European Journal of Education and Pedagogy

Parents’ Experiences on a Family Literacy Program in Finland

Juli-Anna Aerila, Merja Kauppinen, Mari Siipola — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In this article, we investigate a family literacy program called Bedtime Story Shelf, which is an application of lending libraries. In Bedtime Story Shelf-program the families are loaning books from ECE centers and schools to homes. In the study, we present parents’ prior (N = 122) on this program and its relation to families’ prior literacy practises. According to the results, almost all the families took advantage of the Bedtime Story Shelf-activity. However, about half of the families loaned books from the shelf more often. These families also evaluated the activity as more meaningful. They felt that loaning libraries enabled them to expand their knowledge of children’s books and made the children more active in family literacy events. These positive effects did not depend on the prior literacy practises of the family. This means that if we get the families involved in family literacy programs of ECEs and schools, they will find them beneficial. According to the study, one of the key objectives would be motivating the children and involving the parents. Furthermore, the educators should be active and flexible in their attempts to involve all the families.

Social Network Platforms and Digital Games for Refugee Students in Transit

Iossif Konstantinou — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The article is based on ethnographic research carried out in Eleonas refugee camps in Athens, Greece, from February 2019 to March 2020. Based on in-depth interviews with fifteen male and female Syrian refugee parents, the article studies the use of smartphone devices, network applications, and the digital games “Feed the Monster” and “Antura and the Letters” as essential tools of an informal educational process. Digital mobile devices dominate the everyday life of Syrian students in the camp, redefining the way they keep and reform family ties at a distance. They share experiences, comments, and photos. At the same time, digital games on smartphones are a powerful educational tool by providing children with multiple opportunities to have access to knowledge and acquire skills from different learning areas, such as language, mathematics, and science. Additionally, they encourage children to determine issues of the world around them as they share and negotiate different social and cultural experiences through their play. The interaction between play and learning is of primary importance for preschool and early school students since it contributes to the highest level of learning with the greatest degree of assimilative capacity. In this complex and ever-changing context, the article attempts to raise further questions regarding the use of digital games as part of a daily ritual play, an informal educational process, and a linguistic interaction within the family context.

Systematic Review of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Language Education: A Balanced Perspective

Lhoussine Qasserras — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

This article presents a comprehensive review of communicative language teaching (CLT) in language education, considering both the positive impact of the approach and the criticisms raised by scholars. CLT has garnered significant attention in language education due to its emphasis on promoting effective communication and meaningful language use. This systematic review presents an impartial and well-rounded analysis of the pros and cons of CLT, citing previous studies in the literature review. It highlights the positive results of past research, demonstrating how CLT can enhance students’ communicative competence, language proficiency, cultural awareness, learner autonomy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. However, other studies have criticized CLT, raising concerns about its lack of explicit grammar and vocabulary instruction, insufficient preparation for formal writing, standardized exams, insufficient attention to individual learner differences, and emphasis on fluency over accuracy. By presenting both perspectives, this article aims to provide educators with a balanced understanding of CLT’s potential strengths and limitations, guiding them in designing effective language teaching practices.

Video-based Analysis for Teacher Development in Physical Education

Panos Constantinides — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

The world in the 21^st century is a world of technology and revolution in different aspects of life. The increasing desire of young people to use technology (van Laarhoven & van Laarhoven-Myers, 2006) at home, at work, and during leisure time has made industry come up with a variety of tools to be used. In such a scenario, the video recording analysis method has become a helpful tool in researchers’ and educators’ hands, allowing them to observe and assess a class, conduct pedagogy research, and so forth. For some time, video has been used to record and analyze human movement for health issues. Physical education professionals and coaches took advantage of technology to improve their athletes’ performance using video capture. The video gave them the opportunity to analyze and inform their athletes for better performance during competition. Video-based observation has been used in several studies conducted in schools, for different disciplines and for different reasons, such as to compare different teaching styles, to compare teaching behaviors of teachers, to compare student participation in class, or teaching effectiveness (Constantinides et al., 2013). In physical education, there is a growing interest among physical educators to incorporate digital technology in their teaching (Pyle & Esslinger, 2014; Thomas & Stratton, 2006). In this paper, however, the focus of the discussion is on how this technology may help the teacher develop and provide more effective lessons to the students. Therefore, the process of video recording is analyzed, the value-based observation is thoroughly discussed, as well as the value for the teacher who wants to develop his teaching. Furthermore, suggestions are made for physical education teachers who may use this method in the future for their own development in teaching physical education.

Needs Analysis of Project-based Learning Model Development in Stimulating Children’s Creativity

Sadaruddin, Arifin Ahmad, Baso Jabu, Syamsuardi Saodi, Usman, Hasmawaty — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Children have creativity. What makes the difference is the degree and form of creativity shown. Environmental stimuli significantly affect the creative thinking skills that are stored in children. This can be achieved by developing project-based learning models to stimulate children's creativity. However, before the development is carried out, the level of teacher needs for the learning model; then, through this research, the analysis of teacher needs will be presented. The method to solve the problem is mixed, combining quantitative and qualitative data collected through questionnaires and interviews, then analyzed using statistical and descriptive techniques. The results of the needs analysis show that teachers stimulating children's creativity are in the “medium” category, teachers preparing learning model planning are in the “medium” category, and teachers are constrained in implementing learning models in the “high” category. Teacher assessment of project results is in the “high” category, and process assessment is in the “low” category. It is concluded that teachers need to develop PjBL models in model books, guidebooks, daily lesson plans, and learning assessments as teacher references that can specifically stimulate children's creativity in kindergarten.