International Journal of Innovation in Teaching and Learning (IJITL)

From Traditional to Home-Based Learning: Challenges of Elementary School Teachers during COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago

Steve Warner — 2023-01-06

This study has explored the perspectives of elementary school teachers of their challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they transitioned from their traditional mode of facilitation to a program called Home-Based Learning (HBL). The objectives of the study, which focuses on the implementation of HBL for elementary school students, from March 2020 to June 2021, were to investigate elementary school teachers’ perspectives on their readiness for HBL; to determine elementary school teachers’ perspectives on their students’ readiness for HBL; and to investigate elementary school teachers’ perspectives on their implementation of HBL. There was a need to determine how teachers, students and parents responded to this sudden shift. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 40 teachers from all class levels, number of years teaching and from the eight educational districts. The results demonstrated that despite the efforts of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to provide support and assistance, teachers struggled with instructional strategies and pedagogy, connectivity and technology concerns, parental support and involvement, burnout and being overwhelmed with the long hours preparing for online and offline students and lack of continuous professional development. It was clear that teachers used creative and innovative means to ensure learning continued, striving to make HBL work for their students. It is recommended that the MoE design and implement a continuous and structured professional development programme for teachers, ensure that technology resources and infrastructure are available and sustained and that internet connectivity be reliable and suitably fast in all elementary schools.

Keywords: Home-based learning, Trinidad and Tobago, teacher training, online learning

Contemplative Practices of Higher Education Faculty of Pakistan: Applications and Propositions

Irsa Zahoor — 2023-01-06

This research aimed to explore the use of Contemplative Practices (CPs) as a growing teaching pedagogy to cope with the challenges faced by the Higher Education. More specifically, to explore what CPs do the higher education faculty members of Pakistan use in their teaching intentionally or unintentionally. This quantitative survey research presented the findings from a survey outlining six major categories of CPs followed by their sub-practices. Data were collected through Survey Monkey from 502 faculty members of the Master Trainers Faculty Professional Development Program (MT-FPDP). For the analysis of data descriptive statistics (percentage analysis) was used. The results of this study showed that faculty members of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) did not incorporate stillness, creative, movement, and ritual practices in their teaching. Though, it was found that they use generative and relational practices in their class. They feel more confident and at ease to use practices of dialogues, discussions, perspective sharing, and storytelling. Based on the results of the study researchers recommend that to enable faculty members to use CPs in their class HEC, HEIs, and professional development organizations in Pakistan should plan conferences, training workshops, and seminars with the collaboration of HEIs.

Keywords: Contemplative Pedagogy & Practices, Higher Education, Holistic Development, Inner Wellbeing

Meta-Analysis on the Issues and Reform Dimensions of Primary Mathematics in Pakistan

Muhammad Khalil — 2023-01-06

This article aimed to explore the philosophy behind the mathematical content development and assess the problems in the implementation of mathematics curriculum. Mathematics curriculum is circumscribed by content, process and standard, and it cannot be achieved with optimum outcomes if the causal effects attributes are not determined. The relevant personals should be aware of the nature of this subject and the structural and functional requirements that are the most important for achieving the actual demand of this subject. In Pakistan, the stress is only on content mastery, documentations and illogical and inappropriate strategies through which the intended curriculum can hardly be achieved. Reforms must be done in both structure and function in order to achieve the curriculum objectives. This article is an attempt to highlight the structural, functional issues that are the basic hurdles in the attainment of the math curriculum objectives. The critical analyses of the available literature suggested some fundamental reforms towards the improvement of primary mathematics.

Keywords: Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge, Standards

Effects of Virtual Reality on Mental Rotation Ability of Science Students at Elementary Level

Farkhunda Rasheed Choudhary — 2023-01-06

Recent research has shown that the use of Virtual Reality (VR) can induce many cognitive capacities in science learners. This research explored the effects of virtual reality on mental rotation abilities, which are recognized as one of the significant sub-factors of spatial abilities. This study aimed to explore the effects of virtual reality on the mental rotation abilities of learners at the elementary level. The research was carried out employing experimental methodology, in which a pre-test post-test control group design was used. The hypotheses of the study were to compare the mental rotation abilities of the science students in the experimental group while learning through VR and the control group while learning as usual. The population consisted of 7^th grade students from the Islamabad Model School for Girls. Sample of study was conveniently selected i.e. 62 students through random selection. The standardized measure was used for a mental rotation test consisting of 24 multiple choice questions. Over the course of three weeks, virtual reality was used for the intervention purpose of learning various science topics that required mental rotation abilities for full comprehension. The results showed that VR had significant positive effect on mental rotation abilities of the science learners at elementary level. It is recommended to use virtual reality to enhance the learners’ spatial abilities such as mental rotation abilities.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Spatial Abilities, Mental Rotation Abilities, Spatial Orientation, Spatial Visualization, Sciences.

Exploring the Use of Educational Technology to Motivate Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Learning at Tertiary Level in Pakistan

Mariam Farooq — 2023-01-06

Technology has become an important part of nursing students, and its infusion with education is therefore inevitable. This research is one of the few researches that explored the implementation of digital technologies in the context of a Pakistani nursing school. The research in the field of nurse education is scarce with reference to Pakistan and this research aimed to fill the existing gap in the literature. This article aimed to explore the views of nursing students toward the implementation of digital technologies in class. The study applied a qualitative exploratory approach method with the case study as a research design. A purposive sampling technique was applied by selecting Year III and IV students of the nursing programme. The data for this study were collected through students’ focus group discussions, class observations and analysis of students’ online work on the virtual learning environment. The findings indicated that students feel motivated in using different digital tools for their face-to-face classes. However, they also believed that more could be done in handling the issues they faced in using technology for their classes. It is therefore recommended to train teachers well and universities should use their funds for providing high-speed and stable Internet connection to students on campus.

Keywords: digital technologies, higher education, learning motivation, nursing students’ perceptions, obstacles

Continuing Education during COVID-19: Difficulties Faced By the Underprivileged University Students

Rashid Hussain — 2023-01-06

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pushed conventional and blended modes of education online across the globe. This was challenging for Pakistani students to adapt to this unexpected and massive transformation. To analyze how underprivileged university students coped with online classes during the pandemic, phenomenological research was conducted. The participants for this study were approached by using purposive and snowball sampling, and online phenomenological interviews were organized with participants. The data collected from the sample was processed through the thematic analysis method. The findings of the study represented, underprivileged university students had a negative attitude towards online classes. The study further highlighted that learners did not have the mandatory technological resources and capabilities to take online classes. Besides, access to the internet and power cut was also problematic for students. To improve the online mode of education in the remote villages of the country, the government and universities should provide students with mandatory digital resources and competencies to take advantage of e-education.

Keywords: underprivileged, COVID-19, technological resources, online education

Evaluation of Secondary School Science Teachers’ Knowledge about Nature of Science

Sabahat Rana — 2023-01-06

Science teachers in Pakistan teach science in a way that adds to the mythology of science. These myths and misconceptions may be due to misunderstandings of nature of science. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the knowledge of science teachers about nature of science (NOS). The objectives of study were to find out chemistry teachers’ understanding about: content, content situated nature of science and nature of science. Moreover, to find out relationship between content understandings, content situated NOS understanding and NOS understanding. The approach was quantitative; questionnaire was used to collect the data. The population of the study comprised of male and female secondary school science teachers who were teaching chemistry at secondary level in government schools of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K). 105 secondary school science teachers; 59 females and 46 males were selected as sample of study through simple random sampling technique. Findings of study indicated that chemistry teachers did not understand content, content situated nature of science and nature of science. Content understanding, content situated nature of science understanding and understanding were positively significantly correlated with each other. It was recommended that capacity building programs for in-service science teachers may be designed immediately. Inclusion of nature of science in teacher training programs, in curriculum, in assessment, at all levels from school to university is recommended. It was recommended that prospective teachers may be provided opportunities to situate their nature of science learning in their lesson plans.

Keywords: Nature of Science, Subject matter knowledge, content situated Nature of Science, scientific literacy, secondary level