AN EVALUATION OF THE CREATIVE DRAMA METHOD USED IN THIRD- AND FOURTH- GRADE CLASSES ON ENVIRONMENTAL TOPICS BY TEACHING METHOD AND TEACHER EFFECT

This study deals with the effects of applying drama method in the teaching of environmental issues in science courses on the achievement, retention of learning, student interest and attitudes of primary school students and also whether these effects are dependent on teachers. The study was designed on the basis of the Solomon Four-Group Design. The study is a two group pre- and post-test experiment in two parts, each part having an experimental and control group. The courses were delivered to both groups by the researcher in the first part and drama teacher in the second. The experimental groups received 144 hours of teaching for six weeks, during which a drama course outline was employed, while in the control groups the courses followed the course outlines covered in the curricula. The data were collected using the Environmental Achievement Test, Interest Scale towards the Environment and Attitude Scale towards Science. The findings suggest that the teachers had some effects on the methods, but the significant differences in scores were due to the drama method, which was found to improve the achievement of the third-grade students and the interest towards environment and attitudes towards science of both third- and fourth-grade students. Keywords: environmental education, creative drama method, science education, teacher effect

Difficulties in Collecting Data From Children Aged 7–12

Collecting data from children who learn a foreign language is a complex and problematic area when considering their lack of proficiency in the target language and their cognitive, psychological, and social development. In addition, research shows that the number of studies that focus on the problems related to scale administration to younger language learners is fairly limited, while studies on the foreign language context mainly concentrated on issues related to adult and proficient learners. Thus, this study aims to explore the difficulties in collecting data from Turkish children aged 7 – 12 in a foreign language context. The study was designed as a qualitative case study and involved reflections, an interview, and a diary kept by the subject. Findings indicated that the problems with data collection from children were related to time and space, the lack of coordination, children's cognition levels, teacher effect on children's behaviors, and physical environment. In light of the results, some practical recommendations were presented.

‘Play Is Serious Learning'

In this chapter, the authors report on a mobile augmented reality game designed to support serious science learning in a playful, collaborative way. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Power immersed eighth grade students in a fictional crime scene investigation at their school. Game-based learning was compared to business-as-usual. In the post-hoc analyses, the authors investigated how individual level factors affected learning. First, girls and boys both learned more during the game, yet boys seemed to experience a slightly bigger impact from the treatment. Second, students from both teachers learned more during gameplay; however, the game seemed to mitigate the novice teacher's inexperience resulting in a teacher effect. Lastly, there is some evidence that treatment varies by prior knowledge; students with lower prior knowledge may have benefited more from the game. This study demonstrates that the non-traditional practice of mobile augmented reality gaming promotes more effective learning than business-as-usual.

Teacher Effect Model for Impacting Student Achievement

Teachers are a significant factor associated with student achievement. Research recognizes that the greatest determinate of student achievement is the teacher, yet questions remain as to what characteristics of teachers are the most influential and where these attributes can be influenced through professional development. This paper explores the teacher effect through the evaluation of the interaction among characteristics of four teacher profiles using Surveys of Enacted Curriculum®. This Teacher Effect Model was designed to evaluate the future impacts of sustained professional development.

Validating Teacher Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors: Evidence from Random Assignment of Teachers to Students

There is growing interest among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in identifying teachers who are skilled at improving student outcomes beyond test scores. However, questions remain about the validity of these teacher effect estimates. Leveraging the random assignment of teachers to classes, I find that teachers have causal effects on their students’ self-reported behavior in class, self-efficacy in math, and happiness in class that are similar in magnitude to effects on math test scores. Weak correlations between teacher effects on different student outcomes indicate that these measures capture unique skills that teachers bring to the classroom. Teacher effects calculated in nonexperimental data are related to these same outcomes following random assignment, revealing that they contain important information content on teachers. However, for some nonexperimental teacher effect estimates, large and potentially important degrees of bias remain. These results suggest that researchers and policy makers should proceed with caution when using these measures. They likely are more appropriate for low-stakes decisions—such as matching teachers to professional development—than for high-stakes personnel decisions and accountability.

Teacher Effect Model for Impacting Student Achievement

Teachers are a significant factor associated with student achievement. Research recognizes that the greatest determinate of student achievement is the teacher, yet questions remain as to what characteristics of teachers are the most influential and where these attributes can be influenced through professional development. This paper explores the teacher effect through the evaluation of the interaction among characteristics of four teacher profiles using Surveys of Enacted Curriculum®. This Teacher Effect Model was designed to evaluate the future impacts of sustained professional development.

Teacher Effect Model for Impacting Student Achievement

Teachers are a significant factor associated with student achievement. Research recognizes that the greatest determinate of student achievement is the teacher, yet questions remain as to what characteristics of teachers are the most influential and where these attributes can be influenced through professional development. This paper explores the teacher effect through the evaluation of the interaction among characteristics of four teacher profiles using Surveys of Enacted Curriculum®. This Teacher Effect Model was designed to evaluate the future impacts of sustained professional development.