The tool developed by Hallinger (PIMRS) has been widely used to identify the level of involvement of a school principal and his/her management team in instructional leadership. PIMRS unfolds the domains which principals delegate to their team, domains that are of a priority for the leadership team when drawing up the school’s instructional leadership profile. However, no studies have been conducted aimed at identifying instructional leadership models based on the profiles obtained by applying PIMRS. Cluster analysis (Ward’s method) was carried out to identify the instructional leadership patterns of 120 schools in one of the megacities of Russia. Four instructional leadership models were identified, and recommendations were provided.
Journal Volume Number : 99
Investigating the Effects of Written Corrective Feedback and Revision on EFL Learners’ Production of Grammatical Structures
The study was an attempt to examine the effects of three types of written corrective feedback namely direct, indirect, and metalinguistic, and the related responses (with and without revision) on the production of grammatical structures by Iranian intermediate EFL learners. 180 language learners were chosen out of a population pool of 260 participants and assigned to six groups of 30 learners based on their performance on Oxford Quick Placement Test (QPT): DCF with and without revision, ICF with and without revision, MCF with and without revision. Provided with different types of feedback, the students in any of six experimental groups were given instruction on present and past perfect tenses. A pre-test -post-test design was applied to conduct the study. Participants in each group were required to take Dicto-Comp as a pre-test. After being offered with the relevant treatments, a parallel post-test was run. The results showed that students in all experimental groups outperformed their knowledge of present/past perfect tenses from the pre-test to the post-test. Students in the ‘DCF with revision’ outperformed all other groups, and the groups required to make revisions (i.e., DCF / ICF / MCF with revision) outperformed the corresponding groups with no revision, and the only groups whose scores (between pre-test and post-test) showed more variation were MCF with and without revision. The results provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of teacher feedback on L2 writing ability at large and learning these two tenses at least for the participants of the present study. Furthermore, these results suggested that providing written corrective feedback can be beneficial as an enhancing element in the curriculum development for improving EFL learners’ writing ability.
Instagram-Assisted Learning of Collocations and Colligations: The Case of EFL Learners
Instagram, as a popular social networking platform, allows users to share photos and videos with other users. This research investigated the effect of Instagram-assisted instruction on the learning of collocations and colligations by Iranian EFL learners. Fifteen participants who were selected based on a language proficiency test took part in this research. The participants were first pre-tested on their collocational and colligational knowledge. The collocational and colligational items that were answered incorrectly by 50 percent or higher were selected for treatment. Afterwards, the researchers prepared nine videos, containing 41 collocational and colligational items, and posted them on Instagram during a five- week instruction period. The participants were asked to watch the videos, and carry out the related exercises in the caption section of the post, through the usage of the comments sections on Instagram. After posting all the videos, the pre-test was run again as a post-test. The results indicated a significant difference between the mean scores of the pre- and post-test, highlighting the fact that the treatment had been effective. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants in order to find out their attitudes towards language learning via Instagram. The learners indicated a positive attitude towards using Instagram for their language learning purposes. In conclusion, the research showed that Instagram-assisted instruction, when properly implemented and designed, can be beneficial to the development of second language learning.
The principles of the implementation of gaming technologies in a blended learning environment in a technical university
We formulated seven general principles for authors for the implementation of educational gaming technologies in an engineering university based on descriptions in the literature. The principles are ordered by their “importance” for the quality of the game model and systemic influence on the student. These principles provide conditions for mastering educational material by resolving problematic game situations. Conclusions are made about the effectiveness of the methodology based on the principles. It was found that the role of the emotional component in the educational process increases, the students’ independent work is stimulated, the quality of teaching increases, and the teacher is freed from routine control operations.
Study of educational needs of applicants with disabilities
Background. The presence of health limitations and disabilities of students affects the structure and content of their educational needs. In some cases, these students may require special counseling in career guidance, assistance in social and psychological support in the process of acquiring education.
Aims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the educational needs of applicants with disabilities and develop recommendations to expand the accessibility of higher education for this category of youth. The research was carried out as part of the State task of the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation.
Methods and procedures. The researchers monitored the educational needs of applicants with disabilities using the survey method in the form of an online questionnaire.
Outcomes and results. The article presents the results of monitoring the educational needs of 170 Russian school graduates with disabilities and health limitations who studied in 16 comprehensive educational institutions, where students of the 11th grades were trained and who expressed a desire to participate in the monitoring. The research was carried in the assigned territory out as part of the State task, which includes 7 constituent entities of the Russian Federation: the Republic of Bashkortostan, Mari El, Tatarstan, the Udmurt and Chuvash Republics, the Orenburg and Kirov regions.
Conclusions and implications. Based on the analysis of the monitoring results, recommendations for regional and municipal authorities and educational organizations subordinate to them were developed. The recommendations are aimed at positioning ways to increase the accessibility and quality of higher education for persons with disabilities, their further employment and career growth.
A Competency-based Approach to Environmental Education: Learning About “Radioecology”
The research objective was to develop a new approach and methodology for the discipline of “Radioecology.” This ensures that the education is practice-orientated, with the possibility of distance and independent learning, skills improvement, and the development of interdisciplinary relationships. The research methods used a theoretical and methodological analysis of scientific and educational literature, logical and semantic modeling of the learning content, design, theoretical analysis and synthesis. The research achieved a new curriculum for “Radioecology,” the creation and implementation of a theoretical course and the development of the practical part of the discipline. This was differentiated by difficulty levels and aimed at solving specific situational problems. The work proposed the creative component of the practical part in the form of individual tasks requiring the learner to resolve a specific production problem situation. It also created a laboratory workshop with the development of modern scientific methods a textbook on radioecology and an electronic version of the methodological support of the discipline, facilitating independent training and making distance learning possible.