This study examined the effectiveness of integrating a service-learning project into the undergraduate curriculum for students majoring in education at an urban university in  Japan. These teacher candidates engaged in service-learning by supporting high school students in the development and implementation of social action projects. The study employed pre and post seminar data from the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ) and student reflection papers to examine the influence of service-learning participation on the civic attitudes and skills of the teacher candidates. Results indicate that while the teacher candidates experienced a variety of benefits from their participation in service-learning, including significant gains in their civic action and political awareness, their self- perception of leadership skills declined significantly. Discussion centers on differences in the understanding and application of personal skills, such as leadership, between the culture of Japan, where the study took place, and the culture of the United States, where the CASQ was developed. Cultural differences need to be taken into account in order to appropriately interpret the results of the CASQ leadership scale when applied in a Japanese setting.

The Influence of Service-Learning on the Civic Attitudes and Skills of Japanese Teacher Education Candidates

Dyscalculia is a specific learning disorder, reflected in an arithmetic capacity below the expected on individuals of similar chronological age, IQ and schooling. In order to improve these abilities, several studies agree that didactic strategies with play activities help to improve the difficulties of learning to count, to do basic mathematical calculations, to define groups of objects and in spatial thinking. From this context, the objective is to develop an educational game for children suffering from dyscalculia, available to the public on the Arcade and Android platforms. For development, the agile XP methodology is applied, in addition to GameSalad Creator and Viewer, OpenProj, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Voice Record Pro, and C++ as the base programming language. The application has been submitted for validation in institutions of initial and primary education.

Educational Math Game for Stimulation of Children with Dyscalculia

This article presents an interdisciplinary teaching–learning sequence (TLS) about air quality for pre-service primary teachers using an organic learning garden. The design involved a curricular integration of concepts and competences about sustainability, mathematics, and science disciplines following constructivist and active learning strategies, such as problem-based learning and place-based education. In this TLS, both the topic and the learning context act as facilitators of education for sustainable development (ESD). The contents address the overarching STEM and sustainability concepts related to air pollutants, weather, and climate. Our results show that students learned about a STEM topic within a space and context that enables ESD. Several misconceptions related to air quality, weather, and statistics were identified through the evaluation of students’ initial ideas. Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards the topic of study and self-efficacy and perceived relevance of ESD improved after the implementation. These results will guide further improvements of the designed TLS, which connects STEM education and ESD as a transformative educational experience for pre-service teachers. In this sense, we conclude that such initiatives can improve pre-service primary teachers’ self-efficacy as agents of change towards sustainable development goals.

Integrating Mathematics and Science Teaching in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development: Design and Pilot Implementation of a Teaching-Learning Sequence about Air Quality with Pre-Service Primary Teachers

In the work that it’s showed in this document, it’s possible find a to shed light on the importance of using Learning Styles and Gamification conjugated with the self-regulation in educational contexts. It’s something evident that all the students have the capacity and ability to become smart learners if they learn and use self-regulation and gamification techniques in the classroom along with a methodology that considers learning styles.  The motivation of the student during the learning process has always been a fundamental objective to be achieved by the teaching body. Games can teach us many aspects, techniques and ways of improving the teaching methodologies applicable in the classroom on a daily basis. These techniques may be used as primary student service at the primary and secondary education level in both university and informal teaching contexts.

/pdf/triangulation-of-successful-sources-in-teaching-learning-42kpm2tc1e.pdf

Triangulation of Successful Sources in Teaching: Learning Styles, Gamification and Self-regulated Learning

Interdisciplinary science learning can play a central role in promoting students’ 21st century skills. However, students tend to have low perceived self-efficacy towards 21st century skills, thus limiting the application of their actual scientific competence. This study seeks, based on a 1.5-year intervention study, to promote students’ perceived self-efficacy towards 21st century skills through science learning compared to a non-experimental group. During the intervention, everyday life-related scenarios were utilized, with students guided to create core idea maps. Data on students’ perceived self-efficacy were collected before and after the intervention. Results showed that students’ perceived self-efficacy towards 21st century skills changed in a significantly positively way after the intervention.

Promoting Students’ Perceived Self-Efficacy towards 21st Century Skills through Everyday Life-Related Scenarios

Interdisciplinary projects play an important role in the development of a student profile based on the 21st century skills Nevertheless, the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach is a challenge for both teachers and teacher educators The aim of this study is to create an interdisciplinary model for teacher education, and to provide an empirical study which analyses its impact on learning An educational innovation project was carried out with preservice teachers who experienced and subsequently designed a Problem Based Learning with interdisciplinary activities including Mathematics and Social Sciences, using the National Archaeological Museum as an educational resource The proposals were implemented amongst children to evaluate the project’s effectiveness, considering two aspects: (a) improved teaching skills for preservice teachers (N = 26) and (b) improved learning for Mathematics and Social Sciences content amongst primary school children (N = 58) In the case of the student teachers, the variance analysis implemented showed sufficient empirical evidence of the improvement between the pre and post treatment, in different dimensions of the teaching skills and competences On the primary school students, some significantly statistic progresses were found concerning the learning of both subjects, as well as their perception of museums as place for learning

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6748/pdf

Interdisciplinarity in Teacher Education: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Educational Innovation Project

Este articulo recoge los primeros resultados de una investigacion que pretende elaborar un instrumento de analisis que permita valorar la capacidad que tienen los libros de texto de matematicas para desarrollar los diferentes Estilos de Aprendizaje de los estudiantes. El instrumento, construido en base a un diseno que utiliza la tecnica del analisis de contenido, esta vertebrado en seis organizadores (aspectos formales, contenidos, metodologia, aspectos afectivos, actividades y evaluacion) que agrupan veintiocho elementos con  modalidades asociadas a cada uno de los Estilos de Aprendizaje (activo, reflexivo, teorico y pragmatico) que resultan de la interiorizacion, por parte de cada estudiante, de una etapa determinada del proceso ciclico de aprendizaje. La herramienta disenada supone una aproximacion piloto que se ha aplicado de forma exhaustiva para analizar el 100% de un unico libro de texto de matematicas de 4o curso de Educacion Primaria publicado por una de las editoriales de mayor difusion dentro del territorio espanol. Los hallazgos realizados, que complementan los obtenidos por otros estudios llevados a cabo en el mismo ambito, demuestran que el libro de texto analizado no favorece por igual todos los Estilos de Aprendizaje de los estudiantes siendo el estilo activo el menos desarrollado de los cuatro.

/pdf/los-libros-de-texto-de-matematicas-y-su-capacidad-para-4pa18lhtsc.pdf

Los libros de texto de matemáticas y su capacidad para desarrollar los distintos Estilos de Aprendizaje: estudio piloto

This research arises from the university’s need to contribute to the training of professionals, especially teachers, who, in turn are committed to contribute to a more sustainable and socially just world at the institutions for which they are professionals. In this context, a pedagogical approach emerges to promote the development of the civic and social competences of higher education students’ using the methodology of Service Learning. The aim of this study is to analyse the acquisition and development of the socio-educational commitment and self-efficacy variables of student teachers based on their participation in Service Learning programmes, comparing this with the results of carrying out university volunteering activities. A quantitative correlational study was carried out with preservice teachers (N = 207). The basic hypothesis is that the results would be in favour of the participation in Service Learning activities on the fundamental variables of the study: socio-educational commitment, teaching self-efficacy and self-efficacy in the creation of instructional materials. For this purpose, a specific scale was designed to measure Teachers’ socio-educational commitment with favourable psychometric characteristics. The results show sufficient empirical evidence (p < 0.01) for the development of socio-educational commitment and self-efficacy variables in favour of those who participated in Service Learning programmes.

The Impact of Service Learning in the Development of Student Teachers’ Socio-Educational Commitment

@APARTE: THE USE OF INSTAGRAM TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ COMPETENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY IN USING APA GUIDELINES 

Elsa Santaolalla

Papers

Interdisciplinarity in Teacher Education: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Educational Innovation Project

Los libros de texto de matemáticas y su capacidad para desarrollar los distintos Estilos de Aprendizaje: estudio piloto

The Impact of Service Learning in the Development of Student Teachers’ Socio-Educational Commitment

@aparte: the use of instagram to increase students’ competence and self-efficacy in using apa guidelines

Instagram is a reliable learning tool for increasing students’ competencies in using apa guidelines