Articles

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is regarded internationally critical to effectively prepare citizens for the twenty-first century (Early Childhood STEM Working Group, 2017; McClure et al., 2017, National Research Council, 2011). One basic assumption underlying this work how improving outcomes for children requires the provision of support for their teachers so that educators are empowered to provide high-quality STEM experiences during the first years of primary school. This paper presents the case study emerged from the Kanga-Kids Professional Development Model of Training for in-service Math teachers in the early years of elementary school. The model includes three main components: (1) workshops, (2) reflective coaching cycles, and (3) professional learning communities/workgroups. The findings show that the program has succeeded in changing basic attitudes and beliefs as well as daily routines at school in teaching math. This paper contributes to theoretical and practical literature in the area of STEM bringing a detailed example of the design and its impact.

Although accompanied by the socialist-oriented market economy, private higher education plays a critical role in the development of the higher education sector of Vietnam. In this context, teaching staff development has been becoming more important than ever to make these non-public universities more competitive to the public universities. The main objectives of this research are to develop an understanding of an overview of the teaching staff development of the private universities in Vietnam. The study uses qualitative analysis in order to gain insights into different development aspects of these teaching staff. The findings should make an essential contribution to human resource development in the non-public universities regarding quality, quantity and assessment of the quality of the teaching staff in these universities. This research supports the idea that the teaching staff development of the private universities should be equally regarded as their colleagues in the public one.

Grounded on Engstrom’s interacting activity theory, this qualitative study examines higher education (HE) students’ views about the roles of their groups regarding tasks assigned to them during classroom activities and how their views influence the ways they interact with their peers in the groups. The key findings are twofold. In symbolic group work (GW) interactions, students perceive group leaders as a symbol of group authority who distribute unequal responsibilities among group members. Students, then, positioned themselves as “disciplined members” and passively participate in the group. In authentic GW interactions, students see that the group leaders put forth the authentic conversation and shared responsibilities among group members. Students then positioned themselves reflexively between “collaborative learners” and “active agents,” in order to participate in the group actively. Findings suggest that students view GW dynamics differently when their interactions and participation are either imposed or supported by the group dynamics themselves and whether university teachers take social aspects of GW into account of their facilitation. The study provides insight into the complex interactional group dynamics that influence cooperative learning goals in the university settings and offers opportunities for university teachers to think about adopting social pedagogic approaches in facilitating classroom GW as a constitutive part of pedagogical reform at higher education institutions.

The transition from traditional (face-to-face) to online learning mode presents challenges and barriers to students globally. Reports on this issue during the pandemic show the various effects of barriers to online learning on their academic achievement. Some researchers have been interested in this issue. However, specific research on the group of students majoring in social sciences is still limited. To fill this research gap, this paper aims to build a theoretical framework on barriers to students’ learning in the online environment through a review of research papers, thereby examining the relationship between barriers and students’ academic achievement. The barriers identified in this study are Social Interaction, Academic Skills, Technical Skills, Learner Motivation, Time and Support for Studies. The Snowball sampling method was used, and the Google Forms application designed the questionnaire for data collection. The analytical data set included 482 records collected over 32 days from April 5th to May 6th, 2021. The results show the difference in demographic conditions in terms of the academic year, learning conditions, gender and region with the identified barriers. The study results show that most female students are guaranteed to fully meet the requirements of online learning in the context of COVID-19. However, the results of online learning are still affected, and the main reason is the time and support for learning activities. Through the findings, the research has contributed to strengthening the knowledge about the relationship between barriers and academic performance among students majoring in social sciences in the online learning environment. The research results can be a reference source so that educational administrators, teachers and related stakeholders such as parents, enterprises and the community will propose solutions to issues affecting the students’ learning effectiveness and outcomes.