Children have a basic knowledge of birds that they observe during their everyday life either in their garden, other gardens, round the house, walking in the local area or in the yard on school gardens. A total of 515 children, aged 3 to 16 (249 girls and 266 boys) enrolled in southern Brazilian public preschools, primary school and secondary schools, were invited to participate in this exploratory study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 206 pupils asking to name which birds they knew, where they had seen these birds, which ones live around home, which they had seen further away. Additionally, they were asked which birds they knew from a list and the source of this knowledge where they had learned about the birds. They were asked to draw on a sheet of paper a representation of what the word “bird” meant to them. Results show the importance of everyday observations rather than beyond formal education in the children knowledge. Children from the earliest years notice birds in their everyday lives, and build a bank of knowledge, gradually acquiring an understanding of adaptation to a variety of habitats. Children notice birds in their lives to differing extent and sources according to the culture in which they are immersed. Experiences of seeing or finding out about birds are encapsulated for many children in the form of narratives and contribute to their mental models of birds and their habitats on which they will drew in formal science later (Biology and Environmental Education). Educational implications are discussed.

In this work, we have analyzed the opinions of teacher candidates of French as a foreign language on the method that should be used in the teaching of reading-comprehension, one of the main linguistic skills. At the end of the Fall Semester of the 2011-2012 academic year, a survey constituted of three open-ended questions was carried out among teacher candidates studying at the French Language Teaching Programme of the Faculty of Education of Uludag University. Among the 120 students enrolled in the Programme, 64 have participated in the survey voluntarily and expressed their opinions. Students have been priorly informed about the study and the link of the survey prepared via Google Docs has been sent to them through an e-mail where they were asked to fill in the study in Turkish. In the scope of the present work, only student opinions relating to option b of the study's second question -i.e. on the method that should be used in the teaching of the reading skill in French- have been taken into consideration. In this qualitative work based on a case study pattern, opinions have first been sorted out through the content analysis method and have been classified; then, they have been compared with and discussed in the light of opinions and suggestions that already exist in literature. Lastly, findings have been interpreted and presented as a determination.

To determine the effectiveness of a peer tutorial strategy in the school achievement of English to high school students, whose mother tongue is not English, we made a comparison of two groups; in one, peer tutoring was carried out through the support of high average students and compared with the results of a group that did not receive the intervention. The tutors were 121 students who scored higher than 80 points in the initial exam and accepted to participate in the program. The group of tutees was formed by those who obtained scores lower than 65 and accepted to be tutored (101 formed the experimental group and 112 the control group). The peer tutoring was done in the classroom with the monitoring of the teacher, lasted 11 weeks, and focused on taking class notes and comparing them, giving feedback and clarifying doubts for 30 minutes after the teacher's explanation. The results of the midterm exam and final exam were analyzed through the Student's t-test, showing significant differences in the group that was tutored compared to the low-performing students who did not receive the intervention. The procedure was effective, finding that the use of peer support can improve school performance. It is necessary to monitor the profile of the tutors and systematize the tutorial strategy.

Currently, it is taken for granted that teachers have to take into account the conceptions in order to achieve some efficient learning, the latter are generally resistant and may hinder the learning. Studies have shown that learning amounts to make conceptions evolve which play a determining role in the appropriation of scientific concepts such as neurotransmission, which is the subject of our study. This concept is present in the Life Science syllabus as early as high school. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of an interactive approach on the evolution of students' conceptions of neurotransmission. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to the first two years’ students (second year) in the Life Sciences stream at Dhar El Mahraz Faculty of Science in Fez during the academic year 2016-2017. This questionnaire was in the form of a pre-test and a post-test on learning/teaching of neurotransmission. The results of the study showed that the approach which was adopted had a positive effect on the evolution of the students' conceptions of neurotransmission in that it apparently contributed to a conceptual change for them.

The structure sense is a part that must be learned in order to help understand and construct connection in abstract algebra. This study aimed at building the pattern of a structure sense as a profile of the structure sense in group property. Using a qualitative study, the structure sense of group property was explored through lecturing activity of abstract algebra course from two individual assignments given to the students. The students who could provide the best answers from the first and second individual assignments were chosen to be the respondents. The data from the second assignment, then, was analyzed through presentation, interpretation, coding, making a pattern, leveling and continued with clarification through an interview. The results of the study show that there were six patterns of structure sense answers and five levels of structure senses made by the students as the profile of structure sense. The conclusion is the inability to recognize the structure of the set elements, operation notations, and binary operation properties is one of the causes of the constraints in structuring the proof construction of the group. Thus, a thinking of mathematics connection is needed in structure understanding as a connection between symbol in learning and the symbol of abstract.

The development of the revolution era 4.0 which increasingly rapidly demands the wider community to have the ability to think creatively mathematically. One effort to improve the ability to think creatively is through quality education. Quality education can be improved through to train thinking using the right learning model. This study aims to see which results are more effective in improving students' thinking skills between the two learning models applied. The two models are Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI) models. This research method uses quasi experimental method with a posttest only control test design not control group. This study uses two group subjects with two experimental classes. The analysis of the data used the hypothesis testing of the non-correlated 2-sample t-test. Based on the research results obtained Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI) models have a better effect on students' creative thinking abilities compared to Problem Based Learning (PBL) models.

Research on critical thinking skills has been frequently carried out, but it has not shown maximum results. This problem is exacerbated by the differences in pre-service teachers’ academic abilities. A new learning model that can improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills and reduce the gap in critical thinking skills among the upper, middle, and lower academic ability pre-service teachers is needed. This research aims at exploring the potential of the QASEE learning model on the critical thinking skills of different academic ability. This quasi-experimental research involved 107 pre-service teachers of Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Fatah, Indonesia. The research classes were divided into three classes, namely the QASEE class (experimental class), the RQA class (positive control class), and the conventional class (negative control class). Each class was further divided into upper, middle, and lower academic categories. The data were collected using an essay test supported by a critical thinking skill rubric. The data were analyzed by using ANCOVA and followed by LSD test. The research results show that the QASEE (Questioning, Answering, Sharing, Extending, and Evaluating) learning model can improve and equalize the critical thinking skills of pre-service teachers with various academic levels. Thus, the QASEE learning model can be used as a new reference to improve pre-service teachers’ critical thinking skills, especially the lower academic ability.

Learning models that can improve critical thinking, skills collaborate, communicate, and creative thinking are needed in the 21st-century education era. Critical and creative thinking are the two essential competencies of the four skills required in the 21st century. However, both are still difficult to achieve well by students due to a lack of thinking skills during mathematics learning. This study was conducted to determine the model of learning that is appropriate to develop students' critical and creative thinking skills. The study used three-class samples from eighth grade. The first class is given the problem-posing lesson; the second class is given contextual learning and third class as a control class. The results of the study indicate that improving students' critical and creative thinking skills are included in the moderate category for types using contextual learning and problem-posing. Also, it is found that contextual learning is more effective for improving critical thinking skills when compared with learning problem posing and expository learning. Meanwhile, learning problem posing is more useful to enhance creative thinking skills compared with contextual and expository learning.

This study was to support the understanding of the set structure, binary operations, and their properties as a prerequisite of group theory material categorized as 9 structure senses. This study aimed at investigating the process of students’ structure sense in recognizing the structure of mathematical properties or objects as a prerequisite of group theory material. A task-based case study by exploring 9 categories of structure senses through three integrated process frameworks in the questionnaire was employed in this study. It involved 26 students who had obtained a prerequisite of group theory material and would take abstract algebra course. The choice of subjects was determined based on the results of the questionnaire, in which it identifies the type of structure sense processes. There were 6 out of 26 subjects were chosen. The 6 subjects consisted of 2 subjects from the first path process, 2 subjects from the second path process, and 2 subjects from the third path process. Then, the 6 subjects were interviewed. The choice of 2 subjects for each path process was because it used a fixed comparison theory. Then, the data were validated by using triangulation methods by comparing the students’ work on assignments and questionnaires as well as audio recordings of interviews. The results show the tendency of the process of structure sense was more dominated by students from the second type of path process, in which the subjects still depend on the well-known structure of the properties or mathematical objects in the form of sample questions. The subjects were unable to understand definitions in order to construct structures of properties or mathematical objects.

This study was intended to display the role of eco-school program (Adiwiyata) towards environtmental literacy (EL) of high school students by analyzing, (a) EL of students in Adiwiyata and non-Adiwiyata high schools, and (b) EL of students in Grade X and XI, Adiwiya and non-Adiwiyata high schools in Malang-East Java, Indonesia. The survey involved 275 students. The respondents were from four state high school i.e. SMAN 1, SMAN 3, SMAN 4, and SMAN 7. Data were taken via MSELS questionnaire that was modified and filled online. Aspects of EL include ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the level of students’ EL was significantly influenced by school type and grade. However, the interaction both of them had no significant effect on their EL. Univariate results on school type factor informed that significant differences occured in all aspects of EL, where the lower identified level of students in Adiwiyata schools compared to Non-Adiwiyata was only in the environmental affect. On the other hand, the significant influence of grade level only occurred in cognitive skills aspect. Broadly speaking, all data analyzes concluded that the application of the Adiwiyata program was able to bring a positive impact on the level of students’ EL. There was also a tendency that the higher the student's grade, the better their EL level.

This study aims to analyze students’ creative thinking skills in answering the problem-solving questions. This study employs qualitative design, involving 110 fifth graders in Malang Municipality and Regency as the subjects. The obtained data were analyzed using the descriptive-explorative approach. The findings reveal that the high-achievers in Mathematics showed good skills in the aspects of fluency and flexibility, but were still struggling in the novelty aspect.  The average-achievers showed good skills in flexibility aspects but were lacking in the fluency and novelty aspects. They showed an understanding of Mathematics problems but found it difficult to decide the solving strategies, and thus their answers were lacking in structure and less systematic. When solving a problem, the calculation made seemed rushing, was less careful, and frequented with trial and error strategy. The low-achievers showed difficulties in understanding the problems. Their answers were not systematic, not well-structured, and not detailed. This indicates that the low-achievers had not shown creative thinking skills in fluency, flexibility, and novelty aspects.

Current research on self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching indicates shortcomings in facing recent teaching challenges in secondary education and corresponding valid instruments. Thus, we designed the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Interdisciplinary Science Teaching (SElf-ST) instrument based on a pedagogical content knowledge model for science teaching. We ensured the factorial validity of ten factors. To bring construct validity down to a round figure, we examined convergent and divergent validity in this paper. For answering the overall research question regarding arguments for the convergent and divergent validity of the interpretation of the SElf-ST instrument’s test values (and related hypotheses), we analyzed data of pre-service, trainee, and in-service biology, chemistry, and physics teachers (n = 590) in a cross-sectional study. While the strong latent correlations of the ten SElf-ST factors with self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in primary education (r = 0.40 – 0.63, p < 0.01) indicate convergent validity, the rather weak correlations with self-efficacy beliefs of general teaching (r = 0.17 – 0.54, p < 0.01), self-rated content knowledge in science (r = 0.13 – 0.40, p < 0.01), and perceived stress (r = -0.13 – -0.19, p < 0.01) support different divergent validity intensities. Thus, assumed relations within the nomological net surrounding the self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching construct were confirmed for secondary education. In sum, we shed light on a rarely explored aspect of construct validity in science education research regarding self-efficacy beliefs. Doing so, we gained strong arguments that the SElf-ST instrument’s test values can serve as indicators of self-efficacy beliefs of interdisciplinary science teaching in secondary education.

This article highlights the main ideas that underlie the differences in potential pragmatic knowledge constructs students experience when solving problems, between the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and the zone of potential construction (ZPC). This qualitative research is based on a phenomenological approach to finding the meaning of things that are fundamental and essential from the ZPD and ZPC phenomena. Researchers observed mathematics learning by a teacher on 24 fourth-grade students who were divided into groups A (high IQ) and B (low IQ). Data collection through tests, observation, and interviews. While the validity of the data is done through triangulation of methods and triangulation of sources. The results showed that students of the Upper (A) group had high IQ but small ZPD and ZPC. In contrast, students in the Lower (B) group have low IQ but large ZPD and ZPC. This result means that intelligence (IQ) is measured not only logically-mathematically but also in the verbal-linguistic and spatial-visual fields. The conclusion is that there are differences in the construction of students' knowledge in the learning zone. This difference occurs because the knowledge constructs that the students have previously had an effect on the accommodation process of the schemes that students have built while in the proximal development zone (ZPD) where scaffolding works. Meanwhile, the potential construction zone (ZPC) is not sufficient to describe the real development of students. However, it only reflects what students have accomplished.

This quantitative research aims to analyze the effects of the principal's decision-making, organizational commitment and school climate on teacher performance in vocational high school. The research sample was 160 vocational school teachers in North Minahasa Regency with simple random sampling method. The data were collected using a Likert scale questionnaire 25 with statements. The data analysis was performed using simple linear regression and multiple linear regression. The results showed that the principal's decision-making, organizational commitment and school climate had a positive and significant effect on the performance of vocational school teachers, both partially and simultaneously. The results of this research can be an important reference for educational administrators at vocational high school level to design school strategies and policies that can encourage increased teacher performance to achieve better school productivity.

Student learning in higher education is influenced by parental involvement, peer support, and lecturers' perceptions of agreeableness. This research aims to examine the correlation between parental involvement, peer support, and the perception of personality agreeableness of lecturers on self-regulated learning (SRL) students. This research is a correlational field research model with a quantitative approach. The respondents of this research were 250 students of Yogyakarta State Islamic University who were obtained using a purposive random sampling technique. Data collection uses a scale of SRL, parent involvement, peer support, and perception of the agreeableness personality of the lecturer. Regression analysis is used as a data analysis technique. The results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between parental involvement with SRL, peer support with SRL, personality perception agreeableness lecturers with SRL, and parental involvement, peer support, and perceptual personality agreeableness of lecturers together with SRL with an effective contribution (R2) of 15.1%. It was concluded that the involvement of parents, peer support, and perception of personality agreeableness of lecturers related to SRL of students. Therefore, to see student SRL can be seen based on the involvement of parents, peer support, and students' perceptions of the personality agreeableness of their lecturers.

Considering the low achievement of Indonesian students in international studies (PISA), which measures Higher-Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) in solving the problem, improving the quality of mathematics learning in Indonesia is very important. The purpose of this research was conducted to explore the variations in students’ learning strategies and students’ Self–Regulated Learning (SRL) in solving mathematical HOT problems. The study employed a mixed-method, namely quantitative and qualitative methods were applied through five tests and seven interviews for over eight weeks. Two types of instruments were employed in this study, and they include tests and interviews. At the initial stage, we randomly selected 30 students from all those in grade 10 (Senior High School ), after which 12 were chosen purposively after the pre-test for an interview, having satisfied all complete group, middle group, and lower group. All of them were treated using metacognitive questions. Data analysis techniques used were percentage, data reduction, presentation, and conclusion. The quantitative results showed the students could generally use orientation, organization, and elaboration learning strategies as observed with 68.3%, 60%, and 56.7% for complete, middle, and lower groups. Moreover, the students were also observed to have conducted three cognitive processes in selecting the rules for solving the mathematical HOT problem, namely using models and drawing, written texts, and combining both. Furthermore, their final solution failures were affected by their misconceptions and errors in creating the mathematical model. The interview results on designing the learning procedures, monitoring the progress, and evaluating the outcomes, show that the students’ SRL level is good for complete (89.3%), middle (75%), and lower groups (60.7%).

Professional teaching competence is significantly influenced by beliefs about teaching and learning. Prospective teachers start their teacher training with quite persistent beliefs about learning processes. These beliefs are mainly influenced by the way they experienced their own lessons as a student at school. Previous biology lessons at school might be linked to the imagined biology lessons of prospective teachers. We interpret these future lessons as a representation of their beliefs about teaching and learning. The present study investigated how prospective teachers remembered their previous biology lessons as well as how they imagine the lessons they will conduct in the future. The drawings of 181 prospective biology teachers in Germany (Mage = 22.1; SD = 3.6; 64.1 % female) were analyzed using the Draw-a-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (DASTT-C). Results of the study indicate that the lessons they experienced were mainly teacher-centered, whereas the lessons they imagined were mainly student-centered. Results of a chi-square-test indicate that there is no connection between these two drawings of biology lessons. This suggests that experiences from one’s own schooling may have no connection with the way prospective teachers would like to teach in the future. The results of this study might be used as a basis for further studies examining the development of prospective biology teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning.

This research seeks to evaluate the degree of inclusion of the gender perspective and the promotion of education in and for equality in the historical narratives of students in Chilean Secondary Education (n = 105). The study focuses on the analysis of the discursive-narrative mechanisms employed by the students and, in particular, of their representations of gender relations. To this end, the place given to men and women in past and present societies is analysed in the narratives generated by the students (n = 780). A mixed methodology is applied, combining quantitative (descriptive and inferential) and qualitative analyses of the manifest content. The results obtained report the persistence of stereotypical, exclusionary and androcentric perspectives, evidenced in hegemonic gender attributions and in the maintenance of the sex/gender system. These data confirm the need to implement specific teacher training programmes aimed at the acquisition of critical competences and the effective inclusion of the gender perspective in history education.

This paper explores misconceptions and errors (M/Es) of eighth-grade students in Nepal with a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent control and experimental groups. The treatment was implemented with teaching episodes based on different remedial strategies of addressing students' M/Es. Students of control groups were taught under conventional teaching-learning method, whereas experimental groups were treated with a guided method to treat with misconceptions and errors. The effectiveness of treatment was tested at the end of the intervention. The results showed that the new guided treatment approach was found to be significant to address students' M/Es. Consequently, the students of experimental groups made significant progress in dealing with M/Es in mathematical problem-solving at conceptual, procedural, and application levels.

A large number of articles in the field of science education reflect on scientific literacy as the main goal of science education (SE), although often with varying viewpoints. Nevertheless, researchers have begun to highlight subject-specific teaching practices that are expected to specifically enhance science subject teaching, including biology. The main aim of this theoretical article is to come on consensus and to conceptualise the term biological literacy (BL) more clearly and to present a theoretical concept of BL, composed on the basis of systematically analysed articles. This theoretical concept includes two dimensions of BL: (1) cognitive (cognitive skills, conceptual understanding, biological inquiry) and (2) affective dimension, based on systematic literature review (SLR). This theoretical concept also includes in addition four dimensions of BL: (3) sustainability; (4) interdisciplinarity, (5) career awareness and (6) nature of biology (NOB), based on literature review (LR) of recent decades, that was conducted to write theoretical overview of this research.