presents opportunities to experience entrepreneurship, develops independence, and introduces self-employment as a career choice through skills training that learners receive. The participants in this study concurred that motivation was requisite for learners to decide on a career in entrepreneurship. Boyles and College (2012) state the potential to generate innovative and exceptional ideas, remaining self-sufficient, and the capacity to formulate informed judgements to receive earnings as well as to participate in community programmes that involve entrepreneurs and serve as inspiration towards an entrepreneurship career. Therefore, if learners are encouraged to exhibit their entrepreneurship skills at school, through the subject of Business Studies, this could stimulate them to pursue entrepreneurship after exiting school. In conducting this study, limitations that were encountered included teachers’ apprehension of being considered incompetent. The GDE stated emphatically that interviews could be conducted after school hours only; some teachers were unwilling grant after school interview and, ultimately, five teachers were interviewed out of the estimated nine teachers. This study investigated the opinions of Business Studies teachers; though, future research can be conducted to incorporate the views of DBE executives and parents concerning entrepreneurship as a probable vocation amongst Business Study learners in schools. In addition, a study of this feature could be extended to private secondary schools focusing on teachers’ views on the influence that entrepreneurship education has on Business Studies learners’ career choices.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

256

6. Conclusion This paper presented teachers’ perceptions on the influence of entrepreneurship education as a component of Business Studies when learners decide to choose a career. The significance of entrepreneurship education as a component in Business Studies in secondary schools and teachers’ expectations of learners’ becoming entrepreneurs were discussed. Additionally, the influence of practical entrepreneurial activities in school as well as exposing learners to entrepreneurship education from lower grades were also highlighted by participants. The findings of this study revealed that entrepreneurship education creates an entrepreneurial intention and ability in learners at secondary school. The findings presented in this paper have implications for educational policy and practice and the Board of Management in schools to create regulations that guide entrepreneurial activities on the school premises. In order to awaken learners’ awareness of entrepreneurship, it is imperative to introduce Business Studies at an earlier stage, for learners to be able to integrate and transition from EMS to Business Studies. The policy makers should recognise entrepreneurship as an essential aspect for those potential entrepreneurs by paying attention to entrepreneurship practically at school, and to encourage economic growth in South Africa where unemployment is increasing.

7. References Abor, J. Y. (2017). Valuation of new ventures and small businesses: Entrepreneurial finance for MSMEs. New York, NY: Springer International Publishing. Ajayi, O. B. (2018). Teachers' and learners' views on the role that entrepreneurship education plays in career choice decision-making of business studies learners in Ekurhuleni Gauteng East District [Masters dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria]. Al-Otaibi, N. A., & Al-ghobaiwi, T. A. (2021). Secondary school Islamic entrepreneurship education teachers’ attitudes towards entrepreneurial reflective teaching in the light of demographic variables. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 24(6). Axelsson, K., & Mårtensson, M. (2015, June 18-19). Introducing Entrepreneurship in a School Setting – Entrepreneurial Learning as the Entrance Ticket. Conference proceedings of the 8th International Conference for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development, pp. 756–772. Sheffield, United Kingdom. Baluku, M. M., Leonsio, M., Bantu, E., & Otto, K. (2019). The impact of autonomy on the relationship between mentoring and entrepreneurial intentions among youth in Germany, Kenya, and Uganda. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research,25(2), 170–192. Boyles, T., & College, M. (2012). 21st century knowledge, skills, and abilities and Entrepreneurial competencies: A model for undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 15, 41-55. Bubic, A., & Ivanišević, K. (2018). The Role of Emotional Stability and Competence Young Adolescents’ Career Judgments. Journal of Career Development, 43(6), 498511. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845316633779 Chimucheka, T. (2014). Entrepreneurship Education in South Africa. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2), 403-416. Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage. Department of Basic Education (DBE). (2015). Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS): Business Studies Grades 10 - 12. Pretoria: South Africa. Etiubon, R. U., Ugwu, R. U., & Ado, I. B. (2018). Career Choice Determinants and Academic Achievement of First Year Science Education Students of University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

257

State, Nigeria.International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 6(7), 136147 European Commission. (2010). Entrepreneurship in higher education, especially in nonBusiness Studies. http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents /8969/attachments/1/ Translations/en/renditions/native Green, H. (2014). Use of theoretical and conceptual frameworks in qualitative research. Nurse Researcher, 21(6), 34-38. Karadag, H. (2016). The Role of SMEs and Entrepreneurship on Economic Growth in Emerging Economies within the Post-Crisis Era: An Analysis from Turkey. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 4, 22–31. Karlsson, T., & Moberg, K. (2013). Improving perceived entrepreneurial abilities through education: exploratory testing of an entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale in a prepost setting. The International Journal of Management Education, 11(1), 1-11. Korhonen, M., Komulainen, K., & Raty, H. (2011). Not everyone is cut out to be the entrepreneur type: how Finnish school teachers construct the meaning of Entrepreneurship Education and the related abilities of the pupils. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56(1), 1-19. Lose, T. (2016). The role of business incubators in facilitating the entrepreneurial skills requirements of small and medium size enterprises in the Cape metropolitan area, South Africa [Doctoral thesis. Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa]. Martinez, R., Baker, S., & Young, T. (2017). Promoting Career and College Readiness, Aspirations, and Self-Efficacy: Curriculum Field Test. The Career Development Quarterly,65, 175-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12090 National Development Plan. (2013). Developing South African Entrepreneurs [Discussion paper, Pretoria, pp. 40-42]. O’Connor, A. (2013). A conceptual framework for Entrepreneurship Education policy: meeting government and economic purposes. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(4), 546-563. Ogunsade, A.I., Obembe, D., Woldesenbet, K., & Kolade, S. (2021). Entrepreneurial attitudes among university students: the role of institutional environments and cultural norms. Entrepreneurship Education,4,169–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-021-00050-y Ogunyomi, P., & Bruning, N. S. (2016). Human resource management and organizational performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(6), 612-634. Polenova, E., Vedral, A., Brisson, L., & Zinn, L. (2018). Emerging between two worlds: a longitudinal study of career identity of students from Asian American immigrant families. Emerging Adulthood,6, 53–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696817696430. Pucci, T., Nosi, C., & Zanni, L. (2017). Firm capabilities, business model design and performance of SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 24(2), 222-241. South Africa.info. (2016). Investing in Gauteng. http://www.info/business/investing/opportunities/gauteng. Statistics South Africa (2020). Quarterly labour force survey. http://www.statssa.gov.za. Tracy, S.J. (2013). Qualitativ eResearch Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Walter, S. G., & Block, J. H. (2016). Outcomes of entrepreneurship education. An institutional perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 31(2), 216-233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusVent. 2015.10 Wang, C. L., & Chugh, H. (2014). Entrepreneurial Learning: Past Research and Future Challenges. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(1), 24-61. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12007

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

258

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 258-276, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.14

The Common Thinking Styles Based on the Mental Self-Government Theory Among Saudi University Students According to Gender, Academic Achievement and Extracurricular Activities Ali Tared Aldossari* Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, College of Education, Curriculum & Instruction Department, Dammam, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6329-2387 Mahmoud Moh'd Ali Abu Jadou Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, College of Education, Special Education Department, Giftedness & Creativity, Dammam, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4209-1302 Abstract. This study aimed to investigate the common thinking styles based on Sternberg’s mental self-government theory among students of the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, according to gender, academic achievement, and extracurricular activities. The descriptive approach was suitable for achieving the study’s objectives. The study sample consisted of 515 students (257 males, 258 females). The researchers developed an Arabic version of the Thinking Styles Inventory. The results showed that the most common thinking style among students is legislative, followed by the hierarchic, judicial, and external styles to high degrees, while the oligarchic, internal, conservative, and anarchic styles were less common at moderate degrees. The legislative style was more prevalent among female students than male students. Students with acceptable academic achievements most used legislative and executive thinking styles, while students with excellent achievements most used the judicial style. The results indicate that students with strong participation in extracurricular activities most commonly use legislative and judicial thinking styles. The study recommends paying more attention to the thinking styles of a new generation of individuals (males and females), who have creative potential, and increasing consideration of extracurricular activities due to their importance in shaping the students’ personalities and meeting their interests and needs. Keywords: thinking styles; mental self-government theory; academic achievement, extracurricular activities *

Corresponding author: Ali Tared Aldo sari; Email: ataldossari@iau.edu.sa

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

259

1. Introduction The topic of learning has long preoccupied both educators and practitioners. It continues to dominate the thinking of many educators, teachers and families, and many questions continue to arise regarding the best ways to achieve optimal learning and education. Due to this great interest, a rich body of knowledge has been cultivated in this area. In recent years, increased interest has developed in factors affecting student learning, such as preferred learning styles, which are expected to differ from one individual to another. Due to individual differences, children learn and interact differently with the material being taught. Some children learn through lectures, while others learn better in projects, and others prefer organised tasks. In summary, the responses of children to learning vary greatly (Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). These questions lead us to discuss the concept of thinking styles or learning styles and their relationships to the learning process. The various thinking styles differ from one another but have one thing in common: they relate not to an individual’s level of ability but rather to their preferred methods of processing information using their capabilities (Ramzan et al., 2014). Therefore, we should differentiate between the terms, ‘thinking style’ and ‘learning style’; the two terms may not be used interchangeably. Specifically, learning styles are considered as preferred pathways for learning materials, being oral, through audio, audio-visually or kinaesthetically. Alternatively, thinking styles may be defined as preferred ways of thinking about the material (Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). Common thinking styles among different groups and samples of individuals have been subject to many studies worldwide. Most of these studies adopted a list of thinking styles derived from the work of Sternberg (1988), who published his theory of ‘Mental Self-Government’ to clarify the working mechanisms of the human mind. The theory suggested 13 thinking styles classified into functions, forms, levels, and scopes (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018; Ramazan et al., 2014). Despite the fact that the concept of thinking styles is becoming popular and wellknown in education, students and teachers have no clear idea of how this framework might be used in support of their efforts to enhance learning and development (Zhang & Wong, 2011).

2. Importance of the Study Many researches have applied the theory of mental self-government (TMSG) on multicultural environments by exploring the way thinking styles relate to various student and teacher characteristics, whether these styles are affected by the personal status of age or gender or whether the styles affect extracurricular activities and the perceived learning or teaching environment (Zhang & Sternberg, 2005). The second path of research examines the way thinking styles affect different aspects of student learning and development, including academic achievement, self-esteem, cognitive development, personality, and psychosocial development (Zhang & Sternberg, 2005).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

260

The third path of research determines the nature of the relationships between thinking styles and stylistic structures suggested by other researchers (Zhang & Sternberg, 2005). The current study is the first to be conducted at IAU, relying on thinking styles based on Sternberg’s theory (1988). It is also one of few studies – whether local, regional, or international – to deal with unconventional variables, such as extracurricular activities, when studying common thinking styles among university students according to the mental self-government theory.

3. Study Problem It is crucial to reveal the thinking styles that are common in society and its educational institutions, whether in schools, universities or even in the workplace, as this will yield a clearer picture of the preferred approaches that individuals use when thinking through and dealing with the problems of daily life. Moreover, it is necessary to determine the type of thinking styles preferred by male and female university students. While the most important of these is reinforcing strong patterns and developing weak ones, other notable examples include working on harmonising ways of thinking, the teaching methods and activities used in managing the educational process and even the nature and quality of the extracurricular activities provided to students. Even though IAU is one of the most important public universities in Saudi Arabia, no study has been conducted on common thinking styles according to (TMSG) at the university level, except a study on female students at the College of Arts. Accordingly, there is a need to conduct such a study at the university level, as this will provide decision-makers with an expanded understanding of the thinking styles common among university students. Based on the above, the current study problem can be defined as follows: to investigate common thinking styles based on Sternberg’s (TMSG) among students at IAU, according to gender, academic achievement, and extracurricular activities.

4. Study Questions The main question of the study is: What are the common thinking styles among students of IAU based on Sternberg’s mental self-government theory? This main question is divided into the following sub-questions: 1. According to mental self-government theory, what are the common thinking styles among students of IAU? 2. What are the common thinking styles among students of IAU according to gender? 3. What are the common thinking styles among students of IAU by the level of academic achievement (excellent, very good, good, acceptable)? 4. What are the common thinking styles among IAU students by the degree of participation in extracurricular activities (strong, often, sometimes, does not participate)? 5. What are the common thinking styles among students of IAU depending on the type of extracurricular activities they participate in?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

261

5. Literature Review and Related Studies The study of Ginting (2017) found the following distribution of learning styles among university students: the majority, 45.72% on average, belong to the visual learning category; 28.17% to the auditory learning category; 19.24% to the reading category; and 11.39% to the kinaesthetic category. Moreover, thinking style questionnaire sheets indicated that the majority of university students (52.85%) adopt a concrete sequential style, while 23.45% adopt an abstract sequential style, 12.78% adopt a random abstract style and 10.92% adopt a random concrete style. Mental Self-Government Theory Overviewing his theory, Sternberg (1997) argues that people are similar to governments in that they need to perform three essential functions: legislative (proposing new ways of doing things), executive (following rules and implementing the plans of others) and judicial (evaluating regulations and procedures). People adapt themselves According to the requirements of tasks which are often changing. These stylistic preferences may be subject to the Functions associated with an individual's interactions within the social and cultural environment (Bernardo et al., 2020). Individual difference plays a major role in the way people think. Styles of thinking are the factor influencing how an individual performs a task. It can be mentioned as a favourable method that characterizes the way an individual think (Saini & Shabnam, 2019). The (TMSG) deals with the thinking styles people adopt in various settings, including at university, at home and in society. People tend to be flexible to a certain extent in their use of styles, as whenever possible, they try to adapt their style to the requirements of a specific situation. (Zhang, 2001a). In summary, thinking styles can vary with different tasks and situations, and people often vary their styles to an extent to cope with what is being performed. People also differ in terms of the strengths of their stylistic preferences and flexibility. Thinking styles are shaped by the continuous interactions between the individuals and their environment. They can also change through age; They are unstable, as people may change their styles over the years, and the styles that individuals may use at one time that can lead to success in a situation or a job may also lead to failure in another (Sternberg, 1997). The different types of government in the real world are not accidental but inevitable reflections of how people organize or manage their daily lives. This theory assumes that people can be understood in terms of functions, forms, levels, scopes and government leanings. The styles theory applies to education as well as other areas of life, personally and professionally ((Saini & Shabnam, 2019, Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). In 1988, Sternberg published the (TMSG) which describes the mechanism of the human mind. The theory is consisting of 13 thinking styles that fall under various dimensions (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). In more detail, there are three ‘function’ styles, four ‘form’ styles, two ‘level’ styles, two ‘scope’ styles, and two ‘leaning’ styles (Ramazan et al., 2014).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

262

1. Functions: This category includes legislative, executive, and judicial thinking styles. The legislative function is for creating, formulating, or planning ideas, strategies, or products, while the executive function executes the plan developed by the legislative function. The judicial function involves activities related to judgements (Ramazan et al., 2014). Individuals focusing on creativity and planning in a legislative thinking style are inclined to situations that allow them to express their ideas (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). As for executive students, they often prefer receiving direction on what they are supposed to do, and they do their best to perform the task well. In most cases, traditional teaching strengthens the organisational type, as the ideal student does, he asked to do and does well according to the instructions he has received (Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). Individuals with an executive thinking style tend to have a set of shared guiding principles and take part in work according to given instructions. (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). 2. Forms: Sternberg lays out four forms of style. The monarchic form describes a ‘single-minded’ individual, who typically focuses on one goal or need at a time. Persons with a hierarchic style are more diverse but can order their goals clearly in terms of priority. Oligarchies are motivated by several goals simultaneously but do not prioritise them; thus, they can only do well when an order of priority is provided for them to follow. Finally, individuals with an anarchic style tend to oppose any system, including one of their design (Sternberg, 1997). 3. Levels: The main levels of this category are local and global. A globalist usually deals with relatively larger issues; however, these issues tend to be abstract rather than concrete. In contrast, a localist considers relatively minor problems and details and believes in concrete thinking approaches, such as planning a school timetable (Ramazan et al., 2014). Those thinking in a local style enjoy dealing with work through concentrating on details; while individuals with a global thinking style prefer concentrating on ideas as a whole (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). 4. Scope: Individuals are similar to governments in terms of domestic and foreign affairs; individuals have internal and external mental selfgovernment approaches. Individuals with an interior style prefer tasks that require working independently of other people. Those with an exterior style prefer tasks that require interaction and cooperation with others (Bernardo et al., 2020). Accordingly, an internal scope concerns itself mainly with tasks that involve practicing intelligence in a way separate from others, such as solving analytical problems, composing music, doing arts and crafts, or working with machines (Sternberg, 1988). 5. Leanings: An individual with a conventional thinking style tends to work by following instructions, while an individual with a liberal thinking style is open to creative ideas and does not avoid risk or the unknown (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). One study found a significant relationship between positive attitudes towards research and liberal thinking styles in research (Ince et al., 2018).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

263

Academic Achievement and Thinking Styles Academic achievement can be improved if students are informed about thinking styles, as it assists instructors in preparing appropriate learning environments (Coşkun, 2018). Teachers are required to adapt their teaching styles to students’ different personalities, needs and learning styles. As teaching styles play a prominent role in shaping the teaching and learning process, such styles play the most crucial role in enhancing student success. Accordingly, teachers need to use different teaching styles, considering individual student differences to provide a high-quality education (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). An important study on thinking styles revealed a very clear relationship between the thinking styles of teachers and those of their students (Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). A medium positive relationship was found between the thinking and teaching styles of a group of university students who will become mathematics teachers after their graduation (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018). Another study emphasized the importance of teachers’ thinking styles, Ozan (2019) found that potential teachers prefer Legislative, royal, executive, judicial and liberal styles of thinking. Their attitudes towards the teaching profession were positive. He revealed a positive relationship between liberal, external, royal, executive, hierarchical, legislative, and judicial. On the other hand, a negative relationship was found between the oligarchic thinking style and the attitude towards the teaching profession. Zhang (2005) found that the students' thinking styles greatly affected the formulation of their concepts about effective teachers. Sternberg and Zhang (2005( measured the thinking styles of teachers and their students and found that teachers perform better and are rated higher by students when their thinking styles are similar to the students' thinking styles. Two studies have revealed that academic achievement is attributed to thinking styles. The first conducted by Ramzan et al. (2014) investigated the quality of the thinking styles mentioned in Sternberg’s (TMSG). The results indicated that the students' executive, judicial, local, and conservative thinking styles had a positive impact on the students' cumulative grade point average (GPA), while the impact was negative on global and liberal thinking styles. The results also showed that the analytical method of thinking has a positive indication of the students' GPA, while the comprehensive thinking method contributes less to the students' achievements. The second research study by Bernardo et al. (2002) found that thinking styles affect academic achievement. The researchers studied the correlation between students' scores with their cumulative averages. The results found a relationship between the used thinking style and overall academic achievement, but there was no relationship between legislative style and academic achievement. Extracurricular Activities and Thinking Styles Extracurricular activities refer to students’ non-academic activities and fall outside the institution’s curriculum (Khanna et al., 2020). Interest in extracurricular activities was found to significantly influence social, academic, linguistic, moral, and overall self-efficacy (Bekomson et al., 2020).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

264

The findings of Khanna et al.’s (2020) study could be used to support policy decisions for the improvement of college education through promoting extracurricular activities, as they found that minimising extracurricular activities negatively impacts college students. Extracurricular activities are needed to improve the academic environment and students’ performance. Zhang (2001b) found thinking styles to be statistically related to participants’ extracurricular experiences, the results indicated that a significant relationship exists between students’ thinking styles and their self-esteem.

6. Methodology The descriptive approach was employed in this research due to its suitability for achieving the objectives of the current study, which aimed to investigate the common thinking styles among university students in Saudi Arabia. Participants The study sample consisted of 515 (257 males, 258 females) students at IAU. The participating students were enrolled in the university for the academic year 2020/2021. In terms of their academic achievements, 289 students were excellent, 133 were very good, 84 were good and nine were acceptable. Within the study sample, 43 students intensely participated in extracurricular activities, 94 often participated and 246 sometimes participated, while 132 did not participate in extracurricular activities. Finally, in terms of the type of activities the students participated in, the study sample was distributed across eight categories: students who participated in extracurricular social activities (118), cultural activities (99), sporting activities (93), scientific activities (80), artistic activities (51), healthrelated activities (44), religious activities (18) and scouting-related activities (12). Instrument The researchers developed an Arabic version of the Thinking Styles Inventory based on Sternberg’s (TMSG) after reviewing some existing Arabic versions, such as that of Abu Hashem (2015), as well as the English version by Sternberg and Wagner (1992). Researchers verified the appropriate validity and reliability indicators for the use of the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to explore the distribution of the indicators on their related factors and test reliability and validity. Analysis was conducted on the five dimensions of Sternberg’s mentalself-government model (i.e., functions, levels, learning, forms, and scope). Overall, the EFA results indicate that the scale used to predict the five dimensions of Sternberg’s (TMSG). In summary, the study tool (the Arabic version) consisted of a questionnaire that adopts the self-report method and consists of 65 items, where respondents rate themselves on a five-point scale ranging from ‘Strongly agree’ to ‘Strongly reject’.

7. Results and Discussion The following section presents the data analysis procedures, results and discussion for the research questions using data gathered from a sample consisting of students from IAU in Saudi Arabia. The initial number of questionnaire responses was 613. Of this total, 98 were identified as outliers and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

265

removed; therefore, 515 questionnaires remained within a normal data distribution. RQ1: What are the common thinking styles among IAU students conforming to the mental self-government model? The researchers used mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) to answer RQ1. The degree to which the thinking styles were present was based on three levels: high (1.00 to < 3.34), moderate (3.34 to < 3.67) and low (3.67 to 5.00). The results in Table 1 show that nine thinking styles were present to high degrees and four to moderate degrees. The most common thinking style among students is the legislative style (M = 4.09, SD = 0.61), followed by the hierarchic, judicial, external, executive, liberal, local, monarchic, and global styles to high degrees (M > 3.67); moreover, the oligarchic, internal, conservative and anarchic styles were the less common styles and were present to moderate degrees (M < 3.67). Table 1: M and SD of thinking styles (N = 515) Styles

Rank

Degree

Legislative

515

4.09

0.61

High

Hierarchic

515

3.97

0.65

High

Judicial

515

3.91

0.61

High

External

515

3.90

0.70

High

Executive

515

3.85

0.73

High

Liberal

515

3.84

0.68

High

Local

515

3.84

0.66

High

Monarchic

515

3.79

0.72

High

Global

515

3.70

0.69

High

Oligarchic

515

3.66

0.76

Moderate

Internal

515

3.65

0.78

Moderate

Conservative

515

3.61

0.76

Moderate

Anarchic

515

3.54

0.82

Moderate

The current study results were not in total agreement with the findings of Abu Hashem (2015), who found that the common thinking styles of the Egyptian and Saudi samples were hierarchic, oligarchic, monarchic and legislative. Similar results were found by Sağlam and Tunç (2018), who concluded in their study of a faculty of education that the most used thinking style of its students was legislative and the least was conservative. In addition to the above, with regard to the male students, it was found that the judicial thinking styles was the most prevalent in the functional thinking style, the hierarchy was most common in forms dimension, while external was most common in the scope dimension, and the local and global frequency were equal.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

266

in the levels. It was observed that conservative style is the most common in the leaning thinking styles (Aljojo, 2017). RQ2: What are the common thinking styles among IAU students according to gender? The results show that the legislative style is more prevalent among female students (M = 4.20, SD = 0.58) than among male students (M = 3.99, SD = 0.61); in fact, there were significant differences between male and female students (t = 3.99, Sig. = 0.000). By contrast, the executive style is slightly more prevalent among male students compared to female students. While there is some indication that the judicial style is slightly more widespread among female students than male students, there are no differences statistically between the two groups in terms of the judicial style. For global and local styles, there are no statistical differences between male and female students. The case is the same with local styles. As for liberal and conservative styles, the result revealed that the liberal style is more common among female students than male students and that the difference between the two groups is clear (t = 2.42, Sig. = 0.016). By contrast, there is a slight difference between male students (M = 3.66, SD = 0.68) and female students (M = 3.57, SD = 0.82) in terms of the conservative style (more prevalent among males), but this difference is not statistically significant. Regarding the hierarchic, monarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic styles, the results showed that the hierarchic style is more common among female students than male students, the differences were significant between the two groups (t = 3.87, Sig. = 0.000). Moreover, the monarchic style is more common among male students than female students; nonetheless, there were no significant differences between the two groups (t = 0.417, Sig. = 0.677). The oligarchic style is more prevalent among females when compared to males but only slightly, as evidenced by the absence of statistically significant differences between the two groups (t = 0.099, Sig. = 0.679). Finally, no significant differences were found between female and male students in terms of the anarchic style (t = 1.56, Sig. = 0.118). Table 2: Thinking styles among students based on their gender. Thinking styles Gender Male Legislative Female Male Executive Female Male Judicial Female Male Global Female Male Local Female Male Liberal Female

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Rank 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1

N 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258

M 3.99 4.20 3.87 3.84 3.89 3.93 3.66 3.74 3.79 3.88 3.76 3.92

SD 0.61 0.58 0.65 0.80 0.63 0.57 0.64 0.73 0.65 0.66 0.71 0.69

Sig.

3.99

0.000

0.438

0.662

0.840

0.401

1.27

0.203

1.60

0.110

2.42

0.016

267

Conservative Hierarchic Monarchic Oligarchic Anarchic Internal External

Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

1 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2

257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258 257 258

3.66 3.57 3.87 4.08 3.81 3.78 3.65 3.68 3.49 3.60 3.53 3.78 3.91 3.89

0.68 0.82 0.63 0.64 0.66 0.76 0.73 0.78 0.76 0.86 0.76 0.77 0.59 0.79

1.32

0.188

3.87

0.000

0.417

0.677

0.099

0.679

1.56

0.118

3.62

0.000

0.132

0.895

In terms of internal and external styles, the results presented in Table 2 indicate that the internal style is widespread among female students (M = 3.78, SD = 0.77), as they practise this style to a high degree compared to male students, who practise it only to a moderate extent (M = 3.53, SD = 0.76). Of course, there were statistically significant differences between females and males regarding this style (t = 3.62, Sig. = 0.000). For the external style, it was observed that the differences between male students and female students are very small and not significant (t = 0.132, Sig. = 0.895). The question of common thinking styles among IAU students according to gender shows that the legislative style is more prevalent among female students than male students. This result agreed with the findings of Sağlam and Tunç (2018), who found that there is more than one type of thinking styles that differ according to the gender variable, including the legislative, executive, and hierarchical styles of thinking. However, other findings revealed that gender was not a significant variable for learning styles (Dilekli, 2017). By contrast, while the judicial, global, and local styles are slightly more common among female students than male students, these differences are not statistically significant. A study by Coşkun (2018) concluded that the rational thinking (judicial) styles of female and male students are similar. No significant difference was identified between genders in terms of cognitive thinking styles, while a significant difference was found in favour of female students related to experiential thinking style. Regarding the hierarchic, monarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic styles, the results showed that a hierarchic style is more common among female students than male students and that a significant difference exists between the two genders. This result is supported by Martínez-Romera (2018), whose findings showed that women were less likely to show interest in activities that could initially seem chaotic or unstructured (anarchic form).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

268

The current study results differ significantly from the results of Aljojo's (2017), which found that the common thinking styles of female students were executive, hierarchical, followed by external, local, and liberal, while the common thinking styles of male students were judicial and hierarchical, followed by external, local and conservative. However, both male and female students showed three common thinking styles (hierarchical, extrinsic, and local). RQ3: What are the common thinking styles among IAU students based on their level of academic achievement? The results of the functions of Sternberg’s model (legislative, executive, and judicial) among students based on their level of academic achievement show that the legislative style common (M = 4.09, SD = 0.61) and that no significant differences between students were detected in terms of their academic achievements (F = 0.815, Sig. = 0.486). Similarly, the executive and judicial styles were common, with no significant differences. Students with acceptable academic achievements ranked first in the use of legislative and executive styles, while students with excellent achievements ranked first in the use of the judicial style. The results indicate that students with good academic achievements used the global style more frequently (M = 3.77, SD = 0.66) than the local style (M = 3.91, SD = 0.58). Students with excellent, very good and acceptable academic achievements used the local style more frequently than the global style. Despite this, significant differences not found between students in terms of scores on the global (F = 0.408, Sig. = 0.748) and local styles (M = 0.850, Sig. = 0.467) based on their academic achievements. The learning style results emphasised that the liberal style is broadly more common among students when academic achievement is considered. For example, students who have excellent achievements often use the liberal style (M = 3.91, SD = 0.65) and moderately use the conservative style (M = 3.56, SD = 0.74). Students who have very good achievements often use the liberal style (M = 3.73, SD = 0.76) and moderately use the conservative style (M = 3.66, SD = 0.74). Moreover, students with acceptable achievements most commonly used the liberal style (M = 4.02, SD = 0.36) and used the conservative style least often (M = 3.53, SD = 0.72). In terms of significance, however, the results indicate no significant differences between students in either the liberal style (F = 2.47, Sig. = 0.061) or the conservative style (F = 0.915, Sig. = 0.434). The results also indicate that students incline more towards the hierarchic and monarchic styles. All students use these styles to high degrees, except those with acceptable levels of academic achievement. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found among the students according to form styles. Results for scope styles among students show that the individuals tend to practise the external style. Excellent and acceptable students use both the internal and external styles to high degrees, while good students mostly used the external style and moderately used the internal style. Indeed, statistically significant differences were found among the students on the basis of their academic achievement who used the internal style; however, no such differences were detected among students for the external style. Students with acceptable academic achievements most commonly used the legislative and executive styles, while students with excellent achievements most commonly used the judicial style; this can be explained by a relationship between http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

269

high achievement and the judicial style. The findings of Bernardo et al.’s (2002) study uncovered a relationship between judicial style and general academic achievement. Significant differences were found between students in terms of internal style based on their academic achievement, but no such differences were detected among students regarding the external style. Notably, Zhang’s (2001a) study emphasised thinking styles’ predictive ability for academic achievement by using data from both Hong Kong and mainland China, suggesting that thinking styles predict academic achievement statistically. However, the present results indicate that the relationship between thinking styles and academic achievement is not clear enough to support Zhang’s (2001a) findings; for example, students with acceptable academic achievements most commonly used the legislative and executive styles, while students with excellent achievements most commonly used the judicial style. The findings of two further studies support this idea. The results of a study by Ramzan et al. (2014) pointed out that (legislative, executive, judicial, local, and conservative) styles of thinking positively affected the GPA of students, while they affected the global and liberal thinking styles negatively. RQ4: What are the common thinking styles among IAU students based on the degree of participation in extracurricular activities? The results of the functions of Sternberg’s model (legislative, executive, and judicial) reveal that students use all three styles to high degrees. It was noted that the majority of students (N = 246) sometimes participate in extracurricular activities, and these students commonly use all styles (M > 3.67). Students who did not participate ranked second (N = 132) and practised all styles to a high degree (M > 3.67). In third place were students who often participate in extracurricular activities (N = 94), who also commonly use all styles (M > 3.67). The same applies to students who have strong levels of participation (N = 43). The results reveal that students with strong participation levels most frequently use the legislative style and the judicial style; however, they least frequently used the executive style (M = 3.75, SD = 0.83). In contrast, students who did not participate least frequently used the legislative and judicial styles and were ranked third in use of the executive style (M = 3.85, SD = 0.77). Further analysis of these results revealed significant differences between students based on their participation in extracurricular activities (PEA) in the judicial style (F = 3.93, Sig. = 0.009), and on the contrary of legislative and executive styles. The results indicate that students are more inclined to practise the local style (M = 3.84, SD) than the global style (M = 3.70, SD = 0.74). Further analysis showed no significant differences existing between students in terms of the global style (F = 0.039, Sig. = 0.99) or the local one (F = 0.758, Sig. = 0.518). Based on the results, students favour the liberal style (M = 3.84, SD = 0.69) over the conservative style with no significant differences.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

270

Table 3: Functions of Sternberg’s model among students based on the degree of (PEA) Styles

Legislative

Executive

Judicial

Level Strong Often Sometimes Do not participate Total Strong Often Sometimes Do not participate Total Strong Often Sometimes Do not participate Total

N 43 94 246

Mx 4.21 4.16 4.10

SD 0.65 0.42 0.64

Rank 1 2 3

132

4.00

0.61

515 43 94 246

4.09 3.75 3.87 3.86

0.61 0.83 0.59 0.73

4 1 2

132

3.85

0.77

515 43 94 246

3.85 4.09 4.02 3.90

0.73 0.74 0.49 0.59

1 2 3

132

3.80

0.61

515

3.91

0.60

Sig.

2.019

0.110

0.302

0.824

3.932

0.009

Although subjects in the present research tend to exhibit hierarchic and monarchic thinking styles (M > 3.67) more often than oligarchic and anarchic styles (M < 3.67), no clear differences could be detected between them based on their degrees of participation, as all students practise the hierarchic style to high degrees. However, such degrees tend to decline when talking about the monarchic style. A significant decrease is noted in scores for students who report strong (PEA). Their high degrees (M = 4.04, SD = 0.71) of using the hierarchic style decreased to moderate degrees (M = 3.60, SD = 0.86) of using the monarchic style. The overall degrees continue to decline further when moving to the oligarchic style and the anarchic style. The researchers only found significant differences between students based on their degree of (PEA) in the monarchic style (F = 2.82, Sig. = 0.038). The results show that students with various levels of (PEA) are more inclined to the external style (M = 3.90, SD = 0.70) than the internal style (M = 3.65, SD = 0.77). There are significant differences between students with different degrees of (PEA). Students who have strong levels of (PEA) use the external style to a higher degree (M = 3.89, SD = 0.93) than the internal style (M = 3.68, SD = 0.74). Students who participate often in extracurricular activities score highly on both the internal style and external style. Those who participate occasionally or who do not participate at all score higher on the external style than the internal style. Based on these mixed results, there were significant differences between students in the use of the internal style (F = 2.73, Sig. = 0.043) and the external style (F = 3.30, Sig. = 0.020). It is noted that a significant decrease in the score occurs for students who report strong levels of (PEA). This is a logical result from the researchers’ point of view, as solid participation in activities helps develop students’ skills. Specifically,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

271

Extracurricular activities at the university contribute to the refinement of the student’s personality by improving self-esteem, communication skills, teamwork, and overall academic performance. Most students did not believe that extracurricular activities negatively affected their grades or conflicted with their studies. Extracurricular activities have significantly influenced students’ academic performance (Khanna et al., 2020). It was found that there are statistically significant differences among students depending on the degree of their participation in extracurricular activities only in the monarchic style. No significant differences between students based on their degree of (PEA) were found for the hierarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic styles. The results reveal that students who have a strong involvement in extracurricular activities use the external style to a higher degree than the interior style. PEA encourages students to become aware to explore their learning in the external world and select activities that create a positive atmosphere around them (Khanna et al., 2020). The importance of engaging in extracurricular activities can also be realised through examining the results of further studies. For example, (Marchetti et al., 2016) found that students from low Socio-Economic Status families who met the reading and mathematics benchmarks were statistically more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Another study assessed the impact of extracurricular activities among dental students. A 16-item questionnaire was prepared based on the involvement of dental students in extracurricular activities. The majority of participants (88.4%) expressed their belief that extracurricular activities should be an essential and mandatory part of the university student's graduation requirements. (Khanna et al., 2020). RQ5: What are the common thinking styles among IAU students depending on the type of extracurricular activities they participate in? The distribution of students in the current sample is based on Sternberg’s function and the types of activities they participate in are presented in Table 4. It is observed that students participating in cultural activities have the highest degree (M = 4.25, SD = 0.52), followed by those participating in social (M = 4.18, SD = 0.48), health-related and artistic activities. In addition, for students participating in scientific, religious, scouting and sporting activities, all the M scores in the legislative style based on their participation type are high. Similar results were found for the executive and judicial styles, except for those who participate in artistic activities and use the executive style (M = 3.61, SD = 0.70). Generally, students participating in different activities tend to practise legislative, judicial, and executive styles. Despite students’ convergent degrees of using the legislative style, significant differences were found among them (F = 2.23, Sig. = 0.030). In addition, significant differences were found among students in terms of their use of the executive (F = 1.32, Sig. = 0.24) and judicial styles (F = 0.96, Sig. = 0.467) based on their preferred area of participation. The results of Sternberg’s level styles among students based on their preferred extracurricular activities revealed that students participating in different activities http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

272

tend to prefer the local style (M = 3.84, SD = 0.66) over the global style (M = 3.70, SD = 0.69). Students who participate in religious activities have high degrees of both the global and the local styles. Students who report participation in artistic activities use the global and local styles to lower degrees. The results show that no significant differences were found among students using the global style (F = 0.731, Sig. = 0.646) and the judicial style (F = 1.46, Sig. = 0.179) based on their activity type. As the results show, students lean more liberal than conservative, although there are some exceptions. For example, students who participate in religious activities tend to be more conservative than liberal; by contrast, students who participate in scouting activities most commonly use the liberal style (M = 4.11, SD = 0.55). Significant differences were found between students based on their activity types in the conservative style (F = 2.33, Sig. = 0.024). Students who participate in health-related, scientific, cultural, artistic and scouting activities use the conservative style to lower degrees compared to students who report participation in religious, sporting and social activities. It is noted that students who participate in social activities tend to employ the hierarchic style (M = 4.09, SD = 0.56) and the monarchic style (M = 3.83, SD = 0.67). Students who report participation in scientific activities tend to use the hierarchic style (M = 3.81, SD = 0.70). Students who report health and sport participation also tend to use the hierarchic style (M = 3.98, 3.92, SD = 0.58, 0.63), along with the monarchic style (M = 3.72, 3.85; SD = 0.68, 0.65) and the oligarchic style (M = 3.74, 3.75; SD = 0.62, 0.64), respectively. Students who report cultural participation tend to use the hierarchic style, the monarchic style and the oligarchic style. The most common style used by students who reported participation in artistic activities was the hierarchic style. In addition, students who report participation in religious activities tend to employ the hierarchic style and the monarchic style. Furthermore, all students used the anarchic style to lower degrees, except for scouting students, who ranked first (M = 3.90, SD = 0.83) and students of cultural participation, who ranked second (M = 3.72, SD = 0.72). Significant differences were found between students based on their preferred activity types in the hierarchic style (F = 2.38, Sig. = 0.021) and the anarchic style (F = 2.13, Sig. = 0.039). Table 4: Functions of Sternberg’s model among students based on the type of extracurricular activities they participate in Styles

Legislative

Executive

Level Social Scientific Health Sports Cultural Artistic Religious Scouting Total Social Scientific Health

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

N 118 80 44 93 99 51 18 12 515 118 80 44

M 4.18 4.00 4.07 3.99 4.25 4.01 3.98 4.00 4.09 3.83 3.87 3.96

SD 0.48 0.57 0.70 0.64 0.52 0.71 0.84 0.65 0.61 0.88 0.68 0.51

Rank 2 5 3 7 1 4 8 5 6 5 2

Sig.

2.233

0.030

1.317

0.240

273

Judicial

Sports Cultural Artistic Religious Scouting Total Social Scientific Health Sports Cultural Artistic Religious Scouting Total

93 99 51 18 12 515 118 80 44 93 99 51 18 12 515

3.89 3.91 3.61 3.75 4.11 3.85 3.98 3.79 3.99 3.92 3.86 3.94 3.98 3.96 3.91

0.63 0.73 0.70 0.79 0.49 0.73 0.61 0.64 0.58 0.46 0.67 0.64 0.59 0.36 0.60

4 3 8 7 1 2 8 1 6 7 5 2 4

0.964

0.457

The results of scope styles among students indicate that students who participate in religious activities most commonly used the internal style, followed by those who report participation in cultural activities, and in scientific activities. In contrast, scouting students most commonly used the external style, followed by students who report participation in social activities. It was determined that significant differences exist between students in the external style (F = 2.74, Sig. = 0.008), while no such differences in the internal style were found due to students’ participation in the extracurricular activities (F = 1.176, Sig. = 0.094). The current study sample was divided into seven categories based on the type of extracurricular activity: social, scientific, health-related, sporting, cultural, artistic, religious and scouting-related. When the relationship between Sternberg’s functions and types of participation is analysed, it is observed that students who participate in cultural extracurricular activities use the legislative style to the highest degree, followed by those reporting participations in social and healthrelated activities. It is further seen that students who participate in scouting activities used the executive style to the highest degree, followed by those reporting health-related and cultural involvement; moreover, students reporting participation in health-related extracurricular activities used the judicial style to the highest degree, followed by those reporting participations in social and religious activities. In terms of the results related to Sternberg’s level styles, students participating in different activities tend to practise the local rather than the global style. Students who reported participation in religious activities used both the global and local styles to a high degree. The results revealed no significant differences among students in the global and judicial styles based on their preferred activity type. While the results further indicate that students tend to lean more liberal than conservative, there are some exceptions; for example, students who participate in religious activities tend to be more conservative than liberal, ranking first for the conservative style, while students who reported scouting participation have the use the liberal style to the highest degree. Significant differences between students

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

274

were found in the conservative style based on their activity types. Students reporting involvement in health-related, scientific, cultural, artistic, and scouting activities use the traditional style to lower degrees than students participating in religious, sporting, and social activities. This question’s results are in line with expectations because it is unsurprising that students engaged in religious activities have a conservative style more than students who participate in scouting activities who have a liberal style. Students who report social participation tend to favour the hierarchic and monarchic styles. Students who report scientific participation tend to use the hierarchic style, and students who stated that they participate in health-related, and sports activities tend to use the hierarchic, monarchic, and oligarchic styles. Students who report participation in cultural activities tend to use the hierarchic, monarchic, and oligarchic styles. Students who participated in artistic activities used the hierarchic style to the largest degree. Students who participate in religious activities tend to use the hierarchic and monarchic styles.

8. Conclusion The most common thinking style among students is legislative, followed by the hierarchic, judicial, and external styles, all to high degrees. This result leads us to conclude that we are facing a generation of young students characterised by their ability to creatively plan and solve problems, and who prefer teamwork over different projects. Female students’ thinking styles can be defined as legislative, liberal, hierarchic, and internal, while the male students’ thinking styles can be defined as monarchic and conservative. The findings confirm the need to pay more attention to students, who have creative potential, organise, and invest these capabilities in an appropriate manner to contribute to the development of their communities. Students with merely acceptable academic achievements adopt the legislative and executive styles most frequently, while students with excellent achievements ranked first in the judicial style. This result likely indicates that students with acceptable achievements may be more capable of creative thinking than students with excellent achievements. This conclusion prompts us to pay more attention to all students in terms of their levels of achievement. Every student has strengths that need to be invested in and weaknesses that must be strengthened. The findings inform us that students with strong participation in activities have legislative and judicial styles to the highest degree but use the executive style the least. By contrast, students who do not participate in extracurricular activities are found to use the legislative and judicial styles to the lowest degree. This result leads us to rethink the relationship between the degree to which extracurricular activities are practised among university students and the legislative thinking style necessary for creative thinking and the relationship between practising extracurricular activities and academic achievement. Finally, the finding of this study, for example, revealed that students who participate in scouting as an extracurricular activity use the executive thinking style to the highest degree, meaning they are concerned with having common guiding

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

275

principles (Apaydin & Cenberci, 2018), while students who participate in healthrelated extracurricular activities use the judicial style to the highest degree (Sternberg & Zhang, 2005). From these valuable findings, we may need to shed more light on the importance of (PEA), especially since research confirms their importance in personality development and their ability to positively affect academic achievement.

9. Recommendations 1. The findings confirm the prevalence of the legislative and hierarchic style among IAU students; this shows the need to pay more attention to this generation of creative individuals. 2. More studies should be conducted on other variables, such as academic specialisation and its relationship to thinking styles. 3. Studies should be conducted on the thinking patterns of faculty members and the relationship between the thinking styles of students and faculty members. 4. The common thinking styles of both male and female students should be considered in all dimensions of university life. 5. Extracurricular activities should be given more attention due to their importance in shaping students’ personalities and meeting their interests and needs.

10. References Abu Hashem, E. S. (2015). Styles of thinking in the light of Sternberg’s theory: Study of comparison between the two samples ‘Egyptian and Saudi Arabia’ of university students. Saudi Society for Educational and Psychological Sciences, 48, 77–102. https://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/slyb_ltfkyr.pdf Aljojo, N. (2017). Differences in styles of thinking ‘in light of Sternberg’s theory’: A case study of different educational levels in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 7(3), 333–346. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.291 Apaydin, B., & Cenberci, S. (2018). Correlation between thinking styles and teaching styles of prospective mathematics teachers. World Journal of Education, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v8n4p36 Bekomson, A. N., Amalu, M. N., Mgban, A. N., & Kinsley, A. B. (2020). Interest in extracurricular activities and self-efficacy of senior secondary school students in Cross River State, Nigeria. International Education Studies, 13(8). https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v13n8p79 Bernardo, A. B. I., Zhang, L. F., & Callueng, C. M. (2020). Thinking styles and academic achievement among Filipino students. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163(2), 149–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221320209598674 Coşkun, Y. (2018). A comparative study on university students’ rational and experiential thinking styles in terms of faculty, class level, and gender variables. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 6(9), 1863–1868. https://doi.org/0.13189/ujer.2018.060902 Dilekli, Y. (2017). The relationships between critical thinking skills and learning styles of gifted students. European Journal of Education Studies, 3(4). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED573216.pdf Ginting, S. A. (2017). Facilitating effective teaching through learning based on learning styles and ways of thinking. Dinamika Ilmu, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v17i2.850

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

276

Ince, H., Çenberci, S., & Yavuz, A. (2018). The relationship between the attitudes of mathematics teacher candidates towards scientific research and their thinking styles. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 6(7), 1467–1476. Khanna, N., Sivaswamy, V., Anand, M., & Ganapathy, D. (2020). Perception of dental students on the effect of extracurricular activities on academic performance. Drug Invention Today, 14(7), 1082–1086.https://jprsolutions.info/files/final-file5f7d7ab65a86b3.34076986.pdf Marchetti, R., Wilson, R. H., & Dunham, M. (2016). Academic achievement and extracurricular school activities of at-risk high school students. Educational Research Quarterly, 39(4). Martínez-Romera, D. D. (2018). Sternberg–Wagner thinking styles: A research tool in social science didactics. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 8(4), 398–407. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.422 Ozan, Ceyhun. (2019). The Relationship between Prospective Teachers’ Thinking Styles and Attitudes towards Teaching Profession. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 8(3), 50-62. https://doi.org/10.5430/jct.v8n3p50. http://jct.sciedupress.com. Ramzan, M., Usmani, N., & Arain, A. (2014). Effect of thinking and learning styles on students’ academic achievement. Journal of Educational Research, 17(1). Sağlam, N., & Tunç, E. (2018). The relationship between thinking styles and the need for cognition of students in the faculty of education. International Education Studies, 11(11). Saini, Garima & Shabnam. (2019). An Agnation of Mental Self-Government (MSG) and Career Personality Types. International Journal of Management and Information Technology, 4(1), 23-26. http://www.publishingindia.com/anwesh. Sternberg, R. J. (1988). Mental self-government: A theory of intellectual styles and their development. Human Development, 31, 197–224. https://doi.org/10.1159/000275810 Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Thinking styles. Cambridge University Press. LondonU.K. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584152 Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1995). Style of thinking in the school. European Journal for High Ailiy, 6, 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/0937445940060211 Sternberg, R. J., & Wagner, R. K. (1992). Thinking style inventory [Manuscript, Yale University, New Haven, U.S.A]. Sternberg, R. J., & Zhang L. F. (2005). Styles of thinking as a basis of differentiated instruction. Theory into Practice, 44(3), 245–253. Zhang, L.-F. (2001a). Do thinking styles contribute to academic achievement beyond selfrated abilities? The Journal of Psychology, 135(6), 621–637. https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/53501/1/69168.pdf?accept=1 Zhang, L.-F. (2001b). Thinking styles, self-esteem, and extracurricular experiences. International Journal of Psychology, 36(2), 100–107. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00207590042000128 Zhang, L.-F., & Sternberg, R. J. (2005). The three-fold model of intellectual styles. Educational Psychology Review, 17(1). https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10648-005-1635-4.pdf Zhang, L.-F., & Wong, Y.-H. (2011). Hardiness and thinking styles: Implications for higher education. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 10(3). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272145361_Hardiness_and_Thinkin g_Styles_Implications_for_Higher_Education/link/58d8d9e8a6fdcc1baeb8ff5d/ download

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 277-298, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.15

Pre-service Science Teachers’ Integration of Constructivist Ideas in the Lecture Method Rose Atieno Mutende, Rosemary K. Imonje and Winston Akala Department of Educational Administration and Planning, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0030-1113 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0945-6034 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0548-5815 Abstract. The teaching and learning of science subjects at secondary schools in Sub-Saharan Africa is currently dominated by application of the lecture method in delivering learning material. In the Lecture Method, the teacher discusses and shows the learning material. Studies showed that the lecture method can be made interactive, and, hence, more effective if teachers appropriately integrate constructivist ideas in the method. Therefore, this study aims to examine the BEd (Science) students’ integration of constructivist’s learner-oriented instructional practices in the lecture method during teaching practice (TP). Data were collected from 107 BEd(Science) students, their Head of Subjects in the TP schools and the university supervisors at the onset and towards the end of a 14week TP. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaires and interview schedules. The data were analysed descriptively and inferentially. Descriptive statistics focused on frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation which summarised the variables in terms of demonstration of instructional practices, supervision and assessment practices. Findings revealed that the BEd(Science) students faced difficulties in their attempt to integrate constructivist ideas in the lecture method. T-test showed a positive effect of teaching practice on the integration of constructivists’ ideas in the lecture method. The study provides several recommendations based on the findings. Keywords: lecture method; constructivism; integration; learner-oriented; instructional practices

1. Introduction One of the harshest criticisms of teacher preparation is the approaches and methods of teaching (Maphosa & Ndebele, 2014). Specifically, the effectiveness of the lecture method has been questioned because of its inherent weaknesses as informed by the transmission of pedagogical approaches. Nevertheless it is widely used for curriculum delivery in secondary science education, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa countries (Altinyelken, 2010; Barakabitze et al., 2019; ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

278

Lauwerier & Akkari, 2015; Westbrook et al., 2013). In the lecture method, learner involvement is minimal with the teacher as the key element in the learning process (Mohammadjani & Tonkaboni, 2015). Notably, the method is not efficient enough to leverage the all-important goal of effective knowledge construction, and ultimately, improve learner outcome in science education. Hussain et al. (2011) averred that, in particular, because newly qualified teachers are limited in pedagogy, they prefer the application of the lecture method for its inherent minimum learner involvement. To overcome this drawback, there is a need to help pre-service teachers to develop pedagogical expertise to integrate constructivist ideas in the lecture method. According to Prakash (2010), explicit constructivism is fundamental in enhancing the effectiveness of the lecture method. This will enable teachers to present learning materials in ways that expand students' understanding of concepts and processes (Kang & Zinger, 2019; Maphosa & Ndebele, 2014). To influence pre-service teacher's knowledge, understanding and skills for application of teaching methods, teacher preparation programmes provide mandatory methods courses and supervised experiential learning (Ersoy, 2010; Woolley, 2011). While the methods’ courses provides a vision of teaching practices with the potential to alter the pre-service teachers’ preconception about teaching (Ambusaidi & Al-Balushi, 2012; Buldur, 2017), experiential learning on TP provides opportunities for pre-service teachers to enact and reflect on their understanding amid pedagogical support from peers and supervisors (Kazempour & Sadler, 2015; Ochanji et al., 2015; Tesfaw & Hofman, 2014). 1.1 Statement of the problem Numerous researches have been conducted with findings that criticise pre-service teacher preparation (Buldur, 2017; Demirdöğen, 2016; Kazempour & Sadler, 2015; Maphosa & Ndebele, 2014; Nieme, 2002; Zeichner, 1996). In particular, findings reveal that, although pre-service teachers are taught about constructivist pedagogy, the majority experience difficulties in applying constructivist ideas in science education (Revell & Wainwright, 2009; Strengthening of Mathematics and Science at Secondary Education [SMASSE] Project Impact Assessment, 2007; Yavuz, 2010; Yoon et al., 2012). This is evident in Kenya where many teachers of science subjects have been found to experience difficulties in integrating constructivist instructional practices in their teaching. A survey conducted by SMASE showed that many teachers choose to apply the lecture method in science lessons to cover more content, and, in the process, minimise learner involvement, leading to very little in terms of learning outcomes. This implies that many science teachers enter the teaching profession without adequate pedagogical knowledge, understanding and skills to integrate constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method. The output results in learners’ partial understanding of scientific concepts, and, hence, learners’ poor achievement in science subjects, as observed in Kenya in the last five years (Kenya National Examinations Council [KNEC], 2019). Consequently, education stakeholders have raised concerns regarding how science teachers are prepared to apply teaching methods in lessons. To address this, the Kenya government, through MoEST, and the Government of Japan, through JICA, rolled out the SMASSE in-service training for science and mathematics teachers to upgrade and strengthen science teaching methods

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

279

(SMASSE Project, 2007). Additionally, in Kenya, empirical research findings concerning how the integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method is developed at the university and later applied in secondary science lessons during teaching practice are limited. Further, the effect of experiential learning on the BEd(Science) students’ integration of constructivist instructional practices on teaching methods as learned at the university is not clear. 1.2 Purpose of the study This study contributes to the existing knowledge on pre-service science teacher preparation by focusing on the BEd(Science) students' integration of the constructivist ideas in the lecture method during teaching practice. Specifically, this study addressed the following research questions: (1) Is there any significant difference in the BEd(Science) students' integration of the constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method at the onset and towards the end of teaching practice? (2) To what extent do the pedagogical supervision practices support the BEd(Science) students' integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method?

2. Literature Review 2.1 Integration of constructivist ideas in the lecture method Currently, there is increased emphasis on the integration of constructivist instructional practices in teaching methods (Dikshit et al., 2013; Passey & Zozimo, 2016; Pinger et al., 2018; Turpen & Finkelstein, 2009). Constructivist instructional practices are the interactive learner-oriented activities of structuring and presenting the learning material in ways that support learners to construct their knowledge of scientific concepts. Specifically, integration of learner-oriented instructional practices can transform the passive lecture method into an interactive lecture that promotes knowledge construction and leads to deep learning (Miller et al., 2008). The passive lecture method is against the principles of constructivist pedagogy, cannot facilitate the construction of knowledge among learners and, consequently, subject matter comprehension (Addae & QuanBaffour, 2018; Piaget, 1973; Vygotsky, 1978). Ultimately, a deep understanding of basic scientific concepts is not achieved and the scientific misconception(s) persist (Ahmad & Aziz, 2009; Powell & Kalina, 2009; Trna & Trnova, 2015). Empirical research has been conducted to demonstrate the need for teacher preparation for the integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method to enhance learner engagement (Borda et al., 2020). Results uncovered that 90.9% of the teachers still apply the passive lecture method in science teaching (Zakirman et al., 2019). Research on how to best support teachers in the integration of learner-oriented instructional practices has been carried out (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 2011; Gunckel, 2013; Idris, 2016; Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Findings showed that the teachers require opportunities to collaboratively share what they know and enact their learning. Further, studies conducted on the application of the lecture method in science education (Al-Modhefer & Roe, 2010; Atherton, 1972; Bok, 2006; Kärnä

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

280

et al., 2012) report that teachers do not appropriately integrate learner-oriented activities in the lecture method. Moreover, Korthagen and Kessels (1999) explain that beginning teachers' preconceptions are not in congruence with the realities of the classroom, and argue that the content knowledge is more theoretical and abstract, hence its implementation in the classroom remains difficult. This establishes that there still exists the problem of skills transfer from the pre-service teachers' university-based learning to real classrooms (Leijen et al., 2015). Accordingly, Kloser (2014) aver that pre-service teachers are immersed in practice-based learning and should be supported to integrate constructivist instructional practices in the teaching and learning activities. Research findings show that constructivist instructional practices that teachers need to adopt and implement include; • Pausing analytical questions to activate learners’ prior knowledge towards an instructional goal (Grossman, 2018; Prakash, 2010; Warner & Myers, 2008) • Posing a problem linked to the concept so as to elicit and expose their learners' prior knowledge and viewpoints (Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014; Sherin et al., 2011; Windschitl et al., 2012) • Exploring learners’ ideas to consolidate prior knowledge and explain phenomena (Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014; Prakash, 2010; Windschitl et al., 2012) • Integration of technology (Dufresne et al., 2010; Ghavifekr & Rosdy, 2015; Groenke & Paulus, 2007; Inan & Lowther, 2010; Kim & Freemyer, 2011) • Adapting curricular to address the preconceived ideas, providing an opportunity for discourse to foster shared meaning concepts (Ghousseini & Sleep, 2011; Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014) • Establishing group discussions to encourage students to reflect, make a prediction and account for contradictions (Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014; Windschitl et al., 2012) • Use of appropriate and relevant analogies and examples to engage learners (Brown & Salter, 2010; Grossman, 2018; Lolita, 2015) • Allowing and supporting small group discussions for learners to examine their existing views to modify and refine flawed conceptions (Grossman, 2018; Ghousseini & Sleep, 2011; Prakash, 2010; Sherin et al., 2011) • Follow-up questions to assess student's learning and further engagement (Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014) • Summarising the learning points (Grossman, 2018; Kloser, 2014). Integration of the constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method provides concrete experience from which learners can build new knowledge. Biadgelign (2010) recommends that the instructional tasks should be short, explicit and intellectually engaging with the teacher explaining the ideas in ways that are accessible and comprehensible to the learners. 2.2 Experiential learning for integration of instructional practices The pre-service teacher requires opportunity for experiential learning to enact integration of constructivist instructional practices, as well as pedagogical support so as to effectively describe or explain scientific concepts and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

281

appropriately connect to natural phenomena and to learners' real-life experiences (McDonald et al. 2013). The enactment of integration of instructional practices in teaching exposes the misconceptions the pre-service teachers may hold (Marios & Iosif, 2016). Research findings reveal that experiential learning allows the mismatch between pre-service teachers' existing conceptions based on the theoretical method courses, and the envisaged future teaching practices to be addressed (Britton & Anderson, 2010; Gok, 2012; Grossman et al., 2009; Hismanoglu & Hismanoglu, 2010; Mannathoko, 2013; Ochanji et al., 2015; Schreiber & Valle, 2013). Enactment of the method-specific instructional practices during teaching practice allows for the operationalisation of a teaching method and embedded instructional practices. The assessment of whether the pre-service teachers have acquired the necessary cognitive and procedural skills or not serves to identify what they know and can do as a result of their learning (Deacon, 2016; Ingvarson & Rowley, 2017; Marios & Iosif, 2016; Stahl et al., 2016). 2.3 Development of self-efficacy in teacher learning The development of teacher self-efficacy is a significant concern for education stakeholders about the reforms in teaching methods. Bandura (1995, 1997) conceptualised pre-service teachers' teaching efficacy based on the social cognitive theory and his construct of self-efficacy. Bandura (1986) established that a person's actions are learnt by observing expert teachers modelling teaching practices, after which they approach the practices with confidence. Studies conducted on the association between self-efficacy beliefs and learner engagement reveal that self-efficacy beliefs and student engagement are crucial factors for effective teaching (Beri & Stanikzai, 2018; Kazempour & Sadler, 2015). In educational settings, teacher self-efficacy is conceptualised as the teacher's beliefs in their ability to plan, organise and implement effective instructional practices in a lesson (Kazempour & Sadler, 2015; Sarfo et al., 2015). Bandura (1995) postulated that teachers who perceive a task as difficult are likely to abandon it, and vice versa, implying that the self-efficacy of a teacher can impact their ability to appropriately implement instructional practices. Research has concluded that high self-efficacy enables teachers to complete a task, particularly in a complex context such as a classroom setting (Kazempour & Sadler, 2015), and is associated with knowledge construction as well as teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy influence their classroom practice (Bandura, 1997; Cansiz & Cansiz, 2019). Therefore the opportunity to enact integration of learneroriented instructional practices in lessons enables the development of self-efficacy as the teacher gains intellectual and procedurals skills that are transferable and can be applied in varied contexts (Bandura, 1997; Ciminelli, 2009; Kazempour & Sadler, 2015). In particular, modelling of, and the enactment of conceptions of teaching, learning and assessment practices coupled with supervised collaborative reflections provide a vision for the implementation of teaching activities and ensures that the instructional practices are not abandoned later (Amobi & Irwin, 2009; Grossman, 2011; Leijen et al., 2012; Opfer & Pedder, 2011).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

282

3. Method 3.1 Sampling and participants The study employed a mixed-methods survey design. Quantitative data were collected at the onset and towards the end of a 14-week teaching practice session while qualitative data were gathered from interviews of the faculty. The target population comprised 145 BEd(Science) students stratified into three subject-specific categories of chemistry, physics and biology that comprised 45, 64, and 36 students, respectively. The sampling units in each stratum were obtained by simple random sampling. A disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain the distribution of the sample across the strata (Cochran, 1997). Yamane's (1973) formula determined the study sample size. 𝑁 𝑛= 1 + 𝑁𝑒 2 where; 𝑛 =desired sample size 𝑁 =target population 𝑒 =error limit = 0.05 Source: Yamane (1973) The resulting distribution of the sample was 33, 47 and 27 for chemistry, physics and biology subjects, respectively, hence a sample size of (n=107). An equal number (n=107) of Head of Subject (HoS) in the TP schools to match the BEd(Science) students sample participated in the study. Three subject methods course pedagogy faculty (n=3) were purposively selected for interview. 3.2 Context and procedure The TP schools were spread nationally and data were collected as per the sample placement. Administratively, each BEd(Science) student reported to the HoS of their teaching subjects in their TP schools. The BEd(Science) students were supervised and assessed by university faculty on a determined schedule of at least three supervisions. 3.3 Research instruments Two questionnaires (Appendix 2 and 3) were used to gather information regarding application of the lecture method by the sampled BEd(Science) students, and the HoS and university supervisors' pedagogical supervision practices during TP. A guided interview schedule was used to collect data from the university lecturers who prepared the BEd(Science) students' for the application of teaching methods. Instrument analysis was conducted for content and construct validity and sampling adequacy tests as employed by Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, respectively. The constructs were found valid (Appendix 1) indicating that the dataset was fit for further analysis (Liu, 2010; Williams et al., 2012).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

283

The reliability index computed using Cronbach's alpha of coefficient test revealed a coefficient of 0.81. This is above the threshold of 0.70, indicating that the instruments were reliable for further analysis (Drost, 2012; Nunnally, 1978). 3.4 Data analysis techniques Data were analysed descriptively and by inferential statistics. The student t-test was used to determine the significant difference in the average application score at the beginning and towards the end of TP. The software used to conduct the analysis was SPSS version 23. 3.5 Ethical considerations The study observed the principles of respect, competence, responsibility and integrity.

4. Results 4.1 Is there any significant difference in the BEd(Science) students' integration of the constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method at the onset and towards the end of teaching practice? The total average scores for the BEd(Science) students’ integration of constructivist instructional practices (Appendix 2) and the pedagogical practices of the HoS and university supervisors (Appendix 3) are as in Table 1 below. Table 1: Statistics for integration of constructivist practices in the lecture method and pedagogical practices of the HoS and university supervisors Total average score Variables N Mean %Mean SE SD Skewness SE Onset of TP 107 3.0832 61.7 0.0373 0.3843 0.006 0.235 End of TP HoS Pedagogical Supervision Practices University Supervisors’ Pedagogical Supervision Practices

107

3.1919

63.8

0.0629

0.6510

0.623

0.234

107

2.1761

43.2

0.0451

0.4669

0.511

0.234

107

3.1939

63.9

0.0921

0.9486

-0.409

0.235

Combining "agree" and "strongly agree" (Appendix 2) produced mixed results. Similarly, when "disagree" and "strongly disagree" are combined, the results showed mixed results. The positive results showed that the majority of the participants were observed to implement the practice of eliciting learners' preconceptions, which means they had a concrete frame of reference for the practice. Additionally, a majority were observed to integrate analogies and examples in concept teaching. Thus more participants integrated the practices towards the end of TP, implying that those with a partial understanding at the onset honed the practices while those who initially could not visualise the practice adopted it in the course of TP. Further, the majority of the participants were observed to facilitate discussion relating to controversial content. Notably, about a half of the participants were observed to facilitate collaboration and sharing of ideas among learners, half the participants integrated appropriate visual aids to support the lesson at the onset of TP, while those who were observed to integrate audio-visuals in teaching increased towards the end of TP. Further, while

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

284

averagely only half the participants could highlight the key learning points in a lecture, the majority were observed to successfully integrate the practice of assessing the learning in the lesson. The negative results showed that, towards the end of TP, about 50% of the participants were observed to have abandoned the practices of sharing lesson objectives with their learners, an indication that the pedagogical understanding of the practice was superficial and, hence, unstable. Additionally, at the onset, the majority of the participants were observed as unable to implement the practice of posing a problem linked to the learning concept, although the number increased towards the end, while 70% faced difficulties in the implementation of analogies and examples in concept teaching at the onset of TP. This suggests the participants had an inadequate understanding of the two practices. Further, towards the end of TP, more than 75% of participants were observed to have abandoned the practice of facilitating classroom discourse relating to controversial content, while about half could not visualise the implementation of the practice of collaboration. Notably, although a majority could not initially integrate visual aids in their lessons, towards the end of TP over 80% of the participants had adopted the practice. Towards the end of TP, it was also observed that a vast majority abandoned learner assessment, suggesting the practice was not sustainable within the complex classroom context. Notably, the number of participants that highlighted the key learning points reduced, indicating they had a partial understanding of how to evaluate learning. This demonstrated a disconnect between the participants' beliefs of their ability and the demonstrated instructional practices. 4.2 Effect of teaching practice on the Integration of constructivist practices in the lecture method Results of the total average score (See Table 3) towards the end of TP was M=3.1919, SD=0.6510 up from M=3.0832, SD=0.3843 at the onset revealing a disconnect between the participants' self-efficacy and the classroom practices that they exhibited. Notably, some participants found particular instructional practices difficult to integrate, and other participants were observed to abandon particular instructional practices. Further, on conducting the t-test, results [Mean Difference=0.10392, SE=0.07043, (t (105) =1.475, p<1.43 indicated that the effect of experiential learning on the integration of instructional practices in the interactive lecture method was not statistically significant (Table 2). Table 2. Mean difference in application of lecture method at the onset and towards the end of TP. Paired Differences

Pair 1

Mean Difference

Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

.10392

.72516

.07043

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower

Upper

Sig. (2tailed)

-0.03574

.24358

1.475

105

1.43

285

This affirms that the school-based experiential learning did not affect a significant increase in the integration of instructional practices that were difficult to implement at the onset of TP. 4.3 To what extent do the pedagogical supervision practices support the BEd(Science) students' integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method? The pedagogical supervision practices were as shown in Appendix 3. The results show the total average score on pedagogical supervision practices for the HoS as M=2.1761 (43.2%), SD=0.4669 (Table 1). When "often" and "always" are combined, results showed majority of the HoS either did not guide the BEd(Science) students in lesson preparation and implementation or guide them appropriately to link theoretical knowledge and classroom practices. Additionally, the timeliness and adequacy of the feedback they provided did not support the integration of constructivist ideas in the lecture method among BEd(Science) students. Notably, 69.8% (32, 42) could use the assessment feedback given for subsequent teaching suggesting that, if empowered, the HoS can provide appropriate pedagogical support. The total average score for the pedagogical supervision practices of university supervisors (Table 1) was M=3.1939 (M%=63.9%), SD=0.9486 showing mixed results when the "often" and "always" are combined (Appendix 3). Specifically, the majority of the participants received timely feedback of the assessment, which was linked to their implementation of the teaching methods. Further, the feedback informed the BEd(Science) students' subsequent teaching, and areas of growth were pointed out to improve their integration of instructional practices. On the flip side, when "rarely" and "never" are combined, results showed that the university supervisors did not regularly attend lessons, neither did they hold a pre-observation meeting, nor guide on integration of instructional practices in the lecture method. The HoS and university supervisors thus rendered the pedagogical supervision practices unsupportive to the integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method.

5. Discussion 5.1 Is there any significant difference in the BEd(Science) students' integration of the constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method at the onset and towards the end of teaching practice? The study found that the practice of eliciting learners' ideas among the participants was deep-seated except for 4.7% who abandoned the practice, while the use of analogies and examples was largely adopted and honed within the classroom context. Thus, in the face of the complex realities of classroom contexts, instructional practices can be adopted and honed or abandoned depending on whether the pedagogical understanding is superficial or deep-seated, which has implications for their sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1995; Cansiz & Cansiz, 2019; Opfer & Pedder, 2011; Warner & Myers, 2008). Therefore, if teachers are helped to develop adequate pedagogical knowledge to appropriately integrate analogies and examples, they can elicit and expose learners' misconceptions, then address them (Duit et al., 2008; Lolita, 2015; Warner & Myers, 2008).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

286

The study further found that the majority of the participants had an inadequate frame of reference and, hence, could not implement the practice of posing a problem linked to the concept at the onset of TP, but this improved towards the end of TP. Concrete pedagogical knowledge enables the teacher to help learners to make sense of the phenomena (Mishra & Iyer, 2015; Sherin et al., 2011). The study also found that, although the participants familiarised learners with the scope of the learning activity and the support to be provided by sharing objectives (Lampert et al., 2013; Warner & Myers, 2008), they did not sustain the practice. Hence, in the face of classroom complexities, they made the unsound pedagogical decision of abandoning the practice (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999; Warner & Myers, 2008). Remarkably, the study found that the majority of the participants did not implement the practices for facilitating small group discussions. Educational researchers agree that small group discussions are a cognitive engagement embedded in constructivism, but which is not widely applied (Eggen & Kauchak, 2012; Jacobsen et al., 2009), particularly if the participants were likely unaccustomed to the practice (Ersoy, 2010; Woolley, 2011) they will lack a vision of implementing the practice. Additionally, based on the obtained results, it is safe to record that the participants had inadequate pedagogical knowledge to identify, select and sustain the use of appropriate technologies. Notably, during the interview, a pedagogy faculty intimated that ICT integration is not yet deeply rooted in the BEd(Science) curriculum. This situation points to inadequate technical, pedagogical and systemic support leading to superficial knowledge of the practice, and explains the significant number who abandoned the practice. Additionally, the participants were likely unaccustomed and, hence, lacked a vision of the practice (Grossman, 2018; Inan & Lowther, 2010). This finding is consistent with a study conducted by Groenke and Paulus (2007) who found that, if technical and pedagogical support is limited, pre-service teachers adopt a teacher-centred approach. The study found that experiential learning was not sufficient to adequately provide the pedagogical knowledge to summarise the learning points and neither could the practice be honed during TP. Woodring and Woodring (2011) note that summaries and follow-up assignments are opportunities to address learner misconceptions. Further, the study found that, despite the experiential learning, the BEd(Science) students did not adequately integrate the two practices. As proposed by Bandura (1997), successful implementation of instructional practices develops a strong sense of self-efficacy. This was not the case for instructional practices found difficult to implement. 5.2 Effect of teaching practice on integration of interactive instructional practices in the lecture method The study found that few participants adopted and honed instructional practices within the classroom context. Additionally, the effect of integration of the instructional practices in the lecture method was not statistically significant and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

287

revealed that, towards the end of TP, the participants applied a lecture method. This shows that experiential learning did not alter the participants' frame of reference adequately to address their learning needs (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999; McDonald et al., 2013). Therefore exposing pre-service science teachers to the classroom context without adequate conceptual knowledge and sufficient pedagogical support cannot promote the integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method (Stahl et al., 2016). Thus, to alter conceptions, consistent integration of instructional practices and appropriate pedagogical support are required (Duit et al., 2008; Grossman, 2018). Additionally, the study found that experiential learning did not adequately promote the integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method. This can be attributed to the participants missing out on the consistent pedagogical supervision expertise of the HoS (Zeichner, 1996). The slight increase in average score indicates most participants did not develop a strong self-efficacy and, hence, found instructional practices challenging and difficult to implement (Bandura, 1997; Cansiz & Cansiz, 2019; Kazempour & Sadler, 2015). 5.3 To what extent do the pedagogical supervision practices support the BEd(Science) students' integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method? The study found that the HoS did not provide sufficient pedagogical support. According to Mergler and Tangen (2010), pedagogical expertise is required for an effective approximation of instructional practices. This finding is consistent with a study by Gunckel (2013) who established that collaborating teachers are often not well-versed with the current learning requirements of pre-service teachers. However, the fact that the participants reported the feedback provided by the HoS as useful for subsequent teaching indicates that, if capacity is built, the HoS can provide appropriate pedagogical support to leverage adoption, honing and integration of the "difficult" instructional practices in the lecture method. Additionally, the participants reported that the university supervisors had a limited schedule and their main focus was the assessment of the teaching practices. Mannathoko (2013) observed that the limited schedule of university supervisors coupled with the fact that the HoS are usually not engaged by the university to offer pedagogical support denies the participants a firm base on which to build instructional practices, particularly those that may have been deemed "difficult" to adopt, enact and implement. The participants felt the school-based experiential learning had limited modelling of integration of instructional practices. This denied them the opportunity to observe and enact integration of constructivist instructional practices. Grossman et al. (2013) posit that faculty modelling is a crucial representation of practice as it enables the pre-service teachers to visualise the application of a teaching method. According to Opfer and Pedder (2011), pre-service teachers do not abandon practices that are modelled. Thus, the pedagogical support provided on TP was insufficient in quality as well as quantity. Ayot and Wanga (1987), Leijen et al. (2012, 2015) and Idris (2016) claimed that supervisors should adopt the principles

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

288

of effective pedagogical supervision so as to enhance the pedagogical support provided.

6. Conclusion This study examined the BEd(Science) students’ integration of constructivist ideas in the lecture method over the TP session during which they were supervised by the HoS and university lecturers. The instruments of data collection comprised questionnaires and interview schedules. The study concluded that: i.

The experiential learning was not sufficient to provide adequate experiences on which to build a strong sense of self-efficacy for successful integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method. Hence, towards the end of TP they still held unaddressed learning needs. Therefore a broad conceptualisation of integration of constructivist instructional practices in science education can promote teachers’ selfefficacy.

ii.

The slight increase in the average score integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method shows that some participants altered their frame of reference in the course of TP. This indicates that preservice teachers have capacity for immediate modification of personal frames of reference if they are provided opportunity to construct the method-specific pedagogical knowledge amidst pedagogical support. To further promote the modification of pre-service science teachers’ frame of reference, there is need to design a portfolio of learning experiences that relate to integration of constructivist instructional practices in varied contexts.

iii.

The pedagogical support was insufficient in quality as well as quantity. Notably, the limited modelling of the instructional practices likely led to lack of a firm base on which to build a clear vision for integration of constructivist instructional practices in the lecture method. There is, therefore, need to build HoS capacity in pedagogical supervision that relates to integration of constructivist instructional practices in teaching methods, and encourage the university supervisors to adopt the principles of instructional supervision. Future work might focus on longitudinal studies that examine integration of identified constructivist ideas in art-based teaching methods.

7. Limitations In-service teacher education programs were not represented in the sample and this limited the findings' generalisations to newly qualified science.

8. References Addae, D., & Quan-Baffour, K. (2018). The pedagogical value of the lecture method: The case of a non-formal education programme in Ghana. Africa Education Review, 15(1), 123-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2016.1256748

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

289

Ahmad, F., & Aziz, J. (2009). Students’ perceptions of the teachers’ teaching of literature communicating and understanding through the eyes of the audience. European Journal of Social Sciences, 7(3), 17–39. Al-Modhefer, A. K., & Roe, S. (2010). Tutorials for large classes of common foundation program biomedical science students: Successes and challenges. Nurse Education Today, 30(4), 365–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2009.09.009 Altinyelken, H. K. (2010). Pedagogical renewal in sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Uganda. Comparative Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050061003775454 Ambusaidi, A. K., & Al-Balushi, S. M. (2012). A longitudinal study to identify prospective science teachers’ beliefs about science teaching using the draw-a-science-teachertest checklist. International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 7(2), 291– 311. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2016.1262084 Amobi, F., & Irwin, L. (2009). Implementing on-campus microteaching to elicit pre-service teachers’ reflection on teaching actions: Fresh perspective on an established practice. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(1), 27–34. Atherton, C. (1972). Lecture, discussion, and independent study instructional methods revisited. Journal of Experimental Education, 40(4), 24–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1972.11011346 Ayot, H. O., & Wanga, P. E. (1987). Teaching practice. Kenyatta University. Bandura, A. (Ed.). (1995). Self-efficacy in changing societies. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527692 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Freeman. Bandura, A., & National Inst of Mental Health. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Barakabitze, A. A., William-Andey Lazaro, A., Ainea, N., Mkwizu, M. H., Maziku, H., Matofali, A. X., Iddi, A., & Sanga, C. (2019). Transforming African Education Systems in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Using ICTs: Challenges and Opportunities. Education Research International. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6946809 Beri, N., & Stanikzai, M. I. 2018. Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Student Engagement and Learning in the Classroom: A Review Paper. American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 22(1), 213–222. Biadgelign, A. (2010). General learning-teaching methods and techniques. Rinehart and Winston. Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton University Press. Borda, E., Schumacher, E., Hanley, D., Geary, E., Warren, S., Ipsen, C., & Stredicke, L. (2020). Initial implementation of active learning strategies in large, lecture STEM courses: Lessons learned from a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary STEM faculty development program. International Journal of STEM Education, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-0203-2 Britton, L. R., & Anderson, K. A. (2010). Teaching and teacher education. International Journal of Research and Studies, 26(2), 306–314. Brown, S., & Salter, S. (2010). Analogies in science and science teaching. Advances in Physiology Education, 34(4), 167-169. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00022.2010 Buldur, S. (2017). A longitudinal investigation of the pre-service science teachers’ beliefs about science teaching during a science teacher training programme. International Journal of Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2016.1262084 Cansiz, M., & Cansiz, N. (2019). How Do Sources of Self-Efficacy Predict Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs Related to Constructivist and Traditional Approaches to

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

290

Teaching and Learning? Original Research, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019885125 Ciminelli, M. (2009). Learning to teach in a constructivist teacher education environment. Institute for Learning Centered Education. http://jpacte.learningcentered.org/articles/Fall2009/Ciminelli.pdf Cochran, W. G. (1997). Sampling technique (3rd ed.). Wiley. Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. (2011). Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. KAPPAN Digital Edition Exclusive, 92(6), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109200622 Deacon, R. (2016). The initial teacher education research project: Final report. JET Education Services. Demirdöğen, B. (2016). Interaction Between Science Teaching Orientation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Components. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 27(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-016-9472-5 Dikshit, J., Garg, S., & Panda, S. (2013). Pedagogic effectiveness of print, interactive multimedia, and online resources: A Case study of IGNOU. International Journal of Instruction, 6(2), 197-210. Drost, B. (2012). An action research study: Engaging in authentic formative assessment. PrenticeHall. Dufresne, J. R., Gerace, J. W., Leonard, W. J., Mestre, J. P., & Wenk, L. (2010). Classroom talk: A classroom communication system for active learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 7(2), 3–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02948592 Duit, R., Treagust, F., & Widodo, A. (2008). Teaching science for conceptual change: Theory and practice. In S. Vosniadou (Ed.), International handbook of research on conceptual change (pp. 629–646). Routledge. Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2012). Strategic and models for teachers: Teaching content and teaching skills. Pearson Education Inc. Ersoy, A. F. (2010). Social studies teacher candidates’ views on the controversial issues incorporated into their courses in Turkey. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 323–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.09.015 Ghavifekr, S., & Rosdy, W. A. W. (2015). Teaching and learning with technology: Effectiveness of ICT integration in schools. International Journal of Research in Education and Science 1(2),175-191. Ghousseini, H., & Sleep, L. (2011). Making practice studyable. ZDM, 43(1), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-010-0280-7 Gok, T. (2012). The impact of peer instruction on college students’ beliefs about physics and conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 10(2), 417–436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-011-9316-x Groenke S. L., & Paulus, T. (2007). The role of teacher questioning in promoting dialogic literary inquiry in computer-mediated communication. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40(2), 141–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2007.10782502 Grossman, P. (Ed.). (2018). Teaching core practices in teacher education. Harvard Education Press. Grossman, P. L. (2011). A framework for teaching practice: A brief history of an idea. Teachers College Record, 113(12), 2836–2843. Grossman, P. L., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching, reimaging teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 273– 289. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600902875340

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

291

Gunckel, K. L. (2013). Fulfilling multiple obligations: Pre-service elementary teachers’ use of an instructional model while learning to plan and teach science. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 97(1), 139–162. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21041 Hismanoglu, M., & Hismanoglu, S. (2010). English language teachers’ perceptions of educational supervision in relation to their professional development: A case study of northern Cyprus. Research on Youth and Language, 4(1), 16–34. Hussain, A., Azeem, M., & Shakoor, A. (2011). Physics teaching methods: Scientific inquiry vs traditional lecture. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(19), 269–276. Idris, M. (2016). The impact of supervision, motivation and work ethic on teachers’ professional competence: A case study of private Islamic high school teachers. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 6(1), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v6i1.9073 Inan, F. A., & Lowther, D. L. (2010). Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: A path model. Education Technology Research Development, 58(2), 137– 154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9132-y Ingvarson, L., & Rowley, G. (2017). Quality assurance in teacher education and outcomes: A study of 17 countries. Educational Researcher, 46(4), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x17711900 Jacobsen, D. A., Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2009). Methods for teaching: Promoting student learning in K-12 classrooms. Pearson Education. Kang, H., & Zinger, D. (2019). What do core practices offer in preparing novice science teachers for equitable instruction? Science Education, 103(4), 823-853. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21507 Kärnä, P., Hakonen, R., & Kuusela, J. (2012). Science knowledge and skills at the 9th class in 2011 (Surveillance report No. 2 on education). Ministry of Education. Tampere, University Press, Tampere Oy. Kazempour, M., & Sadler, T. D. (2015). Pre-service teachers’ science beliefs, attitudes, and self-efficacy: a multi-case study. Teaching Education, 26(3).https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2014.996743 Kenya National Examination Council. (2019). Year 2018 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination candidates’ performance report. Government Printers. Kim, M., & Freemyer, S. (2011). Technology Integration in Science Classrooms: Framework, Principles, and Examples. Educational Technology, 51(1), 2529. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44429891 Kloser, M. (2014). Identifying a core set of science teaching practices: A Delphi expert panel approach. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(9), 1185–1217. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21171 Korthagen, F. A. J., & Kessels, J. P. A. M. (1999). Linking theory and practice: Changing the pedagogy of teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28(4), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x028004004 Lampert, M., Franke, M. L., Kazemi, E., Ghousseini, H., Turrou, A. C., Beasley, H., Cunard, A., & Crowe, K. (2013). Keeping it complex: Using rehearsals to support novice teacher learning of ambitious teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(3), 226–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487112473837. Lauwerier, T., & Akkari, A. (2015). Teachers and the quality of basic education in Sub-Saharan Africa (ERF Working Papers Series No. 11). Paris, France: UNESCO Education Research and Foresight. Leijen, Ä., Allas, R., Pedaste, M., Knezic, D., Marcos, J., Meijer, P., Husu, J., Krull, E., & Toom, A. (2015). How to support the development of teachers’ practical

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

292

knowledge: Comparing different conditions. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, 1205–1212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.455 Leijen, Ä., Valtna, K., Leijen, D. A. J., & Pedaste, M. (2012). How to determine the quality of students’ reflections? Studies in Higher Education, 37(2), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.504814 Liu, Y. (2010). Knowledge codification, exploitation, and innovation: The moderating influence of organizational controls in Chinese firms. Management and Organization Review, 6(2), 219–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17408784.2010.00179.x Lolita, J. (2015). Using analogies in teaching physics: A study on Latvian teachers’ views and experience. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 17(2), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1515/jtes-2015-0011 Mannathoko, M. (2013). Does teaching practice effectively prepare student-teachers to teach creative and performing arts? The Case of Botswana. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(2), 115–121. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v2n2p115 Maphosa, C., & Ndebele, C. (2014). Interrogating the skill of introducing a lecture: Towards an interactive Lecture Method of instruction. The Anthropologist, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/09720073.2014.11891463 Marios, K., & Iosif, F. (2016). Opinions concerning microteachings as a training technique: A case study from ASPETE, Greece. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 4(11), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v4i11.1843 McDonald, M., Kazemi, E., & Kavanagh, S. (2013). Core practices and pedagogies of teacher education: A call for a common language and collective activity. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5), 378–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487113493807 Mergler, A. G., & Tangen, D. J. (2010). Using microteaching to enhance teacher efficacy in pre-service teachers. Teaching Education, 21(2), 199–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210902998466 Miller, S., Pfund, C., Pribbenow, C. M., & Handelsman, J. (2008). Scientific teaching in practice. Science,322(5906), 1329-1330. Mishra, S., & Iyer, S. (2015). An exploration of problem posing-based activities as an assessment tool and as an instructional strategy. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 10(5), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41039-015-0006-0 Mohammadjani, F., & Tonkaboni, F. (2015). A comparison between the effect of cooperative learning teaching method and lecture teaching method on students’ learning and satisfaction level. International Education Studies, 8(9). https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n9p107 Nieme, H. (2002). Active learning: A cultural change needed in teacher education and schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(7), 763–780. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x (02)00042-2 Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric Theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill. Ochanji, M., Ayot, H., Kamina, P., Ondigi, S., & Kimemia, J. (2015). Improving student teaching for quality teacher preparation: A Kenyan university case. African Journal of Teacher Education, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.21083/ajote.v4i1.3034 Opfer, V. D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81(3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311413609 Passey, D., & Zozimo, J. (2016). Developing mobile learning practices through teacher education: Outcomes of the MLEARN pilot. Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/ITSE-01-2016-0002 Piaget, J. (1973). Psychology and epistemology: Towards a theory of knowledge. Record.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

293

Pinger, P., Rakoczy, K., Besser, M., & Klieme, E. (2018). Interplay of formative assessment and instructional quality—interactive effects on students’ mathematics achievement. Learning Environments Research, 21, 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-017-9240-2 Powell, K. C., & Kalina, C. J. (2009). Cognitive and social constructivism: Developing tools for an effective classroom. Education, 130(2), 241–250. Prakash, E. (2010). Explicit constructivism: a missing link in ineffective lectures? Advances in Physiology Education, 34(2), 93-96. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00025.2010 Revell, A., & Wainwright, E. (2009). What makes lectures ‘unmissable’? Insights into teaching excellence and active learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33(2), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260802276771 Sarfo, F. K., Amankwah, F., Sam, F. K., & Konin, D. (2015). Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs: The Relationship between Gender and Instructional Strategies, Classroom Management and Student Engagement. Ghana Journal of Development Studies, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.4314/gjds.v12i1-2.2 Schreiber, L. M., & Valle, B. E. (2013). Social constructivist teaching strategies in the small group classroom. Small Group Research, 44(4), 395–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496413488422 Sherin, M. G., Jacobs, V. R., & Philipp, R. A. (2011). Mathematics teacher noticing: Seeing through teachers’ eyes. Routledge. Stahl, G., Sharplin, E., & Kehrwald, B. (2016). Developing pre-service teachers’ confidence: Real-time coaching in teacher education. Reflective Practice, 17(6), 724–738. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2016.1206882 Strengthening of Mathematics and Science at Secondary Education Project Report. (2007). Survey of impact of SMASSE INSET in Kenya. Government Printers. Tesfaw, T., & Hofman, R. (2014). Instructional supervision and its relationship with professional development. The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 13(1), 82–89. Trna, J., & Trnova, E. (2015). Revival of demonstration experiments in science education. The Eurasia Proceedings of International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science & Technology (ICEMST). Educational & Social Sciences (EPESS; 2, pp. 49–56). Turpen, C., & Finkelstein, N. D. (2009). Not all interactive engagement is the same: Variations in physics professors’ implementation of Peer Instruction. Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research,5(2). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.5.020101 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Warner, A. J., & Myers, B. E. (2008). Implementing inquiry-based teaching methods. University of Florida IFAS Extension. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC07600.pdf Westbrook, J., Durrani, N., Brown, R., Orr, D., Pryor, J., Boddy, J., & Salvi, F. (2013). Pedagogy, Curriculum, Teaching Practices and Teacher Education in Developing Countries. University of Sussex. Williams, D. L., Crittenden, V. L., Keo, T., & McCarty, P. (2012). The use of social media: An exploratory study of usage among digital natives. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(2), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1414 Windschitl, M., Thompson, J., Braaten, M., & Stroupe, D. (2012). Proposing a core set of instructional practices & tools for teachers of science. Science Education, 96(5), 878–903. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21027 Woolley, R. (2011). Controversial issues: Identifying the concerns and priorities of student teachers. Policy Futures in Education, 9(2), 280–291. https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2011.9.2.280

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

294

Woodring, B. C., & Woodring, R. C. (2011). Lecture reclaiming a place in pedagogy. Innovative Teaching Strategies in Nursing and Related Health Professions, 113–135. Yamane, T. (1973) Statistics: An introductory analysis (3rd ed.). Harper & Row. Yavuz, M. (2010). Effectiveness of supervisions conducted by primary education supervisors according to school principals’ evaluations. The Journal of Educational Research, 103(6), 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670903385338 Yoon, H. G., Joung, Y. J., & Kim, M. (2012). The challenges of science inquiry teaching for pre-service teachers in elementary classrooms: Difficulties on and under the scene. Research in Science Education, 42, 589–608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165011-9212-y Zakirman, Z., Lufri, L., & Khairani, K. (2019). Factors influencing the use of Lecture Method in learning activities: Teacher perspective. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovation in Education (ICoIE 2018). https://doi.org/10.2991/icoie-18.2019.2 Zeichner, K. (1996). Designing educative practicum experiences for prospective teachers. In K. Zeichner, S. Melnick, & M. L. Gomez (Eds.), Currents of reform in pre-service teacher education (pp. 215–233). Teachers College Press.

APPENDICES Appendix 1 Test of sampling adequacy and sphericity.

Factors

KMO Test

Discussion method Demonstration method Lab practical method Lecture method Moderator (TP supervision)

.702 .818 .714 .700 .722

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity df Approx. ChiSquare 84.431 45 120.946 45 86.804 45 79.333 45 89.771 45

Sig. .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

295

Appendix 2 Descriptive Statistics for Integration of Constructivist Instructional Practices in the Lecture Method by the BEd(Science) Students at the Onset and Towards the End of TP. Integration at the onset of TP)

The teacher set expectations by stating the lesson objectives

The teacher used analogies and examples to link the lesson content to students’ life experiences The teacher used contradictions/controversies to engage students in the lesson The teacher used small groups to discuss the problem associated to the lecture concept

The teacher summarised the main points on the board at the end of the lecture The teacher gave follow-up assignments based on the lecture

107 Integration towards end of TP

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Mea n 3.083 2

Count 0 %

Count 15 %

14.3% 51.4% 7.6% 24.8% 1.9%

Count 21 %

20.8% 77.2% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Count 5 %

4.7% 42.5% 1.9% 44.3% 6.6% 47

2.8% 44.3% 3.8% 43.4% 5.7%

Count 40 %

37.7% 27.4% 0.0% 20.8% 14.2%

Count 5 %

4.7% 50.9% 21.7% 17.9% 4.7%

Count 1 %

%Mea n 61.7%

0.0% 0.0% 1.0% 26.7% 72.4%

The teacher used audio-visual aids to illustrate facts, principles or procedures of the concept

14.2% 77.4% 0.9% 7.5% 0.0%

Count 3

The teacher used visual aids to support the learning tasks

0.0% 2.9% 4.8% 28.6% 63.8%

The teacher asked questions to elicit and gauge students’ ideas of content to be taught

Count 15

The teacher built curiosity by presenting a problem linked to the concept to be taught

Total Average Score at onset of TP

Count 0

1.0% 4.8% 5.7% 69.5% 19.0%

SE 0.0373 SD

SD 0.384 3 D U

Skewne ss 0.006 A

SE 0.235 SA

296

The teacher set expectations by stating the lesson objectives The teacher built curiosity by presenting a problem linked to the concept to be taught The teacher asked questions to elicit and gauge students’ ideas of content to be taught The teacher used analogies and examples to link the lesson content to students’ life experiences The teacher used contradictions/controversies to engage students in the lesson The teacher used small groups to discuss the problem associated to the lecture concept The teacher used appropriate visual aids to support the learning tasks The teacher used audio-visual aids to illustrate facts, principles or procedures of the concept The teacher summarised the main points on the board at the end of the lecture

The teacher gave follow-up assignments based on the lecture

Count 0 %

18.7% 34.6% 1.9% 24.3% 20.6%

Count 5 %

6.7% 70.5% 5.7% 10.5% 6.7%

Count 20 %

5.6% 40.2% 2.8% 29.9% 21.5%

Count 7 %

18.1% 67.6% 5.7% 3.8% 4.8%

Count 6 %

7.5% 48.1% 1.9% 25.5% 17.0%

Count 19 %

0.0% 3.8% 1.9% 34.0% 60.4%

Count 8 %

1.0% 7.6% 1.0% 44.8% 45.7%

Count 0 %

0.0% 40.2% 14.0% 26.2% 19.6%

Count 1 %

4.7% 39.3% 3.7% 28.0% 24.3%

Count 8

% 7.5% 48.1% 1.9% 25.5% 17.0% Total average score of application of interactive lecture method in teaching at the end of TP Total Average Score N Mea %Mea SE SD Skewne SE towards end of TP n n ss 107 3.191 63.8% 0.0629 0.651 0.623 0.234 9 0

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

297

Appendix 3 Pedagogical supervision practices. Head of Subject Pedagogical Supervision Practices Never

Rarely

Sometime Often Always

The HoS holds meetings with me to Count ascertain that my lesson plan is in line with the schemes of work and % objectives

0.0%

15.1%

64.2%

17.9% 2.8%

The HoS guides me on how to effectively integrate instructional practices in my lesson

Count

14.2%

43.4%

34.9%

4.7%

2.8%

57.5%

27.4%

10.4%

1.9%

2.8%

Count

1.0%

43.3%

44.2%

7.7%

3.8%

My HoS attends my lessons to observe Count my teaching/learning activities on a % regular basis

10.5%

68.6%

17.1%

2.9%

1.0%

The assessment feedback my HoS gives me is linked to my teaching practices

Count

6.5%

45.8%

36.4%

7.5%

3.7%

Count

17.0%

52.8%

25.5%

3.8%

0.9%

Count

12.3%

0.9%

17.0%

39.6% 30.2%

My HoS gives me feedback that is Count supportive of my learning to teach so that it’s clear to me how to improve my % performance progressively.

46.7%

43.0%

7.5%

2.8%

0.0%

The feedback my HoS gives me shows Count the gap between my current and expected achievement level of my % application of the teaching methods Total N Mean %Mean average 107 2.1761 43.2% score

82.2%

13.1%

4.7%

0.0%

My HoS advises me on the appropriate Count instructional practice at every stage of % the lesson development

My HoS provides prompt feedback

The assessment feedback my HoS gives me is timely I am able to use the assessment feedback I am given for subsequent teaching.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

SE 0.0451

SD 0.4669

Skewness 0.511

SE 0.234

298

University Supervisors’ Pedagogical Supervision Practices NeverRarelySometimeOften Always The university supervisor holds meetings with me to Count10 15 57 ascertain that my lesson plan is in line with the % 9.4% 14.2% 53.8% schemes of work and objectives The supervisor guides me on how to integrate instructional practices in my lessons The supervisor advises me on the appropriate instructional practice at every stage of my lesson development

Count13 %

60.0% 8.6% 12.4%

Count8

12.3% 10.4% 23

12.3% 27.4% 27.4%

Count63 %

21.7% 11.3% 8

7.6%

11.4%

The supervisor provides prompt feedback % The supervisor attends my lessons to observe my teaching/learning activities regularly The assessment feedback my university supervisor gives me is linked to my teaching practices

7.6% 8.6% 30.5%

Count12 %

11.4% 41.0% 27.6%

Count13 %

12.3% 0.9% 17.0%

Count13

32.4% 21.0% 9

8.6%

11.4%

39.6% 30.2% 34

The assessment feedback I’m given is timely % I am able to use the assessment feedback I am given for subsequent teaching.

12.3% 2.8% 16.0%

Count13 %

12.3% 0.9% 17.0%

The feedback my supervisor gives me shows the gap Count13 3 17 between my current and expected achievement level % 12.3% 2.8% 16.0% of my application of the teaching methods Feedback I’m given helps me to improve my teaching performance

Count14 %

32.1% 36.8%

39.6% 30.2% 34

32.1% 36.8% 29

13.2% 1.9% 12.3%

27.4% 45.3%

Total average score N

Mean

%Mean

Skewness

107

3.1939

63.9%

0.0921

0.9486

-0.409

0.235

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

299

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 299-318, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.16

Implementation of the Social Component of Higher Education: Bottom-up Approach Alla A. Marushkevych Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1969-7771 Iryna M. Zvarych Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0715-9551 Natalia M. Lavrychenko, Liudmyla Ya. Biriuk and Olha M. Zaitseva Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, Hlukhiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0776-7362 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4940-4228 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6945-3102

Abstract. Pedagogical strategies for the implementation of the social content of higher education should be exercised through the application of the bottom-up approach. The bottom-up approach is aimed at ensuring proper development of the student’s personality. This approach is based on the subject-specific (academic achievements) and generic (leadership, management skills and focus on personal and professional development) competencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the range of tools as well as the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach to the implementation of the social component of higher education through perspective development and the emphasis on students’ leadership and management skills. The study is of an empirical nature and the research component is based on the formative experimental methodology. Fifteen students of the Faculty of Primary Education participated in the experimental part of the study. They were involved in the specific bottom-up approach to educational environment organization and were evaluated accordingly by a jury. The two-year implementation period of the bottom-up approach to the implementation of the social content of higher education took place through customized projects of personal and professional development. The average socialization readiness level within the group was 78.2 (out of 100 max.), with 13.3% of students showing an average socialization readiness level, and 86.7% of students achieving a good level. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the principal notions of the study. The task of adapting the content of higher education in order to achieve a positive momentum of students’ socialization readiness was successfully completed. The most promising approach for future ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

300

research is finding out the advisability and effectiveness of expanding the range of participants of the projects of personal and professional self-development and leadership with the preservation of the essence and identified values of the bottom-up approach. Keywords: bottom-up approach; higher education institutions; management skills; multisided development; socialization readiness; tertiary education; top-down approach

1. Introduction The ideological and social component of the content of higher education remains a problematic factor (Aleixo et al., 2018) that necessitates scientific and methodological research. In an effort to overcome this problem, researchers often offer comprehensive generalized solutions. In particular, the research involves the paradigm of two opposite approaches which are defined as a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach (very often the classical terms of inductive and deductive approaches are used as synonyms for these). The agents of progressive social change, according to Fullan (1994), should be tertiary institutions. This is because of the crucially important role of universities in the development of human beings that coincides not only with a period of active professional molding but also personal traits’ development. The task of modern humanity is to overcome the separateness and isolation of a person in his/her microcosm or within the scope of petty private interests. Instead, it will require from the individual an understanding of his/her importance as a driver of global social change aimed at the liberation from the chains of the idea of extolling wealth, as well as that of the idea of identifying happiness with material benefits. In philology the bottom-up approach implies working with each individual lexical unit separately so as to understand the whole text (British Council, 2021). However, in pedagogy it means an attempt to outline the ideological and social essence of modern higher education and involves, analogously, movement from an individual or a separate phenomenon in an effort to outline the integral essence of modern higher education as a mega-important social institution. In a broad sense, the bottom-up approach is an upward (ascendant) movement from the specific to the general. In fact, successful implementation of any reforms in higher education inevitably involves the synergy of both bottom-up and topdown principles (Khelifi, 2019; Singh & Hardaker, 2017). Understanding of future prospects for promoting higher education and developing models of modernization and innovative approaches to educational paradigms are based more on the generalized syncretic top-down principle (Herodotou et al., 2019). The algorithm of network actions for the practical fulfilment of these ideas can be effectively composed and implemented only through the prism of the bottom-up approach as it is the basis for progressive modern educational management (Khelifi, 2019; Singh & Hardaker, 2017).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

301

The specifics of the bottom-up approach implementation depend on the particular aspects of higher education in question: teaching, education, and the integral development of the individual in the paradigm of professional development (Yusof et al., 2018; Warr Pedersen et al., 2017). Thus, bottom-up teaching is predominantly instructor driven and is focused on separate details of teaching the discipline, implying detailing as a way of decoding and simplifying each component through repetition and memorization (Quain, 2018). Conceptualization of the notion of the bottom-up approach involves outlining the social side of higher education, in particular through the realization of the perspectives of development and leadership in the paradigm of students’ personal growth and professional development. In fact, despite the declared three-pronged educational objectives (educatory, disciplinary and evolutive), the process of education in a tertiary educational institution very often turns into digestion of the theoretical foundations of future professional activities. The progressive goal of modern higher education is to identify, reveal, and develop to the fullest extent those qualities of students’ personalities that will enable them to fulfil themselves professionally and personally after having graduated from the university. Thus, to socialize in every sense of this concept means to become an active and self-sufficient participant in the social structure. Therefore the main problem in the context of this study is the need for implementing a bottom-up approach to fill the gap in the fulfilling of the social side of tertiary education.

2. Literature Review 2.1. General Insights of the Problem Articulation A literature review on the research topic is severely complicated on the one hand by its generalizing and integrative nature, and on the other hand by the fragmentation, that is a desultory representation of the issue in this form by modern pedagogical science. Starting with the basics – the interpretation of the term ‘bottom-up approach’, Michell (2016) summarizes this approach as a new age brand of education. In particular, this is justified by the fact that trendy modern pedagogical concepts such as ‘self-directed’, ‘inquiry-based’, and ‘student agency’ are all integrated within bottom-up education as an umbrella term. Mehta et al. (2020) consider the bottom-up approach to be the basis of the strategy for personal development and a part of the deep learning process. 2.2. Bottom-up Approach within Pedagogical Studies related to Higher Education The majority of studies focusing specifically on the bottom-up approach (Galloway & Numajiri, 2020; Mehta et al., 2020) cover the question of learning a foreign language on the principle of movement from smaller language units (for example, individual lexical items) to the actualization of the meaning of these lexical items in various contexts. The latter require more complex operations of generalization and correlation of the meaning of words in the flow of speech or in the paradigm of the whole text (Moskovsky et al., 2015; Suraprajit, 2019). However, there are currently few studies considering the bottom-up approach

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

302

comprehensively and in an extended sense in terms of the implementation of the social content of higher education. The following are analyzed studies which seem most fully to outline those aspects of higher education relative to the current empirical study. Kromydas (2017) draws attention to the different ways in which the goals of higher education are achieved and the impact of higher education on society over time. The essence of higher education is close to the apex point of the bottom-up approach, indicating its significance as a social institution. Attention is drawn to the relevance of the discussion in the Western world about the goals of higher education in the context of deepening social inequality in these Western countries. In addition, the consequent interpretation of the model of higher education as a model of mass education relates to both the challenges of higher education and its opportunities (Salmi, 2017). The given context generates an inquiry for solving the issue of the efficiency vs. effectiveness of tertiary education. There is often concern as to whether higher education should be a priori so democratic and publicly available or whether its primary essence is lost in that case (Fortunato & Panizza, 2015). For a long time higher education, being the preference of the ‘upper crust’ was always associated with a certain higher social status; however, nowadays the data regarding the extent of higher education is impressive. Thus, according to Eurostat (2020) reports, in 2019 more than 40% of the 30–34-year-olds in the EU had completed some tertiary education. Earlier, Marian (2016) also provided even more optimistic data from the 2015 Eurostat sample on the spread of higher education (including associate degrees, higher vocational training and other modern hierarchical forms) in Europe among the population aged 25-64 (average age range of the active productive population). According to them, more than 50% of 25-64-year-old residents of London, Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties (UK), eastern Scotland, as well as Walloon Brabant (Belgium), Oslo (Norway), Helsinki (Finland), and Zurich (Switzerland) have completed tertiary education. In the situation where every second person of working age has some higher education, it is meaningless to speak of elitism. The prevalence of quantitative indicators of higher education in less developed countries with less established traditions of university education today leads to the problem of irrelevance of the quantitative indicators compared to the quality indicators of higher education (Nadoveza Jelić & Gardijan Kedžo, 2018; Emrouznejad & Yang, 2018), which are now being emphasized by the realization of their social content. Kromydas (2017) compares the modern paradigm of higher education with the ordinary market-place, within which academic achievements and academic degrees are a kind of currency that can be converted into labor market value. Such a shift in the focus of higher education turns the tertiary education into an instrument for economic progress, which also detracts from its primary role of providing the context for full and diverse human development. This actualizes the need for urgent compensation of the worldview-forming and social-

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

303

integrative function, which is traditionally delegated to the institutions of higher education. Kopycka (2021) writes about the historical and national context of outlining the social side of higher education by exploring the mutual influence of Polish society and tertiary institutions in the diachronic dimension. However, it is safe to say that the values of development and leadership are transcendent for higher education since modernity, and especially today. This can be explained in particular by the growing expansion of the phenomenon of large-scale participation and its penetration into various spheres of social life. Under the conditions of the totalization of mass culture and aggravation of the phenomenon of brainwashing of the population, the roles of critical and selfcritical thinking, readiness to confront destructive tendencies of social life and readiness for active work are increasing steadily (Van Ta & Zyngier, 2018). All of the above are the basis of a leadership personality. 2.3. Bottom-up Approach and Personality of a Student Brailas et al. (2017) presented the development of an academic course organized according to the principles of complexity theory. The aim of the course is to create a learning organization which is understood by the author as a selforganized whole. Teaching of such a student community is provided based on the strategy of bottom-up knowledge production. In-class face-to-face activities in small groups became the methods of implementing the declared strategy and achieving the set goal. In general, in the bottom-up pedagogical environment, the role of students is to move from full personal development to the model of active partnership (the interim stage between bottom-up and top-down), which is being implemented in the paradigm of a voluntary learning community (Brailas et al., 2017). Bryson (2016) underlines that in such a model the emphasis is on the process and not on the results of educational activities. The primary individuated orientation of the bottom-up approach is the first starting point of this study. The study is also based on the scientific standpoint of Bergan and Damian (2010). It is the assertion that in the higher education paradigm, students must become proficient in two complex types of competencies, namely subject-specific and generic ones (Bergan & Damian, 2010). This is the second starting point of present study. In general, in vocational training, mastering of both generalized types of competencies takes place in synthesis provided that full and diverse development of the personality of the student is ensured in a tertiary institution. However, the differentiation into subject-specific and generic competencies is formalized in the structure of any higher education institution with an emphasis on subject-specific competence, while generic competence is not reflected in official educational documents. This will be taken into account in the current research when developing a diagnostic model. A wide range of subject-specific and generic competencies within higher education, according to Bergan and Damian (2010), enables society to solve the most difficult challenges with which it is faced.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

304

Based on the conducted analysis and in accordance with the observations and practical pedagogical experience of the authors of this study, it can be said that in the context of forming the social side of higher education by bottom-up approach it is necessary to speak about a set of leader and management skills, which, together with subject competencies, enable a student to socialize adequately. The principle for the current study rationale for the bottom-up principle is shown in the following diagram (Figure 1):

Figure 1: Model of the bottom-up approach to shaping the social side of tertiary education. Source: Adapted from Bergan and Damian (2010), Brailas et al. (2017) & Bryson (2016)

The starting point in this case is the student’s personality, which in the plane of higher education (triangle), based on the acquisition of subject-based competencies, moves upward to the upper zone of this triangle, which means receiving higher education. However, the sides of this triangle form leader and management skills, without which the structure of higher education itself would not be outlined, therefore, could not exist owing to a lack of integration. Without leader and management skills, the framework of higher education as a construct would be impossible. There is a transition between the upper zone of the triangle and the triangle apex. Socialization is the consequence of obtaining high-quality higher education, the embodiment of the idea of studying at a tertiary institution. Similarly, socialization is unthinkable without tertiary education as its foundation. The arrowed lines show the integration of the process at the general level: the development of the student’s personality qualitatively benefits from the process of socialization, while the process of socialization deepens through the development of the student’s personality. All this together results in the multifaceted personal and professional development and realization, which depends on the effectiveness of the allelic complementation and integration of vectors of the personality of the student and socialization with the institution of higher education as the driving force and the center of the whole system. The upper and lower planes of the oval can be equated, since socialization is the area of multifaceted personal and professional development and realization.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

305

2.4. Principal Standpoints in the Articulation of the Issue of Bottom-up Approach Implementation Based on this, the generalized hypothesis of this scientific article comprises the following statements: i) Pedagogical strategies for the realization of the social content of higher education should be implemented through the application of the bottom-up approach (it is important to note that this does not devalue the top-down approach, which is equally essential for the proper functioning of the educational system); ii) The very implementation of the social content of higher education is an indicator of its quality, viability and effectiveness as a social institution; iii) The center of the bottom-up approach is to ensure the proper development of the personality of the student; iv) The implementation of the bottom-up approach is the key to the socialization of the individual outside the university education system, but in compliance with the paradigm of the values of lifelong learning; v) The qualities of the student’s personality contributing to the implementation of the social content of education are leadership, management skills and orientation towards personal and professional development (the area of generic competencies). However, subject-specific competencies are their basis and context; vi) It is reasonable to generalize the effectiveness of the implementation of the social content of higher education, which is the subject matter of the present scientific study of the concept of socialization readiness (SR). 2.5. Aim and Objectives of the Study The general purpose of this research is to study the range of tools, as well as the effectiveness of the bottom-up approach to the implementation of the social content of higher education through an emphasis on leadership and management skills of students and orientation towards personal and professional development. The specified purpose involves the implementation of the following tasks: i) to develop the system of consistent implementation of the bottom-up approach for the best possible socialization of students while studying at the university and after having graduated from it; ii) to select and substantiate the sample of participants of the empirical experiment; iii) to conduct an experiment consisting of the emphasized integration of the bottom-up approach to the educational process at the university; iv) to highlight the success in conducting an experiment; and v) to draw conclusions about the conducted experiment and to outline prospects for further research.

3. Method The method of a bottom-up approach to implementation is a novel approach, especially in terms of integrating it into the paradigm of tertiary education for enhancing leadership skills and promoting personal development. Thus, the experimental model is fairly innovative and the current research is the first attempt at using it. Nevertheless, it is justified by the principles of higher

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

306

education and the logic of personal development within the context of educational establishments and professional orientation. Theoretically it is supported by the works from the literature review as mentioned below. The experiment was conducted at Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University. A total of 15 students of the III (7 people) and IV (8 people) courses of the Faculty of Primary Education participated in the experimental part of the study. The small number of respondents is explained by the nature of the bottom-up approach, which involves upward movement from the student’s personality to further generalizations. In this case, a wide range of respondents would be an obstacle to the fully-fledged implementation of the principles of this approach. The very essence of a bottom-up approach would be lost owing to the fact that it would be impossible to pay sufficient pedagogical attention to the development of each student’s personality. A specific condition of the sample was that the average academic results were not lower than A or B according to the ECTS-scale for the previous academic year. It is rationalized by the above-mentioned position that subject-specific competencies are the basis and context of the implementation of the social content of higher education through leadership, management and personal and professional development in the field of university education. During the development of the bottom-up approach model, the view of Bergan and Damian (2010) was regarded as fundamental, namely that the task of universities is not only to train individuals for specific tasks but to educate the person in general. Education is about acquiring skills + values + attitudes. The inefficiency of the ‘big bang’ approach is an important feature of the implementation of the bottom-up approach – the fact that it requires time and consistency. The development and implementation of the experiment took two years, while the processing of the final results took another two to three months. Therefore, the experiment was time consuming and required constant correction and attention to the achievements of milestone results. The launch of the experimental program took place in the autumn of 2018. 3.1. Stages of the Study The advantage of the bottom-up approach compared to the opposite top-down approach is that the former approach is student-centered in contrast to the centralized approach to the development and formation of leadership skills of the student as a prerequisite for his/her fully-fledged socialization outside the tertiary institution (initial training educational establishment). In addition to the model of coherent work of the tertiary institution on the implementation of the bottom-up approach which will be presented in the Results section, this requires active and conscientious participation of the student. Therefore, in the first stage, the participants of the experiment were asked to provide answers to the questions on the self-reflective questionnaire (Appendix A, see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PJlBViuh5g0LbSC1O4AAzchRhL4e6B85/vie w?usp=sharing). The analysis of the questionnaires made it possible to develop customized programs for the development of respondents and to outline the anticipated achievements.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

307

In the second stage, the respondents were required to develop (within two weeks) and to present to the organizers of the experiment independently developed (according to previous instructions from the initiators of the study) projects of personal and professional development and leadership in text format and in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. It was proposed to develop them on the principle of a vision board. In the third stage, the presented projects of personal and professional development and leadership were approved and step-by-step plans for the implementation of agreed projects were developed. In addition, deadlines were set and reporting forms were prescribed (an example of the project is shown in https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eyVVDfCNeekHhz4luOJ2C3ciNfdIsh23/vie w?usp=sharing [See Appendix B]). Individual consultations with studentparticipants of the experiment and organizers took place regularly both by prior arrangement and without notice. Team reporting, discussions of milestone results and exchanges of experiences in the implementation of projects of personal and professional development and leadership took place once a month. The fourth stage involved the verification of the success of the projects of personal and professional development and leadership by independent members of the jury and with the involvement of the student-participants themselves. The drafting and implementation of projects was done according to a standardized pattern (Table 1), which also made it possible to check the data. Table 1: Conceptual scheme of development and further evaluation of projects

Development vector Subject-specific competences

Personal strategic thinking skills

Effective communicative strategies

Methods for implementation

Evaluation

The ECTS-scale was used in order to evaluate student performance. The starting point (bench mark) for all respondents was 82 points (according to the conditions of the sample). The maximum score is 100 points. The range of growth is the difference between the upper and lower limits, namely 18 points. Translating them into a 10-point grading scale →

0-10 points: ↑ 1-2 points = 2 scores 3-4 points = 4 scores ↑ 5-9 points = 6 scores ↑ 10-15 points = 8 scores ↑ 16-18 = 10 scores

Generic competences Generic competencies include self-planning skills and the ability of students to identify aspects of their own development. These were summarized in the portfolio and during the survey. Effective communicative strategies imply the ability to communicate effectively and to organize communication in such a way so as to achieve pragmatic goals of communication.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

0-10 points

308

Time management

Decisionmaking

Team building

Involvement of digital resources to achieve the goal, namely advanced ICT skills Creative skills

Scientific research

Interaction with potential employers and readiness for future job

The skills of active listening, empathy, flexibility; the ability to turn information into action; the ability to share clear messages and make complex ideas easy to understand for others; the ability to inspire and convince others and foreign language proficiency (languages skills) were taken into account. They were evaluated in general terms during the performance of educational tasks, portfolio presentation, meetings during the experiment, and the completion of other research tasks. This refers to accuracy, the ability to plan working time efficiently and effectively, to alternate studying (project work, selfdevelopment and similar) with leisure time, as well as the timely delivery of all types of work and performance of specified milestones. Decision-making comprises skills to make effective and efficient decisions and to look for the best options for solving problems. These skills were evaluated in general in the process of implementing portfolio items. This refers to the ability to work as part of the team, to organize work in groups so as to achieve team goals (charity events, initiative movements, organization of clubs and online communities of active youth). Each of the participants had to think about and implement in their portfolio an item that would include some of the above-mentioned types of activities. Digital skills are essential to every member of modern society. The ability of the students to involve the necessary digital technologies in solving project tasks, to communicate using online technologies and to use them for their self-development was evaluated. These refer to the actualization and development of any type of creativity, hobbies, sports and similar activities. For every active member of society, creativity and hobbies are crucial for the alternation of work and leisure time and the regeneration of a spiritual balance. To identify, select and implement a topical area for research within the specialty or within the scope of any curriculum subject in the form of a research study and PowerPoint presentation. Each of the participants in the experiment had to interact closely with a potential employer or, ideally, to start working part-time, combining this with full-time education (according to an individual schedule). The goal was to start the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

0-10 points

309

practical application of theoretical skills acquired in the process of studying, deepening and honing practical skills. Participants could also undergo training internships and traineeships included in the curriculum at the potential place of work. Other possible formats for the implementation of this item include working as freelancers in a given specialization and conducting professional online classes in the specialization. Participation in professionallyoriented training and conferences was also taken into account. Socialization readiness level (0-100 scores): ≥ 49 scores – extremely low 50-65 scores – sufficient 66-75 – average 76-85 – good 86-100 – excellent Source: Authors’ construct

This structure was developed by the authors taking into consideration generalized and interpreted literature review conclusions and authors’ collective experience of working within niche of tertiary education. All the students developed their own projects of personal and professional self-development and leadership. Two teacher-mentors were appointed to help each of the respondents. At the drafting stage of the project, teacher-mentors could only consult on the technical side of project design and layout. However, in the process of approval, all five members of the jury panel took part in the discussion. Their task was minor correction of projects, advice on their implementation, and general counselling. Students were told in advance about the necessity to evaluate themselves objectively regarding the possibilities of implementing the plans as outlined in the projects. The fifth stage was summarizing and outlining the prospects for further research in this field. 3.2. Methods Realization of the goal of research and performance of all tasks required the use of such special scientific methods such as the following: design methods (method of academic and educational achievements, method of personal and professional development); questionnaire method (using open questionnaires); method of conducting an experiment; method of concerted action (holding meetings and consultations) and method of organizational and guiding recommendations (providing explanations and instructions); methods for empirical data collection and compilation; mathematical calculations for interpretation of numerical data (using Miscrosoft Excel); and graphical representation of research results.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

310

4. Results 4.1. The results of Project Implementation of Personal and Professional Development and Leadership of Students Verification of the results of the implementation of the presented projects was carried out according to the scheme shown in Table 1. In order to individualize the generalization of empirical data, each participant was given an appropriate serial number, which was assigned to him/her for the duration of the experiment. Each member of the jury gave scores to each participant for each criterion in the experimental study. Average indicators were entered into the project table (except for subject-specific competencies, where only objective indicators of academic performance based on the results of end-term tests and examinations were taken into account). The verified data obtained are summarized separately in Table 2 in the context of each individual respondent.

10. EI

9. SR

8. CS

7. DR

6. TB

5. DM

4. TM

3. ECS

2. PSTS

No of respondent

1. SSC

Table 2: Verified results of project implementation of personal and professional development and leadership of students Total scores (0-100)

80,1 1st resp. 4 8,9 9,3 7,9 8,7 7,4 8,3 8,9 9,2 7,5 77,2 2nd resp. 4 7,7 8,3 8,2 7,5 9,1 7,6 6,9 9,7 8,2 79,7 3rd resp. 6 6,9 7,4 8,8 9,4 9,7 6,9 7,3 8,9 8,4 80,6 4th resp. 8 6,6 7,8 7,7 7,9 9,0 8,2 9,1 8,2 8,1 th 76,2 5 resp. 4 7,0 8,9 8,8 7,5 6,8 9,2 9,0 7,4 7,6 76,2 6th resp. 4 7,4 8,8 8,6 9,2 7,4 8,3 9,2 6,0 7,3 82,1 7th resp. 7 8,8 7,7 8,4 7,7 9,1 7,6 9,7 9,2 6,9 73,1 8th resp. 2 9,2 6,0 8,6 8,2 7,6 8,5 6,7 9,2 7,1 th 76,8 9 resp. 4 9,7 9,2 8,5 6,7 6,6 7,8 9,3 8,7 6,3 th 77,6 10 resp. 6 7,2 9,8 6,7 9,2 7,0 8,9 8,0 8,4 6,4 79,7 11th resp. 4 8,8 8,6 7,4 8,3 8,8 7,5 7,9 9,5 8,9 78,2 12th resp. 4 8,5 8,2 9,1 7,6 8,6 9,2 8,9 7,0 7,1 76,8 13th resp. 6 7,0 7,7 9,1 6,7 9,2 6,4 8,8 8,6 7,3 th 80,4 14 resp. 4 8,0 8,9 9,2 9,3 8,7 9,2 8,5 8,2 6,4 75,6 15th resp. 4 6,9 9,0 6,6 8,4 9,1 7,0 8,6 9,4 6,6 Averagely 4,7 7,9 8,4 8,2 8,2 8,37 8,1 8,5 8,5 7,3 78,2 Notes: 1. SSC - Subject-specific competences 2. PSTS - Personal strategic thinking skills 3. ECS - Effective communicative strategies 4. TM - Time management 5. DM – Decision-making 6. TB – Team building 7. DR - Involvement of digital resources to achieve the goal, advanced ICT skills 8. CS - Creative skills 9. SR - Scientific research 10. EI - Interaction with potential employers and readiness for future job

The average indicators within the group of respondents according to the ten criteria components of socialization readiness level are shown in graphic form in Figure 2.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

311

7.3

Subject-specific competences

4.7

Personal strategic thinking skills

7.9 8.5

Effective communicative strategies

Time management

8.4 8.5

Decision-making Team-building

8.2 8

Involvement of digital resources to achieve the goal, advanced ICT skills Creative Skills Scientific Research

8.2

8.3

Interaction with potential employers and readiness for future job

Figure 2: Indicators of the socialization readiness concept (averaged data within the group of respondents)

Next, the obtained average and total indicators for each respondent were interpreted according to the socialization readiness level (Table 3). Table 3: Socialization readiness level (0-100 scores) No of respondent

Total scores (0-100)

Detected socialization readiness level (0-100 scores)

1st resp. 2nd resp. 3rd resp. 4th resp. 5th resp. 6th resp. 7th resp. 8th resp. 9th resp. 10th resp. 11th resp. 12th resp. 13th resp. 14th resp. 15th resp. Average

80,1 77,2 79,7 80,6 76,2 76,2 82,1 73,1 76,8 77,6 79,7 78,2 76,8 80,4 75,6 78,2

Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Average Good Good Good Good Good Good Average Good

Thus, the results of the verification revealed that in the group of respondents for the two-year implementation period of the bottom-up approach to the realization of the social content of higher education, the average indicator of the socialization readiness level within the group was 78.2. According to the assessment system developed and substantiated in the previous section of this study, this is equivalent to a good level of socialization readiness.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

312

The quantitative distribution of respondents according to the achieved levels is represented in graphic form in Figure 3. 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

2 0

≥ 49 scores – extremely low

50-65 scores – sufficient

66-75 – moderately

76-85 – rather good

86-100 – excellent

Number of Respondents

Figure 3: Distribution of respondents according to the achieved socialization readiness level

The results of the experiment can be evaluated positively. This is also substantiated by anonymous estimates of participation in the experiment, which were given by the participants after the final stage of verification (by secret ballot). A total of 13 out of 15 participants (86.7%) rated the consequences of participation in the experiment for the development of their own leadership and managerial skills within 8-10 points on the ten-point scale. The absence of respondents in the two left columns of the diagram (Figure 3) can be seen as proof of positive dynamics. At the average level, which can be interpreted as acceptable but not desirable, there are only two participants, which is equivalent to 13% of all students involved in the study. However, none of the students reached the excellent level, which can be explained by several reasons. In particular, it may be as a result of the level of socialization which is a priori difficult to achieve beyond the actual practice of professional activities in adult life, not limited to the traditions of university education. Lack of socialization practice inevitably affects the socialization readiness level. However, another explanation for this can be found in a rather rigid system of evaluation criteria. Nevertheless, the latter is considered to be well motivated, therefore adaptation of the evaluation system in order to achieve artificially modelled indicators is totally unacceptable. The whole process of conception, development, implementation and generalization of the experiment makes it possible to identify the following trends in the planning and implementation of a bottom-up approach by tertiary institutions: conditional differentiation of subject-based competencies and generic competencies; student’s personality is the center of the approach; implementation of the social component of higher education is organized with an emphasis on leadership and management skills that tend towards the paradigm of generic competencies, but cannot be implemented without the foundation subject-based competencies; the need for teamwork of university staff;

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

313

the need for active involvement of students’ extracurricular activities; the converse of the aforementioned trend is the extremely low level of shaping the social side of tertiary education, and in particular and within its scope → low level of formation of mindset to personal and professional development → low socialization readiness level → devaluation of higher education values in terms of realization of the social demand for the leader’s personality as a key agent of the modern digitalized and mass-oriented society in terms of the collective identity of society; and it is time consuming but necessary for both the staff of the tertiary institutions and for the student to put in significant efforts. For now, it is impossible to increase the number of students who can participate in specialized projects of personal and professional development and leadership. Because of this, only a limited number of students can be involved in such projects. The preference is given to the students with very high levels of academic achievement (which is the basis of generic competences formation). As for the recommendations for the preliminary adoption of the draft, it could be a good practice to involve the personnel in the paradigm of work of tertiary institutions, especially those trained for the implementation of the socialization readiness concept within the scope of extracurricular activities of the students. Another recommendation is to introduce the method of personal and professional self-development projects systematically from the first year of studying, but with explicit milestones after every two years of study in a tertiary institution. 4.2. Limitations and Implications for the Research In carrying out the planned experiment, the fundamental principles of the bottom-up approach were taken into account as specifically as possible. These principles were identified in the analysis of relevant scientific literature on the subject. Since it is a person-centered approach, it was impractical to involve large groups of participants in the initial experiment in this field as it would hinder the examination and consideration of individual characteristics of the implementation of the bottom-up approach. Because of this, it is somewhat premature to talk about comprehensive generalizations on the bottom-up approach as a way to perform pedagogical tasks regarding the social content of education. Also, a fully-fledged implementation of the bottom-up approach requires teamwork from a number of tertiary education specialists (teachers, administration, psychologists, student unions, active youth initiative centers, various student organizations) the obligatory deliberate conscious choice of the student, his/her mindset to the development and leadership, as well as strong levels of motivation, transformed into an activity component and selfadministration skills. This can be implemented through an appropriate effective system of communication among the various participants in the bottom-up educational process. Thus, the bottom-up approach is fairly resourceconsuming, and its implementation has a number of limitations. Without

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

314

acknowledging these, all the efforts of this innovative pedagogical technology can fail.

5. Discussion In the current context, it is necessary to focus scientific attention on the development of generic competencies during higher education (Mehta, 2020; Michell, 2016). The basis of generic competencies, which enable people to socialize after graduation from the tertiary institution, is leadership and management skills, and the general mindset of the individual regarding development and self-improvement. Generic competencies, developed on the basis of subject-based competencies, are the key to the socialization of the student and, accordingly, to the implementation of the social content of higher education. This takes place through the transfer into the social system of key values of the result-oriented building of relationships among various members of society. This also includes the ideal of a modern multifaceted personality, a person who is not only able to socialize in society, but can also adapt to it according to his/her ideals. The student comes into the social environment as a fully-fledged participant according to the logic of upward movement, which also means movement from the specific to the general. That is why it is appropriate to describe this process by means of a complex umbrella term, namely ‘a bottomup approach’. This assertion contradicts the need for a top-down teaching approach (Quain, 2018). Top-down teaching emphasizes instruction through context and relies in part on a student’s background and experience to acquire knowledge. The topdown approach is based on a solid foundation of the student’s specific subject skills; however, it does not help practicing these skills as opposed to the bottomup teaching approach which focuses on each individual student as a potentially crucial link in the social mechanism. On the other hand, focusing only on the bottom-up approach does not take into account context and generalization. Therefore, the ideal option for the implementation of the social content of higher education is an organic combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches (Quain, 2018). Neither top-down nor bottom-up strategies are appropriate for educational reform. What is required is a more sophisticated blend of the two (Fullan, 1994; Farrell, 2000). This is evidenced by the very mechanism of the organization of the presented experiment in the institutionalized formal framework of university education under the guidance of teachers, administration and other officials. Therefore, the principal position is that no bottom-up nor top-down approach could be a mono approach in the context of tertiary education. However, a bottom-up approach is the most relevant for the stimulation of personal skills development, such as leadership skills. The peculiarity of the bottom-up approach is the equal distribution of the delegated power of influence and the degree of significance among all participants in the learning process. The pedagogically-oriented categories of development and leadership are correlated in this direction in an interesting way. On the one hand, the very essence of leadership in any case tends towards the semantics of exclusivity and clearly dissonates with the semantics of

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

315

equality. However, the dominant idea of leadership qualities and development in the paradigm of understanding of the problem is not limited to individuals. Instead, leadership plays an expansive role in this context, creating a situation of constructive competitiveness that drives the whole mechanism of the educational process and the structure of student associations, thus implementing the principle of the development of everything. Despite the significant advances of mankind in science and technology, there are the invariable and even acutely relevant demands for a constructive solution by humanity of two basic issues: humanity’s two main conflicts – coexistence with nature and coexistence with each other (Fullan, 1994). Thus, the purpose of higher education as a social institution is not only a theoretical preparation for employment. Even the readiness to pursue a professional activity, which in itself has a clear social content, is impossible if generic competencies are ignored, as is often the case in Western higher education under the influence of the absolutization of subject-based competencies. It is much easier to develop subject-based competencies through the dominant idea of a top-down approach with an emphasis on collective (therefore, less time-consuming and labour-intensive) forms of organization of educational work (Bergan & Damian, 2010). In this study, the bottom-up approach functions as a central vector of higher education coverage of the social content of education. In the studied model of a bottom-up pedagogy, the participatory culture of each individual in the educational process and the principle of realization of the tasks of the institutes of modern higher education occur through a nonlinear synergy of members of the student-teaching community (Gómez-Rey et al., 2018). The social content of education is seen in the education of a fully-fledged, versatile, professionallyoriented personality of the applicant with leadership skills. Leadership skills are conceptualized in the positions that were taken into account during the experiment with the involvement of projects of personal and professional development and leadership of student applicants. These included subjectspecific competencies, personal strategic thinking skills, effective communicative strategies, time management, decision-making, team-building, involvement of digital resources to achieve a goal, advanced ICT skills, creative skills, scientific research, interaction with potential employers and readiness for future jobs. They form the socialization readiness level. Owing to the fact that the proposed model of a bottom-up approach is innovative and experimental, subsequent studies on the application of a bottom-up approach should either be based on the developed model, or a reasonable modification of it, especially taking into account the professional characteristics of the respondents. It is also appropriate to determine further the place of top-down approach in the formation of the social component of higher education, as well as the option of quality interaction of these two approaches.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

316

6. Conclusions and Recommendations As the conducted empirical research has shown, the bottom-up approach is the best way to implement the social component of higher education. The concept of the level of socialization readiness in order to measure the implementation of social content by the tertiary institutions was introduced. Having been implemented through the project of personal and professional development and leadership, the bottom-up approach to the realization of the social content of higher education has yielded positive results. A total of 13 out of 15 participants (86.7%) rated the consequences of participation in the experiment for the development of their own leadership and management skills within 8-10 points on the ten-point scale. The total absence of respondents at the extremely low and sufficient levels of socialization readiness is the manifestation of positive dynamics. At the average level, which can be interpreted as acceptable but not desirable, there were only two participants at the end of the experiment: this is equivalent to 13.3% of all students involved in the study. The practical value of the results of the experiment lies in the possibility of using the developed model as a universal one for the implementation of personalityoriented social content of higher education. Similarly, the data obtained within this study and potentially within other studies of a similar nature can form the basis for theoretical generalizations and filling the gaps in higher education through its focus on subject-based competencies and the consequent neglect of generic competencies. Further research may concern the perspectives of implementation as outlined in the Limitations section of this study. In particular, it would be worthwhile to investigate further the practicability and effectiveness of expanding the range of participants in projects of personal and professional self-development and leadership with the preservation of the essence and identified values of the bottom-up approach.

7. References Aleixo, A. M., Leal, S., & Azeiteiro, U. M. (2018). Conceptualization of sustainable higher education institutions, roles, barriers, and challenges for sustainability: An exploratory study in Portugal. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 1664-1673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.11.010 Bergan, S., & Damian, R. (2010). Higher education for modern societies: Competences and values. Council of Europe Publishing. https://rm.coe.int/higher-education-formodern-societies-competences-and-values/168075dddb Brailas, A., Koskinas, K., & Alexias, G. (2017). Teaching to emerge: Toward a bottom-up pedagogy. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1377506 British Council. (2021). Bottom up. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/bottom Bryson, C. (2016). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. International Journal for Academic Development, 21, 84-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1124966 Emrouznejad, A., & Yang, G. (2018). A survey and analysis of the first 40 years of scholarly literature in DEA: 1978-2016. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. Recent

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

317

developments on the use of DEA in the public sector, 61(March), 4-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2017.01.008 Eurostat. (2020). Educational attainment statistics. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php/Educational_attainment_statistics#Level_of_educational_ attainment_by_age Farrell, T. S. C. (2000). English teacher development: Top-down, bottom-up or both? Teaching and Learning, 21(1), 27-35. https://repository.nie.edu.sg/bitstream/10497/343/1/TL-21-1-27.pdf Fortunato, P., & Panizza, U. (2015). Democracy, education and the quality of government. Journal of Economic Growth, 20, 333-363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-015-9120-5 Fullan, M. (1994). Coordinating top-down and bottom-up strategies for educational reform. In R. J. Anson, (Ed.), Systemic reform: Perspectives on Personalizing Education (pp. 7-24). OERI, USDE. Galloway, N., & Numajiri, T. (2020). Global English language teaching: Bottom-up curriculum implementation. TESOL Quarterly, 54(1), 118-145. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.547 Gómez-Rey, P., Barbera, E., & Fernández-Navarro, F. (2018). Students' perceptions about online teaching effectiveness: A bottom-up approach for identifying online instructors’ roles. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 34(1), 116-130. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3437 Herodotou, C., Rienties, B., Verdin, B., & Boroowa, A. (2019). Predictive learning analytics ‘at scale’: Guidelines to successful implementation in higher education based on the case of the Open University UK. Journal of Learning Analytics, 6(1), 85-95. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2019.61.5 Khelifi, S. (2019). Interplay between politics and institution in higher education reform. European Journal of Educational Research, 8(3), 671-681. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1222293 Kopycka, K. (2021). Higher education expansion, system transformation, and social inequality. Social origin effects on tertiary education attainment in Poland for birth cohorts 1960 to 1988. High Education, 81, 643-664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00562-x Kromydas, T. (2017). Rethinking higher education and its relationship with social inequalities: Past knowledge, present state and future potential. Palgrave Commun, 3, 1. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-017-0001-8 Marian, J. (2016). Percentage of population with completed tertiary education by region in Europe. Jakub Marian’s Language Learning, Science and Art. https://jakubmarian.com/percentage-of-population-with-completed-tertiaryeducation-in-europe/ Mehta, Y., Fatehi, S., Kazameini, A., Stachl, C., Cambria, E., & Eetemadi, S. (2020). Bottom-up and top-down: Predicting personality with psycholinguistic and language model features. In C. Plant (Ed.), 2020 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) (pp. 1184-1189). CPS. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDM50108.2020.00146 Michell, M. (2016). Top-down vs. bottom-up education. Edmentum blog. https://blog.edmentum.com/sxswedu-2016-top-down-vs-bottom-education Moskovsky, C., Jiang, G., Libert, A., & Fagan, S. (2015). Bottom-up or top-down: English as a foreign language vocabulary instruction for Chinese university students. Tesol Quarterly, 49(2), 256-277. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.170

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

318

Nadoveza Jelić, O., & Gardijan Kedžo, M. (2018). Efficiency vs effectiveness: An analysis of tertiary education across Europe. Public Sector Economics, 42(4), 381-414. https://doi.org/10.3326/pse.42.4.2 Quain, S. (2018). The difference between top-down teaching & bottom-up teaching. Classroom Synonym. https://classroom.synonym.com/difference-betweentopdown-teaching-bottomup-teaching-12059397.html Salmi, J. (2017). The tertiary education imperative: Knowledge, skills and values for development. Sens Publishers. Singh, G., & Hardaker, G. (2017). Change levers for unifying top-down and bottom-up approaches to the adoption and diffusion of e-learning in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(6), 736-748. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1222293 Suraprajit, P. (2019). Bottom-up vs top-down model: The perception of reading strategies among Thai university students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 10(3), 454-460. https://doi.org/10.17507/JLTR.1003.07 Van Ta, C., & Zyngier, S. (2018). Knowledge-sharing barriers in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIS). International Journal of Knowledge Management (IJKM), 14(1), 51-70. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJKM.2018010104 Warr Pedersen, K., Pharo, E., Peterson, C., & Clark, G. A. (2017). Wheels of change in higher education: A collaborative, multi-stakeholder project as a vehicle for sustainability education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 18(2), 171-184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-10-2015-0172 Yusof, N., Hashim, R. A., Valdez, N. P., & Yaacob, A. (2018). Managing diversity in higher education: A strategic communication approach. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 28(1), 41-60. https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00003.yus

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

319

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 319-340, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.17

The Effects of Using a Case Study Method for Environmental Education Sergii D. Rudyshyn Olexander Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, Hlukhiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4483-9209 Inna A. Stakhova Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University, Vinnytsia, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8942-6248 Nataliia H. Sharata, Tetiana V. Berezovska and Tetiana P. Kravchenko Mykolayiv National Agrarian University, Mykolayiv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7474-4481 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8328-7016 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5818-8307 Abstract. The purpose of the study was to do a comparative analysis of the quality of the case study method for developing practical skills related to environmentally friendly behavior that is in line with the professional orientations of two student groups of different nonenvironmental specialties. Research methods included an ascertaining and forming experiment; questionnaires with open and closed questions; project modeling; collection and mathematical and statistical evaluation of empirical data; graphic methods of statistical data processing; comparative analysis of the findings; functional analysis of empirical data; analysis of causal relationships; and generalization and forecasting. According to the results of secondary diagnostics that involved the distribution of students by zones of success, revealed a significant increase in indicators of activity-behavioral aspects of professionally oriented environmental education. In Group I, 3.1% of students were in the area of undesirable indicators, and in Group II, it was 4.0%. The neutral area with confused tendencies was occupied by 33.8% of students of Group I, and 20.3% of Group II. The targeted area of clearly positive dynamics involved 63.1% of Group I, and of Group II, 75.7%. Further enquiry into the research issue should relate to enhancing the case study method in the framework of environmental education. Keywords: environmental education; eco-culture; tertiary education; primary school; case study method

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

320

1. Introduction Environmental education is an important area of didactics. Environmental education is conceptualized in light of the transformation of worldviews, from anthropocene-dominant, to that categorized in the paradigm of the innovative concept of planetary and global thinking (Rosa, 2017). The holistic direction of sustainable development, which has now been adopted by all developed countries, and which covers all spheres of human life, creates a foundation for adopting the principles of environmental education, not only for environmental professionals specifically, but also for globalized social spaces (Gevorgyan & Adanalyan, 2009; Podgaysky et al., 2015). It is worth remembering that sustainable development issues are given sufficient attention in the management and policy guidelines of leading international organizations. Suffice it to say that the UN declared the decade of 2005–2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (Buckler & Creech, 2014), with the aim of integrating basic theoretical principles and practical achievements in the field of sustainable development for all areas and at all levels of education. In particular, the point under discussion is the green economy and other measures to improve human well-being by reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. At the global level, these and other special events mainstream the need to care for natural resources and ensure conservation. This can be achieved only by consistently and systematically shaping environmental values, which could also be achieved through a system of environmental education. The motivation for such education is safeguarding the principles of ecological awareness and citizenship. However, there is less clarity about best practices and methods for teaching people about complex environmental problems (Pellaud et al., 2019). So, the very concept of environmental education in the paradigm of modern discourses is generalized to the broader concept of education for sustainable development. These concepts are, correspondingly, also positioned as integral elements of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which relates to quality education, and which is a key enabler of all other SDGs (European Commission, 2021). Thus, the very value of environmental education today is axiomatic. However, the issue of productive formation of environmental safety as a value and principle in practice remains undefined, as there is little clarity about best practices and methods for teaching about complex environmental problems (Wei et al., 2018, p. 2). That said, as the generalized experience shows, the current state of forming values relating to ecology in the young generation raises doubts about the stability of the formation of value-motivational and behavioral aspects of environmental consciousness, and needs considerable attention (Chen, 2019; Hassim, 2021; Suchanek & Szmelter-Jarosz, 2019). The search for and generalization of effective methods for forming positive attitudes towards the environment, and environmentally safe behavior by pupils and students at all education levels is all the more relevant because the European Commission is currently working on a recommendation on education for environmental

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

321

sustainability for learners of all ages and at all levels of education. The official policy document is due in 2021 (European Commission, 2021). The basic points of emphasis discussed by the experts in the training process are environmental sustainability, climate education, biodiversity, and related topics. The already approved policy document on the prospects and plans for the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development after 2019, to 2030, is the relevant document adopted at the UNESCO 40th General Conference (UNESCO, 2019).

2. Literature Review Since the practical side of the issue is still an urgent matter (Liu & Guo, 2018), the key priority is to find effective methods of teaching environmental education (Bakhtiar, 2016) –in both professional and non-professional general education. If, for environmentalists, the problems of the ecological plane are in the sphere of research and regulatory and executive interests, then, for non-ecologists, the issues of ecological education relate to mastering those norms of behavior, and forming suitable ideas about the world in general and the environment in which people live, thereby enabling quality socialization of the individual according to principles of tolerance, and encouraging non-harmful attitudes to natural resources. In particular, the Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP) (2021) discusses environmental education aimed at promoting positive youth development. Given the essence of environmental education and the practical side of the issue, which requires a comprehensive description and specific solutions, a relatively innovative case study method is relevant and pragmatically substantiated. Case study is a desirable research method, or research framework, within a pedagogical niche (Dunst & Hamby, 2015; Yin, 2018). Hence, Wei et al. (2018) express the need to switch from a purely passive lecture model of teaching, to active learning, especially in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), where the field of ecology also belongs. Undoubtedly, the initial understanding of the case study method as a research method (Yin, 2018), and the innovative-experimental interpretation of case study according to the paradigm of the pedagogical process, and as a method of organizing the educational process, have much in common in terms of purpose, learning outcomes and implementation procedure. Case study methodology in the context of a pedagogical niche is associated with project-based learning (AlBusaidi & Al-Seyabi, 2021). Currently, two methodological types of case study are distinguished (Figure 1) – the Harvard type (Andersen & Schiano, 2014) and the Manchester type (Ridder, 2020).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

322

Figure 1. Methodological schools of case study

The procedure for applying the case study method in the process of professional and pedagogical training of future specialists will resemble a simplified model of a case study as a thorough study in the world of science. Cases for use in environmental education can be created on the basis of life experience, research results, training toolkits, guidelines on the level of ecological status in the selected region (production and environmental consequences, local environmental problems), scientific articles and monographs, statistics data, Internet resources, etc. The case study method is considered to be rational and effective for implementing the content of environmental education (Mirghafoori et al., 2017; Tanik Önal, 2020). A case-study is described as a proactive approach to environmental issues. The case structure includes certain basic elements, as set out in Figure 2. The range of factors influencing the formation of green behavior was evaluated, with the aim of elucidating the fundamental factors that determine human behavior as it relates to the environment. It was found that human green behavior is determined by environmental education and personal factors. Conversely, interpersonal and motivational factors are less influential ways of shaping this behavior. On the official website of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (n.d.), a special article is devoted to the essence of environmental education, with a statement that involves more than information about the environment. Good quality environmental education invariably teaches critical thinking and enhances individuals’ problem-solving and decision-making skills.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

323

Figure 2: Typical case study structure, based on Ellet (2018)

In this context, the role of creating environmental awareness in school teachers, and ensuring they acquire environmental competencies, is becoming more important, and is conceptualized as continuous environmental education for teachers (Yachina et al., 2018). The key areas of environmental education that have great potential for implementation in the context of institutionalized education at all levels (from preschool to higher education), are (a) preservation of biodiversity, and (b) minimizing environmental pollution (Aznar-Díaz et al., 2019). Yachina et al. (2018) undertook a comparative study and found that students in regular classes have, by far, fewer established attitudes about environmental education than students in specialized environmental classes. The object of testing was primary school. A survey of teachers by Yachina et al. (2018) found that, in the organization of environmentally targeted educational work with students, teachers mostly use methods of a consultative nature, which prevents the formation of sustainable green ecology attitudes. These findings emphasize the urgent need to create special educational videos and interactive games to organize creative and exploratory work and to acquaint students with regional, national and global environmental agendas. In this regard, Boca and Saraçlı (2019) recommend that, in order to implement the principles of sustainable development, ecologically targeted educational activities should comprise multiple vectors, namely, education for the environment (lectures, good practice), education in the environment (trips, planting trees, cleaning water), education about the environment (sea disaster, storms, climate change), and education to (to sustain student’s opinions, to respond to daily environmental problems, to express freely their personal ideas and opinions, to be involved in critical situations and to find proper solutions in limited situations) the environment. In environmental education activities, the primary

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

324

emphasis should be on the environment itself (Abdullah et al., 2018). Therefore, it is advisable to conduct the training in accordance with the principles of green ecology, through direct human interaction with the environment on the basis of tolerance, mutual enrichment, relevant use of natural resources and their transformation into products and means of human life with due regard to minimizing harmful effects. In the framework of our study, we consider to be pertinent the work of AznarDíaz et al. (2019), which focuses on the issue of proper environmental training of future primary school teachers. The importance of testing students of pedagogical specialties in relation to the nature of their environmental attitudes is emphasized. Besides, there are benefits to organizing testing of the nature of environmental attitudes for certain large blocks by using different subscales, which are intended to address various issues of environmental protection. Positive indicators, in this case, will be not only linearly positive responses to the understanding and compliance in practice of environmentally friendly behavior and translation of eco-installations in the pedagogical space, but also the detection of positive interdependence among the different subscales. Environmental education is realized only when the acquired theoretical knowledge is embodied in the logic and organization of actions that promote environmental protection. Therefore, the mechanisms of self-awareness, control, and proactiveness of the subjects in the education process are important. When students are at the stage of studying at university, they have gained a great deal of freedom and independence from their parents (which implies the actualization of their own environmental attitudes), and it becomes possible to fully check the level of the quality of their mastery of the principles of environmental education. In the context of university education, the role of student leadership is significant, as it is an effective tool for addressing environmental concerns and promoting environmental education (Ramirez, 2017). The literature review on the topic of this study made it possible to identify promising areas of research, to validate the relevance of our study model, which involves a range of relevant concepts, and to probe and establish the connections that could bridge the gaps present in the application of various methods of case study in environmental education, and in particular, its practical perspective. 2.1. Purpose The purpose of the study was to do a comparative analysis by applying the case study method to the development of practical skills relating to environmentally friendly behavior in line with the professional orientation of two student groups of different specialties, for whom environmental education was part of their professional training. Addressing the purpose included following this plan to approach the research tasks:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

325

4) 5)

Studying the theoretical foundations of case study concepts and the main directions of developing environmental education, by drawing on the analysis of relevant scientific sources on the topic; Elaborating on a research model and selecting experimental groups of respondents in different specialties, specifically with the guideline that, for both groups of students, environmental education involves, on the one hand, a basic attitude and skill needed for organizing current activities and, on the other, a component of the behavioral and competence aspects of a professional orientation; Working out a training program for both groups, with an emphasis on a method for specific situations, and practically engaging the students in elaborating the environmental cases in the geographical area where they live; Implementing all stages of the study and consolidating statistics; Interpreting the results obtained and evaluating the trends identified in both groups, in accordance with the evaluation scale that had been devised; and Summarizing the results, drawing conclusions and outlining prospects for further research into the application of the case study method in professionally targeted environmental education.

3. Material and Methods General scientific, as well as special scientific methods were used in the process of performing the research tasks set. In particular, the special scientific methods were as follows: -

An ascertaining and formative experiment; Questionnaires with open and closed questions; Project modeling; Empirical data collection and mathematical and statistical evaluation; Graphical methods of statistical data processing; Comparative analysis of research results; Functional analysis of empirical data; Causal relationship analysis (summarizing the data, work materials and intermediate conclusions of the study, which had been built by experts in the form of an ishikawa diagram, creating an associative network; and obtaining intermediate conclusions by collective discussion technology and brainstorming); and The method of generalization and forecasting (while formulating the study findings and outlining promising areas of research in a relevant perspective).

The specific situations method – which a case study essentially is – involves a close interplay between previously acquired theoretical knowledge, and practice; in this way the line of experimental learning was built on the principle of active interaction with the environment in the area where the students lived and studied.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

326

3.1. Participants Two groups of respondents were enrolled to participate in the study. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of both groups are presented in Table 1. Table 1: Groups of respondents for case study method testing Group I No. of respondents Year of study Affiliation

Specialty

Group II 70 participants

32 students

38 students IV –

4th

Faculty of Natural and Physical and Chemical Education of Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University

year students Faculty of Preschool, Primary Education and Arts named after Valentyna Voloshyna of Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky State Pedagogical University 013 Primary Education

014 Secondary Education (Biology and human health) Bachelor education level

The participants in both groups were selected randomly, without taking into account any special selection criteria for academic performance, social and scientific activities, etc. Fourth-year students were enrolled for the experiment for both groups, because it is expected that, by the last year of study for the education qualification level of Bachelor, students have gained the set of personal and professional qualities necessary for professional activities. This means that the assessment results of the experimental activities of these students would make it possible to draw conclusions about the relevance and level of the organization of education strategies at the university and, in particular, within the faculty from which participants had been selected for the study. The choice of specialties was determined by the principles of expediency and competence. Environmental education, in the context of modern natural disasters caused by millennia of expansive human activities that are detrimental to the natural environment, is crucial for any niche specialist, as well as for any individual, from the earliest stages of conscious experience (which is why environmental education must be implemented from the stage of preschool education already). Environmental education for concerned citizens and socially active individuals is conceptualized within the realm of soft skills. However, for a number of specialties, environmental education is a component of the spectrum of hard skills, i.e., it is a fundamental professional competency; this was the case for the groups of respondents formed for our research. For biology students, environmental education is a basic discipline, which is also a priority subject that concerns research and the professional concept. For future primary school teachers, environmental education is in the field of hard skills, which are indispensable for various reasons, such as (a) Acquiring theoretical knowledge and developing practical pedagogical skills for teaching natural sciences,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

327

including that for the subject, "Exploring the World" (Grades 1–4); (b) Implementing the principles of sustainable education; and (c) Practical realization of the educational purpose of learning according to the principle of setting a good example. For the research into selected educational and content markers for biology students, and methodological markers of environmental education for future primary school teachers at the 4th stage of the experimental part (see Table 2), biology students had to perform a Individual Research Region-Targeted Project; future primary school teachers did the Region-Targeted Advanced Environmental Education Methodological Project (for primary school pupils). 3.2. Stages of the Experiment The process of preparing, implementing and summarizing the results of the experiment covered the period September 2020 to April 2021. Now and then, certain difficulties related to quarantine restrictions (introduced by the government due to the COVID-19 pandemic) arose, but the blended learning regime project did not to deviate significantly from the planned dynamics and, accordingly, it was possible to implement the project to the full extent. The individual stages of the study logics are laid out in Table 2. Table 2: Logics of conducting the experiment Number of the Stage and Duration Stage 1/ First week

Work Algorithm Description Group I

Group II

Preliminary diagnostics 50 points Environmental Awareness Quiz (CSCS, n.d.) (Appendix A, see https://drive.google.com/file/d /1sU2nInrVHT4JPF8YBlK6QMVg GribDDx5/view?usp=sharing)

Assessment Description

The main purpose was not to determine the overall summary indicator, but rather the relationship between the Environmental Awareness Test and the Environmental Safety Behavior Test – the relationship of theory to practice, abstract ideas about environmental trends and sustainable attitudes and behaviors.

50 points Environmental Safety Behavior Quiz (partially based on Petty (2014)). (Appendix B, see https://drive.google.com/file/d /1luz61IMQOJh_HQn6_Mb23Rn6 SmF6Y0w0/view?usp=sharing) Secondary diagnostics (after implementing the special environmental education with active case study method 4th Week of September 2019–May 2020 50 points Total 100 Stage 3/ Implementation of group The secondary diagnostics stage September environmental project included the implementation and 2020–April relevant evaluation of group and 2021 individual work. In Stage 3, group success in the project case study was taken into consideration. Overall, Stage 2/ Second week

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

328

Stage 4/ September 2020–April 2021

Individual Research RegionTargeted Project

though, success relied on the coordinated and successful work of each team member. However, in Stage 4 of the experiment, the emphasis was on individual achievements and, by analogy, the average result at the group level, was essential for evaluation. Specialty-oriented assignment 50 points RegionTargeted Advanced Environmental Education Methodological Project (for primary school pupils)

3.2.1. Preliminary Diagnostics The two initial stages were the stages of preliminary diagnosis, which determined the dominant ideas of Stages 3 and 4. Therefore, in fact, about 1–2 weeks of preparation passed after Stages 1–2 and before the implementation of the course that involved case study application. Special environmental education with active case study method implementation For future primary school teachers, the case study involved teaching of the course "Introduction to Science", and for biology students, the course "Biogeography and Nature Protection". The specific situations method was implemented, and engaged the participants in activities such as the following: -

Monitoring the ecological situation in Ukraine and worldwide, studying highly publicized situations, analyzing events and determining perspectives; Monitoring the ecological situation in different regions, drawing up maps to distinguish the places and positions that call for immediate environmental decisions; Cooperating with relevant departments of the City Council; Students and teachers keeping individual journals of ecological activity, followed by a monthly group discussion; Group and individual analysis of hypothetical ecological cases (see examples in Appendix C, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1luz61imqojh_hqn6_Mb23Rn6SmF6Y0 w0/view?Usp=sharing); Arranging environment-related events at the local level (for example, flash mob "day without plastic", workshop on "Eco-safe behavior", various activities dedicated to Earth Day, etc.).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

329

The

work on the case (Appendix C, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1luz61imqojh_hqn6_Mb23Rn6SmF6Y0 w0/view?Usp=sharing) included stages such as Integration into the situation (collection and generalization of brief theoretical information and factual statistical data); Description (model) of the situation; Drawing up a plan – developing questions and tasks for case study; In the case of organizing joint activities (group case study): a. Collection of additional information; b. Discussion of the case situation and adoption of possible solutions; and c. Analysis and reflection on joint activities (presentation and discussion of results), discussion.

The technique of working with case studies was mostly based on a mixed method approach (Harvard and Manchester schools – see Figure 1): students were always required to find, not one, but a range of possible solutions, while the teacher's facilitated activities. However, after a discussion of all possible options, preference was given to one or two options with the greatest potential, with an explanation of what exactly justifies their exclusivity and greater effectiveness. 3.2.2. Secondary Diagnostics In accordance with the principles of practicality and direct interaction with the environment, the synthesis of individual and group approaches to understanding environmental accountability, and environmentally beneficial and safe operation, Stage 3 involved the implementation of a group environmental project. To execute this stage, respondents were divided into several subgroups of 5–6 participants each (Group I: 6 subgroups; Group II: 7 subgroups). Each subgroup elected a leader. Each subgroup was randomly assigned a practical environmental project on a regional scale. In general, the work included areas of activity such as the following: - Streamlining the city's park fund: 2–3 groups of participants were expected to work in large city parks, with due regard to each park’s territorial location, so that, after the experimental part, it would be possible to assess the effectiveness of each team. Work descriptions were provided, and students had to clean the park, improve and ameliorate the territory, cultivate and handle decorative flowers and plants, and service the park infrastructure. - Work with ponds and surrounding area: the logic of work was similar to parks servicing. Each subgroup had to present to the assigned supervisor a work plan and, then, regularly report on the progress of its implementation. Given that parks and squares, as well as reservoirs and adjacent territories, are recreational places for

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

330

city residents, environmental education events were also organized, which primarily engaged the youth and children. Table 2 shows that, in practice, in accordance with the peculiarities of educational and professional activities of students of both groups, the case study method was synergized with project-based learning. Doing so enabled not only maximum hands-on interaction with the environment, and practicing a number of practical environmental education skills, but also shaping a creative and exploratory approach to perceiving the social perspective of environmental education. In Stage 4, it was envisaged that respondents would be assigned tasks that were differentiated according to their specialties. For biology students, this was the Individual Research Region-Targeted Project, and for future primary school teachers, the Region-Targeted Advanced Environmental Education Methodological Project (for primary school pupils). Research topics were approved by scientific supervisors and guideline developers. For biologists (Group I) the emphasis was on the scientific and practical parts of the problem. The directions encompassed the thematic field, from a search for effective methods of promoting an "eco" lifestyle, to developing practical, stepby-step guidelines to minimize the harmful effects of humans on the ecosystem of the city and suburbs, where respondents were able to localize their projects. For future primary school teachers (Group II), the emphasis was on finding ways to organize environmental education for primary school students. Projects had to be presented in theoretical and practical forms. Respondents in Group II also had the opportunity to test the effectiveness of research findings and creative work during school internships. Therefore, theoretical methodological ideas on eco-learning through direct interaction with students in the process of carrying out joint environmental projects were implemented practically. In particular, while engaging in activities such as preparing educational video projects to promote the eco-style; cleaning and upgrading school grounds; producing birdhouses and feeders; designing school gardens and orchards (projects in the style of a ‘school mini-farm’); committing to avoiding using plastic goods (engaging the entire families of students, screening video reports and practical recommendations for replacing plastic with available ecomaterials); manufacturing educational eco-toys for school needs and orphanages; sewing shoppers, etc. 3.3. Evaluation System A success scale was developed to interpret the experimental data (Table 3).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

331

Table 3. System for evaluating educational achievements with application of the case study method and foundations of project-based learning Range of points 0–29 points 30–44 points 45–64 points 65–74 points 75–89 points 90–100 points

Success level

Assessment of development trends

Extremely low Low (Needs profound improvement)

Area of undesirable indicators

Sufficient

Neutral area with confused tendencies

Rather good High Advanced

Targeted area of clearly positive dynamics

4. Results This section will reflect the results obtained according to the logic of the stages of the experimental research. 4.1. Preliminary Diagnostics The results of the input diagnosis are summarized in Table 4. The results obtained are graphically presented in Figure 3. Table 4: Results of the preliminary diagnostics implemented for Group I and Group II Level of Success

Extremely low Low Sufficient Rather good High Advanced Extremely low Low Sufficient Rather good High Advanced

Group I N % Environmental Awareness Quiz 0 0.0% 3 9.3% 6 18.8% 9 28.1% 8 25.0% 6 18.8% Environmental Safety Behavior Quiz 1 3.0% 5 15.6% 10 31.3% 8 25.0% 5 15.6% 3 9.4%

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Group II N

0 4 9 12 7 6

0.0% 10.5% 23.7% 31.6% 18.4% 15.8%

2 5 12 10 6 3

5.3% 13.1% 31.6% 26.3% 15.8% 7.9%

332

Figure 3: Results of preliminary diagnostics of both groups of respondents according to the indicators of Environmental Awareness and Environmental Safety Behavior

The results of comparative characteristics for Group I according to achievement categories on the Environmental Awareness Quiz indicate undesirable indicators in 9.3% of respondents, and in Group II, in 10.5% (with no results at Extremely Low in either group). Performance at the level of neutral development trend with confused tendencies was 18.8% for Group I, and 23.7% for Group II. The level of targeted area of clearly positive dynamics, was represented by 71.9% in Group I, and 65.8% in Group II. According to the results of the Environmental Safety Behavior Quiz, the area of undesirable indicators for Group I was 18.6%, and for Group II, 18.4%. Neutral area with confused tendencies for Group I was 31.3%, and for Group II, 31.6%. Targeted area of clearly positive dynamics was only 50.0% for both Group I and Group II. From Table 4 and Figure 3 the trends for both groups can be traced clearly: (1) The area of undesirable indicators for both groups is significantly larger for Environmental Safety Behavior than for Environmental Awareness – indeed, for Group I, it is double. This indicates that the behavioral aspects of the quality of implementing environmental education should be emphasized during the further organization of environmental education. (2) The area of undesirable indicators increases significantly for both groups of respondents when the results of Environmental Awareness and Environmental Safety Behavior are compared. (3) The targeted area of clearly positive dynamics for the same indicators decreases accordingly. (4) The respective graphs for Environmental Safety Behavior of Group I and Group II are almost superimposed, which indicates the similar success dynamics of the formation of these indicators in both groups of respondents.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

333

(5)

(6)

(7)

For Environmental Awareness, the upper coordinates of the graphs of both groups are localized at the level of Rather Good, whereas, for Environmental Safety Behavior (an order of magnitude lower), the coordinates tend to a level between Low and Sufficient. Environmental Awareness graphs for Group I and Group II are likely to differ, especially in relation to level of Environmental Awareness, which was 25.0% for Group I and only 18.4% for Group II – a difference of 6.6%. Points 5 and 6 may indicate a difference in the effectiveness of teaching the theoretical foundations of environmental education, and the psychological formation of general ideas about the importance of environmental education for the different groups. However, by every measurement, neither the level of attitudes (which involves not only the level of understanding, but also the level of influence of this understanding on the corresponding correlation of behavior), nor the behavioral aspect (Environmental Safety Behavior) of the groups differ significantly – in both cases these aspects are equally undeveloped and in need of enhancement.

As mentioned, the stage of preliminary diagnostics is crucial for the implementation of the special environmental education activity involving the case study method, for the following two reasons. It will affect the results of secondary diagnostics, which is focused mainly on diagnosing the practical side of environmental education, and ensures harmonization with the problem areas identified. Description and careful analysis of the process of special environmental education through active case study method implementation, which was introduced in the tested groups of respondents, can become material for the organization of a separate theoretical and generalizing study. The main points and highlights of this stage were described in Section 3. In the framework of current empirical research, we were rather concerned with the results of the secondary diagnostics, which indicate, directly, the effectiveness of the elaborated and implemented program. 4.2. Secondary Diagnostics The results of the secondary diagnosis are summarized and presented in Table 5 and Table 6. Table 5: Results of the secondary diagnostics in Group I and Group II after casestudy-centred environmental education (diversified by stages / type of control assignments) Level of Success Extremely Low Low Sufficient Rather Good High

Group I

Group II

N % N Group Environmental Project Implementation* 0.0% 0.0% 2 subgroups 33.3% 1 subgroup 2 subgroups 33.3% 3 subgroups 1 subgroup 16.7% 2 subgroups

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

% 0.0% 0.0% 14.3% 42.8% 28.6%

334

Advanced

Extremely Low Low Sufficient Rather Good High Advanced

1 subgroup 16.7% 1 subgroup 14.3% Specialty-oriented Assignment Region-targeted Advanced Individual Research RegionEnvironmental Education targeted Project Methodological Project (for primary school pupils) 0.0% 0.0% 2 6.2% 3 7.9% 11 34.4% 10 26.3% 9 28.1% 13 34.2% 6 18.8% 8 21.1% 4 12.5% 4 10.5%

Note: At this stage, there is no data on the number of respondents localized at a certain level. The general assessment for each subgroup was available and the percentgess were calculated accordingly.

Table 6: Results of the secondary diagnostics in Group I and Group II after casestudy-centred environmental education (generalized and averaged) Level of Success Extremely Low Low Sufficient Rather Good High Advanced

Group I 0.0% 3.1% 33.8% 30.7% 17.8% 14.6%

Group II 0.0% 4.0% 20.3% 38.5% 24.8% 12.4%

According to the results of secondary diagnostics, the findings according to zoning were distributed as follows: in Group I, the area of undesirable indicators was 3.1%, and in Group II, 4.0% (no results were yielded at the level of Extremely Low for either group). Neutral area with confused tendencies in Group I was 33.8%, and in Group II, 20.3%. Targeted area of clearly positive dynamics in Group I was 63.1%, and in Group II, 75.7%. To trace the trends clearly, it is expedient to compare the findings with the results of the preliminary diagnosis stage, namely the second stage of the experimental study, which assessed the activity-behavioral aspect of students’ eco-style (Environmental Safety Behavior). The results are presented graphically in Figure 4. It shows distinctly that the situation changed after the implementation of case-study-centred environmental education. Activitybehavioral attitudes (professionally targeted, and general) strengthened significantly. Group II dynamics is particularly positive: the targeted area of clearly positive dynamics increased immediately, by 25.7%. For the same group, the range of the neutral area with confused tendencies narrowed significantly, to be exact, by 10.1%. Equally significantly, the range of the undesirable indicators area declined in both groups: at least 4.6 times. Overall, at the final stage of diagnosis, Group II had better results than Group I (Figure 4). The consolidated data provides evidence of the success of the case-study-centred environmental education methodology that had been developed by the authors.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

335

Figure 4: Final results

5. Discussion The results of the study reveal a predicted dissonance between the theoretical and practical levels of consciousness regarding understanding and implementing the principles of eco-conservation and environmentally friendly behavior. At the theoretical level, students of both groups showed high-level cognizance of the basic principles of environmental education. However, their awareness of the theory was not supported by activity-behavioral manifestations, because theoretical knowledge was not transformed into personal and professionally oriented attitudes, which determine the practical side of an individual’s life, and harmonizes it with the level of theoretical consciousness (Lerner & Richey, 2005; Mirghafoori et al., 2017). Experience promotes learning and learning results in changes in behavior (Ramirez, 2017). We developed a scheme for the implementation of a training and experimental project that involved the application of the case study method, as well as an evaluation system that took into account (a) group and individual success aspects in the learning process, and (b) competence skills. Case-method-centred training integrated theoretical and practical knowledge and skills required by standard educational and professional programs. In contrast, the synergistic and mutually enriching development of the students’ creative potential, research, and organizational and managerial activities was also emphasized. On the one hand, this corresponds with the focus of innovative pedagogical models for teaching and learning for developing higher-order thinking skills and, on the other hand, realizes the need to adjust classical schemes for assessing students’ academic success, to incorporate innovative tactics. Therefore, overall, the method of active implementation of the case study method also entails the problem field of educational effectiveness research, which concentrates on the factors that impact education outcomes (Sasson et al., 2018; Tanik Önal, 2020). However, there is still the problem of correlation with, reflection on and

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

336

influence of students’ success in performing experimental forms of organized educational activities (enhanced implementation of creative pedagogy (Sasson et al., 2018) for assessing overall results of students’ academic success). After all, despite the successful completion of all tasks by students, active involvement in the system of experiments, even by students with the least success, the current system of evaluation of respondents at the university is still severely limited by curricula and by the need to settle academic debts by passing traditional exams and tests that are regulated by educational and vocational training programs. In fact, overcoming such dissonance can provide insight for further research. The problem we detected is articulated by the current study, and suggests an approach that could be considered by future research. The problem needs profound theoretical and practical work. Moreover, we believe that there is a strong need to develop a system of coordination between curricular and extracurricular activities (e.g., students’ research work), to that the various activities make at least equal contributions to the results informing students’ academic success. Doing so would require serious institutional directive work, with the aim of fixing the problem. This topic could probably be even be an urgent pedagogical assignment for the whole national and international tertiary education community. The finding of the secondary diagnosis that the results of Group II proved to be better than that of Group I, can be explained by a range of dependent and independent factors, the assessment of which requires thorough research. However, Group I respondents reported experiencing greater difficulty with the Individual Research Region-targeted Project. In such a way, the major problem the participants of Group I had was the problem of implementing the Individual Research Region-targeted Project. We assume that students with environmental specialties need to pay more attention to scientific work, especially during tasks that relate to solving environmental problems in their regions. We suppose, also, that the additional work of university teachers in this area (teaching students the methods of conducting practically targeted applied research work) would result in a higher success rate in this group of students. The respondents of Group II organized high-quality cooperation with the school and directly with the school’s pupils, and enlisted the support of parents as well. They even succeeded when additional financial resources were needed to implement methodological projects for instilling eco-friendly behavior, and to promote ecofriendly attitudes in primary school pupils. In general, the issue of funding the environmental projects that were initiated as part of the experiment is important. When they had to effect improvements to parks and water areas, the respondents faced problems relating to financial assistance to realize their plans (Ramirez, 2017). For example, they had to buy flower seeds, work equipment and plant stock. Future research should consider how to finance the students' environmental projects from either university funds, special eco-funds, or city and settlement council budgets. The organization of group work at Stage 3 yielded particular practical value. It is advisable to create special student organizations that have strong potential to be

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

337

effective partners in environmental advocacy and promoting protection (Abdullah et al., 2018; Ramirez, 2017). To enhance the effective participation of students in environmental education and protection, higher education institutions could initiate the creation of extra student development funds to address the fiscal constraints faced by environment-related student organizations. In specialized student organizations, as demonstrated by the logic of the implementation of Stage 3, it is expedient to maintain a hierarchical organization headed by an authoritative leader. Any initiatives and activities organized to support the trends of eco-conservation and eco-friendly human behavior in the environment should be encouraged at an administrative level of the university, through financial acknowledgement, by taking into account the successes of eco-targeted behavior in the formation of reporting on the academic performance of socially active students (Ramirez, 2017). An essential consideration should relate to the intricacies of implementing environmental education based on the principle of focusing on case study perspectives (Lerner & Richey, 2005). This method provides invaluable insights into the formation of practical skills and provides a deeper understanding of the nature of environmental problems. It also helps to prepare students for the direct implementation of professional activities after university graduation (Andersen & Schiano, 2014; Aznar-Díaz et al., 2019). However, using specific situations does not provide fair assessment of students’ learning activities. Furthermore, fear of failure and receiving a negative score damages the usefulness of case studies (Lerner & Richey, 2005). During the introduction of case studies, the teacher performs the role of facilitator, and is a catalyst for constructive decisions, a coordinator, and a referee. These roles require preliminary training for all participants in the environmental learning process. The key factor in solving cases should not be only the desire to give the right answer – other important elements are the ideological brainstorm, the competitive impulse, leaders’ behavior, and training students on soft and hard skills. The very essence of environmental problems is that they cannot be grasped fully on a synchronous scale only: understanding the essence of an environmental problem requires a diachronic causal study, as well as individual ability to see prospects. Environmental problems are not always spontaneous, but arise from a systematic disregard of environmental protection principles. Consequently, the logic of case processing should always involve a comprehensive synchronousdiachronic context, in fact, solving these problems calls for special theoretical training as a minimum requirement. The positive dynamics revealed by the outcomes of the research study is a consequence of syncretism and methodological symbiosis of two related modern methods: the case study method, and project-based learning (Rashid et al., 2019, Sasson et al., 2018).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

338

6. Limitations The findings of the study are partly limited by the small sample size. Yet, in the paradigm of the elaborated research model, it was not expedient to involve a larger number of respondents, due to a physical inability to engage qualitatively and entirely in all the stages, and to implement the principles of interactive subject-subject learning. The once-off nature of this study precludes us from expressly claiming that we identified certain trends regarding the logic and consequences of implementing a study case approach in environmental education. However, the findings clearly provide valuable evidence that can be used to verify the conclusions made in the process of organizing further research on the proposed model.

7. Conclusion The application of the case study method not only made it possible to stimulate students' learning activities and increase basic professional competencies, but also minimized the gap between their theoretical understanding of environmental issues and the implementation of the principles of environmentally friendly and ecofriendly behavior in the lives of both groups of students. The students’ proactiveness, their participation in the public life of the city, and their organizational skills also increased significantly due to their participation in the study. The results yielded during the secondary diagnostics – the outcome according to the distribution of students by zones of success – shows a significant increase in indicators of the activity-behavioral aspects of professionally oriented environmental education. Thus, in Group I, the area of undesirable indicators is equivalent to 3.1%, and in Group II, 4.0% (no students of either group performed at the level of Extremely Low). The zone of neutral with confused tendencies was occupied by 33.8% of Group I , and 20.3 of Group II. The targeted area of clearly positive dynamics comprised 63.1% of Group I, and 75.7% of Group II. Overall, compared to the results of the input diagnostics, the zone of negative indicators decreased almost fivefold, and the zone of positive dynamics increased by 25% in the case of Group II. Further research on the topic could relate to enhancing the use of the case study method in the context of environmental education. This area of enquiry will serve to minimize the gap between the theoretical and activity-practical levels of students’ attitudes to their professional and general training, in accordance with environmental trends that are currently in the limelight in scientific and journalistic discourse.

8. References Abdullah, A., Zakaria, S. Z. S., & Razman, M. R. (2018). Environmental education through outdoor education for primary school children. International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation, 6(1), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.17576/jatma2018-06SI1-05 Al-Busaidi, S., & Al-Seyabi, F. (2021). Project-based learning as a tool for studentteachers’ professional development: A study in an Omani EFL teacher education

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

339

program. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20(4), 116–136. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.4.7 Andersen, E., & Schiano, B. (2014). Teaching with cases: A practical guide. Harvard Business Press Books. Aznar-Díaz, I., Hinojo-Lucena, F. J., Cáceres-Reche, M. P., Trujillo-Torres, J. M., & Romero-Rodríguez, J. M. (2019). Environmental attitudes in trainee teachers in primary education. The future of biodiversity preservation and environmental pollution. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(3), 362. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16030362 Bakhtiar, A. M. (2016). Curriculum development of environmental education based on local wisdom at elementary school. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 15(3), 20–28. Boca, G. D., & Saraçlı, S. (2019). Environmental education and student’s perception, for sustainability. Sustainability, 11(6), 1553. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061553 Buckler, C., & Creech, H. (2014). Shaping the future we want - UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (final report). UNESCO. Chen, K. H. (2019). Transforming environmental values for a younger generation in Taiwan: A participatory action approach to curriculum design. Journal of Futures Studies, 23(4), 79–96. CSCSWizard.com CSCS. (n.d.). Environmental awareness and waste control. CSCSWizard. http://www.cscswizard.co.uk/cscs_environmental_awareness_and_waste_cont rol.php Dunst, C. J., & Hamby, D. W. (2015). A case study approach to secondary reanalysis of a quantitative research synthesis of adult learning practices studies. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 13(3), 181–191. Ellet, W. (2018). The case study handbook: A student's guide. Harvard Business Press Books. European Commission. (2021). Environmental sustainability – education and training. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-yoursay/initiatives/12985-Education-for-environmental-sustainability_en Gevorgyan, S., & Adanalyan, A. (2009). A comparison of ecological education and sustainable development education. In S. Allen-Gil, L. Stelljes, & O. Borysova (Eds.), Addressing global environmental security through innovative educational curricula. NATO science for peace and security series C: Environmental security (pp. 57–61). Springer. Global Environmental Education Partnership. (2021). Rocking the boat: Using environmental education to promote positive youth development. https://thegeep.org/learn/case-studies/rocking-boat-using-environmentaleducation-promote-positive-youth-development Hassim, A. (2021). Why younger generations are more willing to change in the name of sustainability. Greenbiz. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-youngergenerations-are-more-willing-change-name-sustainability Lerner, L. D., & Richey, L. H. (2005). The case study method: a step-by-step approach for analyzing cases and evaluating students. College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal, 1(2), 27–34. Liu, S., & Guo, L. (2018). Based on environmental education to study the correlation between environmental knowledge and environmental value. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5d8e/35381c2f69f37afd40688e93c2a45eed4851 .pdf Mirghafoori, S. H., Andalib, D., & Keshavarz, P. (2017). Developing green performance through supply chain agility in manufacturing industry: a case study approach.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

340

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(5), 368–381. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1411 Pellaud, F., Ndiaye, A., Khushik, F., & Diemer, A. (2019). Environmental education to education for sustainable development: challenges and issues. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 9(1), 1–14. Petty, L. (2014, December 1). Environmental awareness quiz. High Speed Training. https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/environmental-awareness-quiz-2/ Podgaysky, E., Shkaruba, A., Zondervan, R., & Kordonets, S. (2015). Governance of global environmental change: towards a multidisciplinary discussion in tertiary environmental education in the former USSR and Mongolia, ReSET Project report 2011–2014. Earth System Governance Project. Ramirez, R. I. S. (2017). Student leadership role for environmental protection. Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 5(2), 204–211. Rashid, Y., Rashid, A., Warraich, M. A., Sabir, S. S., & Waseem, A. (2019). Case study method: A step-by-step guide for business researchers. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406919862424 Ridder, H.-G. (2020). Case study research: Approaches, methods, conribution to theory. Volume 12 of Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden. Rainer Hampp Verlag. https://doi.org/ 10.5771/9783957103635-155 Rosa, W. (2017). A call for planetary thinking in theory and knowledge development. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 31(2), 93. https://doi.org/10.1891/15416577.31.2.93 Sasson, I., Yehuda, I., & Malkinson, N. (2018). Fostering the skills of critical thinking and question-posing in a project-based learning environment. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 29, 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.08.001 Suchanek, M., & Szmelter-Jarosz, A. (2019). Environmental aspects of generation Y’s sustainable mobility. Sustainability, 11(11), 3204. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113204 Tanik Önal, N. (2020). Relationship between the attitudes of pre-school teacher candidates towards environmental issues and their self-efficacy beliefs about environmental education. Review of International Geographical Education Online, 10(4), 706–727. UNESCO. (2019). Framework for the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) beyond 2019. https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/sites/default/files/40_c23_framework_fo r_the_implementation_of_esd_beyond_2019.pdf United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d). What is environmental education? https://www.epa.gov/education/what-environmental-education Wei, C. A., Brown, M., & Wagner, M. (2018). Pursuing the promise of case studies for sustainability and environmental education: Converging initiatives. Case Studies in the Environment, 2(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2018.001065 Yachina, N. P., Khuziakhmetov, A. N., & Gabdrakhmanova, R. G. (2018). Formation and development of the regional system of continuous environmental education of a teacher. Ekoloji Dergisi, 27(106), 1315-1322. Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications. Sage.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

341

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 341-359, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.18

Exploring Vocational High School Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention: Preliminary Study Darma Rika Swaramarinda Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1588-4569 Badrul Isa, Norhayati Mohd Yusof and Mohd Ali Bahari Abdul Kadir Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7491-8223 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0244-3505 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9488-2547

Abstract. This paper presents an ongoing doctoral study exploring the entrepreneurial intention of pilot public vocational high school students in entrepreneurship development programs in Jakarta, Indonesia. This paper is a preliminary study that employed two methods of data collection, namely questionnaires and interviews. The method allows for triangulation of the data and to establish the reliability and validity of data. Due the Covid-19 pandemic, this study was conducted online to garner information from the participants. The discussion in this paper focuses on the data derived from a questionnaire. Using a purposive sampling method, open-ended questions were posed to 111 students and 60 alumni. Interviews were also conducted with three students using open-ended questions. Data were analyzed inductively by using thematic analysis. The five stages of Creswell's qualitative data analysis were used: arranging and preparing data; reading all data; coding the data; connecting the themes; and interpreting the meaning of those themes. The various themes and sub-themes from the questionnaires and interviews have identified several sub-themes. The findings of the study may be of interest to governments, schools, and researchers. The results will enable those parties to determine the entrepreneurial intention needed to prevent and reduce unemployment among vocational high school graduates. Keywords: entrepreneurial intention; entrepreneurial self-efficacy; preliminary study; social support; vocational high school

1. Introduction Unemployment is an issue concerning policymakers in both developed and developing countries. According to statistics from Asian Trading Economies

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

342

(2020), Indonesia's unemployment rate is 4.99%, higher than Thailand's 1%, Vietnam's 2.15%, and Singapore's 2.4%. The Indonesian government has been introducing policies on entrepreneurship education from primary schools to higher education in order to resolve and minimize the number of unemployed people in Indonesia, as well as to increase their entrepreneurial motivation, which they hope may lead to entrepreneurs who focus on creating employment (Mahendra et al., 2017). Marič et al. (2010) proposed that the encouragement of entrepreneurial thought leads to the creation of an entrepreneurial mindset. The governments of different countries must develop their own entrepreneurial economies. A similar unemployment issue occurred in Hong Kong. School graduates who are unable to pursue tertiary education at universities or other institutions will almost certainly seek employment but there are not many career opportunities available for them. The Hong Kong government addressed the unemployment crisis by creating temporary jobs, but that has not always worked. As a result, entrepreneurship education is critical in a variety of ways (Cheung, 2016). In order to address the problem of unemployment, awareness of or knowledge about entrepreneurial intention must be instilled in young people, beginning in the Indonesian school curriculum, especially at the vocational high school level. Therefore, the Indonesian government has made some efforts to promote students' entrepreneurial intentions (Genoveva, 2020), including entrepreneurship education regulations, which include: a) Specifying that that entrepreneurship subjects are taught for two years in classes 11 and 12 for seven hours a week and eight hours a week, as stipulated by the Director-General of Basic Education and the Middle Ministry of Education and Culture's Regulation No.07/ D.D5/KK/2018 on the medium school curriculum framework for vocational school 2018 (MoEC, 2018). b) A strategic Plan for the Ministry of Education and Culture, 2020-2024 (MoEC, 2020). The Ministry of Education and Culture's strategies for improving students' job readiness include ensuring the development of technological skills, and emphasizing the development of soft skills, instilling work culture values, and teaching entrepreneurial skills in the vocational high school curriculum and vocational training. Thus, an improvement in the number of vocational education graduates who obtain employment and start a business within one year increases (MoEC, 2020). However, the entrepreneurial intention among vocational high school students remains poor, as evidenced by the fact that only 8.22% of vocational high school graduates became entrepreneurs in February 2019 (Indonesian Central Statistics Agency, 2020). The regulations support entrepreneurship education, such as that entrepreneurship subjects are taught for seven to eight hours per week for vocational high school students but entrepreneurial intention is still low. This research is significant to discover the entrepreneurial intention amongst

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

343

vocational high school students. This is a working paper that aims to present a preliminary study exploring the entrepreneurial intention of vocational high school students in pilot public vocational high schools for entrepreneurship development programs. A population of 111 students in class 12, 60 alumni were surveyed, and three students were interviewed.

2. Literature Review 2.1 Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) The researchers laid the theoretical groundwork for understanding entrepreneurship, which is the basis of this research. In research, and in daily life, readers often hear and use the word entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is described as the ability and willingness to extend, coordinate, and manage a commercial enterprise task, while taking on any associated risks in order to generate profit (Nguyen, 2020). Linan and Chen (2006) described entrepreneurship as the process of conceiving, planning, launching, and innovating a business opportunity into a potentially large undertaking, in a complex and volatile environment. Based of those definitions, entrepreneurship is described in this study as the process of creating, managing, and retaining business opportunities through innovation, while also ensuring that the business is unquestionably profitable. As far as intention is concerned, it denotes a state of mind that directs a person's attention toward a specific target in order to obtain something. Entrepreneurial intention deals with a person's mindset, which leads to the creation and implementation of a new commercial venture or business concept (Yıldırım et al., 2016). An entrepreneurial intention can be thought of as a method for locating information that can be used to achieve the goal of starting a company. As compared to someone who does not want to start a new company, someone with a tendency to do so will have a greater willingness (Muhammadsyah & Hut, 2016). In more depth, the entrepreneurial intention is regarded as the first step in developing a long-term business relationship (Lee et al., 2011). Fensi (2018) concurred that entrepreneurial intention is the first step in establishing a longterm company. Entrepreneurial intention stands for the first steps in starting a company. Entrepreneurial intention, according to Walipah and Naim (2016), represents a person's dedication to begin a new company and should be taken into account when learning about the entrepreneurial process and launching a new venture. Entrepreneurial intention, according to Suharti and Sirine (2012), is a central problem that requires attention in understanding the entrepreneurial process. In this case, entrepreneurial intention represents a person's dedication to starting a new company. Based on those definitions, this study defines entrepreneurial intention as the initial step a person will take solidify a business concept that will be carried out in the long term or a desire to create a new business. Hartigan (2010) stated that "self-efficacy and social support as salient antecedents

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

344

of intention formation to be entrepreneur". The intentions to be an entrepreneur develop from perceptions of desirability, which are affected by emotional and cognitive attitudes (empathy and moral judgment), and from perceptions of feasibility, which are instigated by 'enabling' factors Those factors may be selfefficacy, which implies a self-directed enabling process, and social support, which refers to another directed process and a second enabling force in this process. 2.2 Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE) Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a valuable concept for understanding human behavior. According to studies, it has a significant impact on determining a character's preference, degree of effort, and perseverance (Chen et al., 2004). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a method of growing an individual's entrepreneurial capability to acquire confidence and readiness to pursue a career as an entrepreneur, based on perceived self-capability in identifying and pursuing business possibilities, finding new products, managing a business, creating and cultivating business partners, and mental maturity as an entrepreneur (Nguyen, 2020). According to Yuliatika and Palupi (2017), entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a person's confidence in one's ability to complete a task in order to obtain a particular result. Individuals' self-perceptions of their skills and abilities are the foundation of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This idea represents a person's innermost thoughts on whether or not they possess the abilities that have been attributed to them (Wilson et al., 2008). According to those definitions, in this study, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is individuals’ belief in their abilities and expertise in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Persons believe that they may run a business and they have entrepreneurial mentality. 2.3 Social Support (SS) Social support is the resource assistance derived from close social relationships with the person receiving assistance (Lestari, 2020). Individuals receive social support in comfort, recognition, rewards, and other types of assistance from groups or other citizens (Sarafino, 2002). Social support mobilizes psychological resources, aids in emotional burden mastery, and is the most common form of increasing personal resources. Social support is accomplished by supplying one or more of the four main categories of support services, which are shared in an infinite amount, as part of social exchange relationships to achieve specific goals (Gubbins et al., 2020). Social support is also described as help or support from others, such as friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues (Rani, 2012). Social support is expected to aid and assist the aspiring entrepreneur in establishing and operating a company (Ng & Jenkins, 2018). In this study, social support is defined as the assistance provided by the closest people to the individual to be assisted, for example, from friends, siblings, parents, neighbors and others, in the form of assistance, encouragement, and comfort for that person to achieve the goals they wish to attain.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

345

3. Methods Multiple data collection methods have been used in this preliminary study to improve the quality of the study and provide clear evidence (Guba & Lincoln, 2000). The methods of data collection were a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. In this study, the researchers used the purposive sampling method, as according to Tongco (2007), which may be used as a data gathering method in a preliminary study, while a researcher is still determining the feasibility of a proposed sample. The researchers used an open-ended questionnaire to perform a preliminary survey of 111 students in class 12 and 60 alumni, who graduated within two years of pilot public vocational high schools. In a survey, an open-ended question is one to which the respondent responds in their own terms and to which the respondent is advised to respond. The questions allow for the respondent's spontaneous answers. These questions are usually asked as part of a preliminary investigation (Popping, 2015). The researchers conducted semi-structured interview with three students, who answered in their questionnaire that they wanted to be entrepreneurs. Mathers et al. (2007) stated that asking open-ended questions allows the researcher to explore in depth. Furthermore, an interview is a flexible and useful data collection tool, that is usually conducted face-to-face to gather data on participant interactions and behavioral interviews, which can help the researcher better understand what is being said (Ryan et al., 2009). Weller et al. (2018) stated that finding and customizing the point where no new knowledge is gained is the primary goal of qualitative interviews or open-ended questions (thematic saturation). It can be used in conjunction with other interview techniques, or on its own, to delve deeper into a subject. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this study conducted interviews online with the Zoom meeting software application. Video recording from the Zoom application was also undertaken in the interview process. Eynon et al. (2008) stated that using interviews and surveys in the online world has recently become very common. The video recording took place with the participants' permission and was only be used to recollect the participants' answers, as required during the data analysis. Conducting interviews involves applying various skills, such as note-taking, intense listening, and proper preparation (Qu & Dumay, 2011). By integrating the two data collection approaches, Guba and Lincoln (2000) were able to improve the technique and provide consistent evidence. It allows for triangulation to enhance the data and findings' reliability and validity. This paper uses thematic analysis with data management using inductive coding. The researchers read, interpreted and found themes and sub-themes that were relevant to this study. Braun and Clarke (2006) stated that the concepts found using an inductive approach are closely linked to the data and may have no connection to the specific questions asked of the participants. Inductive analysis is the method of coding data without attempting to fit it into a pre-existing coding

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

346

framework or the researcher's analytic assumptions. This form of thematic analysis is data-driven in this way. 4. The Preliminary Study's Findings and Discussions Firstly, the researchers explored the demographic samples (for students in class 12 and with graduates within two years after graduation). Based on the results of the questionnaire of 111 students in class 12 (Figure 1), it showed that their plan after graduation as to become employees (45.05%), entrepreneurs (9.00%), and others (45.95%).

Figure 1: Students’ plan after graduation

Likewise, a preliminary questionnaire of 60 alumni (Figure 2) showed that their current work is of employees (36.67%), entrepreneurs (1.67%), and unemployed (61.66%).

Figure 2: Current work of alumni

Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that the entrepreneurial intention or desire to be an entrepreneur, in the pilot public vocational high schools, is low, as only 9% of students want to be an entrepreneur after graduation, and 1.67% of graduates are currently working as entrepreneurs. Based on those findings, the researchers asked 111 students in class 12 why they had a low entrepreneurial intention. The researchers analyzed the data from the questionnaire results and interview transcripts to extract the themes and sub-themes. Creswell's five steps of data analysis were used: i) organizing and prepare preparing data, ii) reading through all data, iii) coding the data, iv) interrelating the themes, and v) interpreting the meaning of themes (Creswell, 2014). The researchers followed the steps and found the various themes and sub-themes from the questionnaire and interview results. The data and transcript were read several times before being grouped into

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

347

information and knowledge units. The study's goal was to investigate the main factors that influence entrepreneurial intention. As a result, the coding step was carried out to highlight the most occuring (repeatedly mentioned) and relevant ideas that were thought to be important components of themes. The researchers found codes relating to the preliminary data from the questionnaire and interview. However, the researchers only took the relevant codes to develop the themes and sub-themes of this study.

Figure 3: Word cloud for preliminary data

Regardless of the diversity of responses given by the 111 students in class 12, 60 alumni, and three participants about entrepreneurial intention, the review of questionnaire results and interview transcripts revealed several themes and subthemes, as shown in Figure 4, Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3. Figure 4 shows that several themes, discovered from the preliminary data (questionnaire and interview), as factors that influenced the low entrepreneurial intention of students and alumni.

Figure 4: Compared by number of items coded for preliminary data

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

348

Table 1: Various themes and sub-themes extracted from the questionnaire (60 alumni) GENERAL STATEMENT Feeling lack of entrepreneurial skills Not confident Fear of failure Lack of entrepreneurial knowledge Not able to overcome obstacles Have the ability to deal with investors A sense of trust / concern from the environment Financial support

SUBTHEMES

SUPPORTING LITERATURE

NUMBER OF RESPONSES

(Ibrahim & Mas’ud, 2016)

(Şahin et al., 2019; İrengün & Arıkboğa, 2015)

(Şahin et al., 2019)

(Rowley, 2000)

Initiating investor relationship

(Johanna Mair, Hartigan, 2010)

Emotional support

(Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Mair & Hartigan, 2010; Sequeira et al., 2007)

(Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Aldrich & Zimmer, 1986; Rahaman et al., 2020)

(Marta & Kurniasari, 2019)

Own skill

Personal traits

THEMES

ESE

83.33

Gained knowledge

Tangible support

Goods support

Preferring to work

-NA-

(Wijaya & Mada, 2008)

College

-NA-

(Lopa et al., 2018)

Lack practices

-NA-

(Perwita & Khotimah, 2015)

Have no time

-NA-

(Ahmad et al., 2004)

Source: The data was processed by the researchers. Note: -NA- written when there is no sub-theme.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Choosing to work Continue to study Lack of entrepreneurship practices in school Lack of time

10 1.67

6.67

1.67

349

Table 2: Various themes and sub-themes extracted from the questionnaire (111 students in class 12) SUBSUPPORTING NUMBER OF STATEMENT THEMES THEMES LITERATURE RESPONSES Feeling lack of (Ibrahim & entrepreneurial Own skill 37 Mas’ud, 2016) skills (Şahin et al., 2019; Not confident İrengün & 18 Personal Arıkboğa, 2015) traits Fear of failure Lack of entrepreneurial knowledge Not able to overcome obstacles A sense of trust / concern from the environment

(Rowley, 2000)

ESE

74.77

46.85

Gained knowledge

Emotional support

Financial support

Tangible support

Preferring work

-NA-

(Şahin et al., 2019)

(Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Mair & Hartigan, 2010; Sequeira et al., 2007) (Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Aldrich & Zimmer, 1986; Rahaman et al., 2020) (Wijaya & Mada, 2008)

College

-NA-

(Lopa et al., 2018)

Have no time

-NA-

(Ahmad 2004)

Not prestigious

-NA-

(Rusdiana, 2018)

al.,

Source: The data was processed by the researchers. Note: -NA- written when there is no sub-theme.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Choosing to work Continue to study Lack of time Less prestigiou s job

13.51 11.71 1.80 2.70

350

Table 3: Various themes and sub-themes extracted from the interview (three

students) STATEMENT Have motivation

SUB-THEMES Entrepreneurial determination

Not confident Personal traits Fear of failure Lack of entrepreneurial knowledge Not capable of overcoming obstacles Feelings of appreciation / awarding

SUPPORTING LITERATURE (Al-Jubari et al., 2019) (Şahin et al., 2019; İrengün & Arıkboğa, 2015) (Şahin et al., 2019)

NUMBER OF RESPONSES

THEMES

2 2 ESE

(Rowley, 2000)

Gained knowledge

(Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Klyver et al., 2018) Emotional (Marta & support Kurniasari, 2019; Trust / care from Mair & Hartigan, the environment 2010; Sequeira et al., 2007) (Marta & Kurniasari, 2019; Financial support Tangible support Aldrich & Zimmer, 1986; Rahaman et al., 2020) (Marta & Helpful Informational Kurniasari, 2019; information support Rahaman et al., 2020) Source: The data was processed by the researchers.

SS 1

The researchers summarized the codes into seven themes based on the study, with several essential sub-themes. 1. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) The analysis results from questionnaire to 60 alumni suggested that the theme of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is developed from four sub-themes (own skill, personal traits, gained knowledge, and initiating investor relationship). In the analysis results from the questionnaire to 111 students in class 12, the researchers found that the theme of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is developed from three subthemes (own skill, personal traits, and gained knowledge). From the analysis results from the interviews with three students, the researchers found that the theme of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is developed from two sub-themes (personal traits and gained knowledge). The researchers concluded that the theme entrepreneurial self-efficacy is developed from four sub-themes (own skill, personal traits, gained knowledge, and initiating investor relationship).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

351

Figure 5: Compared by number of items coded for ESE 2. Social support (SS) The analysis results from the questionnaire, distributed to 60 alumni, found that theme of social support was developed from two sub-themes (emotional support and tangible support). The analysis results from questionnaire to 111 students in class 12, found that the theme social support was developed from two sub-themes (emotional support and tangible support). From the analysis results of the interview with three students, the researchers found that the theme of social support was developed from three sub-themes (emotional support, informational support, and tangible support). The researchers concluded that the theme of social support developed from three sub-themes, which are emotional support, informational support, and tangible support.

Figure 6: Compared by number of items coded for SS 3. Choosing to work The analysis results from the interview with three students and the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni found 21 statements of preferring to work as a factor of low entrepreneurial intention. This finding was supported by Wijaya and Mada (2008), who found that Indonesians tend to work as private or public workers. Implicitly, formal and non-formal education in Indonesia still does not focus on entrepreneurship.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

352

4. Continue to study The analysis results from the interview with three students and the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni found that the 14 statements of continuing to colleges are factors of low entrepreneurial intention. Several factors strongly influence vocational high school graduates' desire to continue their studies at universities. Students feel that they lack skills, such as goods marketing skills, because of this. The students' interest is more focused on continuing their studies to increase their skills by continuing their studies to college (Lopa et al., 2018). 5. Lack of entrepreneurship practices in school The analysis results from the interview with three students and the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni found that the statements of lack of practices and more theories in class are factors of low entrepreneurial intention. As Perwita and Khotimah (2015) expounded, internal theory classes still dominate entrepreneurship learning. The balance between theory and practice in learning is still lacking. 6. Lack of time The analysis results from the interview with three students and the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni found that a lack of time to conduct business is among the factors of low entrepreneurial intention. They still thought that entrepreneurs are people who devote time and effort to create something different. They risk their time, money, and comfort to develop business (Ahmad et al., 2004). Musyadar and Iwang Gumilar (2019) also found that entrepreneurship requires hard work and a long time. Many entrepreneurs work alone, such as buying, processing, sales, and bookkeeping. Many are impatient because it takes a long time, so that there might be a chance that someone withdraws from entrepreneurship. 7. Less prestigious job The analysis results from the interview with three students and the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni found that the statement of an entrepreneur not being a prestigious job is a factor of low entrepreneurial intention. This is supported by Rusdiana (2018), who said that the facts show that the entrepreneurial spirit among graduates is still lacking because, in general, they expect a traditional culture to last, namely working in the formal sector as whitecollar workers, who are considered more prestigious. Similarly, Burton et al. (2016) stated that an individual may enter entrepreneurship as an end state, but many find that they cannot succeed, and this work becomes a last choice. Most graduates like to hunt for employment rather than creating or doing entrepreneurial activities because this work is not a chosen career (Mohamad et al., 2014). The results of the themes based on the questionnaires for students and alumni are displayed. As shown in Figure 7, the reasons for low entrepreneurial intention are low entrepreneurial self-efficacy (74.78%), lack of social support (46.85%), preferring to work (13.51%), continue to study (11.71%), less prestigious job (2.7%), and lack of time (1.8%).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

353

Figure 7: Factors of low entrepreneurial intention of students According to the questionnaire results of 60 alumni, in Figure 8, the reasons for low entrepreneurial intention are low entrepreneurial self-efficacy (83.33%), lack of social support (60%), preferring to work (10%), lack of entrepreneurship practices in school (6.67%), continuing to study (1.67%), and lack of time (1.67%).

Figure 8: Factors of low entrepreneurial intention of alumni From the questionnaire results of students in class 12 and alumni, the factors that influence the problem of entrepreneurial intention are entrepreneurial selfefficacy, social support, choosing to work, continue to study, lack of time, lack of entrepreneurship practice in school, and less prestigious job. The researchers conducted interviews to explain the constructs' role in this analysis, namely an independent construct or a moderator construct, based on the two highest factors or themes of low entrepreneurial intention (entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social support). Shonubi et al. (2016) presented that moderators could be considered an independent factor in the study. A moderator is an independent variable that influences the intensity or direction of the relationship between two or more independent variables and an outcome variable. The

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

354

researchers would investigate these constructs further, via interviews, as independent and moderator constructs in the problems that arise in this study. In response to the questionnaire findings, the researchers conducted interviews with three students who wanted to be entrepreneurs after graduation. This interview aimed to learn about respondents' personal experiences with obstacles to their entrepreneurial intention or desire to create a new business. These limitations were discovered to be caused by low entrepreneurship self-efficacy, lack of social support, and Indonesians' tendency to underestimate careers as entrepreneurs. From the interview results, it is known that the respondents' entrepreneurial selfefficacy is low. This is evident in the responses: "The reason I'm not sure is because I have challenges where my enthusiasm for starting or learning entrepreneurship hasn't faded"; "Fear of failure with the business that will be run later"; and "Friends who aren't encouraging make me feel uncertain." Thus, it seemed that they were uncertain about their ability and skills to develop new business. Furthermore, based on the results of the interviews, the researchers discovered that the support from relatives, friends, or the surrounding community is generally negative, as shown by the percentage of respondents who stated that they lacked social support (46.85% of a total of 111 respondents, as shown in Figure 3). Wijaya and Mada (2008) supported this claim, stating that Indonesians prefer to work as private or public employees. Indirectly, Indonesian formal and non-formal education is still not oriented toward entrepreneurship. In other nations, such as Malaysia, the same thing happened. According to Ismail et al. (2009), parents, siblings, and spouses all play an important role in a person's desire to start a business and they can be positive or negative influence. Furthermore, the tradition of working for the government or a private company is still rooted in Indonesian society. It has been since school, with entrepreneurship as the last option for finding work (Wijaya et al., 2015). The majority of family social support is still not conducive to the development of entrepreneurial intentions in children. This is in line with a statement from one of the respondents: "The thing that makes me unsure is because, from my family, it is still rare to become entrepreneurs". The causal impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention is dependent on social support, such as emotional support, according to the findings of student interviews. The statements: "Help from friends will make me more confident and willing to collaborate with entrepreneurship", and "The support that is needed is from parents and also myself" exemplify this. The term "myself" can be described as the respondent's entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a result of the support they require. The high sense of self-efficacy for entrepreneurship is supported in this case by social support. The participants’ sense of self-efficacy in entrepreneurial activities is still low, based on the responses; participants hope that the environment can help to reinforce the connection between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. According to the findings, it was expected that social

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

355

support increases the causal impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention. The term "moderation" refers to the weakening of a causal effect; however, a moderator may also strengthen the causal effect ( Awang, 2015). At the time of writing, this study has not been fully completed and further analyzed, and it is continuing. The results of this preliminary study, however, can be reported.

4. Conclusion The conclusions of this preliminary study are: a) This paper presents an ongoing doctoral study exploring the entrepreneurial intention of pilot public vocational high school students for entrepreneurship development programs in Jakarta, Indonesia. b) The data from the questionnaire, distributed to 111 students and 60 alumni, showed that entrepreneurial intention is low (from their choosing work after graduation and the current work of alumni). c) Research tool used in this study is NVivo 12. d) Data from both questionnaire and semi-structured interview revealed several themes and sub-themes. The researchers summarized codes into the themes that were further divided into seven themes (entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social support, choosing to work, continuing to study, lack of entrepreneurship practices in school, lack of time, less prestigious job) based on the study, with several essential sub-themes. e) The researchers concluded that the theme of entrepreneurial self-efficacy was developed from four sub-themes (own skill, personal traits, gained knowledge, and initiating investor relationship); f) The researchers concluded that the theme of social support was developed from three sub-themes (emotional support, informational support, and tangible support); g) The data from the questionnaire to 111 students and 60 alumni suggested that entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social support were the two highest factors that influence entrepreneurial intention. h) The interviews with the three students implied that social support increases the causal impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention. This study is continuing its next steps to get final results. The study's findings could be of interest to the government, schools, curriculum developers/syllabus designers, and other researchers. The results will enable those relevant parties to determine the entrepreneurial intention needed to prevent and reduce unemployment among vocational high school graduates. Furthermore, it could contribute to curriculum developers/syllabus designers to make a curriculum that enhances students' entrepreneurial intention. The recommendations for further research are to include other variables that are appropriate to be applied in the research.

5 . References Ahmad, F. S., Baharun, R., & Abd Rahman, S. H. (2004). Interest In entrepreneurship: An exploratory study on engineering and technical students in entrepreneurship

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

356

education and choosing entrepreneurship as a career. Journal of Advances in Management Sciences & Information Systems, Special Issues, 1–45. Al-Jubari, I., Hassan, A., & Liñán, F. (2019). Entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia: integrating self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 15(4), 1323– 1342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-018-0529-0 Aldrich, H., & Zimmer, C. (1986). Entrepreneurship through social networks. In D. Sexton and R. Smilor (Eds.), In The art and science of entrepreneurship. Ballinger Publishing Company. Asian Trading Economies. (2020, June 26). Unemployment Rate Asia. https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/unemployment-rate?continent =asia Awang, Z. (2015). SEM Made Simple: A Gentle Approach To learning Structural Equation Modeling. MPWS Rich Publication Sdn. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:64198895 Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Burton, M. D., Sørensen, J. B., & Dobrev, S. D. (2016). A Careers Perspective on Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, March, 237–247. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12230 Chen, G., Gully, M. S., & Eden, D. (2004). General self-efficacy and self-esteem: Toward theoretical and empirical distinction between correlated self-evaluations. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 25, 375–395. Cheung, C. K. (2016). Issues in the future development of business education in Hong Kong secondary curriculum. Cogent Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2015.1129688 Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design-Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. Eynon, R., Fry, J., & Schroeder, R. (2008). The Ethics of Internet Research. In N. Fielding, R.M. Lee, & G. Blank (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods (pp. 23– 41). SAGE Publications, Inc. Fensi, F. (2018). The Influence of Entrepreneurship Education in Growing Interest in Entrepreneurship. Journal of Devotion And Entrepreneurship, 2(1), 1–9. Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd ed., pp. 191–216). Sage. Genoveva, G. (2020). The Influence of Entrepreneurial Culture on Entrepreneurial among Business Students. Firm Journal of Management Studies, 4(1), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.33021/firm.v4i1.682 Gubbins, M., Harrington, D., & Hines, P. (2020). Social support for academic entrepreneurship: definition and conceptual framework. Journal of Management Development. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-11-2019-0456 Ibrahim, N. A., & Mas'ud, A. (2016). Moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial skills, environmental factors and entrepreneurial intention: A PLS approach. Management Science Letters, 6, 225–236. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2016.1.005 Indonesian Central Statistics Agency. (2020). Entrepreneurs Data Based on Institutions Level. In Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (p. 5). İrengün, O., & Arıkboğa, Ş. (2015). The Effect of Personality Traits on Social Entrepreneurship Intentions: A Field Research. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, 1186–1195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.172

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

357

Ismail, M., Khalid, S. A., Othman, M., Jusoff, H. K., Rahman, N. A., Kassim, K. M., & Zain, R. S. (2009). Entrepreneurial Intention among Malaysian Undergraduates. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(10), 54–60. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n10p54 Klyver, K., Honig, B., & Steffens, P. (2018). Social support timing and persistence in nascent entrepreneurship: Exploring when instrumental and emotional support is most effective. Small Business Economics, 51(3), 709–734. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187017-9964-5 Lee, L., Wong, P. K., Foo, M. D., & Leung, A. (2011). Entrepreneurial intentions: The influence of organizational and individual factors. Journal of Business Venturing, 26(1), 124–136. Lestari, H. D. (2020). Academic Support, Social Support, Environment Support and Eentrepreneurship Education as Contextual Factors. Management And Business Scientific Magazine, 17(1), 38–52. Linan, F., & Chen, Y. (2006). Testing the Entrepreneurial Intention Model on a two-country Sample. Documents de Treball, 06/7, 1–37. Lopa, A. T., Arfandi, A., & Salim, J. R. E. (2018). Analysis of Student Interest After Graduating From Vocational High School (Case Study of SMK Negeri 2 Parepare). In Jakarta State University Research Institute (Ed.), Proceedings of the National Seminar Dissemination of Research Results through Optimization of Syntax and Intellectual Property Rights (pp. 456–459). State University of Makasar. Mahendra, A. M., Djatmika, E. T., & Hermawan, A. (2017). The Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention Mediated by Motivation and Attitude among Management Students, State University of Malang, Indonesia. International Education Studies, 10(9), 61. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v10n9p61 Mair, J., & Hartigan, P. (2010). Social Entrepreneurship. In R. A. Couto (Ed.), Political and Civic Leadership: A Reference Handbook. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412979337.n84 Marič, M., Jeraj, M., & Pavlin, J. (2010). Entrepreneurship as a Solution to the Unemployment Problem. Skola Biznisa, 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2013.05.002 Marta, M. S., & Kurniasari, D. (2019). The Interaction of Social Support in the Relationship of Entrepreneurial Education, Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Intention. BENEFITS Journal of Management and Business, 4(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.23917/benefit.v4i1.7113 Mathers, N., Fox, N., & Amanda Hunn. (2007). Surveys and questionnaires. In The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands (pp. 1–48). Yorkshire & the Humber. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203154281-35 MoEC. (2018). Regulation of the Director General of Primary and Secondary Education Ministry of Education and Culture Number: 07 / D.D5 / Kk / 2018 Concerning Vocational High School/ Madrasah Aliyah Curriculum Structure. In Ministry of Education and Culture (Issue 021, p. 307). http://psmk.kemdikbud.go.id/konten/3824/struktur-kurikulum-smk-perdirjendikdasmen-no-07dd5kk2018-tanggal-7-juni-2018 MoEC. (2020). Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the Year 2020-2024. JDIH Kemdikbud. Mohamad, N., Lim, H., Yusof, N., Kassim, M., & Abdullah, H. (2014). Estimating the Choice of Entrepreneurship as a Career: The Case of Universiti Utara Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Society, 15(1), 65–80. Muhammadsyah, A., Puwadi, Fahmi, & Hut. (2016). The Influence of Social Support on Entrepreneurial Inclination among Business Students in Indonesia. Information

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

358

Management and Business Review, 8(3), 32–46. Musyadar, A., & Iwang Gumilar. (2019). Entrepreneurship Concepts And Processes in Entrepreneurship (3rd ed., pp. 128). Bogor Agricultural Development Polytechnic. Ng, L., & Jenkins, A. S. (2018). Motivated but not starting: how fear of failure impacts entrepreneurial intentions. Small Enterprise Research, 25(2), 152–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/13215906.2018.1480412 Nguyen, T. T. (2020). Impact of entrepreneurship environmental support factors to university students' entrepreneurship self-efficacy. Management Science Letters, 10(6), 1321–1328. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.11.026 Perwita, D., & Khotimah, A. K. (2015). Entrepreneurship Practice training at SMKN 3 Purwokerto. Proceedings of the National Seminar on Accounting and Finance Education Developing Sustainable Accounting and Finance Education, 482–493. UNS Press. Popping, R. (2015). Analyzing Open-ended Questions by Means of Text Analysis Procedures. BMS Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/ Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique, 128(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0759106315597389 Qu, S. Q., & Dumay, J. (2011). The qualitative research interview. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 8(3), 238–264. https://doi.org/10.1108/11766091111162070 Rahaman, M. A., Ali, M. J., Mamoon, Z. R., & Al Asheq, A. (2020). Understanding the entrepreneurial intention in the light of contextual factors: Gender analysis. Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(9), 639–647. https://doi.org/10.13106/JAFEB.2020.VOL7.NO9.639 Rani, S. H. B. A. (2012). A Study of Relationship Between Family Support, Role Model and Financial Support Towards Entrepreneurial Inclination Among UUM Non-Business Student. Universiti Utara Malaysia. Rowley, J. (2000). From learning organisation to knowledge entrepreneur. Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(1), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270010315362 Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2009). Interviewing in qualitative research: The oneto-one interview. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 16(6), 309–314. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2009.16.6.42433 Rusdiana, A. (2018). Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (2nd ed.). Pustaka Setia. Şahin, F., Karadağ, H., & Tuncer, B. (2019). Big five personality traits, entrepreneurial selfefficacy and entrepreneurial intention: A configurational approach. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, 25(6), 1188–1211. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-07-2018-0466 Sarafino, E. P. (2002). Health psychology biopsychosocial interactions. John Wiley & Sons, Inc,. Sequeira, J., Mueller, S. L., & McGee, J. E. (2007). The influence of social ties and selfefficacy in forming entrepreneurial intentions and motivating nascent behavior. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 12(3), 275. Shonubi, O. A., Abdullah, N., Hashim, R., & Hamid, N. B. A. B. (2016). Recognition and Appreciation and the Moderating Role of Self-esteem on Job Satisfaction and Performance among IT Employees in Melaka. J. of Health Science, 4(5), 221–227. https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-7136/2016.05.001 Suharti, L., & Sirine, H. (2012). Factors That Affect Entrepreneurial Intention (Entrepreneurial Intention). Jurnal Manajemen Dan Kewirausahaan, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.9744/jmk.13.2.124-134 Tongco, M. D. C. (2007). Purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. Ethnobotany Research and Applications, 5, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.5.0.147-158 Walipah, W., & Naim, N. (2016). Factors Affecting Student Entrepreneurial Intentions. Journal of Modernized Economics, 12(3), 138.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

359

https://doi.org/10.21067/jem.v12i3.1461 Weller, S. C., Vickers, B., Bernard, R., Blackburn, A. M., Borgatti, S., Gravlee, C. C., & Johnson, J. C. (2018). Open-ended interview questions and saturation. PLoS ONE, 13(6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198606 Wijaya, T., & Mada, U. G. (2008). Study of Empirical Model of Entrepreneurial Behavior of SMEs in DIY and Central Java. Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship (Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship), 10(2), 93-104–104. https://doi.org/10.9744/jmk.10.2.pp.93-104 Wijaya, T., Nurhadi, N., & Kuncoro, A. M. (2015). Student entrepreneurial intentions: Risktaking perspective. Business Strategy Journal, 19(2), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.20885/jsb.vol19.iss2.art2 Yuliatika, D., Rahmawati, S. W., & Palupi, S. R. (2017). Self Efficacy and Achievement Motivation of Students of SMA Negeri 7 Purworejo. Psychology Journal, 5(2), 59.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

360

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 360-385, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.19

School Support Received and the Challenges Encountered in Distance Learning Education by Filipino Teachers during the Covid-19 Pandemic Angelito Palma Bautista Jr. Quezon City University, Quezon City, Philippines https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6591-7280 Doris Gelvoligaya Bleza and Cielito Bernardino Buhain Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4314-1060 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0633-5210 Dianne Morta Balibrea Blue Chips Research and Consultancy, Navotas City, Philippines https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-8246 Abstract. Distance learning has become the sole modality of the teaching and learning process in the Philippines due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since face-to-face classes are still prohibited with no end in sight, it is important to assess the experience of teachers handling distance learning education in terms of the support they have received, and the challenges encountered. This study examines the support provided by the schools, the challenges encountered by the teachers, and the support they need to thrive in distance learning education. By applying a quantitative approach through an online survey, 151 teachers - including 108 women, 41 men, and 2 respondents who did not mention their gender - served as the respondents of this study. The study derived promising results in that the majority of the respondents received adequate support from their respective schools in terms of capacity building, technical and data privacy matters, systems of information dissemination, and online learning management. Financial and emotional support mechanisms are two areas for improvement. The common problems encountered include motivating the students, using ICT, managing the time allotted for online sessions, and evaluating the learners’ knowledge. The teachers were also looking for more free resources and tools, webinars to share ideas and challenges, and professional development. Overall, the respondents were confident handling remote classes during the pandemic. The Department of Education (DepEd) and the schools may devise targeted programs, training, and support mechanisms to ensure that no one in the education sector is left behind. Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic; distance learning education; support mechanisms; challenges; capacity building ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

361

1. Introduction The global impact of Covid-19 is evident in various sectors of society including health, the economy, and education. More than a year after the first Covid-19 case was detected in Wuhan, China, more than 140 million positive Covid-19 cases and at least 3.0 million global deaths have been recorded. In the Philippines, more than 900,000 cases and 15,000 deaths have been confirmed (John Hopkins University & Medicine, 2021). With government agencies, private organizations, and academic institutions working hard to develop new antiviral and therapeutic solutions, minimum health standard measures have been implemented in various places to slow the spread of the virus. However, due to the quick rise in infections, many countries enforced strict quarantine and lockdown measures. In the Philippines, the government decided to impose an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in March 2020 in many regions of the country to slow down the spread of Covid-19 and to prevent the overburdening of the health system (Panelo, 2020). This quarantine mechanism restricted most non-essential activities and movements outside the home. To date, the National Capital Region (NCR) is still under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ). The education sector has been severely hit by the ongoing pandemic. When the ECQ was declared in March 2020, all schools in the Philippines were ordered to close (Medialdea, 2020). The World Health Organization (WHO) has also advised educations and students to adopt alternative learning in order to mitigate the cancellation of face-to-face classes. Since March 2020, schools in many parts of the world have been using a mixture of distance learning strategies such as online classes, printed modules, and TV/radio lessons to ensure that a learning environment is maintained where the students are located. (Asian Development Bank, 2021). The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the education landscape. Shutting down schools globally has resulted in over 1.2 billion children being out of the classroom (Li & Lalani, 2020). In March 2021, schools for more than 168 million children have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to the lockdowns (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2021). Globally, around 214 million children have missed more than three-quarters of their face-to-face learning. As a result, e-learning rose distinctively with teaching undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Distance education has been promoted to address the issues related to geographical distance and the many reasons that prevent in-person learning and face-to-face classes, such as the pandemic (Kim, 2020; Singh & Thurman 2019; Yilmaz, 2019). It is sometimes referred to as e-learning or online learning. It is an institution-based formal type of education where learners, resources, and instructors use interactive telecommunications systems to connect (Kim, 2020). Distance education can be either asynchronous, where the learning happens where the students can choose when to participate in learning using various tools, or synchronous. This is where learning occurs using a live video feed (such

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

362

as Zoom, Google Meet or Discord) with immediate feedback from the students and teachers (Kim, 2020). Schools in the Philippines have remained completely closed for more than a year since the pandemic has forced the government to suspend face-to-face classes. Educational institutions have been forced to transition to digital or online classrooms for the remaining months of the school year (SY) 2019 - 2020 which has continued into SY 2020 - 2021, resulting in the implementation of remote learning or distance learning where the teacher and students are essential (Almario & Austria, 2020). Moreover, the president of the Philippines has also rejected the resumption of face-to-face classes even though Covid-19 vaccines have arrived (Galvez & Orejas, 2021). Different educational platforms have been used by teachers to facilitate the distance learning setup. For example, the Philippine Department of Education (DepED) developed DepED Commons, an online educational platform that supports alternative learning modalities during the extended quarantine period (Asian Development Bank, 2020). It is being used by both public and private schools to help drive the continuous delivery of basic education in the country. A Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) was also adopted by the DepED (Department of Education, 2020). Meanwhile, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) gave higher education institutions (HEIs) the freedom to implement available distance learning, e-learning, and other alternative modes of education delivery (De Vera III, 2020). Various online platforms are being used to deliver education in new ways in the Philippines, a country that has an internet penetration rate of 67.0% and more than 73.91 million internet users (Hootsuite & We Are Social, 2021). Zoom, Google Meet, Discord, and Microsoft Teams have become the new classrooms, while teachers take advantage of different social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube where recordings of the class lectures are uploaded. Considering that SY 2020 - 2021 was the first year when distance learning education was implemented instead of in-school learning, it is important to understand the experience of Filipino teachers when handling distance learning in order to facilitate a better teaching experience in the coming months. Philippine educational institutions have to adapt to this changing landscape since it is inevitable that in the future, schools have to move towards a new kind of educational model that utilizes advanced technologies. Globally, many studies have focused on the experience of students when dealing with distance learning during the Covid-19 crisis such as in Indonesia (Sutiah et al., 2020), Tanzania (Mahundu, 2020), and the Ukraine (Nenko et al., 2020). Many students have inadequate access to digital learning resources, have a limited reliable and stable internet connection (Nenko et al., 2020), and might not have sufficient resiliency and skills to learn on their own and face the challenges such as being distracted by their surroundings because of the limited hands-on activities (Sutiah et al., 2020). Moreover, while research suggests that online learning helps to increase the retention of information and takes less time (Li & Lalani, 2020). Limited internet access was found to be one of the main reasons

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

363

why the online teaching-learning process might make it difficult to obtain a quality education (Nenko et al., 2020). Several other studies have also revealed the problems experienced by teachers when handling distance learning classes during the pandemic. For example, in Portugal, teachers have to suddenly adapt to new pedagogies and modes of teaching with only a limited amount of time to be trained in remote instruction (Flores & Gago, 2020). Meanwhile, a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the impact of Covid-19 on education in member countries revealed that both teachers and students have had to rely on their available personal resources to continue learning remotely during the pandemic (Schleicher, 2020). Considering these challenges, Hodges et al. (2020) stated that several elements must be assessed in order to guarantee the effectiveness of remote learning, including the faculty’s professional development for online teaching pedagogies and the tools, policy, and governance issues connected to distance program development and quality assurance. The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the academic idea of when, where, and how to deliver education, the importance of lifelong learning, and the need for learning agility and resilience in times of a crisis. In the Philippines, a study by Arinto (2016) among the faculty and administrators at the University of the Philippines – Open University revealed that despite the interest and willingness to explore new practices and new directions in Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL), nurturing innovative teaching and learning practices across the institution is still regarded as a challenge. Meanwhile, selected teachers from the Department of Education were found to have a positive attitude to ODeL, with the majority ready for online learning (Ventayen, 2018). Since Covid-19 is a recent phenomenon and its impact on the education sector is relatively new, only a few studies have studied the implementation of distance education and e-learning. Reyes-Chua et al. (2020) found that students in selected HEIs in the Calabarzon region have faced problems such as a lack of resources, difficulty accessing a Wi-Fi connection, and a lack of valuable training among both the students and faculty members. Joaquin et al. (2020) revealed that there are still gaps and challenges in terms of teacher capacity, the situation, the context of the learner, and the efficiency of the learning environment, even though innovations have been made by HEIs in the Philippines in terms of alternative learning modes and technologies for delivering education. Lapada et al. (2020) studied Covid-19 awareness, distance learning education experiences, and the perceptions of institutional readiness and the challenges found among Filipino teachers. They found that the teaching experience duration (X2(4) = 19.093; p = .001) and geographic location (X2(4) = 10.973; p = .004) were very strongly correlated to the readiness to engage in distance learning education. This study aims to describe the support provided by the schools to Filipino teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of distance learning. This is in addition to the challenges that the teachers have encountered

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

364

in the past year when handling distance education classes, and the support that they need to ensure the continuous delivery of quality distance learning education. It is essential to know how the teachers have adjusted to the transition and how their schools supported them while they were adapting. The results from this study will help policymakers to formulate more relevant and adequate policies and instructions to assist the teachers in becoming better distance learning educators.

2. Methodology 2.1 Research Design and Respondents In this descriptive research study, which aims to analyze the teachers’ views about their distance learning experiences, the challenges they faced, and the support they received from their school during the Covid-19 pandemic, an online survey was adopted. This was deemed to be the most appropriate data gathering method considering the restrictions imposed during the general community quarantine, as well as the uncertainties brought about by the increasing number of positive cases around the country. Based on the total population of teachers in the Philippines as of 2020, some 1,243,445 according to various sources including public schools, private schools, state universities, and colleges, and private higher education institutions (Commission on Higher Education, 2020a, 2020b; Llego, 2020), the sample size was calculated using a margin of error of 8% and a confidence level of 95%. The sample size was 151 respondents which included 108 women, 41 men and 2 respondents who did not mention their gender. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (110) were regular, permanent or full-time instructors, 27 were teaching part-time, 12 were casual/contractual but full-time teachers and only 2 did not mention their type of employment. The researcher utilized a purposive sampling method in which elements were chosen from the population based on the study’s objective. The inclusion criteria established by the researcher were aged 18 and above, currently teaching SY 2020 - 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and able to complete the online survey. 2.2 Survey Instrument Due to the ongoing quarantine measures in the country, the schools were still closed at all levels at the time that the survey was conducted. Since the researchers and respondents couldn’t meet with the researcher face to face for the survey, an online survey was utilized using Google Forms. The data collection was conducted from 26th January to 25th February (30 days) until the desired number of responses was reached. A call for survey participation was posted on social media, primarily Facebook. The researchers formulated the survey questionnaire on “Distance Learning Education Experience of Teachers during Covid-19” (Appendix 1). The questions were derived from various items of literature and previous studies and surveys such as from the “Questionnaires on Teachers Awareness, Readiness and Online Learning Experience During Covid-19 ECQ” by Lapada et al. (2020), the European Survey on Online and Distance Learning by the School

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

365

Education Gateway (2020), and the Survey on Faculty Attitudes towards Online Education by Lee et al. (2015). The questionnaire consisted of four parts: 1) the respondents’ demographic profile (age bracket, sex, employment status, and educational attainment), 2) their attitude towards the school’s performance regarding distance learning education, composed of 10 items; 3) the problems encountered in distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic composed of 22 items and 4) the support needed in terms of distance learning consisting of 9 items. The instrument was validated by two academic experts with experience in distance learning education. The questionnaire was piloted to ensure the clarity of the questions. Cronbach’s alpha was used to confirm the internal consistency of the questions on attitude (a = .945), the problems encountered (a = .989), and support needed (a = .902), which showed that the scales used in this study are reliable. The survey questionnaire also contained an informed consent form which stated that the respondents could refuse to answer any question, withdraw from the survey at any time without any harm and that all data would remain confidential and strictly adhere to the provisions of the Philippine Data Privacy Act. 2.3 Data Analysis The data obtained from the respondents was exported from Google Forms into Microsoft Excel. IBM SPSS v20 was used to analyze the data. The frequencies and percentages were calculated to describe the respondents’ demographic profile, attitudinal responses, distance learning experiences, problems encountered, and support needed. The Kruskal-Wallis H test was utilized to determine the differences between the groups for the selected demographic variables (age bracket, gender, educational attainment, employment status, and monthly income) and for the respondents’ answers to the different scales. The Kruskal-Wallis H test is a rank-based nonparametric test that can be used to see whether two or more groups of an independent variable on a continuous scale or an ordinal dependent variable involve statistically significant differences. The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05.

3. Results 3.1 Teachers’ Demographic Characteristics Of the 151 respondents, 75% were women and 27% were men. In terms of educational attainment, 46% were college graduates, while 29% held postgraduate degrees. Almost two-thirds (73%) of the respondents were regular/permanent/full-time teachers, while 18% worked part-time. Part-time faculty or part-time teachers refers to a member of the faculty who does not meet the requirements for being a full-time faculty member such as doing less than 8 hours of work a day and having no other remunerative occupation elsewhere requiring regular hours of work (DOLE-DEPED-TESDA-CHED Joint Guidelines, 2014). Half of the respondents earned Php 20,001 – Php 25,000, which is slightly higher than the Php 19,566 average monthly salary of public school teachers and the Php11,416 average monthly salary of private school teachers. Both of the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

366

averages were recorded in 2016 according to the Labor Force Survey (Department of Education, 2019). Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents Age Bracket

Gender

Educational Attainment

Employment Status

Monthly Income

21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 40 41 - 45 46 - 50 51 - 55 56 and above No answer/Prefer not to say Female Male Prefer not to say College Level College Graduate Post-Graduate Level Post-Graduate Regular/Permanent/Full Time Casual/Contractual but Full Time Part-time No answer/Prefer not to say Php 10,000 below Php 10,001 – Php 15,000 Php 15,001 – Php 20,000 Php 20,001- Php 25,000 Php 25,001 – Php 30,000 Php 30,001 – Php 35,000 Php 35,001 above Prefer not to say

TOTAL

f 12 15 18 22 20 21 18 17 8 108 41 2 3 70 33 45 110 12 27 2 12 12 10 51 26 5 21 14

% 8 10 12 15 13 14 12 11 5 72 27 1 2 46 22 29 73 8 18 1 8 8 7 34 17 3 14 9 151

In terms of teaching experience, 25% had been teaching for more than 21 years, 20% had been working for 6 - 10 years, and another 20% had been working for 11 - 15 years. When it comes to online teaching, a majority (61%) said that this was their first experience of online teaching while 20% had some experience. The majority of the respondents were teaching at the college (37%) and elementary (35%) levels, followed by senior high school (21%) and junior high school (17%). More than half of them were teaching in public schools (58%), while 27% are from state universities and colleges. Only 15% were from private education institutions (sectarian and non-sectarian). When asked how confident they were teaching remotely during the pandemic, 33% had a neutral feeling, 32% said they were somehow confident, 17% were somehow not confident, while 15% were very confident. Only 2% of the respondents said that they were not at all confident. In general, the respondents of this study are confident when it comes to handling remote classes.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

367

Table 2: Teaching experience of the respondents f % 2 years and below 14 9 3 - 5 years 28 19 6 - 10 years 30 20 11 - 15 years 30 20 16 - 20 years 11 7 21 years and above 37 25 Prefer not to say 1 1 Experience of Online I have extensive experience with online 19 13 Teaching teaching I have some experience with online teaching 30 20 This is my first experience with online teaching 92 61 My school has not switched to online/distance 10 7 learning Very confident 23 15 Somehow confident 48 32 Confidence when Neutral 49 33 teaching remotely Somehow not confident 25 17 during the pandemic Not at all confident 3 2 No answer 3 2 Level of Education Elementary 53 35 Teaching* Junior High School 26 17 Senior High School 32 21 College 56 37 Graduate Program 10 7 Others 4 3 No answer 1 1 Type of School Public School 87 58 Teaching* Private Sectarian 9 6 Private Non-sectarian 14 9 State Universities and Colleges 41 27 Local Colleges and Universities 5 3 N=151. *Multiple response questions. Note: Due to rounding off, the sum of the percentage may not total to 100 or may exceed 100 Length of experience as a teacher

3.2 Distance Learning Support Provided by the Schools The respondents were asked to rate the support provided by their schools in terms of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority (53%) of the respondents strongly believe that their schools have regulations and policies on the use of distance learning to protect the student’s identity and data privacy (M = 3.45, SD = 0.587). Likewise, 44% strongly agree that the school has provided a technical support system to the teachers (M = 3.32, SD = 0.698), 40% strongly agree that a system of information dissemination to communicate with both parents and learners has been provided (M = 3.32, SD = 0.617), and 40% strongly agreed when asked that the school has procured an online learning management system (M = 3.26, SD = 0.725). A total of 27% of the respondents disagreed when they were asked if their school had a financial support system (M = 2.92, SD = 0.772), and 20% said that their schools did not provide an emotional support system mechanism for the teachers (M = 3.05, SD = 0.769).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

368

There were also a notable number of respondents who said that their schools did not provide supplementary materials for distance learning (M = 3.10, SD = 0.758), as well as a designated workforce for Covid-19 (M = 3.25, SD = .685). The calculated standard deviations show that the results for each statement are relatively near to the data set’s mean.

Disagree (%)

Strongly Disagree (%)

The school has provided capacity building on distance learning education management for the teachers The school has a designated workforce for Covid-19 The school has provided regulations and policies on the use of distance learning to protect the student’s identity and data privacy The school has provided supplementary materials for distance learning such as subscriptions to online libraries The school has procured an online learning management system The school has a system for information dissemination to communicate with the parents and the learners during the Covid-19 outbreak. The school provides a technical support system for the teachers The school has a financial support system for the teachers The school has an emotional support system mechanism for the teachers (e.g. for managing stress)

Agree (%)

Statements

Strongly Agree (%)

Table 3: Distance learning support provided by the schools

151

3.31

0.624

151

3.25

0.685

151

3.48

0.587

150

3.10

0.758

151

3.26

0.725

151

3.32

0.617

150

3.32

0.698

147

2.92

0.772

151

3.05

0.769

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Weighted Mean

369

The school has provided a positive environment 34 54 11 2 149 3.19 0.701 for teachings during the crisis Note: Due to rounding off, the sum of the percentages may not total to 100 or may exceed 100

3.3 Problems Encountered when Distance Learning during the Pandemic Based on their responses, the most frequent problem (every time) they encountered was motivating the students (35%), using information and communication technologies (32%), managing the time allotted for the online sessions or teaching hours (32%), and evaluating the learner’s knowledge (30%). All of the given problems were usually encountered (about 90% of the time) by more than 35% of the respondents, most notably interacting/communicating with the students (47%), meeting the learning outcomes determined for the students (47%), and converting activities and content into those suitable for online/distance learning (46%). It is important to note that all of the given problems were experienced by the majority of the respondents for at least 50% of the time, at least a few months before the end of the school year. Table 4: Problems encountered in distance learning education

Statements

Access to a stable internet connection Teachers' access to technology Adapting to the distance learning teaching/learning practices Using information and communication technologies Using the school's learning management system (LMS) Interacting/communic ating with the students Involving students from socially disadvantaged homes Evaluating the learners’ knowledge and skills Providing skills teaching (such as

Frequently, Sometimes, Occasionall Rarely, in Usually, in in about in about y, in about less than about 90% Every 70% of the 50% of the 30% of the 10% of the of the time chances chances chances chances chances, I when I when I when I when I (%) could have could have could have could have could have (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Never (%)

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

370

listening or speaking in language classes, drawing in visual arts lessons etc.) Meeting the learning outcomes determined for the students

Giving feedback to the students

Teaching according to the individual interests and abilities of the students

Motivating the students

Managing the time allotted for the online sessions (teaching hours)

Too many online sessions

Having a suitable environment at home for online teaching

Communicating with parents/guardians

Students' access to technology

Little direction or support given by the 17 40 17 12 4 6 school Converting activities and content into those suitable for 23 46 17 7 3 3 online/distance learning Preparing content for online / distance 26 44 16 7 3 3 learning Supporting the students with special 20 41 18 9 5 5 needs or disabilities Note: Due to rounding off, the sum of the percentages may not total to 100 or may exceed 100

3.4 Support Needed by the Teachers In terms of the support needed, 6 out of the 10 respondents (61%) strongly agree that they need more free resources and tools from education technology companies or organizations, followed by webinars for the teachers to share ideas

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

371

and challenges (58%), professional development such as quick courses on online teaching (56%), easy contact with experts in online learning (55%), and lesson plans for good practice (55%). Out of the 9 statements, the statement that received the highest “disagree” rating was “clear guidance from the Department of Education.” Table 5: Support needed in distance learning education Strongly Agree (%)

Agree (%)

Disagree (%)

Strongly Disagree (%)

Weighted Mean

Professional development: quick courses on online teaching

148

3.55

0.526

Easy contact with experts (e.g. experienced onlinelearning teachers and ICT experts)

149

3.51

0.588

Clear guidance from the Department of Education

149

3.44

0.661

Websites with lists of useful resources

149

3.50

0.565

Video clips of good practices

149

3.51

0.553

Lesson plans on good practices

148

3.54

0.513

More educational TV programs made by national media organizations

148

3.48

0.577

More free resources and tools from education technology companies or organizations

149

3.59

0.533

Webinars for the teachers to share ideas and challenges

149

3.58

0.509

Statements

Note: Due to rounding off, the sum of the percentages may not total to 100 or may exceed 100

3.5 Significant Differences between the Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents and the Distance Learning Support provided by the Schools, the Problems Encountered by the Teachers, and the Support Needed by the Teachers in Distance Learning Education The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine the differences in the distance learning support provided by the schools, the problems encountered by the teachers, and the support needed according to the respondents’ age bracket, gender, educational attainment, employment status, and monthly income (Table 6). The test showed that there was no statistically significant difference found in the distance learning support provided by the schools as rated by the respondents and their demographic characteristics. There were also no statistically significant differences found in the problems experienced by the teachers and their demographic characteristics.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

372

Meanwhile, there was a statistically significant difference found in the support needed by the teachers and their age bracket, H(3) = 21.471, p = .006. Those who were older were more likely to give seek support than those who were younger, as shown in the mean ranks in Table 7. Table 6: Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test

Support provided by the schools Problems encountered by the teachers

χ2(2) df p-value χ2(2) df p-value χ2(2) Support needed df by the teachers p-value

Age Educational Gender Bracket Attainment 12.751 0.060 1.829 8 1 2 .121 .806 .401 3.981 2.068 0.595 8 1 2 .859 .150 .743 21.471 0.020 5.368 8 1 2 .006 .888 .068

Employment Status 7.649 3 .054 6.160 2 .104 1.511 3 .680

Monthly Income 13.231 7 .067 5.986 7 .541 13.447 7 .062

Table 7: Mean ranks per age bracket according to the support needed by the teachers Age Bracket 21 - 25

f 12

Mean Rank 43.67

26 - 30

78.57

31 - 35

51.50

36 - 40

77.86

41 - 45

78.75

46 - 50

75.43

51 - 55

84.94

56 and above

16 8

82.03 113.81

No answer/Prefer not to say

3.6 Significant Differences between the Teaching Experience of the Respondents and the Distance Learning Support provided by the Schools, the Problems Encountered by the Teachers, and the Support Needed by the Teachers in Distance Learning Education The Kruskal-Wallis test also found that there was no statistically significant difference between the distance learning support provided by the schools, the problems encountered by the teachers, the support needed by the teachers in distance learning education, and the respondents’ length of experience as a teacher, in addition to their length of experience doing online teaching.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

373

Table 8: Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test Length of Experience as a Teacher Support provided by the schools Problems encountered by the teachers Support needed by the teachers

χ2(2) Df p-value χ2(2) Df p-value χ2(2) Df p-value

9.891 6 .129 3.340 6 .765 5.892 6 .435

Length of Experience when Online Teaching 7.204 3 .066 3.579 3 .311 2.950 3 .399

4. Discussion This study is an attempt to shed light on the experiences of Filipino teachers when handling distance learning classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the support provided by the schools, the problems that they encountered when handling distance learning education classes, and the support they need to continue providing quality distance learning education to their students. It has been more than a year since the schools in the country were closed, and the teachers and students were forced to adopt distance learning to cope with the changes brought about by the pandemic. Because of this, it is pertinent that the teachers are heard, and their experience is known in order to meet the growing demands and challenges of distance learning. Six out of 10 respondent teachers said that it was their first experience with online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 33% of the respondents had some previous experience with online teaching. A closer look at the data reveals that the “first-timers” were comprised of both experienced (more than 10 years teaching experience) and less experienced teachers (between 1 - 5 years of experience). Regardless of their teaching experience, many of the respondents did not have enough experience handling distance learning education. This result is similar to the study conducted by the School Education Gateway (2020) in Europe at the beginning of the pandemic which showed that 66.9% of teachers confirmed that they were using or had used online platforms for teaching for the first time. The majority of the respondents strongly agreed that they receive varied support from their schools, specifically in terms of the policies to protect data privacy, systems of information dissemination for communicating with both parents and learners, and the technical support systems provided to the teachers. The switch to distance learning, specifically online education, brings with it security and privacy challenges which may cause substantial big data threats that may affect the lives of both the teachers and students (Çubukçu & Aktürk, 2020). In September 2020, the Data Privacy Council Education Sector of the Philippines released Advisory No. 2020-1. This contains the guidelines to help teachers, parents, students, and school administrators safely navigate digital spaces. It

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

374

also provides clear guidance on how to protect data in the conducting of online learning. Notably, the teachers have been receiving policy support in terms of this valuable matter. Furthermore, it should be noted that almost half of the respondents were confident when teaching remotely (32% somehow confident and 15% very confident). The previous studies found there to be a positive correlation between the teachers’ levels of self-efficacy and the student’s achievements and motivation, as well as the teachers’ wellbeing (Zee & Koomen, 2016). The teachers who have more confidence in their capacity to effectively teach remotely are more likely to create a more productive and high-quality learning environment. This research has highlighted the importance of school support in increasing the level of confidence of the teachers, and ensuring their wellbeing (Müller & Goldenberg, 2020). Another key finding is the higher number of teachers, albeit not the majority, who said that they were not provided with financial and emotional support mechanisms. Filipino teachers do not have high salaries, which can be as low as Php 8,000 in some private schools, while public school teachers face demands that are far from reasonable in contrast to their monthly wage (Tagupa, 2018). Even with distance learning, the teachers will need to spend money to buy the needed technology and pay for the internet services to continue working in a distance learning setting. Monetary assistance provided by the schools may help the teachers to buy equipment and materials for the technology to support distance learning. Meanwhile, emotional support is also needed as the teachers are overworked and face more stress dealing with new technologies and handling online classes that are not within their expertise. In the US, a 2020 distance learning survey conducted by Panorama revealed that more than 20% of around 13,000 educators in the country were concerned about their mental wellbeing (Paykamian, 2021). Filipino teachers will need more emotional support during the crisis, especially as many of them are facing a very unique and new dilemma when handling distance learning classes. One problem encountered in distance learning is motivating the students. This has also been found in the previous studies such as those conducted in Turkey and the Philippines (Korkmaz & Toraman, 2020; Lapada et al., 2020). For this reason, Filipino teachers have to devise ways to ensure that the students engaged in distance education are motivated, especially that there is still uncertainty when in-school learning will return due to the pandemic. Limited internet access plays a major part in why the online teaching-learning process might hinder the acquisition of quality education (Nenko et al., 2020). The results of this survey prove that motivating the students and access to technology among the teachers can make the process more difficult. The other problems identified were also found in the previous studies, specifically the problems regarding facilities, equipment, and capacity building (Joshi et al., 2020; Lapada et al., 2020).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

375

The support provided by the schools and the problems encountered by the teachers were not found to be associated with the demographic characteristics of the respondents, specifically their age bracket, gender, educational attainment, employment status, and monthly income. However, the study found out that there is a statistically significant difference between the support needed by teachers and their age bracket. Older teachers need more assistance or support navigating distance learning education. Although the number of years of teaching experience was not found to be associated with any of the variables in the study, unlike the previous studies such as the one conducted by Lapada et al. (2020), the association between age and the support needed may still support the notion that the older respondents with a longer teaching experience are relatively less tech-savvy. Unsurprisingly, the teachers need the most support in terms of resources and tools, webinars to share ideas and challenges, professional development programs, and easy contact with experts in online learning. The results are supported by the earlier study by the School Education Gateway (2020) in Europe where free resources from education technology companies, professional development such as quick courses on online teaching, and webinars for teachers to share ideas, and easy contact with experts were also mentioned as a necessary support to aid in the implementation of effective distance learning education. These support mechanisms are needed to address the problems encountered by the respondents. As Hodges et al. (2020) noted, online learning and teaching will only be effective if the teachers can acquire the appropriate competencies and possess the right attitude towards their professional development.

5. Limitations The study has several limitations that future researchers must consider. First, selecting the respondents was done using purposive sampling through the network of the researchers on Facebook. This resulted in a low number of respondents. There may be the presence of bias against other members of the teaching population in terms of geography and the type of school. Future researchers may also consider studying the attitude of the teachers towards distance learning education, as well as differentiating between the attitude and problems experienced by teachers in terms of the type of remote learning.

6. Conclusion This research aims to shed light on the Filipino teachers’ experiences with distance learning classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the support provided by their schools, the challenges that they faced when handling distance learning classes, and the support that they require to continue providing quality distance learning education to their students. In total, 151 teachers participated in this study which employed a quantitative approach through an online survey. The changes faced by the teachers in terms of their teaching practices during the pandemic are abrupt. The Filipino teachers who were part of this study revealed that they received adequate support from their respective schools, although

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

376

problems remained in terms of infrastructure, the teachers’ competency especially in ICT, professional development, handling the students in an online environment, and meeting the goals laid out in the lesson plans and curriculum of the respective subjects that they are teaching. However, despite these problems, it is encouraging to note that the respondents were confident when handling remote classes during the pandemic. Since the return to in-school learning is still in limbo due to the continuous threat of Covid-19, the Filipino teachers were able to adapt to the new ways of working in a distance learning environment.

7. Recommendations Since there are differences between the support needed by the teachers according to their age bracket, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the need for the schools to devise targeted programs, training, and support mechanisms to ensure that no one in the education sector is left behind. Designated IT experts must be assigned to assist the teachers such as when handling online classes or preparing video presentations for asynchronous learning. Likewise, since the teachers are having difficulty meeting the goals of the lessons and managing the time allocated for their classes, the DepEd may consider restructuring the course syllabus to meet their specific needs. It will also be helpful for the existing policies concerning data privacy and protecting the students’ identity in an online environment to be localized, cascaded at the school levels. The schools may consider appointing data privacy point persons that will help the teachers understand and successfully implement data privacy policies and regulations.

8. References Almario, A. R., & Austria, R. (2020). Helping K-12 schools transition to post-COVID 19 times. https://authdocs.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BE-LCPAnnex-E-Ani-Almario-Helping-K-12-Schools-Transition-to-Post-COVID.pdf Arinto, P. B. (2016). Issues and challenges in open and distance e-learning: perspectives from the Philippines. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i2.1913 Asian Development Bank. (2021). COVID-19 and education in Asia and the Pacific guidance note. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutionaldocument/672491/covid-19-education-asia-pacific-guidance-note.pdf Commission on Higher Education. (2020a). State universities and colleges number of faculty by program level. 2020 Higher Education Facts and Figures. https://ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/State-Universities-and-CollegesNumber-of-Faculty-by-Program-Level-AY-2019-20.pdf Commission on Higher Education. (2020b). Private higher education institutions number of faculty by program level. 2020 Higher Education Facts and Figures. https://ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/Private-Higher-EducationInstitutions-Number-of-Faculty-by-Program-Level-AY-2019-20.pdf Çubukçu, C., & Aktürk, C. (2020). The rise of distance education during Covid-19 Pandemic and the related data threats: A study about Zoom. Igdir University Social Sciences Journal. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344726977_The_Rise_of_Distance_E ducation_during_Covid-

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

377

19_Pandemic_and_the_Related_Data_Threats_A_Study_about_Zoom_Igdir_Uni versity_Social_Sciences_Journal/citation/download Data Privacy Council Education Sector. (2020). Advisory No. 2020-1: Data privacy and online learning. https://www.privacy.gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2020/10/DP-Council-Education-Sector-Advisory-No.-20201.pdf Department of Education. (2020). Towards a sustainable and working DepEd commons part II: A framework. https://commons.deped.gov.ph/deped-commons-framework.pdf Department of Education. (2019). Average monthly salaries of teachers. [PowerPoint slides]. https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tables-SLMBSalaries-statement.pptx De Vera III, P. (2020, Sept 02). CHED Memorandum Order No. 04: Guidelines on the implementation of flexible learning. https://ched.gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/CMO-No.-4-s.-2020-Guidelines-on-the-Implementation-ofFlexible-Learning.pdf DOLE-DEPED-TESDA-CHED Joint Guidelines. (2014, May 30). Joint guidelines on the implementation of the labor and management component of Republic Act No. 10533 (Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013). http://www.pacu.org.ph/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DOLEDEPED-TESDA-CHED-Joint-Guidelines-on-K-to-12.pdf Flores, M. A., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: national, institutional and pedagogical responses. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 507-516. http://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1799709 Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020, March 27). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. EDUCAUSE Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergencyremote-teaching-and-online-learning Hootsuite & We Are Social. (2021, February 11). Digital 2021: The Philippines. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-philippines?rq=philippines Joaquin, J. J. B., Biana, H. T., & Dacela, M. A. (2020). The Philippine Higher Education Sector in the Time of COVID-19. Frontiers in Education, 5:576371. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.576371 John Hopkins University. (2021). COVID-19 Map. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html Joshi, A., Vinay, M., & Bhaskar, P. (2020). Online teaching amidst COVID-19 in India: An outlook. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(2), 105-111. https://asianjde.org/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/454 Kim, J. (2020). Learning and teaching online during COVID-19: Experiences of student teachers in an early childhood education practicum. IJEC 52, 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-020-00272-6 Korkmaz, G., & Toraman, Ç. (2020). Are we ready for the post-covid-19 educational practice? An investigation into what educators think as to online learning. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science, 4(4), 293–309. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijtes.v4i4.110 Lapada, A. A., Miguel, F. F., Robledo, D. A., & Alam, Z. F. (2020). Teachers’ COVID-19 awareness, distance learning education experiences, and perceptions towards institutional readiness and challenges. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 19(6), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.6.8 Lee, J., March, L., & Peters, R. (2015). Faculty training and approach to online education, is there a connection? American University, Center for Teaching, Research & Learning. https://edspace.american.edu/online/wp-

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

378

content/uploads/sites/504/2016/03/FacultyTrainingAndApproachToOnlineE ducation.pdf Li, C., & Lalani, F. (2020, April 29). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-globalcovid19-online-digital-learning Llego, M. A. (2021, April 9). DepEd Basic Education Statistics for School Year 2019-2020. TeacherPH.com. https://www.teacherph.com/deped-basic-education-statisticsschool-year-2019-2020 Mahundu, G. F. (2020). COVID-19 disease pandemic lockdown: schools closure and students e-learning options in Tanzania. SSRN. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3698554 Medialdea, E. (2020, March 16). Memorandum from the Executive Secretary: Community quarantine over the entire Luzon and further guidelines for the management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2020/03mar/20200316MEMORANDUM-FROM-ES-RRD.pdf Müller, L. M., & Goldenberg, G. (2020). Education in times of crisis: The potential implications of school closures for teachers and students. Chartered College of Teaching. https://my.chartered.college/wpcontent/uploads/2020/05/CCTReport070520_FINAL.pdf Nenko, Y., Кybalna, N., & Snisarenko, Y. (2020). The COVID-19 distance learning: Insight from Ukrainian students.The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e8925 Galvez, D., & Orejas, T. (2021, March 1). Duterte still won’t allow in-person classes despite delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. INQUIRER.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1401105/duterte-still-rejects-resumption-offaceface-classes Panelo, S. S. (2020, March 12). On code red sublevel 2 –Presidential Communications Operations Office. Office of the Presidential Spokesperson. https://pcoo.gov.ph/OPS-content/on-code-red-sublevelPaykamian, B. (2021, March 10). Remote learning taking a toll on teacher health, morale. Government Technology. https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/WhyTeachers-Need-Emotional-Support-During-Virtual-Learning.html Reyes-Chua, E., Sibbaluca, B. G., Miranda, R. D., Palmario, G. B., Moreno, R. P., & Solon, J. P. T. (2020). The Status of the Implementation of the E-learning Classroom in selected Higher Education Institutions in Region IV-A amidst the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(11). https://doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.11.41 Schleicher, A. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD. https://www.gcedclearinghouse.org/resources/impactcovid-19-education-insights-education-glance-2020 School Education Gateway. (2020, August 6). Survey on online and distance learning – Results. https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/pub/viewpoints/surveys/surve y-on-online-teaching.htm Singh, V., & Thurman, A. (2019). How many ways can we define online learning? A systematic literature review of definitions of online learning (1988–2018). American Journal of Distance Education, 33(4), 289–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2019.1663082 Sutiah, S., Slamet, S., Shafqat, A., & Supriyono, S. (2020). Implementation of distance learning during the covid-19 pandemic in faculty of education and teacher

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

379

training. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 15(5), 1204–1214. https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v15i5.5151 Tagupa, H. (2018, June 29). Are PH teachers really underpaid? INQUIRER.net. https://opinion.inquirer.net/114243/ph-teachers-really-underpaid United Nations Children’s Fund. (2021, March 24). COVID-19: Schools for more than 168 million. https://www.unicef.org/india/press-releases/covid-19-schools-more168-million-children-globally-have-been-completely-closed Ventayen, R. J. M. (2018). Level of competency in computer systems servicing of teachers in one town in Northern Luzon: A needs assessment and analysis. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3153248 Yilmaz, A. B. (2019). Distance and face-to-face students’ perceptions towards distance education: A comparative metaphorical study. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 1302–6488. https://doi.org/10.17718/tojde.522705 Zee, M., & Koomen, H. M. (2016). Teacher self-efficacy and its effects on classroom processes, student academic adjustment, and teacher well-being. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 981–1015. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315626801

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

380

Appendix 1. Survey Instrument SCHOOL SUPPORT RECEIVED AND CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN DISTANCE LEARNING EDUCATION BY FILIPINO TEACHERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Beloved Teachers, Good day! The current situation is unprecedented. The novel coronavirus has affected millions of people around the world. In the Philippines, community quarantines were imposed since March last year to control the spread of the virus. The pandemic affected the entire education system, forcing schools to transition from in-person to online and remote classes. Against this background, Blue Chips Research and Consultancy Co. is surveying teachers regarding their distance learning education experiences during this pandemic. In line with this, we would like to invite you to participate in this online survey. Answering this survey is voluntary. Even if you do not participate, there will be no disadvantages for you. Before answering the survey questionnaire, please read the following information. Thank you very much in advance for your support in this endeavor! I.

Demographic Profile Are you currently employed as a teacher/instructor (full-time or part-time) in any educational institution in the Philippines? (This survey is for Filipino teachers/instructors teaching in any educational institution in the Philippines and are handling classes this Academic Year 2020-2021.) ____ Yes ____ No

(End of Survey)

Instruction: Put a mark on the space corresponding to your answer. 1.

Gender ____ ____ ____ ____

Male Female Transgender Prefer not to say

Age Bracket ____ 18 – 20 ____ 21 – 25 ____ 26 – 30 ____ 31 – 35 ____ 36 – 40 ____ 41 – 45

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

____ 46 – 50 ____ 51 – 55 ____ 56 – 60 ____ 61 – 65 ____ 66 above ____ Prefer not to say

381

Educational Attainment ____ Elementary Level ____ Elementary Graduate ____ High School Level ____ High School Graduate ____ College Level ____ College Graduate ____ Post-Graduate Level ____ Post-Graduate ____ Vocational ____ Did not attend school ____ Prefer not to say

Religion ____ Roman Catholic ____ Protestant ____ Methodist ____ Muslim ____ Iglesia ni Cristo ____ Jehova’s Witnesses

____ Evangelical ____ Sevent-day Adventist ____ Hindi ko nais sabihin ____ None ____ Others, please specify: _________________________

Please indicate the province where you are currently residing. ____________________________________

Please indicate the province where you are currently teaching. ____________________________________

Please indicate the school where you are currently teaching. ____________________________________

What is your employment status as a teacher? ____ Regular/Permanent/Full-Time ____ Casual/Contractual but Full-Time ____ Part-time ____ Special Lecturer ____ Prefer not to say

Monthly income ____ Php5,000 below ____ Php5,001 - Php10,000 ____ Php10,001 - Php15,000 ____ Php15,001 - Php20,000 ____ Prefer not to say

____ Php20,001 - Php25,000 ____ Php25,001 - Php30,000 ____ Php30,000 - Php35,000 ____ Php35,001 above

10. Level of Education you are currently teaching? ____ Elementary ____ Junior High School ____ Senior High School ____ College ____ Graduate Program ____ Vocational ____ Others, please specify: ______________________

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

382

11. Type of School where you are currently working? ____ Public School ____ Private Sectarian ____ Private Non-sectarian ____ State Universities and Colleges ____ Local Colleges and Universities ____ Others, please specify: ______________________ 12. How long have you been working as a teacher? ____ This is my first year ____ 1-2 years ____ 3-5 years ____ 6-10 years ____ 11-15 years ____ 16-20 years ____ 21 years and above ____ Prefer not to say

II.

Distance Learning 13. Which of the following statements best describe your experience with online teaching? ____ I have extensive experience with online teaching ____ I have some experience with online teaching ____ This is my first experience with online teaching ____ My school has not switched to online/distance learning

III.

Opinion on Distance Learning Education during COVID-19 crisis 14. How confident are you to teach remotely during this pandemic? ____ 5 Very Confident ____ 4 Confident ____ 3 Neutral ____ 2 Not Confident ____ 1 Not Very Confident 15. How would you rate your school’s performance to distance learning education in terms of the following? Kindly rate whether you strongly agree (4), agree (3), disagree (2), or strongly disagree (1) with the following statements. Statements

The school has provided capacity building on distance learning education management for teachers The school has a designated workforce for the COVID-19 The school has provided the regulations and policies on the use of distance learning to protect student’s identity and data privacy

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

383

The school has provided supplementary materials for distance learning, such as subscriptions to online libraries The school has procured an online learning management system The school has a system of information dissemination to communicate with the parents and the learners during the CoVid19 outbreak. The school provides a technical support system to teachers The school has a financial support system for teachers The school has an emotional support system mechanism for teachers (ex. for managing stress) The school has provided a positive environment for teachings during this crisis IV.

Problems encountered in Distance Learning Education

16. Considering your experience in distance learning in the past weeks, which of the following challenges in switching to online/distance learning have you experienced? Frequently, Sometimes Occasionall Rarely, in Never Usually, in in about , in about y, in about less than about 90% Every 70% of the 50% of the 30% of the 10% of the Statements of the time chances chances chances chances chances, I when I when I when I when I could have could have could have could have could have Access to stable internet connection Teachers’ access to technology Adapting to distance learning teaching/learning practices Using information and communication technologies Using the school’s learning management systems (LMS) Interacting/Communicati ng with students Involving students from socially disadvantaged homes Evaluating the learners’ knowledge and skills

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

384

Providing skills teaching (such as listening or speaking in language classes, drawing in visual arts lessons, etc.) Meeting the learning outcomes determined for students Giving feedback to students Teaching according to the individual interests and abilities of the students Motivating the students Managing time allotted for the online sessions (teaching hours) Too many online sessions Having a suitable environment at home for online teaching Communicating with parents/guardians Students’ access to technology The school gives little direction or support Converting activities and content into online/distance learning Preparing content for online and distance learning Supporting students with special needs or disabilities V.

Distance Learning Education Support Needed 17. What would most help you to support online learning during the school closure? Kindly rate whether you strongly agree (4), agree (3), disagree (2), or strongly disagree (1) with the following statements. Statements Professional development: quick courses on online teaching Easy contact with experts (e.g., experienced online-learning teacher, ICT expert

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

385

Clear guidance from the Department of Education Websites with lists of valuable resources Video clips of good practices Lesson plans of good practices More educational TV programs by national media organizations More free resources and tools from education technology companies or organizations Webinars for teachers to share ideas and challenges Thank you for participating in this survey. Rest assured that we will adhere to the strictest confidentiality requirements and no personal information will be released nor used outside this study.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

386

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 386-402, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.20

The Role of Teacher Educators in Curriculum Reforms in Lesotho Schools Julia Chere-Masopha, Tebello Tlali, Tankie Khalanyane and Edith Sebatane National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8279-2640 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1570-3369 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3855-4757 http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9957-719X Abstract. To a certain extent, many curriculum reforms that have been introduced in Lesotho schools have been unsuccessful. Teachers’ preparedness to implement these reforms has been the major factor for the failures. Involving teacher education providers in the preparation of teacher preparedness could improve the success rate of these school reforms. Therefore, understanding how education educators prepare teachers for curriculum reforms could assist to understand why school teachers often appear to be ill-prepared for curriculum reforms. Accordingly, this paper investigated the views of six teacher educators about their role in the preparation of teachers for curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools. A questionnaire was used to collect data that were analysed thematically. The results obtained indicate that: teacher educators are involved in a limited way in Lesotho curriculum reforms; and they have limited knowledge about the current reforms. As a result, their training practices do not target to prepare teachers for the reforms introduced in schools. This explains why many studies have found teachers to be ill-prepared for any curriculum reforms in Lesotho. These findings raise awareness on the issue that teacher educators should be involved in the reforms in Lesotho. Therefore, the main recommendation of this study is to engage teacher education providers so as to make the reforms successful. Keywords: curriculum reforms; teacher education providers; teacher educators; teachers’ preparedness; teacher training practices

1. Introduction and Background Historically, Lesotho education could be viewed as having gone through three distinctive phases of transformation, which are pre-colonial education, colonial and post-colonial education. In the third phase which is post-colonial education, different governments of Lesotho have been introducing school and curriculum reforms attempting to fix long existing problems. Some of these problems have

©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

been inherited from colonial education. The latest major curriculum reforms were introduced in 2009 for the purpose of changing teaching and assessment practices in Lesotho schools. However, as usual, views have already been raised regarding any successful implementation of these reforms. In particular, concerns have centred around teachers’ preparedness for these reforms, with some scholars citing the role of teacher educators as preparing teachers alongside the educational needs, including educational goals and curriculum reforms of any country. With the view that teachers’ ill-preparedness for addressing such needs may result from pre-service training, this paper outlines the curriculum reforms and their success in the educational system in Lesotho. The paper also examines the extent to which teacher educators may have contributed to teachers’ poor implementation of the reforms. Specifically discussing teacher educators’ roles, the study investigated the views of teacher educators about how they were engaged in preparing school teachers for the reforms in Lesotho. 1.1 Pre-colonial Education Before the missionaries introduced Western education in Lesotho, Basotho had indigenous education system which was mainly concerned with the development and sustainability of Basotho as a nation. This type of education promoted the history of Basotho, focusing on their origin and development into a nation; cultural heritage that instilled moral and traditional values and beliefs; the development of the individual’s physical character and personality, personal and family roles and responsibilities; communal life and patriotism; and the understanding of the world at large (Matšela, 1979; Ministry of Education and Training ((MOET, 2009). The recipients of this education were mainly the youth who were mostly engaged in physical and practical activities aimed at developing their knowledge and skills relevant at the time (Ansell, 2002; Education Encyclopedia, 2020; Seotsanayana & Muzvidizwa, 2002; Selepe, 2016). Like any other indigenous African education systems, indigenous education amongst the Basotho was geared towards matching the needs and realities of the nation. Despite being mostly informal, with both teaching and learning involving observation and activity-oriented skills, the Basotho indigenous education was believed to produce well-rounded personalities groomed into fitting well in their society (MOET, 2009; Rodney et al., 1973). 1.2 Colonial Education When the missionaries arrived in Lesotho in 1833, they introduced a western type education. The missionary education was offered in the formal institutions (schools) where learning took place in the classrooms and teachers acted as learning facilitators and role models of the children (Letseka, 1992). The main purpose of this education was to promote literacy, numeracy and religious values. Numeracy and literacy skills were considered valuable by the missionaries and the British Government administration (which later took over the education system). School graduates of this system could be employed as interpreters, clerks, teachers and catechists (Seotsanayana & Muzvidizwa, 2002; Salia-Bao, 1987; Selepe, 2016). Besides the above-mentioned careers, some attention was devoted to vocational education that was designed to develop skills for domestic and construction sectors (Selepe, 2016). Emphasising European cultural interests and habits such as clothing, eating, housing and life style in general, the western

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

education overlooked Basotho’s norms and values (Encyclopedia, 2020; Salia-Bao, 1987) and ended up undermining Basotho’s indigenous education system. In any case, when Lesotho became the British protectorate, the British administration not only inherited the missionary education system, but they also continued to produce school graduates with only interpreting and translation skills, some of whom worked as clerks in the government administration, as teachers at church-owned schools and/or as police personnel (Seotsanayana & Muzvidizwa, 2002). Even today, the country’s education appears to be more Eurocentric than Afro-centric (Education Encyclopedia, 2020). Generally, colonial education focused on promoting the development of the individual’s physical character and personality. It emphasized foreign cultures and belief systems which resulted in graduates adopting foreign cultures and habits. On this basis, a graduate who is fluent in a foreign language and displays a European image and lifestyle has been viewed as successfully educated (Rodney et al., 1973). Perhaps, using foreign Christian names, which become key to employment opportunities has been for such reasons in Lesotho (Growth and Change in Lesotho, as cited in Seotsanayana & Muzvidizwa, 2002). Equally significant is that the missionary and colonial education contradicted Basotho’s indigenous education by promoting foreign education systems and the culture of individualism at the cost of collective culture which was emphasised by Basotho indigenous education. Thus, the most important aspects of traditional Basotho education were downgraded and considered unimportant in the missionary and British administration education system (Thelejane, 1990). Also, the lingering outcome of the missionary and colonial education system is that technical vocational education and training (TVET) are provided under conditions which, according to the McGrath et al. (2020) and African Development Fund (2007), are so poor that even the potential employing companies do not have confidence in TVET graduates. 1.3 Post-Colonial Education With the advent of independence in 1966, the government soon realised the flaws of the education system in addressing the needs of the nation. Notable was a mismatch between the education provided and employment opportunities for school graduates (Education Sector Survey Task Force Report, 1982, p.63; Encyclopedia, 2020). The successive governments of Lesotho have since then tried to ‘fix’ this problem through successive curriculum reforms. The first of all these curriculum reforms were carried out in 1978, followed later by the 1988 reform, and the latest being the 2009 reforms. The 1978 National Educational Reform introduced practical subjects in schools. This reform was intended to promote the spirit of self-reliance, patriotism, respect, self-discipline and self-sacrifice by graduates (Education Sector Survey Task Force Report, 1982; Encyclopedia, 2020). It also focused on health and religious issues as well as influencing learners’ attitudes towards Mathematics and Science. In 1988, another reform was introduced, the aim of which was to transform school governance and to offer education, intended to respond to the needs of the nation.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Despite such supposedly good intensions, the 1978 and the 1988 reforms and many others that followed were not successful, particularly in relation to teaching and learning. Teaching continued to focus on promoting literacy and numeracy; and learning and passing of English as second language, science and mathematics. As a result, schools continued to produce the graduates who lacked employability skills necessary for the local and international labour markets. More curriculum innovations were introduced through the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Framework (CAP) of 2009. These reforms aimed at revolutionizing education so that at the end of basic education, learners would have: (1) acquired reading, writing, arithmetic and life skills; (2) developed respect for environment; (3) been prepared for tertiary education and world of work; and (4) acquired personalities that have been shaped and developed in line with educational goals of the nation. Thus, as per the aims of the new reforms, the new approach to school education was to promote learners’ effective communication skills; awareness of self and others; awareness of environmental adaptation and sustainable development, health and healthy living habits; and acquirement of production and work-related competencies (MOET, 2009; Raselimo & Mahao, 2015). The new reforms have re-arranged and organised the subjects into learning areas which are: Linguistic and Literacy; Numerical and Mathematical; Personal, Spiritual and Social; Scientific and Technological; and Creativity and Entrepreneurial. This new arrangement was expected to result in teaching and learning approaches designed to equip a learner with a body of knowledge and competencies sufficient to deal with life challenges (MOET, 2009). The reform expected teachers to abandon their old teaching practices that fragment knowledge and teach concepts and processes of the related disciplines in isolation and to embrace teaching approaches that influence and shape learners’ view of the world that: (1) the world is built of things that do not exist in isolation; and (2) there are invisible networks amongst entities that form a grand network of life. This type of teaching was expected to make learners conceptualise the world as a mighty network of multiple networks and sub-networks of relationships amongst its living and non-living, and physical and non-physical entities. Learners were also expected to appreciate the relationships amongst the elements that form these networks and the roles they play to maintain these complicated systems. The policy (CAP) phased out subject-oriented curriculum in favour of integrated curriculum. Summative assessment practices which were mainly in a form of tests and examinations had to be abandoned in favour of continuous and formative assessments. According to this policy, teaching and assessment were not to be considered as separate: assessment was to be integral to teaching. In addition, rather than focusing on the acquirement of mere knowledge, teaching and assessment was to inform both a teacher and a leaner about the progress of a learner in acquiring new skills, attitudes and behaviour (MOET, 2009; Raselimo & Mahao, 2015). Teachers were also to use continuous and formative assessment to generate classroom data that would inform their teaching practices. The policy also persuades teachers to use teaching strategies that integrate multiple

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

disciplines; design learning tasks in such a way that, for their successful completion, would require a learner to apply knowledge from more than one discipline. Drawing on the CAP’s (2009) document, such teaching strategies include project-based learning, task-oriented learning, learning portfolio and research-based learning (MOET, 2009). 1.4 Implications on Teachers’ Attributes and Practices The introduction of curriculum reforms in teaching, learning and assessment in schools in Lesotho had implications on the abilities of teachers who work in this system. It assumed that teachers have are able to adapt their classroom practices to the changes required by the reforms. This means that these teachers’ knowledge and skills would be specialised enough to make them flexible to adopt new teaching and assessment practices. Schleicher (2016, p.90) defines this type of knowledge as, “the specialized body of knowledge concerned with creating effective teaching and learning environments for each and every student. It includes, for example, knowledge of how to structure learning objectives, how to plan a lesson, how to evaluate a lesson; knowledge of effective use of allocated time and strategies for differentiated instruction; and knowledge of how to design tasks for formative assessment. The knowledge also includes specialized areas of “learning”, such as knowing how to facilitate learning given certain student characteristics, such as their prior knowledge, motivation and ability levels.” The type of teachers that is required for the successful implementation of these changes should have been exposed to the similar type of curriculum implementation either through teacher education and /or in-service professional development. However, the current cohort of teachers in Lesotho schools is a product of subject-oriented teaching as learners, teacher trainees, and experienced classroom teachers. Therefore, their professional world would be defined by the type of teaching, learning and assessment that the CAP reform aimed to change. As such, teachers in Lesotho schools should have been prepared for and exposed to education and /or professional development activities that align with these new changes for successful reforms.

2. Literature Review Studies have established that teachers are often expected to change their classroom practices and attitudes as a response to curriculum reforms with very limited training or preparation (Peyman et al., 2012). Nevertheless, studies by Harris & Graham (2019), Nhlapo at el. (2019), Abraham & Reginald (2016), and Peyman at el. (2012) have reported teachers as often ill-prepared to implement curriculum reforms, particularly reforms aimed for changing classroom practices. According to Raselimo & Mahao (2015), inadequate training sometimes makes teachers appear to be unwilling to understand and accept the reforms, to misinterpret the reforms, and to resist to co-operate with relevant education departments. For Shankar (2014), inadequate training justifies teachers’ continuity with classroom practices that mismatch the goals of the reforms. These studies have led Abraham & Reginald (2016) and Lim & Chan (2007) to emphasise the need for teacher education and training that targets curriculum reforms so as to

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

enhance teacher participation and response. As pointed out by Lim & Chan (2007, p.475): “Teacher education programs, especially at the pre-service stage, plays a crucial role in facilitating teachers’ transformation in their instructional practices and shifting their pedagogical beliefs.” Wong (2004) observed that teacher education and training for reforms is important. Accordingly, Wong points out that for school teachers to change, teacher educators should first adopt the approaches that target curriculum reforms in their own instructional practices. It follows, therefore, that teacher education programmes should ensure that pre-service teachers develop adequate skills for relevant curriculum changes. Meaningful learning contexts should be in place to allow teachers to critically examine their own pedagogical beliefs and explore the application of the proposed changes. Without all these, school teachers are likely not to receive proper orientation and preparation for the reforms. As such, teachers would unlikely be able to implement any envisaged reforms. 2.1 Teacher Preparation for Curriculum Reforms in Lesotho There is evidence that one of the key factors to the unsuccessful curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools is that teachers lack requisite knowledge and skills, and limited understanding of the reforms (Ansell, 2002; Letseka, 1992; Seotsanayana & Muzvidizwa, 2002). Even with the newly introduced reforms (integrated curriculum and continuous and formative assessment) recent studies, such as Raselimo & Mahao (2015), have identified the same factors. The main conclusion to be drawn from these studies is that teachers have been inadequately prepared for the implementation of the new curriculum changes. Teacher educators are supposed to be responsible for preparing and supporting the continuous professional development of teachers (Falus & Orgoványi-Gajdos, 2016). This means these educators should be well informed about the national educational goals and expectations for schools. As curriculum developers, they should be engaged in the development of courses that prepare teachers through professional development (Falus, & Orgoványi-Gajdos, 2016). This means that teacher educators should collaborate with government and schools on preparing teachers for curriculum reforms. Dillon, Chang, Rondeau, & Kim (2019) support this by indicating that where teacher educators are integrated in the curriculum initiatives they change their practices. However, as observed by Lunenberg et al. (2014) and Kosnik & Beck (2008), this rarely happens. The authors have observed lack of collaboration relating to teacher development in many education systems, resulting in disjointed teacher development activities.

3. Problem Statement Teacher training institutions should be playing a very important role in the preparation of teachers for innovation, either through in-service or pre-service training programmes (Osamwonyi, 2016). Logically, teacher education providers (institutions and teacher educators) should be involved in the preparation of teachers through pre-service education or in-service professional development programmes. Engaging teacher educators in the programmes that prepare teachers for curriculum reforms can enhance the success of such reforms. Failure to do this often result in teachers’ ill-preparedness for the reforms. The literature reviewed in this study indicates that teachers have been ill-prepared for

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

curriculum reforms in Lesotho. As such, knowing how and why these teachers are often ill-prepared for curriculum reforms would be important for the success of any imminent curriculum reforms. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate how teacher educators have been involved in the preparation of teachers for curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools; and how their involvement has contributed to the status teachers are currently in relating to the implementation of the reforms. Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to establish teacher educators’: (1) knowledge about the new curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools; (2) involvement in teacher preparation for the reforms, and (3) challenges that relate to preparing teachers for the reforms; and (4) practices implications on teacher preparedness for the reforms. Thus, the four main questions which guided this study were: (1) What are the perceptions of teacher educators about how they have been involved in the curriculum reforms? (2) How does teacher educators’ involvement guided them to prepare teachers for the reforms? (3) What are the challenges teacher educators experience in teacher preparation for the reforms? and (4) What are the implications on teacher preparedness?

4. Methodology Premised on the interpretivist paradigm, this study adopted qualitative research approach and design, thereby selecting participants and methods for data collection and analysis as discussed in the following sections. 4.1 Research Paradigm, Approach and Design The choice of qualitative research approach and methods was influenced by the interpretivist paradigm which supports the constructivist’ view (Parsons, 2018). Constructivists believe that people give meanings to life depending on their experiences of interacting with their environments. As such, there is nothing like absolute truth or reality: truth or reality depends on an individual and a context (Parsons, 2018). Consistent with the qualitative approach to this study, the views of teacher educators, who have been investigated in this study about their involvement in the curriculum reforms in Lesotho, had been shaped by their individual and collective experiences from their working context. With the qualitative premise, the researchers have been able to perceive and understand the world through the eyes of the researched. The main purpose of qualitative studies is to have in-depth understanding of issues related to the phenomenon under study (Elo et al., 2014; Kahlke, 2014; Sinkovics & Alfoldi, 2012). On this basis, the study describes, ‘for deeper understanding’, the views of teacher educators about how they are involved in the curriculum reforms in Lesotho, and how their involvement influence teachers’ ability to respond to the classroom changes brought about by such reforms. 4.2 Selection of Participants The views of six teacher educators (four females and two males) from one university in Lesotho were investigated in this study. These teacher educators were recruited on their availability to participate. Those available were working in the Department of Educational Foundations in the Faculty of Education. Their area of specialisations ranged from instructional design and clinical supervision, and educational psychology and inclusive education to educational management,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

leadership and policy studies and philosophy of education. The focus of the investigation was particularly on the involvement of these teacher educators in the preparation of school teachers for the current school curriculum reforms in Lesotho. The collection of data in this study was guided by Desimone’s fivefeature model of professional development (Desimone, 2011, Desimone & Pak, 2017). This model describes five important aspects that should be considered when preparing teachers for curriculum changes: (a) teachers should be exposed to content that focuses on the subject matter of a reform and how students learn that content. Such training or education should expose teachers to (b) active learning that gives them opportunities to observe how to implement the new changes and how learner’s feedback is communicated. The model also suggests that teachers in pre-service or in-service programmes should be exposed to how to coherently (c) align teaching content, goals and learner activities with school curriculum and goals. Further, (d) teachers should be exposed to assessment strategies that provide learner feedback; and (e) they should be continually supported through collective participation and peer support. In addition, teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about national and school policies and the needs of their learners should be taken into account (Carpenter & Green, 2017). According to this model, teachers should not be exposed to a once-off education or training session; rather, it should be to a fair amount of time which could be equivalent to or more than 20 hours or 13 contact sessions. The model further proposes that even after training, teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about national and school policies and learners’ needs should be considered (Carpenter & Green, 2017). 4.3 Data Collection and Analysis A questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. These data were analysed thematically along the lines of Vaismoradi et al.’s model (2013). The model has four stages of data processing and analysis: initialisation, construction, rectification and finalisation. The results from this analysis including extracts from the participants’ responses are presented in the next section.

5. Presentation Interpretation and Discussion of Results The results in this study indicate that due to their limited involvement in the preparation for implementing the curriculum reforms, teacher educators have limited knowledge about the current curriculum reforms in Lesotho. As a result, the teaching practices of these educators are not aligned with the knowledge and skills teachers need to implement the curriculum reforms. Teacher educators, therefore, view their involvement in the reforms as crucial for preparing teachers for curriculum implementation. 5.1 Teacher Educators’ Knowledge about Curriculum Reforms in Lesotho Schools Generally, curriculum reforms are introduced to improve the quality or standard of education, drawing on both local and international practices by other institutions the world over. Most of the participants (5) appeared to use this general knowledge in their response to the question about their knowledge relating to the current curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools. While their responses were not specific to the Lesotho context, they were largely noted for

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

justifying the introduction of the reforms. For example, one of the research informants revealed that the reforms were introduced: “to improve the standard of education in Lesotho”. Realising that her response was not convincing, the participant supplemented this response by saying, “I have the impression that it was a matter of learning from what is considered to be best practice from other countries”. The response of one participant was short, abrupt, disassociative, and insinuated frustration. The response of this participant was, “I don’t know, the Government knows why they have introduced these reforms.” This response could be seen as signifying the participant’s frustration, thus, resulting in her reluctance to follow up on any curriculum reform processes in the country. The responses of some participants (4) indicated that even though they did not know much about the reforms, they were, at least, aware that the reforms were about teaching, learning, and assessment. This was demonstrated in one participant’s response who said, “I understand that the curriculum focuses on advancing an integrated approach in the teaching of school subject by grouping those subjects into major learning areas.” Although the participant responded positively, the response shows that this teacher lacked comprehensive knowledge about the reforms. Another participant’s response, also indicating limited knowledge about the reforms, saw reforms as specifically targeting learner assessment. This participant indicated that the reforms were intended to change the existing summative methods that relied mostly on examinations. The participant further stated that summative assessment was perceived as being responsible for high failure rates often associated with many grade repeaters and/or learner dropouts. Considering the reforms as favouring continuous assessment, this particular participant observed that, “They [the reforms] are about diverting from the exam-based assessment to continuous assessment; hassles that come with examinations including exam pressure and high failure (repetition rate) among students; to address issues of relevance; to address issues of school graduate employability”. The participant further opined that the reforms were also intended to address the issue of education relevance and school graduate employability. Unlike other informants, this participant apparently had a broader perspective about the motivation for introducing the reforms. 5.2 Involvement of Teacher Educators in School Curriculum Reforms in Lesotho Schools This study also found out that there was a minimal involvement of teacher educators in Lesotho school curriculum reforms. The responses of the participants (6) suggested that they had not been formally engaged in the reforms, either as teacher educators or as the Faculty of Education. Making reference to the current school reforms, this is how one of the participants put it: “There has been no involvement of any kind either directly or indirectly. The Department of Education Foundations did ask for a meeting with the Ministry Education and Training for highlights on the new curriculum, but the highlights were wanting”. According to the participants (6) in this study, various departments in the Ministry of Education and Training, rather than the institutions of higher learning, have been engaged in the preparation of teachers for the new reforms. One participant indicated that the workshops to which they had been invited by the ministry departments, were mainly concerned with subject-specific areas, not about the reforms. These

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

participants pointed out that even with these workshops, there is lack of clarity about the criteria used to identify those invited. This was particularly pointed out as follows by the participant: “… not sure of the stage when they get involved. I am just aware of invitations for workshops by the ministry on the life skills education and training on inclusive education. In most cases, teacher educators are not engaged. Usually one or two representatives from the faculty are requested to participate in such workshops. There is never a time when the participants report back to the faculty; this information is rarely shared”. The observation that was made by this participant about lack of transparency on how teacher educators are identified to participate in the Ministry of Education and Training workshops was also expressed by another participant who claimed that: “The Ministry sometimes requests the Faculty to send representatives to attend training workshops or development of some policies. However, there is minimal openness regarding such endeavours.” The responses of these participants indicate that the limited engagement of teacher educators in the workshops is not only practised by the Ministry of Education and Training. The Faculty of Education also lacks policies on teacher educators’ participation the workshops, training events, and other related activities in the Ministry of Education and Training. According to these participants, how the Ministry of Education and Training involved teacher educators in the new reforms was not new but an established government practice. One participant emphasised this by saying: “Education policies in Lesotho [have been] top-down, as stakeholders [are] never consulted, nor are we involved in any new curriculum reforms”. Generally, this result indicates that teacher educators in Lesotho have not been actively or fully involved in the activities related to the school curriculum reforms. As such, these teacher educators displayed very limited knowledge about the intentions of the current curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools. 5.3 How Teacher Educators Prepare In-Service Teachers for Reforms The participants were also asked how they had modified their teacher training practices to address the needs of the current curriculum reforms. In particular, they were asked about how the needs had influenced their formulation of learning objectives, choices of teaching strategies, teaching content, and learner assessment and feedback strategies. The responses revealed that teacher educators (6) had not orientated their classroom practices to the new reforms. In response, one participant confirmed as follows: “I noticed during teaching practice observation and assessment that the University has been left behind with regard to curriculum reform. The University is training teachers that are not relevant to the needs of the new curriculum, in other words we are producing irrelevant teachers.” This finding resonated with the view that teacher educators knew very little about the current school reforms due to their limited involvement. As thus, teacher educators’ practices were not aligned with the reform.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

One of the most interesting findings was that other participants (4) struggled to explain how they had changed their classroom practices to align with the reforms. They tried to create an impression that they were professionals who were attempting to align their own practices with the changes in the schools. Yet, their responses only demonstrated their limited knowledge about the new curriculum reforms and how far their teaching approaches were from those envisaged in the curriculum reforms. In what follows are some of the responses collected from a series of questions focusing on the change of practice regarding: (1) formulation of teaching objectives. Response 1: “I encourage learners to read widely and to be vigilant as the new curriculum is aimed to produce citizens that think out of the box.” Response 2: “I always urge students to ensure alignment of all the educational components ranging from objectives to content and teaching and assessment methods, I base this approach from a philosophy such as pragmatism which advocates the integrated approach to curriculum with the view to maximize.” Response 3: “Although the objectives of the course have not been modified, they are formulated to equip student-teachers with skills to use different forms of assessment in order to tailor to students’ unique needs.” (2) organisation of content and design of learning tasks and assessment. Response 1: “In the courses I teach, I never really get into such details. This aspect is yet to be explored. Maybe its lack of understanding of the new curriculum on my part.” Response 2: “I do not know. I train them to use different teaching strategies that accommodate individual learner’s needs.” (3) selection of teaching and assessment strategies and resources. Response 1: “I encourage teachers to use discovery learning and that is what I encourage teachers to do.” Response 2: “I usually help students to develop creativity by showing how they can integrate guidance and counselling in their varying teaching subjects. We have never agreed on this as the department. There is nothing yet that we are doing as the department.” (4) collection of classroom data from continuous and formative assessment to inform teaching Response 1: “I have never touched this one. In the courses I teach I never really get into such details. This aspect is yet to be explored. Maybe its lack of understanding of the new curriculum on my part.” Response 2: “I have never done this and I don’t even understand how it is done.” The above responses systematically demonstrate teacher educators’ little knowledge about the reforms introduced in Lesotho schools and the extent of

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

their ill-preparedness for teacher-training practices as the graduate training institution in the country. 5.4 What Should be the Role Teacher Education in Reforms The participants were also asked about their views on what they considered as appropriate level of involvement for teacher educators in school reforms and how this could influence their professional practice. All the participants (6) were of the view that the Faculty of Education should be formally involved in the stages of the conceptualisation and formulation of the reforms. The following responses illustrate: Response 1: “Under ideal conditions the Faculty should be involved at formulation stage, after a problem had been identified. Formulation stage would have helped the Faculty to revamp their programmes accordingly to accommodate the changes.” Response 2: “By being part of the state technocrats in formulation of the policy so that every stakeholder owns the policy.” Response 3: “Before the promulgation of the policy, our contributions could have helped a lot during the policy agenda setting and policy formulation stages. Staff from the department should have formed part of the team that developed policies as we have the technical knowhow in this area.” Response 4: “I think my department, as a foundation department, should have been involved from the very onset, i.e. at the inception stage of the curriculum……I think my department could have contributed fundamentally by finding the philosophical basis for the new curriculum and ensuring the alignment between the aim/objectives/outcomes and the content, the teaching and assessment methods, resources among others.” Generally, the participants viewed the formal engagement of the faculty by the government in the conceptualisation of all the school reforms as important They believed such an involvement could improve their understanding of the reforms and enable them to tailor their professional practices to the reforms. All (6) the participants also pointed out that their involvement by the government should not be a once-off incident, nor should it be confined only to the reforms. They indicated that the involvement should be formal and continuous, coupled with constant communication between the faculty and the Ministry of Education and Training about educational challenges in Lesotho and the plans to address them. They also viewed that it was important that there is a strong relationship between the government and teacher education providers. From their point of view, their current status of knowledge about the reforms and their involvement in the implementation of these reforms in the classroom are the result of the limited communication between these two institutions. They also believed that if the government and the faculty could have clear and transparent policies about how teacher educators are involved in the matters of school curricula in Lesotho,

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

this could have positive impact on how teacher educators prepare teachers for school reforms.

6. Discussions Since the country’s independence in 1966, all the regimes in Lesotho (governments) have been undertaking educational reforms to improve quality and relevance of education, and to address issues of school graduate unemployment. As already stated earlier, many of these reforms have been unsuccessful, with the blame falling mostly on teachers’ lack of knowledge to implement the reforms. This study investigated the role of teacher educators in the preparation of in-service teachers for the reforms. The results of this study indicate that teacher educators in the institutions of higher learning in Lesotho have limited involvement in the formulation of these reforms. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the training provided for in-service teachers have been insufficient and not aligned with the changes needed for the successful implementation of the reforms. The findings of this study suggest that graduates from institutions of higher learning in Lesotho who join a teaching profession are poorly equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to implement the current reforms in Lesotho schools. This view is based on Desimone’s five feature model of professional development adopted by this study: (a) exposing teachers to the content, (b) actively engaging in-service teachers and giving them opportunities to observe how to the changes are implemented, and ensuring that (c) teaching aligns content, goals and learner activities with school curriculum and goals, and that teacher’s knowledge and beliefs about national and school policies and the needs of their learners should be taken into account. The results show that the practices of teacher education are far from preparing teachers for the reforms along this model. Flower et al. (2016) and Maharajh et al. (2016) contend that the classroom poor performance of beginning teachers sometimes results from poor training which is mainly theoretical, and fails to align with the contextual needs of teachertrainees. The results of this study, therefore, demonstrate that teacher education, albeit being at the implementation stage, does not address the contextual needs of teacher-trainees, in terms of the national educational curriculum goals of Lesotho.

7. Conclusion This study investigated the views of teacher educators in Lesotho about their involvement in the curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools. The main objectives of this study were to establish teacher educators’: (1) knowledge about the current curriculum reforms in Lesotho schools; and (2) involvement in teacher preparation for the reforms, and (3) challenges that relate to preparing teachers for the reforms. Also the study (4) aimed to establish the implications of teacher educators’ practices on teacher preparedness for the reforms. This qualitative study used a questionnaire to collect this information from six teacher educators in the department of educational foundations in one university in Lesotho. Data collected was analysed thematically. The results generated from this study have established that teacher educators had been involved in a limited way in the school curriculum reforms, and as a result, they have limited knowledge about the current school reforms. Further, their current pedagogical practices are not

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

aligned with teachers’ skills and knowledge needed to implement the reforms. These findings explain the results of the previous studies (Raselimo & Mahao, 2015) that teachers are not implementing the new reforms because they lack knowledge and skills. The study indicate that teacher education received by the teachers is not contextualized, nor does it prepare them for the current curriculum reforms. While this study does not exclusively conclude that teachers’ lack of knowledge and skills to implement the reforms is associated with their pre-service training, it recommends that teacher educators should be involved in meaningful curriculum reform activities to enable them be to better understand the reforms. Such in-depth understanding may influence their training practices mainly for the purpose of preparing pre- and in-service teachers. This study also recommends further investigation of the effectiveness of in-service training programmes that target the current reforms. The study should aim to find out whether those who received in-service training from government departments and other organisations have the necessary knowledge and skills and whether they are implementing the reforms successfully.

8. References Abraham, O., & Reginald, A. (2016). E-education: Changing the Mindsets of Resistant and Saboteur Teachers. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(16). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1108660.pdf African Development Fund. (2007). Lesotho - Education Quality Enhancement Project (Education III) Appraisal Report. African Development Fund. https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-andOperations/Lesotho__Education_Quality_Enhancement_Project__Education_III___Appraisal_Report.pdf Akyeampong, K. (2017). Teacher Educators’ Practice and Vision of Good Teaching in Teacher in Education Reform Context in Ghana. Educational Researcher (ER), 46(4), 194-203. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17711907 Alsubaie, M. A. (2016). Curriculum Development: Teacher Involvement in Curriculum Development. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(9). Ansell, N. (2002). “Of Course We Must Be Equal but...”: Imagining Gendered Futures in Two Rural Southern African Secondary Schools. Geoforum, 33, 179-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(01)00033-1 Carpenter, J. P., & Green, T.D. (2017). Mobile Instant Messaging for Professional Learning: Educators' Perspectives On and Uses of Voxer. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 53-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.08.008 Chere-Masopha, J. (2018). Personal Landscapes of Teacher Professional Identities, and Digital Technology Adoption and Integration in Lesotho Schools. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 17(3), 28-42. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.3.3 Chere-Masopha, J., & Bennett, S. (2007). Using Teacher Professional Identity to Understand Classroom ICT. The International Journal of Learning, 14(7): 75-82. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9494/cgp/v14i07/45392 Chere-Masopha, J. (2011). Integrating Technology in Classroom Practices: The Influence of Teacher Professional Identities in Secondary Schools in Lesotho. Doctoral Thesis, University of Wollongong. Australia: Wollongong.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Desimone L. M., & Pak, K. (2017) Instructional Coaching as High-Quality Professional Development, Theory into Practice, 56(1), 3-12. http://doi.org10.1080/00405841.2016.1241947 Desimone, L. (2011). A Primer on Effective Professional Development. Phi Delta Kappan, 92, 68–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109200616 Dillon, D. R., Chang, Y. L., Rondeau, A. K., & Kim, J. N. (2019). Teacher Educator Technology Integration Initiative: Addressing the Technology Preparation Gap. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 27(4), 527-554. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1247613 Education Sector Survey Task Force (Lesotho). (1982). The Education Sector Survey: Report of the Task Force, Maseru, Lesotho: National government publication. Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M., Kanste O., Pölkki, T., Utriainen, K., & Kyngäs, H. (2014). Qualitative Content Analysis: A Focus on Trustworthiness. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014522633 Flower, A., McKenna, J. W., & Haring, C. D. (2016). Behavior and Classroom Management: Are teacher Preparation Programs Really Preparing Our Teachers? Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 65(3), 163-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2016.1231109 Falus, I., & Orgoványi-Gajdos, J. (2016). New Aspects in European Teacher Education. Eger: Líceum Kiadó, ISBN 978-615-5621-25-3, 45-67 Harris, R., & Graham, S. (2019): Engaging with Curriculum Reform: Insights from English History Teachers’ Willingness to Support Curriculum Change. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(1), 43-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2018.1513570 Howard, S. K. (2013). Risk-Aversion: Understanding Teachers’ Resistance to Technology Integration. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 22(3), 357-372. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2013.802995 Kahlke, R. (2014). Generic Qualitative Approaches: Pitfalls and Benefits of Methodological Mixology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 13, 37- 52. https://doi.org/ 10.1108/978-1-78560-651-920152019 Kosnik, C., & Beck, C. (2008) In The Shadows: Non‐Tenure‐Line Instructors in Pre‐Service Teacher Education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 31(2), 185-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619760802000214 Letseka, M. (1992). A Philosophical Outlook of Fundamental Issues in Education: Response to P. D. Soni. UNITRA Perspectives in Education, 1(4), 9-17. Lim, C. P., & Chan, B. C. (2007). In Teacher Education: Examining Pre-Service Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs. Computers & Education, 48(3), 474-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2005.03.005 Lokesh R., Maharajh, T. N., & Mbekelezi C. M. (2016). Teachers’ Experiences of the Implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in Three Primary Schools in KwaZulu Natal. Africa’s Public Service Delivery & Performance Review, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v4i3 Lunenberg, M. S., Ramsarup P., Zeelen, J., Wedekind, V., Allais, S., Lotz-Sisitka, H., Monk, D., Openjuru, G., & Russon, J. (2020). Vocational Education and Training for African Development: A Literature Review. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 72(4), 465-487. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2019.1679969 Maharajh, L. R., Mbekelezi, T. N., & Mkhize, C. (2016). Teachers’ Experiences of the Implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in Three Primary Schools in KwaZulu Natal. Africa’s Public Service Delivery and Performance Review, 4(3):371. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v4i3.120

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Matšela, Z. A. (1979). The Indigenous Education of the Basotho and Its Implications for Educational Development in Lesotho. Doctoral thesis. University of Massachusetts Amherst. MoET. (2009). Curriculum and Assessment Policy: Education for Individual and Social Development. Maseru: Ministry of Education and Training. Muzvidziwa, V. N., & Seotsanyana, M. (2002). Continuity, Change and Growth: Lesotho's Education System. Radical Pedagogy, 4(1) 1-17. https://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue4_2/01_muzvidziwa.html. Nhlapo, M., Moreeng B., & Malebese, M. (2019). Challenges Facing Implementation of an Integrated Tourism Curriculum: The Experiences of Teachers in Lesotho. Journal of Education and Practice. 10(5). Osamwonyi, E. F. (2016). In-Service Education of Teachers: Overview, Problems and the Way Forward. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(26). www.iiste.org. Parsons, C. (2018). Constructivism and Interpretive Theory. In V. Lowndes, D. March & G. Stocker (Eds.), Theory and Methods in Political Science (4th ed., pp. 75-91). Palgrave London: Macmilian. Peyman, R., Gholam, R. K., & Parviz, M. (2012). ESP In-Service Teacher Training Programs: Do They Change Iranian Teachers' Beliefs, Classroom Practices and Students' Achievements? Ibérica, 24, 261-282. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2870/287024476017.pdf Raselimo, M., & Mahao, M. (2013). The Lesotho Curriculum and Assessment Policy: Opportunities and Threats. South African Journal of Education. 35(1). https://doi.org/doi:10.15700/201503070025 Rodney, M. W. & Elo, S. (1973). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House. Salia-Bao, K. (1987). An Introduction to Curriculum Studies in Africa. London: MacMillan. Selepe, C.M. (2016). Curriculum Reform in Lesotho: Teachers' Conceptions and Challenges. Doctoral Thesis. University of Freestate. http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/20785 Shankar, P. R. (2014). Challenges in Implementing an Integrated Curriculum in Xavier University School of Medicine, Aruba. Education in Medicine Journal. 6(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.5959/eimj.v6i4.290 Schleicher, A. (2016). Teaching Excellence through Professional Learning and Policy Reform: Lessons from Around the World. OECD. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264252059-en Seotsanayana, M., & Muzvidizwa, V. N. (2002). Continuity, Change and Growth: Lesotho’s Education System. Radical Pedagogy, 4(2). Sinkovics, R.R.P. & Alfoldi, E.A. (2012). Progressive Focusing and Trustworthiness in Qualitative Research. Management International Review. 52(6) 817-845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-012-0140-5 Smuts, M. (2018). Bad Education: It Starts with How We Train Teachers. Daily Maverick. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-04-04-bad-education-itstarts-with-how-we-train-teachers/ State University. (2020). Lesotho - History Background, Constitutional Legal Foundations, Educational System—overview, Preprimary Primary Education, Secondary Education. Education Encyclopedia. https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/836/Lesotho-HistoryBackground.Html Thelejane, T. E. (1990). Implementing Educational Policies in Lesotho. World Bank Discussion Papers No. 87. Africa Technical Department Series. World Bank, Washington, D.C.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

Van Bodegraven, D. B. (2015). Implementing Change: How, Why, and When Teachers Change Their Classroom Practices. Walden Dissertations And Doctoral Studies. Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content Analysis and Thematic Analysis: Implications for Conducting A Qualitative Descriptive Study. Nursing and Health Sciences, 15, 398–405. https://doi.org/doi:10.1111/nhs.12048. Van Bodegraven, D.B. (2015). Implementing Change: How, Why, and When Teachers Change Their Classroom Practices. Walden Dissertations And Doctoral Studies. https://Scholarworks.Waldenu.Edu/Dissertations/1807/ Wong, H. (2004). Induction Programs That Keep New Teachers Teaching and Improving. NASSP Bulletin, 87(638), 5-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263650408863804. World Bank. (2010). Lesotho - Education for All (EFA) Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund Grant Project (English). Washington, DC: World Bank. Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/488081468056377395/Le sotho-Education-for-All-EFA-Fast-Track-Initiative-Catalytic-Fund-Grant-Project

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

403

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 403-425, June 2021 https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.6.21

The Development of Digital Competences for University Tourism Teachers Derling José Mendoza Velazco Escuela de Formación de Soldados del Ejército ESFORSE. Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas - ESPE. Ambato, Ecuador http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8275-3687 Magda Francisca Cejas Martínez Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo UNACH, and Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas – ESPE. Riobamba, Ecuador http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0618-3608 Mercedes Navarro Cejas Universidad Técnica de Manabí UTM, Manabí, Ecuador http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4377-7250 María Hipatia Delgado Demera Universidad Técnica de Manabí UTM, Manabí, Ecuador http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5815-8981 Silvia Marieta Aldaz Hernández Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo UNACH, Riobamba, Ecuador http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0089-297X Abstract. The aim of the research was to determine the virtual competences of Ecuadorian tourism teachers during the A-2021 cycle. A mixed research approach was used. A quantitative analysis was applied first, followed by a qualitative analysis. The sample selection was participatory and non-probabilistic. The sample consisted of 1003 active university teachers in Ecuador. A questionnaire comprising 106 questions divided into four variables was designed. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the Kruskal-Wallis test were carried out. The findings indicate the applicability of virtual competences by university teachers. These competences are of a medium level and do not comply with the comprehensive competences of student care. The technological training level of university teaching staff is low. Regarding the use and knowledge of technology, respondents indicated a high level of understanding. Attitudes towards and methodology use in information and communication technologies showed weaknesses in usage and accessibility. In conclusion, a matrix of virtual competences for university tourism teachers is presented. The application of this methodology ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

404

considers the competences in a comprehensive and problem-oriented manner. Keywords: university education; teaching staff; competences; virtual education; technology

1. Introduction Since 2020, educational status worldwide has undergone a radical change. On 19 March 2020, as in other countries, a health alert was issued in the Republic of Ecuador. A state of quarantine was declared due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Covid-19). We live in a globalized world in which knowledge is constantly generated. By virtue of the vertiginous scientific and technological progress, and organizational changes, students emerge with different training needs, challenged by time constraints, greater responsibilities, and difficulties in processing the almost infinite amount of information (Cuesta, 2018). In response to this reality, virtual education is emerging as an alternative solution bringing education to the most remote places, anytime, anywhere. Virtual education enables educators to take advantage of the benefits of technology and thereby offer better options to students who require professional training (Hurtado, 2018). Educators thus are fulfilling multiple responsibilities, while at the same time updating their knowledge and skills and undergoing continuous professional training (Gispert, 2003). These new ways of educating bring with them new demands on universities. In a context that intensively incorporates technologies, such as the virtual modality, the responsibility for training does not fall on a single person. Responsibility lies with the whole university. The educational organization is responsible for the curricular design (objectives, contents, methodology, assessment and evaluation), and the production of materials and resources. To this end, a multidisciplinary team is required to coordinate the content creation process (Standish, 2016), as well as the teaching activities which are developed by the same team or by a group of external professionals. This multidisciplinary team should comprise: • Programme coordinator. • Content author. • Didactic designer. • Technical designer. • Tutor (subject and research advisor). • Teacher (tutor, facilitator of the subject). The tourism teacher is seen as the professional who delivers the programme according to the materials previously compiled. The teacher interacts directly with the students or participants. He/she is the one who assumes the tasks of activity designer, responsible for tutoring and learning assessment (Biesta & Säfström, 2018). In a training space supported by technologies, the action of the tourism teacher changes. Teachers must place themselves in this new context by knowing how to guide the teaching-learning process. Their role as the main source of information or knowledge provider ceases and gives way to the process of mediation. This process produces the construction of shared knowledge as the

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

405

basis for learning. Students, materials and the university are sources of knowledge and skills required for learning. The changes brought about in higher education by the Covid-19 pandemic require effective action. This reality requires tourism teachers (TTs) to assume roles and tasks for which they have not been prepared. They are required to recreate in the virtual environment situations that work very well in the face-to-face environment. However, they do not obtain the same results in this context. The TTs in the face-to-face setting feel at ease; they have mastered didactics, they know their resources, and they know how to reach their students. But in a virtual environment they become disoriented or assume that the students will do the work themselves. In the most innovative virtual environments, it is not a matter of students and teachers doing the same as in the face-to-face situation. In the new educational environments, responsibilities and tasks also change substantially. Commitments to ways of teaching and learning are different (Scull et al., 2020).

2. Literature Review 2.1 Educational competences In higher education, learning is determined by competences. Competences are necessary qualities that a professional requires for optimal job performance (Van Griethuijsen et al., 2020). ICT (Information Communication Technology) enables the TTs to engage their students in new virtual learning environments (VLEs). Attitudes characterize cooperation in the knowledge society; learners need to develop skills at a personal level, and competences must be acquired to be able to cope in today's digital society. These aspects (attitudes, skills, competences) characterize the educational context of higher education. An example of attitudes can be altruism. Altruism is necessary to generate knowledge and to be able to share it with others without expecting anything in return. People create, share and elaborate on knowledge through continuous and rapid processes. This process is known as feedback. There is also respect for the work of others, not appropriating it, but building on it (Van Griethuijsen et al., 2020). Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, Alonso and Blázquez (2012) established four integral digital competences, namely the "Knowing" competence (knowledge that a person possesses), the "Knowing how to do" competence (skills and abilities of the individual), the "Knowing how to be" competence (attitudes that guide their behaviour and decisions), and the "Knowing how to live together" competence (attitudes that the person assumes internally and/or in relation to the environment). Osbeck et al. (2018) maintain that for teachers to have these competences, they must receive conceptual training in ICT. Competences transform and support the learning and teaching environment. This can help to change beliefs about ICT. Competences help TTs to stay updated on and informed about their work. The competences strengthen their own educational content and resources. These competences render the TT competitive. They allow TTs to change the role of repeater of tourist experiences to a generator of knowledge. 2.2 Virtual education in universities Virtual university education should focus on three dimensions: firstly, the means of communication; secondly, the teaching staff; and thirdly, the student body

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

406

(Mendoza et al., 2021). The first dimension prioritizes technological tools and the approach to the teaching-learning process (Loeng & Omwami, 2018). In the second dimension, and dominant at the higher level, is the teacher. The teacher is constructed as the only valid judge of knowledge. This knowledge is conceived as transmissible. In other words, this concept of learning is strongly linked to classical methodological models (Roessger et al., 2020). The third dimension constitutes the student body and self-training (Hirsch, 2016). Current day universities require an integrative model, articulating the three dimensions in search of an open and flexible methodology. This virtual model places the student as the protagonist of learning situations (Hooshyar et al., 2019). The characteristics acquired by this methodological adaptation, virtual education and TTs’ competences are the focus of analysis of this study. 2.3 Research problem Despite the great commitment to and demand in higher education, changes have not been an impediment for Ecuadorian universities. The implementation of strategic actions, such as training programmes, supervised accompaniment, mentoring, and collaborative expert support, are examples of what is required (Kümmel et al., 2020). In Ecuador, university academic programmes in tourism do not offer digital pedagogical training (Mendoza et al., 2019). To do this, it is necessary for the TTs to develop digital educational competences (Bilbao, 2008) competences that enable them to efficiently assume the responsibilities of the training process in a VLE. Likewise, these competences must be easily assessable to establish mechanisms for continuous supervision and guidance (Aguilar, 2015), and to be evaluated by university academic coordinators. In addition, the competences should enable the design of teacher training programmes to be promoted (Mendoza et al., 2019). In the Republic of Ecuador there are no official competence standards that serve as a reference for e-learning. Although there are guidelines issued by the Higher Education Council for distance education (CES, 2015), these guidelines do not specify the TTs’ competences required for VLEs. Based on the problems raised, the following questions emerged: • How should we assess the digital competences of Ecuadorian tourism teachers in virtual learning environments? • What are the digital competences most applied by Ecuadorian university tourism teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic? • What are the levels of technological literacy of Ecuadorian university tourism teachers? • Which educational methodology is used by university tourism teachers in the educational sciences? • What is the level of ICT training received by the TTs and how are their training needs detected? • What are the attitudes of Ecuadorian university TTs towards ICT? • What are the optimal competences of the TTs to strengthen e-learning environments?

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

407

2.4 Research objectives To answer the above questions, the following objectives were proposed: To • design and construct a reliable and valid questionnaire to analyse, describe and evaluate the application of digital competences in tourism education, • establish and describe the use of technology and technological literacy of Ecuadorian university TTs, • describe and analyse the methodological level of the Ecuadorian TTs in education, • determine and analyse the level of ICT training received by TTs and detect their training needs, • establish and describe the level of the attitude towards ICT of Ecuadorian TTs in Education, and • identify and standardize university TTs’ competences for a virtual learning environment - competences that may serve as a reference for subsequent training and evaluation actions.

3. Methodology 3.1 Type of research Due to the nature of the study, the type of research was multi-method or mixed method. Mixed methods are based on the simultaneous use of qualitative and quantitative methods (Núñez, 2017). The mixed-method study encompasses descriptive and interpretive research. Descriptive research seeks to detail the most representative entities of the individuals, which were subjected to the researchers' analysis. Interpretative analysis is characteristic of social studies (UPEL, 2016). Interpretative studies make it possible to explain and understand more complex social facts or phenomena. These studies are based on a theoretical framework, manifestos or interviews. They are in-depth studies of social facts or cultural phenomena. In this study descriptive and interpretative research allowed the collection of information on relevant aspects, describing the current reality of the TTs’ profile - realities perceived in the activities of the university platforms (Mendoza et al., 2019). 3.2 Research design The research design was nested or a simultaneously integrated design of the dominant qualitative model (DIAC) (Hernández et al., 2014). The DIAC design collects quantitative data through surveys or questionnaires. Statistical studies (quantitative analyses) are then applied. The data are quantified according to the variables in the instruments. Data then are analysed interpretively by the authors (qualitative analysis). The researchers decided on this design, which allowed us to obtain the opinions of the Ecuadorian TTs. In this way, the optimal virtual competences required by the university TTs in Ecuador could be studied. 3.3 Population and sample According to Arias (2012), the population is the total set of informants. The sample only determines a subset to which access is available. In the Republic of Ecuador 31 universities have Faculties of Tourism. The population consisted of 5109 tourism teachers (see Senescyt, 2021). For the selection of the sample, the non-

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

408

probabilistic sampling technique was applied. This technique involved voluntary participation. The researchers established criteria that allowed the selection of participants (Hernández et al., 2014). This type of sampling also is known as selfselected. For reasons of health care and prevention (Covid-19 pandemic), agglomerations and face-to-face surveys could not be conducted. The researchers sent an e-mail invitation to participate to the active TTs. Those who accepted were considered the study sample. The criteria for participation were simple, for example: "I am willing to voluntarily participate in the study" (see Vega et al., 2019). The sample consisted of 1003 TTs participants. This sample represented 19.63% of the Ecuadorian university TTs in the A-2021 cycle. 3.4 Hypotheses of the research The study of descriptive hypothetical character, raised the following hypotheses: • H0: null hypothesis: Ecuadorian university TTs during the A-2021 cycle do not use digital competences in virtual learning environments. • H1: alternative hypothesis: Ecuadorian university TTs during the cycle A2021 use digital competences in e-learning environments. 3.5 Data collection techniques and instruments Data collection techniques are defined as the means of interacting with participants (Hurtado 2018). For data collection, digital questionnaires were applied. This instrument is the most widely used in quantitative research in times of a pandemic (Arshad et al., 2021). The choice of this instrument allowed for an overview of the digital competence of the TTs (Mendoza et al., 2019), as well as a deeper insight into the reality of ICT in Ecuadorian TTs during the A-2021 cycle. To respond to the first objective, a digital questionnaire was designed, divided into four variables recommended by Agreda et al. (2016): (i) Use and literacy of technology (variable 1, see Appendix 1); (ii) Educational methodology through ICT (variable 2, see Appendix 2); (iii) University TTs training in ICT (variable 3, see Appendix 3); (iv) Attitude towards ICT in higher education (variable 4, see Appendix 4). The questionnaire contained a selection of items, and a scale of quantitative values to measure the degree of acceptance or rejection of each item (Cecchini et al., 2018). The questionnaire had five response items (option 1=nil, option 2=low, option 3=medium, option 4=high, option 5=very high). The written record quantified attitudes, ranking and recording degrees of approval and impact (Matas, 2018). The questionnaire was structured in 106 items, divided into four variables. 3.6 Reliability The level of reliability of a measurement instrument refers to the accuracy (Barraza & Barraza, 2018). To determine reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated. A pilot test was applied with ten tourism teachers. Table 1 shows the results obtained through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25 software. The statistical coefficient was on average .901. Results within the range of 0.7 to 0.9 indicate a good internal consistency for this scale (González & Pazmiño, 2015; Mendoza et al., 2021).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

409

Table 1: Values obtained for Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient Cronbach Alfa Questionnaires

Variation of the elements

Variable 1 Variable 2 Variable 3 Variable 4

.890 .892 .901 .913

.590 .359 .427 .586

36 32 22 16 106

.901 .906 .874 .926 .901

Total

3.7 Statistical analysis of the data In the quantitative phase of the research, the Kruskal-Wallis test and the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were applied. With MANOVA, differences between groups are analysed based on multiple dependent variables (Holmes, 2020). This technique is an extension of ANOVA; it considers two or more dependent variables simultaneously. The MANOVA is a dependence technique that allows estimating significant differences between the means of several variables by comparing them jointly. This means that N subjects are assessed or measured on M variables. Multivariate analysis attempts to explain the behaviour of such subjects by means of a set of common factors. Other specific factors are also added. These factors include the characteristics of each variable plus chance or error. The aim is to find the group of variables with a common meaning. The MANOVA allows for reducing or unifying the number of variables that are necessary for the explanation of the major information that is contained in the data. 3.8 Qualitative analysis of the results After establishing the data analyses, the final qualitative analysis was carried out. The results were interpreted through data triangulation. Triangulation made it possible to combine theoretical contributions, texts, previous studies, questionnaires, external opinions, and interpretation of authors, among others (Aguilar & Barroso, 2015). In this way, the university TTs’ optimal competences were formulated for the EVL during the A-2021 cycle.

4. Findings 4.1 Data analysis Once the participating teachers had completed the survey, the researchers tabulated the non-parametric data as recommended by Holmes (2020). Statistical data were analysed, and the sum of frequencies, variances, deviations and means were obtained. The four study variables were independent. To check whether the variables were directly related to digital competences, the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied (see Table 2).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

410

Table 2: Kruskal-Wallis test

Digital competences of university teaching staff

Group

Variable 1 Variable 2 Variable 3 Variable 4 Total

36 32 22 16 106

Mean Rank 45.98 38.12 23.89 18.56

This test agrees to accept or reject the hypotheses. It also allows to check whether the samples come from the same population (Ostertagová et al., 2014). Then, in the statistical test, Chi-square and asymptotic significance can be distinguished (see Table 3). Table 3: Results test statistic Chi-Square df Asymp. Sig.

Digital competences of university teaching staff 3.568 4 .038

The results show that the significance asymptote p .038 < .05. With a 95% confidence interval, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The variables tested are associated with the population from which the sample was drawn. The results showed that there were significant statistical differences. The multivariate test was then applied to find out if there were significant differences between the group means (Özlem et al., 2019) (See Table 4). Table 4: Multivariate test of the research variables

Group

Effect Pillai's Trace Wilks' Lambda Hotelling's Trace Roy's Largest Root

Multivariate Tests Value F Hypothesis df .447 43.680 3.000 .605 45.898 3.000 .569 47.131 4.000 .368 91.825 5.000

Error df 2994.000 2635.460 2984.000 998.000

Sig. .048 .047 .039 .042

The data showed that there were significant differences among the variables; in the case of homogeneous variance for four variables. The multivariate test rendered the following data: with the Pillai's trace statistic the samples are balanced by having a coefficient of 0.048 < 0.050; the Wilk's Lambda coefficient with a value of .047 < 0.050; the Hotelling's Trace with a value of .039 < 0.050; and Roy's Largest Root with a value of .042 < 0.050. Discriminant analysis was then applied (see Table 5). This analysis provided insight into the nature of the differences that existed among the variables (Lateef et al., 2015).

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

411

Table 5: Presentation of the structure matrix Structure Matrix Options Mean SD Min Max N 1 2 3 4 5 Variable 1 (Use and ICT literacy in higher .328 .489 .523 .620 .578 4.02 .529 1.98 5.08 36 education) Variable 2 (Educational methodology through .598 .682 .862 .702 .697 3.15 .714 1.18 4.21 32 ICT) Variable 3 (Training of university faculty in .082 .609 .576 .401 .098 2.89 .428 1.94 5.01 22 ICT) Variable 4 (Attitude to ICT in higher .499 .659 .702 .690 .611 3.27 .586 1.92 5.09 16 education) Total 3.33 .564 1.75 4.84 106

To answer the second objective, variable 1, with a coefficient of 0.620 (option 4), demonstrates the level of importance of each of the response options. It shows that Ecuadorian university TTs regard a high level of technology use and literacy as very important. In response to the third objective, variable 2 rendered a coefficient of 0.862 (option 3). It indicates a medium level of importance of educational methodology making use of ICTs. In answer to objective four, variable 3 presented a coefficient of .609 (option 2). This shows that university TTs’ level in technological educational training was low. Finally, to answer objective five, variable 4 had a coefficient of .702 (option 3). This shows that TTs' attitudes towards ICT reflected a medium level. The mean of the digital competences possessed by the TTs is 3.33, demonstrating a statistical mean of 3.33 (medium level). 4.2 Qualitative analysis and discussion of the results The study of the digital competence of university TTs is indispensable, especially for those researchers dedicated to the study of tourism training with technology. It is important to be aware of the evolution that has occurred in education and training over the past two decades to describe the current situation. The statistical results with an SD of .428 show that variable 3 is the most important variable. Variable 3 represents the Integral Competence of "Knowing how to be" (Alonso & Blázquez, 2012). It is related to the training of university faculty in ICT. To "know how to be", the TTs must assess the strengths and weaknesses of technological means. This integral competence is assessed through training. Through training, the ethical principles of the use of technologies are respected (Kümmel et al., 2020). Curiosity about and motivation for continuous learning must also be present. Improving the use of technologies, the competence of lifelong learning offers a gradual development scheme. Competences go beyond the basic technological training. They comprise initial and continuing training (Azmi &

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

412

Noer, 2020). Initial training familiarizes teachers with basic ICT recognition and handling (Loeng & Omwami, 2018). The results showed that Ecuadorian university TTs have a low level of technological training, ensuing in problems such as the need for continuing education. The need is not so much at the instrumental level, but in seeing and using technologies as a pedagogical and didactic resource. Therefore, the TTs require technological updating, to receive training and to gain knowledge of new technological-educational trends, as well as ongoing training in the integration of ICT, and the identification of digital educational materials. Second, variable 1, with an SD of .529, is categorized as the integral competence of "Knowing". Knowing is considered the cognitive-reflective level of the teacher (Adam, 1990). This competence is related to epistemological knowledge, required for the development of theoretical teaching actions as recommended by Roessger et al. (2020). The main qualities that this competence provides are: • High-level mastery of the subject. • Up-to-date knowledge. • Mastery of research methodology. • Mastery of university education. Statistical values demonstrated a high level of knowledge. Knowledge competence allows creating and editing new digital content, and integrating and reviewing previously obtained knowledge (Grünwald et al., 2016). Knowledge competence facilitates artistic productions, creating multimedia content and computer programming. This competence favours the development of digital content. Thirdly, we have variable 4 with an SD of .586. This variable is related to the integral competence of "Knowing how to live together". It is known that attitude is immersed in communication (Alcalá, 1999). Digital environments share resources through online tools. The TTs must know how to use and coexist with these means of connection (Snyman & Van den Berg, 2018). Communicative connection and collaboration with faculty are important (Snyman & Van den Berg, 2018). Digital tools help to interact and participate in communities and networks. In this way, intercultural digital awareness is generated (García, 2014). Attitude towards ICT is understood as the affective and communicative dimension (Espinoza et al., 2020). These competences are qualities related to social and communicative skills (INSTIA, 1986). Personal attitudes can establish affective and communicative links. According to Cela et al. (2017), the most common social skills competences are: • Facility for interpersonal relationships. • Affective personality traits. • Specific organizational teaching skills. • Long-term and short-term planning of learning activities. • Selection of teaching methods. The results show that the attitudes of university TTs towards ICT are at a medium level. If this competence is merely at a medium level, there is no effective teacherstudent relationship. This influences the learning of university tourism students

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

413

(García et al., 2014), because personal relationships between teachers and students always impact teaching and learning. A lack of competence does not facilitate the TT’s role as a trainer. First establish communication, then trust will follow, and mutual respect is formalized (Roessger et al., 2020). Thus, communication is an essential digital competence in VLEs (Samuel et al., 2019). Variable 2, methodology, with an SD of .714 is related to the integral competence "Know-how”. This competence comprises the active-creative dimensions of the teacher (Arocena, 2014), and is of an applicative nature in education, meaning that knowledge and skills are worth nothing if they cannot be applied. This competence to ‘know how’, or apply enables all TTs to design, develop, implement, and evaluate effective and efficient activities. . The results showed that the methodological level of the TTs was rated at medium level, implying that teachers needed to improve their problem-solving skills (Pérez, 2009). The TTs must know how to choose the most appropriate digital tool for a specific task. They must also be able to solve conceptual problems through digital media, and must know how to apply technologies creatively and solve technical problems. If teachers cannot identify technological needs, they cannot establish innovation creatively (Azmi & Noer, 2020). Teachers with a low or medium level of competence in methodology do not perform efficient digital assessment (Pellón, 2013). Thus, Ecuadorian TTs should opt for a flexible academic model to avoid excessive homework and the overload of online activities. Krichesky and Murillo (2018) advise that teachers update their skills and knowledge to promote innovation. Innovative teaching means leaving behind the old to look for what will work in the future (Díaz, 2006). Being informed about technological innovation strengthens solutions in the educational context. López and Pérez (2017) emphasises the importance of implementing the epistemological basis of university digital didactics. Digital didactics is innovative and facilitates teaching in higher education (CERPE, 2010). To solve problems, teachers must be open to reflective criticism (Rodríguez, 2016), as. critical, inquisitive attitudes serve well in being constructive for the teacher (Roessger et al., 2020). Finally, digital competence learning is the application of skills in VLEs, but these skills, abilities, attitudes and values need to be developed by the TTs. The role of the university TTs is to leave behind traditional learning models. In virtual education, accompaniment and knowledge construction go hand in hand. The mastering of competences requires constant skills development. The findings of this study indicate that digital competences are important in Ecuadorian higher education. Among the results of the research, four integral competences have been ranked ordinally, establishing the order in which they should be developed.

5. Conclusions Based on the results obtained, and according to Espín (2019), the university technological professional environment must prioritise "learning to learn". University TTs have not learned digital teaching strategies. Most of them have not been trained in digital education, nor in virtual platforms. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic TTs are faced with a new task, namely on-line teaching, but few are fully informed on how to deal with today's digital challenges. TTs believe that

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

414

students already know everything they need to do. The Ecuadorian university works in a forced digital information society (Mendoza et al., 2021). The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic caused traditional face-to-face education to make changes for which it was not prepared. To apply ICT in education, TTs need to know how to organise data and information, to select what is most important and relevant, and how to convert these into digital knowledge to be used efficiently and effectively through university on-line platforms. TTs thus must assimilate, master and implement strategies that enable them to plan and organise. However, today's university education in Latin American society is the product of profound changes In the cultural, social, political and economic spheres. These changes drive the reality of each social context, striving for progress. Tourism training plays a fundamental role in the development of countries. Universities are to promote the development of human talent, creating economic income for the country, and the production and updating of knowledge, science, technology, and research. These advances allow each nation to benefit from the human resources trained. However, if professional competences remain stagnant in a traditional system, there will be no significant progress. Therefore, to respond to objective 6, the optimal competences of university TTs are presented in Table 6. Table 6: Optimal competences of university tourism teachers for a virtual learning environment.

ICT training for university tourism teaching staff

Technology use and literacy

• Apply self-assessment of personal skills and abilities. • Know the platform and its working tools. • Value the means through which communication is established to facilitate learning. • Be a professional in tourism and virtual platforms. • Learn and implement models of didactic training and criticalconstructive development. • Understand that research and digital innovation should be parallel components of university education. • Be a lifelong learner in virtual tourism education. • Encourage autonomous learning in the student; to be motivated and willing to apply self-improvement. • Use digital feedback systems to serve a larger number of students and assertively inform them of their training in tourism. • Demand the generation of new contributions to tourism education (research). • Create change, recognizing that there is no single truth. • Value the students’ tourism experiences. • Generate a process of virtual experimentation-action. • Give assurance of availability of tourism information at any time and from anywhere. • Ensure that tourism students are comfortable with the system and the software. • Keep in contact with the university platform administrator. • Monitor student progress and review virtual tourism activities.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

415

Attitude towards ICT in higher education

Educational methodology through ICT

• Establish the overall course schedule by modules, assignment submission, and follow-up of the different communication activities. • Establish dates and times for chats and forums. • Use web-based recording media. • Ability to offer knowledge content to many students at different times. • Treat the students with elements of digital tourism education. • Hold reflective dialogues. • Foster effective communicative relationships with students to create empathy. • Be supportive and participative in the tourism knowledge society. • Encourage reflection and act with maturity. • Understand that knowledge must be put into practice through virtuality. • Encourage collaborative rural tourism. Manage learning groups for networking. • Develop classes based on tourism competences. • Use evaluation software to measure competences. • Master independence and time management skills for better tourism planning. • Establish innovative changes in digital teaching and learning processes. • Develop theoretical-conceptual contents. Favour the comparison of epistemic training in tourism environments. • Maintain a corrective and motivating digital evaluation process. • Generate processes of self-evaluation, evaluation and coevaluation. • Be flexible and not rigid in setting deadlines for the delivery of virtual activities and evaluations. Understand that internet or hardware failures may occur. • Offer guidance tutorials for activities, assessments and tourism research. • Ensure that tourism students are reaching the appropriate level of competence. • Introduce the discussion topic and relate it to the previous learning. • Resolve possible doubts arising from the reading of the teaching materials. Explain how to carry out the virtual tourism activities. • Make overall and individual evaluations of the virtual tourism activities.

6. Recommendations Digital competences in tourism are of utmost importance for university teachers. Competences are qualities that imply the creative, critical and safe use of ICT to achieve the established objectives. Therefore, the following recommendations are made:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

416

• Provide emotional support to tourism faculty, especially those who experience greater difficulties in the adaptation of digital competencies. • Generate spaces to share experiences of distance learning among tourism teachers. • Establish support networks with ICT and tourism teachers to increase tourism knowledge. Increase tourism knowledge. • Train tourism teachers in digital tools and methodologies for remote work, among others. • Apply the digital competencies developed in this study.

7. Limitations The research was carried out considering only university teachers of tourism. The study depended on the reliability and authenticity of the data. Another limitation is the sample size. Samples of more than 50 informants are required to generalise results. Data collection instruments preferably should be parametric, while variables must be ordinal. Preferably only three or five response options should be provided; not even response options. The methodological design was multi-method, which is an advantage as data could be triangulated.

8. References Adam, F. (1990). Andragogy and University Education. Fondo Editorial Andragógico de FIDEA. Agreda, M., Hinojo, M. & Sola, M. (2016). Design and validation of an instrument for assessing digital skills of teachers in Spanish higher education. Revista de Medios y Educación, 49, 39-56. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/368/36846509004.pdf Aguilar, J. (2015). Research challenges in teacher training at the upper secondary level in Mexico. Perfiles Educativos, 37, 89-107. http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/peredu/v37nspe/v37nspea7.pdf Aguilar, S. & Barroso, J. (2015). Data triangulation as an educational research strategy. Revista de Medios y Educación, 47, 73-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.12795/pixelbit.2015.i47.05 Alcalá, A. (1999). Andragogy: Study Guidebook. Universidad Nacional Abierta UNA. Alonso, B. & Blázquez, E. (2012). The virtual education teacher. Narcea Ediciones. Arshad, M., Vivek, M., Kamalun, M., Khojah, M. & Tahir, M. (2021). Students’ Perception towards E-Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic in India: An Empirical Study. Sostenibilidad, 13, 57. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010057 Arias, F. (2012). The Research Project. Episteme Editorial. Arocena, R. (2014). University research on the democratization of knowledge. Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad, 9(27), 85-102. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/924/92431880005.pdf Azmi, M. & Noer, F. (2020). The andragogical approach for teaching english speaking skill for college students. Journal of Applied Science, Engineering, Technology, and Education, 2(2), 136-140. https://doi.org/10.35877/454RI.asci2264 Barraza, A. & Barraza, S. (2018). Evidence of validity and reliability of the scale of academic expansion in a Mexican student population. Revista de Psicología y Ciencias del Algote, 9 (1), 75-99. http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/rpcc/v9n1/20071833-rpcc-9-01-75.pdf

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

417

Biesta, G. & Säfström, C. (2018). A Manifesto for Education. Praxis educativa, 22(2), 20-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.19137/praxiseducativa-2018-220203 Bilbao, C. (2008). Perfil profesional del profesor universitario. Dólmenes. Cecchini, J., Méndez, A. & García, C. (2018). Validation of the emotional intelligence questionnaire in physical education. Revista de Psicología del Deporte, 27(1), 8796. https://archives.rpd-online.com/article/download/v27-n1-cecchini-estradamendez-etal/1966-11102-1-PB.pdf Cela, J., Esteve. V., Esteve, F., González, J. & Gisbert, M. (2017). The professor of digital society: A proposal based on transformative pedagogy and advanced technology. Revista de Currículum y Formación de Profesorado, 21(1), 403-422. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/567/56750681020.pdf Centre for Educational Planning and Reflection, CERPE. (2010). Formación del profesorado. Serie de educación básica el perfil del profesor y su formación [Teacher training. Basic education series the teacher's profile and training]. Venezuela: Editorial CERPE. CES (Consejo de educación Superior). (2015). Reglamento para carreras y programas académicos en modalidades en línea, a distancia y semipresencial o de convergencia de medios. Consejo de Educación Superior resolución RPC-SE-14No.043-2015. https://www.ucsg.edu.ec/wpcontent/uploads/pdf/distancia/reglamento_para_carreras.pdf Cuesta, O. (2018). Reconocimiento social del docente universitario: Subjetividad agobiada, puja por el prestigio académico y reivindicación del acto educativo [Social recognition of the university instructor: Oppressed subjectivity, bid for academic prestige, and revindication of the educational act]. The USB Agora/El ágora USB, 18(1), 54-71. http://doi.org/10.21500/16578031.3292 Díaz, S. (2006). Adult methodological learning strategies. Fondo Editorial Andragógico. Espín, A. (2019). Aprendiendo a aprender - técnicas de estudio. Editorial UTA. Espinoza, E., Villacres, G. & Granda, D. (2020). Influence of technological didactics on student learning development. Remca, 3(3), 63-70. https://remca.umet.edu.ec/index.php/REMCA/article/download/311/335 García, E., García, A. & Reyes, J. (2014). Master’s students and their implications in the learning relationship. Ra Ximhai, 10(5), 279-290. http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=46132134019 García, M. (2014). Assessing competencies in higher education by rubrics: a case study. Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 17(1), 87-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/reifop.17.1.198861 Gispert, C. (2003). Education Handbook. Editorial Océano. González, J. & Pazmiño, M. (2015). Calculation and interpretation of Cronbach Alpha for validation of the internal consistency of a questionnaire, with two possible Likert scales. Revista Pública, 2(1), 62-77. https://revistapublicando.org/revista/index.php/crv/article/view/22/pdf_11 Grünwald, N., Pfaffenberger, K., Melnikova, J., Zaščerinska, J. & Ahrens, A. (2016). A study on digital teaching competence of university teachers from Lithuania and Latvia within the Peesa Project. Andragogika, 1(7), 109-123. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/233175481.pdf Hernández, R., Fernández, C. & Baptista, P. (2014). Research Methodology. Editorial: McGraw-Hill. Hirsch, A. (2016). Responsible behaviour in unethical research and conduct at Mexican and Spanish universities. Revista de la Educación Superior, 45(179), 7993. http://publicaciones.anuies.mx/pdfs/revista/Revista179_S2A5ES.pdf

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

418

Holmes, W. (2020). Multivariate analysis of variance for multilevel data: A simulation study comparing methods. The Journal of Experimental Education, 88, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2020.1718058 Hooshyar, D., Kori, K., Pedaste, M. & Bardone, E. (2019). The potential of open learning models to promote active thinking by enhancing self‐regulated learning in online higher education learning environments. Asociación Británica de Investigación Educativa, 50(5), 2365-2386. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12826 Hurtado, A. (2018). University management: an educational praxis: Consubstantial with national development plans. Revista arbitrada del centro de investigación y estudios gerenciales, 28, 33-51. http://www.grupocieg.org/archivos_revista/Ed.%2028(3351)-Hurtado%20Arturo%20Jose_articulo_id300.pdf Instituto Internacional de Andragogía, INSTIA. (1986). Theoretical Bases of Andragogy. Revista de Andragogía, 3(7), 45-68. Krichesky, G. & Murillo, F. (2018). Teach collaboration as a factor for learning and improving school: A case study. Educación XX1, 21(1), 135-156. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/706/70653466007.pdf Kümmel, E., Moskaliuk, J., Cress, U. & Kimmerle, J. (2020). Digital Learning Environments in Higher Education: A Literature Review of the Role of Individual vs. Social Settings for Measuring Learning Outcomes. Educ. Sci, 10(78), 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030078 Lateef, B., Waheed, B. & Abubakar, U. (2015). A comparison of some test statistics for multivariate analysis of variance model with non-normal responses. Journal of Natural Sciences Research, 5(15), 1-10. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234656039.pdf Loeng, S., & Omwami, E. (2018). Various ways of understanding the concept of andragogy. Cogent Educación, 5(1), 1-15. http://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2018.1496643 López, J. & Pérez, I. (2017). Why are specific teachings needed for higher education? Revista Científica ECOCIENCIA, 5(1), 1-17. http://revistas.ecotec.edu.ec/index.php/ecociencia/article/view/13 Matas, A. (2018). Likert-Type Scale Format Design: State of Art. Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 20(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.24320/redie.2018.20.1.1347 Mendoza, D., Cejas, M., Rivas, G. & Varguillas, C. (2021). Anxiety as a prevailing factor of performance of university mathematics students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Education and Science Journal, 23(2), 94-113. https://doi.org/10.17853/19945639-2021-2-94-113 Mendoza, D., Abrigo, I., Romero, J., Cueva, F. & Cejas, M. (2019). The formative research of Ecuadorian university teaching staff. Problems of education in the 21st century, 77(3), 364-378. http://www.scientiasocialis.lt/pec/node/files/pdf/vol77/364378.Mendoza%20Velazco_Vol.77-3_PEC.pdf Núñez, J. (2017). Mixed methods in education research: Towards a reflexive use. Cadernos de Pesquisa, 47(164), 632-649. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/198053143763 Osbeck, C., Olof, F., Lilja, A. & Sporre, K. (2018). Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education: Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 39(2), 195-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2018.1450807 Ostertagová, E., Ostertag, O. & Kováč, J. (2014). Methodology and Application of the Kruskal-Wallis Test. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 611, 115–120. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.611.115 Özlem, K., Emre, K. & Mustafa, A. (2019). Comparison of test statistics of non-normal and unbalanced samples for multivariate analysis of variance in terms of type-I error

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

419

rates. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, Article ID 2173638, 8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2173638 Pellón, R. (2013). Watson, Skinner y ciertas disputas conductuales [Watson, Skinner, and certain disputes among behaviorists]. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 22(2), 389399. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/4703413.pdf Pérez, S. (2009). Modelos básicos de andragogía [Andragic model, basics]. Argentina: Campos Eliseos. Roessger, K., Roumell, E. & Weese, J. (2020). Rethinking andragogical assumptions in the global age: How preferences for andragogical learning vary across people and cultures. Estudios de Educación Continua, 42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2020.1732335 Rodríguez, A. (2016). Critique of constructive critique. Teoría y Crítica de la Psicología, 8, 212-221. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5895480.pdf Samuel, Y., Mayra, M., Velazco, D., Santiago, L., Iván, S. & Mauricio, B. (2019). Lonely and hate within social media. Revista Académica de Estudios Interdisciplinarios, 8(3), 7181. http://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/ajis/article/view/10563/10188 Scull, J., Phillips, M., Sharma, U. & Garnier, K. (2020). Innovations in teacher education at the time of COVID19: An Australian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 497-506. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1802701 SENESCYT (Secretaría de Educación, Superior Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación). (2021). Sistema Integral de Información de Educación Superior (SIIES). https://siau.senescyt.gob.ec/imagenes/2020/10/Docentes_Universidades.xlsx Snyman, Marici & Van den Berg, Geesje. (2018). The Significance of the Learner Profile in Recognition of Prior Learning. Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, 68(1), 24-40. Standish, P. (2016). Teaching Exposed: Education in Denial. Revista de Educación, 373, 109120. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2016-373-323 UPEL (Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador) (2016). Manual de Trabajos de Grado de Especialización y Maestría y Tesis Doctorales. FEDUPEL. Van Griethuijsen, R., Kunst, E., Van Woerkom, M., Wesselink, R. & Poell, R. (2020). Does implementation of competence-based education mediate the impact of team learning on student satisfaction? Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 72(4), 516-535. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2019.1644364 Vega, V., Navarro, M., Cejas, M. & Mendoza, D. (2019). Tourism planning and competitiveness in Ecuador. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 8(5), 1-10. https://www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_16_vol_8_5__2019_ ecua dor.pdf

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

420

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for the variable, technology use and literacy Digital competences of Ecuadorian tourism teaching staff during the Research cycle A-2021 Instructions: Please respond to all items. Check with an X the box you consider best indicating the degree to which you identify with each item. Option 1 (null), option 2 (low), option 3(medium), option 4(high), option 5(very high). Date: _____/____/____ Gender: Options N° Use and literacy of technology 1 Knowledge and use of the basic components of ICTs 1 2 3 4 5 Peripherals External storage Digital whiteboard and projectors 2 Knowledge and use of operating systems 1 2 3 4 5 Images and presentations Spreadsheet, database 3 Use of the web and its basic tools 1 2 3 4 5 e-mail Browsers and search engines File-sharing tools 4 Knowledge and use of social networks Management of resource distribution through web 2.0 5 1 2 3 4 5 applications: Blogs Wikis Video blog forums Online presentation Management and use of tools and storage within cloud 6 1 2 3 4 5 environments Google drive Dropbox I cloud Office 365 and SkyDrive 7 Knowledge and use of management platforms 1 2 3 4 5 Moodle Blackboard Teams Other virtual platforms Handling of device protection software and care in Data 8 Protection 9 Knowledge and use of tools for creating QR codes 10 Knowledge of personal learning environments 11 Collaborative use of ICT collaboratively Development of materials using presentation, multimedia, 12 video and podcasts. 13 Knowledge of copyright and intellectual property Use of bibliographic managers (Zotero, Mendeley, Refwork, 14 Word Reference). Effective search and discrimination of relevant information on 15 the web.

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

421

Use of online publishing tools Picassa Pinterest Instagram Slideshare Youtube TikTok Facebook It can generate an opinion:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

1 2 3 4 5

422

Appendix 2: Questionnaire on the variable, educational methodology through ICTs

Digital competences of Ecuadorian tourism teaching staff during the Research cycle A-2021 Instructions: Please respond to all items. Check with an X the box you consider best indicating the degree to which you identify with each item. Option 1 (null), option 2 (low), option 3(medium), option 4(high), option 5(very high). Date: _____/____/____ Gender: Options N° Variable 2, Educational methodology using ICTs 1 2 3 4 5 Implementation of experiences in and creation of learning 1 environments with ICT, and personalized educational environments. Participation in research and teaching innovation projects Teaching experiences in the classroom through ICTs Participation in learning communities or learning networks 2 Use of digital content as support 1 2 3 4 5 Online presentation Online video Self-made digital learning resources 3 Inclusion of virtual activities for learner acquisition Structuring subject activities using virtual university 4 campuses 5 Access to educational resources through different devices Use of web two zero tools such as blogs, wiki, podcasts, as 6 a subject activity Reproduce QR code to compile relevant information about 7 the syllabus such as bibliography of the subject and complementary explanatory information on a topic Carrying out activities or tasks such as designs, project 8 outlines and explanations via QR codes Use of applications for the creation of augmented reality as 9 an educational resource Ability to create a virtual collaborative learning 10 environment Design of digital portfolios as a student self-development 11 activity 12 Use of video as digital learning material Use of virtual simulators and video games in the classroom 13 as a digital learning resource Providing students with ICT tools for planning and 14 organizing autonomous learning Use of cloud hosting tools to share educational material for 15 the subject and other relevant material for student training Assessment of the achievement of subject competences 16 using ICT Approach to and use of MOOCs as a complementary 17 learning resource Use of videoconferencing in class with experts in a field or 18 subject area of the course

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

423

Effective development of digital tutoring for educational enhancement Use of the digital whiteboard as a key element of ICT 20 training Use of social networking as a resource within the virtual 21 classroom Network-based subject learning, collaborative learning and 22 information sharing packages Evaluation of the methodology through online 23 questionnaires Management and knowledge of the functions of the virtual 24 classroom. Knowledge and use of tools for the creation of educational 25 activities through augmented reality Applications: learnar, artookit, Aumentary Browsers: layar, junaio, wikitude world browser Knowledge about AR based projects: spira, Venturi It can generate an opinion: 19

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

424

Appendix 3: Questionnaire on the variable, university teacher training in ICT

Digital competences of Ecuadorian tourism teaching staff during the Research cycle A-2021 Instructions: Please respond to all items. Check with an X the box you consider best indicating the degree to which you identify with each item. Option 1 (null), option 2 (low), option 3(medium), option 4(high), option 5(very high). Date: _____/____/____ Gender: Options N° Variable 3, university teacher training in ICT 1 2 3 4 5 1 Self-taught learning and experience of ICT 2 ICT problem-solving skills 3 ICT usage skills 4 Participation in ICT training courses 5 Received ICT training through e-learning Knowledge and integration of curriculum in e-learning 6 practice Lifelong learning of digital competence and educational 7 technology Training received in the use of mobile devices as a teaching 8 resource Training in software dedicated to research and data 9 collection processing Distinction between the different uses of ICT: educational 10 resource, leisure, communication, etc. Participation in innovation projects based on the use of 11 ICTs. 12 Dissemination of ICT experiences on the net 13 Creation and maintenance of a network of teacher contacts. 14 Evaluation of their teaching work with ICT Understanding and comprehension of national and 15 international indicators of digital competence Ability to select and discriminate between different tools 16 and information managers Solving learning problems and dealing with diversity using 17 ICT Understanding of the importance of digital competences 18 for future trainers Ability to use educational tools in the cloud and to create 19 an interactive learning environment for learners Ability to work in personal networks and cloud learning 20 environments Teaching role as a guide, mediator and learner in the 21 teaching-learning process Handling and use of ICT in management process and 22 organization of research teaching tasks It can generate an opinion:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

425

Appendix 4: Questionnaire for the variable, attitude towards ICT in higher education.

Digital competences of Ecuadorian tourism teaching staff during Research the cycle A-2021 Instructions: Please respond to all items. Check with an X the box you consider best indicating the degree to which you identify with each item. Option 1 (null), option 2 (low), option 3(medium), option 4(high), option 5(very high). Date: _____/____/____ Gender: Options N° Variable 4, Attitude towards ICT in higher education 1 2 3 4 5 Virtual learning environments provide a better teaching and 1 learning process. ICT renewal and updating are essential in the information 2 society. ICT offers greater flexibility and enriches the teaching and 3 learning process. ICTs promote collaborative networking, establishing a 4 network of contacts with experts and professionals. 5 ICT provides learning beyond time and space. ICT allows students' creativity and imagination to be 6 fostered, in order to carry out innovations in their future teaching work. ICT encourages collaborative networking, establishing a 7 network of contacts with experts and professionals. The use of mobile devices encourages the implementation of 8 emerging technologies. Application of open-source resources facilitates work for 9 teachers and students ICT improves the quality of higher education but does not 10 solve the problems arising in society The use of ICT in teaching methodology increases student 11 motivation. ICT training offered is sufficient for teachers' professional 12 development. 13 ICT has limitations due to technical difficulties Emerging technologies such as Big Data, Augmented 14 Reality, Analytical Learning favour virtual learning environments Virtual classrooms do not exploit their potential for 15 university teaching. ICT represents an investment of time that is considered 16 wasted by university teaching staff. It can generate an opinion:

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter

PUBLISHER Society for Research and Knowledge Management Port Louis Republic of Mauritius www.ijlter.org

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is an open-access journal which has been established for the disChief Editor Dr. Antonio Silva Sprock, Universidad Central de semination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the Venezuela, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of field of education, learning and teaching. IJLTER welcomes research articles from academics, edEditorial Board ucators, teachers, trainers and other practitionDr. Fatima Zohra Belkhir-Benmostefa ers on all aspects of education to publish high Dr. Giorgio Poletti quality peer-reviewed papers. Papers for publiDr. Chi Man Tsui cation in the International Journal of Learning, Dr. Fitri Suraya Mohamad Teaching and Educational Research are selected Dr. Hernando Lintag Berna through precise peer-review to ensure quality, Dr. Charanjit Kaur Swaran Singh originality, appropriateness, significance and Dr. Abu Bakar readability. Authors are solicited to contribute Dr. Eglantina Hysa to this journal by submitting articles that illusDr. Mo'en Salman Alnasraween trate research results, projects, original surveys Dr. Hermayawati Hermayawati and case studies that describe significant adDr. Selma Kara vances in the fields of education, training, eDr. Michael B. Cahapay learning, etc. Authors are invited to submit paDr. Bunmi Isaiah Omodan pers to this journal through the ONLINE submisDr. Vassiliki Pliogou sion system. Submissions must be original and Dr. Meera Subramanian should not have been published previously or Dr. Muhammad Kristiawan be under consideration for publication while Dr. Wahyu Widada being evaluated by IJLTER. Dr. Som Pal Baliyan Dr. Reem Khalid Abu-Shawish Dr. Froilan Delute Mobo Dr. Mohamed Ali Elkot Dr. Anabelie Villa Valdez Mr. Teody Lester Verdeflor Panela

IJLTER.ORG Vol 20 No 6 June 2021

Articles inside

Thai 184 84% 360

Foreign 35 16% 90

I am finding the course challenging and stimulating

Traditional classroom 165 75% 333

I am learning something which I consider valuable

Students are engaged to actively participate in the discussion

The course material is well and professionally prepared

The course material is easy to access in the LMS

The teacher begins the class with a review of the previous class

The teacher is friendly and patient with the students

The teacher presents the material in an organized and coherent way

The teacher presents the material in an interesting and engaging way

The teacher is knowledgeable about the content of the course