Purpose. The word ‘pandemic’ reminds us of the disaster it has created in the world. The present paper aims to explore the gender-based difference in happiness levels among students of Indian higher education institutions (HEIs) during the pandemic. The study elaborates on the skill to remain happy by providing a happiness model useful in curriculum modification in HEIs for better learning of students. Design/ methodology. A self-constructed questionnaire was used to collect data from 642 respondents through purposive sampling. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Such statistical methods as independent t-test, multiple regression, and AMOS were employed for structural equation modelling. Findings. The statistical results showed no significant difference in the levels of happiness between the male and female students. Physical, psychological, social, and financial factors and semester stress were found to contribute to the happiness of students, and gender had a significant impact on physical, financial, and semester stress. Finally, a happiness model was developed. Originality. This research presents a model with five major contributing factors to happiness during the pandemic for students in Indian HEIs. The impact of gender on overall happiness and its contributing factors were also studied. Research limitation. The study should be expanded in terms of data collection, reaching more regions of India and outside to generalise the results.
Practical implication. The outcomes that emerged from the study can be incorporated into the curriculum to prioritise happiness and improve students’ learning. Social Implication. A modified curriculum will help students to remain happy which automatically increases learning.
Journal Issue Number : 4
Parents’ Reasons to Enroll Their Daughters in an All-Girls School
Research about school choice often leaves gender out of the equation. This omission becomes salient in a context in which a gender gap affects girls at school. Among the proposed interventions, single-sex schooling—its advocates say—emerges as a convenient proposal, as it is related to several advantages for girls, particularly disadvantaged ones. Some experts argue that enrolling their daughters in single-sex schools requires parents to make a pro-academic choice, which contributes to the creation of an environment that explains those advantages. This pro-academic choice assumes that parents know the advantages that single-sex schools offer to girls beforehand, and sustain several positive beliefs towards them. To explore this rationale, reasons for enrolling their kindergarten daughters in an all-girls school were collected among a group of parents (n = 18), and compared to parents’ (n = 17) of girls enrolled in a coeducational school. Both schools served a working-class population. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis showed that for parents of single-sex schoolgirls, the most important reasons were pedagogical (curriculum, achievement, teachers) and pragmatic (near home, free). Only parents’ age was associated with preference for single-sex schooling. Nonetheless, the parents of the all-girls school hold positive beliefs regarding this type of education.
The Curriculum Reform as a Means to Upgrade Technology Education at Lower Secondary Schools in Slovakia
In Slovakia, various initiatives aimed at supporting technical or polytechnic education at lower secondary schools (ISCED 2) were carried out. Despite the efforts made, these initiatives did not have a positive effect on increasing the interest of pupils in studying at technical vocational schools (ISCED 3). The curriculum plays a significant role in this. The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic is currently preparing a curriculum reform plan for primary and secondary levels of education (ISCED 1-3). The paper presents the results of a survey focused on assessing the curricular content of the school subject technology from pupils’ point of view.
The research survey was carried out with a sample of 101 pupils. To collect research data, a questionnaire was used. The key items of the questionnaire were focused on finding out pupils’ favourite subjects, favourite topics or activities, the impact of teaching technology on pupils’ professional orientation, and their expectations in connection with technically-oriented subjects taught at secondary schools.
It has been found out that pupils’ attitudes to the school subject technology is significantly negative. However, this statement has to be considered not only in relation to the content of the subject but also in relation to the way in which the subject is taught at schools. The pupils express an interest in practical activities during which they can produce various objects or products. When the pupils were asked to evaluate the subject using a traditional classification scale 1 (excellent) – 5 (fail/insufficient), only four pupils rated technology with the grade 1, while up to 11 pupils evaluated the discipline by the grade 5. The final (average) grade of the subject was 3.
Pre-University Teacher Training for Secondary School Students in a Networked Environment
This article analyzes the findings of the study aimed at determining pedagogical conditions of arranging a class in teaching that would contribute to developing important professional motives, qualities, expertise, and skills in secondary school students, which are necessary to master and promote the occupation of a teacher. The issue under study is relevant due to the necessity for acquiring teaching staff. Analysis of foreign studies has shown that acquiring motivated, dedicated, and committed young people as teachers may be determined by the issue of global politics. It was found out that, both in Russia and globally, there is a necessity to create an environment for identifying, maintaining, and developing the background qualities of an efficient teacher for senior secondary school students.
Analysis of networked action taken by the Secondary School No. 28 for the city of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, and its social partners in order to arrange activities for the class in teaching is among the leading research methods. The following methods were used as well: analysis of student engagement, generalization of experience in working for educational institutions, monitoring of student development, questionnaires, focus groups, analysis of the student survey results, etc.
The study reveals the pedagogical conditions and ways to arrange the class in teaching that would contribute to the conscious decision of students choosing the occupation of a teacher. Relatively low costs of organizing the pre-university training, low number of additional staff engaged, and growing social activity in students prove its efficiency. The conclusion is made regarding the efficiency of implementing a training program shaped as a class in teaching conducted in a networked environment, which would provide the opportunity to use the resources of various organizations taking into account students’ interests.
Measuring Motivation in Preschool Children: Validation of the Russian Version of the Child Behaviour Motivation Scale
The aim of this study was to validate of the Russian version of the Child Behaviour Motivation Scale (CBeMO). The tool is designed to assess learning motivation in preschool and primary school children. Fifty-nine educators participated in the study and completed the CBeMO scales individually for each child in the older groups with whom they had worked for at least 4 months. The total sample consisted of 754 children aged 5-6 years. An internal consistency analysis of the scales indicated a high level of unidimensionality across all scales of the instrument (“Task Orientation”, “Task Avoidance”, and “Social Orientation”). Confirmatory analysis confirmed the consistency of the empirical data with the theoretical model of the questionnaire. The actual structure of the data obtained on the Russian sample, as determined by factor analysis, except for one item, is identical to the original configuration of the scales. Therefore, no additional procedures are required to improve the Russian version of the questionnaire and no measures of cultural adaptation are required for the further use of the Russian version of the questionnaire. In addition to the assessment of psychometric properties, an analysis was carried out to determine the role of age, gender, intelligence and language environment in children’s learning motivation. The article presents the results of the analysis, suggestions for their interpretation, and promising directions for further research.
Emotional Intelligence of Digital Generation Students: Experience of Engineering University
Digitization of everyday life has a fundamental influence on communications, information perceiving and thinking styles of modern generation students. The study of issues of emotional well-being in the student body is particularly significant today, because of increasing desocialization of young people. The aim of the paper is to implement and evaluates the effectiveness of the educational module for the development of emotional intelligence of the 1st year students of engineering Universities. The authors developed the educational module “Emotional intelligence”. The assessment of an empirical research using diagnostic tools of N. Hall’s test of emotional intelligence and the scale of emotional intelligence by D.V. Lyusin conducted on a sample of students (N=174) of engineering majors of Tomsk Polytechnic University. The results showed that most part of them has low and medium (closer to the lower border) levels of EQ. Positive dynamics were observed after studying the educational module. The quantitative indicator reflecting the number of students with a low level decreased two times, and the proportion of students with a high level of EQ increased from 2.9% to 11.1%. The maximum growth was noted for “empathy”, “recognition and understanding of emotions of others” (Hall’s test) and “interpersonal emotional intelligence” (D.V. Lyusin’s scale) indicators. The practically significant result is that development of the level of EQ will contribute to better adaptation in the educational space of the engineering University. The findings will be used for further scientific research to improve the educational paths of digital generation students.
Formative Assessment as a Component of Internal Education Quality Assessment Systems
The article presents the results of research on the practices of formative assessment in modern conditions of development of internal systems for assessing the quality of education. The relevance of the article is related to the consideration of formative assessment in conjunction with the problem of subjectivity as a special result of learning.
The purpose of the article is to present formative assessment in terms of its impact on the cognitive competence of students and the promotion of educational content to interdisciplinary technologies.
The author’s scientific and theoretical conclusions are confirmed by the results of observation of a group of high school students in Moscow schools, for whom the principles and techniques of formative assessment were tested. The empirical experience of involving students in the educational discourse of formative assessment is represented by quantitative values processed using the statistical model χ2.
The novelty of the research consists in clarifying the concept of formative assessment and substantiating the corresponding component of internal systems for assessing the quality of General education as a priority direction in the implementation of General education programs.
The practical significance of the study is related to the confirmation of the effectiveness of formative assessment for the cognitive development of students.
Zoom, Skype or Photos of Paper Sheets: Adolescents about the Transition to Distance Learning During the Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic led to a massive transition to distance learning at schools. All participants in the educational process adapt their lifestyle, workplace, communication methods and leisure forms to the new circumstances. Nowadays the consequences of this phenomenon begin to be studied. This article is devoted to the study of the experience of learning, communication and leisure of teenagers in conditions of social isolation and school closure and approbation of the risk and protective factors model in the context of adaptation to the distance learning. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with adolescents aged 13-17 from Moscow, Ryazan, Tomsk, Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions allows us to characterize five thematic categories in terms of the main factors that make it more difficult or easier for schoolchildren to adapt to the distance learning. The categories include: school and teacher relations; supplementary education and hobbies; relationships with peers; family context; individual and personal characteristics of schoolchildren. The pilot nature of this study and a small sample limit the possibilities of extrapolating the conclusions to all groups of Russian schoolchildren, but allow us to problematize the complex nature of the difficulties faced by adolescents and demonstrate a wide range of resources that allow them to cope with them. Based on the results, we developed short recommendations that can be used by the management of educational organizations, teachers, and parents to reduce stress and simplify the adaptation of students during distance learning.
The Method of “Object Exclusion”: Age Standards and Diagnostic Value for Neuropsychological Assessment of Children aged 4-17 years
The method of “Object Exclusion” is often used to assess a person’s ability to generalize and forms part of the pathopsychological and neuropsychological examination of children and adults. Nevertheless, there is no definite consensus as to which ratio of responses, which would reflect different generalization levels, is considered normative for children of different ages. Published data on the neuropsychological validity of this technique is quite inconsistent. The results of the investigation of 482 tentatively healthy children aged between 52 and 215 months (119 ± 43), of whom 316 were boys and 166 were girls, provided the standards of various categories of responses for different ages. Cross-analysis with neuropsychological diagnosis results revealed that the test performance indicators have to do with cognitive development, but the proportion of explained variance is no greater than 10%. Moreover, the neuropsychological validity of the method varies for each age group. Collating the responses from various categories allows predicting no more than 7% of neurocognitive development variability.
Students and Aggression: Perception and Strategies of Behavior
The problem of aggressiveness of adolescents and young people is currently acquiring new aspects in connection with the expansion of their social contacts. The purpose of our study was to identify the characteristics of students’ aggressiveness, their attitude to aggressiveness (perception and evaluation of aggressiveness, behavior strategies when faced with aggression, ways to overcome their own aggressiveness). We also wanted to explore, whether the nature and level of aggressiveness changes from the first to the final year of study at the Institute. The study involved 253 students (149 first-year students and 104 fourth-year students). The study was conducted in an anonymous form using the questionnaire “Attitude to aggression” developed by us and the methodology for diagnosing aggressiveness by Buss–Darka’s test. The results of the study showed that in the student environment (in the age range from 17 to 22 years) there is no reliable relationship between age and levels of aggression and hostility. First-year students perceive aggression more in the emotional and energy aspect, they tend to continue communicating with an aggressive person, try to calm him or ignore his condition. Fourth-year students view aggression as a social behavior rather than an emotional outburst, and prefer a withdrawal strategy, begin to behave more carefully, try not to provoke. Their behavior is more appropriate from the point of view of safety. Fourth-year students are more likely than first-year students to “see” aggressive people in communication situations, more often note the positive role of aggression in defending their position in society, and more often openly show their own aggression towards people.
Problems and Opportunities for Training Specialists for Working with Children with Mental Retardation in the Higher Education System
In the modern rapidly changing world, there is a change in value orientations and educational paradigms, socio-economic, political, liberal-social and scientific conditions. These processes also affect the training system for working with different categories of children, including those with mental retardation. The purpose of this work is to study, analyze and objectively compare the structure of training bachelors who are capable of creating special conditions for education and upbringing for children with mental retardation, to identify common elements of this training. The study of the domestic practice of training specialists for working with persons with mental retardation is important for concretizing the content of specialized education.
The study used a comparative analysis of training profiles in the framework of defectological, psychological-pedagogical and pedagogical training areas. At the same time, the authors also analyzed the main professional educational programs and work programs of specialized disciplines aimed at preparing defectologists, teachers and psychologists to work with children with impaired mental function.
The study expanded the understanding of the dependence of the structure and content of personnel training for working with children with mental retardation on future areas of professional activity; the influence of research results, concepts of leading scientists who advocate the priority of defectologists in teaching and upbringing of children with mental retardation. Based on the results of the study, a versatile description of the structure of training psychological, pedagogical and defectological personnel was obtained by identifying factors that can affect the organization of optimal profile training for bachelors.
The authors declare the idea of a specialized professional defectological education of teachers who are ready to work with children with mental retardation. The obtained research results can be used to design training modules in the structure of courses, the content of which maximally effectively ensures the formation of core competencies for working with children with mental retardation.
Data Competence of Subjects of Pedagogical and Managerial Analytics for Evidence-based Development of Education
The relevance of the study is associated with the need to analyze the changing labor actions of education leaders and teachers in connection with the organization of the analysis of educational data accumulated by students in the digital educational environment. This, in turn, actualizes the need for the development of competencies in the analysis of educational data for a reasonable organization of human development and education. In the context of the digital transformation of education, the development of digital educational platforms, the development of digital services for assessing the quality of education, monitoring education, the issues of the methodology of data analysis and their competent application in pedagogical and managerial practice are being actualized. The article examines how educational analytics is used in the practice of schools, what problems educational leaders experience in pedagogy when working with data, what data sources they use. It was studied: what competencies are necessary for a teacher and the head of an educational organization in order to organize evidence-based development of education based on data. Leading research methods: structural and functional analysis, interviewing, polling, systematization, ranking, statistical analysis. The article summarizes the results of a study of the changing labor functions of teachers in the context of the digitalization of education, the competencies of teachers and managers in the application of data analysis in educational practice: digital competencies (digital competencies), data analysis competencies (data competencies), competencies for organizing development based on data (competence of a data-driven development organization). The problem is revealed: how the methodology and labor functions of teachers in the organization of education change based on the analysis of data: educational results, motivational choices of training profiles, levels of difficulty of educational tasks, topics of design and research work of schoolchildren, etc. Expansion of labor actions of teachers and heads of educational organizations and competences that ensure the implementation of labor actions are investigated. The development of data-competencies of teachers and education leaders for the evidence-based development of education and a person is analyzed. The research results presented in the article contribute to the theory and practice of teacher education, education management, as well as to the methodology of data science and the practice of its application in the field of education.
Educational and Professional Choice of Working Youth in Service Industries
The relationship between education, profession and social status in the modern global world is not obvious. A high level of education does not guarantee a professional career. The discrepancy between professional education and occupation is especially acute in the field of customer service. On the one hand, it reduces the quality of services provided and, on the other hand, causes tension among workers of this industry. The aim of the research is to study educational values, the choice of an educational trajectory and professional self-determination of modern working-class youth in the service industry.
The article is based on the materials of an empirical study using quantitative and qualitative sociological methods: a mass survey of working-class youth in the Ural Federal District and a biographical interview, the informants of which are employed in the real sector of the economy and the service sector.
The contradictory attitude of young service workers to education was revealed: not seeing the connection between the level and quality of education and the characteristics of their own life, young people are confident in the value of education and maintain a respectful attitude towards educated people. The personal significance of education for the new generation of working-class youth is small; the social prestige of education does not in any way affect personal life plans, including the professional choice.
The established relationships between the educational and professional choice of working-class youth – the basic layer of the social structure of any society – can be used to organize vocational guidance work in secondary school, and can be in demand by the state and regional authorities of vocational education.
Distance Teaching of Professional Intergroup Communication to Non-Linguistic Students
The relevance of this research is due to significant changes in the labor market caused by the transformation of the modern world, when the demand for professionals who can study in a digital environment, as well as carry out cross-cultural communication and interaction with remote business partners, has sharply increased. This article identifies the main difficulties arising in the process of teaching intergroup dialogue and professionally-oriented interaction to non-linguistic students and also proposes new organizational and methodological approaches aimed at overcoming these difficulties. The aim of the research is to test the experimental methods of distance teaching of dialogic speech as a means of adaptation of non-linguistic students to intergroup communication in the digital environment. Such research methods as the experiment, observation, and the method of open and closed-ended questionnaires were used. The statistical significance of the obtained data was tested with the help of the student’s paired t-test and the Fisher test. The article describes the experimental distance teaching of communication in a virtual environment simulating professional intercultural interaction. The organizational and methodological approaches elaborated by the authors give an opportunity to form an educational foreign language environment, which trains non-linguistic students in intergroup communication with remote partners. The pedagogical tools tested in practice contribute to the effectiveness of teaching students with a low level of foreign language proficiency. The materials presented in the article allow us to create new technologies of foreign language distance teaching and will be in demand by specialists in the field of higher education pedagogies.
Didactic Peculiarities of the Use of Learning Systems in Technical Universities
The topicality of the matter considered is conditioned by low didactic efficiency of existing technical learning software and hardware tools in technical universities. In this regard, the purpose of this article is the creation and practical application of new methods for increasing the didactic efficiency of automated components of the educational process. The methodological basis of the research is the complex application of mutually complementary approaches, the main ones of which are systemic, personality-oriented, axiological and anthropological.
The work describes the performance of the designed learning system and, on its example, considers the methods for increasing the didactic efficiency of learning systems subject to psychofactors of the participants of the educational process. In the proposed learning system, the results of psychodiagnostics of students’ personal characteristics and qualities are represented which are used to form new elements of system analysis – “cognitive elements of psychofactors”, which introducing made it possible to improve the system analysis. The perfection of system analysis expanded its functionality and qualitatively changed its capabilities, which in turn made it possible to increase the degree of reasonableness of decisions made by a teacher and learning system when analyzing pedagogical situations. In the presented research, a special emphasis is put on the use of psycho-corrective educational technologies of the educational process, which use gave a new pedagogical effect – students practicing psycho-corrective methods of work with their personal qualities began to successfully complete higher complexity educational tasks, which proves an increase in their cognitive motivation and cognitive abilities.
A Model of Subjective Well-Being of a Teacher in the Context of the Safety of Educational Environment
Relevance of the problem. The study of well-being in education is an important area of scientific research and practical interventions. WHO declare the human right to well-being. The aspect of the students’ well-being was added to the OECD PISA profiles and in the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Edu2030, which confirm the significance of this theme (UNESCO, 2016). The key role of teacher well-being for the well-being of students and the educational environment in whole has become the focus of scientific publications, in particular confirming the significant relationship between school safety and teacher well-being (Sürücü Atila, & Ünal, 2015). However, teachers’ well-being remains low, which is revealed in the problem of the mass dismissal of teachers from schools. This problem is especially relevant among young teachers (OECD, 2020). This situation leads to a social contradiction that updates the study of the problem of teachers’ well-being in the context of socio-professional conditions and the ethics of the profession. Current research of well-being is focused on an ecological approach as relevant to the modern requirements of science (Mercer, 2021). Thus, the purpose of this study is to define the concept of “subjective well-being of a teacher” and develop a model of the subjective well-being of a teacher in the context of the safety of educational environment using relevant scientific and methodological tools. Research methods: search and confirmatory factor analysis, comparative, correlation analysis. Technique: WHOQOL-100 Questionnaire, B. Tuckman Procrastination Scale”, Melbourne Decision Inventory, AVEM Questionnaire. The study sample consisted of N=600 teachers of secondary schools of the Republic of Tatarstan, noted by the type of settlement and their socio-economic zone.
Research results. A model of the teacher’s subjective well-being has been developed in the context of the ethics of the profession “The triangle of professional well-being of a teacher”, which includes ownership, professional aspirations and quality of life as system-forming peaks. Practical significance. The results of the study can be applied for the educational programs for teachers’ training and retraining, for the supervising and psychological and pedagogical support of a teacher as well as to ensure the psychological safety of the learning environment of the school.
Social, Psychological and Organizational Factors Affecting the Psychological Safety of the Educational Environment
According to data of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, various forms of violations of human behavior are seen in the education and youth environment, including through immersion in destructive ideologies on the Internet. These data write down the need to study the factors affecting the psychological safety of the environment, especially the educational and youth environment (students and schoolchildren). In this regard, the purpose of the study is to identify the influence of social, psychological and organizational factors on the psychological safety of the educational environment.
The study was conducted based on big data analysis of 164 schools. They include data from schools on the following indicators: “suicides”, “suicide attempts”, “crimes”, “psychological competencies of managers”, “staff turnover”, etc.
The statistical method of big data analysis is the leading one in describing the results of the study. Factor analysis was used to describe a multidimensional model of psychological safety of the educational environment. A two-sample F-test was used to compare the sample populations.
The results of the study allowed us to identify factors influencing the psychological safety of the educational environment: high turnover of teaching staff, lack of psychological competencies in the administration of educational organizations, the number of suicidal attempts, a large number of representations of the prosecutor’s office, etc.
The results of the study made it possible to form instructions to the executive authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan signed by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan – Chairman of the Anti-Terrorist Commission in the Republic of Tatarstan. The instructions are aimed at improving the effectiveness of the psychological service in education; the formation of psychological competencies of key managers responsible for the organization of psychological, social and educational activities; the inclusion in the job descriptions of key managers responsible for the organization of psychological, social and educational activities of new labor functions for the formation of psychological security of the educational environment, as well as the identification and support of students in need of socio-psychological support.
E&SD 16(4) December 2021
This is the English language contents page for E&SD 16(4)
Nick Rushby
Editorial: Reflections on learning online .6
Fatemeh Nafarzadeh Nafari, Mehrshad Ahmadian, Ebrahim Fakhri
Developing Teacher Education Performance Assessment through Teaching E-portfolios and Pre-service/In-service EFL Teachers’ Self-reflection 10
Gulzhana Kuzembayeva, Zhumagul Maydangalieva, Bakit S. Kulbaeva, Anara Urkunova, Aigul Kupenova
Survey of Indian Medical Students’ Adaptation in Kazakhstan: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Academic Dimensions 25
Daniel Doz
Students’ Mathematics Achievements: A Comparison between Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic 36
Fatemeh Khonamri, Monireh Mosleh Amirdehi, Martina Pavlikova, Hedviga Tkacova
EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Implementing Critical Thinking in Teaching Reading: Focus on the Possible Hindrances 48
Maria Lalinska, Jana Hučkova, Silvia Hvozdikova
Intervention Reading Comprehension Program in French Language 64
Olga V. Kotomina, Aleksandra I. Sazhina
The Influence of Family Factors on the Academic Performance of Schoolchildren and University Students: Review of Foreign Studies 74
Marina Yu. Krinitskaia, Tatyana A. Borzova
University Students’ Attitudes to Soft Skills in Business Communication Training 93
Evgeniya E. Jukova, Maxim S. Kozyrev, Irina Y. Ilina
Why do People Apply for Admission to Moscow Universities? An Analysis of the Reasons and Development of Recommendations 105
Inna V. Zakharova
Professional Self-determination of School Graduates: Social and Personal Factors 120
Roza Z. Bogoudinova, Ekaterina Е. Tsareva
Developing the Metalinguistic Competence of Engineering Students 136
Editorial: Reflections on learning online
A long time ago and in a galaxy far away, my first degree was in electrical engineering.
This was over fifty years ago, at a time when many people believe that technology-based
learning had not been invented. This of course, is not true and is a consequence of amnesia
in the education technology community (Rushby, 1983; Romiszowski & Rushby, 2015).
However, it was not until the 1970s that viable systems to manage the learning process
became available. By the late 1970s, Plato (developed by the University of Illinois) was
supporting several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly
a dozen different networked mainframe computers (Smith & Sherwood, 1976). So, my
undergraduate course was wholly class-room (and laboratory) based. To be honest, the
quality of the teaching was not good: I recall one lecturer who spent each lecture copying
the course textbook onto the chalkboard with chalk in one hand and an eraser in the other
to make space for the next paragraph , while another talked in an impenetrable accent
that none of us could decipher. Of the 100 students who started the course, only 60 made
it to the second year and fewer than 30 sat the final examinations . On average , each
year two students on this undergraduate course attempted suicide.
This was one of the factors that started my interest in ways of improving the quality
of university teaching.
Developing Teacher Education Performance Assessment through Teaching E-portfolios and Pre-service/ In-service EFL Teachers’ Self-reflection
A portfolio is a document describing skills, experience, interests or knowledge of an individual.
Recently, the conventional paper-based portfolio has been no longer able to keep pace and therefore,
some researchers have suggested e-portfolios overcome this weakness. It is rare to find research on
e-portfolio for managing certification of professional competence. Considering that developing an
Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) teaching e-portfolio helps teachers to become
more reflective in their teaching, the present study tried to merge this issue by exploring the effects
of developing edTPA teaching e-portfolios on pre-service and in-service teachers’ self-reflection in
a teacher preparation program in the Iranian EFL context. The researchers employed a sequential
explanatory mixed methods approach. A self-reflection survey was administered to 100 EFL preservice
and in-service teachers. The participants developed edTPA teaching portfolios with three
specific types of tasks (planning, instruction, and assessment) in their classrooms. After the teaching
classroom, a self-reflection survey was administered as a posttest. Then six of the participants were
surveyed using a follow-up interview. The results of the study showed that there was a significant
improvement in the EFL teachers’ self-reflection in both groups through developing three types
of edTPA and underlying five factors of reflection in their teaching. Research on edTPA as a
tool measures teacher readiness and reflection. Further research efforts should focus on edTPA
performance, teacher evaluation and student performance to add to the professional discourse on
teacher preparation, teacher quality, and policy making.